DECEMBER, 1947

December 1st
The Princetonian reports several announcements by the Freshmen Council. The Council plans a class dance some time during the Spring Term. It also plans a Spring meeting to discuss whether the Class of '52 should be required to wear dinks and black ties. The Council expressed some dissatisfaction with the way the Cane Spree was run.
All course cards indicating choice of courses for the Spring Term must be filed at the Office of the Registrar by 5 PM today. A $20 fine will be imposed for late filing.
The following headline appears in todays' Princetonian: "Abolish Tipping, Urges Dr. Crespi". Dr. Crespi, of the Psychology Department, suggests formation of a league whose members would leave in lieu of a tip a card which reads as follows: "Public opionion polls show that the majority of the American people want tipping eliminated and service workers to get fair wages for their work. The only way to achieve this is by our refusing to tip. It's up to you to go to your employer and say we are willing to pay higher prices if necessary, but no more tips. We don't tip our doctors or our dentists, because we consider them our equals. We consider you the same."
December 2nd
Two hundred Princeton football players are honored at the traditional dinner at the Princeton Inn given by Colonel Franklin D'Olier. Dr. Harold Dodds and head coach Charlie Caldwell '25 are the featured speakers.
The Department of Athletics announces the award of 2-inch numerals for the second Freshman football team. The recipients are Robert H. Shaw '49 and the following members of the class of 1951: Maurice B. Cohill, George F. Darden, David W. Emerich, George P. Garrett, George G. Hawkes, Charles E. Kepler, Edgar H. Lawton, Dail W. Longaker, Michael Mahoney, Richard I. Mayes, Richard W. Murphy, Somerville Nicholson, Louis W. Pemberton (captain), James P. Selvage Jr. Doan A. Snyder, David B. Van Vleck, Charles F. Weeden III and Warren J. Wittreich.
December 3rd
Bicycle registration begins at the Proctors' Office in an attempt to halt thefts. Over four hundred bikes are regisistered the first day. Proctor Harry Cauley hopes the plan will make "undergraduates think twice before 'borrowing' a bike.
Dean Godolphin endorses the Princeton Petition, which calls for strengthening the U. N. into a world government.
December 4th
The Executive Committee of the Harrison Street Project announces an informal dance for all married students. The New Look is discouraged. Attendance is by invitation only, which may be obtained from the Project; none are available for stags. Baby sitters will be provided for mothers.
Prospect Club elects six faculty members as honorary members, with all the privileges of regular members. The Prospect plan is intended to bring faculty and students closer together.
The Princetonian reports that "a large number of campus fire extinguishers have been tampered with, and rendered useless during the past few weeks by celebrating undergraduates."
December 5th
The Princetonian reports that as part of the bicycle registration program the Proctors have in custody five stray bicycles.
It also cites a United Press survey on 1947 football attendance. Princeton was third in the Ivy League with 207,000 for six home games, including capacity crowds of 50,000 for the Yale and Penn games. Penn finished second in the nation with 434,106, bettered only by Michigan's 514,000.
December 6th
The two day Intercollegiate Race-Relations Conference begins on campus.
December 8th
Athletic Association announces devaluing of AA books. Athletic book coupons will gain free admission for all hockey games, except for the Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth games when all seats will be reserved, and cost a coupon plus $1.20 for the Harvard and Yale games. The Dartmouth game will cost one coupon and 60 cents, except end zone seats which will cost a coupon only.
For the eight home basketball games after Christmas break all seats will be reserved and cost one coupon plus 30 cents. The rise in prices is due to increased expenses and the need to restrict game attendance due to lack of seating capacity.
Nearly forty Student Federalists begin soliciting signatures for the Princeton Petition for Peace.
December 9th
Princetonian headline this day: "Weekend Afternoon Dorm Parties Doomed As 'New Look in Radio' Hits the Street". Rather than spend a weekend afternoon in a dorm room many sporting minded club members are spending their Saturday and Sunday afternoons with their dates watching television. Led by the example of Charter Club, Campus, Cap and Gown, Colonial, Cottage, Ivy and Tower Clubs have acquired this "new look in radio". Sporting events, recent Broadway plays and grade F 15 to 20 year-old movies prevail.
Proctors are now in possession of nine bikes as a result of the bike registration program.
The U-Store announces a 12.5% rebate on purchases made between June 30, 1946, and June 30, 1947.
December 10th
"TICKET PRICE BOOST RILES CAMPUS; AA BLAMES SEAT LACK, BUDGET", headline from today's Princetonian. Its editorial states "The Department of Physical Education and Athletics, in the persons of Messrs. R. Kenneth Fairman '34 and Fred M. Blaicher '37, has made a serious mistake in waiting until now to announce that AA book coupons will not be good for free admission to most of the home basketball games this winter. An AA coupon was good for the best seat in the house at all but the Yale game last year. No amount of weasel words in fine print can excuse the Athletic Department from not making clear its change in policy at the time that the books were sold in September."
