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Veterans of Future Wars founder Lewis Gorin Jr. '36. (Photo: Courtesy University Archives)

“The Manifesto of the Veterans of Future Wars” did not look like much — about 250 words of text, tucked in a corner of the March 14, 1936, Daily Princetonian, it could have easily been dismissed as a clever bit of humor and nothing more. Instead, it became a polarizing prank that rallied students, infuriated congressmen, and earned a lasting place in campus lore.

The basic premise was hatched by seniors in Terrace Club who, after reading that Congress had granted an early bonus payment to veterans of World War I, decided that they too deserved a $1,000 bonus, as an advance for future service in the “inevitable” war to stop the likes of Hitler and Mussolini. “It is but common right that this bonus be paid now,” the students reasoned, “for many will be killed or wounded in the next war, and hence they, the most deserving, will not get the full benefit of their country’s gratitude.”

When The Philadelphia Inquirer picked up the story, by way of the University Press Club, the news began to spread nationwide. Campus chapters of the Veterans of Future Wars sprouted like mushrooms — more than 500, reportedly, with a combined membership of 50,000 students — and the group adopted an official salute: the outstretched, itching palm. PAW reported that “the great majority of alumni are proud of the imagination, initiative, and sense of humor displayed by the undergraduate organizers.”

Prominent veterans, politicians, and some alumni, however, were not amused. Notable critics included James Van Zandt, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Ohio Gov. Martin Davey. In this remarkable April 1936 newsreel footage, Rep. Claude Fuller of Arkansas said, “There is no danger of any of these so-called veterans ever volunteering to defend America. Their actions clearly show that they are yellow.” Fuller went on to blame communism and foreign influence in interviews with other news outlets.

Steve Forbes '70 said that the Federal Reserve has "flooded the engine" of the U.S. economy by supplying too much money. (Photo: Ellis Liang '15)

To revitalize the economy, the U.S. needs to return to a gold standard and simplify the tax code, Steve Forbes ’70 said at a lecture in McCosh Hall March 10. 

Forbes, the chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media and a two-time Republican presidential candidate, returned to his alma mater for an event sponsored by the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. He told the audience that the recent economic decline was not the result of free market capitalism, but of flawed monetary and tax policy. 

“If the Federal Reserve does not supply enough money to meet the organic or natural needs of the marketplace, you’re going to stall the economy. If it prints too much money, you get the economic equivalence of flooding the engine,” Forbes said. With the right amount, he continued, you have the chance to grow. 

According to Forbes, the Federal Reserve in recent decades has “flooded the engine.” He added that an unstable currency also misdirects investment into illiquid assets such as land and buildings, which gave rise to the housing bubble. Furthermore, an unstable currency distorts market information, causes wages to stagnate, and undermines social trust, he said. 

What does Forbes think the U.S. should do? 

“The dollar will be re-linked to G-O-L-D,” he said. “Why gold? It’s the one thing in the world that keeps its intrinsic value better than anything else — like the North Star, Polaris, something you can fix off of.”

With thousands of alumni and family members on campus for Alumni Day Feb. 23, it would have been easy to overlook the 18 people meeting in the shadows of the University Chapel after the Service of Remembrance. But for Richard Chrisman ’65, that small gathering was the highlight of his day.

The group was there to honor the late philosophy professor Walter Kaufmann, best known as an authority on Nietzsche who translated the philosopher’s works and revived his reputation in the decades following World War II.

As an undergraduate, Chrisman took two courses from Kaufmann and audited a third. He was struck by the professor’s extraordinary knowledge as well as his engaging style. “It was personal with him,” Chrisman said. “This is not a philosopher who labored in the forest of abstract reasoning for the sake of some abstract truth.”

(Photo: Brett Tomlinson/PAW)

Years later, after attending divinity school and entering the ministry, Chrisman came to realize how deeply Kaufmann had influenced him — he calls the professor a “spiritual father.” He wanted to make a lasting memorial to Kaufmann, and mentioned the plan last year in an open letter published by PAW.

About 25 alumni sent supportive replies. Some wondered if Chrisman’s proposed location in the Chapel was appropriate for a memorial to Kaufmann, who was a critic of conventional religion and a self-proclaimed atheist. But Chrisman, a former assistant dean of the chapel at Princeton who now serves as director of religious and spiritual life at Skidmore College, said that doubt and critical analysis have “a proper place” in the Chapel. He also noted that Kaufmann wrote extensively on religion and published a book about world religions a few years before his death in 1980 at age 59.

