THE MICHIGAN IAILY

William T. Cosgrave (left); former president, and President Eamcn
de Valera are rival candidates for president of the Irish Free State.
The voting will take place January 24.

Northwestern

Has 'Dishonor'
Exam System
New System Has Students
Sign Honesty Pledge;
Must Report Cheating
Northwestern University students
may not, as they have themselves
reported via the Student Council, be
trusted to use the honor system, but
some of them are going to try the
"dishonor system" at the coming
semester examinations.
The "dishonor system" works (that
is to say, there are Northwestern
professors who hope it works) on a
directly opposite principle to the
honor system. Where the honor sys-
tem assumes that college men and
women are worth being trusted, the'
dishonor system is certain that they
are not.
The dishonor system therefore
provides the following checks: First,
students must sign an oath that they
have not cheated; secondly, each stu-
dent is to write on the bottom of his
paper the names of those he sees
cheating. Thus the idea, besides tak-
ing it for granted that Northwestern
students are only fooling when they
sign pledges, makes every student a
policeman for every other student. In
the meantime the faculty goes out
and has a smoke.
Men and women of the Northwest-
ern campus are wondering if it is
quite decent to report on one's col-
leagues. Inasmuch as a person auto-
matically flunks a course when his
name appears at the bottom of some-
one else's paper, some students have
suggested it might be clever to write
down the name of everyone in the
class, thus flunking all but the per-
son who did the writing.
The system will be tried out in the
political science classes of Po esso
Lawrence D. Egbert.
Christian Efluet Is
Title Of r . Talk
Prof. Royal G. Hall, head of the
department of Social Sciences at Al-
bion College, Albion, will speak on
"Christian Ethics in the 20th Cen-
tury" at 4:15 p. m. tomorrow in Lane
Hall.
The contention of Professor Hall
is that many of us who call ourselves
Christians have no right to do so, yet
Thristianity has an important con-
tribution to make to our lives at the
present time just as it did 2,000 years
ago.
"If we fail to use the offerings of
Christianity," Professor Hall said, "it
might be better to drop it altogether
and substitute for our religion some
type of socialistic state. However, if
we probe into, investigate, and study
Christianity, we will find that Jesus
really had something to offer us that
will be of value towards curing our
social ills."
Faith, say ssychologists, is one of
the primary motivating factors in
our lives, and those students who
realize this are the ones who will be
interested in hearing Professor Hall,
according to the Student Christian
Association which is sponsoring the
lecture.
More than 53,000,000 automobiles
have been built since the first one
was turned out in 1898, the Cali-
fornia State Automobile association
records disclose.

First Skyscraper
Was Designed By
Michigan Teacher
By GLENN -R. WINTERS
A former professor of architecture
in the University of Michigan de-
signed and built the first skyscraper.
Such is the conclusion reached by
a committee which examined the
structure of the Home Insurance
building of Chicago, designed by Wil-
liarn LeBaron Jenney, professor o
architecture and design from 1876
to 1880, in a report quoted by Prof.
Emil Lorch of the College of Archi-
tecture in President Ruthven's an.
nual report.
Competition for the title of "father
of the skyscraper" has been keen, and
the demolition of the Home Insur-
ance building settled a question over
which controversy has raged for
nearly half a century. There have
been four separate claims to the
honor, all of long standing. These
were the patent taken out il 1888
by Leroy S. Bufington, Minneapolis
architect, on the use of an iron frame
for buildings of indefinite height; the
building at 50 Broadway, New York
City, which actually bears a bronze
tablet claiming the distinction of be-
ing the first building to use sky-
scraper construction; the Tacom
building in Chicago, built in 1887;
and the Home Insurance building,
built by Professor Jenney three years
earlier.
Skeleton Of Steel
The distinguishing feature of'sky-
scraper construction, as accepted by
the committee, is skeleton steel con-
struction. "By skyscraper is meantc
a building that exceeds in height the
practical limit of solid masonry con-
struction," says the report. To ac-
complish this result, the principle of
skeleton structure is employed, which
Webster's Dictionary defines thus:
"A method of constructing buildings,
in which the chief members are steel,
the wall being supported at the floor
levels by the steel frame itself." The
Encyclopaedia Britannica says that
in skeleton construction "steel takes
up all the stress to which a building
is subjected, compression, tensile and
shear.."
The claim of the Tacoma building
was considered strongest, especially,
since its demolition in 1929 had re-
vealed certain characteristics of con-
struction considered essential to sky-
scrapers, and it has been accepted for
several years as the first genuine
skyscraper. The book, "The Story of
Architecture in America," captions a
picture of the Tacoma building thus:
"The first complete steel skeleton
(iron) building ever erected."
Patent Rights Contested
The patent rights claimed by Buf-
fington have not been recognized by
the courts in a number of suits he
has made, and he never constructed
a building on the principle he out-
lined. As the New York building was
put up in 1888-89, it is antedated by
both the Tacoma and Home Insur-
ance buildings of Chicago.
When the Home Insurance building
was razed last year, the estate of
Marshall Field and Company, owners
of the property, appointed a commis-
sion to examine its construction with
the co-operation of the wrecking con-
tractors in order to determine
whether that building had any prior
claim to that of the Tacoma building.
Photographs of the shafts and joints
were taken at every stage of the de-
struction, and complete plans and
drawings of the structure of the
building were prepared.
Contrasting its findings in the
Home Life building with those of the
investigators of the Tacoma building
at the time it was wrecked, the
Marshall Field committee states:
Complete Framework
"The claim (of the Tacoma build-
ing) usually takes the form of the

