The Two Towers: Main

tated, mounted, and hidden for twenty years in Nova Scotia by the Class of 1894. During these twenty years the Class of 1893 had pretended to possess the original head, although what they really had was a substitute. They did not again see the original until 1913, when the crane in the Electrical Engineering Laboratory carried it to them at the alumni dinner. The head was in such woe-begone condition that its relinquishment for class rivalry in 1928 necessitated a bronze caricature. The presentation coincided with the awarding of an honorary degree to Gompei Kuwada, the Japanese student who had been the goat's keeper in 1893, largely because no one else had had the right initials.

In 1935 Ralph Earle gave a report of the school's first seventy years and his first ten. The title was a command: "Up anchor for a Better Seventy Years." But by this time the Admiral had been so long at an engineering school that his imagery was becoming confused. He still spoke of the Living Endowment as a "sheet anchor" but went on to say, "We must now forge ahead."

By 1935 the worst of the depression was over. Although the income from endowment was seven per cent less than in 1929, despite an increase of twelve per cent in the fund, there was a net return on investments of almost five per cent. Compared to the old standards, when returns had occasionally doubled over night, this seemed a slow recovery.

President Earle spoke of his disappointment concerning the continuation of the enrollment plan initiated in 1932, when only a hundred and fifty students by strict screening had been admitted as freshmen. The faculty, who at the time had been in the middle of a long soul-searching analysis, approved and recommended this plan, but nervously asked, "But what if we don't have a hundred and fifty students who apply and are eligible?"

"There will be no lowering of standards," President Earle made it clear. "We shall have to take what we can get and let it go at that."

The depression took its inevitable bite out of enrollment, but Ralph Earle stayed with his statement, combating the problem by solicitation and publicity. "At Home Days" were instituted as a recruiting program for preparatory students. And admissions got one of its greatest boosts when Professor Coombs was promoted from the work to the title of dean. In an overcrowded schedule this professor had been in charge of admissions and accreditation for many years. Only someone who could hear him complete the dictation of his letters: "Zelotes W. Coombs, Dean of Admissions," knew how he relished the acquisition of this overdue title. Since the 1880's the appointment of deans had been broached again and again. Professor A. L. Smith, as assistant to the president in addition to his teaching load, had been the nearest to Dean of Students, just as Professor Coombs had most nearly approached the function of Dean of Admissions. And there had been two powerful committees--on Courses of Study and Degrees, and Work of Students.

Monkey business loses much of its charm if there is no penalty for being caught. So, if history is henceforth dry as sawdust, the onus must fall upon the faculty. It is traditional that they should be blamed for everything and by this time they ought to be used to it.
      --The Journal, 1933

The state of the college is excellent, but of course it can never be satisfactory, for if we stop progressing or changing we will atrophy.
      --Ralph Earle, 1935