ALUMNI OPINION

Although the ALUMNI MAGAZINE does not assume responsibility for communications published in this department, it welcomes a wide expression of opinion on all matters pertinent to the welfare of the College and believes that this should prove a very valuable clearing house for alumni opinion.

May 19, 1912

EDITOR. DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, Hanover, N. H.

DEAR SIR:

During the present college year there has come out a book of peculiar interest to Dartmouth men. I refer to "Free Will and Human Responsibility," by Dr. H. H. Home, of New York University. Its peculiar interest to Dartmouth men lies in two facts: First, it is dedicated to "The Dartmouth Spirit, in Philosophy, free, inquiring, and pragmatic, in Life, loyal, efficient, and practical." In the second place, is is written by a man whose whole effort' and life, while he was a member of the Dartmouth faculty, was put into fostering and developing this same spirit. Who has ever sat in his classes and not felt the industry, the breadth, the genius, the sympathetic and appreciative, as well as personal interest of the man!

The book is worthy the author. It is a clear, logical, fair statement of the grounds of both determinism and freewill. It summarizes the whole situation in the author's characteristic way and very definitely indicates his own position. Class discussions, students' viewpoints, lecture notes, outside readings, and other "impedimenta" of pleasant hours spent with Dr. Home in "Dartmouth" or, earlier in "Reed", are in evidence throughout the book.

To Dartmouth men who were "exposed to", and to those who "took" Philosophy with Dr. Home the book will appeal especially. To all Dartmouth men it will appeal for its spirit of fair-and open-mindedness as well as for its conclusion indicative of the free spirit of Wheelock, Webster, and Tucker.

Although Dr. Home is not a Dartmouth man in name he always was and is today as loyal to the "college on the hill" as any of her own sons. For this reason it has seemed to me only right to call your attention to this latest work, especially in view of the fact that it is dedicated to the spirit of Alma Mater.

Very sincerely,

EDITOR, DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, Hanover, N. H.

DEAR SIR:

Having just read in the April number of THE DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGZINE, an article, not signed, so probably written by the editor, concerning fraternities at the College, the ideas expressed have led me to write in a few words my very positive convictions conconcerning fraternities at Hanover.

The Aegis shows that nearly, or quite fifty per cent, of the undergraduates of the College are not chosen to become members of any fraternity.

This in itself, and viewed from a distance is not important, as no sensible person twenty miles from Hanover knows or cares whether a college man belongs to this, or that, or any fraternity, if only he is a real, true man.

But we, who have been through the College, know how much it means to a live, ambitious freshman, isolated and insulated in Hanover. All alumni know well that Hanover offers absolutely nothing in the way of wholesome entertainment or diversion, except what the College itself furnishes. Hanover minus the College equals almost zero— and there isn't a city or town offering anything better within fifty miles of Hanover.

If then the fraternities offer anything worth while, as they surely did thirty years ago, it surely is a great misfortune for fifty per cent of each class, for some reason which does not appear and which has not been explained in the Aegis, to be deprived of such benefits. Surely fifty per cent of each class are not unworthy.

One undergraduate explained the situation by saying it just gave a man a chance to look down upon others or to be looked down upon himself.

Dartmouth ought to be fair and democratic, and work for the best interests of all. And all seniors in any fitting school in the country from which men may come to Hanover should and shall know that fifty per cent of each freshman class under the present system are sure to be bitterly disappointed at the very beginning of a four years' life in Hanover. Conditions so unfair and unfortunate should not exist in any New England college.