Dartmouth in the New Deal
IF WE RECALL our psychy with any certainty, we recognize the fact that Len White's family probably is responsible, and yet—if there's anything to the theory that the old daily grindstone has something to do with it, Len comes honestly by his grey hairs. What we mean, this distinguished Nineteen-Fourteener has packed a heck of a lot of work into his forty-three years. Before the class is dismissed we expect to disclose many of his attainments, but for a complete record,we refer you to the compendium of what's what in achievement Who's Who. As your finger moves down and across the lines of fine print under WHITE, LEONARD DUPEE, you will perhaps share our feeling that the grindstone, as much as the family, has been responsible for his early grey hairs.
Dartmouth is happy to have supplied the impetus to achievement of the kind itemized below his name. From a summarization of the items it may be deduced that Len White is an international student of the science of government. The career that had its inception in a political science classroom at Dartmouth finds itself at a temporary halting point today in the blocksquare building which houses the United States Civil Service Commission. Temporary because we somehow feel that White's job as a Commissioner is but a stepping stone to greater achievement ahead. Had it not been for the friendly advice of Professor Frank Updyke, in whose poli-sci class White was enrolled in 1913, this Republican might never have been appointed by a President who is a Democrat.
UPDYKE SUGGESTED that during the summer months between his junior and senior years White seat himself at the feet of Professor Charles E. Mirriam, eminent scholar in the field of political science, at the University of Chicago. Updyke's suggestion proved to be one of the directing influences of White's life—Mirriam, as had Updyke, recognized genius about which the world was to hear more in later years.
White took his master's work in poli-sci at Dartmouth, receiving a degree in 1915. For three years thereafter he was in instructor in government at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, taking time between classes for special work at Harvard. In 1918 he returned to Hanover where he remained until 1920 as an instructor and, later, assistant professor of political science. Now came the call from Mirriam and the University of Chicago where, in 1921, he took his doctor's work, and where he has been professor of political science for more than a decade.
Between 1921 and March 26, 1934, the date of his appointment to the Civil Service Commission, White has overlooked no opportunity to extend his knowledge of government. He has raked the field both at home and abroad. Under a Guggenheim fellowship in 1927-38 he studied the English civil service system, the results of which were published in book form. He is a vice-president of the Congress Internationaledes Sciences Administrates, an organization which includes the highest administrative officials of the various nations of the world. He is also a member of the Institut de Droit Public.
He thinks that his most interesting work was done while he was chairman of the Citizens Police Committee of Chicago in 1929-30. A joint Committee, representing Northwestern and Chicago Universities, was invited by Mayor William (Big Bill) Thompson to study the police department and make recommendations for its improvement. Chicago Police Problems, a re- port of the committee, was published as a result of the study. Soon thereafter the chief of police was discharged; a second appointed and discharged; a third appointed who put many of the committee's recommendations into effect. White readily admits that there is still plenty of room for improvement, but declares that from an engineering point of view—communications, squad cars, records—Chicago's police system is above reproach.
A FTER CAPABLY AND honorably discharging the duties of his office for fourteen years, George Wales died in September, 1933, leaving a Republican vacancy on the United States Civil Service Commission. Four years association with newspaperwork and newspapermen in Washington has equipped your interviewer with some, admittedly slight, knowledge of how the political wheels are turned. Why and how was White appointed to the Commission? Probably: a list of ten or a dozen peculiarly well-qualified men was laid on President Roosevelt's desk. Friends of each urged his appointment. White's name was on the list—who backed him? Certainly Charles E. Mirriam of the University of Chicago. Who was Mirriam's best Washington contact? Probably the Chicagoan, Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, a man held in highest esteem by President Roosevelt. Ickes went to bat; the President asked for and received Senatorial confirmation of White; Q. E. D.
However correctly we have outlined the means, in the end they will be justified as long as the demands of intelligent government continue to prompt White's thinking, an illustration of which is found in his recent address at Boston before the National League of Women Voters. On that occasion he said, in part:
"Long study of the merit system, andpractical observation of its working in city,state, and national government, have convincedme that the future will require evenmore imperatively than the past the building up of strong and permanent publicservice to carry on the difficult tasks whichgovernment now undertakes Theweakness of state government in the presentcrisis is due both to the absence of effectiveleadership and to the lack of a sound administrative organization. The strength ofthe national government in the presentemergency is due in large part to the factthat it has at its command a large body oftrained and able public servants Only a strong government can be wise andtolerant, and the continuing basis of astrong government is found in a permanent and intelligent civil service."
POSSIBLY SUCH A fair-minded outlook had its genesis in bitter roots of persecution. Peregrine White, from whom Leonard traces his paternal ancestry, was born on the Mayflower. The third generation of Whites moved away from Plymouth to that part of Concord which is now Acton, where Leonard was born on January 17, 1891. His mother's family, the Dupees (probably spelled Dupuy in the days of the Huguenots) was driven out of France at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Leonard's own mother and father are still alive, and they reside in the ancestral home at Acton. Soon after you have read this, the Washington clan of the White family will be reunited—in June when daughter, Marcia Robinson, thirteen years old, completes her school year in Chicago. Una Lucille Holden, of Acton, became Mrs. Leonard Dupee White on June 17, 1916 the culmination of a romance which began when they were in high school.
Whitecaps:—Avid tennis player, and rolls a consistent 200 with the big ten pins .... in spite of grey hairs .... likes nothing better than to get back to Hanover and chew the poli-sci rag with the two Jims, Richardson and Colby, and the two Harolds, Bruce and Rugg ... a sixth used to chew that same rag, but now Len misses Charlie Lingley just as the rest of us do ... . was in Hanover last summer, but is afraid pressure of duties will cause him to miss his twentieth this June .... undergraduate member of the debating team which used to "take" Brown and Williams pretty regularly .... Phi Bete .... and a quiet, charming, scholarly fellow .... kind of egg makes you glad you went to Dartmouth .... which is the concluding installment of Dartmouth inthe New Deal .... not a bad representation for the Green in Washington, eh? . . . . thanks for your indulgence .... your humble scrivener,
1914's Washingtonian
An Interview with
