Letters to the Editor

A Scraper's Tribute

TO THE EDITOR:

The summit of my attainments in Dartmouth hockey was scraping ice between periods in the glorious 1942-43 season. Even from that low vantage point, I concluded that Eddie Jeremiah was an excellent coach and a fine mentality - a view the intervening years have not dimmed.

If the "new and bigger hockey rink at the College" materializes, let it contain a plaque with Jerry's visage and the injunction to "Look Up and Keep Fighting." I trust those who scraped, no less than those who skated, may contribute.

Los Angeles, Calif.

First "Etudiants a I'Etanger"

TO THE EDITOR:

The interesting article in the February ALUMNI MAGAZINE entitled Nos Etudiantsa I'Stranger recalled to me with great pleasure my experiences at the Universite de Caen in 1919.

Following a cautious inquiry which I had made, I was surprised to receive from the Army Headquarters the order to report at once to the Universite de Caen. A. V. Goldiere, a '19 classmate, attached to the same U.S. Army ambulance unit, who had made a proper application, also, received his orders and we made the long train trip from St. Goar on the Rhine to Normandy together.

Upon our arrival we were directed to the Pension Normand on rue de Geole, where with several other American G.l.s and French natives we spent the weeks from March to July 1919 living like royalty in comparison with our previous 22 months.

The University, destroyed later in World War 11, then occupied a single ancient building. There were few students when we arrived as the four years of war had taken its toll. There were a few native female students but they were not permitted to obtain a degree.

I remember that I was much surprised to find myself enrolled as a law student. After struggling conscientiously for several days with jurisprudence in the French language, I transferred to courses in history and literature.

The 91 American students were in the charge of an administrative group headed by Lt. Daniel Jordan. However, there was little except our uniforms to remind us of the military. We did have to report each morning for roll call.

The French professors were helpful and very friendly. None of us will ever forget the champagne farewell party they gave us.

Our social life was activated by the arrival of forty female English students. Picnics and parties were speedily organized. The girls proved to be good sports despite their insistence that we spoke "degenerate English" and at least one romance bloomed into marriage.

As the July Ist termination date approached, we Americans decided to show our appreciation for the friendships we had formed. We held a Grand Ball, the first in Caen since 1914. Everyone, including the Governor of the Prefect, the Mayor of Caen, the officials and faculty of the University, their wives and other important citizens, attended. There was a Grand March and dancing. All went well until our spokesman, a Harvard man, in announcing a dance by a pretty young French dancing teacher and an American marine sergeant, stated that Mile. and M. Beveridge would render an "exhibition de danse."

None of us appreciated the profound silence which, momentarily, followed this announcement until the next day our French tablemates, in a convulsion of laughter, explained that the speaker should have said "representation de danse."

In the fall of 1919 when Goldy and I returned to Dartmouth to complete our studies, Professor Skinner graciously prepared a special examination for us in French, which, happily, gave us a full year's credit and enabled us to qualify as French majors toward our degrees.

The contingent of students at the Universite de Caen included seven of us from Dartmouth. Andrew Jackson 'O3 came from Littleton, N. H.; Edward M. Ross '18 from Lebanon, N. H.; A. V. Goldiere '19 from Methuen, Mass.; Stanley Rogers '20 from Tenafly, N. J.; Ralph Yuill '20 from Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Walter Kennedy 'l5 from New York City. Perhaps we were the first "Nos fitudiants a l'fitranger" at the Universite de Caen.

Milton, Mass.

Supports GEM Football

TO THE EDITOR:

This is to express my agreement with the letter from Charles S. Stack '39 in the February issue, suggesting that limitations be placed on the number of players participating in a football game. I am not sure that 25 is the magic number, but I do believe it is unfair for any one team to use up to 5" or more players in a game. It seems to me that all too often games are decided by sheer force of numbers. I recall away back in the Neanderthal age that Brown had an undefeated season, using only eleven men (the nickname "Iron Men" was certainly appropriate). If memory serves correctly, I believe "Tuss" McLaughry was the coach of that remarkable team. Squeezing the team down to the irreducible minimum of eleven is perhaps going too far in the other direction, but I do think the continuity of the game is upset with waves of players rushing on and off the field every few minutes.

There is, of course, the argument that unlimited substitution makes it possible for more students to participate and to win their coveted letters. On the other hand, as Mr. Stack has indicated, basketball popularity does not seem to have suffered from player limitation, and the same would apply some- what to hockey and baseball. The emphasis would quite properly be shifted from quantity to quality.

It would be very interesting to have the expert opinion of Coach Bob Blackman on this subject.

Greenwich, Conn.

Mr. Stack, 892 Helena Drive, Sunnyvale,Calif., has written that he will be glad tohear directly from any alumni in favor ofthe GEM football proposed in his letter.

An Idea for May 4

TO THE EDITOR:

From my observations and experience in alumni club affairs since my 1908 to 1912 service as secretary-treasurer of the Chicago Alumni Association, may I suggest an occasion for opening the spring and summer activities of alumni clubs that could be comparable to the opening of the fall and winter season with Dartmouth Night?

Richard Hovey '85, our Dartmouth Poet Laureate, has provided a seasonal start of outdoor activities in his famous poem Spring, which includes the popular "For it's always fair weather" verses so often sung "when good fellows get together."

May 4is Hovey's birthday and was once observed in Boston in 1939 with a "Hovey Hum." An attendance of over 750 enjoyed Hovey readings by Joe Donahue '08 and other highlights under the leadership of the great Bill Cunningham '19. And if that was not a real spring party, "there never was one you saw who was"!

Are there any other survivors?

Edwin Osgood Grover '94 has written: "Richard Hovey was Dartmouth's Laureate, the great interpreter of the Dartmouth Spirit. ... Hovey built up a little literature about Dartmouth such as no other college in America possesses. It is a heritage more precious than we know. But some day we shall see that Richard Hovey's call to manhood, to comradeship, to loyalty, to fellowship, with all that makes Dartmouth the intellectual mother of us all, is part of the priceless spiritual endowment of the College.

"He wrote of us in words and symbols that we can understand. He is saying the things we have striven to say but could not find the words."

So on May 4 every year, why not get together in the fellowship of spring?

New London, N. H.

100% Disagreement

TO THE EDITOR:

In the March 1, 1967 issue of The Dartmouth there is an editorial entitled "Ratified Religion?" of which the first paragraph reads as follows: "The decision of the New Hampshire House of Representatives to legalize prayer and religious exercises jn Granite State public schools can only be viewed with disappointment, dismay and disbelief. It is arrogant, disrespectful and in direct conflict with the U.S. Supreme Court's outlawing of governmental support of religion in public education."

I disagree 100% with this editorial and I also disagree 100% with the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Would that the late William Jewett Tucker were alive to give us his opinion.

Las Cruces, N. Mex.