Cornell University - Cornellian Yearbook (Ithaca, NY)

Page 555 text:

A - fn ., LAYING CORNERSTONE or SCHOELLKOPF lMiEMORIAL The rip-roaring, but disastrous Salt Works fire was one of the high-lights of November. And then came the return to supremacy of Cornell at the Inter- collegiate Cross Country meet, as Moakley's runners staged a notable come-back. Red and VVhite athletes carried off the chief honors at the Penn Indoor Meet, as usual, and in this victory IQIQ men had an active share. Cornell had devoted much time and effort during the months preceding the war to various war relief undertakings, and her considerable contributions to the relief funds involved' many cheerful sacrifices. And then came WAR. And a moratorium was declared on everything as existing before the war. Everything was off, as the nation and Alma Mater assumed war-paint. Spring Day, athletics, social life,-everything walked the plank as Cornell embarked on pa program of real war service. Alrna Mater was the first institution to grant generous academic privileges to undergraduates volunteering for war service. Alma Nlater turned over every facility and all equipment to the use of the Government for the period of the war. And the Government soon established one of the most successful of the aviation ground schools, housed in Cornell's great new Armory. The most glorious news of all was carried in the brief dispatch of The Associated Press which told of the first advance of The United States flag to the front in France, -a Hag carried into action by an all-Cornell ambulance unit under the leadership of the late Captain F.. I. Tinkham, 'I6. Gver here, the war fever had penetrated into every nook and cranny of Uni- versity life. Between April 6 and Nlay 25, forty-five per cent of the male under- graduate student body were with the colors in service. Cornell ship builders hastened to enlist in the industrial army which was to build the bridge of ships which were to transport America's strength over there. Hundreds of Cornellians rushed to volunteer for service in the Navy's Nlosquito Fleet, dedicated to the job of ridding the seas of the U-boat monsters. From the declaration of war, Cornell lived in a frenzy of excitement, breathing a supercharged atmosphere of patriotic service. The peace-time Cornell of yesterday was banished until America should win victory in France, on the JD

Page 554 text:

., I' ' ,4.f' ' n.m.,.,...,.....c.., ' . H: ,.Q,22f ' 1915 CHAMPIONSHIP FOOTBALL TEAM of the Spring term by his entertaining, delightful lectures. ' Spring time also saw absolute victory in the underclass mud-rush perching upon the banners of 1919. It was a foregone conclusion that 1918 was incompetent to offer, severe competition. Nor was the speed and frnesse of 1920 any match for IQI9 When as sophomores 1-919 again Won victory in the annual frolic. Death robbed Cornell of two great teachers during the Spring of 1916, Prof. James Morgan Hart and Prof. H. D. Hess, Whose friendship and acquaintance- ship 1919 Was just beginning to make. The last joyous Spring Day occurred in the happy Spring of 1916, and 1919 was privileged to get in on the good times of Cornell's fun festival. It was truly a Day of Daze. Work as Handy Andiesp' prevented 1919 from sharing in the pleasures of Junior and Senior Week houseparties and dances, but the Class did get an inkling of Alma Mater at its brighest social best. The disastrous debacle of the Interfraternity Rushing Association, and the helterskelter rush by the fraternities after anybody Who sported a little grey cap provided a mild Spring tonic and plenty of excitement. IQIQ congratulated Alma Nfater on the great four mile relay team Which equalled the world's record for that event. Russell's fine pitching for the base- ball team in the Spring brought many victories to the Red and White on the dia- mond, for Which 1919, as Cornellians, grabbed off a full share of the honor and glory, though their activities were entirely confined to rooting in the freshman stand at Percy Field. When 235 Cornellians left college halls for summer military training at Platts- burg, Cornell had the first inkling of the coming breakup of college life, and the exodus into service with the declaration of War a year later. The Class of IQIQ began work as sophomores in the Fall of 1916, a term destined to be one of the last things as Cornell knew them before the war. The last real Varsity football team fought for Cornell that fall, the Musical Clubs embarked on their last Christmas trip, the last Junior Week was held. 551

Page 556 text:

frontier of freedom. Every interest of everybody was entirely subordinated to the job of winning success for the cause upon which the future of Civilization rested. - - Juniordom found the Class of 1919 greatly depleted by enlistments. And Cornell was a vastly changed place from the complacent, easy-going university of peace times. The war atmosphere was the end-all and the be-all of existence. Nothing counted except service to the cause. Cornell's courses were altered to permit the remaining students to take up work calculated to better prepare them for real service to America when the call should come. , A survey of Cornellians in the service at the beginning of the 1917 Fall term showed a total of I,805 undergraduates, of whom far more than a fourth were 1919 men. The folks still in college were forever pondering about the future, while devoting every spare moment to. furthering every Government cause and campaign. 1919 and Cornell did yeoman service for Uncle Sam in helping float the Liberty Loans. Athletics, once the prime interest, went by the board. Cornell gallantly put teams in the field. But they were not the teams of previous times. Cornell's athletes were gone from college halls, and were fighting greater, more vital battles for country and Alma Nfater. So Cornell teams met with disaster at every turn. But it was disaster mellowed by the thought that Cornell's energy was not being spent on the gridiron, the court, the diamond, or the lake. Cornell's energy and best efforts were being spent on freedom's battlefields. By Christmas time, a quarter of Cornell's Faculty had entered the service, and Cornell was practically transferred from Ithaca to the training camps over here, and the battlefields over there. 1 WVar Work was the one big undertaking, and all other interests were slighted. Some measures of victory in athletics came to Cornell when the remnant of Moak- ley's great 1918 track team won the Intercollegiate Championship. But Cornell was not vitally interested in even championships. By the Fall of 1918, Cornell was almost barren of all her best and finest. And that Fall will go down into history as a blank page in the story of Alma Mater. Cornell was metamorphosed into what was politely termed a training camp. Concurrently with the banishment of booze on October 1, came the organization of the sadly pitiful S.A.T.C. regime. And the Cornell of yesterday was forgotten in the dust and drought of the Fall. An absolute failure, the reign of the S.A.T.C. gang merely afforded another contrast to pre-war Cornell which made everyone long again for old times. The S.A.T.C. expended its ire upon the fraternity houses of the University, and succeed- ed in nothing except tearing those same houses to bits, in military extasies and indoor calisthenics. And when the Spanish 'fflu conspired with the S.A.T.C., the two dread maladies almost transformed Cornell into a nonentity. But at last the nightmares were over, and daylight drove away the bad dreams of the night. With the signing of the arrnistice, Cornell began gird- ing her loins to anxious antici- pation of staging a mighty COIT1C-b?1Ck- Mouse I'IALL FIRE 5.53