PORTRAIT OF PRESIDENT PEEWIT
Clercq, Jacques Le
:-: Portrait of Presidents Peewit :-: An American Educator, A Soldier And A Politician Rolled in One By Jacques ec Clercq The gentleman whose portrait I I mm about to sketch is so esaeu- Ually...
...Woujd he not make an excellent governor...
...this time administered through the agency of a lowly sophomore...
...A Student Editor's Fete There exists another1 diverting account of post-presidential education...
...D. H. Lawrence to Indite a review of a book of the moment, "Fantazius Mallare...
...For instance, in the matter of the theatre...
...President Peewit'* role is not a national one...
...Aa to how President Peewit acquitted himself . of hie office, the present writer is not privy./ But hi* tactful denunciation* of conscientious objectors, hie flamboyant declarations that "all radicals should be lined up' against a wall like Bolshevik...
...What of His Future...
...He has cast them from his mind...
...Again, be hi not only the spectacular, Indisjdoal whom we observe adding to his country's moral, social, ethical, mitsrktl and, yes, artistic uplift, ho is etas to a very special sense, the ex- aresskm of the aspiration of his state...
...The first was a challenge from our moot celebrated - Socialist to answer certain question* tiiat sjaeed President Peewit in -something of a political steW...
...Even before President Peewit's eyes gazed pleasuxably on Governorship or Senatorial station the local press In hlfalutln editorials urged his name for the Presidency of the United States...
...Vildrac...
...probably he did not...
...His information on current events Is being constantly added to...
...The specialist In question invariably lends his lights to the illumination of the -problem in accord with President Peewit'* policies—that is, if the specialist really knows anything about the subject...
...Unless tha heralded Japanese war "were to occur...
...At the end of his term, he would ask for a year'* leave of absence and repose from his arduous administrative duties...
...The breadth of his opinions was plain as a pikestaff...
...For a retired State University president cannot command the attention of a wide public even in his own province...
...B* to eminently suited for success to state politics to go very far Indeed in a part of the world where democracy baa been reduced to the absurd...
...But when your president Is a soldier In the bargain . . .! If ever there is another war...
...Ths...
...Already there are rumors of hi* being appointed here aad there upon investigation and public service boards...
...He brought the gospel of democracy into places where even the word had hitherto been unknown...
...Tet In local and especially state politics be can still be a factor...
...he can "get' sn education...
...As you watch him go by, you know he means what be says when he counsels the shooting of radicals...
...its enrollment is yearly "larger, and with certain qualifications fwhich President Peewit never mm...
...Now who to her Or...
...Was not a college president...
...Is it too much to hope that President Peewit can fail to profit thereby...
...Scholars are all very well, ao are men of affairs...
...President Peewit has more than Dr...
...He sfas no Baptist divine like his predecessor, who could assume a dignified emeritus rank through age and godliness...
...Well, thenMore Than a Scholar Bat to suppose President Peewit no more than a mere scholar is to fall vary wide of the mark...
...There must be plenty of other plays to do...
...Butler, frequently suggested aa Republican candidate for President...
...It fairly bristled with phallic and paphlan locutions...
...Butler In his favor, they say out there, because it is high time a westerner occupied the White House...
...Then he scratches his head, appears to ponder a minute, and briskly calls for hla secretary or for the Assistant to the President or for some highly placed Christian student, such as the President of the Associated Students, the Editor of the University Lit, or Che President of the silver Totem Society...
...Erect, proud, handsome, his bead held high, he marches as no Don Juan of Austria or Prtoce Eugene of Savoy ever marched to battle...
...Would he stand for Senate...
...Did not a college president...
...his hamstrings are taut under the shining leather puttees...
...President Peewit is more, too, than an Idealistic scholar like Dr...
...This ribald fellow founded a Journal of considerable sprlgbtliness...
...and for semi-professional soldiers we have assigned entertainment In the government ot tho Amerlnan IsayVm, Pre*!dent Peewit found la the late war bis making and undoing...
...He is, what is more, being kept abreast of the times by his colleagues and disciple...
...The letter was published with a substitution of dashes for words that might give offense...
...like Harvard University to be headed by a President Blot or tor a very special institution that Isolates womenfolk like Smith College to be headed by a president Hke Mr...
...he says smartly...
...It is not said whether this iron soldier faced shell-fire...
...he can study Polish A Sestaags 4 or Navigation IB...
...A Lion Hunter The year wore on...
...Instead of wild acclamation, the affair proved to be a very snide spectacle indeed...
...Moreover laughter greeted it when It was ascertained that the recipient of the petition had not been a stranger to certain phases of the organization of the entire procedure...
...There Ilea the State's wealth and the double door of 'jNfWorac^mhisr opens the way to ^Ba**Bs>f<F»r*sIdent Peewit Is to reasata a success-man, then be must oatar to hog men and oil men...
...Keilson...
