Student Publications: The Roaring '20s

From GWUEncyc

Article

The following was written in 1970:

“Notes from the Old Underground”

“The growing youth movement in America as it sometimes expresses itself through sporadic and critical student journals is one of the most interesting college phenomena of recent years. The Tempest at the University of Michigan, the Rockford College Purple Parrot, the Yale Saturday Evening Pest, the Harvard Gadfly, the Californian Laughing Horse, and La Critique at Dartmouth suggest by their names something of their purpose. The new consciousness of the students everywhere and their critical attitude towards the soup that is being served them is uniformly to be observed.”

These mark the era - short skirts, bell bottoms, irreverence, the underground press. It was the 20s. And the editorial was from the first issue of Sour Grapes, December 12, 1923, at GW. The underground press included Sour Grapes, The Lash, the Petticoat, and the Razz Berry, a supplement to the Hatchet that appeared as a spoof on George Washington's birthday. In the same first issue of Sour Grapes an editorial, “Raison d’Etre,” stated the paper was “dedicated to the ideals of modern education and modern educational methods . . . (but) we are not being consistently taught how to think; true, knowledge is being ‘dispensed’ but we are not being taught the technique of mental processes.

“Dissatisfied as we are with the present educational standards of George Washington University, we nevertheless realize that a large measure of their present inadequacy is due almost solely to the lack of physical equipment.” Sour Grapes called for new physical equipment as the most immediate and pressing need. In another article Sour Grapes attacked the Director of Student Activities by name, reported his office was characterized by inefficiency and concluded that he “was persona non grata to practically the entire student body.”

Sour Grapes also regretted that both faculty and students “were slicked for shekels” to pay for a portrait of Dean Wilbur (Dean of Arts and Sciences) that could only be described as “An Allegory in Cartoon.” In another article Sour Grapes pointed out that GW debaters won against the men from Oxford University (England) on “a vote of the audience - no ballot box stuffing permitted.” The writer minces no words. “With bonehead judges and local home team sentiment,” GW debaters succeeded in carrying the affirmative argument on the question: ‘Resolved that France is justified in occupying the Ruhr.’”

In a lead story Sour Grapes reported that GW was no longer among the top 21 law schools recognized by the Committee on Legal Education of the American Bar Association. Yet GW law school was collecting as high tuition as any institution in the country. It was no comfort that both National and Georgetown University law schools also failed to make the Class A rating, the anonymous writer declared. Sour Grapes berated the Hatchet as a “commercialized” paper with 12 columns of advertising to 8 columns of news, including editorials. In fact, Sour Grapes reported, the Hatchet was nothing more than a University calendar, reporting events, and missed the biggest story of the year on the appointment of a new University president.

Several years later The Lash appeared under the same sponsorship and denounced the new president (Lewis) as a “kerflop.” He was characterized as nothing more than a high pressure salesman called down from the Chamber of Commerce to raise money. The Lash called for his resignation, for in its view, he was definitely not an educator and had failed to meet the goal of raising one million dollars.

In the same issue (January 4, 1926) The Lash struck out against fraternities, saying that all positions of honor and opportunity were monopolized “by a horde of ill-bred leeches who are organized largely for political purposes.” It commented on campus graft. “We do not take the narrow position that all frat men are crooks, but we are persuaded by observation that every crook in school is a fraternity man.” On its own future, The Lash said, “The mangy scum of this School will rally and demand that this paper be suppressed and its authors coerced.” In its fourth issue, dated February 15, 1926, The Lash reported, “In true Mussolinistic fashion, Dean Rose has warned the women of GW not to read The Lash in keeping with her policy of crushing liberal thought.” According to The Lash, since the job of Dean had been created just for her, the University was in no way indebted to her, and since she was unpopular with a majority of the girls, the best thing for her was “to catch an outgoing train.” In the same issue The Lash noted that President Lewis was angling for a diplomatic appointment and the sooner he realized his ambitions the happier a majority of students and faculty would be.

The Lash also treated sarcastically a typical day of a Modern Language Professor under the headline, “Why Teachers of Romance Languages Should Have Their Salaries Boosted.” The writer pretended to reproduce the 1924 diary of a language professor who arose at 10:45 a.m. and after a light breakfast, went to the University Club where he lunched and gossiped until 2:45, arriving 5 minutes late to his class. After his 4 o'clock class, the professor fell asleep, barely making it to his 5:10 class. The same issue contained editorial attacks on “the boorish behavior” of GW debaters who did not invite the visiting debate team from Oklahoma to the reception held afterwards. According to The Lash, it would mean only two helpings of ice cream instead of three for GW debaters if the visitors had attended the reception.

Even though the articles against the GW Establishment of the 20’s were vituperative and vitriolic, they did not resort to the obscenity both under and above-ground student papers now freely employ. Forced to make their points by wit, satire, parody, and the rapier thrust, the attacks of the old underground had to be clever to some degree. And perhaps for that reason they were more powerful than their descendants have yet been.

Document Information

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Author or Source: GW Magazine, Special Issue, 1970
Document Location: University Archives
Date Added to Encyclopedia: December 21, 2006
Prepared by: Lyle Slovick, Assistant University Archivist

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