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Chapter 06
Human Capital

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The wage-schooling locus is

A. downward sloping because education is generally productive.


B. upward sloping because education is generally productive.
C. backward bending.
D. horizontal because wages are unrelated to schooling.
E. vertical because education is a public good.

2. The slope of the wage-schooling locus provides an estimate of

A. the average years of education as a function of age.


B. the average wage or salary of workers for a given level of schooling.
C. the economic return to an additional year of schooling.
D. the economic cost of an additional year of schooling.
E. the marginal cost of an additional year of schooling.

3. Present value calculations allow one to determine

A. the return to an uncertain asset.


B. the present-day costs and/or benefits of various options.
C. the utility value of a particular option.
D. the social cost of financial calculations.
E. the real wage.

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
4. Which of the following reasons is not a likely explanation as to why college
completion rates are greater, on average, for whites than for blacks?

A. Tuition costs are lower for whites than blacks.


B. Whites have access to more financial capital to pay for college than blacks.
C. Post-college wages are higher for whites than for blacks.
D. Whites have greater access to higher quality public education at the
elementary and secondary level.
E. Whites are more able to postpone earnings at age 18 than are blacks.

5. What does not enter into the present value calculation of a college degree?

A. The cost of college tuition.


B. The cost of books.
C. Wages of college graduates.
D. Lifetime wages of non-college graduates.
E. The value of one's scholarships.

6. What is an example of specific job training?

A. Learning word-processing skills.


B. Learning how to use the firm's payroll system.
C. Obtaining a GED.
D. Becoming stronger.
E. Passing the CPA exam.

7. What is an example of general job training?

A. Learning how to use a forklift.


B. Learning how to weld.
C. Reading a book on techniques for managing large groups of workers involved
on team projects.
D. Attending an industry convention on "best practices."
E. All of the above.

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
8. Why is it that a firm will typically not pay for general training?

A. General training is free.


B. General training is too expensive.
C. The benefits of general training depreciate quickly.
D. General training usually doesn't increase worker productivity.
E. The skills gained from the general training are transferable to other firms.

9. Paula is considering going to law school. If she does, she will spend $60,000 on
tuition and books to get a college education (during the first time period),
$120,000 on tuition and books to get a law degree (during the second time
period), and her law degree will earn her $620,000 during the remainder of her
work-life (during the third time period). Paula's time preference for money is
associated with a per-period interest rate of 20 percent. Approximately what is
Paula's present value of obtaining a law degree?

A. $100,100
B. $210,400
C. $270,500
D. $440,000
E. $621,900

10. What is the stopping rule for choosing one's years of schooling?

A. End one's schooling when the return from more schooling is zero.
B. End one's schooling when the cost of one more year of schooling is zero.
C. End one's schooling after college.
D. End one's schooling when the rate of return to one more year of schooling
equals the worker's rate of discount.
E. End one's schooling when the worker's rate of discount equals zero.

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
11. Why might people choose to go to college?

A. Because a college education signals to firms that the worker is highly


motivated.
B. Because a college education increases one's productivity, which will be
rewarded in the labor market with higher wages.
C. Because someone enjoys the process of becoming educated.
D. Because one cannot find employment.
E. All of the above.

12. Human capital refers to

A. the amount of financial capital owned by firm owners.


B. the amount of financial capital owned by workers.
C. the amount of physical capital a firm owns (per worker it employs).
D. the unique set of abilities and skills embedded in workers.
E. the amount of physical capital produced by labor.

13. Why do workers typically pursue their education while young?

A. Because there is more time to benefit from the higher wages that are typically
associated with more education.
B. Because all of their friends pursue education while young.
C. Because living expenses are low for a younger person.
D. Because parents force their children to attend college immediately after high
school.
E. Because they are more likely to receive a scholarship.

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
14. What is implied when the wage-schooling profile is drawn as a concave (i.e.,
increasing at a decreasing rate) function?

A. The marginal return to schooling increases as years of schooling increases.


B. The marginal return to schooling is positive but falling as years of schooling
increases.
C. Average wages fall as years of schooling increases.
D. The cost of schooling increases, but at a decreasing rate.
E. The cost of schooling decreases, but at an increasing rate.

15. Which statement about human capital is false?

A. Human capital gives firms a way to differentiate between workers.


B. Workers accumulate human capital during formal education and through life
experiences.
C. There is more human capital in the U.S. now than there was 100 years ago.
D. Human capital has a low rate of return.
E. Human capital tends to be an important determinant of one's wages.

