Gradus Ad Parnassum

IN HIS remarks to the assembled student body and faculty at the opening of College President Hopkins announced the breaking of ground for a new upperclass dining hall. The ground was duly broken and continuously since then the silence ordinarily enjoyed by residents of Massachusetts Row, College Hall, and the Psi U House has been shattered by a steam shovel and trucks. Progress on the foundations of the buildings (which is located roughly on the Sanborn Hall lot) assures the College of a new dining hall next year. This will answer a need that has been very pressing for years. Somewhat less vital, but nonetheless of first rank importance in the social life of the student body, and community, is the need for a new theater and auditorium. Another addition to plant equipment of the greatest importance is an expansion and modernization of quarters for the department of Physics. Wilder Hall is inadequate and antiquated.

To get back to the dining hall question, the President stated in his announcement of the Trustees' plans that "we are not going to try to enter into competition withthe best eating places in the town, but weare going to provide in this structure twogreat dining halls, one on the cafeteriaprinciple and one on the basis of tableservice, and two small dining halls, wherethe man who wants something quiet in theway of surroundings, who wants something attractive in the way of provisions,shall be able to come in and get an orderlyand palatable meal. We understand perfectly that there will be complaint that weare entering into competition with theplaces in town and depriving them ofnecessary patronage, but under the normallaws of supply and demand, the clubswhich will be affected will be the poorerclubs, and I am entirely frank in sayingthat it will be no loss to the community ifsome of them are deleted from our organization."

IT is A perfectly natural question for alumni to raise when they ask, as several men have asked: "What is going tohappen to the eating clubs?" It is a well recognized fact among colleges that no successful attempt can be made to feed every man in the undergraduate body. In accord with the present policy Dartmouth does not propose to offer facilities for accommodating the whole study body, knowing in advance that many students would not want to utilize the facilities, were they available. The Freshman Commons now takes care of the first year class of about 650, and the upperclass and faculty cafeteria in that building averages about 150 per meal. The new building will provide a cafeteria to seat 350 at one time, and a table service dining hall to seat about 200. In addition there will be a rathskeller to seat 75-100 and two smaller private dining rooms. No accurate prediction can be made of the number of upperclassmen who will eventually take advantage of the new dining facilities. But it is apparent that private eating places in town will still have a very substantial group of students from which to draw their patronage.

With the enlarged facilities at hand it is doubtful if so many of the new, small clubs will spring up overnight as has been true in past years. Eating establishments of this sort have often appeared at the opening of the College year only to die off or limp along when their popularity waned. They were never a satisfactory or better than temporary solution of Hanover's eating problem. Meanwhile the well-established clubs and restaurants have continued successfully through the years.

There seems to be good evidence that the President's statement to the effect that only the poorer clubs and restaurants will be affected by the new dining halls is sound. The general standard of eating conditions is bound to be raised next year but we doubt if the favorite eating places of large numbers of alumni will be seriously affected over a period of time.

IT is difficult to think of any setting for a social or athletic event more colorful than the winter carnival, indigenous to New England. Although the present boom in winter sports defies explanation of any complete sort, it is possible that the color and art in carnivals, snow trains, and winter resorts in the north, play a major role. The background of snow and pine trees sets a stage that is mighty alluring. The flash of a skier along a hill trail carries more appeal than a thousand words can describe. Professor Lathrop gives his conception of the growing appreciation that one finds for the aesthetic side of outdoor recreation, and all its accompaniments, at this time of year. His article, illustrated from the past and present, appears in this issue.

WITH THE appointment of a College Adviser to fraternities, the attention of all those most interested will again be focused on the problem which was surveyed thoroughly by the Social Survey Committee nearly a year ago. One of the recommendations of that committee of 14, and a unanimous recommendation, was the selection by the President of the College of an" administrative officer who should have the responsibility of helping fraternities achieve a more effective program of activities. Announcement of the appointment of Davis Jackson '36 to this position is an important step taken in the attempt to better the fraternity situation at Dartmouth.

No one could expect Mr. Jackson to work miracles over night. He will surely have the cooperation of all of the groups and individuals who are associated with fraternities in one way or another; President Hopkins has arranged for him to report directly to the President's office through a committee of administrative officers; Mr. Davis has the distinct advantage of having very recently been a member of the undergraduate body and the president of a fraternity. It is expected that he will have frequent contact with representatives of national fraternities and particularly with Mr. Alvin E. Duerr's special committee of the National Inter fraternity Conference, in order that the new Adviser to Fraternities will have the advantage of suggestions from outside Hanover as well as from men here on the ground.

The fraternity problem at Dartmouth, regardless of what the situation may be in other colleges, cannot be dismissed as inconsequential or of little significance. It has been established that more planning is needed, from the point of view of continuity over a period of years, and that increased attention to fraternity matters by officers of the College and alumni members is highly desirable. The present task seems to be one of planting, or reforestation—no crop can be harvested next month or the month after. But there is every reason to feel that progress will be made over a period of time and that eventually the cumulative effects of careful observation and of progress by trial and error will be helpful in major degree to the social life of the College.

