GRADUS AD PARNASSUM
IN HANOVER about 25 years ago students, faculty and alumni joined in a mass meeting to form the organization "Friends of France." Enough money was raised to buy two ambulances and send them to the western front, manned by four picked undergraduates. One of the four, Richard N. Hall '15, was soon to be the first of all Americans to lose his life in France.
What the effect of the new war may be on the College is a matter of grave concern as the one hundred and seventy-first year begins. The same query is raised about many other institutions and enterprises of the country. It is difficult to feel that any wave of belligerent enthusiasm can sweep the campus in the next few months. One is exceedingly reluctant to believe that education can not show men actually confronted by war of its futility, just as education has taught men this fact for the past 20 years.
THOSE WHO are concerned with higher education, and this must include all who have shared its opportunities, are confident of the liberal, or free, way of life. We have faith in the liberal arts, or free, college. Among all the educational institutions of the most highly educated country in the world there are many whose responsibility is clear for nurturing the truth and for providing enlightened leadership and an intelligent citizenry.
Dartmouth, from its earliest years, has been proud of its birthright of complete freedom. What are we doing about it?
Institutionally the College operates in a limited field. A generation of undergraduates, 2400 strong, throngs its halls, works in library and classroom, fills its dormitories with confusion, plays hard in free hours, learns to love its hills, and departs. The College is not judged by the high promise of a carefully selected freshman class, nor by the long black-robed line of serious seniors. The College is judged by its graduates in later life—by what they stand for, by what they strive to achieve, by what they do and what they are, no matter whether humble, modest, or famous. It is in the lives of thousands of its sons, in far-flung cities and communities, that the College is truly tested.
It is not the College in Hanover that can contribute in major degree to the solution of vital problems of this crisis of our time. Here, there, and at a thousand points and in a variety of ways, Dartmouth men in the world's affairs can reflect those influences for good which bulk large in the College's purposes. Our pride of association in the Dartmouth fellowship will be enhanced to the extent that we learn of the continuing and dominating influence, throughout life, of higher education, both the formal and self-taught varieties, that began in Hanover. We will rejoice at every evidence in the alumni body of acceptance of this responsibility. Let us hope that the list will constantly grow longer of "Wah-Hoo-Wahs!" for those who can truly be complimented for high achievement in the service of a bewildered humanity.
PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE during the summer to perfect further the plans for the new Webster Hall, the Center for Drama, Music, and Radio. As the new College year gets under way the major building projects in the line of unfinished business are the financing of this plan and the construction of a new Physics building.
The department of Physics is forced to use a building that was erected when the science was in its early stages, forty years ago. Experiments are conducted for students in the corridors of Wilder Hall. There is much apparatus of a delicate nature that must be laboriously set up for a classroom demonstration and then hastily taken down to make way for the next class, because every square foot of space is in such great demand. If Dartmouth was disgraced for years by having the largest gymnasium and the smallest library, there can now be no radiant faces among us in contemplating the antiquated quarters for Physics.
For a decade the need has been felt acutely for an auditorium to accommodate the whole student body, faculty, and friends on certain occasions during the College year. The Players' need for facilities to replace their inadequate equipment has grown in recent years. Meanwhile the department of music is crowding the walls of its temporary home in old Bartlett Hall. Entirely new and broad fields have opened up in radio, which the College cannot fail much longer to recognize. But no space or facilities are now available.
Through year-round use of the new Center there is on Dartmouth's threshold today as challenging an opportunity to serve the public good of this country as ever faced any institution. With the passing months the Dramatists Guild has not ceased planning for a Summer Drama Festival in Hanover of national scope and importance. Plans on paper, and dozens of men and women standing ready to make the plans successful, are a challenge to all persons who care about the arts. Here are professional leaders in the fields of drama, music, and radio eager to cooperate with the College in a cultural movement of great significance. It is feared that the European War may furnish obstacles to the project. On the other hand it may be said that for this very reason, and all the more, should America recognize the position of almost sole responsibility for the arts that has now been thrust upon her. Recognizing the fact makes more pressing the need for a Center where the best of certain branches of the arts shall be given the best of encouragement.
