New Britain herald., 1915-11-24
WHAT OTHERS SAY
Views on all sides of timely questions as discussed in ex- changes that come to the Herald Office.
DartmOuth's President.
(BoSton Transcript.)

Three facts stand out to explain how it was possible that pr. Ernest FOX Nichols should voluntarily re- sign the presidency of Dartmouth. In the first place there is his own state ment of temperamenta characteris- tics which make the task of an execu- tive not wholly grateful and fitting to a man who is before all an exact scholar of science and happiest when, as an individual, he is pursuing some line of research farther than any other individual has carried it. There is also the fact that Dr. Nichols is not an alumnus Of Dartmouth. Ger tainly no college should feel required to find its president among it's own men and among them alone but if there ever was a college in which such a selection is almost the sine qua non ot success it is Dartmouth. In the third place Dartmouth college today faces special problems of ad- mlnlstratlon which more than ever require or It's president a genius and temperament fitted not only to watch over us growth, but also to inspire and direct 1t, and to maintain, in the Tux or changing conditions, the con- tlnulty of such traditions and policy as fresldent Tucker, among the great est or collegiate executives, so ably perpetuated. and without which Dart mouth would not be Dartmouth.
 In the educational world today Dartmouth may be seen:
 standing with reluctant feet
 Where the brook and river
 Her enrolment has increased since 1909 by nearly one-third, numbering this year almost 1,5OO students with no signs that the tide is yet turning. More rapidly than at any other New England college except Harvard and Yale, endowment and physical equip ment have been on the increase at Dartmouth; graduate schools are multiplying and enlarging in inn portance; all the hall-marks of great university have been attaching them selves to this college in the hills of New Hampshire which was once but the simplest of higher schools for boys from the country, and one fea- ture of which at it's inception was the training of young Indians for civfli- zation Tn recent development Presi- dent Nichols has played his capable part and has stood for six years at the head of Dartm outh's administra- tion without blundering and withou ut even a row with his students Today, however, no one seems to see more clearly than he what is the difficulty of the task which DartmOuth's presi- dent has to confront in the later stages of this transition, and what ex- ceptional qualifications the president must bring to his job.
 The genius required is that which Ia ri h without stunting it, which can pre- serve the symmetry of Dartmouth S development not so much by pruning the branches of it's latest growing, as by enlarging and strengthening the central trunk of it's character as an institution where young men are trained simply and well in the basic and more elementary studies and in the ruggedness which makes for firm chara cter. To this end we are be- ginning to realize that the qualifica- tions and mind of the scientist are not always the best suited, unless there can be coupled with them power of imagination, deep humanitarian in terests in their best and most vigor- ous sense, and the possession of vision so clear that the plan it sees can be made plain, through the executives | functions, to others. pr. Nichols, re- | turning to his field of special distinc- 1 ton, has left to the trustees of Dart | mouth new opportunity to search | for man with these powers. He has given freely of his own best ener- | gies, and now asks that another 1 should take up the work where, in all honor, he leaves it.