Si Monumentum Requiris

Now that the Dartmouth Center planned for the area on Wheelock and College Streets seems to be nearing the stage of inchoate actuality, the memorial aspects of the projected building assume additional importance. It had already been suggested by the Alumni Council that this building, when, as and if erected, should contain an impressive visible memorial for Eleazar Wheelock, the founder of tire College; and at the moment this suggestion envisages an imposing entrance foyer dedicated to Eleazar, with a suitable monument and mural decorations depicting important events in the early days. A project to extend this memorial, by giving Wheelock's name also to the auditorium which will be reached through the Wheelock vestibule, is also under consideration. But now arises a further possibility that of making this important new building on the Dartmouth campus a more comprehensive monument by naming the whole structure in honor of Ernest Martin Hopkins, and dedicating the whole to the undying memory of the Dartmouth men who fell in battle in the late war.

One may well pause to assess these suggestions carefully, since the idea of a composite memorial presents delicate problems. Whether all these tangible monuments can be included in a single building without unfortunate dilutions merits thoughtful debate. Beyond doubt it is desirable to erect an outstanding memorial to the founder of the College, as has been vigorously insisted by the chief protagonist of this idea, J. W. Newton 'B6, to whom goes the credit for pressing this plan out of the vague realm of talk into the more definite realm of action. But it is hardly less imperative to make adequate recognition of the refounder of Dartmouth, President Tucker, and also to provide a more enduring tribute to President Hopkins than is involved in the Hopkins Scholarships for the sons of war heroes. That a memorial to the war heroes themselves is demanded admits of no question. Can all these be covered by inclusion of all in one building?

Favor has been expressed for the idea that the memorial to Dr. Tucker, the last and greatest of the clerical presidents after Wheelock, might well be postponed until the erection of a suitable college chapel to harmonize with the campus surroundings. But that still leaves three—Wheelock, Hopkins and the valiant sons of Dartmouth who served in the Great War—to be included in one tripartite monument; and the question here raised is whether or not that can be done with justice to all. It seems a thing not to be decided lightly or inadvisedly.

A GENERAL VIEW OF THE SLALOM EVENT AT OAK HILL ON THE OPENING DAY OF CARNIVAL