Letters to the Editor
Input
TO THE EDITOR:
Our Trustees have asked for "input" from alumni, especially this year, with regard to adjusting admission policy in order to facilitate the acceptance of a larger proportion of women.
I hope and urge that a large number of your readers will read and consider carefully the views expressed in the first three letters-to-the-editor in the October issue.
Quite certainly when Dartmouth undertook coeducation, a not too distant 2:1 male/female ratio as well as an eventual 1:1 status must have been foreseen if not admitted. As one of my classmates, a former member of the Alumni Council, recently said, "You will not live to see it." So be it, but I just happen to believe that there is a place, a unique place, for "men-only" colleges of Dartmouth's quality to become and remain a part of the American scene. In this day of rapid communication and transportation, "all-male" surely does not have to mean separation and isolation of the sexes.
Concern for the future, yes; fear of it, no! One could wish to be prophetic in many areas these days, viz.: will socialistic concepts of paternalistic big government be the undoing of democracy in favor of communism? on the contrary, I firmly believe that our democratic concepts rooted in the freedom, rights, and worth of the individual will prevail. Education is very much a part of the future; and while coeducation may have arrived momentarily full swing, it is not the only answer for the correction of past inequities in educational opportunities.
Schoharie, N.Y.
Low Marks/High Marks
TO THE EDITOR: ,
I sat through the rain at New Haven and really couldn't blame the football team for losing that one. I was with the large crowd in Hanover when the team had no excuses what-soever and looked about as bad as any Big Green team ever looked.
The Penns, Browns, Cornells, Columbias and even Princeton really don't count. It's victories over Harvard and Yale that make Dartmouth men feel good in the fall. Has anyone noted that Dartmouth hasn't lost three straight games to both Harvard and Yale in the same three years since 1893-4-5? Would it be too many women and not enough Indians?
Auburn, Maine
TO THE EDITOR:
As a long-ago member of the Dartmouth marching band during the period when formations of letters on the field were first presented at the half-time period of football games, I have for many years been completely turned off by the sloppy performances and sophomoric "in" humor which have provided entertainment solely for those who dreamed up the texts of the accompanying announcers on the public address system.
It was therefore with great pleasure that I was surprised at the Harvard game this year by the fine musical exhibition of a superb organization, obviously prepared with an eye (and an ear) for taste and quality, by a better than ordinary staff in the band department. Since I have during the years been an adjudicator of band contests, I can give high marks to the 1976 Dartmouth field band for its half-time program, in formation, intonation, balance, dynamics and general musicality. It made me proud to be a graduate of Dartmouth's Music Department, and I'm sure that Dr. Maurice Longhurst was beaming his approval from the musical Valhalla where he now resides.
In my enthusiastic reaction to this artistic event, I polled the attendant members of my class at our reunion dinner and found an all-but-one unanimous confirmation of my opinion. The lone dissident may be disregarded because he left the game at half-time to express his dissatisfaction with the football team, thus missing the beautiful job put on by our sensational band. Long may it continue its fine direction.
New York, N. Y.
Mythology
TO THE EDITOR:
I really enjoyed Erich Segal's spoof "Harvard Myths About Dartmouth," in the September issue.
In my day Harvard tried to insinuate that Dartmouth men were backwoods bully boys. But we had our fun, too. Among other things, some unprintable, the Dartmouth version of the Harvard yell went "All together boys-three cheers for Harvard, not so loud as to be boisterous but loud enough to be firm!"
The one I love most (with which I have regaled some of my Harvard friends) is Will Roger's reply to a Harvard undergraduate who took exception to one of his syndicated newspaper squibs. He answered by writing that he recognized that the Harvard student was entitled to his opinion, especially coming from Harvard as it was such a great school, the only difference being that it was an eight-year course - four years in and four years out - after that they were just as human as any other graduate!
Thanks, Dr. Segal, for some entertainment and fun. Best wishes for your stay in Hanover.
Seaside, Ore.
TO THE EDITOR:
Erich Segal's delightful piece was much appreciated.
How many alumni saw, as I did, in Segal's commentary and general style the exemplification of certain "Dartmouth Myths About Harvard" which were current at least for my college generation?
Middletown, N.J.
Memorable Experience
TO THE EDITOR:
My wife and I have just returned from the Alumni College-sponsored Black Sea and Greek Islands cruise and wish to congratulate all concerned as well as to hope that these programs are extended and encouraged.
Traveling with a lively group of 35 Dartmouth alumni and their lively wives and having a great teacher along (Professor William Scott of the Classics Department) makes the difference between just another trip and a memorable experience!
Congratulations, too, to Jerry Mitchell '51 of the Dartmouth Travel Bureau who came along and saw to it that everything ran smoothly.
Water Mill, N. V.
