Class of 1895
Members of the class will be very glad to learn that "P I" Morrison has greatly improved in health and is now able to do a limited amount of teaching at Chicago University, where he has been a distinguished member of the faculty for some years. Last June he was seriously ill with only an even chance of recovery.
"A. J." (Crosby) is recovering from grippe. He says: ' I have been sick, alongwith the rest of the family. The grippe tookeach of us in turn. At one time all the bedsin the Crosby hospital were occupied. Weare now quite all right, with the exceptionof my wife, who gains slowly. The grippeleft her weak, and it will be some little timebefore she gets all of her strength back."
"Honest Dan" Watson reports: "Ourusual health attends us, and I am at my oldjob in school. For exercise I have my cows,hens, and woodpile."
After forty years of separation from the college it is always interesting to know of the families of classmates. Some of the eager questions we asked each other at the last reunion were, "How many children have you?" "How old are they?" "What are they doing now?" etc. Here is news of "Sliver" Rice's family. He has two sons, William F. Jr., born Nov. 30, 1900, at Springfield, Mass.; Boston Latin School 1918; Exeter 1919; A.B. Dartmouth 1923; M.S. in Chem- istry, M. I. T. He has worked as chemist for the United States at Edgewood Arsenal, Picatinny Arsenal, Royal Baking Powder Cos., Reynolds Metals Corp., and is now with the Calco Chemical Co. at Bound Brook, N. J. He lives at 326 Central Ave., Plainfield, N. J. He married Edith Hauer in July, 1926, and has two children, Abbie Florence, nine years old, and William Foster 3d, eight. William Foster Jr.'s hobby is philately.
"Sliver's" younger son, Winthrop Huntington, was born Oct. 12, 1903, at Lynn, Mass., and graduated from Boston Latin School in 1921, Dartmouth A.8., 1925. He took his A.M. degree at Syracuse University. He taught at St. Albans School, Sycamore, Ill., and afterward became instructor in the Romance languages at Syracuse University. He married Esther Johnson. They have two children, W. H. Jr., nine years old last Christmas, and Richard Johnson, five. Their home address is 147 Redfield Place, Syracuse.
A few weeks ago a classmate whose sym- pathies seem to lie with the Socialist party wrote me as follows:
"I don't know what graduates of the lastfive years are doing, but my experiencewith thousands of college and H. S. graduates is that after graduation an exceedinglysmall percentage ever read a book whichdeals with our economic and social problems. Ask the next 100 you meet. I'll wagermy first month's Townsend payment thatnot above 10% do so. The remaining 90%base their opinions or rather .accept forgospel truth the opinions of the Saturday Evening Post and similar 'authorities.'Hence our present muddle. Take a poll ofthe class of '95 and find how many duringthe year 1935 read even one book—non-fiction—not immediately connected with their regular avocation or vocation."
The writer's reference to his Townsend pension is facetious. He does not believe in this scheme. I have accepted his challenge to poll the class and have submitted to each member the following questionnaire:
QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Have you, during the year 1935 or a previous year or years since graduation read one or more books of non-fiction not immediately connected with your regular avocation or vocation?
2. Do you favor our present system of production for profit?
3. Do you favor production for use only and not for profit?
4. Do you favor the New Deal policies of the administration?
It will be noted that I have enlarged on our classmate's suggestion and have included three extra questions. The class is responding with apparent interest. One '95 man commented on the questionnaire as follows:
"Relative to No. 2 of questionnaire: Yesfor limited profit, and subject to fair andreasonable competition. Otherwise, no.
"Relative to No. 3 of questionnaire: Production for use only and not motivated bythe idea of profit would have to be carriedon by government agencies, and I am notaware that such enterprises have everachieved real success. Too many contingencies are attendant upon them, two ofthe most troublesome being the bane ofpolitics and the innate selfishness of the individual. In a Utopia to question 5 I wouldsay yes; in, any state this side of Utopia, because of the workings of egotism and individual or class ambition, I must say no.
"Note: I believe it is possible to retainthe good in our production-for-profit system and to discard the bad features thathave grown into it. To overthrow the wholestructure must mean the abandonment ofthe fundamentals of our government, uponwhich that which we call our prosperity hasbeen built up. Has this so-called prosperitybeen a mere nightmare, a baleful monsterin disguise? This Ido not believe."
Here is another quotation:
No. 4 (The New Deal) "Favor the purpose of many but not all of them. Much disappointed the way most of them, haveworked out in practice."
Another classmate, speaking of the city where he is living says: " is sufferingfrom 'rugged individualism' from (naming a business executive well known in his city).
Among the books he has read during 1935 are "Rats, Lice, and History," "Freedom of the Press," "Sawdust Caesar, "Black Shirt," "Black Skin," "The American Government Today," "New Frontiers, "Why Rome Fell," "Julius Caesar and the Grandeur that was Rome."
With regard to our present system of production and the so-called production for use only, one classmate says:
"It has seemed to me that with our mixedrace in the United States there is possiblea workable combination of the two, if somefool could stumble on it. Millions in thiscountry are both producers and consumers.Gen. Motors, the Pennsylvania R. R., etc.have more stockholders than employees."
Answering the question regarding the New Deal policies, he says: "Of most ofthem, yes; of some, no—so there. I'm forRoosevelt, but not for the whole crowd,and the 'crowds' on both sides are alike.But really, John Marshall, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Grover Cleveland are dead, so why keep voting forthem."
Of the thirty-one replies so far received, twenty-eight answered yes to question number one, three no. Twenty-six answered yes to question number two, two answered no. Three answered yes with qualifications. Twenty-seven are against the New Deal. Four are for it with qualifications. .
"General" Davis and "Willie" Wight had a visit together at the latter's home in Derry, N. H. "Willie" declares that the "General" still retains his youthful appearance.
Mr. and Mrs. Wight have a son in the employ of the United States Steel Company. He has recently been promoted and is now in charge of all the statistical work in his department. He is 26 years old and still single. He lives with his aunt at Flushing, L. I., and is a member of a dramatic club on the North Shore.
"Pat" Mitchell is still in the active practice of the law at Portsmouth, N. H.
Secretary, White River Jet., Vt.
