A Unique Company

The present year bids fair to afford a further illustration of a fact oft stressed before; to wit, that the alumni of Dartmouth form a body virtually unique, in that their attitude toward their college is not the traditional one so frequently criticized by smart young writers in the press. The criticisms always exempt Dartmouth—though of course it comes hard to exempt anybody when one is bent on proving that an alumnus is a pestiferous fellow, interested in nothing but the sporting page, and condescending once a year at most to lend a meaningless lipservice to his alma mater at alumni "banquets."

Not long ago, according to a story which President Hopkins sometimes tells, he was asked abruptly by the president of another well-known institution whether he could honestly say there were even 25 of his alumni to whom he could talk of college matters aside from sports with any confidence that he would be given an intelligent and sympathetic hearing. The question was asked in good faith by a man who evidently felt he had set an impossible figure; but would the figure have been impossible even if he had set it at 250? In fact it would not be rash to think even more highly of our fellowship than that, for in the past 30 years we have been well schooled, as graduates of the College, by two very extraordinary men. As a result, the alumni of Dartmouth

mouth have attained a reputation, as a body, for readiness to respond to the call of duty such as we imagine few, if any, other and similar bodies have acquired or justified. This solidarity is perhaps the greatest asset the College has today, and to its steady maintenance this MAGAZINE devotes the chief of its efforts—not coveting sporadic outbursts of cheering, but valuing the capacity for sustained and enthusiastic service which thus far has been revealed.