THE announcement
THE announcement, made May twelfth, that President Tucker had asked to be relieved of the responsibility of the presidency of the College came with painful suddenness to the alumni and friends of Dartmouth who had not known of the seriousness of his sickness, and the necessity for the request brought the keenest regret to all.
For many months it has been an exceedingly exhausting thing at times for Doctor Tucker to meet engagements which have involved public speaking, and more recently at increasingly frequent intervals, unusual effort of any kind has brought reaction from which recovery has been slow. The causes have not been plain until within a little time, and the President had,thought that he could go on in full vigor to the time which he had set for withdrawing from the work, in two or three years. Upon his return, about the middle of February, however, from an extended trip among the alumni associations, during which he was under a cons stant stress of engagements, he was seized with an attack of extreme severity. Later, the last of March, he was again subjected to a like attack from which he has not yet recovered, and a weakness of the heart action was revealed as the cause. Doctor Tucker immediately wrote to the Trustees, putting his resignation into their hands, to take effect at once, in the following letter :
To THE; TRUSTEES OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE:
For the last eighteen months I have been conscious of an undefined physical disability which has given me at times serious embarrassment, especially in meeting public engagements. The sudden and somewhat protracted sickness through which I have been passing has revealed the cause, namely, an impairment of the heart. My physicians advise me that I cannot expect to do further efficient executive work. I take the earliest opportunity to apprize you of their decision, and to place before you my resignation of the presidency of the College. I have long recognized the fact that there are no gradations in the work of a college president, in the way either of responsibility or of initiative. From the nature of the work there can be but one standard of efficiency. While, therefore, I anticipate by two or three years the natural time of my resignation, I do so with prompt and cheerful acquiescence in the law of all administrative service, which makes no provision for crippled leadership. I now return to my books from which I virtually parted company when I assumed the absorbing duties of the presidency. If it shall seem to you to be a useful service, and in other respects wise, I shall be glad to retain an informal connection with the College through one or more courses of lectures, open to seniors, upon the general subject of the Formation and Expression of Public Opinion in a Democracy.
I cannot put by these fourteen years of service, happy in their associations and inspiring in their purpose, without a word of grateful acknowledgment to those through whom the service has been made one of mutual obligation and delight — first to you for your steadfast and unwavering support, and then to the faculty, and to the students of successive classes, and to the alumni, each and all of whom have contributed everything in their power to the common end. With such co-operation no reasonable good to the College has seemed unattainable. The things which remain to be accomplished, very much larger than any which have been wrought, go over with equal incentive and hope to other hands. I count it a joy that, as I relinquish the position which you asked me as a graduate of the College to take, I may resume my place in the united and enthusiastic fellowship of our graduates to add one more supporting force to the work of my successor in the presidency.
I am, in constant esteem, Most sincerely yours,
W. J. TUCKER
The Trustees, upon receipt of this letter, with certain knowledge that Doctor Tucker could not again take up full work and that it was his strong wish to be wholly relieved of the burden upon him, turned unanimously to Professor Francis Brown '70, of Union Theological Seminary, and asked him to accept the position as President. It was necessary to move quickly in the matter, for Doctor Brown was under engagement to sail almost immediately, preliminary to a year abroad as Director of the American School of Palestine. In a letter to him, under date of April eighth, the Trustees said that in their opinion President Tucker's successor should be a man of broad scholarship and high intellectual attainments, who should know the history and traditions and the fundamental ideas on which the College rests, and who would be able to carry on and develop the general policies which had been so broadly established.
"In our belief there is no one who so fully possesses these qualities as yourself. We remember, too, that you are a grandson of the President who saved the College ,in another critical period of its history, — the son of one who gave the best years of his life to its service ; that you are associated with us as trustee and have knowledge of the College property and its financial needs. "We know that, as President, you will keep the College on the high. plane of its present efficiency.
"We ask you to consent to take the place now held by Doctor Tucker and carry on his work. We pledge ourselves to 'hold up your hands' and to co-operate with the sincerest loyalty in giving high and honorable success to your administration. We know that the pressure of other duties is upon you, but we believe that this call of the College for your service is so imperative as to require your acceptance.
