Should Congress Be Reorganized?
A BALMY foretaste of spring drove the NCAA ski competitors far from campus on March 7 and 8, but for a visiting group of Congressmen, writers scholars, and Congressional staff members here at the same time it was the change in climate in Washington, D.C., not Hanover, that really mattered.
The visitors, including a number of prominent alumni, were on hand for off- the-record discussions of "Congressional Reorganization: Problems and Prospects," the topic of the first Orvil E. Dryfoos Conference on Public Affairs. Mrs. Dryfoos, wife of the late President-Publisher of The New York Times, Dartmouth Trustee, and member of the Class of 1934, was present for the conference, sponsored by the Dartmouth Public Affairs Center as a Dryfoos memorial.
The Center has in past years held a series of annual conferences on the public service, but this was the first devoted specifically to Congress. The agenda for the meeting included three discussion sessions and a dinner meeting.
The "working paper" for the discussion sessions was a report on a survey of some 100 Congressmen by three members of the College's political science faculty - Roger Davidson, David Kovenock, and Michael O'Leary. The report noted that despite general criticism by journalists, scholars, and the public, the Congressmen themselves are strongly opposed to Congressional reform.
Congressmen attending the conference were Thomas B. Curtis '32 (R-Mo.), David T. Martin '29 (R-Neb.), James C. Cleveland (R-N. H.), Chet Holifield (D-Calif.), Fred Schwengel (R-Iowa), Robert Stafford (R-Vt.), Morris Udall (D-Ariz.), and Charles Weltner (D-Ga.).
Other participants included John B. Oakes of The New York Times, Neil MacNeil '45 of Tune, Karl Meyer of the Washington Post, Thomas N. Schroth '43 of Congressional Quarterly, and Frederick Cleaveland of the Brookings Institution, in addition to President Dickey, Prof. Gene M. Lyons, director of the Public Affairs Center and first Orvil E. Dryfoos Professor of Public Affairs, other members of the faculty, and a number of undergraduates.
The Conference in session in the library of Sanborn English House.
Shown in this conference line-up (l to r) are David M. Kovenock of Dartmouth's government department CongressmanDave Martin '29 of Nebraska, Neil MacNeil '45 of Time Magazine, William Phillips, staff director of the Democratic Study Group, Congressman Chet Holifield of California, and John B. Oakes of The New York Times.
Congressman Fred Schwengel of lowa,Congressman Thomas B. Curtis '32 ofMissouri, and Thomas N. Schroth '43,executive editor of CongressionalQuarterly, at the opening session.
From the left: Congressmen Morris Udall of Arizona, James Cleveland of New Hampshire, Robert Stafford of Vermont,and Charles Weltner of Georgia; Prof. Joseph Cooper of Harvard; Prof. Milton Rosenberg of Dartmouth;Fred Cleaveland of the Brookings Institution; and Robert Steadman of the Committee for Economic Development.
Mrs. Orvil E. Dryfoos, seated withPresident Dickey, was present for thefirst Dartmouth conference held as amemorial to her late husband.
