Letters
The Date Is Nov. 15
To THE EDITOR:
Any anniversary has a value and meaning to the man who actively takes a part in its celebration, especially when this active part coincides with a personal interest. This is the basis for my suggestion that a Dartmouth alumnus will celebrate Dartmouth Night in a vital way by writing letters to distant classmates or friends to whom personal letters are long overdue.
I regard highly the local alumni dinners and class reunions being held on this occasion, but I offer my suggestion by way of additional celebration. It will renew dormant correspondence among Dartmouth men and bring them closer in a way the reader will appreciate: the qualities of friendship are appreciated more easily than described.
Last Dartmouth Night, to some close friends of mine in my undergraduate days I wrote letters, and to others I sent a wire of greeting; and have received their heart-warming answers. They appreciated my thought and returned me dividends of fellowship in their replies. Thus, I speak from experience as a corresponding celebrant. I address this to all alumni, and particularly to alumni officers for consideration as a matter to be promoted among members of the various local associations.
I North La Salle StreetChicago, Illinois.
Alumni Artists
To THE EDITOR
Alumni may be interested in activities in our Museum by two Dartmouth men. At the present time, from October sixth through October twenty-ninth, we are having a OneMan Show by Russell Cowles '09. Mr. Cowles is assuming greater and greater importance in the art world, and The Butler Art Institute is proud to have his Exhibit, which incidentally is attracting much attention.
Secondly, tor our Fifth Annual New Year Show, which is open to artists of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, we are having as one of the members of our Selection Committee, Paul Sample '20, Artist-in-Residence at Dartmouth. He will be in Youngstown December eleventh and twelfth to assist Doris Lee, Woodstock, New York, and Cameron Booth, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in selecting the pictures to be hung and awarding the prizes.
We are always anxious to have Dartmouth artists represented in Exhibits in our Gallery and will be glad to hear of any others you may happen to know who are coming into prominence.
The Butler Art Institute,Youngstown, Ohio,October 10, 1939.
Keep Out of War!
To THE EDITOR:
Men of Dartmouth, take a firm stand against United States involvement in another overseas war! The young men of America are the strongest potential fighting force in the world. We refuse to fight except in defense ofour own soil. Use this force beforehand to keep United States out of the futile destructive conflicts now in progress in both Europe and Asia. If we young men are not willing to make this concerted effort in our own behalf, (as well as in the interest of Civilization and Democracy within this hemisphere) we have no right to expect the older generation to defend us. America is reaching the peak of its anti-war determination. Soon the destructive tools of propaganda may try to undermine this resolution. Watch our government. Its every move may be a subtle step toward our entry.
Should this war be prolonged England will use every resource, fair or foul, to make Americans conscious of their duty to the Empire. In her declining years the Great Empire must rely on a powerful ally to carry on her struggle for European supremacy. The British Government spent thirty million dollars, the U. S. Government seven million on propaganda to get us into the last war. The forces of involvement, should they prevail, will form a powerful coalition against which individuals will be helpless. Anticipate them now with a hard boiled front determined to crush those forces before they gather momentum. Just as laborers have had to unite to defend their rights in industry, so will potential soldiers have to unite to defend their right to stay out.of foreign wars.
ORGANIZATION FOK PKACF.
Groups are already forming. Create new ones in your community, in your fraternity, in any organization to which you belong. Every step adds to our strength. Delay imperils its success. Choose your leaders; decide upon your methods. Persuade your family and friends to support you; keep them in close touch with their congressmen. Do not hesitate to use the same methods for peace that are used to get us into war. Combat propaganda with propaganda against those who are prompting war. Remember that we are the ones who will fight the war they declare. Peace was never permanently maintained by timidity. Every effort must be sustained untilpeace has been established in Europe. Yet remember, that organization will be most powerful which is characterized by the greatest dignity, strength, and lack of emotionalism, and sensationalism.
I refer you to Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh's recent radio address. A better foundation for a working policy is difficult to find.
RECOMMENDED READING
I suggest for reading on England and her richest colony, the United States, the following books:
England Expects Every American to do HisDuty by Quincy Howe; The Decline and Fallof the British Empire by Robert Briffault; Road to War by Walter Millis.
The danger may not seem great. It didn't in 1914. By all means act. Act now if you value your life and the democratic institutions under which you live and study.
Wood's Hole, Mass.September 21, 1939.
