Letters

"Glad I'm Crazy"

To THE EDITOR: What an amazing letter from a Dartmouth man (T. R. Robie '22, East Orange, N. J.) regarding the Dartmouth-Princeton football game in your January 1951 issue. Evidently he did not have the good upbringing of the D.O.C. If he had, he would never have written such a letter. To brave the elements, to forget the elements, but above all to enjoy the elements, that is living. I really feel awfully sorry for Dr. Robie.

Dr. Robie has made misstatements in his letter. The Colgate-Rutgers game was not postponed but cancelled, and not because of the weather. State authorities decided it would be unsafe to allow so much automobile traffic to enter New Brunswick over a certain bridge. The three previous hurricanes did not occur in November or even October; they happened around the middle of September. Even schoolboys know colleges don't play football at that time of the year.

I'm glad I'm crazy according to Dr. Robie's ideas. I wanted to see the game, so did my boys, but we didn't get there. It was my fault we weren't there: I didn't want to get pneu- monia. Now I wish I had gone, got it and died. At least I wouldn't then have been a sissy, which I think Robie definitely is.

Staten Island, N.Y.

Friend in December

To THE EDITOR: Reference is made to a letter from Herbert Marx Jr. '43, whose concluding paragraph says,

"The entire tone of Mr. Alden's argument, quite unintentionally I am sure, plays into the phony Communist line of the imperial istic Americans vs. the peace-loving Russians. The World has room for only one 'Big Stick' these days the one waved by the United Nations in the interests of security and peace." ... Our great hope was in the United Nations.

But now we have witnessed the sabotage of its primary purpose of preserving peace. It has been down to last week a forum for continuous smear on our honor, our ideals, and our purpose.

It did stiffen up against aggression last July in Korea. But, in its call for military action from amongst the 1,250,000,000 of non-communist peoples, America had to furnish 90 per cent of the foreign forces and suffer 90 per cent of their dead and injured.

That effort now comes at least to a measurable military defeat by the aggression of communist hordes.

It is also clear that the United Nations arc defeated in Korea.

It is also clear that other non-Communist nations did not or could not substantially respond to the UN call for arms....

May I say, if Mr. Marx still feels after reading the above that I quite unintentionally continue to play a phony Communist line, that the words are not mine...they are those of the Hon. Herbert Hoover, spoken on December 20, 1950. I know that what was printed above my name in November found one friend in December.

Middleboro, Mass.

Baseball in the '80's

To THE EDITOR: I was greatly interested to read in your January "Letters" column the mention of my brother, Nathan Cram '81, who was catcher on the Dartmouth baseball team quite a few years ago. Mr. Brooks writes of the Dartmouth-Harvard game of 1882, played in Hanover, and I thought you might like to see a photograph of that game (see below), unfortunately not taken at the moment the home run cleared the campus fence and bounced down East Wheelock Street.

Haverhill, N. H.

"Not on the Team"

To THE EDITOR: The letter of Mr. Sharpe in the February issue reminds me that X had intended to express my views to you when you originally published the news of the Dartmouth Faculty letter to the California regents.

The question seems to simmer down to a consideration of what is more importantloyalty to the United States or tenure of office on a faculty by those who will not or cannot take the oath against Communism.

The answer seems pretty simple No anti Communist oath No tenure.

Either the faculty stands up and is counted as Americans fit to teach Americanism along with their subjects or no job. That's all.

How else can you put teeth in a regulation?

What other penalty can there "be?

When switchmen strike or practice absenteeism against the railroads operated by the Army, the penalty is logically separation. Back to work or no job.

When teachers refuse to stand up and be counted on the basic question of Americanism, it seems to me the solution is "turn in your suit—you're not on the team any more."

Mr. Sharpe would like to know the names of the Dartmouth faculty who did not sign the letter. I think we ought to have the names of those who did sign it.

I, for one, don't care for it. I just want the Dartmouth faculty or any faculty to be aggressively American and aggressively anti Communistic and tenure is dependent on that.

New York, N.Y.

A Sharp(e) Rebuttal

To THE EDITOR: H. G. ('04) Sharpe's "patriotic letter" in your February issue did not cause me to write this from a feeling of "bitter animosity," as he expected, but rather from a feeling of disgust. There is nothing to be gained by a rebuttal of his diatribe. It is the philosophy which prompted such a letter that must fill us all with the fear that perhaps our country is being run, or at least influenced, by men with similar ideas.

Thank God that McCarthyism and its "guilt by association" has not as yet become a permanent part of our American way of life. If such were the case, I should henceforward attempt to cover up any trace of the fact that I once went to Dartmouth thereby being associated with those who hold Mr. Sharpe's views. Fortunately, all Dartmouth graduates are not cut in this pattern.

I cannot hope to match in this letter Mr. Sharpe's brilliant Fourth of July approach, but hope that it may be printed as one small "Voice Crying in the Wilderness." And in conclusion, I must add that wars have apparently changed since "oldtime infantryman" Sharpe defended our shores. We felt that being shot at and shelled during World War II was sufficient indication of our patriotism and that standing up daily to pledge our allegiance to the flag somewhat increased our value as a target for the enemy.

Hanover, N. H.

PHOTO OF DARTMOUTH-HARVARD GAME, 1882, CONTRIBUTED BY T. B. CRAM