Corrections
TO THE EDITOR:
Thank you for publishing the article " 'My Own House' " in the October issue. The illustrations for it show clearly the differences in the exteriors of the Wheelock mansion of 1776 and the house as it appears today. But readers are likely to carry away two false impressions which I here disavow. First, I did not make the drawing. Donald B. Johnson of Lebanon, New Hampshire, is the artist who translated my verbal and written descriptions into an excellent picture of the mansion as it may have appeared 200 years ago. His signature had been cropped from it for the publication. Secondly, when the mansion was moved from the site of Reed Hall to West Wheelock Street in 1838 it was not "shorn of its architectural finery and gambrel roof." These alterations were made several years later, starting in 1846 when Adna P. Balch changed the roof to an A-frame and added another row of dormers at the rear.
Hanover, N.H.
TO THE EDITOR:
As the retired College forester who spent his best 25 years managing the property shown in the background of your John Dickey photo in the October issue, I should fly-speck your caption for that interesting photo: the "towering pines and peaks" are really balsam fir, as President Dickey would be the first to admit.
Hanover, N. H.
TO THE.EDITOR:
I sympathize with the writer of the letter [in the September issue], Mr. Landauer, in his distress at the decline in writing and other basic skills among high school and even college graduates. For the reasons that he gives or perhaps merely under pressure of competing courses in a world of steadily expanding information, the training in clear writing and accurate use of words which helps a person think clearly has been pushed from its once leading place in the curriculum.
Mr. Landauer, however, should be the first to recognize that clear and accurate expression is not easy as he himself has made one definite error and used one doubtful preposition in his letter. "Flaunt" appears ever more frequently, at least in the local press, for "flout" but they are not interchangeable. "Flout" itself does not seem just the best word in the context but it is nearer than "flaunt."
The doubtful expression is "distaste with." I believe that "distaste for" is more usual and smoother.
Now what slip have I, in turn, made?
Norwich, Vt.
TO THE EDITOR:
I thank you for the editorial note in "Dartmouth Authors" on my book ScottishCapital on the American Credit Frontier, in the September issue.
Someone on the editorial staff is apparently lacking in his or her knowledge of Scottish as well as English history. St. Andrews University, or the University of St. Andrews, by far the oldest of the Scottish universities, is not (nor has it ever been) in Edinburgh. It is right there on the east coast of Fife in the Royal Burgh of St. Andrews. It may be a small city it is true, but of prime historical importance.
There is another error. You refer to Erich Segal as a Cantabrigian. Cantabrigians come from the mother of Cambridge, Mass. - Cambridge, England. Harvard University is the young offspring of the University of Cambridge. Harvard men and women by no stretch of the imagination are Cantabs. This is reserved for all those who have spent time on the Backs, within sight of the River Cam. It is nice that some may think Harvard wishes to retain its ties with "Mummy." Therefore, how would it be if your caption read for the sake of intimate historical affection, Erich Segal, genus Cantabrigian II, instead of genus Cantabrigian?
This comes with the editorial good wishes of one who spent some 14 enviably delightful years both north and south of the River Tweed, some seven years at Cambridge University, and followed by a similar amount of time at St. Andrews University, St. Andrews.
New York, N. Y.
TO THE EDITOR:
A mistake was made in the October issue. I was listed in the "Give a Rouse for —" section as having been of the Class of 1952. I am a member of the Class of 1953.
I would appreciate it if that correction could be made.
Philadelphia, Pa.
Eleazar
TO THE EDITOR:
In your September issue on page 11 you state that the Glee Club, without pressure from the administration, decided to omit "Eleazar Wheelock" from its repertoire to avoid offending Indian members of the Dartmouth community. To ban this song, one of the best of American college songs, shows what quagmires people can wander into when they lack a sense of humor.
On reviewing Richard Hovey's verses it becomes apparent that other groups may be offended, too. So perhaps the song could be rewritten to avoid all that. Let's try some rephrasing:
In the first place, Eleazar Wheelock would have to be a very pious person to mollify women's libbers who might object to stressing the fact that he was a man. And, of course, he went into the wilderness to teach the Native American, not the In-di-an. To say that he took with him a Gradus ad Parnassum is hardly fair to the writers of prose, and as to having a Bible, what are the followers of the Koran and all other non-Judeo-Christian people to think of that? We'd better substitute "a book of religious and literary significance."
Perhaps there's no vocal anti-drum minority, but the word is so blunt and specific it must surely offend social scientists and some other educators as vulgar. Better say "a percussion instrument."
Now about the five hundred gallons of New England rum - is this fair to the manufacturers of whisky, vodka, gin, or soft drinks? Let's say "a New England beverage."
