L.D
2525" 72°43
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INAUGURAL ADDRESS
OF
J O SE.P.H S WA IN
PRESIDENT INDIANA UNIVERSITY
Pelivereo 3une 14, 1893
AT THE
7~~~~
ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY
#
• INDIANAPOLIS
CARLON & HOLLENBECK, PRINTERS AND BiN DERS
1893
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
OF
JOSEPH SWAIN
PRESIDENT INDIANA UNIVERSITY
Q Belivereo 3 une 14, 1893
AT THE
ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY
INDIANAPOLIS
CARLON & HOLLENBECK, PRINTERS AND BINDERS
1893
|J
2525
, 1343
ADDRESS.
I am sensible of the great honor bestowed upon me by our
honorable Trustees in electing me to the presidency of Indiana
University. I should never have sought the position to which I
come to-day. I may well shrink from the responsibilities it im-
poses, but if it is right that I should be here, and if all the friends
of the University give the institution their sympathetic co-opera-
tion, with divine guidance, I trust there will come that strength
which the work demands. - -
To return to my native state in which I have a just pride; to
my Alma Mater, an institution which I have loved with a filial de-
votion; to the faculty which I have known and honored; to the
alumni which each year are increasing in number and influence;
to the students for whom the University exists; to the city of
Bloomington, for twelve years my home; to the people who have
treated me with uniform kindness and whose friendship I cherish;
and to all the friends of the University; this is indeed a pleasure.
Nevertheless, I now accept the trust which you give into my keep-
ing, with an even keener appreciation of the duties it imposes,
than of the honor you bestow, or of the pleasures which I feel on
my return. But with the determination and inspiration which
come from a sense of this “high calling,” be my stay long or short,
I shall work as if I were to remain for a lifetime, and I ask you all
to give me your hearty, undivided, and continued support.
A state university is indeed a public trust, and sooner or later
the people of the state will see to it that this University is built
“higher and broader and deeper” than any ideal which we may
'. f .
{ { } {
4
now contemplate. It is well that Leland Stanford and John D.
Rockefeller devote their millions to the building of great universi-
ties, but were there such an endowed institution in every state in
the Union, it would only strengthen and not retard the growth of
the State University. The efficiency of the University of California
has increased more within the past two years than within any
other period of the same length in its history. This is not only
manifest in the increased number of its students, but in the im-
provement and breadth of its work. Thus, the establishment of
Stanford University has not only given California a new insti-
tution, but it has at the same time been of great service to the
State University. In turn the State University is necessary to the
highest development of the newer institution, and the efficient
work of the former has made the latter possible. Likewise in this
state every seat of learning is strengthened by the growth of the
State University. Besides, the dignity and self-respect of a state
is lost when it depends wholly upon denominational institutions,
or upon institutions endowed by private munificence, however ex-
cellent in character they may be. In time to come the people of
the state will feel that this University is their own in a yet more
special sense, and they will provide for it more abundantly. In
contributing to the maintenance and growth of the State Uni-
versity we not only make better every high school in the state,
and therefore the common schools, but every step of the University
in advance compels like steps in the other colleges and private
schools of the state. The good results of the changes in the cur-
riculum in this University, which were made eight years ago, are
evident not only in the higher institutions of learning in this state,
and consequently in the lower schools, but these changes have had
a beneficial effect on other institutions of learning outside the
state, as well. In like manner every advance made in other uni-
versities or colleges is helpful to us. Let denominational and pri-
vate seats of learning rise and flourish. Each has its purpose and
results. In most states, however, we shall expect most from a
5
university endowed by two millions of people, and especially in a
state such as this where its wealth is almost equally distributed.
While a state university is peculiarly the child of the state
and must be watched and guarded and fostered by it, its immediate
guardians must be its trustees. And who are these trustees?
These are its Board, its Faculty, its Alumni, its students, and such
citizens of the state and friends of the University as acquaint
themselves with its highest purposes and aims.
The Board and the Faculty are by their relation to the Univer-
sity pledged to do everything in their power to promote the growth
of the institution until it shall meet every demand of a growing
state. In no other institution which I know has there been more
self-sacrifice on the part of these bodies, and so much done with
the same means, as in this. No great institution can be built if
men stop to ask, “What will be my reward for this work?”
I feel sure that however deserving and loyal other men may
have been it will not be unfitting to mention two—one of the Board
of Trustees who a year ago passed to his reward, with the love of a
grateful community. Dr. James D. Maxwell, in his fidelity, his un-
swerving self-sacrifice day after day for a long and useful lifetime,
is a type of such men as have made Indiana University possible.
The other to whom I refer is Daniel Kirkwood. The learning, the
wisdom, the manhood, the unselfish devotion to an ideal in life as
well as in scholarship, of this beloved and great man, now far ad-
vanced in years—these are a heritage to the institution, the mag-
nificence and proportions of which words can merely suggest. Here
and now our Board and Faculty may well dedicate themselves anew
to the further achievement of those high ends for which these men
have spent their lives.
The Alumni are in a special sense trustees of this University.
In half a century the institution has sent out many of the strong-
est men which the state possesses. Our graduates are found en-
gaged in every worthy pursuit. “By their achievements they
are commending their dear mother, not only for the mental dis-
6
cipline she gave them, but for the brave, earnest, manly spirit
which by her free methods and by the character of her teachers
she has nourished in them.”* Fellow Alumni, the University must
be judged by the work it does. As its debtors, as its product and
as men who stand for the welfare of the state, we must not be con-
tent to rest on past achievements and present laurels, but we must
see to it that means are provided by which this, our Alma Mater,
may become the ideal, the “People's University.” We by our
past and present knowledge are not only in touch with the Univer-
sity, but by our widely diverging pursuits and by our geographical
distribution, are acquainted with the needs and wants of the state.