16. People decide how much schooling to receive based on:

A. Their discount rate.


B. The marginal rate of return to schooling.
C. The present value of expected future earnings.
D. Their ability to succeed in education programs.
E. All of the above factors influence how much schooling one receives.

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
17. In order to use schooling as a signal:

A. The signal must be more costly for low-skilled workers than for high-skilled
workers.
B. The cost of purchasing the signal must not be so costly that high-skilled
workers don't value obtaining it.
C. Firms must be able to easily verify each worker's amount of schooling.
D. Some people must choose to not complete schooling.
E. All of the above are required for schooling to serve as a signal.

18. Selection bias is a problem when trying to estimate the return to education in a
standard human capital model. In this context, what does selection bias refer to?

A. Having a non-random data sample.


B. Workers self-select education levels and jobs based on their abilities and
preferences.
C. Colleges select who they are willing to accept.
D. The wage-schooling locus does not have a constant slope.
E. The wage-schooling locus is estimated to have a negative slope.

19. Suppose 40 percent of all potential workers are highly skilled and contribute
$50,000 to the firm each year. The remaining 60 percent of potential workers are
less skilled and contribute only $30,000 to the firm each year. When schooling is
not used as a signaling device, how much is the firm willing to pay a worker
chosen at random?

A. $30,000
B. $34,000
C. $38,000
D. $42,000
E. $50,000

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
20. Suppose 40 percent of all potential workers are highly skilled and contribute
$50,000 to the firm each year. The remaining 60 percent of potential workers are
less-skilled and contribute only $30,000 to the firm each year. Schooling costs a
highly skilled worker y per year, while it costs a less-skilled worker 2y per year.
What range of y will support a signaling equilibrium?

A. $0 < y < $50,000


B. $5,000 < y < $10,000
C. $5,000 < y < $20,000
D. $10,000 < y < $20,000
E. $20,000 < y < $50,000

21. Suppose Amy has 100 efficiency units of labor; Bill has 50 efficiency units of
labor; and Chris has 20 efficiency units of labor. Which of the following is true?

A. A firm will always hire Amy over Chris, regardless of wages.


B. A firm will hire Amy if her wage is at least twice that of Bill's and at least five
times that of Chris's.
C. A firm will hire Amy if her wage is at most double that of Bill's and at most five
times that of Chris's.
D. A firm will never hire Bill.
E. A firm will never hire Chris.

22. Temporary layoffs are common in the United States especially among workers
who are heavily invested with specific training. Why?

A. Specific training deteriorates quickly, so a laid-off worker with specific training


is not valuable to any firm.
B. The laid-off worker with specific training is more valuable to the firm that laid
her off than she is to any other firm. Thus, it is in the worker's best interest to
remain unemployed until recalled to work at her original firm.
C. Workers without specific training are never hired in the first place.
D. Workers with specific training know they don't need to work hard when
employed.
E. Unemployment benefits are tied to specific training.

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
23. The social rate of return to schooling

A. includes all private benefits to schooling.


B. includes the signaling benefits to schooling.
C. includes the increase in national income resulting from education.
D. does not take into account the costs of education.
E. are always well defined.

24. If ability is positively related to schooling, then estimating the returns to education
directly from the wage-schooling profile will likely

A. under-estimate the return to schooling.


B. over-estimate the return to schooling.
C. under-estimate the average wage.
D. over-estimate the average wage.
E. under-estimate the average discount rate.

25. Suppose all 18-year-olds are identical in every way except that some have easy
access to credit (i.e., they face a low interest rate when borrowing money) while
others have a difficult time accessing credit (i.e., they face a high interest rate
when borrowing money). Which of the following statements is not true?

A. Those who have easy access to credit have a lower rate of discount than those
who do not have easy access to credit.
B. Those who have easy access to credit will be more likely to go to college than
those who do not have easy access to credit.
C. The present value calculation of college will be higher for those who have easy
access to credit than for those who do not have easy access to credit.
D. Some people who have easy access to credit will not go to college.
E. No one without easy access to credit will go to college.

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
26. The Mincer earnings function is used to estimate

A. ability bias.
B. the signaling effect.
C. the social return to schooling.
D. the value of the marginal product of labor.
E. the age earnings profile.

