Gradus Ad Parnassum
THAYER HALL has already proved itself a center of gastronomic interest. Popularity of the cafeteria, the Colonial dining room, and the private dining rooms shows no sign of abating. A preliminary opening of the Rathskeller over the Cornell weekend demonstrated that short orders are as enthusiastically entered at the serving bar in that de luxe spot as they are agreeably cooked and served. One still finds what is generally described as the "informal style" of Dartmouth dress in the new dining center. Although this doesn't mean corduroy pants that stand alone, the approximate effect is often achieved by no ties, sweaters, odd trousers, and last year's sport shoes. Elegant and well-appointed as are the dining facilities in Thayer Hall it is impossible to tell a rich boy from a poor one as they drink, or eat, their soup.
The building promises to vie with the basement of Baker Library as a houser of murals. To compete with the Orozcoes in Baker, which is all right with many of the brethren among the alumni, Thayer now has a gay decoration on the vaulted ceiling of the bright and spacious cafeteria; a set of unique leather murals, depicting Indian life, which were formerly in the Pittsburgh home of the late Senator Philander Chase Knox, presented by his grandson James K. Tindle '36, are a handsome ration of the first floor lounge; and a large section of wall space in the main dining room is covered by a colorful expanse of hand painted scenic wall paper. Walter B. Humphrey '14 is at work on his Eleazar Wheelock murals for the Rathskeller. These are being done in oils. They will give the building almost every known form of intriguing decoration except the fresco. But this form of art is adequately represented in Baker.
PALAEOPITUS AND cooperating agencies are to be congratulated on the vigorous safety campaign that was carried on among student drivers during, the fall. Smoother roads and better cars are a constant lure to make the easy trip south to one or another attractive week-end location. We may have spent more free time in Hanover in our day, fraternizing Saturday nights at the House. One big reason was that we couldn't get away with a group of friends with anywhere near the convenience of transportation that stands ready for action behind every dormitory in these days. Although half the student body is more interested in moving south, there is the other half that depends upon cars to get out to D. O. C. cabins, or up in the mountains skiing, or off on fishing or hunting trips. Widespread participation in Outing Club activities directly depends upon student use of cars.
Cars are accused of breeding restlessness among students. But what do they do to the older generations? Many of us will recall trips to football games this fall as most pleasurable experiences; others have taken foliage trips, or hunting trips, or have barged off 200 miles each way for an overnight visit with friends or family. Even though we might be better off without cars, we'd be more restless than we are if deprived of the family buggy.
The undergraduates, as usual, demonstrate a sane approach to the real problem in the matter—and that is the serious danger of accidents. There was no lack of vigor in the student crusade for safe driving this fall, nor any lack of drastic penalties to be enforced by Palaeopitus in the event of reckless driving. If the student drivers acquire a whole-hearted fear of the accident menace, and accept the absolute truth that alcohol and driving do not mix, more progress will be made than through a folder full'of rules and regulations.
THE FOOBALL season just ended has been an amazing and surely a satisfactory one. Starting out in September with an inexperienced squad and an almost total lack of veteran material, the coaches and the team together have created a 1937 model of the Big Green that has been justly feared by every opponent and that will always be ranked among the greatest of Dartmouth teams. Regardless of games won or lost (or tied) or of the impressive scores that have been run up against traditional rivals, the essence of the greatness of this team is the way in which it rose from a below-average status to the ranking of one of the nation's leading teams.
In the wake of the forward surge of a Green line and the swift rushes of a brilliant backfield have followed the mounting spirit and admiration of alumni and students and friends of the College. The records of the past four seasons, which comprise the regime of the present coaching staff, are described by Bill Cunningham '19 in these pages this month. His story is, as Bill says, designed for home consumption within the family. Among other things he points out the very unusual ability of the football coaches, as he and others have done before now. It is a pleasure to print the words of glowing tribute he gives the staff in his article this month—a tribute richly deserved.
Football is being played by the team as it is being taught—with all of the ingenuity and skill that is essential to success in any sort of comparable competition, and with no lowering of standards.
ONE OF THE interesting events of the fall in Hanover, although it was one that received no cheers from thousands of spectators nor wide notice in the press, was the dedication of the tablet to Laura Bridgman in Etna on the 100th anniversary of the beginning of her education. Miss Bridgman was born a normal child but as an infant lost four of the senses—sight, hearing, speech, and smell. As a small child she was taken to the Perkins Institution in Watertown, Massachusetts, where something in the nature of a miracle was performed in freeing her from the darkness into which her life had been plunged. It was a great achievement of pioneering in an unknown field of education. As Dr. Gabriel Farrell '11, director of the Perkins Institution, stated in these pages last month, she stands as perhaps Hanover's most illustrious woman. It is fitting that a bronze tablet, fastened to a boulder of New Hampshire granite, should mark her home in Hanover.
A PROMINENT SON of the College was confronted by numerous Yale neighbors and friends in Connecticut after the tie game of October 30. With a noticeable glint in the eye they inquired: "Well, how did you like the game?" His reply was "I liked about 95% of it, how much did you like?"
A PRESS RELEASE carrying a Hanover date line appeared in New England papers recently stating that the Brown Company of Berlin, N. H., has perfected a new process for turning hard wood into pulp and that this will mean a realization by the College upon its holdings in the College Grant of an estimated $1,500,000. Since publication of this item the College has been the recipient of congratulations from many alumni and friends, delighted to hear that a fortune is hanging on the branches of the wilderness timber in the Grant, only awaiting the harvesting by a Brown Company that was intimated to be ready to sign a contract.
