Letters

An Outspoken Man

To THE EDITOR:

The excellent In Memoriam article on Robert Lincoln O'Brien '91 in the January issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, stating that he was a blunt, outspoken man with firm convictions on tariff and world trade, and a key personality in the controversy that raged around American tariff policy in the Hoover and F. D. Roosevelt administrations, when he was chairman of the U. S. Tariff Commission, recalls a straight-from-the-shoulder talk he gave to my U. S, History class one day in Reed Hall in September 1943, when he was sojourning in Hanover.

He began by saying: "I am in sympathy with the general principles of the Free Trade idea. It is difficult to educate the human race to the acceptance of the idea of the free exchange of goods. Everybody wants a protective tariff for his own products. Every country wants to put a tremendous tariff on what the other countries are producing. The motto is 'Keep out the other fellow's products.'"

He continued: "There are few people in the world who will go to the length of wishing to have things produced where they can be produced cheapest. If a group of North American businessmen, with tariff protection, could grow bananas in a greenhouse in Barre, Vermont, and sell them for fifty cents apiece, they would try to do so."

Toward the end of his talk, which occupied the class hour, he proclaimed fervently: "The whole tariff idea is one of the most monstrous calamities that ever afflicted the human race, but it is one of the most deeply rooted of human instincts. After this war, I hope people can be brought to a more reasonable attitude toward the tariff question."

The class listened with deep interest and some surprise. The boys were learning history from a blunt, outspoken man who had been making it.

Hanover, N. H.

"Starry-Eyed," Reply

To THE EDITOR:

You have to let me in on the discussion about Dartmouth football once again if only because I am the starry-eyed gentleman, 1932, to whom Mr. Ireland refers.

Only one of Mr. Ireland's arguments improves with age. He now says that if Dartmouth is not willing to buy a good enough football team to win a majority of games every year it should get out of the football business.

More important, Mr. Ireland (and also Mr. Cushing '39, who seems even to have forgotten, alas, that there are classrooms and courses at Dartmouth) should read Dean Jensen's remarks to freshmen which also appear in the December ALUMNI MAGAZINE. Dean Jensen is lucid and sensible about what should be done during four years at Dartmouth. It is pleasant to see that he does not establish football as one of the "great questions" of our time. It is, in fact, particularly pleasing that our new Dean doesn't mention football at all, but stays to the question of what a liberal arts college is really about.

New York, N. Y.

Take a Deep Breath

To THE EDITOR:

Having read "Little to Cheer About" by Whitney Cushing '39 and "Athletes Needed" by Robert Ireland '36 in the December issue, I'd like to stand up and yell "Glory to Dartmouth!" Maybe I should say "Thank God for Dartmouth."

Since April of 1955 I have lived in Ohio where football is not a sport; it's a disease. A classmate who teaches in Cincinnati puts it this way: "At Dartmouth you have to get an education - at a Big Ten school you can get one if you want it."

While at Hanover I never rose above the status of an "average guy." But this particular average guy hopes that his son can "Go Dartmouth."

Going Dartmouth transcends the boundaries set by football fields, or the limits of any other sport. Going Dartmouth means being a gentleman and a scholar.

To any and all alumni who might lose their sense of balance, let's put it this way on any given Saturday afternoon, win, lose or draw, take a deep breath, look around you, and say, "I'm a Dartmouth Man."

Beliefontaine, Ohio

The Jensen Article

To THE EDITOR:

It might do us all good to read the Jensen article carefully - the one in the December issue on "The Meaning of a Liberal Education."

I have been reading it aloud - with some interpretation - to my fourteen-year-old son. Just maybe he will learn to recognize an educated man; perhaps even someday he will be one.

Anyway, for bringing us this article among others - many thanks.

Milford, N. H.

"I Get Mad"

To THE EDITOR

Is this the place where I dump the ice water? Are you fond of criticism?

The November ALUMNI MAGAZINE shows that Dartmouth has made impressive progress in the past ten years, and expects more of the same in the next fifteen. What sort of progress is indicated?

1. Endowment: Up 65% in the past ten years, should reach $94 million by 1970.

2. Annual Alumni Contributions: more so.

3. Tuition: Up from $450 per year in 1945 to $980 in 1955; we can hope to reach $2500 per year by 1970.

This means that unless my kids are close to the genius class (mental or football), Dartmouth is out. I can't pay that kind of tuition and I won't take a pauper's oath.

So what? Many still apply for the few that are chosen. What's good for General Motors is good for Dartmouth. We made so much progress and so much money last year that we were forced to raise the price of cars again.

You know, I've received about 250 letters, pamphlets, etc., from Dartmouth in the past 24 years, and about 226 asked for money. Included in the former are a handful of cards describing me as a "Regular."

Well, I get mad, but the old Ex-lax is still working. Enclosed is a little something you can forward to the appropriate place [check enclosed].

Taylorsville, Ill.