1897

As we come back to the College 59 years after our first coming to Hanover, we can bring with us in memory at least the ten- year period before this. We might well therefore conclude that we had lived long enough to see most everything worthwhile in America and in the College and in the humanities which count now.

The question I bring up and ask myself is: What counts now? My answer to this question is: The same things that counted in our boy- hood—say in 1888—the date of the big blizzard. The things that counted then were boys and girls and old folks (just a little).

Going back further, I remember three grandfathers of three of our classmates very well and these men went back in their memories to about 1820. I knew these three men and all three of these grandfathers wanted the same thing. They wanted their grandsons to have an education. These men were Dr. Levi Hill, John Meserve's grandfather, who was a graduate of Dartmouth Medical School; Ralph Hough, Todd Harrison's grandfather: and William Hale Young, my grandfather. My grandfather often said to me a thing that I believed to be important in his time, and he always said it the same way—"Serve yourself, sir, if you would be well served, sir." I think these other two grandfathers would probably have said the same thing. This comes to me now being a grandfather of three, and I think it is pretty good sound advice to give my own grandchildren, and I think it's a pretty good thing to say to college students, and I'm thinking of this from the standpoint of the decrease in the value of the dollar and the increase in the cost of going to college.

My own expenses in college were about $800 for the four years, plus my food which I earned for three years of the four, and in college I didn't feel that I was either rich or poor—about in the middle. I had some money that I had earned and saved before college by planting rye and selling the grain and straw and also by planting dandelion greens. I was interested in talking with President Dickey to learn that he also had sold dandelion greens in his youth. A student today in the middle class—neither rich or poor—needs about $5300, plus food, for four years; which means that the country boys haven't as good a chance to get educated at Dartmouth as they had in our time. There's nothing Dartmouth College can do to give the dollar the 100-cent value of our time, but it can, with the spirit of my grand- father's philosophy, help these country boys and others to get a chance to compete for a place in the College, and that is to give them a chance to serve themselves by working.

The College itself has a lot of work that a well-brought up farm boy could very well do. The College Workshop has about 700 boys making things, mostly for fun. That is, these boys are making something they want to make and to satisfy the itch of mechanical fingers. If 700 boys working for play, could be changed over to be 700 boys working for pay there would be a big help to 700 students and a big help to the College, and I'd like to bet that the farm boy would have a chance to do more than his share of work for pay in this Workshop.

I talked a lot about this with the late Dean Strong, who was president of the New Hampshire Arts and Crafts, and I told him about my experiences with handicrafts during the depression, which was successful in three different lines—homespun cloth made in the homes, wrought iron work, and wood craft.

There were some wonderfully self-reliant people engaged in these three kinds of work. They certainly carried out my grandfather's slogan, and I believe that, with the great aid of the Workshop in Hanover, many students can serve themselves and earn while they are in college.

I would like to see work of several kinds of crafts tied into the college student's life in such a way as to make money in his leisure. I would like to see the experiment tried of letting this craftwork be a substitute for one course with credit given for good work done and profit made with proper use of time under guidance of the Workshop, and I would emphasize the profit-making as equally important as good workmanship.

It might be rather startling to most readers of this article to learn that there are more hand looms in use in New Hampshire today than there ever were before. This is true of Connecticut also.

I have filed with the College Library complete descriptive matter in manuscript form with pictures and with colors, showing the homespun craft work that was done under my direction during the depression.

It pleased me very much on my last visit to Hanover in December to learn that one boy was making canoes in the Workshop to pay for his expenses in college.

Secretary and Treasurer 886 Main St., Bridgeport 3, Conn.