27. Which group of workers tends to have the highest unemployment rate among
high school dropouts?

A. Men
B. Women
C. Blacks
D. Hispanics
E. Whites

28. Time out of the labor force reduces current earnings as well as future earnings.
This suggests that

A. general training does not exist.


B. on-the-job experience is a form of human capital.
C. firms will not invest in specific job training.
D. workers never willingly exit the labor force when young.
E. productivity is unrelated to job experience.

29. Approximately what percent of people in the United States typically do not
graduate from high school?

A. 2%
B. 5%
C. 10%
D. 15%
E. 20%

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
30. Approximately what percent of people in the United States typically receive more
education than just a high school degree?

A. 15%
B. 25%
C. 50%
D. 65%
E. 90%

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
Chapter 06 Human Capital Answer Key

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The wage-schooling locus is

A. downward sloping because education is generally productive.


B. upward sloping because education is generally productive.
C. backward bending.
D. horizontal because wages are unrelated to schooling.
E. vertical because education is a public good.

2. The slope of the wage-schooling locus provides an estimate of

A. the average years of education as a function of age.


B. the average wage or salary of workers for a given level of schooling.
C. the economic return to an additional year of schooling.
D. the economic cost of an additional year of schooling.
E. the marginal cost of an additional year of schooling.

3. Present value calculations allow one to determine

A. the return to an uncertain asset.


B. the present-day costs and/or benefits of various options.
C. the utility value of a particular option.
D. the social cost of financial calculations.
E. the real wage.

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
4. Which of the following reasons is not a likely explanation as to why college
completion rates are greater, on average, for whites than for blacks?

A. Tuition costs are lower for whites than blacks.


B. Whites have access to more financial capital to pay for college than blacks.
C. Post-college wages are higher for whites than for blacks.
D. Whites have greater access to higher quality public education at the
elementary and secondary level.
E. Whites are more able to postpone earnings at age 18 than are blacks.

5. What does not enter into the present value calculation of a college degree?

A. The cost of college tuition.


B. The cost of books.
C. Wages of college graduates.
D. Lifetime wages of non-college graduates.
E. The value of one's scholarships.

6. What is an example of specific job training?

A. Learning word-processing skills.


B. Learning how to use the firm's payroll system.
C. Obtaining a GED.
D. Becoming stronger.
E. Passing the CPA exam.

7. What is an example of general job training?

A. Learning how to use a forklift.


B. Learning how to weld.
C. Reading a book on techniques for managing large groups of workers
involved on team projects.
D. Attending an industry convention on "best practices."
E. All of the above.

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
8. Why is it that a firm will typically not pay for general training?

A. General training is free.


B. General training is too expensive.
C. The benefits of general training depreciate quickly.
D. General training usually doesn't increase worker productivity.
E. The skills gained from the general training are transferable to other firms.

9. Paula is considering going to law school. If she does, she will spend $60,000
on tuition and books to get a college education (during the first time period),
$120,000 on tuition and books to get a law degree (during the second time
period), and her law degree will earn her $620,000 during the remainder of her
work-life (during the third time period). Paula's time preference for money is
associated with a per-period interest rate of 20 percent. Approximately what is
Paula's present value of obtaining a law degree?

A. $100,100
B. $210,400
C. $270,500
D. $440,000
E. $621,900

10. What is the stopping rule for choosing one's years of schooling?

A. End one's schooling when the return from more schooling is zero.
B. End one's schooling when the cost of one more year of schooling is zero.
C. End one's schooling after college.
D. End one's schooling when the rate of return to one more year of schooling
equals the worker's rate of discount.
E. End one's schooling when the worker's rate of discount equals zero.

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
11. Why might people choose to go to college?

A. Because a college education signals to firms that the worker is highly


motivated.
B. Because a college education increases one's productivity, which will be
rewarded in the labor market with higher wages.
C. Because someone enjoys the process of becoming educated.
D. Because one cannot find employment.
E. All of the above.

12. Human capital refers to

A. the amount of financial capital owned by firm owners.


B. the amount of financial capital owned by workers.
C. the amount of physical capital a firm owns (per worker it employs).
D. the unique set of abilities and skills embedded in workers.
E. the amount of physical capital produced by labor.

13. Why do workers typically pursue their education while young?

A. Because there is more time to benefit from the higher wages that are
typically associated with more education.
B. Because all of their friends pursue education while young.
C. Because living expenses are low for a younger person.
D. Because parents force their children to attend college immediately after high
school.
E. Because they are more likely to receive a scholarship.