THE PHENOMENAL SUCCESS of the Alumni Fund in the 1939 campaign, which ended on the familiar June 30 deadline, is now known to all Dartmouth men. A total of $114,709.64, or 104% 'he objective was contributed by 9,443 Dartmouth men, or 79% of the alumni. These figures are themselves the most eloquent testimony that can be given to the spectacular record achieved by a corps of several hundred class agents.
No man in the alumni body can give greater service to the College than is given by the chairman of the Fund committee. His responsibility for directing this exceedingly vital factor in the security of the College is of the greatest importance. Sumner B. Emerson '17 deserves the congratulations and highest appreciation of us all. And likewise his experienced and able Fund Committee secretary, Albert I. Dickerson '30, has demonstrated again his high fitness for the key position of assisting the hard-working class agents.
The Alumni Fund has provided the College with free dollars to such an amount that a deficit has been avoided in financial operations during a year when the security of all endowed institutions was greatly in doubt. As time goes on it becomes increasingly evident that Dartmouth's greatest asset is its living endowment, represented by its entire body of alumni. The sources of spectacularly large gifts are drying up, or have dried up. More and more does the College need to look to its alumni for their individual and separate support which in the aggregate provides every year substantial unrestricted funds that are indispensable. The Alumni Fund is a deeply rooted Dartmouth tradition and the greatest bulwark against acute financial problems that might seriously impair the College's work.
In his letter of congratulations to the class agents, describing the highly satisfactory outcome of the past Alumni Fund campaign, Mr. Emerson stated: "Every Dartmouth man should be gratified at these results and should give a real pat on the back to the class agents who have patiently and thoroughly done such a remarkable job. Their devotion to Dartmouth is shown by the results."
OLD PRINTS SHOWING some of the earliest existing views of the College, when its buildings were little more than the original log cabin of Dr. Wheelock, will be used at the head of this column of comment during the year. This month the famous original drawing by George Ticknor, class of 1807, is reproduced. The view shows the principal buildings of the College and was inscribed to President John Wheelock "By George Ticknor Delineator, and Member of the Sophomore Class, aged eleven years." The precocious young Ticknor became one of Dartmouth's most noted men of letters. For many years he was professor of French and Spanish languages and literature and Belle Lettres at Harvard.
Beneath the original drawing appeared the following poem by George Ticknor, aged eleven:
"Where late the Savage roam'd in search ofprey,
Fair science spreads her all enliveniiigray,
The ancient forest fall'n; its inmates fled;See Seats and Sons of learning in theirstead!
'Tis scenes like these, that freedom's pow'rdisclose,
She makes the desert blossom like therose."
IT IS GRATIFYING to report, as was described in a message to the entire alumni body sent out last month, that the group subscription plan for the MAGAZINE has been adopted by 51 classes, or a majority of all the alumni. The objectives, achievements, and opportunities of the alumni movement at Dartmouth were discussed in folders. The record of cumulatively greater progress in alumni affairs of the College is impressive. In the span of years since 1893, when President Tucker first began to emphasize the vital role played by alumni, there has been tremendous development in all phases of alumni participation, activity, and interest in Dartmouth affairs.
The theme of the entire movement, which has provided the College with a distinguishing characteristic, was stated by President Hopkins in 1916 in his inaugural address: "Any college which could havethe really intelligent interest and cooperation of a large part of its alumni body inworking out its destiny to major usefulnesswould become of such striking serviceableness as to be beyond comparison."
In so far as the ALUMNI MAGAZINE may be an instrument for keeping the alumni in touch with each other and in close touch with the College and its purposes and accomplishments, the editors wish to make this their primary objective.
THE EDITORS PRESENT in this issue the first of a series of biographical sketches of leading members of the faculty. Others will appear in subsequent months. Alexander Laing '25, author (The Sea Witch, End of Roaming,Wine and Physic, Dr. Scarlett, Fool's Errand) and assistant librarian of the College, has contributed the biography of one of his former teachers, Professor David Lambuth.
