THE HITCHCOCK BEQUEST. SOME POSSIBILITIES

The Hitchcock bequest to Dartmouth College has received due publicity. It is generally known that, thanks to the generosity of the late Emily Howe Hitchcock, the institution has come into possession of some forty-five acres of territory, hitherto held as a private estate. No attempt has been made, however, to show the relation of this lately acquired property to the rest of the College lands, and no suggestions have been forthcoming as to the possibilities which this great benefaction entails. THE MAGAZINE has accordingly had prepared, and herewith publishes, two maps, one showing the lands given to Dartmouth College; the other the lands given to the Pine Park Association. And since it is in no wise bound by any official pronouncement, it purposes to let imagination ramble a little in this pleasant region.

The Pine Park acquisition calls for no extended comment at the present time. The acres along Rope Ferry Road may be maintained, as of old, as grazing or haying land, thus affording some slight income for maintenance; or they may be used in providing needed extensions to the golf links. The growing forests of the Vale are ensured against destruction, and will forever preserve Hanover's northern borderland of beauty. All this is highly important and most gratifying, since it bears directly upon the future popularity and prosperity of a village whose chief asset lies in its picturesqueness and whose fortunes are likely to prove most intimately bound up with the wise conservation of the gifts which Nature has so fully bestowed. Yet the policy of the Association must needs be that of letting well enough alone; for the present, at least, there is no call for extensive planning, or for the outlining of schemes for development.

With the property bequeathed to Dartmouth College, the case is quite different. Here is a great tract touching the very heart of the village, the very midst of the present college plant, and stretching thence, in ever-widening sweep, a full half mile to the Connecticut River, where it commands more than three thousand feet of water front. Opening from Main Street as smooth lawn of gradual westward slope, the contour of the land presently breaks into irregular terraces that descend to a narrow plain along the river. The bank here is less steep than at any other point for a considerable distance north or south and access to the water is easy. For years past a much-used foot-path has skirted the wooded eastern edge of this plain from the bridge, to the Ledyard Monument where it turns sharply up the gentle grade of Webster Vale and leads eventually to Webster Avenue. This favorite route of the pedestrian might readily be transformed into an unusually beautiful carriage drive providing a needed short cut to the northern end of our long and narrow village, and at the same time opening the entire territory to Dartmouth's development as perhaps the most gloriously-situated college in the country.

The cramped domain about the campus is already filled with buildings in double rank. East Wheelock Street affords abiding place for others; but at that, it was little more than chance that saved the newest dormitories from an unhappy marooning on the rocks of the College Park. When Eleazar Wheelock whittled his way into the unbroken forest and set up the first log schoolhouse on the Hanover plain, it no doubt appeared that there was plenty of room for expansion. The subsequent erection of Dartmouth Hall was expected to provide for all future needs of a wellfounded and successful institution. Gradually the village crept in upon and surrounded the College, so that, when the period of great growth began, belated wisdom was compelled to pay high for the elbow room that the founders might have preserved for almost nothing. And, as it was, growth outstepped prevision and such architectural unity as the college plant can boast is the result more of clever adaptation than of prescient purpose; in combinations of architectural and landscape effects, we are about as deficient as a board walk.

Now, possessed of a small empire already largely developed and beautified, and opening at its threshold, the College faces an opportunity of almost thrilling limitlessness. Its full realization may occupy more than half a century, a century even; the cost may be reckoned in the millions. But the time and the money should be the preoccupations of the future: the preparation that shall ensure their expenditure for successful achievement must be made now.

As has already been pointed out, the Hitchcock property gives readier access to the river than any other strip of land north or south within the village limits. Some day we may hope to see this fact taken advantage of: a granite retaining wall built along the bank, and above this, properly equipped boat-houses, a club-house with shaded terrace overlooking the water and therewith all the facilities for organized water sports, whose proper development will, in time, be the logical outgrowth of the activities engendered by the labors of the Outing Club and the wider athletic interests which may naturally be stimulated by the new gymnasium.

The possibilities of a highway through the property have already been touched upon; the combination of beauty and practical utility which such an enterprise might produce can hardly be overemphasized. No more delightful park than that afforded by these lower slopes of woodland, halting at the edge of river-fronting lawn and garden, swept through by a broad drive and penetrated by curving walks, could well be imagined. And it is through this that the actual approach to Dartmouth College should be made. Instead of the toilsome climb up river hill, treeless, dusty, its sides scarred by half excavated sand banks, its sheer acclivity pitilessly unenticing, — the tantalizing charm of curve and vista, and the final swing into the heart of things.