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
14. What is implied when the wage-schooling profile is drawn as a concave (i.e.,
increasing at a decreasing rate) function?

A. The marginal return to schooling increases as years of schooling increases.


B. The marginal return to schooling is positive but falling as years of schooling
increases.
C. Average wages fall as years of schooling increases.
D. The cost of schooling increases, but at a decreasing rate.
E. The cost of schooling decreases, but at an increasing rate.

15. Which statement about human capital is false?

A. Human capital gives firms a way to differentiate between workers.


B. Workers accumulate human capital during formal education and through life
experiences.
C. There is more human capital in the U.S. now than there was 100 years ago.
D. Human capital has a low rate of return.
E. Human capital tends to be an important determinant of one's wages.

16. People decide how much schooling to receive based on:

A. Their discount rate.


B. The marginal rate of return to schooling.
C. The present value of expected future earnings.
D. Their ability to succeed in education programs.
E. All of the above factors influence how much schooling one receives.

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
17. In order to use schooling as a signal:

A. The signal must be more costly for low-skilled workers than for high-skilled
workers.
B. The cost of purchasing the signal must not be so costly that high-skilled
workers don't value obtaining it.
C. Firms must be able to easily verify each worker's amount of schooling.
D. Some people must choose to not complete schooling.
E. All of the above are required for schooling to serve as a signal.

18. Selection bias is a problem when trying to estimate the return to education in a
standard human capital model. In this context, what does selection bias refer
to?

A. Having a non-random data sample.


B. Workers self-select education levels and jobs based on their abilities and
preferences.
C. Colleges select who they are willing to accept.
D. The wage-schooling locus does not have a constant slope.
E. The wage-schooling locus is estimated to have a negative slope.

19. Suppose 40 percent of all potential workers are highly skilled and contribute
$50,000 to the firm each year. The remaining 60 percent of potential workers
are less skilled and contribute only $30,000 to the firm each year. When
schooling is not used as a signaling device, how much is the firm willing to pay
a worker chosen at random?

A. $30,000
B. $34,000
C. $38,000
D. $42,000
E. $50,000

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
20. Suppose 40 percent of all potential workers are highly skilled and contribute
$50,000 to the firm each year. The remaining 60 percent of potential workers
are less-skilled and contribute only $30,000 to the firm each year. Schooling
costs a highly skilled worker y per year, while it costs a less-skilled worker 2y
per year. What range of y will support a signaling equilibrium?

A. $0 < y < $50,000


B. $5,000 < y < $10,000
C. $5,000 < y < $20,000
D. $10,000 < y < $20,000
E. $20,000 < y < $50,000

21. Suppose Amy has 100 efficiency units of labor; Bill has 50 efficiency units of
labor; and Chris has 20 efficiency units of labor. Which of the following is true?

A. A firm will always hire Amy over Chris, regardless of wages.


B. A firm will hire Amy if her wage is at least twice that of Bill's and at least five
times that of Chris's.
C. A firm will hire Amy if her wage is at most double that of Bill's and at most
five times that of Chris's.
D. A firm will never hire Bill.
E. A firm will never hire Chris.

22. Temporary layoffs are common in the United States especially among workers
who are heavily invested with specific training. Why?

A. Specific training deteriorates quickly, so a laid-off worker with specific


training is not valuable to any firm.
B. The laid-off worker with specific training is more valuable to the firm that laid
her off than she is to any other firm. Thus, it is in the worker's best interest to
remain unemployed until recalled to work at her original firm.
C. Workers without specific training are never hired in the first place.
D. Workers with specific training know they don't need to work hard when
employed.
E. Unemployment benefits are tied to specific training.

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
23. The social rate of return to schooling

A. includes all private benefits to schooling.


B. includes the signaling benefits to schooling.
C. includes the increase in national income resulting from education.
D. does not take into account the costs of education.
E. are always well defined.

24. If ability is positively related to schooling, then estimating the returns to


education directly from the wage-schooling profile will likely

A. under-estimate the return to schooling.


B. over-estimate the return to schooling.
C. under-estimate the average wage.
D. over-estimate the average wage.
E. under-estimate the average discount rate.

