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\title{John Wesley Young Research Instructorships}
\author{Bancroft H. Brown}
\date{1963}


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For 140 years, from the founding of Dartmouth College until 1909,
there were only 13 professors of mathematics, a11 of whom were
mediocre or less, with one possible exception. The exception was
Arthur Sherburne Hardy, Ph.D., the author of a text on quaternions,
the only mathematical output by a Dartmouth man in 19th century. But
he did no significant research in mathematics, his book on quaternions
was not epoch-making, and the Ph.D. was an honorary awarded from
Amherst. Dissatisfied with the academic life, he resigned, entered
public life, and was successfully United States Minister to Persia,
Greece, Switzerland, and Spain. An eminently respectable man; but one
doesn't name a Research Instructorship for him.

The situation in 1909 was this. The two professors of mathematics,
``Frankie'' Sherman and ``Tute'' Worthen, were due to retire two years
later in 1911 after 40 and 38 years of service respectively. The new
President, Dr.~Nichols, was a research physicist with an international
reputation, and her very reasonably felt that after 140 years,
Dartmouth was entitled to a first-rate mathematician. His choice was
Charles Nelson Haskins, who had had a brilliant career at M.I.T.,
taken his doctorate at Harvard, pursued post-doctoral studies abroad,
and had had considerable teaching experience.

To his aging colleagues who had probably never heard of an
epsilon-delta proof, the rigorous standards of this young man must
have seemed appalling. Under his skillful handling (and uncanny
knowledge of the market) the mathematical section of the Library grew
from zero to one of the best collections in the country. He failed in
only one respect, but here his failure was absolute---he could not
teach Freshmen and Sophomores. The trustees decided to keep him but
they did not dare to make him Head of the Department. Instead they
elected as the new Head, John Wesley Young, a man six years younger
than Haskins.

Young came here in 1911, at the age of 31, and the Head of the
Department at that time really was the Head. Within limits set by the
Trustees, he could hire and fire, and fix all salaries (except his
own). He defined the department curriculum, selected the textbooks and
drew up the teaching assignments. Few teachers today have had
experience with such a set-up. If you have the right kind of a Head,
it can be a very efficient system, although it will always tread on
the toes of academic freedom. If you have an arbitrary Head (and
Dartmouth had several) it can be unendurable.

Young was a good Head. He knew how to pick men, how to use them, and
how to delegate power. The Mathematics Department was no longer a New
England museum. He secured Bill from Acadia, Silverman from Missouri,
Forsyth from Michigan, Mathewson from Illinois, and later Tamarkin
from Russia. A Department which had consisted of two ancient worthies,
and a few untrained assistants, suddenly became one of the strongest
departments in the College. When, later, the Trustees (at the
insistence of the young President Ernest Martin Hopkins) considered
changing the policy from Head to a rotating Chairman, to his credit be
it said, Young was one of the few Heads who spoke in favor of the
change which was actually made in 1919.

Before that time, Haskins' value to the Department and to the College
was abundantly evident. Off to a bad start, he showed tremendous
potentiality in unexpected ways; he was promoted,' given tenure (never
a light thing, then or now), and by 1920 we find in the Department two
strong, utterly diverse, but dedicated men, Young and Haskins.

In setting up our Research Instructorships, the only possible choice
of names is between Haskins and Young. Let us consider which name
seems more fitting. This requires evaluation of national prestige, of
local contribution, and it may require a compromise between the two.

To begin with Haskins. The tragedy of his life was that he was born
too soon. Today, if a young man of his abilities came along, every
research outfit in the country would bid for his services. In World
War I he demonstrated his organizing ability at the Aberdeen Proving
Ground. But in peace times a mathematician had to teach. He was not a
good elementary teacher. Irreverent students nicknamed him ``Hippo'',
which was pertinent, and not particularly derogatory. These students
respected him; but' he couldn't hit their levels, and they couldn't
climb to his heights.

At research he worked incessantly, but never realized his full
potential. Fundamentally, he should have been a member of, or a leader
of a team. Working alone, he spent years devising methods for the
determination of the orbits of asteroids and comets; but modern
machines and programming were even then making his work obsolete.

His service to Dartmouth College in connection with the Library were
impressive, in fact, unique. No Chairman of the Library Committee ever
gave more painstaking or more intelligent service. When Baker Library
was built , he was Chairman of an overall Truste-Faculty Committee,
and he was personally responsible for many of the detailed
excellencies of that truly great building. The Trustees gave him an
honorary Ph.D. for these services --- a most unusual honor for a man
in active service.

Cy Young came here with an established reputation based on:

\begin{itemize}
\item Veblen and Young's \textit{Projective Geometry.}
\item Young's \textit{Fundamental concepts of Algebra and Geometry}.
\end{itemize}

It must be remembered that prior to 1910 very few American texts on
advanced mathematics had appeared. The few that had appeared were
rather generally considered too difficult for American undergraduates.

Actually it was Young's \textit{Fundamental Concepts} that gave him a
national reputation. This book, a rewrite of a series of lectures
which he gave in a summer session, was a book to read and enjoy---a
book to widen your horizon. Fifty years later it makes surprisingly
good reading. Young reached his peak early, he never reached it again.


Young created the Dartmouth Mathematics Department in a way that
Haskins could never have done. Young could bring in diverse talents,
blend them, and bring out the best in them. Haskins was an
organization man; but the organization had to be his kind. He was not
at his best in the free give and take which one associates with the
faculty of a college of liberal arts.

Young never realized his creative abilities at Dartmouth, and that was
partly his fault, and partly Dartmouth's fault. From 1911 until his
death in 1932, there was not the urge for productivity that we felt
today. With time out for World War I, those were calm years in which
the upper crust of academic society lived ``the good life.''

Nevertheless, Young's record is not a negative one. As Chairman of the
National Committee on the Reorganization of the Secondary Curriculum,
he bought out a Report in the early twenties which had great
influence, and almost entirely for the good. If the Report seems on
the conservative side today, it must be remembered that Young's
Committee was opposing some vested interests whose outlook was
medieval. He wrote a Carus monograph on Projective Geometry which is
still a pleasure to read. There were several excellent research
papers. Young was elected President of the Mathematical association of
America, and his Presidential Address was an eloquent appeal to all of
us to utilize our own peculiar talents-high or low---for the best
interests of our profession.

It seems to boil down to this. Probably Haskins, in his own peculiar
way, did more for Dartmouth College. But Young has a higher standing
among mathematicians, and he did more for mathematics, and for the
Dartmouth Mathematics Department.

Comparisons are not easy. Decisions can't be completely objective. But
at the time the Research Instructorships were first proposed it seemed
to all the Active and Emeritus Professors who had known these men that
the appropriate title was: ``The John Wesley Young Research
Instructorships in Mathematics.''

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