|
Web Exclusives:
Under the Ivy February
12, 2003: In my last column I wrote
about Guy Gabrielson '43, whose father, I mentioned in passing,
was the chair of the Republican National Committee in 1952. It so
happens that I have the PAW volume from the fall of 1952 sitting
on my desk, and while paging through it I stumbled across one of
the usual coincidences I find whenever I look at old PAWs. For 1952 was the year
Republican Dwight Eisenhower ran for president against Democrat
Adlai Stevenson — Princeton Class of 1922. Thus PAW and its
readers took special interest in the election. Among the letters
complaining about slow delivery ("I wonder whether some wealthy
alumnus would not be interested in donating a small sum toward the
feeding and upkeep of the sled-dogs which you use to transport copies
of the Alumni Weekly to the outlying provinces," wrote Alfred
S. Campbell '23 of Arlington, Vermont, in the October 31 issue)
and the televising of Princeton football games (John R. McKinney
'23 was decidedly for it), as well as castigating senior On the
Campus writer John McPhee '53 for the incorrect spelling of jamb
(Ted Meth '44 wrote to place an order for "a dozen jars of
the good Dundee 'door jam'"; one can only hope that in the
ensuing years he's had a chance to have his copy of the November
7, 1952, issue signed by Professor McPhee), PAW published a short
profile of Stevenson. Editor Philip Quigg '43
clearly had his apprehensions about the story, which appeared in
the October 17 issue, shortly before the election. In an introduction
he explained that "When a Princetonian receives the distinction
of being nominated to the highest office in the land ... it seems
to us appropriate for the magazine which purports to report news
of the alumni to give the matter due attention." He added,
"It seems almost unnecessary to say that this does not constitute
an endorsement of Governor Stevenson." In the irony to which
editors soon become accustomed, though, the uproar came not from
the Republican opposition, but from Stevenson's supporters. Herbert
Moore 1900 spoke for several others when he wrote, "I should
like to express my disgust at the Stevenson article ... Is it possible
that the Princeton spirit is such a fragile meaningless thing that
this remarkable son of Princeton, hailed on all sides as one of
the most remarkable men of our time ... cannot be given a big-hearted
tribute of praise because it might offend some of the 'Republican-minded'?"
Instead, the Republican
ire was provoked by a blurb stating that a Daily Princetonian poll
found 67 percent of the faculty in favor of Stevenson. In a debate
eerily similar to the political correctness wars of recent years,
alumni protested the liberal bias of the faculty. Charles Clark
'27, who let slip that he was directly descended from a signer of
the Declaration of Independence, wrote, "The country is still
technically a free one, and each is entitled to his opinion, but
the dangerous part of it is to find that the opinion of a two-thirds
majority of the Princeton faculty supports this Democratic candidate...
I am particularly unhappy to find the faculty trend to lean towards
Socialism, which is eventual Communism." Similarly, David Altrock
'46 wrote, "The faculty, superior though it may be, cannot
be separated from what the commentators call the 'egghead vote.'" Happily, reason prevailed
in this particular skirmish. Among the many voices protesting Mr.
Clark's politics came this gentle advice from J. Carson Webster
'29: "Faculties will be dangerous to democracy, and to education,
only when they adopt Mr. Clark's view that an opinion differing
from theirs cannot be justified."
Jane Martin ’89 is PAW's former editor-in-chief. You can reach her at paw@princeton.edu
|
Looking
at 1952
