The Faculty
AMONG those newly appointed to the faculty this semester is Philip Booth '47 who will instruct in the English Department. Mr. Booth received his M.A. degree from Columbia in 1949 and taught at Bowdoin in 1950. as worked as assistant to the director of admissions at Dartmouth and has published poetry and critical articles in such magazines as The Hudson Review, Poetry, TheNew Yorker, and Harper's Bazaar. His work is also included in an anthology of modern poetry edited by Rolfe Humphries, New Poems by American Poets.
Another newcomer to the Dartmouth teaching staff is Dr. Chiao-Min Hsieh, Instructor in Geography. Dr. Hsieh (pronounced she) received his A.B. degree from the National University, Chekiang, China, in 1941 and studied at the China Institute of Geography in Chunking until after the war. While at Chunking, he did extensive research and published articles on the Province of Szechwan. In 1947 Dr. Hsieh traveled to Formosa where he taught at Tai Wan University, and in 1948 he was sent to this country by the Chinese Nationalist government to continue his studies. At Syracuse University he received his M.A. in 1950 and his Ph.D. in 1953.
PROFESSOR DANIEL MARX JR. '29 of the Economics Department has undertaken a research program to determine in what ways and to what extent ocean transport affects the economic development of under-developed areas of the world. Operating under a $15,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Professor Marx plans in his two-year project to examine the north coast of South America, especially Colombia and Venezuela, and in so far as shipping practice requires, the adjacent Netherlands West Indies, Trinidad, Surinam and British Guiana. Professor Marx reports that he has chosen the north coast of South America because "it is a manageable unit and because it provides challenging development problems. In addition to promising interesting and useful results by itself, this study will also provide a stepping stone that will be useful if it is subsequently decided to extend the project to the balance of South America."
The project actually has its beginnings in the period 1931-36, when Professor Marx was associated with the Pope and Talbot Steamship Lines in San Francisco as a shipping executive. Much of his research since that time has been directed toward international maritime trade. In 1942-43 Professor Marx was chief of the Vessel, Utilization and Cargo Reports Section of the War Shipping Administration, and in 1949 he was a special assistant to Ambassador Averell Harriman at the Economic Cooperation Administration in Paris. In 1950-52 he directed a study of external transportation for the Government of Puerto Rico. Professor Marx plans to do most of his research in Hanover.
HENRY TERRIE of the Department of English spoke recently to the novel class at the University of Massachusetts on "The Final Period of Henry James." While there, Mr. Terrie, who is completing his dissertation on "The Pictorial Method of Henry James," led a discussion group of the University's literary society on "The International Theme in 'Madame de Mauves.' "
PROFESSOR JOHN W. MASLAND Of the Government Department was recently elected to the board of trustees of Williston Academy in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Professor Masland is on leave from the College for the current semester to continue his work on civil-military relations.
AMONG members of the Dartmouth faculty who paint for a hobby Professor Herbert F. West '22 of the Department of Comparative Literature has developed an outstanding talent in this art form and has received a number of honors in New England exhibitions. Another of these honors was received last month when Professor West's watercolor, "A Fisher of Men," was one of thirty paintings chosen from more than 600 entries, many by prominent artists, in the annual show staged at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts by the Boston Society of Independent Artists. The thirty paintings selected will make up the Socity's annual traveling exhibition, to be seen at various New England galleries during the coming year.
PROFESSOR EDMUND BOOTH '18, of the English Department, who has for many years been reading to the freshman class the Shakespearean plays discussed in Freshman English, this year had an unusually strenuous program. Both parts of Henry IV, Henry V, and King Lear were on the freshman calendar, and in addition Professor Booth read Othello to the Manchester Academy of Arts and Sciences and to the students at Saint Mary's in the Mountains. While mentioning Shakespeare, I should add that Professors Warner Bentley and Henry Williams produced very successfully Henry IV, Part I in December and promise the College an equally fine production of Henry IV, Part II in April. Their hope is to put on Richard II and Henry V next year, and if all goes well to have a drama festival in which all four of these great historical plays will be produced in order.
FACETS OF DARTMOUTH EDUCATION: Perhaps most will agree that the political problem is fundamentally a problem of human character. As Plato puts it, "States are not made from rocks and trees but from the characters of their citizens which turn the scale and draw everything after them." It seems just as true to assert that an informed and responsible electorate is an essential ingredient of a healthy democracy. Dartmouth in its role as a civilizing institution is greatly interested in helping its students develop the integrity and moral strength and acquire the understandings which will enable them to become worthy of their position as free and responsible members of a democracy. A course directly concerned with this aim is Government 1, a study of the present-day national government of the United States. The course deals with the general principles, processes and problems of the government, - more specifically with the organization, powers, and functioning of the Presidency, Congress, and the federal courts. Considerable attention is given to the enlargement of the scope of activities of the national government and to the study of pressure groups and their influence upon party politics and governmental processes. Each semester more than goo Dartmouth men take the course, which is divided into sections to provide students ample opportunity to discuss the issues brought up.
An interesting feature of the course has been added in recent years. Problems of contemporary importance are introduced for study and discussion in the section of the course where they are most relevant. For example, after the men have studied the executive branch, with its powers and limitations, the question of whether the Bricker Amendment to the Constitution should be ratified is examined, with the students working out their own answers on the bases of thoughtful study. In some sections part of the class takes one contemporary problem as its own special province and leads the rest of the group in a discussion of the pros and cons. Typical contemporary problems in the course this semester are "What will be the leading issues in the 1954 elections?", "Should the Supreme Court declare racial segregation laws unconstitutional?" and "Should witnesses refuse to answer the questions of Congressional Investigating Committees on the ground of self-incrimination?" The work of the course is conducted by lectures and discussions with wide reading in such books as Professor Harold Bruce's American National Government, American Democracy in Theory and Practice by Professors Robert Carr '29, Donald Morrison and others, and Cushman's LeadingConstitutional Decisions. Careful reading of a good daily newspaper is also strongly encouraged.
The course may satisfy part of the College's social science requirement for the students; it also helps them develop a mature and fully adult approach to some of the key issues of our day. The staff hopes also that more than a few of the many capable men taking the course will be encouraged to enter the field of politics and government after graduation.
