Most of us have been vaguely aware of the existence of something known as the "alumni alcove" in the College Library.

Few of us, however, have ever investigated its contents with any degree of thoroughness or have stopped to consider that they represent, perhaps, the best thinking of Dartmouth men for nearly a century and a half. The library authorities are desirous of bringing together in the alcove a complete collection of the writings of the alumni. At present there are numerous unfilled gaps. Professor Clark's article in another part of this issue of THE MAGAZINE is, accordingly, very timely. It should serve to rewaken interest in a half forgotten thing, and to remind the writers of books that they owe a duty of replenishment to the goodly fellowship of tomes already assembled.

Next fall's football schedule, presenting as it does a series of games which, while assuring the interest of the spectators, is calculated to develop the team to the best advantage, is the most satisfactory in years. The alumni as a whole will, no doubt, take particular pleasure in the reappearance of engagements with Princeton and Harvard. While Princeton is a comparatively recent rival of Dartmouth, the relations between the two institutions have a basis of reasonableness that should work for permanency. Colleges of nearly equal size and having, in consequence, about the same amount of available material from which to draw, are likely, in the long run, to play each other on nearly equal terms and with the issue always sufficiently in doubt to give zest to the struggle. This certainly has been true of the series between Princeton and Dartmouth: the games have been fierce but clean; and each college has won just enough to ensure confidence, and lost just enough to awaken doubt. This is really the ideal condition for genuine rivalry, for it is born of actualities and not of theories or traditions.

The game with Harvard is a somewhat different thing; for our relations there must be considered those of neighborly good fellowship, rather than of rivalry. The ties that bind Harvard and Dartmouth are, in many respects, those of cooperation; the great majority of Dartmouth men who pursue graduate studies do so, as a matter of course, at Harvard; while Harvard men have always found ready welcome in the faculty of Dartmouth. No college, further, has more fearlessly and honestly than Dartmouth put into actual practice those worthy theories of sportsmanship which Harvard enunciates. The .place which Dartmouth occupies upon the Harvard football schedule is largely due to a recognition of these things. With the constant and obvious increase of efficiency in Harvard's management of athletics, no sane individual will expect the smaller institution to beat the larger with any regularity. The attractiveness of this annual contest lies in other things than the mere hope of victory.

The Amherst alumni have asserted themselves in an unusual way. At its twenty-fifth reunion at Amherst last June, the Class of '85 appointed a committee to investigate conditions governing the progress of the college; more recently it has embodied the findings of this committee in a series of recommendations to the trustees. Reduced to lowest terms, these recommendations are as follows : (1) that Amherst College shall restrict its curriculum within the limits of a modified classical course, (2) that the enrollment of students shall be limited; (3) that Amherst shall devote all its means to the indefinite increase of teachers' salaries.

The reader will note with feelings of mingled pain and surprise that in these suggestions there is no hint for improving the athletic prowess of the institution, no word as to the relation between intercollegiate contests and academic reputation. On what basis can these gentlemen from Amherst defend the ignoring of issues that to so many are considered of paramount importance ?

Yet granting the seriousness of this omission, the recommendations are not without interest. Though it does—not sound so, the first of them is quite revolutionary, for it is a specific application of the general principle that a college should have a well defined policy, should determine its proper functions and should then bend all its energies to the task of fulfilling them. The inevitable corollary of such a course must be limitation of enrollment; since the more definite the end to be achieved, the more essential becomes the requirement that the degree, when granted, shall be a certificate of fitness and that it shall be awarded to no one who does not fully measure up to fixed standards. At present the. American college diploma is a generally untranslatable document indicating mild approval of what has been; it presages nothing with regard to future performance and is as frequently a token of absolution as of preferment. If Amherst can arrive at the point where her diploma will be widely accepted as a guarantee, she need have no fear as to her position in the college world, or out of it.

The recommendations further recognize the necessity not only for procuring the best teachers obtainable, but for improving the breed of teachers as a class. It can be small satisfaction for a college to realize that, while other institutions can call its professors, it can not, as a general rule, either secure or keep the best. That this is the situation at Amherst is, however, frankly stated. The remedy is the obvious one of raising salaries to the point where Amherst can compete with her rivals in the field. But this is not enough; says the report, "an increase of a few hundred dollars in the salaries of teachers may slightly diminish the hardships of a position which is too often humiliating .... The great public necessity, however, is that some steps be taken toward establishment of new standards of compensation."

The "Amherst idea," as it may well enough be called, has attracted wide attention throughout the country. Theodore Roosevelt devotes a long editorial to it in a recent number of 'The Outlook. There would be no need to dwell upon it here except for the sake of pointing the fact that the problems which the alumni of Amherst are trying to solve are either now or later to be faced by the alumni or the administration of every college and university in the country. Dartmouth faces different aspects of them today: there are certain peculiar qualities of this institution that make for the belief that it has a real excuse for being: but what are those qualities and how can they be intensified to the ensuring of their perpetuity?

What about the Dartmouth faculty? Proud as we may be of the fact that many of its members have loyally put aside the allurements of a higher salary elsewhere, it must be confessed that, in general, what is true of one college is true of another. The frank statement of the Amherst recommendations takes on a certain unpleasant significance when we realize that Amherst salaries are higher than those of Dartmouth.

What, finally, of the Dartmouth degree : shall it be positive or negative ? The spirit of fraternal helpfulness has been a notable characteristic of Dartmouth men in college and in after years. As the College has grown the possibility of imposing upon this spirit has increased. The Dartmouth alumni have for generations constituted what has been closely akin to a free masonry bound by something almost as sacred as a vow. The diploma of the College . gives admission to this order: what shall be the conditions governing its bestowal? The decision should not lie solely with faculty and trustees.

These are but a few of the live quesitons that may properly come before the alumni for answer. Some of them are of a nature to benefit by discussion in public print: some are better reserved for consideration by a deliberative body. Unorganized talk avails very little; and organization without authority may at times fail in the performance of most unselfish and praiseworthy acts. The time has come when Dartmouth needs an alumni committee large enough to be widely representative, small enough to be efficient ; which shall have authority to investigate what needs investigating, to initiate what needs initiating; which shall provide, even on the outposts of Dartmouth's alumni groups, a man who knows the facts and can present them to his fellows.

The constituting of such a committee was mooted at the meeting of Class Secretaries a year ago: it will come up for final action at the approaching meeting in March. Entirely aside from other considerations, the single fact that so important a matter of alumni policy is to be decided should ensure full representation from classes and from associations.

Varium et mutabile semper Hanover weather,—weather anywhere for that matter,—but if it ever comes anywhere near being definitely anything in particular, the time is early February. Prom week in May has been shifting about in search of the assurance of blue sky and balmy airs and has generally struck either snow squalls or thunder showers that degenerate into dreary, long-drawn drizzles. For the winter carnival, however, February brought two feet of snow to cover the barren bones of January; then swept the heavens clear and set the world a-glitter. February, if caught young, can generally be counted upon to do the same thing year after year. The prospect for continued success of the winter carnival is therefore bright. To the members of the Outing Club, who organized and carried through the interesting events of the two days of winter sports, with their attendant evening gaieties, all honor is due. They have seen and turned to pleasurable account a climatic condition that makes Dartmouth unique among eastern colleges, and have indicated the really splendid possibilities which the sometimes maligned Hanover winter holds in store for all but the hibernating sluggard.