The second annual drive by the Student Christian Association to collect clothing for less fortunate students in other parts of the world gets underway. The emphasis is on cast-off GI equipment and apparel that is in the closet, but never worn. The principal recepient will be the University of Munich.
Department of Grounds and Buildings reports more than fifty fire extinguishers were needlessly emptied during the fall term. A heavy fine awaits those caught emptying extinguishers. The offenders apprehended will have to pay for the repainting of any property sprayed, the cost of labor involved, and the replacement of the equipment.
December 11th
The following editorial appears in today's Princetonian: "Like those football immortals who have crashed through into open field and raced toward the goal-line only to find that the intention was fine but the direction was wrong, the Department of Athletics has pulled up sharply and reversed its field. It is hard for an official body to change its mind gracefully when everyone is spitting mad at what it has done, and while the AA has done the best it could to smooth over its faux pas, the error is likely to rankle for a long time."
"After a consultation with David W. Romig '48, Chairman of the Undergraduate Council, yesterday morning, Messrs. Fairman and Blaicher tentatively planned to keep the side-line seats on reserve at the extra 30 cent charge and throw the end zones open to general admission. A later reconsideration resulted in the new action, which keeps faith with the undergraduates' understanding upon purchase of the AA books that all seats would be free to AA book owners except in special circumstances."
The Princetonianalso prints an excerpt from the Controller's report of October 1, 1947. It shows that the intercollegiate sports program had a profit of $30,388.20, on revenues of $365,868.68. The total salaries of coaches and trainers was $80,913.24.
December 12th
"All Rights Reserved", the 56th Triangle show, opens at McCarter Theater. The catchy tune "Amanda" was scored by Walter Clemons '51.
Varsity basketball season opens with a 50-46 win over Lafayette. It is the first game in the new Dillon Gym.
December 13th
Basketball team wins second in row by edging Villanova 40-39.
December 15th
The Princetonian editorial today deals with "boorish behavior" during the varsity basketball game with Villanova. "A married undergraduate in the Class of '45 was heard to say as he left the Gym after Saturday's basketball game with Villanova, 'I was ashamed to sing Old Nassau this afternoon. I've never seen such poor sportsmanship." One of the deeds of which the crowd was guilty was "...making a distracting noise when the opposition tried to make its foul shots."
Varsity hockey team defeats St. Nicholas H. C. by 6-2 score.
December 16th
The Rhodes Scholarship Committee of Selection announces that six Princetonians have been awarded scholarships. Next in number are Yale with four, Dartmouth with three, and twenty seven other colleges with one each. Princeton leads all universities in awards with 72, while Harvard has had 50 and Yale 48 scholars since the first awards in 1904.
Varsity cagers suffer first loss of season to Muhlenberg, 53-59.
The University Dining Halls will be closed during the Christmas vacation. The last meal to be served before the holiday will be lunch on Saturday, December 20th from 12:05 to 1:05. The first meal after the holiday will be supper on Sunday, January 4, from 6 to 6:45.
Team captains to meet to discuss "P" awards and the major/minor status of the various teams.
The Princetonian reports that eight Whig-Clio members were told by a trio of Republican Senators in Washington that efforts to force the issue of world government seem premature and might seriously impair the functioning of the U.N. The Senators were Robert A. Taft, Ohio, H. Alexander Smith '09, New Jersey, and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr, Massachusetts. The Whig-Clio group included '51ers Allen M. Dulles, Roger L. MacBride, John V. Smith, and James M. Rose, Jr., who at that time was still a '49er.
December 17th
At the suggestion of the University representatives of the Graduate Interclub Council, the Undergraduate Interclub Committee and University Administration meet to discuss two issues. The first is the possibility of introducing upper class student waiters into the clubs. The second issue is a proposal that all seventeen clubs share proportionally in the expenses of "rate" members.
According to Minot C. Morgan '35, director of the Bureau of Student Aid and Employment, the establishment of a student waiter system in a number of clubs would permit the entrance of many more than the usual 33% of self-help students with the Class of 1952 and would also tend to halt rising club costs.
As the situation stands now, the holdover of more than 50 members of the Class of 1950 on the Commons waiting staff will necessitate the exclusion of those men in the entering Freshman class who would normally get Sophomore-vacated waiter posts, Mr. Morgan said.
He also said "There are simply not enough jobs for upperclassmen and Freshmen. We haven't felt the press yet because of the large proportion of veterans in the upperclass years. But the Class of 1950 has fewer men under the G.I. Bill, and the Classes of 1951 and 1952 will have even less."
He pointed out that under the plan, total club expenses should drop because much of the money paid student waiters would come back to the clubs as board. Present non-student waiters not only draw salaries, but also eat at the clubs' expense.
The student waiter plan was originally devised as an economy measure by one eating club's graduate board. It was rejected by the undergraduate members, whose chief objection was that it would place the club at a disadvantage in the forthcoming bicker period.
The Interclub Committee, together with the Bureau of Student Employment then seized upon the plan as a possible antidote to rising club expenses and upperclass unemployment. To avoid making a "guinea pig" of any one club, the system would be instituted at several clubs simultaneously.
