MEETING OF DARTMOUTH SECRETARIES

On Friday and Saturday, March 13 and 14, the Dartmouth Secretaries held their Tenth Annual Meeting in Hanover. Sixty-three members of the Association responded to the roll call that opened the meeting. Luther B. Little '82 with the Executive Committee, had arranged a program which centered around three questions: the publication and financing of the Secretaries' Manual', the non-athletic undergraduate organizations; and the Alumni Council. The intense interest shown by the secretaries ner that at the tenth meeting, the Association found itself more capable than ever before of rendering service to the College in the field for which it was specifically organized.

The following full report is compiled from stenographic minutes of the meeting and may be considered authoritative.

Before the regular opening session in the Faculty Room of Parkhurst Hall at 5.30 on the afternoon of March 13, a special committee composed of H. E. Keyes '00, H. D. Foster '85, H. G. Rugg '06, and W. G. Knapp '12, met to discuss the manuscript of the Secretaries' Manual, which was to be presented to the Association in regular meeting.

Upon the arrival of the 4.37 train from New York and Boston the secretaries gathered in Parkhurst Hall, where, with the general greetings of the occasion, tea and sandwiches were served in order to bridge the gap between an early lunch and the annual dinner at 7.30 in College Hall.

Following the roll call, President Luther B. Little announced the following committees:

NOMINATIONS — W. D. Parkinson '78, C. A. Holden '95, E. H. Kenerson '03.

RESOLUTIONS — G. H. Moses '90, A. E. Watson '83, H. G. Rugg '06.

A committee was appointed by the chair to consider and report on the advisability of the secretaries taking action on the unification of names of alumni associations.

In order to leave the session of March 14 free for the discussion of scheduled topics it was decided to transfer some of the business to the afternoon session Friday.

When the report of standing committees was called for, C. H. Donahue '99, in behalf of the Secretaries'Manual Committee, stated that the Manual was now ready for editing and publication. The Chair appointed as an Editing Committee H. E. Keyes '00, H. D. Foster '85, and H. G. Rugg '06, which committee will serve with the original Secretaries' Manual Committee, composed of C. H. Donahue '99, H. D. Foster '85, and W. G. Knapp '12.

At this time the Secretaries were reminded that the financing of the Manual had been left by previous action to the Secretaries' Manual Committee, with power to act.

H. G. Pender '97 asked the Secretaries for any suggestion on how to increase the yearly subscriptions for the Tucker Alumni Fund.

J. B. Richardson '99 moved that the Secretaries' Association see that Doctor Tucker's article, "The Goal of Equality," recently published in the Atlantic Monthly, be published in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. The Chair appointed Mr. Richardson as agent of the Association to act with power.

THE DINNER AND SPEAKING

At 7 o'clock adjournment was made to the Commons, where an excellent dinner was served to the guests of the College. Such general satisfaction with the dinner was expressed that several of the secretaries remarked upon the excellent service and general management which Mr. Fairfield, the Comptroller of the Commons, had at his disposal for such occasions as the Secretaries' dinner.

The after-dinner speaking began with Mr. Little's interesting remarks, which concerned the ALUMNI MAGAZINE as a child of the Association that needed to be helped and aided through the efforts of the Class Secretaries. He pointed out that the ALUMNI MAGAZINE is one of the most important mediums of communication between the College and the alumni, and therefore it is necessary that each secretary urge upon the members of his class the importance of becoming a subscriber to this publication. After Mr. Little had impressed upon the Secretaries the importance of alumni vote for Alumni Trustee, he presented the unique idea, as tried by the class of '82, of having several classes nearest in years meet together for reunions. This proposition caused much informal discussion of a very interesting Some believed that it would be a good idea; others were rather skeptical as to its success.

Homer Eaton Keyes '00, Secretary of the Alumni Association and Alumni Council and Business Director of the College, brought home to the Secretaries in a very clear and incisive manner the fact that, while the College is primarily concerned with education and educational problems, it also has large local business functions which demand most careful consideration. Mr. Keyes outlined s ome of the problems of heating, lighting, housing, feeding, and general upkeep which confront the Business Director of a great educational, and therefore great physical plant, such as Dartmouth. He explained why the allotment of dormitones to reuning classes must necesarily be by the size of the dormitory and the size of the class, rather than by the preference of any one specific class or by the fact that any one class had on a previous reunion occupied a certain dormitory.