Unfortunately, it isn't true. Like many another piece of propaganda this press release, which was actually sent out by the Forest Products Association in Groveton, gives a false story of the situation. The facts are that a financial reorganization plan has been proposed by one group of persons interested in the Brown Company (which is now in receivership) and this group is bringing pressure to bear in quarters where it may produce the desired result of securing support for the suggested plan. The story that the College will receive a handsome fortune from its hard wood holdings, as it has actually received in years gone by from soft wood in the Grant, may be designed to "get at" President Hopkins who is a member of the Bondholders' Protective Committee that is giving careful and expert thought and study to some sort of reorganization plan.
In a recent bulletin to bondholders the Committee stated its disapproval of the proposed plan of financial reorganization of the Company and further stated that its recommendations would be made after further study of the complicated situation that faces the Company; that it now feels certain that the proposed plan, which is favored in some quarters, will in no way be acceptable to investors (among whom the College is a substantial holder of bonds); the investors are looking for a more permanent and promising plan of reorganization.
It is true that the Brown Company has perfected a process of making pulp from hard wood but there is too much of the newly discovered raw material available near at hand to expect the College to benefit. The whole affair is regretted. The false assumption has been widely encouraged that the College will soon solve some of its most pressing problems through income from timber holdings.
THE MENTION of financial problems facing the College prompts a reference to the notable efforts that are being made through the Alumni Council's plan for adding to the gifts and endowment of the College. Members of the Council and other alumni in centers throughout the country are forming small groups to devise ways and means of presenting the story of Dartmouth to persons who may become interested in the movement. Any who would like to volunteer their services in this frontal attack on the problem of adding to endowment and meeting some of the other pressing needs are requested to get in touch with officers of their alumni association or with a member of the Alumni Council. Headquarters for the work have been established in the office of the secretary of the Alumni Council in Hanover, although the entire project is being directed by William J. Minsch '07, Minsch, Monell, & Co., 115 Broadway, New York City.
Careful planning for more than a year on this problem preceded the publication of two books sponsored by the Alumni Council. An excellent and very readable account of the objectives, achievements, and opportunities of the College was written by Professor L. B. Richardson '00, representative of the faculty on the Alumni Council. This thorough work forms the first of the two books. The second publication is a loose-leaf folder setting forth the present needs of the College. A limited edition has been distributed to alumni who are judged to be in key positions. Because of the excellence of the two books and their general interest to all alumni, it is probable that they will be given publication in installments in this MAGAZINE.
The work from this point on will consist largely in placing the two books in the hands of persons who may have no direct connection with the College but who are felt by the alumni committees in various districts to be prospective donors. The groups in charge of the work will welcome suggestions of names of men or women who should be given full information about the College and its most pressing needs.
The question has often been raised among alumni of the desirability of setting up a plan for stimulating gifts to the College, a plan that would have aspects of permanence and that would not call for any concentration of effort within a short period of time. It is exactly along this line that the present plan is moving. Gratifying as it would be to secure results of a substantial nature in the near future, it is hardly probable that this will be the case. It is more likely that results will appear at infrequent intervals and some years may even elapse before there are any fruits from the cultivation. But there is high hope and confidence of such success from this highly creditable alumni project that the College will thereby be strengthened at some of its weakest points.
A GRADUATE OF THE College who lives in New Haven is the artist whose striking photographic work is shown on the cover of this issue. He is Albert Burton Street '18. Yale uses his pictures in everything from Athletic Association publicity and football programs to the Yale AlumniMagazine. A widely published picture of President Seymour is a copyrighted photograph of Mr. Street's. His excellent work for the State of Connecticut resulted in a handsome brochure entirely made up of his pictures. Essentially a news photographer Mr. Street's particular genius seems to be a sixth sense of the atmosphere and color in a composition that escape the usual photographer. We are indebted to him for his kindness in the contribution of his copyrighted sideline picture that is used on the cover this month. Coach Gustafson (left) and Coach Blaik are absorbed in the play, waiting for the right moment to send two substitutes into the game. The undersized young man, a tackle, No. 89, is Vernon Taylor '39 who is better known in Hanover as "Moose." The scene is the Yale Bowl packed to its capacity of 72,000.
IN A RECENT address Professor Osgood of Princeton discussed his theories of education and since they are based on a lifetime of teaching they bear more than usual interest. His keen analysis separates educational problems into three human constants: the student, the subject, the teacher. He insists upon emphasizing the humanity of the three constants, as opposed to the setting up of curricular machinery which encourages the teacher, or the student, or the subject, to operate according to cut and dried formulae. He declares war on the present trend in education to reduce "teaching from an art to a mechanism."
His challenge to the teacher is a stirring one. He says: "I would ask that the teacherbe gifted with that instinct for human nature which is passionately on the still huntfor congenial souls, and which, when theyare found, can satisfy itself only through anatural, reciprocal, instinctive ministration Teaching is the intimate engaging of personality with personalitythrough the medium of some subject admitted as a liberal art or science by whichthe less mature of the two grows in statureof his humanity toward the full heightwhich is possible for him."
BILL SLATER. His name was known to the men of his college generation as a leader in his class of 1914. Since then, for 23 years, Bill Slater has worked unceasingly, giving more time than seems possible to most men, in the interests of the College. There is no measuring stick by which the efforts of the College's good men and true can be gauged. What is the value of so staunchly supporting the College that all the world knows—"He's a Dartmouth man"? Of giving valuable time and precious energy to alumni work? We hope Bill found a reward in. his noble friendships. We are sorry for the mother, father, wife, and five children he leaves behind.