THE COVER this month is from a photograph taken by Ralph Brown of Hanover and patterned after a picture made by Ralph Steiner '21 during the latter's student days in Hanover. Mr. Steiner used a third floor window of Parkhurst Hall as a vantage point, as did Mr. Brown. The Steiner collection of Dartmouth pictures, of which the negatives are in the College's possession through his generosity, is one of the finest series of pictures among the many filed in Baker Library. Mr. Steiner developed the art of his college days to the point where it became his career and he is now a noted photographer (both still pictures and movies) in New York.

WITH THE dearth of snow and winter weather a popular subject of conversation in Hanover (up to the time of writing these notes), the editors take refuge in the law of averages and go ahead and print snow pictures anyway. The campus in the past, and usually at this time of year, has looked the way it is shown on the cover. The rare beauty of Dartmouth Hall, classic in line and gleaming white, never appears better than on a bright winter day. The elm trees of Hanover, said to be famous among lovers of trees, do much to enhance the beauty of the most attractive buildings of the College.

The trees of Hanover will be the subject of an article in a later issue of this MAGAZINE. Prof. C. J. Lyon of the department of Botany has made a study of the Dartmouth elms and his description will be passed on to our readers.

ON THIS matter of the "mild winter" this year, Mr. Tenney (of the Nash & Tenneys, the old livery stable partnership) has something to say. He recalls the days when they drove a stage between the railroad station at Norwich and the Inn corner. "One winter," says he, "we used runners on the stage just six days. The next winter we put the runners on early and used them every day for one hundred and fifty-eight days!"

ERRATUM—Mr. McCarter, director of athletics, is getting a slight ribbing locally because of an error in the biographical data that appeared in the news story on his appointment in the last issue of this MAGAZINE. "Have you forgotten the tried and true and greatly valued affiliation with Chi Chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity?" he was asked. An Alpha Delt has written in solicitously pointing out that Director McCarter is a frater in urbe of what he calls the "annex of Alpha Delta Phi." He is not a Sigma Chi, as was stated, but is a member of the Chi Phi band, of whom an unknown but popular bard has written (among verses without number):

You may be a Deke or an Alpha Delt You may be a Psi U too

But unless you wear the Chi Phi Pin The Devil will sure get you.

Now ain't them hard trials,great tribulations

Ain't them hard trialsTo join the Chi Phi Band.

IT is A pleasure to print Mr. Bowen's article on the Museum in this issue. As its curator he has breathed a new spirit into affairs in Wilson Hall. Whereas a few years ago the museum of the College seemed to offer little of significance as an aid to teaching, or as an interest to students, it has undergone such a change under Mr. Bowen's direction that it is now counted as an integral, alive, and growing department of the College.

Wilson Hall was never designed as a museum—it is, of course, the old library. Some of the building is not fireproof although collections housed there are of considerable value in many cases. It is possible to have a museum so arranged and administered that it is a tremendously helpful aid in teaching. Surely it should be a cultural influence of real vitality in a college community. There is every indication that Mr. Bowen will make Wilson Hall a highly creditable unit in the College.

ARRANGEMENTS have been completed for a half-hour program of "Dartmouth on the Air" on the evening of February 26 when Dartmouth Night will be celebrated in Hanover and in alumni centers throughout the country. The Pontiac Motor Cos. is staging a series of "Varsity Nights" among a group of colleges by broadcasting, from each campus, programs of undergraduate musical and dramatic talent. There will be no speaking. President Hopkins will, as usual, address the College but the formal and impressive (and more lengthy) exercises of Dartmouth Night will precede the broadcast. The fact that there will be a nation-wide broadcast, originating in Hanover, on that night will interest alumni who may listen in, either in their homes or as part of the regular alumni club observance of Dartmouth Night.

AT A SHOWING in Hanover of the new _ year-round picture "Dartmouth Life" (16 mm. movies) it seemed that these five reels are the best yet of the many movies sponsored by the Secretaries Association during the past ten years. In this picture, which aims to be a comprehensive survey of the daily life of Dartmouth students from September through June, there is a valuable instrument provided for strengthening the programs of alumni club meetings and also for furnishing information to secondary schools where boys are interested in Dartmouth.

The movie service in Hanover has been bolstered by professional help on this project. Both in respect to arrangement of scenes and photography the movies are much superior to what is usually expected from the "small" films. There is no sound in the picture but it is fully titled. The reels are now available at a moderate rental fee upon application to the Secretary's Office, 308 Parkhurst Hall.

—THE EDITOR.

A POPULAR TERMINAL POINT FOR SKIING PARTIES Unseasonable weather this winter has made enthusiasts despair of witnessing a scenesuch as this, but the D. O. C. cabin at Moose Mountain is ready for visitors.