Resources of Jesus

Three thousand college delegates from 48 states heard and talked last week with noted religious and lay leaders, in Milwaukee, in a joint Y. M. C. A.-- Y. W. C. A. conference labeled "not a convention." Conventions are mostly deadly things, and the topic of this "conference" called for something distinctly personal: it was: What Resources Has Jesus for Life in Our World?

Though there were celebrated speakers, including Henry Sloane Coffin and Scientist Robert A. Millikan,-* the essential spiritual give and take of the students themselves was the feature -- a thing incapable of analysis by newspapers, interested in "headline stuff." Chief space in the latter was given to:

Sex. The honor of opening the conference went to Dorothy Richards, 1926 De Pauw graduate, who once resigned from her sorority because it did not foster "the finest type of Christian living." Newsgatherers, besieging her, reported she enjoys an occasional smoke, condemns "petting." Dr. Edith Swift of Manhattan, who has two daughters, went on record as in favor of trusting modern girls to their own discretion in sex, "as conscience and circumstances dictate."

Pacifism. The section of theological students having vowed 101 to 7 to abstain from any connection with future wars, hot discussion ensued in general sessions of the conference as a whole. It was there resolved to pass no resolutions, members feeling them to be "of little value," though pacifist sentiment was not disclaimed.

Press reports, with whatever misplacement of emphasis, revealed that Jesus had been felt as very much "in our world."

*Said Scientist Millikan in his speech:

"To the boy of three, Santa Claus is the most real thing in the world. At seven years of age the boy has sized up the chimney entrances and concludes the story is a lie. That is the stage H. L. Mencken and his crew are in with reference to religion. At 30 years of age the boy has become a father with a three-year-old boy of his own. Again he believes in Santa Claus, and the Christmas spirit is the most beautiful thing in the world."