The Undergraduate Chair
Long-Range Planning to Improve Society's Ills, With Big Job to be Done Now, Much in Undergraduate Mind
WITHOUT A DOUBT this fail has brought to Dartmouth many changes that must inevitably strike a liberal arts college in wartime. These changes will continue to evolve bringing with them necessary alterations in the life of the College. But so long as there exists the indomitable will manifested in President Hopkins' address on Dartmouth Night, we need have no fear for survival, but need only to support the institution that through the years has had the devotion and loyalty of a man of his high stature. The entire college was overwhelmed with the import and sincerity of his words. Never has the occasion been more impressive, for we know now the task that faces us. Our path is clear.
Late in September Webster Hall was crowded to capacity as the College turned out to hear representatives of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and the air forces extol the respective virtues of each particular branch of the service. Those undergraduates not already signed up were given a broad picture of what they may expect in the near future and could make their choices for service accordingly. The recep tion and interest that these officers met was warming indeed.
The always exciting football games and pre-game rallies have made their appearance, and there seems to be no lack of animated response on the part of the undergraduates. With transportation as difficult as it is today, the out-of-town games will undoubtedly not be as well attended as heretofore, but most of us are giving our lungs some genuine exercise at the home games. The spirit that in the past has pervaded Hanover with the arrival of football crowds on Saturday has been conspicuous by its absence this year, which is not at all surprising considering the gasoline and tire situation.
This observer was fortunate enough to be sent by the College to Washington in early September as a delegate to the International tudent Assembly at which students from all the United Nations gathered to discuss problems of mutual interest. It was indeed a valuable experience and one that deserves to attain far greater attention than has been given it by this nation. That the Axis considered it important enough to direct constant radio propaganda attacks against it indicates the seriousness of the occasion as they saw it. But the most farreaching effect of this assembly was the formulating of war aims and peace plans so that some basis of unity among the youth who are fighting this war could be achieved. It seems ironic that men begin to think when the stark question of survival rears itself. It is equally futile to weep tears of remorse that we lacked the foresight to anticipate the issues we are faced with today. But this irony and futility should by all rights increase our determination to make certain that the honored dead have died not in vain, but for a cause that is fully worthy of them.
Some Dartmouth men have died already. Many more will follow. Our world has been brought to disaster by our unwillingness to plan and to think in the terms that are necessary today. But does that mean that we in college at the present time are resigned to fighting without some faith in the future world? Hopefully and confidently, we turn to our appointed role. Certainly, one of our purposes in fighting this war is to let a new generation meet a challenge that another failed to conquer. The vastness of the problem we face is almost staggering, but as Clement R. Atlee has said, "Remedies are conditioned by the gravity of the diseases which they are designed to cure. The deep-seated evil from which the world is today suffering will not be cured by some cheap and easy remedy. It is useless to treat the symptoms of a disease while neglecting to deal with the real cause. The experience of the last twenty years has shown the danger of half measures. If we want a peaceful world, we must be prepared to face the great changes which must be involved." War is a period in which the temptation is to find in action relief from the difficult burden of thought. To win the war is paramount in everyone's mind, but to be blind to the responsibilities of victory is folly to an extreme.
Mr. Andre Michalopoulos, Minister of Information of the refugee Greek government, and Sir Arthur Salter, Undersecretary of the British Transport Mission in the United States, have both addressed Dartmouth audiences in the past month. Each one of these talented men has stressed the urgent need of becoming worldminded in our thinking. Their statements have been corroborated by the courageous Mr. Willkie who has spoken his mind as he damned well pleased to the intense appreciation of the common people of the United Nations.
We have learned that too much attention has been accorded our economic system, thinking of it as an end in itself rather than a means to an end which, as Herbert Agar has put it, is civilization itself. We have strayed far from the moral questions that must be involved in satisfying human desires, from the principles enunciated years ago by Jefferson and Lincoln, which are the fundamental points on which our democracy is founded. Pressure groups like the farmer, labor, the capitalist have found it necessary to unite to fight for special privileges. Until these factions can see that each has his place in any economy and that they do have a common goal to strive toward, we can never achieve a society that will use to the full the technical skills, the resources, and the manpower that are available to us today for the benefit of all and not just a select few. If these propositions cannot be accepted and translated into practical action, the future will bring social and economic catastrophes, with political anarchy and cultural collapse following in their wake, compared to which the trials of the present generation will pale into insignificance. History offers, as always, no gifts but only opportunities. Those who fail to use them perish.
The liberal arts today and yesterday should have taught Dartmouth men to have the vision to meet this challenge. Can they as citizens in a democracy understand the issues, vote accordingly, and place in office men who possess the needed vision to help in building the age of tomorrow? There is no longer a question of fighting this war for a new order. It is only a question of whose new order it will be. Nineteen hundred Dartmouth men in Hanover today are* resolved that it will be our order and not the appalling order of our Axis enemies.
The drafting of men in the 18- and 19year-old age groups will mean a great loss to Dartmouth. At the present time these men make up more than half the existing College, but with Thayer School, Tuck School and the Medical School continuing to operate on the Hanover Plain, Dartmouth has no need to fear extinction.
We can only hope that the time will not be too distant when we can return to these halls to sing once again "Dartmouth Undy- ing." It deserves to live. May we defend it proudly.
INACCURACY AIDS A GOOD CAUSE Dartmouth students and others who land in the traps surrounding the 17th green of theCollege course contribute 25 cents each to the U.S.O. The "take" thus far has been good.