"Let us add that we make this call and ask your acceptance with the solemn sense of our responsibility and your own and with absolute confidence that your acceptance will assure the future of the College."
Professor Brown replied on April twenty-ninth that after careful deliberation, and with painful reluctance, he found himself constrained to decline the call.
Portions of paragraphs in his letter are herewith quoted :
" I rejoice in the history of the College, its triumphs over difficulty, its recent phenomenal growth, its deep roots and its increasing power. My own intimate associations with it, personal and ancestral, are sacred to me. I recognize the magnificence of the opportunity and its demands of the best that is in the best man. The influence of the position and the conspicuous honor attaching to it are beyond anything that I have the right to expect. The appeal is of the most varied character, educational, religious, public.
" If then, I have reached the conclusion that this is not for me, you will understand that I find reasons on the other side of .no ordinary cogency. These reasons do "not lie in my sense of inadequacy for the task you propose to me. I feel this inadequacy, and Might have lent an ear to the misgivings occasioned by it; but you have yourselves taken the risk in extending the invitation to me. With the certainty of a less brilliant and sustained administration than that to which recent years have accustomed us—an inevitable certainty—and with the distinct possibility of failure, I should still not have felt justified in declining on this ground, when you have assumed the responsibility of asking me. It is not the weight of care involved, as such, which repels me, nor the glaring contrast with Doctor Tucker. Someone must face these things, and why not I, if otherwise the way were clear ?
"The reasons lie entirely in my connection with this seminary and in the work of my life as a student, hitherto, considered in relation to certain special circumstances of the present and the immediate future. My vocation as a Professor of Old Testament Studies has always seemed to me worthy of a man's ambition. It is, to my mind, not least important now, when old and untenable views are still dying hard, and some new views are wild and indefensible.
" But' much more than this. In the exercise of this calling I have come into association with a body of men of like mind, in what I have ventured to call in your presence a movement, having as its object the simplifying, broadening and deepening of the religious appeal to men. Each one of us, by this association,— which includes members of our Board of Directors as well as of our Faculty — becomes more than an individual person. Each contributes to the whole, but the whole is more than the sum of' its several parts. Difficult years of theological contest and misunderstanding lie behind us. Through the steadfastness of a group of substantial men we have weathered the storm, and are now face to face with an immediate opportunity far larger than we have ever known before. The time of fruitful service in our common enterprise is just beginning.
"Many firm, slowly-spun strands of connection, along which influence passes, religious, ecclesiastical, scholarly, and social, make me aware that my withdrawal now—even if my place were to be taken by a better man-would involve a loss to the movement to which we are all committed, such as I think it would be wrong for me to inflict. I probably cannot set before the eyes of anyone not personally involved the greatness of the issue as I myself seem to see it. I may even appear to you to be talking with large exaggeration of what we are trying to do here. But let me ask you to remember that I am not comparing the intrinsic importance, in the abstract, of the two positions. lam not faced with any abstract decision. I do not stand as one who has a free choice. If that were the case, you might have had my acceptance in the first hour of our conference. But I am here, a part of this movement, woven into it by the work and experience of almost a generation, knowing what it means, familiar with its demands, and deeply persuaded by its vital importance. Ido not call this a greater opportunity than the Presidency of Dartmouth; I only find in it, for myself, with my life so long intertwined with it, the superior obliga- tion. I do not venture to leave it. I believe I ought not to leave it. I have come to feel that I should be deserting a post of duty. I may, of course, be mistaken. I have not reached this result without a struggle. But this is my present conviction.
"And now, while there must of necessity be a time of anxious questioning as to who our leader shall be, I believe that, with the blessing of God, we shall find ourselves uniting on him before very long, and moving forward, with him, to the large fields of service which stretch before the College."
The Trustees then asked President Tucker to withdraw his letter, and to retain the presidency until time had been given them to find the right man to become his successor. The President acceded to their wishes and wrote under date of May eleventh :
To THE TRUSTEES OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE:
On the sixth of April, after the consultation of the doctors in regard to my present sickness, I communicated to you the result of their decision, namely, that owing to an impairment of the heart it would be impossible for me to continue in the full discharge of the duties of the presidency. It seems to me so essential that the duties of the office should be maintained in full efficiency that I placed before you my resignation. "Although", as I then wrote, "I anticipate by two or three years the natural time of my resignation I do so with prompt and cheerful acceptance of the law of all administrative service which makes no provision for crippled leadership."