Let Reason Rule
To THE EDITOR:
The feverish activity of the pacifists at any price cannot fail to remind one of my age of a similar pacifist activity in President Wilson's time, quite as frantic as the present. What we excitable Americans may fail to realize is that such emotional states of mind furnish the best soil for the weeds of foolish, irresponsible action. Psychiatrists are aware of this fact, but the ordinary layman is not. He thinks the best defense against some act of which he disapproves is shouting at the top of his voice against it. The emotional state that induces these violent protests is really heightened by them, and is precisely the condition that most favors rash and inconsiderate action.
It is curious and sad, too, to see the same state of mind now with its explosive manifestations on the part of those less securely balanced mentally, and even of some of the better balanced.
LEVEL HEAD, OPEN MIND
No one except God can see what the future may demand of us, but what we can do for ourselves is to keep a level head and an open mind and meet the future with equanimity. We may be compelled in the end to fight, though God forbid.
The signing of pledges to do or never to do this, that or the other reminds me of the many pledges I innocently signed as a boy at the instigation of the thunderous voices of the abstinence orators of that day, pledges that committed, me never to touch the demon rum or never to smoke the filthy weed. Need I say that since then I have cheerfully violated these pledges without a qualm of conscience?
Let us then not complicate the present situation by the absurd inconsistency of trying to commit ourselves to a pacifism that may prove to be stupidity 01 plain cowardice, who can tell? In this way we may be able honorably to avoid war or to take our part as men in the conflict, if we cannot honorably do otherwise.
New Brunswick, N. J.
Edward Wallace Knight'87
To THE EDITOR:
The writer well remembers his first meeting with the late Ed Knight. It was while crossing the campus the first week of freshman fall, 1883, that a boy of small proportions accosted me and we scraped acquaintance with each other. Being one of the youngest members of our class, Ed Knight was also at entrance one of our smallest members. Accordingly, the nickname "Kid" at the first naturally became fastened to him and clung to him even after he became a portly man of two hundred pounds or more.
First impressions are apt to be strong impressions and such was the one I got of "Kid" Knight. He impressed me as sure of himself; as one who, to use the pretty trite description of today, was a "rugged individualist." We soon set our new acquaintance down as one with pronounced opinions of his own. To illustrate; we of '87 had been in Hanover less than a week when the august president of the College convened our class in the North Latin Room and after much good advice, climaxed the meeting by asking all who were church members to stand. Ed and the writer were among the number who kept their seats. After the meeting was over we compared notes religiously. Ed avowed himself to be an agnostic. So far as we know and believe, Ed throughout life professed the Spencerian belief of "an infinite, immutable, inscrutable Energy back of all things and from which all things proceed." Later we on our part became anchored to the belief of a Father in the heavens, towards knowing whom we have a life-clue in Jesus of Nazareth. We have wondered if this differfact that Ed had a mathematical mind, naturally; whereas mine is given to speculation. How many times in classrooms I have wished I could demonstrate mathematical theorems as
No one could associate with Ed Knight four years in the classroom and on the campus without coming to recognize him as a man at once solid and brilliant. The class letters which we have promptly received annually from him as our class agent in behalf of the Tucker fund reveal a mind that could scan the whole field of circumstance and at the same time act in view of individual emotions.
What Ed did was always thoroughly done, whether to prepare a lawyer's brief or to draw an off-hand crayon sketch for the delectation of "those present." Thorough and versatile,such was our classmate. In his departure from earth, '87 sorrows over the passing of one of her ablest men. Whatever distinctions came to him, whether in College or in after life, came to him as naturally as the processes of the seasons. He lived the simple life, at its best, with keen interest of a well-rounded nature in Che outdoor world as well as in the world of halls and books. He was everywhere at home and now that he has gone to the long home of the spirit world, we miss him and we cherish his memory.
Hanover Gazette,Hanover, N. H.
This is What the Flesh is For
This is what the flesh is for, (Leather-taut from knee to thigh), To lift you from the valley floor Westward, windward, eagle-high, Like a stern wing to the sky,—
To march the body up and out Through the first fields of the town Against the brook whose panic rout Crashes cliff and meadow down, Dark cliff and lighted meadow down
This is what the eyes are for: Between thin trees to sight the top, To prod the muscles on for more, To shake the heart when it would stop, To shake the heart when it would stop.