...He was not a scholar like his successor, so that no avenue of retirement in scientific research or erudite compilation bared a grateful vista to his sight But he had been prominent politically and in a'military way...
...About these plays, I really don't know...
...His informant hesitated...
...President Peewit offered his resignation to the trustees...
...insure an ever-increasing appropriation from the State Legislature...
...v Shortly before the attack by the propagandist, whether dependent upon it or not cannot be known...
...He rarely attends the really competent productions of Greek or Elisabethean drama performed In the "biggest and beet auditorium in America,", though ha...
...to their learned pedagogue* the richer salaries, th* College of Arts and Sciences is s Massy, if It be compared to the othei departments...
...The resultant document was largely dashes, quite innocuous in itself and patent to the more civilized...
...Aa governor be Would caricature tho moaarcbtotlc...
...Then: "Oh, it's probably a pen-name ot Witter Bynner'a" For this issue of his magazine the editor was incontinently expelled from the university and, in medieval fashion, banished from Its public grounds...
...Has he not always been a student (his M. A. and Ph...
...matters of universal import...
...Of course, any hogman't or oilman's.son can enter it by virtu< of having finished the time one servet in the local high school...
...the-president ot a State university must be a man of affairs aa wall as a scholar...
...His ear is to the ground...
...agriculture and mining go Swoon's spoils of the swag...
...he still owned contacts at the Capitol and his rank in the Reserve Corps...
...President Peewit half-heartedly suggested he would return to teaching history or economics or whatever cognate subject he bad previously taught And then all the rumor* died, leaving President Peewit high and dry...
...Nor is he ewer* of the repertory company within hla gates, unless the Town Mothers' Club or the University Ladies' Guild informs him that hla students are giving such immoralities as Vildrac's Tenacity" or Rich man's "Ambush...
...thug when he addresses Rotarl&ns T**o* or Chambers of\^mmerce) it is Mstifled in terming itself tho largest to-the country...
...Ho will never, it is a foregone conclusion, become president ot this longsuffering republic For one thing we are chary of even professional soldiers by now save in minor capacities...
...aad aristocratic Stan Ot acUcat competently enough be as the ideal of the...
...Lions in Lybto or sport of that sort But it is not known by the public at large whether any skin* adorn his study today...
...A presidential decree has caused all dramatic societies to present their plays Vo the President's, office for his sanction on the manuscript Someone in that office is receiving an excellent education In the drama of the world...
...It is a matter of entertaining speculation to wonder what President Peewit thinks about as be crosses the bridge in Faculty Glade, the bridge whose Latin inscription indited by the department of classics bore only one grammatical error In a half-dozen words...
...He is <a Colonel, and was, it is said, a Brigadier during the Woonrovian Crusade...
...For, though it is thrilling to see him awarding yearly some thousands - of diplomas, and though it is thrilling to behold him making an Impassioned plea for education, though his notions of "Weltpolltlk" and his views on pedagogy form startling contributions to human knowledge...
...Teat the average graduate proves to **not only an ignoramus and a dullard, tot* a person incapable of rudimentary si_' thought consecrated by the prestige of university "sol-dlsant" education does not worry anybody, NUMBERS TALK...
...The Legion d'Honneur glows very red against his khaki, even though he would attribute to Vercingetorlx a sanguinity common to Cuchulain...
...The President called upon a literary Hon: "Who is Jills D. H. Lawrence...
...for the public prints would certainly have chronicled it time and again...
...hence, in the world...
...Naturally rumors of a legislative future ran riot...
...This is only lust in a democratic educational system...
...Nor can a possible governor or senator, whose chances appear, to be suffering a temporary eclipse...
...thundered the moralist...
...It might prove to be an Arctic expedition or a river to be explored In South America, or some such semi-public undertaking...
...He would be able, by then, to And some occupation suitable to so strenuous a temperament...
...The letter from Mr.' Lawrence wU tha excuse, though It wee two other features that moat troubled President Peewit...
...For once the soldier failed the politician...
...Ill When President Peewit resigned, there was much speculation's to what role ho would play...
...Does he not possess more hongrary degrees than the president of fbs Rapid Transit Company or the Stat* Bishop or the owner of the monaster department store of the state's asset city...
...It gives one to wonder precisely what President Peewit considers decadence to compromise...
...the soldier who passes Is a man of his word...
...But the man did not fall either when he hailed the luckless editor into his office: "You are a decadent, sir...
...and shot," his eminently soldierly qualities, would seem to point to Napoleonic measures...
...Who would not follow such a splendid leader into a thousand engagements...
...His affairs are particularly political...
...Military life offered him his opportunity and for the present it has taken it away...
...VUdrac...
...In the course of his editorial policy he called upon Mr...
...If one were Interested in such things aa the insignia of the Elks, one could probably recognize among the many ribbons on his swollen chest the\ tributes of such glorious nations as New Poland...
...the proud carriage of his person was Inured as a legend...
...There was a alight pause...
