1920
The US Census showed a population of 105,107,620, and it was the first time that the rural
population was below 50%. Warren G. Harding won the presidency. The League of Nations
began operating in Geneva, Switzerland. Prohibition, known officially as the the Volstead Act,
went into effect on January 16. British Parliament passed the Home Rule Bill, dividing Ireland
into two parts. Joan of Arc was canonized, 489 years after she had been burned at the stake for
heresy. The US Post Office Department ruled that children could not be sent by parcel post.
With the passage of the 19th Amendment, women won the right to vote. Scandal rocked
baseball with the indictment of eight White Sox players accused of conspiring to fix the 1919
World Series. Andrew Carnegie's estate was appraised at $23,247,161. Popular songs of the
year included Japanese Sandman, Margie, Avalon, and Whispering. The public was reading
Lewis' Main Street, Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise, Wharton's Age of Innocence, O'Neill's
Beyond the Horizon and The Emperor Jones.
• Degrees • Hockey Rink
• Registration • Football
• Rushes • Convocations
• Freshmen Banquet • Register Entries
• Truman L. Hamlin • Veteran's Plaque
Degrees.
To George Cowie '12, Clarkson awarded its first professional degree, Civil Engineer.
Such degrees were awarded to graduates who had at least three-years experience and presented
a thesis. Clarkson presented its last such professional degree in 1941.
Registration.
Fall registration of 195 students included freshmen of the Class of 1924 who, as
seniors, produced the first Clarksonian yearbook. That yearbook described what life was like
for them as freshmen, four years earlier. It described their first days in town. After they arrived
at the College, they were escorted into the presence of Miss Peabody (See 1915), the College
secretary, where they signed their names in full (in most cases on a check), and received a small
slip of paper which signified that they were duly registered and would be known as "bona fide
students of Clarkson College of Technology."
Rushes.
On the day after registration, the freshmen assembled on the Fair Grounds where the
juniors lectured them on how to conduct themselves during the upcoming rushes and the inter-
class affairs. On the next day, the tank rush was scheduled.
To prepare for that first encounter, the freshmen assembled behind the Normal Building
early in the evening, and marched in a body to Number 8 where a space about 50 feet square
had been roped off to keep spectators at a distance. As the time approached for the rush, the
ropes were let down on two sides, and at exactly 7:45 p.m. the sophs raced around Number 8
yelling like a pack of wild men. Just as the foremost sophomores crossed the ropes around the
enclosure, it was raised a few inches by some freshmen to trip the remaining sophomores so
that they entered the ring on all fours, or were dragged in by the freshmen. When the whistle
blew, the freshmen had won by a score of 25 to 24.
