THE WILLIAMS ALUMNI REVIEW Published by the Williams College Alumni Athletic Association

THE WILLIAMS ALUMNI REVIEW Published by the Williams College Alumni Athletic Association TALCOTT MINER BANKS, Editor and Manager Issued in February, April, July, October and December of Each Year Annual Subscription $1.00; Single Copies 20 Cents Entered as second class matter February 23, 1909 at the post office at Williamstown, M ass., under the act of March 3 1879. All correspondence should be addressed to the Editor, 61 Main St., Williamstown. VOL. 4 OCTOBER, 1912 NO. 4 Another year is upon us, and its new their places will be equal to the task. class, while somewhat smaller than that Good teachers are not a luxury, but a of 1911, is reported to be of good quality, necessity of life, to Williams College. at least in point of academic preparation. The total registration of students at the College is now a trifle over five hundred, about thirty less than the high water So the old “Hash House” is to go at mark of a few years ago. last into the woodpile! There will be Our grounds and buildings, to whose few to mourn its departure, as its use beautification and development so much fulness as a dormitory was practically time, thought and money have been de past, and its style of architecture has voted in these recent years, were never hardly harmonized with that of its neigh more attractive. The lawns about the bor the Chapel, to say nothing of the new quadrangle have sprung up in vel bourgeois bulk of Hopkins Hall. It vety green, and the roadway winding seems a far cry now to the days of the across the new territory of the College College Boarding House, where meals to the station is in commission. The were served at about half the price at Williams Inn has entertained a goodly our Commons today; and the later number of guests throughout the summer memories of the place will be mostly season. associated with hazing parties, flying In the personnel of the Faculty the crockery, water fights and other “rough changes are, perhaps, more numerous than house” proceedings. Somehow, when a in any single year of late. Among those building begins to fall to pieces, it is who have sought other fields of work are an instinct with students to accelerate some who had proved their worth to the process. Williams by a service of years, but we Farewell, then, to the “Hash House”. trust that those who have come to fill Peace to its hashes! 2 The Williams Alumni Review The quiet announcement at the close is invested in stocks, bonds, notes and of President Garfield’s last report that mortgages, and about $2,000,000 in a guarantee fund of $31,000 a year for real estate and equipment. five years has been raised by him toward Both colleges have shown a notable covering the annual deficit of the College gain in the period under review though is matter for congratulation. With pro the respective increments have been vision made to balance, to a large extent, largely in different directions. As the this steady drain upon the resources of Amherst writer says, most wisely: “Fig the institution, which has been going ures in the treasurer’s report, and brick on without intermission since 1905, the and mortar on the campus, are indeed friends of Williams may enter with a poor indices of the real life of a college, better heart upon the campaign for but they show that it has friends who additional endowment, which must be value its past and desire to aid its future, begun without delay. As the President and no growth is,possible without some well says, one million is not enough. expansion of material resources.” Two millions would be nearer the mark. By the action of the Williams chapter In an article printed in the June num of Phi Beta Kappa, the first elections ber of the Amherst Graduates'' Quarterly, from the class of 1913 have been made reviewing the administration of Presi this month, on the basis of three years’ dent George Harris, the author, a mem work, instead of waiting until after the ber of the board of trustees, compares midyear examinations of senior year, as the assets of the college at the beginning has been done for the last few years. of President Harris’s administration in Eight men have been chosen members 1899 with those at its close in 1912. of the society, who will constitute an In the former year the property of Am active chapter and have the privilege herst was valued at $2,304,619, of which of swinging their keys throughout the $1,472,619 was in productive funds and whole of senior year. Five of the eight, $820,000 in the educational plant. In by the way, are fraternity men. 1912 the property value amounts to $3,748,930, of which $2,720,492 is in In our July issue it was stated that vested in productive funds and $1,088, announcement was made at the Alumni 731 in the educational plant. Dinner that the Chicago alumni were to For the sake of comparison, it is worth offer a cup next year to the class having while to note that the material resources the largest percentage of its members on of Williams in 1899 amounted to $1,633, hand for Commencement. This was an 000, of which $1,133,000 was in invested error, as the cup is to be the gift of the funds and $500,000 in real estate and class of 1888, and the announcement by equipment. In 1912, our assets stand the President of the Alumni was to that at about $3,440,000 (including new build effect. The rules governing the con ings completed since the last Treasurer’s test for the cup, which will probably be report), of which the sum of $1,441,000 similar to those adopted by Amherst, The Williams Alumni Review 3 will doubtless be available for publica life of the community—all of which is tion in the Review at a later date. If too much a matter of common knowledge this plan for getting alumni back works to call for discussion here. as effectively at Williams as it has else As the place of the minister in the so where, it will be well worth while. cial economy of New England has under gone a change, so we note also a change As this paper is in press there comes in the relation of clerical influence to the news of the death of the venerable the governing boards of her colleges. William Rankin, the senior alumnus of While this influence is still strong, the the College, as well as the oldest college new times are filling many of the places man in America, which occurred at of those who are gone from the headship Princeton, N. J., on Sunday, Oct. 20th, and care of the colleges with lawyers, in the 103rd year of his age. More ex trained educators and men of affairs— tended notice will be found in the Alumni no less leaders, but in a more varied field. Department of the Review. The present membership of the Board of Trustees of Williams College (includ The Board of Trustees ing the President) consists of fifteen The recent death of the Reverend men. Of thes^, seven are lawyers, two William Wisner Adams, D.D., the oldest bankers, two editors, two educators, and Trustee of the College both in years and two clergymen. The range of practical in point of service, and the passing, only experience covered by these representa a few weeks before, of another clergyman tive Williams men is very great, and long in service on the permanent board, their familiarity with the larger affairs the Reverend Doctor Daniel Merriman, in their various walks in life is of the calls attention to the present make-up highest value to the College which they of our governing body, as well as to the so willingly serve. While the more inti changes that have come with the years. mate concerns of the life of the insti Of the many graduates and friends of tution its daily round—remain entrust Williams College who have served on her ed, as they should be, to the keeping of Board of Trustees from the days of her those on the ground, her larger fortunes foundation until now, over one third are ever in the hands of a continuing have been Christian ministers, while six body of her sons who are admirably of her eight Presidents have been or fitted to conserve them. The life of a dained to the same calling. In this New England college is complex. Not Williams has differed in no wise from the only head but heart has gone into its other older colleges of New England, making, and heart as well as head is which largely owed their origin to a de needed to keep it at its best. The sire to train men for the ministry, and balanced judgment of the lawyer, the to bring up “in the nurture and admoni sagacious counsel of the business man, tion of the Lord” all who.were entrusted the. inclusive vision of the journalist, the to their care. Outside the educational practical hand of the educator, and the and religious field, the preachers of New responsive heart of the Minister of Christ England were leaders too in the general ■—Williams needs them all. 4 The Williams Alumni Review The Dormitories of men rooming “out of College”, which Mr.

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