Letters to the Editor

Ed Booth

TO THE EDITOR:

The obituary of Professor Edmund Booth '18 in the January ALUMNI MAGAZINE was factually full, and yet it failed to describe adequately one aspect of his life of service which made my stay in Hanover fuller and more satisfying and did the same for many other undergraduates over the years.

In his quiet way, Ed sought persistently and effectively to appeal to the "better angels of our nature" as students and to raise our goals and standards of living. As indicated in the obituary, he was active in his fraternity and senior society in watching over their ministerial activities, but he also initiated and supported programs to make their activities relevant to the general community and a significant part of the educational process. For many years he single-handedly organized, directed, and produced the annual Alpha Delt pre-Shakespearean play, and he supervised the development of the rich and varied literary resources of his senior society, thereby providing an attractive alternative to inaction or carousal.

As with his Shakespearean readings, his objective was to enrich our lives and he pursued this goal with zeal and devotion and with an expenditure of time and energy which was prodigious and without material compensation.

While he certainly sought no reward or recognition, it is to be hoped that he found gratification in the appreciation of those whose sights he raised and for whom he helped to lay the foundation for a richer and fuller life.

Washington, D.C.

Forum Clarified

TO THE EDITOR:

In responding to Mr. Robert Rizzi's "warning to conservative alumni" which appeared in the March edition of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, I will take the opportunity to clarify the purpose of the American Forum at Dartmouth and the Forum's function on the College campus.

Contrary to Mr. Rizzi's assertion that the American Forum is a "dissident" group, the Forum is not composed of members disaffected with official College policy. It would be incorrect to associate the American Forum with attempts to resurrect the Indian symbol or to abolish coeducation and the Dartmouth Plan.

The purpose of the American Forum is to promote conservative political and economic scholarship on the Dartmouth College campus. Our aim is to encourage the pragmatic examination of contemporary issues such as the policy of detente, government regulation of industry and education, the welfare state, and the religious grounds for liberty.

To this end, the American Forum will present a series of respected conservative spokesmen, and the Forum's first lecture series will begin this spring. Economist Milton Friedman and Justice William Rehnquist have agreed to participate in the spring program. Invitations for the American Forum's 1975-76 lecture series have been sent to Presidential adviser William Seidman '43, economist Allan Greenspan Senator James Buckley, author Irving Kristol and other prominent individuals. The Forum's lectures will be supplemented with a program of student debates and discussions on contemporary issues, and we look forward to frequent seminars conducted by business leaders from across the country. The advice and assistance of professors Colin Campbell and Jeffrey Hart have been helpful in the development of the Forum's program.

As co-chairmen of the American Forum Coleman Andrews '76 and I receive no monetary compensation for our efforts. Mr. Rizzi's fears that the Forum serves primarily as a vehicle to more lucrative positions are not justified. In addition, all expenditures of the American Forum are approved by the administrative assistant to the Council on Student Organizations - the body which gives the Forum its official College recognition. Each contribution received by the Forum is recorded and acknowledged through the Development Office at Dartmouth. It is the policy of the American Forum to avoid procuring a large endowment. Instead, funds sufficient to operate a successful program will be solicited on a yearly basis.

Mr. Rizzi is to be credited for his concern that Dartmouth avoid the alleged experience of Princeton with the Undergraduates for a Stable America. I hope that the above information has clarified the role of the American Forum at Dartmouth to other alumni who may share Mr. Rizzi's apprehension.

Hanover, N.H.

No Utopia

TO THE EDITOR:

As another alumnus who has had a long love affair with the library and has spent quite a bit of time reading (and sleeping) in the Tower Room, I enjoyed Mr. Farley's article in your March issue. As a practicing librarian, however, I feel compelled to take exception to some of the statements and inferences included in it. Utopia (if that's what it is) is not yet, in libraries or anywhere else.

Item. Historian Tweed Truman should be cautioned that the information supplied him by his marvelous retriever is only as complete and accurate as program that went into it. Ultimately, sound scholarship still depends on the intelligence and imagination of the scholar.

Item. "Push-button cataloging" does not now exist, nor has it ever existed. Cataloging is still done by skilled human beings. What the Ohio system does is to provide remote computerized access to cataloging data developed by catalogers in the participating libraries and in the Library of Congress, and supply printed catalog cards, somewhat faster than the Library of Congress card distribution system presently does. Incidentally, catalog cards are in no way the alter egos of books, nor are cards cataloged, either "quicker" or otherwise.

Hollins College. Va.

Sabines Arise

TO THE EDITOR:

I was appalled at the choice of covers for the February ALUMNI MAGAZINE On the front was a "humorous," Dr. Seuss portrayal of the Rape of the Sabine Woman, complete with leering (male) onlookers and (judging from liners on the cover and in the table of contents) associated with "the honor principle." The painting is said to have "occupied a place of honor" behind the bar of the old Dartmouth Club of New York.

Rape is not funny. Rape is the most frequently committed violent crime in the U.S. today, one every two minutes (FBI). Rape is humiliation and degradation and always carries with it the threat of violence. Rape is the cutting edge of male supremacy, it is the ultimate terror that men hold over women to keep them in their place: to keep women at home, passive, and in fear. Propagandists for the patriarchy broadcast that women cause rape by being unchaste, or in the wrong place, or by dressing provocatively in essence, by behaving as though they were free.

I had hoped that the introduction to Dartmouth of women on a supposed equal basis with men would change the rampant sexism of the Big Green. Apparently not, at least not the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. Almost the only portrayal of women in the magazine is on the covers, the front a sexual trophy to be ridiculed, the back a "frigid Ms." - again a sexist pun, reinforcing the notion that women who don't respond to men (especially to Dartmouth machismo!) are at fault.

Wake up boys! The women's revolution is gonna get your mama, your wife, your sister, your secretary, and your daughter. And some of us boys are joining their struggle, on their side.

Portland, Ore.

The Symbol (cont.)

TO THE EDITOR:

Rather than throw away Dartmouth's Indian heritage like an old shoe and knuckle down to a tiny minority like the civil rights fanatics, how about printing letters from the Indians themselves - undergrads, graduates, and even interested Indian outsiders - so that we can have all sides of the coin?

As William Parmer '42 in the March ALUMNI MAGAZINE put it, "When Indian symbols were displayed at Dartmouth functions I was proud because we respected the native Americans who have added so much to our culture and to Dartmouth College." There was never any ridicule or belittling of the Indian or making fun of his ceremonies. You can't throw away "Eleazar Wheelock Was a Very Pious Man" and the stirring "Wah Hoo Wahs" that reverberated around many college stadia for so many years without taking away some of that nebulous but very real Dartmouth spirit that other colleges have secretly envied down. through the years.

Palm Beach, Fla.

TO THE EDITOR:

The thing that infuriates the alumni about the excising of Indians from Dartmouth is not so much the basic stupidity of the whole thing. It is the wiping out of a tradition. It's exactly as if the bulldog was taken away from Yale or the tiger from Princeton.

A little high school in southern Illinois got involved in a much more touchy situation than Dartmouth and the Indians. And the solution was swift and sure. I enclose the clipping from the Chicago Tribune. To me the most telling words are "students and officials have said they mean no harm by the term."

It's as simple as that.

Winnetka, Ill.

(The clipping says that the Pekin, Ill., schoolteams will keep "Chinks" as a nickname. Ed.)