My letter was sent to you confidentially in the hope that you might be able to announce the election of my successor at the same time that you announced my resignation. Acting under the urgency of my desire, you endeavored to bring about the result, but after earnest effort you found that this course was impracticable. You now ask me to withhold my letter, and to retain the general supervision of the College until such time as you may be able to give it over to my successor, without interruption to its work or policy. I had proposed, as you will recall, to retain an informal connection with the College by the service which I might render through a lectureship, but if in your judgment I can render a better service for the time being by continuing in partial executive work, I accede to your request. I shall be obliged, however, to act under the following definite restrictions—absence for the remainder of this year; and for next year or such part of it as you may require, exemption from much of the daily routine, and from public engagements. I need not assure you of my desire and purpose to co-operate with you in all of your immediate plans for the maintenance and advancement of the College, I see no reason whatever for any change in the policy which has heretofore governed your action, nor in the slightest abatement of your efforts for the strengthening, or enrichment, or increase of the inheritance which you have the honor to administer.
I am, In constant esteem and affection,
W. J. TUCKER
The present situation, therefore, is that President Tucker has recovered to the extent which allows him to accept the proposition of the Trustees and to retain administrative control of the College until a successor shall be appointed, if this can be done within a few months.
In all the grief which the imminence of the loss of Doctor Tucker as the executive head of the College occasions, there are none who do not realize how bountifully he has given from his strength for the advancement of the College, and there are none who will not find large recompense for this loss, if as is expected under the relief of laying aside his great work, he shall regain health in such measure that men of Dartmouth shall continue to learn from him and that he in turn Shall enjoy the fruits of his labors.
The Junior Prom Week at Dartmouth is an occurrence which, if not hallowed by years of tradition, has become no less definite and indispensable a part of undergraduate life than are Chinning Season and Commencement. It has an advantage over the other two functions in that while Chinning Season is essentially for the benefit of the Freshmen, and Commencement for that of the Seniors, Prom Week is for the whole College. Whether or no he entertains especially invited guests, every man is, in a sense, a host, realizes that he is, and does his share in the general extension of good-will and hospitality. Thus Prom Week becomes an educative force in our midst. Book learning is but a part of culture ; the development of the social graces is an almost equally important part. The comparative isolation which has made for the solidarity of Dartmouth and which has proved of value in the focusing of student attention upon the matter in hand, has at the same time worked a degree of hardship in its prevention of legitimate social intercourse.
Those who view Prom Week simply as a period of neglected recitations should accordingly realize that whatever the neglect at Dartmouth during a few days in May, it is as nothing compared with the distractions which continually tempt the students of other more centrally located institutions. In making full provision for this week of diversion the College will find the best solution of the problem of retaining the benefits of isolation while avoiding its difficulties.
The last few weeks have been a period of peace and quiet in athletics. The baseball team has found itself unable to rise above tradition or its own limitations, and the usual midseason slump has destroyed any chance of high ranking among the college teams of the country. It is plain that schedules have been too long and too hard, and they are to be shortened and lightened. Other changes will be made also, for there is no reason why baseball should not be played at Dartmouth on a grade with other games.
In track athletics the team has gone from good to better. The showing against Harvard was creditable. The dual meet with Amherst was most satisfactory. The New England Intercollegiate games gave Dartmouth a victory, decisive beyond all expectations. We are proud of the team.
The finishing of the two new dormitories, completing the row bearing the name of Fayerweather, makes appropriate calling attention of Dartmouth men to the life of this retiring and modest leather merchant, benefactor of American colleges. Feeling keenly the need of education, which had been denied to him, he planned from early life to do something for the advancement of higher education. How completely he succeeded more than twenty colleges will testify. The BI-MONTHLY publishes this month an article about Mr. Fayerweather, of whom too little is known. A fuller knowledge concerning the lives of the men who have given to our colleges would be an inspiration to faculties and students. A benefaction from a man to give to others that which he has lacked himself bears its own stimulus to high efficiency and imposes its own responsibility.
PRESIDENT WILLIAM JEWETT TUCKER, D.D., LL.D.
