LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Support for the Intellectual

TO THE EDITOR:

Since Philip K. Murdock '15 was kind enough to ask for opinions about the views expressed in his letter (December 1961), I would like to take advantage of the opportunity so courteously offered.

1. Dartmouth's search for superior students is not so much in competition with other colleges as a self-imposed task to reach an ideal. This ideal, I believe, is most nearly described in Rabelais' Abbey of Theleme. I also believe that this ideal cannot be attained, but nothing can excuse lack of effort to do so.

2. The superior student is not a superman, as he himself knows only too well. God knows, we need all the superiority we can get, intellectual superiority not least.

3. There is a difference between a "topflight" man and a top-flight intellectual. The former, as he is usually presented to us, is the apotheosis of the Eagle Scout - loyal, clean, reverent, etc., to an excessive degree. There is nothing wrong, let me say clearly, with being loyal, clean, etc., but why do we exclude from the list of desirable virtues any mention of or reference to the mind? I believe we exclude a bow to the mental virtues because of our obsession with "character," a hangover, misunderstood and misapplied, from our Puritan beginnings.

4. An intellectual cross-section of American youth would be disastrous. It would result in a loss of ambition and a scaling down of values to the point where the final academic veto is held by the football coach, as it is so often in the helpless state university, where a cross-section is obligatory.

5. I should hope that a set of precepts, fitted to northern New England of 1769, would be radically changed in 1961. This is only basic realism.

6. It seems to me that the December issue itself contains a good deal of refutation to Mr. Murdock's argument. A college with the admissions policy he recommends would never have an Albert Bradley Center for Mathematics; the description of the Class of '65 provides all the heterogeneity (cross-section) any college needs (and can handle); Arnold Toynbee's advice about "misguided egalitarianism" , should be taken to heart - and head. The fault next to our obsession with "character" (and arising from it), is our debasing of democracy from a sensible political system to a foolish kind of social mystique.

7. I hope I never have to agree that any college, anywhere, at any time is "outside, i.e. above, our category."

In short, I disagree with Mr. Murdock, and I agree with Dartmouth - with all the goodwill in the world to both.

Santa Fe, N. M.

Garden Contests Deplored

TO THE EDITOR:

I consider myself a loyal Dartmouth alumnus and a faithful if not rabid follower of the Big Green teams. My family treasure fond memories of the famous picnics and enjoyable (Woodward and Red Smith to the contrary notwithstanding) jousts with our Ivy League brethren.

About four years ago we had the unpleasant experience of attending one of the holiday games at Madison Square Garden where Dartmouth was competing against one of "those teams." Needless to say we lost, and I was unhappy - but that's not what bothered me most.

Other things bothered me and my family. We were surrounded by a group of the most vile, uncouth, loud and unpleasant individuals who had no real interest in either team or the boys playing the game. I imagine they did have interest in the final score, however. They undoubtedly were members of the "point spread" fraternity. Needless to say, we never went back.

I see by the papers we are still going through the same routine amongst the same motley throng.

It seems to me that the schedule-makers should reexamine their conscience on the advisability of this type of contest in the future. As far as I am concerned, our college and its boys gain nothing from this type of experience.

Union City, N. J.