The message of the College does not come to all with the same distinctness
The message of the College does not come to all with the same distinctness but all save the most obtuse grasp it in some form or other. To Professor Asakawa, whose address before his class appears in this number, and to many others as well, it came through the words and personality of Doctor Tucker. Doctor Tucker interpreted the spirit of the College. Professor Asakawa heard the voice and treasured its teachings. He now pays a personal tribute to a great educator and makes a keen analysis of character. To grasp the full significance of this paper or of any expression of the debt which the student feels he owes to his college it must be borne in mind that every one who thus draws on the store of his inspiration speaks for a score of silent but like-minded ones. As well as being an important contribution to our literature on men who have moulded the College, Professor Asakawa's article is a distinct encouragement and reason for optimism on the part of those who are giving their lives to the cause of education in its broader sense.
Ex-President William Howard Taft will deliver a course of lectures in Hanover during the second week in March. Arrangements have been made for these lectures, and the expense of them is borne, personally by the members of the Board of Trustees of the College. The timely thought and its generous fulfilment are both their own. Mr. Taft comes before Dartmouth men at a juncture in the world's history so big with possibilities that today's writing dare not concern itself with what may be read tomorrow. One thing, however, is sure: the end of the present war-will be but the beginning of problems. In their solution the men of the four classes now in College will necessarily be involved. Some as leaders, some merely as participating victims. The call of the coming years may demand an earlier assumption of responsibility by American young manhood than has that of the easy quarter century gone. It is well now to have introduction to great questions by such a man as Mr. Taft. He is honest and unafraid; he has experience and the judicial mind; he has optimism without lack of profound seriousness. If any man is qualified to speak and to command attention it is he.
The College is proud of its young alumnus, Ernest E. Just, of . the class of 1907, who has recently won the Spingarn medal. A man of high character and high intellectual attainments, he owes his record of achievement largely to qualities inherent. Yet it is none the less true that these qualities might have failed of their full development in any other college environment than that which he found at Dartmouth. It has been an unwritten, indeed an unconscious, tradition of the place to give the colored man a perfectly fair chance and to judge him like any other man. Possibly this is the reason why, in proportion to the total number of its graduates, Dartmouth has so many colored men who really count. Among the free hills of New Hampshire they have had untrammeled opportunity for the beginning of self-realization.
The number of freshmen dropped for poor scholarship at the close of the semester is probably twenty-five, making, within a fraction of one per cent, the same proportion of loss as that which was sustained last year. The number of men placed on probation showed a slight decrease. The number calling for slight discipline for lowscholarship was encouragingly small. Altogether the freshman record is looked upon by the Dean's office as very satisfactory. And the moral of that is, hats off to the fraternities. Comparative records of fraternity and non-fraternity standing are not yet prepared. Whatever they show, the fact remains that the fraternities have done well by their novitiates. One unwieldy delegation that, according to all the laws of probability, should have cracked wide open and disintegrated has been brought through intact. The result implies hard work on the part of upper classmen; but it has paid.
The possibilities for good which fraternities may exert have been demonstrated. There is, however, a story of a father who offered his son a dollar if he would sweep the stable really clean. The boy earned the dollar; but, having shown what he could do when he tried, was warned that in future he should meet the same standard, without pay, or else receive a licking. Having made so fine a record in conducting their pledged but uninitiated brethren through the perils of the first semester, the fraternities may be tempted now to take a rest. But how can they? Dreadful indeed would be the implications conveyed by the failure in the first semester of actual membership of those who had survived the presumable more trying period of novitiate.
The Outing Club officers deserve their fair meed of praise for carrying through their program without any marring accident. Their organization was sufficient to the demands upon it; though some of the men must have finished the week tired to the verge of exhaustion.
Withal, one thing seems quite clearly proved; and that is the wisdom of the faculty in voting the amalgamation of Prom and Carnival. Undergraduate protest against the action has been, very naturally, vehement. There was good judgment in making the legislation effective only after the classes immediately concerned had graduated. They could scarcely have been expected to view the situation altogether justly.
Carnival has already taken on the aspect of Prom, with its dances, big and little, its teas, its dramatic and musical performances. As with Prom, preliminary preparation, accompanying occupation and subsequent recuperation now effectually demolish a week's work for the entire student body, and more than that time for a considerable portion of it. It seems obvious that the authorities can riot, with any propriety, allow two such inroads upon the sequence of the curriculum. May Prom or Winter Carnival, one or the other must go. And with the alternative frankly faced there can be no doubt that Prom should be taken and Carnival left: and in the spring, instead of the a mad May time frolic, which involved the entire student body, there may well enough be week-end visits, and occasional house parties, giving informal and unorganized opportunities for seeing Hanover in blossom time, for experiencing the delight of canoeing in the river, and treading the violet interwoven carpet of the College park.
As things are now, it is not necessary in the spring to provide a great ball and a long series of indoor entertainments to make Hanover attractive. Let the whole month of May be visitors month, the time for bringing parents and friends to enjoy a breath of the open and to witness the interesting phenomenon of a College at work, —on the last lap of the year.
To the Reverend John E. Johnson of the Class of 1866 there has frequently been reason for expressing gratitude and appreciation. His giving has been constant, the objects of his generosity diversified. His chief interest, as is well known, has been the encouragement of the outdoor life of the students through the medium of the Outing Club. Here there has been manifest on his part the development of a well considered plan. The recent carnival, while not the culmination of this plan, completes its justification. Hanover was crowded with visitors; photographers and moving-picture men struggled for advantageous view-points; newspapers the country over, featured the event. Dartmouth's winter carnival has "arrived," and Dartmouth's unique possibilities for winter enjoyment, having received the seal of popular approval, will gain materially in local esteem. For so much of this the credit is due exclusively to Mr. Johnson that he might as well be given all of it. Not that he would accept it, by any means. At the close of a week of events for which he had provided virtually all the apparatus he signified his appreciation of the Outing Club's efforts by giving that organization a substantial check to help finance various future projects. The act was characteristic of the man.
There is sorrow to Dartmouth men in the taking of another of the group of its old-time faculty. Professor Frank A. Sherman's death removes a man not only well-known, but well-beloved. Dignified, self contained, steadfast in all his relationships, he was, to those who knew him as teacher, the pattern of fairness and accuracy. With him the qualities never degenerated into fussiness, they partook of soldierly discipline. Here, in considerable measure, lay the secret of his large influence upon young men.
As a citizen he was exemplary in the fulfilment of his duty. As a friend he was genuine, kindly, unfalteringly faithful. The fraternity which he had been a member of as a boy he served tirelessly as a man. The things which he achieved he never made matter of boast. He went his way quietly. For that reason he will be the more genuinely missed.
