SIGNAL FIRE

In spite of the example that Harvard's Plan E offers, the Dartmouth faculty bravely comes forth with measures designed to reform governments in Hanover and the environs. So far this crusade has been successful but there are already indications of a growing animosity in the town against college interference. Since experience is probably the only true teacher, it may appear futile for Harvard to tender advice. But the faint hope that Dartmouth will heed this university's career in such spheres justifies some sort of warning.

The most important argument against gown interference in town affairs is one which Harvard did not--and Dartmouth does not--realize. It is simply that the suspicious, hostile attitude of the municipality is not based upon imagination alone. Many a time college participation in town government has gummed up administrative processes. The green hills of Hanover still echo with the legendary story of the town meeting--at which students formerly voted--when the college delegation pushed through a bill for the construction of a subway line to Smith. It was left to the state legislature to repeal this measure. This playful attitude toward local administration finds its prototype at Harvard and numerous other universities.

It is little wonder then that townspeople are likely to resent the criticism of their governments by gownpeople. True, college faculty members are not guilty of the same outrages students have perpetrated in the past. But the impolitic remarks and methods that professors are prone to use cause the same type of resentment. Town concludes that gown does not take its problems seriously enough; students make open sport of local government and the faculty is too inept in politics to prove it does not wish to experiment with the municipality as a guinea pig.

All this has a very definite moral. If Dartmouth--or Harvard--wishes to continue local reform at the expense of public relations, the chances of a successful drive should be carefully weighed. For it is absurd to create town-gown enmity without some sort of return for the sacrifice. So far it has been all sacrifice for Harvard this winter, as Plan E lies in the graveyard and town animosity has reached an all time high. The spectacle is sad; but, if it serves as an example and warning to Dartmouth, Harvard's suffering has not been entirely in vain.