DARTMOUTH STUDENTS GUESTS OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING UNION
At the request of John Daniels, Executive Secretary of the English Speaking Union with offices at 345 Madison Avenue, New York City, six Dartmouth students were recommended by President Hopkins recently to be the recipients of certain courtesies and hospitality in England this summer as guests of the Common Interests Society of the English Speaking Union of the British Empire. This recommendation was made following the request of the English Speaking Union in England to the sister organization in America that a small group of American college students planning to travel abroad this summer be named for the privileges of the entertainment program outlined. This program will include some special gatherings, two or three long week ends in English homes, and other individual courtesies. This plan works hand in hand on a more modest scale with the Rhodes scholarships, the Henry P. Davison memorial scholarships, and other agencies to foster Anglo-American understanding. The Dartmouth men are the first to be selected and will be the pioneers who will test the feasability of the plan. "Upon them and their reception," said Mr. William Brewster Chapman, of the English Speaking Union, "will depend future action." The Dartmouth group is composed of L. B. Norstrand '23, of Greenwich, N. Y.; L. K. Neidlinger '23, of East Orange, N. J.; E. H. Learnard '24, of Newton, Mass.; J. D. Landauer '23, of New York City; A. L. Vincent '24, of Spokane, Wash., and R. B. Staley '23, of Denver, Col.
"Not only would it be difficult to name a more representative group," said President Ernest M. Hopkins of Dartmouth in submitting their names to John Daniels, executive secretary of the English-Speaking Union, "but I feel that it would be impossible to name a finer group even Had we the entire undergraduate body from which to select instead of merely that portion of it which is going abroad."
"Coming from various parts of the country, including the Far West, and representing not only Anglo-Saxon, but German, Scandinavian and Irish strains, they constitute a rather representative little group," said Mr. Daniels.
Touching on the plan, Mr. Chapman said:
"Both the students and the homes must meet the exacting requirements of the vacation visits committee. The length of time" spent abroad will be from six to eight weeks. Practically the only expense involved will be for transportation. This will be borne by the parents, but later it is expected that a special fund will be provided to pay a portion of this expense in certain cases.
"The thought back of the plan is that people do not really understand each other until they have seen each other at their best. Neither do nations. And the best in individuals and nations alike is to be found only within the seclusion of their homes.. No project aiming at the fostering of international amity reaches the heart of the problem until its crosses the threshold of the home."
Mr. Chapman said the project was unofficially favored by the State Department "because it is believed it will help to bring about a better understanding and a kindlier feeling between our country and England." He said the Department of Commerce regarded the plan in a like manner.
"Educators favor the project because of the very great educational value it will have for the students and the homes that are thrown open to them," he continued. "They also believe that it will arouse interest among students generally in the things we English-speaking people have in common and this in turn will have a distinct educational value."
Commenting editorially upon the plan, the Boston Transcript, of July 11, said:
"The despatch of a group of six Dartmouth students to England, where, under plans prepared by the English-speaking Union, they will spend several months of their summer vacation, marks the beginning of an experiment that may foreshadow the annual exchange of many hundreds of similar visits. For some years the exchange of students between European and American universities, if not exactly a common occurrence, has been by no means rare. The Rhodes scholarships, the fellowships of the American-Scandinavian foundations, and still more recently the Henry P. Davidson Memorial scholarship, have familiarized us with the idea of such interchange of selected groups of students. But the present scheme, though similar in its main purposes, marks a departure in method. The purpose is still that of broadening of mental horizon, of bringing before the young mind a type of civilization and culture different from his own. The purpose is still to broaden the bases of international understanding, and promote the cause of international good will. Instead, however, of using the university to this purpose, the present plan proposes to use the home, on the quite logical assumption that the home is no less faithful a mirror and an interpreter of the national genius. If an Englishman's house is his castle, it is equally true that here it is that he is at his best, and here it is that the spirit of England can best be found by strangers from beyond the sea. An American student at Oxford, Edinburgh, or the University of London may or may not penetrate the mask of English "exclusiveness," and get to know the English, not as casual acquaintances in the classroom, or neighbors at the college refectory, and know them as they really are. Here precisely lies the educational advantage of a fortnight or a month's visit in one or more English homes. Unless the Americans are a dull lot —and every care has been taken to select the ablest boys available—the six Dart- mouth men will return with a very fair idea of the spirit of English civilization. Such visits have long been common in Europe among those able to afford the time and such expense as may be entailed. Words-worth spent many months as a young man in a private family at Tours. French fathers quite commonly send their children to English or Italian homes for three months or a year; and before the war young Germans were to be found in many other house- holds than those of the Vaterland.
"If the plan is a success, the interchange will be made on a larger scale. Other colleges in addition to Dartmouth will be invited to participate. Nor will it be a one-sided affair. The plan calls, quite wisely, for the introduction of selected English students into American homes. In the last analysis it is just as important that young English men, or for that matter Frenchmen, Italians, or Spaniards, obtain a first-hand knowledge of American civilization as it is that our students should know how Europeans live, as they really do, and not as they live in story books. If anything, there is rather more misunderstanding of America in Europe than there is of Europe in America. It may take a visit-in a Massachusetts or a Connecticut
home to convince certain Europeans that Boston and Hartford are not in imminent danger of attack by Indians, and that the tomahawk is not really as dangerous as the careless automobilist."