For 25 years Mr. Lambuth has been a leading member of the department of English. Endowed with a keen mind and a love of letters he is a vigorous, creative teacher. His influence in the liberal arts has always been a valued factor among colleagues and in the student body, well beyond the limits of his classroom. Emerson wrote that "In proportion to the development of his individuality, each person becomes more valuable to himself, and is therefore capable of being more valuable to others." Professor Lambuth is truly an individual. This and other fine qualities have marked him with distinction. His life is greatly enriching that of the College.
THE YOUNG MAN on the cover is Herbert Drury, youngest of three sons of F. R. Drury '26, Thayer School graduate who has set up a civil engineering service in Hanover. The general idea of the cover picture (made by the staff photographer, Adrian Bouchard) is a Hanover kid rampant on goal posts, to make a point about the übiquitous nature of Hanover offspring, in the season when crisp fall days mean football, despite great trouble in the world.
THE WALTER WANGER '15 production of Winter Carnival received some lusty knocks from critics when the picture first appeared in the Music Hall of Rockefeller Center. This is not a movie review column. The dramatic merits of the picture and its weaknesses are aspects of the matter that the critics are privileged to pass public judgment upon, and they have done so.
Let anyone who suspects the College of seeking publicity through a nationally projected movie be relieved of that thought. Several Hollywood companies have wanted to film the Dartmouth Carnival and base a feature picture on that festival. It was Mr. Wanger's idea first; it was he who persisted in the face of many trials and tribulations in definitely scheduling the project. Because of his long-time and devoted interest to the College welfare, his plans were approved with confidence. Nor is there any cause to regret the action.
On the question of seeking publicity there are now about 2500 applicants annually for an entering class numbering about 675. As always, there is room to improve the quality of entering classes, high as the standards of admission have become, but no one wants to increase the numbers of applicants. The simple fact is that there is no copyright on the name of the College or on the Winter Carnival. Enough frosted film had already been exposed by cameramen to reach from the Hanover Inn to Moosilauke. There was a request on the part of several producing companies to base a movie on the Carnival and Mr. Wanger's request was approved. Every possible bit of cooperation was given to him by officers and undergraduates in Hanover. He and Budd Schulberg '36 and Maurice Rapf '35, script writers, were the best qualified to do the difficult task.
The finished picture is in our opinion creditable to the College. And even if this is not a film reviewing stand we compliment the Wanger staff on producing for the first time a movie of college life woven into the real events and atmosphere of a college festival week-end. We didn't miss a bit the captain of the ski team breaking the down-mountain record, with a sprained ankle, defeating his rival from Zero College, and winning the hand of the Dean's daughter. One of Walter Wanger's objectives was to show that a college movie could be made, and sold, that was not based on a story as outlined above. He has succeeded, and the average of success in his constant efforts to create different and better standards in the movie industry is high.
STALWARTS HAVE GONE AMONG the alumni during the summer. It is difficult to mention any names here, when around each of the deceased there was a circle of close friends in the Dartmouth association. Accounts of the careers of these men, whose lives are a cross-section of their generations, will be found in the Necrology columns.
The good counsel and genial greeting of Edward W. Knight '87, for ten years alumni trustee of the College, are no more. Walter McCornack '97, beloved leader of the Chicago alumni for 40 years, is gone. Sudden death took Myron W. Adams, secretary of the class of '81 since graduation. A prominent journalist's career was cut short when Edward J. Duffy '26, head of the department of Journalism at George Washington University, drowned in Casco Bay, Maine. Charles M. (Kid) Claeys '14 went suddenly, soon after election to the presidency of his class at the 25th reunion in June. Alexander Dean '16 was one of the College's most powerful leaders in the theater. He was director of the Yale School of the Drama.
Another teacher in the mold of Brooks Henderson will not be found. Every moment of his lecturing and conversation with students reflected his love of Shakespeare and other greatest poets. His sensitiveness, perception, charm, and teaching genius were personal assets that had come to be respected and relied upon among his colleagues in Hanover.
PRESIDENT READY FOR 24TH YEAR IN OFFICE President Hopkins, shown chatting at football practice with Director of Athletics William H. McCarter '19 (left) and Head Coach Earl Blaik (right). Dartmouth's leaderunderwent a sinus and nasal operation at the Mary Hitchcock Hospital during the summer, but has fully recovered after a period of convalescence at Dick's House and at hisHanover home.