(NOTE.) The Secretary finds that from lack of material, he is unable to record the speech of W. M. Hatch '86 Ten Years of Association History! Mr. Hatch spoke of the increasing importance of the work that the Secretaries' Association had done over the period of ten years of its activity, emphasizing the establishment of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE and the organization of the Alumni Council.

Lester K. Little '14 spoke on "Undergraduate Organizations Other Than Athletic" from the standpoint of an undergraduate. He stated that this year the growth of the non-athletic organizations has been unprecedented in the history of undergraduate organization and development. He emphasized the achievement of the Dramatic Club, the remarkable development of the Outing Club, which has been especially fortunate because of the interest taken in it by the Reverend John E. Johnson of the class of 66, and lastly of the renewed and reinvigorated activity of the Christian Association under the able leadership of Wallace M. Ross '09, Graduate Secretary, and an exceptionally effective undergraduate cabinet. The Christian Association this year has established a Tutoring Bureau, an Employment Bureau, and a Lost and Found Bureau, by these means rendering a tangible service to the undergraduate body. It has, also, through its deputation teams, reached some ten thousand people in New Hampshire and Vermont.

E. F. Clark '01. Chairman of the Council on Student Organizations, explained to the secretaries from the College standpoint, the development of the non-athletic organizations, classifying the organizations that come under control under five heads: Musical, Forensic Union, Junior Prom, Outing Club and the Dramatic Association. He stated that the revolution in dramatics was due to two things: Robinson Hall and the untiring and extremely effective work of the undergraduate manager. He showed how the organizations had passed from spasmodic and unsystematic methods of control to systematic management. At the end of his" informal speech, Professor Clark asked the Secretaries if there should be alumni representation on the Council of Student Organizations, as there was on the Athletic Council.

Although President Nichols did not outline in detail any new or astounding policy, he fired his audience by that eloquent intensity and earnestness which springs from a conviction of purpose. That purpose on the part of Dartmouth College, as the President expressed it, is. the conservation and development of the nation's highest intellectual, moral and spiritual resources. The President said that Dartmouth is an historic college, that we are building here for a thousand years. Oxford and .Cambridge are historic colleges only because their graduates have made history. Such must be our ambition. Dartmouth men in the past have been history makers. Increasing numbers of Dartmouth men must be history makers. In order-to accomplish our purpose, then, we must first secure the exceptional men, the remarkable men, the intellectually ambitious men, for our undergraduate body; find .after we get them here we must set them on fire with our teaching, so that they may go out from the College carrying light into the dark places and highways of the world, in order to make life deeper and richer for their going.

At the close of the dinner C. P. Chase '69 moved that the. Secretaries send their heartiest greetings and expressions of affection to President Emeritus Tucker.

Professor Foster moved that the Secretaries' Association spread upon its records an appreciation of John King Lord's work on the second volume of The History of Dartmouth College.

SATURDAY MORNING'S SESSION

Immediately after chapel exercises on Saturday morning the Secretaries assembled in the Faculty Room of Parkhurst Hall for the last session of the conference. The first business of the day was the electing of officers for the ensuing year, as follows: C. H. Donahue '99, President; Walter S. Young '01, Vice President; W. Gray Knapp 'l2, Secretary; C. C. Davis '79, and Alfred E. Watson '83, Executive Committee; Homer E. Keyes '00, Editor ALUMNI MAGAZINE.

The Nominating Committee presented for candidate for .a three-year term as a member of the Alumni Council, Morton C. Tuttle '97, who was unanimously elected for a three-year term.

Report of the Committee on Resolutions. "The death, within the year of Professor Charles F. Richardson, and, more recently, of Professor Rufus B. Richardson, reminds us of the obligation of the College to these men for the unstinted contribution which they made to Dartmouth's traditions of manhood and scholarship during their years in their professorships here. This obligation we fully recognize; and by this record we seek in part to discharge it.

MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS

Committee on Resolutions:

This Association wishes to place itself on record as recognizing the General Alumni Catalogue as a work of conspicuous excellence and completeness, and of inestimable value to the Alumni of the" College and all others interested. We would further express our high sense and appreciation of the untiring, careful and successful labors of Professor Charles F. Emerson, who has unstintedly given of his time, painstaking care, energy and ability, to this work; and also recognize the assistance rendered by his associates in this labor.

The Association of Class Secretaries would here acknowledge the cordial assistance and cooperation of the College in its work, and the genuine hospitality extended to its members while here; and, in reciprocation, we believe that the same warrant, and should command our best, untiring efforts for the best interest of the College in every way possible.

Mr. Rugg spoke of the literary work of the Alumni, and Mr. Falconer in relation to the Conservation of Freshmen.

Report of the Committee on Unification of Alumni Association Names —MR. HOLDEN:

Voted that the subject of the unification of alumni association-names be referred to the Alumni Council.

Report by the Management of theAlumni Magazine — W. R. GRAY '04:

Mr. Gray made the suggestion that a definite scheme for increasing the circulation of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE should be inaugurated this year and that it was largely up to the secretaries to do so. Pie also presented to the Secretaries a financial statement of THE MAGAZINE account, which for lack of space is omitted.

Upon the suggestion of H. E. Keyes, Editor of THE MAGAZINE, it was voted that the office of Directing Editor be created and that Professor E. F. Clark '01 be elected incumbent to that office.

Voted that Mr. Harold G. Rugg be added to the editorial force.

Voted that the report of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE be accepted with the thanks of the Association for the services of its Editors.

Dartmouth Men in Teaching — PROFESSOR ADAMS:

Comparing the first four classes of the new Dartmouth: '97, '98, '99, and '00, I find that 18 per cent of the graduates of those classes are in teaching. Of the four classes, '07, '08, '09 and '10, there are 13 per cent of the graduates teaching. I think that it is true that we are gradually sending a somewhat smaller proportion of men into teaching as a whole. I have also made an investigation of how far we are training men for college work and I have gathered the facts there a little more fully .... I have compared the ten classes from 1870 to '79 inclusive and the ten classes from '97 to 1906 inclusive. When you get below 1906 our men are hardly yet in a position for college work. I was surprised to find that the percentage was just the same. The classes from 1870 to '79 have sent five per cent into college teaching. The classes from '97 to 1906 have sent five per cent of their men into college teaching. I am interested to know in what departments the men have gone into college work from Dartmouth, and I have taken as a basis for investigation the years 1894-1906. I find in those thirteen years we have 69 men in college positions, in the following divisions :

English 10 Physics 8 Economics and Social Science Engineering 7 French, including Some other Romance Languages 1 Mathematics 5 German 3 Astronomy 3 Pedagogy 3

The reason why we are only just holding our own in the percentage of men going into college work is a little difficult to decide. We certainly are fitting men very much better for universities. We are turning men much more naturally toward universities than before. I take it that it is simply that the general training of the College is leading away from teaching today and that it has taken all our extra exertions to keep the men in it. Of course it is a matter of common knowledge that in the earlier Dartmouth, the teachers in the common schools, public schools, were very strong. Dartmouth was very strong in that particular, especially in New I don't myself believe "hat it was due to the fact that the College was different. The fact was that the men were of just the type needed to make teachers at that time. In those davs the opportunity in business was very poor and the opportunity in teaching was the one thing for a man who could not afford to study. We are sending out men somewhat younger today, men of somewhat less strength perhaps, as having come from different surroundings. The opportunity in business is quite as good as the opportunity in teaching at the start. I don't know what the lesson of all this is for you, lam sure. I should say that one is that if the Alumni want to make teaching an honored profession among the undergraduates you can see to it in your own community that the teacher has something like proper compensation. The teacher of today has no sort of compensation as compared with that of his classmate in business. If he has a family he cannot lay up anything for old age. He is in a very hard position. I don't think any man here would care to see his own son take up teaching. Another fact which of course we all have in mind, entirely on another line, a real service that the members of this body can do for the College, is to see to it that where vacancies occur, Dartmouth men be presented for the place so far as possible. A very great work can be done there, of course.

