Selected in 1904 as Commissioner and Secretary of Commerce, Forbes rose to Governor-General, until recalled by President Wilson. When the Republicans regained power, he resumed his diplomatic career as Hoover's ambassador to Japan. No wonder Coach Restic keeps hoping for an undefeated season.
The Class had less amicable relations with the second Roosevelt. One member thought the most important change since graduation was "the beginning of the destruction of our...Republic by the election of President Roosevelt for a third term, who, in the name and under the pretense of democracy, have changed our democracy into a dictatorship equal to that of Italy."
A classmate, Frederic Hathaway Chase, was "especially impressed by the extent to which the United States has gone towards national socialism," while another, Arthur Hugh Jameson, referring to the Wagner Act, wrote that "a labor dictatorship has been created" and could only hope "that the American people will revert back to the type of their ancestors and recapture that priceless gem of Liberty, which is never appreciated until it is lost."
These entries reflect both a specific moment in history and the timeless cry of the old man who believes the world has been in steady decline since his youth. Not only was FDR ruining the democratic system; the whole nation was collapsing.
They reserved greatest scorn for younger generations. "With the college-bred youth leading the retrogression," Howard Schiffer Gans complained, "we have largely lost our individualism, our courage, and our capacity for moral indignation."
Asked about the greatest changes in the past 50 years many class members mentioned either the creeping socialism that seemed to be attacking from all sides, or technological innovations, especially the automobile and the radio. Roy Jones worried about the "drift of the people away from individual responsibility toward mass regimentation and the control of opinion by radio and other propaganda."
Except for one member who worked a few years for Goldwyn, the Class seems to have been largely unaware that since their graduation, moton pictures had been invented. If any class member had seen Gone With the Wind or Citizen Kane, he did not consider it worth mentioning as an important change.
THE CLASS OF '92 had many privileges by virtue of their social standing, but they also had to fulfill the expectations of their class. They were funneled into the usual career paths: they became lawyers, bankers, doctors, writers, school teachers. They joined the club. (Thomas Lamont belonged to 19 of them.) They spent free time playing tennis and golf.
William Cotton Damon could not list these sports as hobbies, and he apologized: "His type of business calls for all the physical exercise any man needs. So he has never had to learn golf."
The lives were privileged but seem, well, rather dull. From their own sketches they did not graduate with any sense of mission, a desire to change the world. They were happy to go along.
They were bored even by their vacations. Chapman Henry Hyams told the class secretary that he "has taken the usual trips to Europe but reports nothing of unusual interest." They were expected to travel.
In the pre-jet lag era, one did not hop over to Paris for spring break. Travel was serious business. Most class members had made a few trips overseas, usually for a couple months at a time. One traveled partly for pleasure, of course, but going abroad was part of a citizen's duty to expand his horizons.
Francis Alger Ingersoll expressed some regret that he had not seen much of the world, but now that he had retired, he hoped "before he passes on to become through travel a better American."
We are most interested in the farmers. What was it like to raise wheat in the Midwest, alone in the field, with four years at a private university back East buried deep in the past? We aren't sure, because there is only one line in the sketch of Charles Beardsley, a farmer from Clarks, Nebraska.
"He has not replied to the Secretary's letters."