Harvard University - Red Book Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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14- 19 .4 6' II a r 41' a. r cl The question, Do you feel that eventually cap- italism will he replaced lay socialism or eommunism? lxrought very close results. 4694, answered yes, 4521- no, and WZ, were undecided. Sev- eral exelaimed, 'ttlod forbid! and one man vehemently wrote, What the hell do you think has been happening in the past twelve years? The study habits ot' '48 men showed that eollege is still primarily a plaee ot' sehol- arship. The average time spent studying each day, ext-luding elasses and laboratories, was 4-I6 hours, although IUZ, spent under 2, and l0'Z, over Ii. In eorrelatingthis question with group rank, there is the expected de- erease in study time with deerease in rank, Groups I X II averaging 5:lj-hours, Groups VI N VII 35 hours. One man on proba- tion eonfessed that the amount ol' time he spent was too little, too late. In regard to the spare time '48 men had eaeh day, the Illass averaged about IZLQ hours, although 2224, had less than 2, Do you have a private telephone? What aspect of college has done the most for you? and l3'Z, more than 5. Here again there was a correlation with group rank, men on Dean's list having about 2M hours per day, men in Groups V, VI, and VII almost 4 hours. Eighty per cent of the Class pre- ferred to study in their own rooms, 1691, in the library. One amazing student claimed he used a tahle in Hayes Biekford. In listing their three favorite maga- zines, '48 men overwhelmingly supported the Iiuee publications, either Time or Life appearing on 92'Z, of the polls. Life 782, Time MVK, New Yorker 392, lteader's Digest 27fZ, 2l'X, listed Esquire, and 12W the Atlantic illonlhly. The only other p1'ominent fa- vorites wero two weeklies, The Saturday Evening Post C23'Z,j and Collimds C9'Z,Q. A stalwart 0.2'Z, championed the Lampoon. In eontrast to this popularity of the magazines, ISSIZ, ot' the Class during the year read at the most four hooks in addi- tion to those assigned in courses, 30'Z, read none. However, there were excep- tions to this hihliophohia, and one student from South America read nine hooks in l'fnglish, eight in Spanish, and four in Ifreneh. Terry and the Pirates was far and away the most popular comic strip, favored hy 40W, of the Class. Barnaby t12fZ,D,

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rank list. FfI'0SlL7llClll Red Book lf! meet people worth knowing. However, only 70W preferred llarvard above other colleges. on wanted to go to Yale, WZ, to M. I. T., 3fZ, to Dartmouth, and several wistfully named Wellesley. Confessed one man, I didn't want to go at all, but my parents made me. The yearly income of most of the families of the Class was well above any rank shows the expected decrease in self- confidence toward the lower end of the sort of national average. llnder 552,500 WZ, it 2,500-fra 3,750 iw, :s,750- 5,000 iw, 5,000- 7,500 zow, 7,500- 10,000 l5'Z7 i0,000- 20,000 uw 20,000- 50,000 em, Over 5l'550,000 WZ, Groups I K II 7,000 Group III 5,500 Group IV 5,000 Group V 3,500 Groups Vl tb VII 3,000 As to fathers' occupat ions, l inanf'e HSM, cl0llll110l'0C MVK, Manufacturing l2'h, Medicine l2'Z, Law HW, Although not everyone filled in this ques- tion, there were enough answers to indicate that the Class median was somewhat above 350000. It is interesting to compare these results with those computed from the question, What do you think your yearly income will be ten years after graduation ? Almost without exception men from fami- lies with incomes of less than SHS5000 thought they would do at least as well and probably much better than Dad, while men from higher-bracket families tended the other way. One fourth of the fllass considered fif5000 their i055 income, while the median was about flf5300. f'orrelation with group How often do you go to the movies? A rancher, fiorist, pianist-compose!, inc motion picture director were also repre- sented. One understanding person wrote, Father has eight children, poor soul, and that's enough to keep any man occupied. Among the 85W of the students who had tentatively decided upon a career, scien- tific fields Q20'Z,j were the most popular, medicine fl5'Z,D was second, law Cl0fZ,j third. Very few men wanted to follow in their parents' footsteps. Only WZ, planned to enter finance, commerce, or manufactur- ing as against the -HW, of the fathers who were in these fields. The only person who came right out and admitted he wanted his dad's job was the son of a dollar-a-year man. ln regard to world problems, the f'lass is both practical and markedly lib- eral. 02',Z, thought the Big Three or liig lfive should have more to say 4 about the peace than the other nations, and saw. believed that the postwar world should be effectively policed by the United States and her Allies. This interna- tionalism was confirmed in the C'lass's preference for eration f33'Z,j or an actual world federation with a strict self-determination fort. either a world-wide confed- strong central government f32fZ,j, Only WZ, were for with a minimum of co- 7 operative international ef-

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lfreslmmn Red Book 15 Lil' Abner Cll2,j, and Dick Tracy C82,l came next. 172, disavowcd any interest at all in such trite, trivial trash, and several ladies of the stage were named through a misintcrprctation of the term comic strip. There was a wide range of opinion on the choice of Man and Woman of 194-4. F. D. R.. was the favorite male, receiving 232, of the votes, against Stalinis l l2, and Eisenhower's 92,. From among the wo- men, Mrs. Roosevelt was selected by 262, of the Class, nosing out Claire Booth Luce C252,Q and .Ioan Berry 12029. Sundry other nominations went to Lillian Smith, Gravel Gertie, and .lohnis Other Wife, and one observing man suggested Faye limer- son. Frank Sinatra had the distinction of receiving three nominations as Man of the Year and three as Woman of the Year. While only 412, of the Class had phonographs in their rooms, 702, owned radios. Classical music Q3l2,l, popular music Q222,D, and comedy Ql72,D were the favorite types of programs. '48 men showed only a mild antipathy for mysteries and quiz programs, but 752, of them vehemently denounced soap operas. Cars and private telephones were practically non-existent, there being seven men with the former, and five with the latter., The Class as a whole was not mani- festly religious. 272, never attended church at all during their Freshman year, 292, went only once or twice. Moreover, most of the 152, who attended every week regularly went home for the weekends. With the transition from school to college, many of the men seemed to have dropped their athletic interests. Whereas 672, went out for a team in secondary school, only 302, tried for a Harvard squad. There was a wide variety of opinion as to the value of the College's athletic program. 542, thought it had been an excellent idea for everyone, 192, considered it beneficial but unnecessary, and a bitter 2-L2, labeled it an utterly worthless waste of time. One man called it a farce, completely inclfee- tive and taken much too seriously. - The Class, however, was not unmindful of its physique, for 572, thought that compul- sory athletics should be continued after the war. ' The question regarding the advisa- bility of cheating on exams brought inter- esting results. 332, considered it immoral, 582, thought it unwise, and 92, felt that it was all right if you didn't get caught. Correlation with group rank shows that What is your favorite magazine? cheating seemed most permissible to Groups 1811 fl.72,j and Groups VI 85 VII Cl52,D. Moral rigor seems to increase we pass from both extremes of the rank list toward the middle, with Group IV having the highest proportion C492,D of Puritans and and lowest proportion C22,j of opportun- ists. Quite a number of men thought cheating showed weak character and poor upbringing, while one gave it a forthright highly commendable. One Dean's-list man sought a moral compromise: Cheat- ing should not be done, but should be kept in mind as a last resort.