Dartmouth's need for buildings is not yet satisfied; it quite probably never will be. There are laboratory requirements still to be met. Some of the present dormitories have numbered days. Departments are expanding in size and importance, and require more room. As there is no art museum in the state, an establishment of the kind may sometime not be out of place in Hanover. A new library building is urged as an immediate necessity. There will surely be the need, and there is now the location, for a noble group of buildings nobly placed, and nobly approached. Why not see the opportunity now, view the future with courage and large vision, and assuming that what has been true of the growth of Dartmouth's prestige and power in the past, will be true of it in the future, prepare the plans that shall ensure against mistake?

The nature of the work will call for the best landscape and architectural skill that the country can furnish. Here the buildings must be adapted to the ground, not the ground to the buildings. A new harmony must be devised that is not out of keeping with the old. How is it all to be accomplished? Some years since, when a great university was being planned in the West, an architectural competition was opened to the world. The present situation hardly calls for so wide an invitation; yet, certainly, a variety of expert opinions would yield more suggestion than could that of any single individual, however skilful. What the cost of instituting a call for competitive designs would be THE MAGAZINE is not prepared to state. It feels confident, however, that no greater service could be secured to Dartmouth by an alumnus anxious for the long future of the College, than the providing of funds necessary to the complete and satisfactory study of the possibilities of the Hitchcock estate and for the drawing of adequate plans for guidance in their fulfillment.

The meeting of the Secretaries' Association scheduled in Hanover for the month of March will be, this year, of even more than usual importance; for it should crystallize into practical form the scheme for an alumni council. The Association acted wisely last year in sweeping aside questions of technical detail and approving the idea in its general aspects. It was in this general form that the matter was presented to the alumni at their June meeting and by them again approved.

Since then a competent committee has been at work upon details which it will present before the coming conclave of the Secretaries. It will then be the time to apply the utmost care and the most exacting criticism to those vital points of the scheme upon which success or failure will necessarily depend. Without prejudicing the issue before it is raised, THE MAGAZINE desires here to point out what seem the elements essential to the success of the enterprise. They are two: first, a responsible working head; second, a sure financial support.

The first is to be secured only through a regularly appointed alumni secretary who shall be the direct representative of the alumni, and whose function it shall be to keep the council as a whole, and in its various parts, fully informed of the needs and activities of the College. He should have direct oversight of THE MAGAZINE; the Alumni Catalogue; the business connected with alumni meetings, and the election of trustees; the collection of alumni funds and. the direction of such other activities as are now scattered about among various committees and self-sacrificing individuals.

The second is to be secured only through the operation of a recognized fund, to which the alumni as a whole shall contribute. The fund should be large enough to pay the salary and expenses of the secretary and, in time, to assist in carrying out those plans for the advancement of the College which the council may advise. It is not right or reasonable that a movement emanating from the alumni and designed to increase their participation in the control of Dartmouth should be supported by action of the trustees, that is, by appropriations from the usual income of the College. The truth of this will, no doubt, be generally recognized. The only ground for disagreement will lie in finding the method of raising the needed money. THE MAGAZINE believes that the Tucker Fund offers the material starting point. To be sure, it has already suggested the use of this for other purposes; but it believes that the fund has potentialities great enough to provide not only for a secretary, but for graduate scholarships and other things besides. Backed by a strong council, energized by the right secretary and supported by an alumni body educated by these two forces to a recognition of actual conditions,. the fund should, in ten years, yield an annual income of not less than twenty thousand dollars. Of course, the whole question will 'come up for thorough discussion before the Secretaries, and it would be unwise to enter into extended argument or discussion now. THE MAGAZINE is quite ready to shift ground in favor of other ideas and other methods. The present suggestions are merely byway of stimulating thought that may ripen into wise judgment when the time for decision arrives.

THE MAGAZINE announces a change in its editorial staff. Mr. Horace E. Allen, who has so efficiently conducted the department of "Undergraduate News" since the beginning of the year, having completed, in three and one-half years, the requirements for the bachelor's degree, will spend the coming semester in study and travel abroad. It will, therefore, be necessary for him to sever his connection with this paper. Mr. Allen has shown in his work for THE MAGAZINE the same conscientious dependability, thoroughness, and wise judgment of comparative values that has enabled him to complete his college course with credit in less than the usually allotted time, and to indulge, as well, in numerous undergraduate activities. He will be succeeded by Mr. Sydney A. Clark, likewise of the senior class. Mr. Clark is another man who knows how to use his time advantageously. In addition to maintaining excellent scholastic standing, he has entered into athletics, captaining the crosscountry team, and holding for two years a place in the track team. He is a member of the College Glee Club, chairman of the deputation committee of the Christian Association, and associate editor of The Dartmouth Magazine. His summaries of undergraduate news should prove both fair-minded and interesting.