University of Chicago - Cap and Gown Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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Anton Ca rleon Presidents Carlson, Bogerl, Allee. YER the holidays, eminent members of the Uni- O varsity faculty made headlines for their work in art, literature and science dm-ing the past year. Twenty-one ditferent departments of the Univer- sity sent over 100 professors to participate in the annual winter conferences of 12 academic associations and societies which were held in various parts of the country. Their papers crowded the agenda of these meetings. Anton J. Carlson, George GA Bogart, and Wander C. Alice returned with presiciencies in the American Association of University Professors, the Association of American Law Schools! and the American Society of Zoologists respectively. Louis R. Wilson still retained the presidency of the American Library Association. As President of the American Association of Uni- versity Professors, which last year placed the Univer- sity of Pittsburgh on e. blacklist as a. protest against the methods of that university? administration, Dr. Carlson said, The Association will direct its chief eEorts to supporting freedom of speech in the country, academic freedom in universities, and reasonable tenure for professors. By treasonabie tenure' we mean that nu pTDfESsur shouid be dismissed without proof of his incompetency. President Bogert of the Association of .huerican Law Schools said, I contemplate getting more of the schools in active committee wark and making the organ- ization more representative. This association has since its beginning been in the hands of the large eastern schools. Mr, Bogertis election, as that of Dr. Carlsonis, was something of a revolt within the organization. Again Compton and Cosmic Rays T the American Association for the Advancement Aof Science, meeting in St. Louis, Arthur H. Cumpton, physicist and Nobel-Prize winner, stripped same of the mystery from the cosmic ray. In all probability the rays consist of three types of parti- cles known to physicists, but endUWed with tremen- dous energies, he told them. Dr. Comptun summarized the reCent work in his own and other laboratories on these ultra-penetrating rays before a joint session of the physics section of the A, At A. S.. the American Physieai Society, and the American Association of Physics Teachers. Cosmic rays are truly 'tcosmicw in that they probably emanate from remote galaxies or remote space, Dr. Compton said. The primary cosmic rays, particles as distinct from aetondary rays 01' the disintegration products caused when the rays. strike the eatttfs at- mosphere, have energies ranging from two blllton elec- tron-volts to sixty billion electrun-voltshand mlocca- sional bursts, particles occur with energles as high as 600 billion electron-volts. Their total heat at eerth, however, is prohahiy no greater than that of starlight. There is adequate evideneei' that the primary ees- mic rays are in fact electrically chargedt partlcles, Dr. Compton stated, In a provisional analysm of the come p0nents of the rays he said: The most prominent part of the primary eusmic revs observed above sea-level consists of nearly equal pn'rts of positive and negative electrons. At sea-leyel and below is a very penetrating component fer whlch the identification as protons seems to be required. At very high altitudes there appears a relatlvely absorb- abie component which seems to eonmst of alpha particles? The cunclusion that cosmic rays are largely electric- ally charged particles is based chiefly on the latitude effect therved in cosmic my studies. Observatlons taken throughout the world, among them records of intensity taken tlt more than 100 stations by some 80 scientists working under the directien of Dr. Compton in 1931-34., show that the rays are affected by the earth's magnetic held. At ordinary altitudes the rays are some IGtVo more intense near the magnetic equator. At higher altitudes, where the intensity.' is greater, ratio of intensities between the poles and the equator is probably more than 10071, Dr. Compton said, Photons, or true rays, uunld not he so tlefiectetl by the earth's magnetic field. lurve lines of equal cosmic ray intensity follow closely the parallels of gcogmagnetic latitude, and follow also the lines of frequency of occurrence of auroral. displays. which means that the aurora and the cosmic rays are afected by the earthis magnetism in the same manner, according to Dr. Compton. The lower intensity of equatorial cosmic rays in the eastern hemisphere than in the western hemisphere corresponds to the stronger magnetic field of the earth in the east. Dr. Compton t'liSpiayecl a new warld-map showing uieeoeusms, or Curves of uniform cosmic ray intenz sities. More exhaustive analysis of this and other data, led to the tentative identification of cosmic ray com- ponents, through a procedure which Drl Compton described as using the earth as it huge tho'ugh crude magnetic spectrograph; the earth itsetf acts as the magnet and in place of the electric field we have the stopping power of the earth's athSPherE. The conclusion that the rays originate far outside the earth, the sun or the Milky Way is based on the fact that they apparently approach the earth uni- formly from all directions. uOutside the earthts atmos- phere we fail to find any isotropic distribution of matter within our galaxy 'where Such rays might originate, Dr. Compton said. The extrargalactic nebulae, 01' space itself, would, on the other hand, satisfy the Con- dition of spherical sylirimetryf5 He suggested that most of them originate at an eiective distance of be- tween one billion and ten billion light years. There appears to he an etfect on the observed inten- sity of cosmic rays due to the rotation of the Milky Why, Dr. Compton said, According to astronomers this ratation carries us toward about 467 degrees north and right ascension 20 hour's 55 minutes at a speed of about 300 kilometers in a second. This should cause a diurnal variation in cosmic ray intensity, following sidereal time, through a range of the order of about 04192;. Apparently there is. such a variation, Dr. Comp- ton said. 29

