LETTERS

Primordial Prompting

To THE EDITOR:

As quoted in "The Undergraduate Chair" in your April issue, the probable reason that Mr. Ronald Kehoe pleads so easily and earnestly for the "right to be wrong" is that he has no idea what real error can involve. There is no question that he has never been in any real trouble and apparently he hasn't yet acquired the imagination to know where error may indeed lead.

Still, if a man desires with all his heart to leap from the cliff, who are we to interfere with so primordial a prompting?

Hanover, N. H.

Family Interest

TO THE EDITOR:

Many alumni will be interested in the Robert Frost article by Mr. Lathem in the March issue; but I hope I may be pardoned if I write you about my particular interest, for I am a son of Barron Shirley '92, and hence a nephew of Preston Shirley '96. I barely remember my father, for he died when I was six, and I never knew my uncle, for he died when I was three.

My mother has told me that my father was proud of being a "Wentworth Heller" and she always added grimly that all this group died young. Mr. Frost may remember this phrase; and he may be interested to know that my grandfather, John M. Shirley, was given an honorary degree by the College. I believe this was given for my grandfather's book on the Dartmouth College Case. This was a dusty legal commentary called "The Dartmouth College Causes" but it has many delightful passages hidden among the legalities.

New York, N. Y.

Let's Admit Alaska

TO THE EDITOR:

With Dartmouth's 200th anniversary just over the time horizon, I respectfully suggest that now might be the proper time for the College - and especially its class officials and administrative personnel - to formally recognize Alaska as the 49th state of the Union.

It isn't so much that I object particularly to being notified by a class officer, as happened recently, that I should forward immediately my class dues, since "it's expensive to send the (ALUMNI) MAGAZINE to foreign countries"; this, after all, is just an interesting tidbit of information (though if it's meant to concern me, then probably I should notify the class officers they are both misguided and overcharged: my copies of the MAGAZINE arrive under normal second-class mailing, and two months late at that). It isn't even that I greatly resent being notified by the Capital Gifts Campaign Committee of their campaign progress by way of a letter that they note is designed to contact alumni "living outside the United States"; for, after all, I recall an Alumni Fund listing of several years back (prior to Alaska statehood) in which Alaska was listed among "Foreign Countries" at the same time that Canada rated listing with the then 48 states.

The real point of this suggestion is twofold: (1) Dartmouth would thus tidy up one more loose end in preparation for embarking firmly (and well-informed) into its third century and (2), it would thus renew a precedent, apparently abandoned back in Ought. Twelve when Arizona and New Mexico joined the Union, that will in time permit it to recognize Hawaii, soon to be the nation's 50th state.

Anchorage, Alaska

P.S. I may just go ahead and form a Dartmouth Club of Anchorage, with Dr. John Tower '47. We could thus not only guarantee 100% attendance each meeting we hold, we could also bring pressure to bear.