Gradus Ad Parnassum

THE FACT THAT 8,782 gifts were received for the Alumni Fund in its brief campaign of a year ago indicates the superlatively fine result achieved in the number of contributions received—from a tremendous proportion of the alumni body. Dartmouth's endowment is low in comparison with the resources of other institutions with which the College is associated. But in respect to living endowment, the resources of the alumni that come to the support of the College every year, and that are strengthened by the addition of a new class every June, the College does not suffer in any sort or variety of comparison.

At the present time endowed institutions face a very difficult problem between rising expenses on the one hand and decreased income from invested funds on the other. This situation, existing over a period of years, has raised acute problems for the colleges of the country. Whatever security may exist for Dartmouth is very largely the continuing and increasing resource that is constantly felt, and annually demonstrated, in the alumni.

The stream of major benefactions directed toward the colleges, that originated outside of the alumni in major degree, (and of which Dartmouth fortunately had its share a decade and more ago) has dried up at its sources. If we are to make cumulatively greater progress in the future, and maintain and enhance present educational standards, it is apparent that the alumni who are able to do so must be an even stouter backlog of the College.

We will leave to more competent and experienced hands a statistical analysis of the potentialities of the Alumni Fund in the campaign that begins this year, and for future years. In correspondence with the new chairman of the Fund Committee, Sumner B. Emerson 'l7, we are impressed by his concern with the problem of, as he states it, "holding our own in the number and percentage of contributors but emphasizing the need for larger gifts." Mr. Emerson puts a punch in his statistics when he points out that the average gift from a total of 4,477 contributors to the Fund in 1926 was $21.66; the average gift from 8,782 contributors last year was $12.37; the amount of the average giftin 1926 had been held to in the 1938campaign the total amount collectedwould have been $190,218.12, as against the $108,668.01 actually received.

A keynote that might be suggested to Mr. Emerson and his committee for the Fund drive this year is to welcome every gift, of no matter how modest amount, but to urge all those who are able to do so to contribute toward raising the figure of the average gift, which was last year the lowest since the first year of the Fund's history. We feel that the legion of supporters of the Fund will understand and appreciate that the greatest resources of the College, that are in the alumni, are needed now.

HAIL AND FAIRWELLI for two years Sigurd S. Larmon '14 has directed affairs of the Alumni Fund in notable fashion. It is difficult to think of any task that a graduate could perform for the College more valued than that of the chairmanship of the Fund Committee. After the customary two campaigns of service Mr. Larmon turns the job over to Sumner B. Emerson '17, perhaps with a sigh of relief on his part, and certainly with the appreciation of the alumni. Hail to the new chairman! And a hundred hails and best wishes for the small army of class agents. It is truly said (by the retiring chairman) that "As the class agents go, so goes the Fund."

The ALUMNI MAGAZINE is happy to serve this month as the medium through which, in the 24th Annual Report of the Alumni Fund incorporated in this issue, is reported such a distinguished accomplishment as the records of the 1938 campaign.

IT IS TRULY a "labor of love" that Mr. Robert F. Leavens 'O1 has given to the preparation of his biographical review of President William Jewett Tucker, published in this issue of the MAGAZINE. The editors understand something of the time and thought that Mr. Leavens has put into the article. They wish to have the alumni appreciate the care with which the author has read every word of Dr. Tucker's writings and addresses, and finally reconstructed the man and his influence on his generation, and his immortal imprint on the fabric of Dartmouth College.

Mr. Leavens holds the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Mills College where he served as chaplain for some years up to 1937. He had previously held Unitarian pastorates in Boston, Fitchburg (Mass.), Omaha, and Berkeley, Cal. He is now engaged in writing Volume II of Great Companions, of which his first volume was published in 1927. As a senior in college Mr. Leavens was a member of the first delegation in Palaeopitus and thus privileged to enjoy close association with the revered leader of the College, Dr. Tucker.

FOR MUCH MORE than half of the alumni body, and for all undergraduates and a majority of the faculty, the name of Dr. Tucker is a tradition. Whenever the history of the College is discussed, or its past mentioned, his name is always recognized, and accorded its deserved fame, as that of the Great President. There is, for example, the familiar line that Dartmouth "was founded by Eleazar Wheelock, refounded by Daniel Webster, saved by William Jewett Tucker, and made great by Ernest Martin Hopkins." We have mentioned before in this column, and do so again now, the value of Prof. L. B. Richardson's History of Dartmouth College to the alumni. Therein is told the full story of Dartmouth in terms of the administrations of its presidents. Ninth in the line of the Wheelock succession stood Dr. Tuckerone of the great men of his time, and one whose achievements, in the face of desperate problems facing the College, can only be fully appreciated by reading the Richardson history.