John Milton Cooper '61 (Photo: John Cooper k'61)

Historians of early 20th century America are often drawn to one of the era’s two towering figures: Theodore Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson 1879. For John Milton Cooper ’61, an emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin, all signs seemed to point to the latter.

Cooper attended a Washington, D.C., high school named for Wilson. He then came to Princeton, where Wilson had studied, taught, and served as president. He even earned a graduate fellowship that bore Wilson’s name. But connecting those dots would be a “historiographical fallacy,” Cooper joked in a recent talk at Princeton. He chose Wilson primarily because of his scholarly interests in World War I and progressivism.

Regardless of the initial motivation, Cooper has made remarkable contributions to Wilson scholarship, including Woodrow Wilson: A Biography, which earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2010. With the 100th anniversary of Wilson’s presidential inauguration approaching, Cooper came to the Woodrow Wilson School Feb. 21 for a public conversation with professor and presidential historian Julian Zelizer.

In two terms as president, Wilson helped to shape important events — perhaps most notably by mobilizing the United States for its entry into World War I. But Cooper said that Wilson also “stands extremely tall” in terms of the skills that he brought to the office.

His first term, for example, brought the passage of an impressive legislative agenda, made possible by Wilson’s knack for influencing Congress.

“Woodrow Wilson went to speak before Congress more than any other president before him or any other president after him,” Cooper said. “This was his way to reach a national audience. … What Wilson was doing is what presidents do now when they go on TV. [Going to Congress] was a way of making sure that he got maximum coverage.”

Former defense secretary — and former varsity wrestler — Donald Rumsfeld ’54 added his voice to the call for the Olympics to keep wrestling in the games. [Washington Post]

Genomics pioneer Eric Lander ’78 was one of 11 inaugural recipients of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the world’s richest prize for medicine and biology. Princeton Professor David Botstein also received the prize. [New York Times]

Princeton Professor Douglas Massey *78 contested the notion that Mexican immigrants come to the United States to have children, noting that social science shows work as the overwhelming draw. [U.S. News & World Report]

Elena Kagan ’81 and Sonia Sotomayor ’76 supported cameras in the courtroom before they became Supreme Court justices, but both have changed their position since joining the high court. [New York Times]

Commentator Pete Hegseth ’03 examined the rhetoric and substance of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address. [National Review]

In 1947, Princeton was full of vim and vigor. The nation was at peace, the University was completing the celebration of its 200th birthday, and a record turnout of nearly 4,000 alumni, family members, and students came to the Feb. 22 Alumni Day festivities at Baker Rink.

But the day’s keynote speaker, Secretary of State George C. Marshall, warned that the rest of the world had not bounced back from the war as quickly as the United States:

George C. Marshall at Alumni Day, 1947. (Photo: PAW Archives)

“… In Europe and Asia fear and famine still prevail. Power relationships are in a state of flux. Order has yet to be brought out of confusion. Peace has yet to be secured. And how this is accomplished will depend very much on the American people.

“Most of the other countries of the world find themselves exhausted economically, financially, and physically. If the world is to get on its feet, if the productive facilities of the world are to be restored, if the democratic processes in many countries are to resume their functioning, a strong lead and definite assistance from the United States will be necessary.”

Read more: Our preview of Alumni Day 2013, along with an archival photo of the 1947 festivities.

Jedd '89 and Todd Wider '86 (Photo: Courtesy Wider Film Projects)

Brothers Jedd ’89 and Todd Wider ’86 have earned an Academy Award nomination for the short documentary film Kings Point, which tells the stories of five senior citizens living in a Florida retirement community. The two producers teamed with director/producer Sari Gilman to create the film, which won the Grand Jury Prize for best short at the 2012 Silverdocs documentary festival.

The Widers were executive producers of Alex Gibney’s 2007 feature-length documentary Taxi to the Dark Side, which won a 2008 Academy Award and a 2009 Emmy, following its release on HBO.

At least two other alumni have a personal connection to Oscar nominees in the Best Picture category: Jamie Horton ’78, a Dartmouth College theater professor who had a small role as U.S. Rep. Giles Stuart in Lincoln; and Hal Saunders ’52, a former State Department official who was a real-life player in the events depicted in Argo.

Horton, who submitted an audition tape at the urging of a friend, told Dartmouth Now that director Steven Spielberg selected regional theater actors for several roles in the film. “As an actor and as an American, it was an amazing experience to work on this epic movie, and it’s one that I will treasure,” he said.

Saunders is portrayed by actor Bill Kalmenson in Argo, though he noted in an email to Class of 1952 secretary that it is “a non-speaking role.” Saunders was an assistant secretary of state during the Iran hostage crisis. He currently serves as director of international affairs at the Kettering Foundation.