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Radicals or liberals? YER the vacation at Christmas, many alleged O radicals traveled down to Cincinnati to abolish themselves as uradicals and became uliberalis? In short, the noisy National Student League and the thoughtful Student League for Industrial Democracy merged; and, together with religious, peace, and humani- tarian organizations, hecame the American Student l'nion. This organization has essentially .1 liberal plat- fU'l'U'L It is against wan fascism, anti general tyranny of any kind. Ii: took a rightfui and sofnewhut righteous stend on academic freedom, and it will befriend stu- dents who suffer from economic insecurity. wrathful in- structors, race prejudice, or discrimination. Nationally it is probably controlled by liberals. Locally, tempera- mental radicals may attempt to seixe the organization. although this is generally reco Ilizec'l to be against the interests of the radicals themse ves. Nevertheless the present era in the University's social history will undoubtedly be known as the iittn'hult-mt thirties.H If you don't think so, take a look at 1935, the dime novel year when the University as hero, the Chicago Herald and Examiner as villain Mr. Charles IL Walgreen as the dupe, and Miss Lucille Norton, as the victim, got ail tiny wanted in terms of prestige, circu- lation, publicity, and the joys of dutiful faimjlg,r obedience respectively in the State Senate Investigation. The year saw the University break many lauces for democracy, particularly against William Randolph Burp as he was so appropriately called in Northwestern Uni; versity's W.A,A.eM.U. Show of 1936. But iances fur democracy seem to be dangerous things to handle these days. No matter where they are thrust they always seem to bruise an incipient fascist tanti-radicalt or an incipient cmununibt tradiean. Liberal and cbnservative democratic persons, excluding the anti-radicals and the radicals, cumprise a. larger proportion of the Uni versity's population than the nationis and are somewhat bewildered hy the dangers of being democratic, Their bewilderment arises from the fact that radicals and anti-radicals for all their cross-purposes, ere tem- porarily allietii First there are the radicals who I'ane developed a technique by which they cannot lose. They never ask for anything. They demand it. If a demand is. refused, that is newa: if it is granted, that also is news. Then there are the radicalst allies, the anti-radical press. The demands are made to stir wrathfnl publicity in the unti-radieal press, and such newspapers cannot lose in this: game either. Theg.r gain some reputation for Americanism tnot much and some circulation 0:150 not muehi. Fulminutions of the arithmetical press and organizations drive iiberal and conservative democrat- ically minded persons to the ranks of the radicals, he- cause they know that Hitler and Mussolini used pre cisely' the same fuiminations almost word for word in their rise to power, The University has long been the goat of this co; operative teamrwork between radicals and enti-mdicels. The University, along with other universities, will he the goat of the campaign of 1936 because the pro- fessors have committed the sin of placing their knowl- edge at the disposal of their country. Their honest mis- takes- oecured, not because they viewed themselves as am aristocracy of brains, but because they traverSEd new fields. The;r participated in government by re- quest, not by desire to do so. It is even easier to at- tack a university by attacking its student body. And the nice thin about all this is that universities cannot Fight back. ' hey think it would be undignified. There are no communists on the University's faculty. There is one socialist among the 337 faculty members. Judge Ed ward Hi ntnn The American Student Union is not communist; it is not socialist; it is not even radical. Anyone who states the converse of these assertions is guilty of worse then misrepresentation. That is how red the University of Chicago is. Judge Edward W. Hinton S the Winter quarter began, the Law School last A a. beloved professor, Judge Edward W. Hinton who had been at the University for the last 22 years and was a nationally known authority on piead- ing procedure. He died January 2 at his home, 1221 East 56th Street, Sixty-seven years old, Judge Hinton had been ill of a nervous disorder for two years and had undergone Five operations; nevertheless he had con- tinued his teaching duties up to the recent Christmas vacation and was scheduled to resume classes the iirst of the year. Second ranking member of the University's law faculty in point of service, Judge Hinton held the James Parker I-Iall Professorship at the University. He came 10 the University in 1913' resigning the dean- ship of the law school of the University of Missouri to accept the Chicago post He had practiced law in Columbia, Missouri, for two decades and served as judge of the district court there. Judge Hinton was widebr known among legal scholars for his: standard case-books. among which are nI-Iintonis Cases on Code Pleading, itHinton's Cases on Trial Flametieen and iiCasee on Equity Pleedin 3' He collaborated with W. W. Cook on Cases on gommon Law Pleadingf' President Robert M. Hutchins said of Professor Hinton: He was the must eminent scholar in the field of procedural law in the United States. He was cine of the men upon whom the reputation of the Uni- versity; Law School was founded. His was an ex- traordinary cnmbination of scholarship mid teaching ability. His personality was such as to make him an exceptionally effective teacher; his knowledge was broad and his experience varied. Colleagues remarked upon the affection with which Judge Hinton was regarded by his students. Clarity of thought, eveness 0f temper, humor, and profound scholarship marked his teaching Career. He held a. conservative point of view, stressing the importance of the rules as they had grown up. but with a. sense of the: continuing nature of legal development, they pointed DU Judge Hinton was a consultant in the drafting of the new Illinois Civil Practice Act, and taught a cburse in the Act attended by more them 500 lawyers when the Act became effective two years ago. He was :1 member of the Illinois Survey for Criminal Justice, which re- ported in 1926. 28

