1938

'Round the girdled earth they roam' surely applies to the members of what Scotty referred to as "The Amazing Class of 1938," based on the postmarks and letterheads on the replies I've received to my letter to the Class.

I guess Ev Wood's letter traveled the farthest, from Berlin, where Ev continues to be an executive with Pan American Airways. Also from outside the United States, Dwight Parkinson wrote from Winnipeg, where he's a neurosurgeon. The reply from the nearest point to Hanover, and the first reply I received, was from Charlie Tesreau. Charlie is a lawyer in Lebanon, N. H.

As the first correspondent, Charlie is also the only one to have received a written acknowledgment from me. To the other 28 who wrote, I apologize and hope you'll accept this form of acknowledgement. I'm my own stenographer, and not a very deft one, and the Magazine deadline impends.

As to what you've all written, rather than whence, replies are running 97%-plus in support of the position expressed in my letter. This is deeply gratifying. I'd like to think it will have some effect on College policy. Gratifying too is the fact that so many of you have taken the time, not only to write and express an opinion, but to have thought deeply and earnestly. I'd like to quote from a lot of your letters: I'm going to quote just one, from Johnny Merrill.

"Dear Jim:

Thanks for your letter about the 'attempt to destroy the Indian symbol' of Dartmouth. For a good many years the plight of the American Indian has been one of my major interests. I have read considerably thereon and have made it a major source of my charitable contributions. I say this only so that I can speak with some authority when I tell you that I completely agree with you that the attitude of the dissident Dartmouth Indian undergraduates is not only childish but will considerably injure the cause of the Indian nations as a whole in the eyes of those who quite sincerely believe that they have been shamefully treated and that restitution should be made. I, too, would like to think that it was a dissident minority of the Dartmouth Indian undergraduates because if it were not, I would be quite discouraged about the potential of any group holding such ideas to become a useful and functioning part of the whole of society.

"Best regards, Sincerely, Sig./John P. Merrill, M.D."

Dr. Merrill is Director, Cardiorenal Section, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, and a professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School.

There is a basic error in the thinking indicated by the proposals of the "Indian Symbol" Committee and incorporated in the June 30 Bulletin. (Incidentally, as I assume you recognized, I received the Bulletin after I wrote my letter, but nothing in the former would have led me to alter the latter.)

This error is to confuse the Dartmouth Indian symbol, the Dartmouth Indian emblem, the Dartmouth tradition that we all came to love in College and still love, with the recognition of, and an effort to expiate, the shameful treatment that the Indian has received from the white man.

I think that any one who fails to recognize that the Indian received the rawest of raw deals and that he deserves a fairer shake is very wrong. I think that any one who believes that eliminating the Indian symbol at Dartmouth will contribute to this fairer shake is even more wrong.

As far as implementing our Class protest, or conveying the sentiments of the Class to the powers that be, is concerned, what I'm doing is this: I'll get all the letters I've received (so far, 27 pro retention of the symbol; one, anti; one undecided) copy-faxed, and I'll mail them off to Bill Andres '29, the new president of the Board of Trustees, with a covering letter, with cross copies to President Kemeny and the president of the Alumni Council. (I know that some of you sent cross copies or originals to them, but many didn't.)

Many of you noted but it seems worth repeating, that Bob Kilmarx' investigations to the contrary notwithstanding, the use of the Senior Indianhead cane (and if that isn't the Dartmouth Indian symbol, what the heck is?) considerably antedates the 1920's. Ref. (from their letters): CharlieHitchcock. His father was 1912. Charlie has his father's Indianhead Senior cane. Ref. Grove Fox. His father was 1913; his father had an Indianhead Senior cane. Ref.my wife, the former lan Murchie. We have in a trunk in our barn an Indianhead Senior cane which belonged to her father, Harold H. Murchie, 1909; her uncle, Carl Ross, was 1907. He also prized his Indianhead Senior cane.

In connection with this whole matter one cannot but wonder just how important the College considers Dartmouth's alumni and their contributions to the Alumni Fund to be. We all know how we're told, year after year, how significant our contributions, and the loyalty evidenced thereby, are. But every loyalty has a limit, and it almost seems that at times the College is deriving masochistic pleasure from doing things that alienate many of us and strain that loyalty pretty far.

In the Dartmouth-Cornell football game of 1940, as we all remember, whether members of the present College administration do or not, the referee lost track of the downs and gave Cornell a fifth down, on which they scored as the game ended, for an Cornell 7-3 victory. Game movies clearly established that the referee Red Freisell had erred; he courageously and honestly acknowledged his mistake; and Cornell, in a classic example of good sportsmanship, gave Dartmouth back the victory, 3-0.

I don't think the analogy is too far-fetched. I suggest that it would be great if the College administration would take a leaf from Red Freisell's and Cornell's book and recognize and acknowledge the error it has made in trying to deprive our college and us of the Dartmouth College Indian symbol.

As you all know, this is my first effort for the class-notes section of the Alumni Magazine. It certainly isn't typical, but the circumstances aren't usual either. The summer months and the Alumni Records Office have provided some news — a large number of address changes — and I'll try to include them next month. Fired up over the Indian symbol matter (and a novice at class secretaryship), I forgot to ask for personal news in my letter to the Class. Needless to say, I'd welcome it.

To all of you who have written about the Dartmouth Indian emblem, my very sincere thanks. I'll be more than happy to pay for copy-faxing and sending on to Mr. Andres and to Hanover letters and comments from the thus-far silent majority of you.

... In closing, how many of you remember the start of the second verse of "Men of Dartmouth"? I thought I did, but I wasn't sure; so I listened to the Glee Club record we have. It goes, "Men of Dartmouth, set a watch, Lest the old traditions fail." It seems very darn appropriate, and sort of poignant, doesn't it?

Let's do the best we can to see that the old traditions don't fail.

Secretary, Box 187, Damariscotta, Me. 04543

Treasurer, 1335 Woodside Dr., McLean, Va. 22101