A handful of Princetonians have won Academy Awards, including actors James Stewart ’32 and Jose Ferrer ’33; writers Ring Lardner Jr. ’36 and Bo Goldman ’53; writer, director, and producer Ethan Coen ’79; Pixar animator Michael Kass ’82; and most recently, Pixar software engineer David Laur ’84. The University also was the focal point of an Oscar-winning film, Princeton: A Search for Answers, which won the 1974 award for best short documentary.

Update: An alert and loyal reader noted another film with alumni connections — How to Survive a Plague, a best documentary feature nominee this year. Howard Gertler ’96 produced the film and Loring McAlpin ’83 was an associate producer. The documentary follows the work of two groups — ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group) — “whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition.” The film won best documentary at the Gotham Independent Film Awards last year.

Sen. Jeff Merkley ’82, D-Ore., is one of the leaders in a movement on Capitol Hill to reform the filibuster. [The New Yorker]

New York Times reporter Nicole Perlroth ’04 spoke with “On the Media” about her story detailing attempts by Chinese hackers to infiltrate the Times’ computers. [WNYC]

In a recent interview, author Jodi Picoult ’87 quipped that “it would be news to the 47 percent of people who write me fan mail who happen to be men to find out that I write chick lit.” [New York Times Magazine]

New Orleans lawyer and civic leader William Hines ’78 was selected as Rex 2013, king of Carnival, for the city’s famed Mardi Gras celebration. [Times Picayune]

Frederick Ilchman ’90, curator of paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, helped to put together an acclaimed exhibit of works by the 16th-century painter Veronese, now open in Sarasota, Fla. [Wall Street Journal]

Financier Maggie Todd ’05 told the story of how she lost her hand in a freak jet-skiing accident, and how it’s changed her life in ways large and small. [New York Magazine]

Edward T. Cone '39 (Photo: Robert Matthews/ Office of Communications)

Forty-two years after getting his Princeton diploma, Sir Gilbert Levine ’71 still remembers his studies with musician and composer Edward T. Cone ’39 — so much so that he has created a concert film centered on Cone’s music. A screening of his PBS film, Out of Many, One, will take place in Princeton’s Taplin Auditorium Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m. The film showcases an April 2012 performance of Cone’s Psalm 91 by the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Chorus in Chicago’s 2,522-seat Orchestra Hall. 

Levine said he hopes that more people will grow to appreciate the music of Cone, whom he describes as a rare talent in both performance and musical analysis and “a terrific person to study music with.” Cone’s music, according to Levine, is truly original.

“There’s no derivative aspect to it,” Levine said. “I think the hallmark of really important composition is that it just doesn’t sound like anyone else. It’s romantic without being cloying at all.” Levine also said he was enthusiastic about presenting the work of a remarkable but lesser-known composer to the public. The performance, which represents the first ever collaboration between the two Chicago ensembles, also features performances of Bach’s Magnificat and Beethoven’s Eroica.

Mattie Brickman ’05 and producer Jon Avnet on the set of RO, a new web series that aired in December. (Photo: P. Martin)

In a new drama series on the Web, an attractive, smart young woman named Ro meets a series of men at a speed-dating event in a restaurant. She spends five minutes bantering with each one, before a bell rings to indicate time’s up. The first date compares her to a mutt. She hits it off with the second date, telling him that she spent the last few years in Italy. Before long, it’s evident that Ro is not her real name and that she seems to be hiding something and trying to reinvent herself.

The Feb. 6, 1974, Prince joke issue — click to enlarge. (Courtesy The Daily Princetonian Larry DuPraz Digital Archive)

The Daily Princetonian’s tradition of publishing a midyear joke issue has produced some memorable stories that fit somewhere in the span between satire and silliness. But the humorous lead item on Feb. 6, 1974, also turned out to be prophetic. The story, “Reform spells the end of ‘grade inflation,’” fancifully quoted Dean of the College Neil L. Rudenstine ’56, who noted that rising grades at Princeton had forced graduate schools to deduct a full point from applicants’ GPAs, just to level the playing field. R.W. van de Velde ’33, a Woodrow Wilson School administrator, sorrowfully wondered, “What will become of our pipeline into law schools?”

Thirty years later, students weren’t laughing when the Prince led with the headline “Grade inflation plan passes.” This time, Nancy Weiss Malkiel was dean of the college, and both the policy and the quotations were real. Guidelines set a 35 percent target for A-grades in regular courses. “We are asking faculty to enter into a social contract to bring grade inflation back under control, back to the way we graded at Princeton in the late ’80s and early ’90s,” Malkiel said.

No one mentioned 1974.