...II Though President Peewit's political and military duties keep him inordinately busy, it must not be thought that his scholarship is suffering...
...The rumors continued...
...On the whole, little regret was expressed save among . the very simplest students...
...there are no social, no sexual— aad, parenthetically, no educational— barriers...
...It is fitting for aa effete and reactionary institution (somehow everything is called an institution out there...
...Is his expression one of melancholy aa he surveys the presidential mansion he graced so gallantly, where he shook thousands of hands in one short moment...
...A rally was staged to demand in the name of the students of the university that the President recdwsider bis resignation...
...It is his function to...
...the yokels can even evoke.his alleged contribution to scholarship while they congratulate themselves on ths possession of such an eminent educator...
...the latest literary and artistic developments are not evolving without his earnest study...
...What He Did in the War But he had an extremely significant function...
...Wilson, storm the citadel...
...D. both are from the State University he now ralss) and a teacher...
...When he reviews the 8. O. T. C, or when be parades on Armistice Day with the National Guard, or when a distinguished generalissimo turns up in his province, then truly President Peewit is at his most magnificent The largest fruit in one valley, the possibility of oil being atruck somewhere else, the salaries of teachers, the ordering of the student body, are far aw|y...
...Does a thought other than that of books enter his mind as ha walks Into the library down a passage whose entrance reproduces that of a Manchester mill...
...Are his meditations purely scholastic as he gazes at tho monster Renaissance bell-tower whoee peals, ever out of tune, zing brazenly across the air and whose height la eternally being likened in gaudy speeches to the aspiration ot knowledge...
...Also a Super- Lobbyist President Peewit Is a super-lobbyist, of necessity and of choice...
...He was at the bead'of the Intelligence of the A. E. F. on one of its most critical Oriental fronts...
...National" scholarship in this department of learning has displayed no sign of Influence on hla, part...
...Who would not congratulate himself on being from the same State as this heroic warrior...
...His eyes gleam...
...Wilson...
...President Peewit will never bo content wtth remaining merely the president ot the largest, ate, university in the world...
...Resurrected Czechoslowakel and Greater Yugoslavia...
...President Peewit said never a word in the beginning...
...But what naakei S possible-Is the appropriation whicfc eomes from the elected representative af the rural Interests...
...The second was the exposure of President Peewit's historical super-rally...
...President Peewit is a soldier...
...his hands move rhythmically...
...It was a difficult moment, but President Peewit was of a stature to solve the dltemma in truly characteristic fashion...
...Would he not be the ideal representative of that state where liberty was most bitterly opposed by legislation, and where some sort of outward, dignity was most lacking...
...I shall stop them, of course...
...his Hons laid low...
...Is he resigned to his fate or 8oe» he bide his time...
...For by serving the higher education he is synchronously getting into politics...
...his feet move in perfect cadence...
...President Peewit returned to hi* alma mater as a mere professor in his chosen field...
...In the -Case of President Peewit, the chief point of contact is twofold—agriculture and mineralogy...
...To this ex-school teacher, ex-professor and National Guard officer fell the duty of controlling...
...Lawrence's critique proved more than pungent...
...But tho perfect compound represented by President Peewit possesses another, highly Important ingredient to leaven the mass satisfactorily...
...There are bigger plums hanging ripe on the bough waiting to be plucked...
...There, then, is the scholar and the man of affairs...
...something Rooseveltian...
...To the soeools Of...
...Subsequently it is related that 'President Peewit went big-game hunting...
...naturally graces the Senior MosteaBty with his presence...
...his mental untattness and his practical graces, his General purpose and his actual performance of it For besides being President jscwlt' bead of an enormous occlafcgtal university, he is BrigadlerEgsrsJ Peewit, and, before he is B«lsbed, he will no doubt be either 0svsrnor or Senator or both...
...Out In the golden remote wide west" they are democratic...
...Portrait of Presidents Peewit :-: An American Educator, A Soldier And A Politician Rolled in One By Jacques ec Clercq The gentleman whose portrait I I mm about to sketch is so esaeu- Ually of America, that it is difficult to present him in the accepted _pjsnn~r of portraiture.- His figure sriesfor a very special technique that jajff bring out in proper magnitude ms extraordinary progression and his jathetlc conservaUsm...
...though' he speaks to hla classes jCaesar's "Gaelic*' "vV'ar^ when he srears a gown and mortarboard that hnplore an Urban sotting, he is the great and world-renowned scholar, photographs and descriptions of him Is this guise circulate about the hinterJsnd...
...all this is as nothing when one considers him in his supreme moment...
...The Gods have been prodigal in their largesse off gayety to the nations in the case of President Peewit...
...So President Peewit must go to the Capitol and often with a picked and trained stall of super-contact-men, he must lobby Great scholar aa he Is, President Peewit • is an oven greater lobbyist . through his energies the university has more and bigger building* than ever before...
Vol. 3 • February 1926 • No. 6
