Class of 1895

As '95 men already know, I sent a postal card to each one in January, asking

1. What did you and yours do during the Christmas holidays? 2. What do you think caused the socalled business recession now current? 3. What do you suggest as a means of restoring business prosperity?

The response has been generous and quite general.

Before quoting the first series of replies, I present the last two class letters which have been published in this column seriatim, beginning in the October issue.

"July 30, 1937

"Glad to hear from you and will be pleased to hear from the other members of the class. I anticipate retiring August 1 this year. I will continue to do some work, as I have several patients upon whom I expect to do a Caesarean and some hysterectomies. Have been taking care of several cases a month for different agencies, either sterilizing the mother or the father in families on relief where they have had more children than they can feed. Humane Society, Family Wel- fare, Juvenile Court, and Child Welfare Association meet these cases in the course of their regular line of work. Most of these cases are unable to pay anything. The Immanuel Hospital takes care of them free of charge. The county ought to pay the bill. We have an excellent county hospital, but it is under the management of the Catholics and nothing of this nature is allowed.

"I resigned from the medical school work the first of July last year. I had been professor of obstetrics and gynecology, chairman of the department for many years. Have been interested in welfare work for years. At the present time I am a member of the Community Chest Board, president of the Child Welfare Association, chairman of the Red Cross, representative of the Council of Social Agencies on the Douglas County Health Council.

"We have one of the outstanding Red Cross agencies in the country. Mrs. Pollard and I attended the National Red Cross Convention in Washington in May, where the Junior Red Cross representative on the national program came from Omaha. He made a wonderful address (a boy 16 years old), and emphasized many points in his address which were referred to by several of the following speakers.

"During the Federal emergency relief I was state medical coordinator. I am anxious for some of the younger medical men to carry on these activities. There seemed to be a long time when there was a certain antagonism of the medical profession toward welfare work, but they are becoming educated and broadened now, so that they recognize the need and realize that here is a profession apart from medicine that has an individual field all its own.

"Have recently been appointed upon the Advisory Council of the State Council of Safety. Carl Gray, president of the Union Pacific, is the other appointee from Douglas County.

"I am planning on being in the office only one day a week, and will carry this out if it is possible. My health is excellent, but my work has been extremely confining, for I seldom take a vacation and have not been away from the office more than a week each year.

"Charles. Pollard."

Note: I have heard from various sources of Dr. C. W.'s skill and unselfish devotion to his profession. He has earned retirement. His address is now Peru, Neb.

R. E. S.

"Derry, N. H. "Aug. 17, 1937

"Your letters are at hand. Everything is about the same 'down on the farm,' and. there is not much to write. In the early spring I had the pleasure of going to Hanover, and came in contact with Mr. Austin and his activities. It looks as though he was doing a prosperous business, and I am glad. Occasionally I see Cochran, and he, also, seems to be doing a successful insurance business. These are the only classmates I have seen since my last communication. For the past two weeks I have been keeping bachelor's hall, for my wife has been visiting her sister and Addison in Flushing, L. I. Our son spent his two weeks' vacation here in July. He continues to do well in his work with the Am. Steel & Wire, and recently received a substantial increase in salary. In one of my letters I stated that he belonged to a dramatic club in the city (Flushing), and they were putting on the stage some very successful plays. The last one, 'Saturday's Children,' made quite a hit, and they were asked to repeat in Long Beach, L. I. Addison was one of the cast.

"I believe I wrote you that a little while ago I received a very nice letter from Willie Wilson, but have neglected to answer. I will do so, however, soon. Well this is about all I can write about the 'Wights.' I would be glad to hear all about you and family—also any items from classmates.

"Willie."

Morrison has given years of study to educational methods and has had long experience as a teacher. Last December he published a collection of his addresses and essays and excerpts from his New Hampshire reports, entitled "School andCommonwealth."

I begin the last series of class letters with the following from "P. I.'s" pen.

"In your class letter, you ask us for our ideas touching the causes of the current depression and the way out.

"I think the explanation of the present depression is patent in the minds of all who bother to think at all. Specifically, I lay down in my own mind the following

"1) Nearly five years of incompetent meddling on the part of the United States government, motivated chiefly by a consuming love of power and a willingness to ruin the country in the quest of power. As always, such doings destroy the economic middle class, which in every country is and always has been the backbone of economic well-being. That process started, not in the spring of 1933, but in the fall of 1930 with the election of a new Congress.

