COMMUNICATIONS

To the Editor, DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE

Dear Sir: A most interesting book has been sent the Class Secretary by Dr. J. G. Hayes of Williamsburg, lt is the expense account book kept with painstaking exactness by Nathaniel Hills of the Class of 1841 Dartmouth College. Nathaniel Hills was the father of Mrs. J. G. Hayes. After preliminary studies at Andover, young Hills entered Middlebury College, from which !he transfered to Dartmouth College, graduating in 1841. He kept a most accurate account of his finances, and we have a glimpse of expenses at Dartmouth College in those days.

The expense of making a suit of clothes was $6.00, boots cost $3.30. I remember that in 1869-73, a necessary part of the furniture was a boot-jack, for easy removal of boots, the boot-jack by the way, being almost always in sight. To proceed with expenses. The cloth for a coat cost for a vest $1.50, for trimmings $l.OO, for cutting the cloth $l.OO and for making $3.84. Total for the coat and vest $13.55½. And please note the half-cent for there was in those days a coin of that value. I have one in my coin collection. Among other excitements he attended an "Anti-Slavery dinner," the cost of which was 25 cents. His washing for an entire term cost $1.33. Board was not very high, costing him only "$1.27 per week." "Blair's Rhetorick" cost $1.50, "Watt's on The Mind" .42, and "David's Geometry," $1.25. An interesting item is "Quils" .8. How many quill pens were purchased for eight cents is not told, but even the fancy steel pen was a thing of the future. Possibly he was a leader of singing, as I note the item, "tuning fork .50." The next term board has gone up from $1.27 to $1.29 per week. Evidently eating clubs were conducted on the commissary plan as in my day. The political campaign was on, and he paid his assessment of 25 cents for "Tippecanoe Club" membership. Butler's Analogy was one of the text books as it was also in my own days. The item ' bosoms and dickeys .87 reveals that artificial camouflage in dress not uncommon even later. Is the bosom of the shirt somewhat soiled? He puts on a false bosom, clean and spotless, and the high dickey and cravat, and behold the well-dressed lad. In those days of anti-slavery agitation in New England, Hanover must have been an important station on the "Underground Railroad." The runaway slave, w'hen he reached Hanover, must have felt that he was getting close to the Canadian line and freedom. At any rate here is an interesting item: "runaway slave .50."

In those days students earned goodly sums by teaching school during the winter term. The Christmas vacation lasted six weeks, and students, who taught, were allowed a further extension, without making up the lost studies, of six weeks, giving the teacher a full term over some district school. So we have the item: "received for teaching school in Pelham 13 weeks at $2O. per month, $65.00. Just prior to graduation, Commencement in 1841 occuring in July, came items which must have filled his heart with joy. The long strain of college life, handicapped by constant effort to earn money to meet expenses, was over, and here are the receipts:

"Received for books, furniture, etc. $20.00 Received for commissary services 10.50 Received for collecting money of of the class 6.62 $37.12"

And so, with "sheepskin" in hand, the college life was over, and the entire expense of the four years, as he figured it, was $629.95!!

To the Editor DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE Dear Sir:

I have read with extraordinary interest your editorial entitled "Those Fraternities" in the August issue and am glad to avail myself of your general invitation to your readers for an expression of opinion with respect to the proposals of the Palaeopitus committee that all fraternities at Hanover sever their national connections and abandon their present fraternity houses.

I appreciate that as a non-fraternity man, I may be subjecting myself in the first instance to the charge that I belong to the "sore-head" class, and in the second instance, that'not 'having been affiliated with a fraternity, I am not able to intelligently judge of their merits and demerits. I dismiss the former of these insinuations by the statement that neither while nor since I was at college, have I ever had the least feeling of resentment that I did not belong to a "frat." Most of my best friends (including three out of four of my room mates) were fraternity members. As a matter of fact, before I entered college I had decided that I would not join a fraternity, if asked, as I abhorred then (as now), secret and ritualistic organizations. And as to the second charge, I feel that as a "non-frat" man who came in intimate contact with fraternity men, I am qualified to at least present a point of view.

That fraternities have some advantages ought to be freely conceded. Among their members, good fellowship and intimate social contact are engendered. But to me it has always seemed that these good points are way outbalanced by the disadvantages. And these may be in part summarized as follows:

(a) The "frat" men oftentimes while at college live pretty much in the small world of their own fraternity, rather than in the larger sphere of the college. Of course, they have contacts with the college,—they go to classes, they attend athletic contests, they are represented on the varsity teams (it is important to the prestige of a fraternity that it should be well represented on the athletic field,—particularly in the so-called major sports), and in various other ways their paths cross with the rest of the college. But in many instances, one cannot help but feel that the primary allegiance is to the fraternity rather than to the college and its student body.

(b) Again, fraternities tend to breed snobbishness and clanishness. We all know that throughout life, we encounter these undesirable twin sisters. Why should we grant them a fertile breeding place during the wholesome, but impressionable, college years? And I refer not only to the superiority complex that so often 'frat" men feel towards the "non-frat" men, but also to the fine shadings and gradings between the various fraternities.

(c) Fraternities also tend to bring into the college world, a spirit of politics that is not advantageous. Coalitions of certain fraternities in class elections are not infrequent. Even more regrettable are the combinations sometimes formed in the choosing of varsity captains, editors-in-chief, and the like. It takes a courageous youth to vote against a fraternity brother aspiring for high collegiate office. I wonder how often it has in fact been done.

(and) The segregation of the fraternity men in their own houses (whether such house is used as a dormitory or as an habitual "rendevouz," or both), is a defiant blow against all other efforts made toward the democratization of college life. It is bad alike for those who enjoy this so-called privilege, as well as the others.

With these firm convictions, I naturally applaud the report of the Palaeopitus committee and sincerely hope that its recommendations will be adopted. To my way of thinking, the suggested reforms are merely first steps toward a consummation devoutly to be sought,—namely, the scrapping and elimination of all college fraternities. It will take many decades to accomplish this. It usually does take a long time to break down deep-rooted traditions, and more particularly so when property rights are involved. But if and when this is accomplished (if ever), it is very earnestly submitted that a great step will have been taken to make college life even more wholesome and finer for those who are privileged to enjoy it.

Sincerely yours,