1941 ‘The First draft of history’ Reading the Thresher as a rough historical document
I
n only its 25th year of existence, the Thresher was covering its second war. Early in 1941, before the chaos, the Rice Institute was finally developing into the vision of its founders. Edgar Odell Lovett had recently announced his retirement after more than 30 years as president. But, as a 1944 Thresher editorial would assess, “the carefree freshmen who matriculated at Rice in the fall of 1940 probably never dreamed that their college career would be disturbed by such as the present emergency”: the breakout of what was immediately known as the Second World War. As the university adjusted to the war, Lovett decided to stay on as president so that Rice would not have to conduct a search. Throughout, the Thresher published overwhelmingly positive support for Lovett. They summarize their praise, consistently found in both the news and editorials sections of the paper, in a May 14, 1943 editorial, writing, “Dr. Lovett has exhibited courage
1962 W
8
the rice thresher
hy, some say, the moon?” Kennedy asked. “Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” A week later, however, the Thresher neglected to include Kennedy’s most famous phrases in their coverage of his appearance at