To say that the big chief who met Eleazar had tobacco by the cord seems to lend approval to smoking, and we all know now that's wrong (really do) and as to the chief having ten squaws and more to come, the monogamy lobby would resent that, although as far as progress is concerned the chief may have been ahead of his time.
Not too many people would object to Alcazar as they wouldn't know what it was without consulting a dictionary. But the word "palace" even if qualified by "primitive" does have nondemocratic overtones. So, perhaps, "unspoiled environment" would be better.
As to mixing drinks for the heathen there are two factors here. Those who take their beverages straight are not going to approve this mixed drinks philosophy. And for "heathen" we'd better substitute "unconverted children of nature."
When Hovey wrote in our other great song, "Set a watch lest the old traditions fail," he could never have foreseen that it was our sense of humor that was to fail. As one who believes that the Indians in this country have always got a raw deal (but never from Dartmouth College), I feel that this song-banning idea will hurt and not help them.
Newport, N. H.
(See also page 34. Ed.)
TO THE EDITOR:
I read with great interest the letter of Edwin B. Brooks '36 in the September issue. I join him in his protest against the exclusion of the Eleazar Wheelock song from the repertoire of the Glee Club. The editor's note insisted that this was done by the members of the club who felt that they should avoid offending Indian members of the Dartmouth community and "without pressure from the administration." It seems that any tradition, any symbol, any figure of speech, and any song that could possibly offend in the slightest degree will be promptly and rigidly eliminated. A strange way to bridge the gap between Indian and white!
The Eleazar Wheelock song, unlike so many college songs, has literary merit, is evocative with plenty of humor. More than that, it is fun to sing. Imagine, if you will, Eleazar, "a very pious man," a God-fearing, devout and dedicated minister of the Gospel, getting together with the big chief of an imaginary tribe, the Wah-hoo-wahs, who "had tobacco by the cord, ten squaws and more to come" and getting him drunk by "mixing drinks for the heathen in the goodness of his soul." But more, "They founded Dartmouth College and the big chief matriculated" and "the whole curriculum was five hundred gallons of New England rum."
The song is obviously a caricature of both Eleazar and the big chief. How anyone could take this seriously is beyond me. If there are any such members in the "Dartmouth community" who feel as "disturbed" as the Indians presumably are, it would, of course, be the ministers of the Gospel. How can they keep silent when the Reverend Eleazar has been so maligned?
All evidence confirms that the Indians have an abiding sense of humor, hilarious and a bit broad. They love practical jokes. In these sad and confused days we need, above all else, humor, that great solvent of suspicion and divisiveness. We are all humans on this planet, and a humanist is one whose whole philosophy rests on that assumption.
I do hope that the time will come and soon when Indian and white will get together in Hanover, mind you, and belt out loud and clear, "Oh, Eleazar Wheelock was a very pious man." Humor above all else will bring together what hatred and bitter memories have torn asunder.
Wooster, Ohio
TO THE EDITOR:
I commend Dartmouth College in her courageous and ongoing crusade to purge herself of any symbolic association with the American Indian. The shameful image of the Indian warrior in intercollegiate athletics has happily been relegated to the burial ground. The ALUMNI MAGAZINE has dumped the offensive "Wah-Hoo-Wah for —" heading for the more sedate, if less sanguine, "Give a Rouse for —" column. And now the Glee Club has forthrightly axed that ugly racist ballad "Eleazar Wheelock" from its repertoire.
As a matter of fact, it is time we cleansed ourselves of Eleazar Wheelock altogether. When "he went into the wilderness to teach the In-di-an," he did so under a charter from the English crown whose chauvinism has scarcely been equalled before or since. To the condescending and patronizing attitude implicit in the notion that Eleazar Wheelock had something to teach the Indians, one might ask if, in fact, the Indians hadn't something to teach the Reverend Wheelock? Indeed, the entire heritage of Dartmouth College would seem to teeter somewhat precariously on flawed foundations.
It is high time, further, that we stop perpetuating the prejudices of an Italian seaman who, in the mistaken perception that he had found a short cut to the riches of India, called the American natives "Indians." A suggested substitute might be "pre-Columbian Aborigines." Although somewhat cumbersome, it would be a modest start in rectifying a libel that has been inflicted on a whole race for nearly five centuries.
In order to encourage further endeavors in purifying Dartmouth's past and present, I suggest the establishment of a Big Green Bowdler Foundation, which should issue citations annually to the group or person who has done the most to stamp out vestiges of Indian (if you will pardon the expression) lore in Dartmouth's cultural fabric.
Downey, Calif.
The ALUMNI MAGAZINE welcomes comment from its readers. For publication, letters should be signed and addressed specifically to the Magazine (not copies of communications to other organizations or individuals). Letters exceeding 400 words in length will be condensed by the editors.
