Dartmouth College - Aegis Yearbook (Hanover, NH)

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munisni in all New Hampshire schools. Dartmouth drummed strongly against the measure, held radio and newspaper forums to deliver broadsides against it, and finally arraigned Hart himself, in 105 Dartmouth, to more and less politely laugh and curse in his face. Profs. Robert Carr and Alexander Laing were the leading spokesmen against Hart. 100% Americanism for that night was regarded as idolatry in Hanover. 100% humanism was more unportant. The stand was not so clear, however, when lawyer-Representative Richard Nixon of the House Un-American Com- mittee completely buffaloed the Great Issues course with his slick, tough-guy tactics. Five hun- dred seniors sat like dumb lumps as the Congressman went through his renowned cloak-and- dagger histrionics and claimed that anj- measure serving state security was justified. It was well observed that Great Issues would fare better by building onto a first rate course in the history, theory and United States practices of government, instead of the flimsy plug that now exists. The second year of the Great Issues experiment emphasized two of its characteristics. For the first time since President Tucker the senior class sat together and saw their identity in the light of a common duty and purpose. But President Tucker taught church history to 1890 seniors, while fifty different speakers touched on a myriad of subjects before 1949 seniors. The meeting of information and the individual was God to Great Issues. The two term projects were devoted to lifting up stones, to discovering what newspapers do to news and how pressure groups knead and mold Congress and public opinion. An important spirit had been set loose by President Dickey ' s course and the campus scratched its head and soul to evaluate it. It was graciously and needfully monotheistic in form but woefully polytheisti? in content. It was a collection of colorful and dull speakers . . . scholars, public figures and laymen with important points of view. Individuals paraded themselves and their convictions before the senior class for its instruction, delectation,

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The College joined the National Student Association, but it was the plaything of a few inter- ested students and would have to prove its worth in the future. On October loth, the night before the Colgate game, the community gathered to celebrate Dartmouth Xight. On the lawn before Dartmouth Hall, President Dickey talked to the world of Dartmouth men. The Glee Club sang from the steps and the Band led a procession through the campus. A huge bonfire burned in the center of the green. The spirit of that night was an important witness against the year of many gods. Dartmouth has a certain family power beyond that of many other such institutions. This power to call together the family once a year is an im- portant part of it. The leaven of the crucial election of November found its way into Hanover. The college community reacted in a predictable way. The public noise was centered almost entirely in the third party. The huge heterogeneous machines of the major parties offered no opportunity for intellectual and practical, important participation of Dartmouth students; so the only real in- terest in the election was in the considerable handful of students and professors who campaigned for Wallace. The student body ' s actual stand was, of course, solidly on the conservative Repub- lican hill. In The Dartmouth ' s straw poll: Dewey 77.2%, Truman 12.9%, Wallace 6.8%. The College was not in touch with the climate of opinion which bore Truman into the White House. Professor Herbert Hill ran unsuccessfully for the governorship of New Hampshire as a Democrat. Professor Dayton McKean was his campaign manager in the uphill fight in the solid Republican state. The country worked hard to maintain the feeling of being Americans, of marching in the ranks of a secure going concern. For more practical than theoretical reason , American Commu- nists were the target. The articulate voices on the campus were loud against this makeshift pro- cedure. A petition with sizeable backing, against the procedures of the Thomas Un-American Committee, went to Washington. Representative Harold Hart, backed by a loud American Legion horn, attempted to put a bill through the New Hampshire legislature to investigate Com-

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s A ' o, ' ' e nt the C„lg, e Game