The Conservation of Freshmen — MR LAYCOCK:

I suppose that talking about the conservation of Freshmen would naturally turn the minds of the members of the Association immediately to the lower quarter, fifth, sixth, tenth of the class, but I want to impress upon the men here first that the attention which is being given to the Freshmen today has in the very forefront the importance of looking out for the men who are in the middle or next the top of the class. We think that a man who is able to get 75 or 80 in his work should be moved toward getting 85 or 90. But your interest, I have no doubt, as is generally the case among the alumni of the College, is particularly with the question as to how we are handling the men on the lower end.

Three years ago Mr. Tibbetts, the Registrar of the College, began an investigation in order to find out so far as possible what did happen to men who came to College and during the first semester failed in two or three of the subjects and the result of that investigation was really astounding to most of us. We found that we didn't graduate more than one out of ten of those failing in three or more subjects. That suggested to the Administration that possibly we were not doing our duty with that kind of man; that we were losing too large a percentage; that there might possibly be some way of waking up that kind of a fellow that he might be saved to finish and get a college degree Whenever in the first semester a man who is attending the College fails in three subjects out of five, he is sent home. Whenever he fails two out of five he is put on probation. If in the next semester he fails two out of five again he is sent home. Now we are already finding out just how that is working out for the man. Two years ago we separated, in round numbers, just under sixty; a year ago we separated just over forty; this year we separated just over twenty. And in every case the standard of judgment has been exactly the same. There is something changed somewhere. It is not the standard of administration. After a man has been out one semester he must show to the Committee on Administration that he has been doing something worth while. Some of the requests for read-mission are pretty interesting history. A man says "I have been working in a cigar factory," and he brings the recommendation of the manager of the factory showing that he has been faithful. Another man works in a laundry, another man works as a street car conductor, and so on down the list. Of the. men who have returned to date we have only lost one out of ten. Well, now, that is worth all kinds of discipline. If we are going to conserve Freshmen, if we are going to save them, then we have got to have something like straight backbone There are no exceptions. I don't know an exception. If a fellow can't pass two-fifths of his work in college there is something wrong. What are we trying to do to overcome it? Well, the Class Officer is giving about four hours a day during the first semester to following up the Freshman. Advisers are giving time to little groups of six, seven, eight. We have a Tutoring Bureau, started by the Christian Association. We have also men who are going out as members of the Senior Class and helping whenever they get a chance and the group of them this year has done splendid work in just that line. They can find out anything they want at the Dean's office, and they come and they get it and then they go out on their own account and say, "What's the matter with you?" and they find out more than I can ever find out.

One thing to remember is that Dartmouth College never "flunks out" a man. It is the fellow himself that "flunks out," and we make a record of it, that's all. We put it down in the books. Remember, therefore, that there is a certain minimum of requirements in Dartmouth College today that a man has to meet or else he can't stay, and don't encourage a man to come to Dartmouth unless he is somewhere near properly fitted. When he gets here he is going to have every chance that a man can have to succeed, and then if a fellow can't live up to the standard, unless you get some new officers, that fellow is going right out.

The Alumni Council — EBNEST M. HOPKINS '01, said in part:

Dartmouth is becoming a widespread college; its ramifications run into the uttermost corners of the United States; and yet, for the purposes of trustee matters, it. is absolutely necessary to have trustees within striking distance. But on the other hand we are having in the west an increased proportion of alumni eager to be represented in the College; eager to send men on to the College, and eager to have avenues of approach to the College open to them at all times. So if this situation is to be met, as we think it is beginning to be met, what Dartmouth needs most of all is to get into touch with the alumni who are remote from it. Now men are remote in different ways. Men can be remote because of physical distance or they can be remote in years or they can be remote in spirit, and the real province of the Alumni Council is to do away with that remoteness, whatever it may be. On the other hand you need very greatly to get in touch with that large group of the alumni who are remote because of their interest which they hold in the College being confined simply to the interests of their undergraduate life. Too often that man feels that any departure from, the circumstances of that time is a vital infringement of the traditions of the College

Harvard is a close corporation at the present day. Yale to all intents and purposes is a close corporation, and Princeton, I believe, with a permanent board of twenty-five trustees gives twelve to her alumni. But Dartmouth has established the principle that the alumni have a right to half the Board of Trustees. Five of the Trustees are elected by the alumni. But that, to come right down to bed rock, shuts out the possibility of electing a man to the Board of Trustees from a constituency outside of the College. . . . Dartmouth deliberately this shuts herself out to an extent from the outside environment and brings herself back to dependence on her own alumni body. But it is necesary for us to take definite steps that the alumni support should take the place of anything that we have lost under this method of control. And there are any number of things of this, sort that come back to us as a definite responsibility.