But for many men among the alumni these are feeble words. They knew Dr. Tucker. They remember him, and always will, in vivid fashion as the strong, noble leader of a suddenly united Dartmouth that began, in the go's, to forge vigorously ahead toward the position of prestige of later years. They loved him in college days. And in later life their memories of him had, as in Carl Van Doren's description of Swift's memories of London, "stiffened to a picture and the years had set them in a frame."

There seems to be for all the older Dartmouth men a mental picture of Dr. Tucker, set in a frame, vivid throughout life.

In the 100 th year of the anniversary of his birth the editors are pleased, with the valued services of Mr. Leavens, to pay the finest tribute at their disposal to Dr. Tucker.

IN THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH, Boston, October 2, 1926, at a memorial service to Dr. Tucker, the tribute was given by President Hopkins, the leader of the service was Dr. Boynton Merrill '15. Later the remarks of Mr. Hopkins were published by Ich Crane '98 in booklet form and copies were distributed to several hundred alumni—the class secretaries and class agents and others who were bearing the brunt of manifold alumni activities of the College. Those who possess the booklet may consider themselves fortunate. It is a valued item. The title on the cover is simply "W. J. T."

Mr. F. H. Leggett '98 wrote President Hopkins after the memorial service: "Thescene at the Old South Church will always remain in my memory, as well as themasterly address which you delivered. Iwell remember that when I told you Ithought it was the finest address I had everheard you make, you replied that you sogreatly desired it to be so."

To the question that younger alumni might ask: "What did President Hopkins think of Dr. Tucker?" (whose disciple he was), there is the answer given, and beautifully, in his tribute at the Boston service. This is reprinted in full in these pages this month. We agree with Mr. Leggett that it is a superlatively fine example of Mr. Hopkins' genius, and it is an address that thousands of alumni who have left Hanover Plain since 1926 should see, and that others may enjoy reading again.

THROUGH THE collaboration of an alumni committee, headed by Mr. Leverone '04 of Chicago, and the College Personnel Bureau, directed by Mr. Neef, the Alumni Council's plan for alumni vocational guidance is making strides toward becoming a reality. In an earlier issue Mr. Leverone outlined the national scope of the alumni placement plan and in this issue Mr. Neef describes how the alumni movement may be correlated with his important work for seniors and underclassmen.

For the man who is comfortably situated in respect to employment and feels at least a measurable degree of security, vocational guidance is a remote problem. But for the older alumni who, in Mr. Neef's words, "have lost their jobs or who wish to shift to a more congenial occupation" the problem is extremely vital, and the Council's plan is a promising and encouraging demonstration of the vaunted spirit that alumni feel for the College, and for each other. Placement help is also a vital matter for graduating seniors, who will be aided by the plan in cases where they are not placed through the Personnel Bureau. And the help that may be available for underclassmen in finding summer work, through the regional alumni committees, is important.

BOTH PRECEDING and after the observance of Dartmouth Night in Hanover March 9 the editors and other writers in The Dartmouth drew ominous conclusions from the less-thanusual student interest in the celebration. The general tone and substance of the news, editorial, and Vox Populi comments were that the crowd in Webster Hall was the smallest ever for a Dartmouth Night meeting; that sentimental references concerning the affection of alumni and undergraduates for the College must be avoided in public; that the adjudged "failure" of Dartmouth Night in Hanover is a sudden portent proving that the undergraduate body will have no part of this sort of thing in the future; that the traditional occasion had better be abolished, or turned into a vaudeville show to pack the house.

We respectfully disagree with some, but not all, of the opinion expressed. The crowd of about a thousand was perhaps not as depressed before, during, or after the meeting as one might think in reading TheDartmouth. Because of conflict with other events the date of Dartmouth Night has been allowed to be put off from its earlier place in the fall season to the Ides of March when the interest of anyone in crossing the campus after dark, unless necessary, is zero. President Hopkins was missed on the program. No matter how well other speakers handle their parts, the presence of the President is always a great advantage.

So far as alumni interest went this year there were more gatherings throughout the country, and abroad, than ever before. At those meetings were men who one or two years ago were undergraduates. That the student undergoes a changed attitude toward the College during and after the Commencement week-end is a fact. But is there really such a vast difference between the regard of the alumnus and of the undergraduate for the College?

We respect the sincerity of the new board of editors of The Dartmouth as a keen desire to further the welfare of the College along certain lines fundamental to its best interests. This is, as we understand it, their purpose. Our hope is that given a period of time to work out their policies the editors will reinforce our confidence that they do not underestimate either the minds or the hearts of their student readers.

Men do not change very much. One of man's qualities is fortunately a willingness to recognize and place a high value on sincerity of purpose. This attitude can be ascribed to the current critical analysis of College affairs by The Dartmouth, including the tradition of Dartmouth Night.