1935

If I had my way, the October issue of the Alumni Magazine would carry no Class Notes. Why? Simply because the column has to be written in early August, when I am practically incommunicado on Outer Banks, N.C., and when I haven't heard from anyone in The Great Class since May.

This year, however, I got lucky. My old roommate, our own distinguished classmate, and one of the College's honorary doctorates, the Honorable James S. Holden, has taken typewriter in hand to provide a delayed response to one of my survey letters.

"Helen has reminded me, as she is wont to do, that I have not replied to your enquiry of last winter. The delay has given me the opportunity to look again at the fabric of the great tradition that binds us to the College.

"The Hopkins administration, followed by President Dickey, created indelible patterns that their successors have emulated, but hardly exceeded. It is my thought that each and all of the administrations you have asked to be reviewed have served the College and fulfilled the special-challenges of the changing generations. Within the limited range of our vision, they have led the College through the Depression, World War II, the turmoil of Vietnam, and the economic and social stress of its aftermath.

"I am not troubled by the voices that are heard from the campus of the New Dartmouth, as you term it. Patterns of competing differences and political strife are not strangers to the Hanover scene. The seeds of discord were planted in the wilderness at the coming of Eleazar Wheelock. Controversy persisted unabated until resolved nearly half a century later by the United States Supreme Court. The bicentennial commemoration publication, Daniel Webster and a Small College, quotes from Steven Vincent Benet, to the effect that 'every time there is a thunderstorm you can hear Webster's rolling voice in the hollows of the New Hampshire sky.' This extolling of Webster's advocacy should remind us, of the present storm, that 'this, too, will pass.'

"A different commemorative message to the College was inscribed by a distinguished 1917 graduate of the Medical School, Waltman Walters. It moderates my concern about the contest of labels that worries the university concept against that of the 'small college' that Webster memorialized. 'Dartmouth has become one of our leading American colleges in both arts and sciences. Now it is a college in name only, for in reality it has become a university with associated nationally known ana admired graduate schools of medicine, engineering, and business administration.' However named, the quality of its teaching will continue to enrich the lives of those privileged to become her sons and daughters.

"In whatever light we view the 'New Dartmouth' it strikes me that traditional concepts of free expression and equal protection are alive, and well served by the present administration." I hope you find this as interesting as I did. In any case, peace and love to y'all all y'all.

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