The argument is going to be increasing made, I believe, that the College should take what the public school system offers and what the preparatory school offers and do the best with it possible. But this is only a detail. The feeling has been prevalent throughout the alumni that the men of the West are required to put in more effort than men of the East. The feeling has been that they are not in the avenues of approach to the College. Now I have a number of times stated two or three sets of statistics that I think are very impressive along this line. Dartmouth is apt to compare herself with Harvard in these cases and Harvard has double what Dartmouth has. Disregarding the men from Boston and its vicinity who are enrolled in the two colleges there are at Harvard 990 and we have at Dartmouth 798 men, from the rest of the United States. In other words, immediately you get away from what are practically the day scholars, you have at Harvard only 192 more men distributed through the United , States than you have at Dartmouth. On the other hand, Yale is very much more distinctly a national college and a much more close comparison could be made between conditions at Yale and at Dartmouth. But if any man comes to Dartmouth it has got to be with very deliberate effort and when he gets here there is a very limited amount of scholarship aid, and there is not the same opportunity for self-support. The opportunity exists for Dartmouth to do a work such as has been done by no college in the country. The opportunity exists to constantly build upon the western constituency and make the College the true national college. . . . . You will find if you undertake to discuss with any group of college men the real college, that is, what constitutes the real college, a very varying opinion. You will find a considerable number of men teaching in colleges who will say that the college is really in the last analysis, the faculty. Legally the trustees are the college, and there can be no question of that. On the other hand, if you discuss with almost any undergraduate, and particularly if you read the undergraduate publications, you will find that they consider themselves the college. So that whole question of what constitutes the college arises again and again and again and the answer to it must be made tactfully, but it must also be made clearly. The trustees are the college and the alumni are the trustees.

The question has got to be handled in some way of what the alumni influence shall be upon the undergraduates. The point of contact has got to be found that the alumni and faculty may strive toward the same end. The underlying necessity in the whole thing is that the man who comes to Dartmouth College for his undergraduate training shall be given -the best education possible and that the man who graduates from Dartmouth College shall have the impression of the best college in the world. It is toward that end that the Council proposes to work.

Class Funds — MR. EMERSON:

. . . . It was felt that the Class (1900) wanted to make a consistent effort and an effort in which all should join to give something to the College in a substantial form. It was decided then that a trustee should be elected from the class who should have charge of the collection of this fund. It should not be the duty of the class secretary but this trustee should collect the funds. Then it was decided that no mention should be made of any specific purpose for which the sum should be raised, but that at our twenty-fifth reunion the fund should be presented to the College for some purpose which should then be decided by the class. The total for every individual member is $77, and with the number which we have in the class it would seem, pretty sure that the amount we want to raise, even if we depend upon this proportion alone, should be reached, that is, $10,000.

Professor Foster then spoke on the relation of class funds to other alumni funds. He emphasized the need of contribution to each for different reasons.

Alumni Fund — F. A. HOWLAND '87:

I have seen and visited and talked with some of the men who have been vitally interested in the collection of the Yale Alumni Fund. That fund was started in 1895. For several years they groped around in order to find the best way in which to get that money out of the alumni body. Finally they hit upon a plan which has worked so sue cess fully that they have followed it to the present day and have found no occasion to modify it. They found in the first place that the only way to get a general subscription out of the alumni was to have a class agent, that the class method of collecting funds was the method which was most efficient. So while the classes, some of them, gather funds in their own way, still the class agent in those same classes gathers money from the men who are more affluent Their receipts last year were not so large as the year before, but they received paid subscriptions amounting to $79,000. They have at Yale about seventeen thousand graduates as against our forty-five or forty-six hundred, — something less than five thousand, but I think with the exercise of proper energy, proper activity and through a proper appeal, that we ought the first year to raise at least twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars for Dartmouth College.

Report Made by W. Gray Knapp '12, Secretary of the Association