The Undergraduate Chair
TIMES come, as the editor of the Harvard Crimson was informed recently by an indignant correspondent, when the expresser of an unjustified opinion must "eat crow" for having voiced it. I am happy to report that one of those times may have arrived for me.
My sin was to say that Dartmouth students as a group think little and care less, to all outward appearances, about what is going on beyond and below the little snowy hill they go to classes on. Since I wrote as much in January, the little hill has shaken off its snow and the students on it have made more than a start at shaking off their hibernation.
For one thing, they had given birth by the first week in March to a Students for Wallace group, a branch of Students for Stassen and a chapter of Young Republicans. On March 16 the Republican organizations merged and at the hybrid's first meeting cleared the decks again by declaring as an even larger group for Stassen.
What prompted each of the associations to form was, as might have been expected, an outside influence: in one camp, it was the announcement of Wallace's campaign (Students for Wallace organized soon afterwards in January); in the other, it was the appearance of Mr. Stassen in Hanover to speak on behalf of his candidacy just before the New Hampshire primaries. Students for Stassen made itself public the day before he arrived; and spread literature for him in a 21-town "Paul Revere's Ride" the night before the State went to the polls. The young Republicans formed the night after his speech.
If the initial incentive was given by national figures, and later efforts have been devoted to the candidates' interest, it must also be said that the decision to form and the stamina to keep functioning have come solely from the undergraduates themselves, not from the faculty or from paternalistic national groups. This self-reliance was the element I did not take into account earlier.
On the whole, the Wallace group has been the more active of the two. Headed by Marvin G. Cline '47 of the Bronx, N. Y., it has sponsored speakers, published and distributed pamphlets, carried on organizational work in neighboring towns; its members plan a bi-monthly newspaper and a series of public opinion polls. A forum on election issues was projected under Forensic Union auspices, but has not yet been held for lack of willing opposition to the Wallace-ites.
One might wonder why the Republican ranks did not take up the challenge; there are, it seems, two causes for their reticence. For one, according to Neil S. Robertson 'SO of Astoria, N. Y., member of the steering committee, his companions have decided to turn their first attention to a non-partisan drive putting before the student body information as to registration, primaries and absentee balloting in all the states. Secondly, in spite of the fact that their sympathies lie with Stassen, the men feel that partisan activity, to be wholly effective, should wait until the summer's nominating convention; otherwise their stand on concrete issues now might compromise them in the heated battle next fall, since, on these issues, the myriad Republican candidates often agree to disagree.
Besides, although Robertson did not say it, there is probably very strong feeling within the student G.O.P. that a defense of their man would be superfluous. From a poll of 472 students conducted by The Dartmouth March 15 and 16, it would be safe to conclude that Harold E. Stassen would be the next Chief Executive if Dartmouth had the final choice.
The Minnesotan topped six other candidates with ease, compiling 272 votes, 57 per cent of all those cast. Vandenberg was second with 57 votes, Dewey third with 52. Wallace had 30; Truman gained 24; Taft's 22 was still quite sufficient to top Mac Arthur's ten. (In other weekly polls run by the paper, students have declared against the College language requirement, although favoring some kind of language program; recommended the application of force to back up Palestine partition; opposed outlawing of the American Communist Party, while finding its members agents of a foreign power; seen war probable but not inevitable.)
Stassen also came out best in another part of the poll, which matched each Republican with Truman and Wallace, and asked for first, second and third choices within each group of three: Taft-Truman-Wallace, Dewey-Truman-Wallace, etc. All Republicans except Mac Arthur won handily; the General lost out to President Truman. In every case, Wallace was last, and had more votes for third choice than any winner had for first.
Be that as it may, the Wallace men are out-talking most of their opposition here; before a public engagement occurs, the Republicans have a lot of priming up to do.
That will undoubtedly go for the Stu dents for Eisenhower, as well, if the organization meeting called by Prof. Philip E. Wheelwright of the Philosophy Department bears fruit a few days from the time this is written.
However, as was said in January, such meetings of rivals in political thought is a compelling necessity. The movements for candidates are good experience for all involved, and a definite improvement in the campus atmosphere. But, unless something more is done, the chances seem strong that election day will close the activities now under way, and that nothing will be left to take their place.
The something more needed is a structure like the Political Union at Yale, through which political interest and expression could become a self-perpetuating tradition.
Until that happens, perhaps the crow I was about to digest is rather safe.
Not quite in the same vein, but also welcome evidence of a new and unlooked-for perception, are the appearances of two other student-motivated organizations.
The Dartmouth Human Rights Society, nee the Dartmouth Fellowship, was launched by six undergraduates in February as a nucleus for more sharply focused attention on the problems of misunderstanding and intolerance—social, racial, religious—which make many more troubles than headlines these days. Sometimes referred to over-con temp tuously as a "talky" proposition, the Society has met for discussions of the Report of the President's Committee on Civil Rights, the Hutchins Report on Education, and other measures seeking to improve social relations; it has also heard faculty lecturers on topics pertinent to its interest. In the circumstances, I think the contempt is poorly placed; few other modes of operation are available to such a student group; and the aim of members to keep their eyes trained on not-too-pretty sights is highly commendable.
The six founders are: Henry W. Broido Jr. '51, John A. Gambling '51, Howard A. Glickstein '51, Donald L. Gold '51, Alan Judson '51, all of New York City, and James H. Roberts '46 of Evanston, ILL.
World Federalism has also come to town, much later than in the East as a whole. A Dartmouth branch of United World Federalists appeared in March under the chairmanship of Richard S. Reed '51, of Washington, N. J., and very sensibly got down at once to a period of study before attempting to plug for the idea through a campus drive or program.
When Ezekiel A. Straw '49 of Manchester, N. H., and Robert E. Bogart '46 of Toledo, Ohio, walked into a New York garage one morning during spring vacation to reclaim the car they had left there, the attendant was more inclined to give them the bum's rush.
It would have been all too appropriate. The two were dressed with all the nicety of swineherds—shattered pants, frowzy coats, week-old beards, haggard eyes. They looked exactly like bums; they meant to.
After the attendant had seen their li censes, and a newspaper clipping from Hanover, he finally believed their story. They were just back from two days in the Bowery, where they had lived like deadbeats to catch the life of dead-beats for sociology term papers; all the raggedness and dirt was planned disguise.
"We've got enough for two or three essays," Straw reports. His sense of enterprise, however, is slightly dampened. They were awakened from slumber Easter morning in an apartment lobby by a rubber hose on the bottoms of their feet; they had been trampled upon otherwise, too.
"To top it all off," reflects Straw, "later on that morning while we were standing on a street corner, a taxi stopped nearby for a red light, and this well-dressed man rolls the window down and presents us with a half dollar, because we look 'so down and out.' "
Ledyard Bridge, leading from Hanover, N. H., to Norwich, Vt., and, until 1859, a toll bridge owned by Dartmouth College, was the first and, for many years, the only free bridge over the Connecticut River. Several toll bridges, however, still exist between Vermont and New Hampshire.
PROF. BANCROFT H. BROWN, well known to hundreds of former Math 3-4 students, presents a copy of "Mathematics for the Millions" to Bernard G. Sykes '51 of Norwood, Mass., the 5,000 th student he has taught since joining the faculty in 1922. Presentation was made at start of the second semester.
A FEW WARM DAYS ARRIVE, SPRING FEVER DESCENDS UPON THE CAMPUS, AND UNDERGRADUATES REACT IN THE OLD, FAMILIAR WAYS