"Specifically, purchasing power is destroyed by Federal and local taxes. The latter have become not an instrument of government, but in many cases an instrument of purely arbitrary, personal tyranny.

"But fundamental to all this, is a disastrous lowering and then destruction of public morale. There is not intelligence and character enough in the country to anything like manage the complicated society which has been growing up ever since the Civil War. For this, I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of our schools and colleges. One influence and another has led to progressive demoralization, until in large measure, taking the country as a whole, they inculcate not communism but anarchy, intellectual as well as moral anarchy. Of course I have been in the midst of it all ever since I left college. Indeed, there are few of my professional contemporaries who have been in a position to see quite so much.

"Back of that, lies a steady deterioration of our governing boards. When you and I were in college, the typical board of trustees was composed of three or four high-grade clergymen, a retired (or active) professor or two—who were usually big men—and several jurists and educated business men. Today a corresponding board is usually composed mostly of rather ignorant business men, sentimental and politically ambitious women, and practicing attorneys who know their cases but very little law. The central trouble with such boards is that they will not govern—probably cannot. They tend to occupy themselves with the finances, not infrequently with disastrous results. They repudiate concern with what they call 'educational' matters, a pronounced inferiority complex having been built up in the direction of the professors. That condition becomes reflected in weak and timorous executives and demoralized faculties, and eventually in the character of the teaching force in the common schools.

"Please do not infer that I am talking particularly about Dartmouth and the University of Chicago, the institutions with which the class will be most likely to associate me. There are somethingover eight hundred of these 'higher institutions of learning' in the country, sixteen times as many in proportion to population as are thought to be necessary in England, or Germany. Nor am I condemning all governing boards. Some of them do their duty with great distinction.

"2) As to the way out of the depression, there is no way. The malady will have to run its course. Business will probably perhaps pick up somewhat by spring, but that will be followed by another period of hard times, and, it must be remembered, every such period makes it harder for the country to recover, even temporarily. The President is calling what he calls conferences. I have exactly as much confidence in him as I have in business men as a class or labor leaders and that is no confidence at all. Again, they are too lacking in intelligence and,character to manage the situation in which they find themselves. When the head of a great railway announced that he did not know what caused the depression of 1939, he did not inspire confidence in his capacity to even manage the corporation for which he was responsible. As President Hutchins remarked, 'it has become fashionable to be bewildered.'

"You must be able to check up on pretty much all I have said, even though you live in one of the few civilized states.

"H. C. Morrison."

Another classmate gives expression to his doubts as to our present-day educational system as follows:

"xxx 'As the twig is bent, so will thetree grow.' In other words, how important it is to put youth in its formativestage under the tutelage and environment of wise and strong characters. Idon't know what the practice at the College is, but it seems to me that the intimate associations with the heads of thedepartments, provided they are rightlychosen, is much more important than thelearning of the rule and rote of everydaylessons. And where are you going to getthe associations that you know are bestfor the youth? Is it in student government or does one have to rely almostwholly on home influence, precept, andpractice? How does one stimulate the inquiring investigative mind, develop imagination along constructive lines, andeliminate the waste of dead wood? Andcombine all of this with discipline, fun,right living and recreation?"

Dr. Walter Lane went to Atlantic City last June as a delegate from the Mass. Medical Society. He seems to be of the opinion that the medical profession is threatened with Socialism. He spent his summer vacation in New Hampshire.

Answers to questionnaire begin here: "1. Worried and made plans on account of serious illness in the family. "2. (a) Sit-down strikes and unreasonable labor demands, to some extent induced by greed and selfishness of employers.

" (b) Paying the bonus.

" (c) Fear-producing governmental attitude and taxes.

" (d) Gambling (horse racing, etc.). "3. Spirit of Christian brotherhood honesty in politics (try and get 'em)."

"1. Enjoyed as usual a brief reunion at home of my immediate family.

"a. A tendency toward over-expansion of industrial activity, coupled with unwarranted fear for the future, which has been aroused in the masses by unjustifiable propaganda.

"3. (a) Let business cease its relentless campaign to discredit the government by propaganda and attend to restoring confidence.

" (b) Let the government once and for all define its attitude toward business and cease its threats of retaliation, so that adjustment may be speedy.

" (c) Let labor abandon its political rivalries and animosities, which are disruptive of business, and present a united front."

Secretary, White River Junction, Vt.