FOR MEMORIAL FIELD

Editor of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, Hanover, New Hampshire.

Dear Sir:—

Last fall a distinguished representative of the French people journeyed to Hanover at the request of his Government to present to the College a trophy indicative of the esteem in which that nation held the services performed for it by Dartmouth men during the late war. Amid the shouts of the student body, pulling it from the Campus, a well preserved camouflage painted 75 mm. gun and caisson came to rest in front of the Alumni Gymnasium as the acclaim of the students and townspeople burst into a roar, culminating in a salvo of thunderous Wah-Hoo-Wahs. In the quiet which followed, M. Casenave, Plenipotentiary Extraordinary, French High Commissioner to America, stated simply and sincerely the feeling and appreciation of the French for the College, and the desire felt by them of expressing in some way their gratitude for the extreme sacrifices incurred by Dartmouth men in their cause; President Hopkins replied briefly, indicating the pride of the College at being so singly honored. The impressiveness of this ceremony, occurring under an intensely blue October sky, beneath which the brilliant autumn foliage of the surrounding hills shimmered in the sunlight like massed colors and standards, broken here and there by groups of pines showing the real Dartmouth color, could not have been lost on anyone present.

I do not know how much attention is to be given in the final plans to the purely memorial part of Memorial Field or how much artistic effort will be expended on anything other than bronze tablets of names, which will most certainly be incorporated in it somewhere. Information released to date regarding both the definite and tentative ideas has indicated merely the rearrangement of the Oval to insure greater facilities for athletics and quite rightly has been occupied with such immediate affairs as the drainage system, more tennis courts, and the football stands. We may assume that the proportion of money expended in the fundamental and useful parts will be greater, but the mere presence of Edward Tuck's memorial to Dick Hall, temporarily resting, if I remember correctly, on the brick wall opposite the proposed entrance to the field, reminds us that eventually provision will be made for it and opens the way for discussion as to exactly what form the Memorial part will take. Inasmuch as that part may not yet have definiteness in the minds of the committee, and will of necessity not be completed for some time, I do not wish to do more than offer this suggestion: that some provision be made there for the gun where it will properly take its place among the tributes to the Dartmouth men who save their lives and that a bronze tablet with a suitable inscription be prepared to be attached to it.

In making such a proposal I voice the feeling of many of the younger alumni who returned for the recent Commencement. Those in particular who had seen service with artillery organizations were keenly aware of the general deterioration to which the gun necessarily is subjected in the open. Without the constant care such a piece would receive in the service it ought not to remain indefinitely exposed to the wasting effects of the elements. Ordnance has advanced a great deal since the Civil War, and unlike the guns of that period those of the present contain delicate and complicated mechanisms for sighting, for traversing, and,; in the breech, for firing which need constant care if they are to be preserved.

I suppose that the chief commemorative interest of Memorial Field will center in its gateway. I wonder if provision could not be made there for the sheltering and exhibiting of this trophy, presented by France and won by our men through sacrifice more poignant than is represented by any trophy hitherto acquired by us. I therefore propose it to the alumni and the committee for their earnest consideration.

Very truly yours, New York, July 14, 1921.

628 Sunnyside Ave., Charlotte, N. C. June 22, 1921.

Editor of DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE:

Dear Sir—A Cornell man called my attention to a scheme that the Cornell alumni are to vote on, and which is already in use at Williams, Michigan, Vassar, and Mt. Holyoke. The plan is to have four consecutive classes come back1 the same year, so that one can see men whom he knew in college outside of his own class. It strikes me as a mighty good arrangement, for there are a number of men in the classes from '15 to '19 whom I would like to see as much as my own classmates of '17, and a man is not especially interested in classes separated from his own by five or ten years. I am enclosing a copy of the plan, and would like to have it mentioned in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. It would give any interested alumni a chance to think about it, and possibly start something in that direction. Reunions are often the only chance a man has of seeing many of his old friends, and there are several outside of my own class that I would like very much to see again, and the above plan would furnish the opportunity.

Hoping you can find space in the MAGAZINE for bringing this plan to the attention of other alumni.

Very truly yours,