As at many another U. S. institution, the name of Frank N. D. Buchman was only a name at Princeton, vaguely signifying personal interviews on religion, until last fortnight when Mr. Buchman's approach to religious problems, through his subjects' autoerotic tendencies was first made generally public (TIME, Oct. 18). Princeton men remembered that Mr. Buchman had been forbidden to practice his calling upon their campus two years ago, but not until last fortnight did they realize why. Then, last week, Mr. Buchman returned to the U. S. from a call to the Empress of Siam. Soon his presence was reported in Princeton. Denied access to the campus he was receiving young men at his lodging in the town. Realizing that among the first to visit Mr. Buchman would most likely be the leaders of the campus religious organization, the Philadelphian Society, the students attended a mass meeting and voted, 394 to 18, that President Hibben appoint a committee to investigate the Philadelphian Society for "undesirable Buchmanism." There was also a vote of 253 to 85 to the effect that "undesirable Buchmanism" was actually in vogue with the Philadelphian Society. Ironically, the mass meeting had been called by the Society itself to launch a $25,000 charity drive. The Society's undergraduate officers denied that they were Buchmanites, but the investigation went forward at President Hibben's behest, by a committee composed of faculty members and trustees as well as undergraduates.
What gave rise to the publication of Mr. Buchman's methods were reports from Waterbury, Conn., where known Buchmanites were among some 90 ministers and college students who conducted a revival there lately. Buchmanites stated that 50 or 60 of the speakers who preached from soap boxes on street corners were of their persuasion. Anti-Buchmanites have since protested that a much smaller percentage of the preachers were Buchmanites, that Buchmanism did not characterize the revival. The revival was planned and directed by one W. Cleveland Hicks, graduate of Trinity College, no Buchmanite. By definition, Buchmanism, which consists in private conferences between gospeler and proselyte, did not obtain at Waterbury, where the work was primarily with crowds at street corners, in factories, schools, shops. According to its promoters, the Waterbury revival was "adventurous religion . . . flaming youth . . . united impact ... a synthesis between the hand-to-mouth methods of the Salvation Army and the more reasoned approach of the Christian student movement and the best trained ministry in the country." The results: "The young people's societies of the various [Waterbury] churches find their attendance upon meetings increasing and a deeper spiritual tone pervading them."