first 'complete' skeleton skyscraper or
the first skyscraper in which the
metal skeleton was 'completely' de-
veloped. This building was built
three years after the Home Insur-
ance. The Tacoma building intro-
duced many important improvements
over the construction of the Home
Insurance building that it marked an
advance in the science of skyscraper
design there can be no doubt. .
Nevertheless, the Tacoma building
still made use of cast iron columns
and all shapes other than the beams
and girders which were of wrought
iron. It also had solid masonry lot
line walls, court and alley walls
which could have been made skele-
ton construction, and in our opinion
it showed a retrograde step in intro-
duction of the transverse masonry
walls which assured a very large pro-
portion of floor loads; whereas the
interior of the Home Life building
was entirely free from self-support-
ing masonry.
"Conclusion: As in the case of
every great invention, skeleton con-

-Associated Press Photo
Ship news reporters and photographers were a little confused when
they went to meet Auguste Piccard, Belgium stratosphere flier, when
he arrived in New York because he was greeted by his twin brother,
Jean, scientist and chemist of Wilmington, Del. Auguste Piccard is at
left. He is in the United States for a lecture tour.

Speceh Students To Vie
For Oratorical AwardJ
Representatives from 11 speech 31
classes will meet in the annual con-
test for the Oratorical Association
medal for proficiency in beginning
forensics at 2:45 p. m. Thursday in
the Speech Laboratory Theatre.
These students have been voted thec
best speakers in their respective
classs by the students and will meet
here in the contest for final honors.j
Judges for the contest will be the fivek
instructors of the beginning speechl
classes. The affair is under the direc-
tion of Prof. G. E. Densmore, headt
of the speech department.t
struction in its completeness was nott
nor could it have been discovered byt
any one man nor expressed in any
one building. The early buildings for1
this reason are all more or less tran-
sitional and experimental. Each
learned from the experience of thec
preceding and added its contribu-
tion and development of the idea.-
It is, however, entirely possible from1
a consideration of the evidence to;
appraise the relative importance of
each in terms of its originality and
its influence on the work which fol-
lowed. Acting on this conviction, we
have no hesitation in stating that
the Home Insurance building was the
first high building to utilize as the,
basic principle of its design the
method known as skeleton construc-
tion, and that there is convincing
evidence that Major Jenney is solving,
the particular problems of light and
loads appearing in this building dis-
covered the true application of skele-
ton construction in building of high
structures, and invented and here1
utilized for the first time its specialt
forms.
Primnary Influence
"We are also of the opinion that,
owing to its priority and its imme-
diate success and renown the Home
Insurance building was in fact the
primal influence in the acceptance
of skeleton construction, the true
father of the skyscraper."
William LeBaron Jenney, the arch-
itect, had an adventuresome career.
At the age of 17 he ran away to sea
from his home in Andover, and went
around the horn to participate in
the gold rush of '49 in California.
From there he went to the Philippine
Islands, where he was so impressed
with the possibilities of running a
railroad across the islands that he
came back to the United States to
secure the necessary engineering
training for the task. His studies
drew his mind to other interests,
chiefly architecture, although he
served in the Civil War as General
Sherman's chief of engineers, and
acquired the rank of major.
Taught Four Years
He came to Ann Arbor as profes-
sor of architecture and design in
1876, and remained here for four
years, after which he went to Chi-
cago where he became one of the
leaders of the architectural profes-
sion there. He died in 1907.
While in Ann Arbor, Professor
Jenney designed the old museum
building, now the Romance Lan-
guages building. When this building
was examined by the committee of
the Board of Regents preparatory to
remodeling it for its present use it
was found to be in exceptionally good
condition for its age.