25. Suppose all 18-year-olds are identical in every way except that some have
easy access to credit (i.e., they face a low interest rate when borrowing money)
while others have a difficult time accessing credit (i.e., they face a high interest
rate when borrowing money). Which of the following statements is not true?

A. Those who have easy access to credit have a lower rate of discount than
those who do not have easy access to credit.
B. Those who have easy access to credit will be more likely to go to college
than those who do not have easy access to credit.
C. The present value calculation of college will be higher for those who have
easy access to credit than for those who do not have easy access to credit.
D. Some people who have easy access to credit will not go to college.
E. No one without easy access to credit will go to college.

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
26. The Mincer earnings function is used to estimate

A. ability bias.
B. the signaling effect.
C. the social return to schooling.
D. the value of the marginal product of labor.
E. the age earnings profile.

27. Which group of workers tends to have the highest unemployment rate among
high school dropouts?

A. Men
B. Women
C. Blacks
D. Hispanics
E. Whites

28. Time out of the labor force reduces current earnings as well as future earnings.
This suggests that

A. general training does not exist.


B. on-the-job experience is a form of human capital.
C. firms will not invest in specific job training.
D. workers never willingly exit the labor force when young.
E. productivity is unrelated to job experience.

29. Approximately what percent of people in the United States typically do not
graduate from high school?

A. 2%
B. 5%
C. 10%
D. 15%
E. 20%

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
30. Approximately what percent of people in the United States typically receive
more education than just a high school degree?

A. 15%
B. 25%
C. 50%
D. 65%
E. 90%

© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
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came to me about a year after I was ordained, as a feeling, or
conviction. Of course the refutation of my argument is that the
Church makes marriage a sacrament. I suppose most men have this
explained to them before they become priests, but I never found it
necessary.”
“Is the girl a nun now?” I pursued.
“No,” he said, a faint smile lurking about the corners of his mouth.
“She never took the final vows, but left the convent and married. She
has five very beautiful children, one of whom, the eldest, I’m
marrying next week. In fact, he’s named for me.”
This time the silence was longer and seemed almost a conclusion,
until I broke it with one last question.
“Do you think that was actually the devil who appeared to you, or
an illusion brought on by the state of your mind?”
He answered me very quietly. “The hand of God is seen in strange
places.”
ROBERT CRUISE MCMANUS.

Ballade
(Translated from a fifteenth century lyric of Charles d’Orleans)

Once in the weary wood of dull Distress


Where Fate condemned my leaden feet to stray
It chanced that Venus, now my comfortress,
Besought to know where I did take my way.
Then I replied, “My fortune’s gone astray,
And I long exiled ’mid this wood’s repose,
It happens I am one of whom men say,
‘A man astray, uncertain where he goes.’”

Then she, all smiles and godlike graciousness,


“Tell me, my friend, the reason, oh I pray.
Why is it you are lost in black Distress?
I may have power to set you on your way.
Long have I sought love’s pleasures to display
Unto your heart—I knew not of your woes.
Nor can I bear to see you thus to-day,
A man astray, uncertain where he goes.”

And I, “Alas! Most sovereign Princess!


You know my state: shall I repeat it? Nay!
’Twas Death—who doth all men alike oppress—
’Twas Death that stole my darling love away.
She who so guided me upon my way—
My only love, more lovely than the rose—
That while she lived no one of me might say,
‘A man astray, uncertain where he goes.’”

For I am blind—I catch no spark of day—


Nor but with tapping staff can find my way.
So tapping here and there the wanderer goes.
It is indeed a pity they must say,
“A man astray, uncertain where he goes.”

LAIRD GOLDSBOROUGH.
Notabilia
The most important action of the University in its relation to the
student body is the Sunday chapel regulation, that eleven o’clock
non-sectarian Christian service and sermon is compulsory for all
Yale College undergraduates and members of the common
Freshman year. In this change of hour lies a change of issue. Before,
the ten-minute ten o’clock service was a bit of tolerated hypocrisy to
keep undergraduates in New Haven over the weekend. This
compulsory attendance at Divine Worship is an intolerable religious
offence.
Religion is a matter of individual opinion; compulsion is opposed to
individuality. Compulsory religion then by our own inherited
conception of that word is an impossibility. There can be no religion
for an intelligent person in Woolsey Hall. To those who are not
Christians it is intellectual persecution.
We are amused at the news that there was some discussion as to
whether there should be plants or members of the faculty on the
platform during the service. Plants seem to us the better choice;
being more inanimate, they are less hypocritical.
Really it is astonishing how Yale can be as much of an institution
of learning as it is, and still practice such stupidity in administration.

