Letters

Tighter Bonds

To THE EDITOR: We Dartmouth men in Rhode Island have long been aware of the excellence of Franklin S. Eggleston as an alumni secretary. So, too, is the College, for not long ago he was selected as the "club secretary of the year."

I would like to record publicly my full appreciation of him, both as an alumni secretary and a friend, for he recently performed an act quite beyond the line of duty, as the armed forces express it.

Our older son, John P. Aborn, Dartmouth '52, recently was injured in a serious automobile accident in Lewiston, Idaho, in which one boy was killed and three seriously hurt. Before even telephoning me about it, Frank Eggleston found in the college directory the name of a Dartmouth alumnus, Stephen L. Mackey, in Lewiston, wired him that a young man who had once attended Dartmouth was in the hospital there and asked that he call upon him.

Mackey did so, much to the pleasure of our son who was some 3000 miles from home, and then wrote both Eggleston and me of his improved condition and volunteered to render any help he could.

Such thoughtfulness by Frank Eggleston and kindness by Stephen Mackey only add to the bonds that so unite Dartmouth men the world over.

Barrington, R. I.

"Immature Football"

To THE EDITOR: Some thoughts I have harbored apropos Dartmouth football have popped and I am anxious to send them along.

Professor Harry Overstreet wrote the book The Mature Mind and made the pertinent observation that among the seven immature responses are apathy and irresponsibility.

That about sums up the football situation at Dartmouth in my opinion immature. First, the College authorities must be apathetic if they don't care who and what shellacs the Big Green. Last fall's Princeton fiasco and last Saturday's manhandling by Holy Cross should be enough proof.

It is, secondly, irresponsible on the part of the College authorities to schedule the likes of Holy Cross, Army, Navy, Princeton and Penn (though not in 1953) with such poor material available. Add Cornell.

The solution: Play lesser Ivies like Yale, Harvard, Columbia and Brown and Amherst, Williams and Wesleyan. If that won't be, quit the game entirely.

Let's be grown up about the damned thing.

New York, N. Y.

P.S. An alternate suggestion, get a few good players every year.

Recollections of Taft

To THE EDITOR: In the October issue I read with great interest the article, "Mr. President, LL.D.," by Ed ward Connery La them '51.

I detected one omission and, for the record, I mention:

During early 1916, Ex-President Taft, then Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, spoke on the subject of "Preparedness" to a capacity audience in Webster Hall. I recall this vividly and remember the story he told about his friend "Teddy" Roosevelt. It seems when Teddy was Governor of New York, he was approached by an Irish friend for a certain favor. Teddy listened intently and when "Mike" had finished his plea, Teddy replied to him, "Mike, I'd love to do this for you, but I'm afraid I can't. It's unconstitutional." Whereupon Mike replied, "Awh, what the hell's the Constitution amongst friends."

On the day following Taft's address in Hanover, he spoke at the Toy Town Tavern, Winchendon, Mass. I know this as John Sullivan '18 (recently deceased) and I were invited there to play banjo music during the banquet. It seemed that Taft was very fond of banjo music, and the manager of Toy Town Tavern, aware of this, contacted us in Hanover to provide some.

Several times during the banquet, Taft personally sent word to us to play some "darkie tunes," and when we played them he enjoyed them immensely, if his applause was a criterion.

Newton, Mass.