Piccard Greeted By Brother

Popular Songs
Scored During
Radio Address
Prof. W. F. Humphreys
Terms Modern Music
'Second Rate'
"The second rate conversation of
third rate people" was the term
which Prof. Wilbur R. Hunphreys of
the English department applied to
the words of many popular songs
which today come "whining out of
millions of radios."
Speaking over the facilities of the
University Broadcasting Service yes-
terday, Professor Humphreys said
that a knowledge of the "great mas-
ters" in poetry will enable one to
"distinguish between the better and
the worse even in the ephemeral dit-
ties that in these days you can hard-
ly escape."

Law Revisions
Due In Future,
Bates Declares
Who is liable for damage in an air-
crash?
This and other legal problems of
air travel will puzzle lawyers and
judges increasingly in the future.
Since men first banded together to
help in hunting ages ago, they have
had to constantly revise their cus-
toms and laws to fit changing condi-
tions, and it is on several important'
present day phases of this work that
the law school is now studying,
through the W. W. Cook Foundation
for Legal Research, Dean Henry M. 1
Bates reports.
Dealing with very modern prob-.
lems whose complexity grows out of
our present ways of earning money,
is the study being made of certain .
corporation matters, which in the
long, run touch every man who owns
a share of stock, works for a cor-
poration or buys its products. An-
other study investigates legal prob-
lems involved in motor transporta-
tion on land, water and in the air,
the latter offering some points which
lawyers of a half century ago never
dreamed would complicate their
work.
Other investigations now under
way by faculty members of the law
school include the legal history of
the Northwest Territory, from which
the state of Michigan was carved in
1837; the early procedure of Michi-
gan courts, on which much of our
present decisions are based; problems
of legal-economic importance relating
to real estate, and continuation of
studies begun years ago in court pro-
cedure.
Many other studies are under con-,
sideration, criminal law and crimin-
ology, receiverships, legal-economic
problems such as the effect of zon-
ing laws and taxation studies. Ex-
pert through years of study in a par-
ticular field, under the Cook bequest
it is expected that teachers in the
law school will be able to make use-
ful contributions to the process of
the law, both for Michigan and na-
tionally.
Y' Gets Contribution
Of $2 Pledged in 1918
PORT HURON, Jan. 17.-(,P)-A
Port Huron woman who promised to
contribute $2 to the Y. M. C. A. in
1918 has just made good her pledge.
In a letter inclosing a check -to
cover the donation, the woman said
'Please forgive my neglect and ac-
cept the money."

"True Songs"
But some of the songs popular to-
day are "true songs," according to
Professor Humphreys. He cited
among those, the song "Mimi" and
"Let's Put Out the Light and Go to
Sleep." Such songs as these, he said,
"really ought to live another year and
would if it were not for the unnatural
speeding up of the system that pro-
duces them."
Among slang expressions which
contain a poetical feeling, Professor
Humphreys listed the sentence "You
get in my hair," saying that there
was a direct similarity between the
process used in the Bible to set forth
similarities and that which is found
in the manufacture of modern slang.
To illustrate his point, Professor
Humphreys quoted from the book of
Proverbs the lines: "As vinegar to
the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes,
so is the sluggard to them than send
him."
Is Slang Poetic?
"To say 'You annoy me' is to state
the fact in prose," said Professor
Humphreys. "To say 'You give me a
pain' is to venture feebly in the direc-
tion of poetry; to say 'You are like
vinegar to my teeth' is to achieve a
poetic figure; and to say by implica-
tion 'You are molasses in my hair' is
to let the poetic process run its full
course."
Professor Humphreys said that he
selected the example from slang so
that he could bring out the fact that
poetry must not necessarily be "dig-
nified, or bookish, or highbrow."
New Trial Is Ordered
In Suit For $50,000
CINCINNATI, Jan. 17.-UP)-The
United States Circuit Court of Ap-
peals today reversed a lower court
decision and ordered a new trial in
the suit brought by Mrs. Inez E.
Haskins against the Pere Marquette
Railroad. Mrs. Haskins sued as ad-
ministratrix of the estate of Ray
F. Haskins, Grand Rapids, former
engineer, who was killed in a wreck
at Glen Lord, May 29, 1929. The suit
asked $50,000. An award of $7,782
was made in the lower court.
A lower court decision was upheld
by the Appellate body when it dis-
missed a suit and counter suit charg-
ing patent infringements.
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