We should like to bring to our readers’ attention the following terse


facts about Commons. Commons has a compulsory patronage
amounting to approximately 900 men. It can count on a few hundred
more men who are working their way through. After its seating
capacity has thus been filled once, it need not (and does not)
accommodate any more for that meal; it can therefore calculate with
perfect accuracy, so that no food need be wasted. It requires cash in
advance, or bills sent home; it has therefore no credit to carry on its
books. At the present writing, it will allow no one to sign out: meals
taken elsewhere are wasted money for its customers. Its overhead is
reduced to a minimum—far more so than that of any other eating
house in college. And, added to this, it has the faculty to protect it.
Yet, what is happening? The charges for food are $9.00 per week,
without rebate for cash. The service is slow whenever the hall is
crowded. The food, while sometimes good, is by no means always
so, and if maintained at the present standard would be intolerable as
a year’s diet.
Considering the fact that, for nine hundred of its customers, it
requires no table runners, thereby saving approximately $800 per
week ($25,000 per year); there it is only $1.00 per week cheaper
than some eating houses, and 50 cents cheaper than most; that its
food is not as good as any of the others—considering these things,
we suggest that an investigation be made. We are anxious to be fair
in the matter and not judge too harshly a project which is as yet
young. But the college seems to be of the opinion that considerable
improvement must be shown by the Yale Dining Hall if it is to
continue its somewhat shaky career.

Taking the same paternal stand as they have taken in the case of
Commons, the faculty has decreed that the Liberal Club must ask
“permission” before inviting speakers to address their meetings. Just
what the Liberal Club will do about this, no one as yet knows.
Certainly it conflicts with the very principles and ideals of that club,
and represents a trend, on the part of the Yale faculty, to which the
club is especially opposed.
Book Reviews

Tutor’s Lane. By Wilmarth Lewis. (Knopf.)


Imagine Yale College without appendages, and New Haven without
slums or business section, and life just as it is now and you will have
the setting for Mr. Lewis’ ’17 first novel, “Tutor’s Lane”.
You are given as hero a young English instructor, a graduate from
about the same class as Mr. Lewis, probably with a Chi Delta Theta
charm, and a heroine not greatly sophisticated, of good family, mildly
fond of “doing good” to “the people.” These two fondly follow a
Quixotic scheme of uplift (which he doesn’t even like, and about
which she’s a fool), and come out of it ashamed but at one in their
shame. The inevitable marriage ensues. The plot is the weakness of
the book. It is a thin-spun web, and disappointing.
But the non-plot characters, and the phrasing of the Syllabus, and
the satire scattered through the pages are features over which no
one can pass without delight. Mrs. Norris talks, the reader is
amused; Mr. Lewis talks, the reader is wholly captivated. It is not the
genial gay humor of Punch; it is something with a sharper touch than
that, more witty, more satirical. It is only when Mr. Lewis becomes
sympathetic with his character or with his reader that he fails. He is
superb when he is laughing at both simultaneously.
If he ever gets hold of a plot, the result will be a fine novel. He has
the power of restraint and objectivity which most moderns lack. He is
refreshing in the midst of so much that is conspicuously heavy and
bent with the weight of the world. His product is not marred by
continual reference to the travail and labor its creation caused. He
seems to have enjoyed writing the book, and not to have written it in
order to save the world, or the destinies of nations. To amuse himself
and his friends seems to be his only purpose in writing, which is
probably why “Tutor’s Lane” will also amuse so many other people.
M. E. F.

Young Peoples Pride. By Stephen Vincent Benét.


(Henry Holt & Co.)
There are probably very few men now at Yale who are destined to
look back, after an equally short span of years, upon a more
enviable literary record than that already possessed by Stephen
Vincent Benét. And yet, we had to read a good deal of “Young
Peoples Pride” before we began to enjoy it. Perhaps the reason was
that we had expected another “serious novel” or “character study”
somewhat along the lines of Mr. Benét’s “The Beginning of Wisdom”.
The rather affectedly “super smart” illustrations with which the
present book is garnished annoyed us, and the occurrence of
passages like the following caused us to fear that Mr. Benét, with an
eye to the box office, had joined the Fitzgeraldine ranks of tale-
tellers-out-of-school.