Closely associated with the waiter plan, but occupying a separate place on the agenda, is the proposal for the establishment of a pool for rate members. The pool would provide the difference between the $13.75 which rate members now pay and the standard eating cost at their clubs. Clubs would contribute in proportion to their size and board rate.
Rate men, hitherto designated by asterisk on club election rosters, would remain anonymous during the bicker period.
The Walter E. Hope Freshman extemporaneous speaking contest is won by Donald E. Stokes '49 (he changed to '51 later) and Lewis S. Mudge '51 is second. Stokes wins $25 and Mudge $15.
December 18th
From today's Princetonian: MEETING REACHES NO DECISIONS ON STUDENT WAITERS FOR CLUBS. The three hour meeting produced no agreement on the waiter issue. However, there was unofficial but virtually unanimous approval of the pooling proposal for "rate" members. The importance of the waiter issue can be seen from the fact that the University was represented at the meeting by President Dodds, Dean Godolphin, Dean Brown and Minot C. Morgan.
The Bureau of Student Aid and Employment reports that financial aid totalling $300,000 was provided to one-third of the undergraduate body last year.
Triangle Club show "All Rights Reserved" opens on Broadway tonight.
WPRU will usher in the Christmas season tonight with the Bing Crosby Melody Album of traditional Christmas music, followed by Fred Waring's "Song of Christmas" and Robert Shaw's RCA Victor "Chorale."
"Twilight On the Rio Grande", with Gene Autrey, opens at the Garden Theater tonight.
Members of '51 elected to the boards of the "Tiger": Frank Collins to the Editorial Board, George Gaines to the Publicity Board, Robert Jennings and Anson Taylor to the Business Board.
And finally to make a wintry day more cheerful the following: "Epidemic of Low Grades Sweeps Yale; Dean Undertakes Diagnosis of Malady." Fun-loving Yalies chalked up such low mid-term grades this fall that Dean William C. DeVane has launched an inquiry in the causes and contributing factors. Expressing "serious concern" over the situation, he has asked the masters of the colleges to consult with their student councils in an effort to find solutions to the problem of raising the average. Ten per cent of the students are on "general warning" this term as compared to four per cent last June. The distractions of New Haven and the football season were pointed out as the most significant factors in this slump in academic enthusiasm. Also mentioned was the apparent inability of sophomres, who are lowest, to equal the upperclassmen "in coping with a greater variety of distractions." Even the usually conscientious engineers have been led astray by the temptations of football weekends, and sixty sliderule jockeys have been called before the Scholarship Committee.
A New Year's Eve dance to which all undergraduates, particularly veterans and their wives, are invited will be held in the Nassau Tavern from 9 pm to 4 am. The admission price of $3 per person includes supper in the Yankee Doodle Tap Room as well as the dance which will take place in the Grill Room to the music of Hank Durell's orchestra.
December 19th
The Princetonian's last editorial of 1947: A year ago the University was deep in its double preoccupation of commemorating, in the Bicentennial conferences and convocations, its past 200 years, and at the same time of coping with its unprecedented problems arising from the effects of the war. Today, like the years it celebrated, the Bicentennial is a memory, and while we are still struggling in the woods of reorganization, at least we can see light through the trees.
About one-third of the undergraduate body now belongs to the Class of 1950 or 1951--classes that for the first time in several years have the unified class standing which, according to past experience, will provide the basis for their loyalty and continuing support of Princeton. This devotion on the part of the present Sophomore and Freshman classes undoubtedly exists, but their lukewarm acceptance of such old customs as the Cane Spree and dinkwearing indicate that in the future it may not be expressed in such eccentric ways. More likely, a new crop of peculiarly Princetonian foibles will spring up to replace the old.
While some customs appear to be joining derby hats and marbles in the springtime in the limbo of former Princeton traditions, others have been revived and are as lively as ever. The football team, winning the Big Three title, provided the excuse for the first championship bonfire since 1939, and next spring will see the resumption of the Junior Prom.
In the past year, much new has come along with the old. The Class of 1951 is the first to try the new course of study plan, which from most reports is a good one. Extracurricular organizations whose interests range from pre-law to pottery have appeared to widen the activities and education of the undergraduate. On the debit side, the Dillon Gym has revealed itself to be the greatest white elephant in Princeton's history, beside which Alexander seems a model of planned utility.
Caught in this confusion of the new and the old, the undergraduates have frequently voiced bitter complaints against the University Administration. Sometimes these complaints have been justified. More often they have not. It is easy to grumble, but relatively few men take the trouble to find out the reasons behind the policies of which they complain. The 1947 Senior Board of the Daily Princetonian has had continually renewed its conviction that more often than not the men responsible for the affairs of the University know what they are doing. We have, however, conscientiously kept our Letters to the Editor column open to those who disagreed with us.
Tiger basketball team loses to Rutgers for first time in seven years, 53-65.
In a Prince ad Brook Motors offers 1948 Austins for as low as $1,395.
Posted 1/21/98
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