POPULATION AND POLITICS

A returning alumnus is bound to notice many outward physical changes in the local scene. Some old familiar buildings have disappeared and many new ones have been completed. Traffic lights regulate his arrival in Hanover, parking meters eat up his nickels, and many of the old elms have been cut down. The Campus —or the Green as it should be called - looks much scrubbier, traffic is much heavier, the students look much younger and the new faculty likewise, and somehow the whole pace of college life seems quickened. But there are constants which show little or no change - the hills, and the river, the Hanover Inn, Rollins Chapel and the old White Row, the Gym, Harry Tanzi, Grange Hall and the dogs - and the Old Grad tends to feel happily at home.

You have to live longer on the scene to be conscious of other less conspicuous changes which though less readily observable are no less real. One such change, on both sides of the river, is the gradual but persistent diminution in numbers of the regular old-fashioned "townies" as residents in both Hanover and Norwich. This began with the death over the years of these old-timers and continues with the gradual tendency for such folk to move outside the immediate area. The small farms continue to disappear as such and in some cases to be bought up by alumni and others who retire here. Some of the older houses which provided low-cost living have been torn down or remodeled. The cost of living in the Hanover-Norwich area, particularly housing cost, had led many of the Hanover "working class" - to use the old and perhaps unfortunate expression to seek residence in neighboring communities. Hanover seems increasingly to be serviced by people who live in Lyme or Lebanon, Wilder or White River Junction, or even further afield in such towns as Canaan, Plainfield, Claremont, Thetford, Fairlee, Hartland, and Windsor. This means that many fewer such folk are in evidence in local community activities in Norwich and Hanover- whether social or cultural or political doings.

And some of those who remain on the scene tend in fact to stay more under cover than formerly. I have had old ladies tell me that after the College closes in June they have a spell of visiting Main Street where they can then, they feel, wander freely, take in the store windows and visit perchance with other old-time friends. The introduction of the summer term, and more summer activity on all fronts, promises to curtail even this break for the old ladies.

This shift in population an inevitable part of changing times —is a very real one but in noting it one should also note the emergence of a newer and younger type of town element which is holding its own, particularly on the political front. This "new-type townie," usually in business or the business-associated professions, is very likely to have more formal education than the older type, and economically and socially often rates with the faculty group. In Hanover at a recent special election to choose the five selectmen for the new town unit, resulting from the abolition of the separate village precinct administered by commissioners, no one of the five chosen can truly be called a representative of the gown. One might be labeled college because he works for Dartmouth as Director of Placement and Staff Personnel, but the other four, with a single exception, are definitely Main Street and representatives of what we have called the "new-type townie." One is proprietor of a restaurant, one an engineer, and the third in real estate. The fifth, recently resigned, was the only one of the new board who came close to representing old-time Hanover. Until recently he operated a good-sized farm and is now still active in his sawmill and blacksmith shop, but there is not much that is old-fashioned about Niles Lacoss, who is an alumnus of the University of New Hampshire.

As a matter of fact the gown does not take very kindly to active participation in political life. And representatives of the town still hold to the "ivory-tower" concept and the feeling that you can not expect too much practical work and wisdom from academicians. Frankly, most faculty men either don't want to be bothered with such activity or don't feel they can take the time from their research programs.

For some reason or other the Moderators have for some years been faculty men and there have been representatives of the gown on the finance committee and school board. Naturally education is a field in which most faculty folk feel a special competence and they have played a prominent role in school affairs, but even in this area representation has probably not been in proportion to the relative increase in size of the faculty family

Across the river in Norwich it is also true that very few representatives of the gown appear on the current list of town officers. No one of the selectmen has any connection with the College one being a carpenter and contractor, another in the lumber business, and the third combining small-scale farming with practically a full-time commitment as road commissioner. The town clerk and tax collector is also in the insurance business and the town constable runs a trucking business and in winter handles the assignment of plowing out our driveways. The Norwich School Committee has for some time included a real representative of the gown, as well as of the clergy and the bar, and it is in this area, perhaps, that some of the remaining old-timers in Norwich feel there is an unfortunate prom- inence of "new school" influence. As in Hanover, the tendency across the river is to choose a representative of the gown as Moderator, though this has been true only in recent years.

So the balance of town and gown changes over the years and within the changing scene the character of both groups also change. Heaven knows the faculty type has changed and is changing, and as we have noted, change in representatives of the town is particularly noticeable. There remain, on both sides of the river, very few examples of the old-time, small-town North Country characters who were for the most part shrewd and thrifty and wise, independent-minded, mostly very conservative but also very forthright in speech. Their places have been filled by the "new-type townie," more sophisticated and better dressed, often better educated and more given to spending, and sometimes, it seems, more pliable and dissimulating. But time is very apt to make "ancient good uncouth" and in many ways our communities by keeping pace with changing times are by most standards much better off. Happily town and gown still live together in relative peace and harmony, and whether it be parking nickels or school bonds that are needed, we still can count on both sides of the community coin to make the transaction a sound one.