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146

With dancing and merriment the evening wore on, until at three o'clock we decided to come home. The big party had been at the Wagon-Lite after all, but we had as fine a time as could be imagined at any party. The effort that made it so good was well spent and thoroughly appreciated, and I hope the Rubys enjoyed themselves as much as their guests. Over their heads always there is the pall of their future. Personally I put the case of Clem in the same class with the case of Varney. Varney, you remember was fired last autumn, and only my unwarranted intervention prevented him from being turned off penniless to get back to America as well as he could. Clem has recently been informed that his services will not be needed after he goes home for furlough next June. He has been going ahead with his house at athe new site, and planning for the future, and then sudenly the blow falls. The argument is that there is no place in the University for a business training department. 

Clem is no longer young, and when he was induced to come to Yenching he accepted the position only with the understanding that it would be permanent. He has been devoted in his work and has never stinted himself in his extra-curriculum activities, but he is not liked by some of the group now holding most influence. Perhaps it is right and best for the school, [[combined hyphen and semicolon]] I do not think that a business department is exactly a proper university venture, - but - I know that I am very definitely going to look out for number one to the extent of keeping my hand in on studying and work that will insure me a position elsewhere when they get ready to dump me. The Y. S. C. S. has the advantage of having a small faculty and decent personal relations. Of course Clem could not have been dropped had been a member of a mission, no matter how rotten he might be. If a mission wants to give us a man, we can sometimes select the man, sometimes not. Theoretically we can get men suitable to our work and interests, but if a man does not fit and the mission wishes to make it an issue it can use this as an excuse for withdrawing support we cannot afford to lose, and there we are. The safe and sane thing to do is to belong to a mission, it insures one work and provision for one's old age; but in a case like this the mission can if they wish bring in all of the evils of the closed shop with none of its advantages. No union could be more successful than a mission in keeping incompetents in office. This has no particular reference,