Graduate-Manager Pender writes an interesting article on "Combination in Athletics" for the Bema.
It constitutes a resume and a forecast. According to Mr. Pender, Dartmouth's athletic history may be divided into three phases. The first began somewhere in the dark ages, with early attempts at organized athletics, and concludes with the dissolution of the triangular league, of which Amherst and Williams were the other two members, about the year 1900. The second period began triumphantly with the trouncing of Brown in football, an ambition long fondly, but vainly, cherihed until the century was turning the comer. After that the process seemed easy for a time. It was during the second period that Harvard invited Dartmouth to help dedicate the new stadium, was beaten by the up-country collegians, and thereafter remained on terms of athletic good fellowship for several years. Favorable dates with Princeton were another feature of this period. Dartmouth bloomed in athletic prestige and the athletic bank account swelled almost visibly.
All this came to an abrupt end in 1912 with the peremptory severance of football relations on the part of Harvard, and with Princeton's canny shifting of date from November to October. Thus began period number three, a gloomerous one, lacking in real competitive interest, and at the same time exercising a severely astringent influence upon the bank balance that had developed during the preceding era. The war and the A. T. C. combined to bring this period to a merciful end, and, with it, all athletic endeavor.
A fourth period seems now in process of development. Harvard, Yale and Princeton having, it appears, promised to love, honor and obey one another permanently, and to have nothing more than intermittent flirtations with any other college, some sort of league of wall-flowers seems inevitable. Columbia, Cornell, Pennsylvania and Dartmouth look like an unusually comely group. If they should get together the certainty of public interest in the event is beyond a doubt. And with real interest will come sufficient financial support. All in all, Dartmouth's present athletic situation may be looked upon as extremely favorable.
The trustees have voted to increase the College tuition fee from $140 to $200 per annum, at the same time abolishing the system of extra laboratory fees. This means a net increase of not far from $50 per student. It will not affect men now in College until year after next ; but freshmen entering in the coming fall will pay the revised rate.
This increase goes into operation none too soon. With its faculty complement more nearly filled than now, and with the necessity for re-assuming maintenance responsibilities long neglected, the College will vividly experience the meaning of rising costs. It is fortunate that the probable division of the Sage estate, the giving by the alumni through the Alumni Fund, and the recurring generosity of Mr. Tuck, are all converging to help meet the inevitable shock.
Later on the advanced tuition fees will come into play. For the time being they will be somewhat offset by material increases in the amount of scholarship aid offered to high grade students. The need of this has been clearly manifest. Dartmouth's scholarship list has been long but lean. An exceptional student might receive reward sufficient to cover tuition charges. For stilling the no less exigent demands of board and lodging there was little or nothing offered. There is no good reason for doubting that this fact has prevented some men of exceptional intellectual power but of limited resources from attending Dartmouth. They have been necessarily attracted to institutions whose scholarship system placed a premium on high attainment.
The new tuition charges carry with them very generous allowances byway of scholarship aid. The poor man with real brains may henceforth acquire as much money by achieving high rank as by cleaning dishpans. This is a distinct advance. But the scholarship funds of the College will not immediately stand the strain of it. Part will have to be taken care of by discounting tuition fees until such time as the gradual increase of scholarship endowments enables satisfying the demand from that source.
The emphasis of the Dartmouth College Alumni Fund this year is placed upon the number of donors. The College is one hundred and fifty years old: it has not only weathered a most trying period of stress, it has won notable distinction in the process. If ever in the history of the old place there was an appropriate time for the concrete expression of alumni loyalty that time is now. Every man, no matter how straitened his circumstances, has the privilege of giving to the Alumni Fund and of feeling that his gift really counts. That is a very real privilege, too. It seems incredible that any should fail to utilize it. 150 years; 6000 candles: each candle a token of the respect at least of an alumnus for his College!
Former Governor Rolland H. Spaulding is not a Dartmouth man. Until he became chief executive of the State he knew comparatively little about the College except by hearsay. But it was foreordained that, once he and Dartmouth came to close quarters, a mutual admiration must ensue. There is about Mr. Spaulding an honesty of thought and expression, a directness and clarity of vision that Dartmouth folk have liked to believe attributes peculiarly resultant from Dartmouth training. Apparently that training has no exclusive claim upon their development; but Dartmouth men recognize and respect them where they exist. By the same sign, those who possess them are quite likely to show partiality for Dartmouth.
Mr. Spaulding is giving Dartmouth a swimming pool as a token of very real esteem for the College. It will have to be an . excellent pool, because Mr. Spaulding's instinct and experience rebel at the idea of things insufficiently done. Dartmouth is, of course, delighted to look forward to securing so admirable and indispensable an addition to.its equipment: but it finds its delight greatly intensified by very genuine admiration and affection for the generous and unaffected donor of the gift.