“‘The trouble with Art is that it doesn’t pay a decent living


wage unless you’re willing to commercialize—’
‘The trouble with Art is that it never did, except for a few
chance lucky people—’
‘The trouble with Art is Women.’
‘The trouble with Women is Art.’
‘The trouble with Art—with women I mean—change signals!
What do I mean?’”

But there is not much of that sort of “cleverism”. In fact, in so far as


“We Wild Young People” enter, Mr. Benét holds the mirror very
sanely and skillfully up to nature.
However, “Young Peoples Pride” scarcely requires all this
analyzing. It is not an “important novel” anyway—simply a rattling
good yarn, and must be judged as such. For sheer sustained
excitement we have seldom read anything better than the long scene
in the apartment of Mrs. Severance and the gentleman whom Mr.
Benét so quaintly calls “Mr. Severance”. It is a scene that we shall
hope to see on Broadway later, when its author becomes a
playwright—if he ever does. Read the book for that, by all means—
and you’ll like a good deal of the rest.
L. S. G.

Books and Characters. By Lytton Strachey.


(Harcourt, Brace & Company, New York.)
A reference, in the present volume, to Thomas Beddoes as “the last
Elizabethan” suggests, at once, Mr. Lytton Strachey’s preëminent
right to the title of “the last Victorian”—using the word in its best
sense, to denote an individual very far removed indeed from any
desire to go “tobaggoning down Parnassus”. Mr. Strachey’s bland
progress through the realm of letters is, in fact, the very antithesis of
that adopted by the tobaggoning school of modern critics. To analyze
the characteristics of his style is to call up a host of adjectives long
all but forgotten amid the present scramble for pseudo-culture. He is
scholarly without being pedantic, erudite without being obscure. And
the queer, musing, almost anecdotal manner in which he rambles
from Johnson’s wit to Madame du Deffand’s, from Shakespeare’s
tragedies to Voltaire’s, is always giving way to lightning flashes of
true critical insight expressed with the netteté of a Racine.
As might be gathered from the foregoing remarks, “Books and
Characters” is a volume of collected critical essays, which first
appeared individually between the years 1905 and 1919 in various
publications, such as the Edinburgh Review. Incidentally, it is a book
which should have an especial and peculiar appeal to the college
man. For the books and characters touched upon are, one or two
excepted, the very ones with which the reading essential to a college
course has made him most familiar. He will thus have freshly in mind
the background of literary acquaintanceships, which the guileless Mr.
Strachey apparently supposes is possessed by everyone, and upon
which he proceeds to etch his portraits with the aid of a wit so
delightful and so acutely sharpened as to be quite irresistible. For it
was true wit, in the Victorian sense, mingled with a quaint, sly humor,
which made Strachey’s “Queen Victoria” the consummate master-
portrait that it is, and which reappears in “Books and Characters”.
Perhaps a quotation from the chapter entitled, “The Lives of the
Poets”, may show what we mean:

“Johnson’s aesthetic judgments are almost invariably


subtle, or solid, or bold; they have always some good quality
to recommend them—except one. They are never right. That
is an unfortunate deficiency; but no one can doubt that
Johnson has made up for it, and that his wit has saved all. He
has managed to be wrong so cleverly, that nobody minds.
When Gray, for instance, points the moral to his poem on
Walpole’s cat with a reminder to the fair that all that glisters is
not gold, Johnson remarks that this is ‘of no relation to the
purpose; if what glistered had been gold, the cat would not
have gone into the water; and, if she had, would no less have
been drowned.’ Could anything be more ingenious, or more
neatly put, or more obviously true? But then, to use Johnson’s
own phrase, could anything be of less ‘relation to the
purpose’?”

Well, we only restrain ourselves with difficulty from seeming to


commit sacrilege upon Johnson by proclaiming the rightness of Mr.
Strachey’s aesthetic judgments, as well as their wit.
The essays dealing with French life and letters, just prior to the
revolution, are equally a mine of interest. They are all brilliant pieces
of writing; from the flickering sidelights thrown upon the undignified
and incredible squabbles of Voltaire and Frederick the Great, to the
half-pitiful, half-comic details concerning the salon of Madame du
Deffande—Madame du Deffande, who was for twenty years, at once,
blind, hopelessly in love with Walpole, and the cultural autocrat of
Paris. Skeptics, all of them—and skeptics essentially Gallic, before
whose unabashed indifference to God, and cynical contempt for man
the Anglo-Saxon mind is apt to recoil, gymnastically unable to
assume the necessary shift in point of view. For instance, there is
Madame La Maréchale de Luxembourg:

“‘Quel ton! Quel effroyable ton!’ she is said to have


exclaimed after a shuddering glance at the Bible. ‘Ah,
Madame, quel dommage que la Sainte Esprit eut aussi peu
de gout!’”