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Arthur Compton Efforts to learn how cosmic rays are produced have been unsuccessful, he continued. Among the more plausible theories are Lemaitreis that they are super- radio-active particlesn emitted at the initial explosion of the expanding universe; Swannis that they are electrons accelerated by electromagnetic induction from the Chen 1113 magnetic field of Iisurispots on giant stars.- and Mi nets that they owe their energies to the gravitational attraction of the universe. Cosmic rays should prove extremely useful tools to scientists, Dr. Compton concluded, ml'he immense indi- vidual energies of these rays, some of them with an erg of energy for a single atomic projectile, give them a. unique place in the physicisfs atomic artillery. Already they,r have been used in the discovery of pasitrons. They will be used to extend knowledge of the earthis ma. netic field high above the atmosphere; to test electro ynnmics in an energy region heretofore inaccessible: and in astronomy, as a powerful means of studying the rotation of the galaxy and of learning the ancient history of the universe. In biology, i'it is not impossible that they play an important part in the spontaneous variations upon which evolutionary changes depend, he said. One perpiexing recent problem is that the high- energy cosmic ray particles do not excite as much radiation as is required by present electrical theory, Dr. Compton stated, An extension of the present theory of electrodynamics is needed, comparable with the extension of Maxweilis electrodynamies introduced by Lorentz and Einstein for the condition of high velocities. iiHeavy SilveriieDempste-r LSD at St. Louis, Silver's usefulness as a standard A of money was called intb question in a scientiiic paper by Arthur Dempster. University physicist. before the American Physics Society and the physics di- vision of the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science. Describing as ingenious new method developed in his laboratory for analyzing the chemical elements pre- sent in any material, and the iSOtDPCS!, Contained in the elements, Dr. Dempster reported that he had been able to find only one form of gold. In an interview in connection with his paper he reported finding two forms, or weights, or silver. Heavy silver outweighs light silver by a ratio of 109 to 10?, Dr, Dempster said. Theoretically, the two forms of siiver should be quoted at different prices, if their usefulness in the arts is considered in determining their value, This would become a. real question if it were discovered that some silver Iodes were producing more of one than the other. In his paper Dr. Dempster reported the discovery of five isotopes, or weights, of platinum, six of palla- dium and two of iridium. iiIsotopesii are diferent forms of the same element, the atoms having different weights but the same chemical properties. uHeeiry water. or heavy hydrogen,', is a recently discovered example. Dr. Dempster's finding that there is only one form of gold would seem to indicate that gold has an ad- vantage as a standard of value because a separation into different kinds of gold is not possible. When the Treasury pays fifty cents per ounce for the mixture called ordinary silver it is actually paying 50.46 cents per ounce for light? silver and 59.54: per ounce for the nheenry kind of silver. In its commeri cial and artistic uses, iilightii Silver logiCeliy should command a. slightly higher price by weight because of the greater amount of it per unit nf weight. Dr. Dempster's apv paratus is an exten- sion of the mass spectrograph to the analysis of solids. In 1935 Professcnr Aston at Cambridge, Eng- land, using a. gaseous form of silver chlo- ride, diseevered the existence of the two silver isotopes in a few samples. Dr. Dempster has verified this in a number of tests using solid sil- ver, and has extended . this type of analysis . ' - to other metals. Art hur Dempster Slellarseoprartky EWEST gadget in the field of scientific educa- N tion is the stellarscope, invented and developed by Walter Bertky, Associate Professor of As- tronomy at the University. Consisting of a lens, a piece of moving picture film and a flashlight bulb and battery, the stellarscope will enable Dr. Bertky to cease trying to explain the complicated constellations of the heavens in the class- room. Instead, his class can hold informal meeting on a clear night, gaze at the actual stars with one eye, while the other eye is engaged in looking- inta the stel- larscope where recorded on the film, appear the stars of a. constellation with its correct name and form indi- cated diagrammatically, illuminated and magnified. The stellarscope is made of bakelite with a chromium flashlight attached and a roll of film with 24 star-meps. some one of which will fit almost any section of the heavens that can be seen with the naked eye Stellarscopes found some use in classes this year. They also may he of some use for ni ht hying, par- ticuiar y in pIanes not equipped with radio. Waller Bnrlky 3O