Time Marches Back

World War I flared up shortly before the class of 1916 returned to Hanover for its Junior year. What impression did this news make upon the 1300 undergraduates then enrolled at Dartmouth? Almost none. At least, examination of student publications for the first semester of 1914-15 indicates that at this period our interest in military matters was all but lacking. Our elders, to be sure, were concerned with the war from the first. At the opening of College, President Nichols spoke very feelingly of the war and its meaning. Later Professor Anderson gave a public lecture on the causes of the war, but the Dartmouth merely announces these facts without comment and assures its readers that "the lecture will not be over one hour in length." General apathy? Well, we had "mass meetings" that fall in behalf of the Dramatic Association, the Outing Club, and the Church; 900 men joined the D. C. A., but the only symptoms of undergraduate "war hysteria" appear to be a restrained campaign for Belgian Relief and occasional, quiet appeals for contributions to the Red Cross.

Dartmouth had "the best football team since 1908" and scored more points than any other eastern eleven in winning from Mass. Aggies, Williams, Vermont, Amherst, Tufts, Penn. (41-0), and Syracuse. 1916 supplied to the squad J. N. Colby, C. A. Pudrith, P. O. Soutar, C. C. Hitchcock, and J. B. McAuliffe, who was unanimously elected captain for the next season. The hockey team was also a winner over Mass. Aggies, Princeton, Harvard, and M. I. T., but the basketball team's success that year was only moderate. The 1916 cross-country team for the second year took the interclass meet (C. F. Durgin, A. D. Lewis, H. Lord, R. A. Pease, L. Y. Granger), and the varsity cross-country team (including D. W. Coakley, P. G. Nordell, I). S. Stillman) celebrated a successful year by electing K. D. Tucker captain. The reorganized gym. team developed rapidly thanks to W. B. Garrison, G. B. Fuller, W. Sully, M. B. Saben, and J. H. Colton.

The firm resolve of 1916 to be identified with the Dartmouth Renaissance is reflected in the fact that about forty of us became candidates for the Prom committee: F. R. Andrews, L. H. Bell, F. T. Bobst, W. H. Brown, R. A. Burlen, P. C. Burnham, C. L. Campbell, J. N. Colby, E. A. Craver, J. J. Curtin, L. L. Davidson, P. H. Davis, A. Dean, R. F. Devoe, E. T. Doyle, R. F. Evans, C. K. Everett, J. K. Fenno, R. H. George, E. A. Gioiosa, E. P. Hayden, C. N. Holmes, E. D. Knight, P. J. Larmon, R. H. Leavitt, E. L. Mack, R. F. Magill, A. T. Miles, G. L. Morey, W. F. Mott, H. F. Murchie, E. H. Parker, J. H. Payne, R. A. Pease, L. F. Pfinstag, J. W. Rogers, L. W. Rogers, E. A. Shaw, P. O. Soutar, E. R. Williams, F. S. Wilson. In debate, as in other fields, 1916 distinguished itself (J. B. Butler, M. E. Bernkopf, W. E. Biel, C. C. Coffin, L. R. Jordan, C. P. Merryman). It was also considered significant that the chess and checker team on one occasion defeated certain members of the faculty (1916's representatives were J. B. Butler, G. B. Phillips, P. G. Nordell, A. G. Eastman). The carnival committee selected as executives: J. B. Butler, E. P. Hayden, and E. L. Mack. When the Arts organized the cultural leadership of the community, it was natural that they should offer membership to F. W. Bailey, A. M. Behnke, R. A. Burlen, E. P. Chase, L. Cole, W. P. Costello, B. V. Emery, H. Fishback, C. T. Green, L. W. Joy, J. D. Little, W. A. Mackie, R. F. Magill, J. W. Rogers, L. W. Rogers, K. D. Tucker. President Nichols and Palaeopitus recognized the claims of 1916 by appointing to the student fire squad: W. P. Costello, R. F. Evans, J. F. Gile, J. B. McAuliffie, R. Parkhurst, C. A. Pudrith, E. C. Riley, E. R. Williams.

The class had attracted to its number during the summer six worthy transfers: F. R. Champlin, R. Chapman, C. F. Echterbecker, H. Fishback, H. B. Lowe, and R. W. McClure. We continued to be of help to the Dramatic Association: E. L. McFalls wrote "Lord Wilmington's Bag"; E. P. Chase was the author of "The Letters," and J. W. Rogers wrote "The Inn of Death" and also "Blood Dark" which the Dartmouth characterized as "... .one of the most remarkable dramas ever written. .. . unusual in production, as no one appears on the stage during the whole production." The play was remarkable also in that it struck the first note of student alarm and dismay at the horror of the war with such lines as these: "Ten thousand Hells and wherefore was it all? I know not why and never knew. But gone, gone, forever taken from me is my peace."

Throughout the greater part of the semester a controversy raged which, I infer, still attracts the interest of some of us. At a meeting of alumni in Boston we students at Dartmouth were accused of the sins of apathy, sophistication, and cynicism. What was our side of the story? A Dartmouth editorial comments: "For some years keen observers of American colleges have affirmed that there was an impairment of the old devotion to the institution, which once characterized every undergraduate. The Dartmouth believes that the old Dartmouth spirit is still alive." But the Bema refers to "the doctrine of cynicism which is spreading among Dartmouth students. Plainly this cynicism is the outgrowth of over-sophistication." This perennial issue is still before us, but I submit that the real nature of our undergraduate cynicism in 1914 is best understood in the light of the recorded fact that when an alleged shortage of water in the reservoir started the rumor that College might have to close, there were widespread reports of showers kept running night and day; whereupon Dean Craven Laycock saw fit to announce with characteristic clarity that any person caught wasting water would be "immediately and permanently separated from College." Of course, items like those solve no definite problems for the research worker in the field of what, after all these years, we hopefully call the "undergraduate mind," and yet it may be that they are not without significance. They remind one of the State of Mainer who swore that he drank forty cups of coffee every day and was asked if it didn't keep him awake. "Well," says he, "it helps."