At least they seem to have been sincere, these most un-Victorian


French. And they round out Mr. Strachey’s book into something
which really must not be missed.
L. S. G.

This Freedom. By A. S. M. Hutchinson. (Little,


Brown & Co.)
A. S. M. Hutchinson’s latest novel, “This Freedom,” is the life story of
an English girl. Brought up in an old-fashioned home where the duty
of the women is but to serve the men, she breaks from conventional
ties and becomes a thoroughly modern creature in thought and
action.
Her ideal is man’s position of social independence. This she
attains to the fullest measure in the business world. But trouble
comes after she has experienced love, marriage and the duties of a
mother of a family. After a series of crushing disasters, she discovers
that modern teaching does not tend to make for that home life to
which she, in her youth, had been accustomed, and from whose
charm she had never really freed herself.
The book has the same weak point as its predecessor, “If Winter
Comes”. Mr. Hutchinson does not seem to have the courage to write
a tragedy. After he has masterfully created a heap of wreckage, he
vainly attempts restoration in a few concluding paragraphs. It is as
impossible for the reader to conceive of recovery in the case of
Rosalie and Harry as it was to imagine a future happiness for Nona
and Marco.
It is to be hoped that we shall soon have a real tragedy from the
pen of this popular author, for then we shall put down the book
perhaps sadder but at least more impressed.
M. T.

Babbitt. By Sinclair Lewis. (Harcourt, Brace & Co.)


If “Babbitt” is a better book than “Main Street”, as its publishers
would have us believe, then Mr. Lewis’ improvement is to be found in
an even greater application to the details; the minute cataloguing of
commonplace incident. It is infinitely painstaking. But for those of us
who believe that “Main Street” in itself showed an unnecessary
virtuosity in that talent, this is hardly to be rated as an advance.
“Babbitt” is not so much to be considered as better or worse than
“Main Street”, as a companion volume in Mr. Lewis’ series of
compendiums of all that is tawdry, and hypocritical, and typical, in
the contemporary life of the American middle class.
Babbitt is the “average” American business man; a real estate
dealer (“realtor”, as he pridefully insists on being called); a Rotarian,
Booster, member of the Athletic Club, and solid citizen. He has a
squabbling family; a wife whom he tolerates, and three children
whom he loves impatiently—because he cannot understand them.
Little attention is given to a plot; the development is rather in
exhaustive study and analysis. From the time when Babbitt gets up
to shave, until the time when he makes sure (for the second time)
that all the doors in the house are locked, no detail of his life,
personal, family, business, or social, is omitted. And each detail is
analyzed. Sometimes it is satirized; and often the attempted
satirization becomes an over-done burlesque.
Like Carol Kennicott, Babbitt is filled with dissatisfaction; and a
realization (more vague than hers, because he cannot understand it)
of the meaningless hypocrisy of his life. But his revolt is not
intellectual, and therefore the pain of frustration in the inevitable
defeat at the end is not so keen.
I do not hold with those critics who condemn Mr. Lewis for
presenting only one side of his picture. I agree that he does present
only one side—but are there not a great many times as many
authors who write only of the so-called “pleasant” side? And are not
Mr. Lewis’ characterizations far closer to the actual verities?
I think that they are; and that historians of the future will do well to
turn to such books as “Babbitt” for their data on the “typical”
American citizen of the third decade of the twentieth century.
C. G. P.
Editor’s Table
As the French say: All generalities are false, even this one.

“The Editor’s Table has no raison d’être,” I said.


“Nor any pièce de résistance,” said my friend.
“Nor is it ever a chef d’oeuvre,” I added.

But I know now that the French are right.


Cory.
Yale Lit. Advertiser.

The
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of the City of New York
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Capital $20,000,000
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Deposits (Sept. 15, 1922) 434,107,000

OFFICERS
ALBERT H. WIGGIN, President

Vice-Presidents:

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Assistant Vice-Presidents

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WINCHESTER
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