in the library or the quality of the faculty.
The fraternities will fight each other to pledge an athlete, but I have
yet to see them raise any dust over a man who was merely intelligent.

"I tell you that you have false standards, false ideals, and that you
have a false loyalty to the college. The college can stand criticism; it
will thrive and grow on it--but it won't grow on blind adoration. I tell
you further that you are as standardized as Fords and about as
ornamental. Fords are useful for ordinary work; so are you--and unless
some of you wake up and, as you would say, 'get hep to yourselves,' you
are never going to be anything more than human Fords.

"You pride yourselves on being the cream of the earth, the noblest work
of God. You are told so constantly. You are the intellectual aristocracy
of America, the men who are going to lead the masses to a brighter and
broader vision of life. Merciful heavens preserve us! You swagger around
utterly contemptuous of the man who hasn't gone to college. You talk
magnificently about democracy, but you scorn the non-college man--and
you try pathetically to imitate Yale and Princeton. And I suppose Yale
and Princeton are trying to imitate Fifth Avenue and Newport. Democracy!
Rot! This college isn't democratic. Certain fraternities condescend to
other fraternities, and those fraternities barely deign even to
condescend to the non-fraternity men. You say hello to everybody on the
campus and think that you are democratic. Don't fool yourselves, and
don't try to fool me. If you want to write some themes about Sanford
that have some sense and truth in them, some honest observation, go
ahead; but don't pass in any more chauvinistic bunk. I'm sick of it."

He put his watch in his pocket and stood up. "You may belong to the
intellectual aristocracy of the country, but I doubt it; you may lead
the masses to a 'bigger and better' life, but I doubt it; you may be the
cream of the earth, but I doubt it. All I've got to say is this: if
you're the cream of the earth, God help the skimmed milk." He stepped
down from the rostrum and briskly left the room.

For an instant the boys sat silent, and then suddenly there was a rustle
of excitement. Some of them laughed, some of them swore softly, and most
of them began to talk. They pulled on their baa-baa coats and left the
room chattering.

"He certainly has the dope," said Pudge Jamieson. "We're a lot of
low-brows pretending to be intellect