The 1955 Hanover Holiday Program

WHAT'S New" is the theme for Hanover Holiday this June, to go along with a new reunion schedule and a new plan for the lecture series itself. What with 1909, 1910 and 1911 getting to Hanover the first of the week, and 1930 on Thursday, it seemed best to put together a series that could be attended in full or in part without losing continuity - one really built around the idea of what's new in a variety of fields. Moreover, the 25-year class, 1930, wanted to have an active part in the program. The final result is a week that looks exciting.

The program starts Monday morning, June 13. James Andrew Sykes, Chairman of the Music Department, will show by word and demonstration what is meant by "Contemporary Music." Professor Sykes, one of the newer members of the faculty, is a pianist who recently filled Webster Hall when he gave a recital. A graduate of Princeton and the Eastman School, he came here in 1953, after a varied career as head of the Music Department at Colgate, Dean of the Lamont School of Music, and member of the Denver Symphony.

Monday evening is set for "Modern Art" by Churchill Pierce Lathrop, Chairman of the Art Department. This year my wife has gone back to school, and has come home for luncheon on MWF full of excitement about the lectures in Art 17, which have dealt with painting, architecture, railroad engines, and bridges; art has a broad meaning. It is time for Professor Lathrop to share some of this with the Holiday students.

These days the papers are full of advertising about the new fabrics - the suits you can throw in a tub, with the built-in creases, and so on. It is all rather trying to a New Englander raised in the woolen business, but it is still interesting. How all this is possible is the Tuesday morning subject, "The New Synthetic Fibers," by Andrew Jackson Scarlett '10, New Hampshire Professor of Chemistry. The Holiday is grateful to Professor Scarlett for giving this talk in the middle of a busy reunion, and we are looking forward to it. Once before he was on the program, and gave one of the best talks on science we have ever had.

Tuesday evening is reserved for John G. Kemeny, Professor of Mathematics. Appointed in 1953, this is actually his first year here, after teaching at Princeton, where he was graduated in 1947. Besides teaching, he was a research associate, one year with Professor Einstein, and one at Los Alamos. This fall he held a large audience spellbound for a long evening with a mathematics talk whose very title had meant nothing to most of them beforehand. Mathematics can answer many problems, some of them ones that seem quite unlikely, and that leads to his topic, "Mathematical Formulas for Human Behavior."

Wednesday morning another new member of the faculty is scheduled, Robert Allyn Kavesh, Assistant Professor of Economics. After New York University (1949) and Harvard, he too came here in 1953 and at once acquired a reputation both in the classroom and out as a stimulating speaker. Most of us have been wondering lately about such things as government spending and budgets and the growing leisure class, and would like to know what economists today feel about all this. Hence his talk, "Current Economic Thinking."

Another set of ads has stirred me up lately - the ones, for example, that say some product is a lot cheaper, or better, because of automation. What are these pushbutton factories, and what will they do to people? That is exactly what Clyde Edward Dankert, Professor of Economics, has been working on for years, and his subject is "Automation - The New Revolution in Industry." From Toronto and Chicago he came to Dartmouth in 1930, and has distinguished himself in the field of labor economics. He is himself excited about what is going on, and so will anybody be who hears what a revolution it really is.

So much for the first part of the program. It is a good one. After a recess Thursday morning, the second part starts that evening, and it too is very good. It is in part designed for, and in part built around, the twenty-five year class of 1930. The meetings are open to everybody.

In brief, after a survey of what has happened of late, the program takes up the problem of what may happen in the future, in two fields, international relations and within our own society. The survey, Thursday evening, will be made by Allen Richard Foley '20, Professor of History, whose topic is "The World and the College Since 1930." There is no need of identifying Professor Foley for a Dartmouth audience. This is bound to be a most stimulating and interesting talk, and a fine introduction to Friday morning.

At 9:30 there will be a panel discussion on "Co-existence: Where Do We Go From Here?" Four men will take part, each speaking very briefly, with plenty of time for discussion among themselves and with the audience. Harry Sproull Casler '30, leading off with "The New Look in Diplomacy," speaks from his long experience in the Department of State. John French '30 follows with "The United States and the Uncommitted Areas," with which he had his first experience with Nelson Rockefeller '30, in the early days of economic aid. It was Mr. French who acted for his class in helping draw up this part of the program and was promptly drafted as a participant by the Holiday director, who still remembered his ideas when he was editor of The Dartmouth. From the faculty there are also two speakers. The first, John Clinton Adams, Professor of History, a specialist in modern European international relations and Russian foreign policy and a favorite speaker with students and alumni, will take up "The U.S. and the U.S.S.R." The second, H. Gordon Skilling, Professor of Government, will discuss "The U.S. and the U.N. Professor Skilling, of Toronto, Oxford, and the University of London, came here eight years ago, with time off since then for a year or two at the Russian Institute at Columbia. The panel will have as its chairman Professor Hill (drafted through no mutual pact by Mr. French) who besides teaching U.S. diplomatic history served in the Department of State in 1951-52. So much for the international area.

The domestic side of the future will be taken up Friday morning at 11 in a second panel discussion, around the topic Toward a Better Democracy." Again there are four members, two from the 25-year class and two from the faculty, each speaking briefly. One alumnus is Sylvester Weaver Jr. '30, president of the National Broadcasting Co., with the topic, "TV: Stimulus or Opiate?" The other is Francis Henry Horn '30, president of Pratt Institute, on "The Role of Education. Clearly, they are both so well qualified as to grace any program. For the faculty (and this is not meant to sound like a contest) the first is John Wallace Finch, Professor of English, on "The American Way of Life." Professor Finch has a special interest in American history. This he has cultivated to such purpose that for two years after the war he was Director of the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, an institution set up to explain the American way to the Germans. Beyond that, he has written plays - one produced in New York - and teaches Shakespeare to an extremely large class, one member of which interrupts the luncheon comments on Art 17 to talk about English 51.

The fourth man on the panel is Royal Case Nemiah, Lawrence Professor of the Greek Language and Literature, with "Security vs. Intellectual Freedom." Professor Nemiah has long been known as a man with sound and positive ideas, which he is willing, at times, to express with eloquence and wit. Fortunately this is one of those times, because the subject is of the very greatest importance. The chairman, Fred Clark Scribner '30, need not worry about lack of discussion with such a panel beside him. Mr. Scribner himself has been interested in democracy and how it works, as Republican National Committeeman from Maine.

Come, then, for all of the Holiday if you can, or if not for all, for any part of it. It looks good. The second part sets up a challenge to future 25-year classes, and I hope they improve on it even if I doubt they will. The program still leaves time for rest and recreation. The Hanover Inn, the dormitories, the Outing Club and Thayer Hall will take care of you. The cost will be very low. This is the year to come!

Hanover Holiday Director

AMONG THE FACULTY SPEAKERS for the annual Hanover Holiday program inJune are these two members of the Economics Department, Prof. Clyde E. Dankert (left)and Prof. Robert A. Kavesh. Their respective subjects are "Automation - The NewRevolution in Industry" and "Current Economic Thinking."