It is ours to keep alive a love of the arts and sciences among the
masses; to see that the University keeps pace with the needs of
the state; to do all in our power to give the University that sub-
stantial support which shall insure to her the best library, the best
laboratories, the best men. We can afford nothing but the best, in
Our Alma Mater.
Students of the University, but for you none of us would be
here. It is for your needs, and it is to develop the possibilities
within you that the University exists. In affording you the ad-
Vantages of higher education the state is in no sense making you
a gift. It invests its capital in you as the cheapest and best means
of protecting itself. The nations of the earth have in the past
spent their hard earned millions in the support of standing armies,
but we in the United States are beginning to see that our millions
must be spent in making men and women. If this institution
equips you as you should be, and gives you the armor which fits you
to battle with life, we recognize that “you will cultivate this public
sentiment in favor of the University which will find its expression
in ample endowments and crowded halls.”
It has been well said that this University is as the “apple of
its eye” to the city of Bloomington. Its citizens are in an impor-
tant sense trustees of the University. To them is entrusted for
*Angel.
7
four years the care of the young men and the young women who
take a course in this institution. It is for us to see that our city is
the best place in the world for these young men and women, a place
where those exalted principles of life, which are the possession of
every really educated man and women, are known and lived up to.
As another has well said: “To use the phrase which the lips of
Lincoln have made commonplace, the University is of the people,
for the people, by the people. Of the people, in its establishment,
in its recognized place through legislation. They are its organizers
and upholders. For the people in its very existence; it is origi-
nated, built up, maintained, for them. By the people, in its admin-
istration.” The people elect the legislature, the legislature pro-
vides means for the appointment of the Board, the Board selects the
faculty. As that portion of the people nearest the University and
who have the best opportunity to know its condition and needs, the
citizens of Bloomington have a special and an emphatic trust. Let
us continue to stand for all that is good and true in the life of the
University.
To all the friends of the University everywhere, let me say:
come join hands and make this what it should be, the ideal uni-
versity, the University of the state.
“I would found,” said Ezra Cornell, “an institution where any
person can find instruction in any study.” Make this the best in-
struction in any study and we have the ideal university. “Its
courses of study would be so broad, so thorough and complete,
that no young man or woman of Indiana would need to leave the
state to secure the best education the world affords.”f Such a
university must be modern, democratic, human, and its instruction
must be largely individual.
The modern university is the product of modern life. All sub-
jects which can be reduced to a science should have equal atten-
tion in its curriculum, and every branch of human inquiry should
command its share of the time and attention of university men.
*Kellog. f.Jordan.
8
While it must sacredly “preserve all the treasures of the past, and
must not neglect the spirit and refinement of the old-time schol-
ars,” it must most of all recognize the demands of the living present,
and extend the boundaries of human knowledge by countless path-
Ways into the infinite creations and thoughts of God, in whom
these pathways meet.
The State University exists for the state and must therefore
be democratic. The young man from the farm, from behind the
Counter, stands side by side with the son of the minister, the doc-
tor, and the lawyer. In a people's university there can be no
aristocracy of trade, profession, or wealth. The only road to high
regard and distinction is through the avenue of superior excel-
lence. This avenue is one through which the poor man's son is
more likely to pass than the son of the rich man. Poverty in
itself has no virtue; but the qualities of mind and heart which
have grown while overcoming poverty, and have led the young man
to Consecrate himself to the highest things, are “more to be de-
sired than gold, yea than much fine gold.”
A university must recognize its environment. Yet an insti-
tution of learning would be foolish indeed should it accept and
promulgate any current theory simply because it is current. To
teach either free trade or protection because either is the theory
of the party in power, would be unworthy of and wholly contrary
to the ideals of the scholar. It should be the duty of the univer-
sity to examine into every question, industrial, historical, philosoph-
ical, political, scientific, which is of present or future interest to
the people of the state. To gather together all the facts of ex-
perience and the thoughts of the profoundest thinkers on these
Questions and place before the students and people a scientific
treatment of the subject, is of the utmost importance. The safety
and progress of the state demand it.
Dr. Jordan once said: “If our work is successful, our ideals
will appear in the daily life of the school. In a school as in a
fortress, it is not the form of the building, but the strength of the
9
materials, which determines its effectiveness. With a garrison of
hearts of oak, it may not even matter whether there be a fortress.
Whatever its form, or its organization, or its pretensions, the
character of the university is fixed by the men who teach. ‘Have
a university in shanties, nay, in tents,’ Cardinal Newman has said,
“but have great teachers in it.’ The university spirit flows out
from these teachers, and its organization serves mainly to bring
them together. ‘The University,’ to use Emerson’s words, “should
bring every ray of light to its hospitable walls, that their com-
bined influence may set the heart of the youth in flame.’ Strong
men make universities strong. A great man never fails to leave a
great mark on every youth with whom he comes in contact. Too
much emphasis can not be laid on this, that the real purpose of
the university organization is to produce a university atmosphere,
such an atmosphere as gathered itself around Arnold at Rugby,
around Döllinger at Munich, around Linnaeus at Upsala, around
Werner at Freiburg, around Agassiz at Cambridge, around
Mark Hopkins at Williamstown, around White at Ithaca, around
all great teachers everywhere.”
“The university should be the great refuge hut on the ultimate
boundaries of knowledge, from which daily and weekly adventur-
ous bands set out on voyages of discovery. It should be the Uper-
navik from which polar travelers draw their supplies, and, as the
shoreless sea of the unknown meets us on every side, the same
house of refuge and supply will serve for a thousand different ex-
ploring parties, moving out in every direction into the infinite
ocean. This is the university idéal of the future.”
Indiana University is not yet the ideal university, but she has
the spirit of modern progress. She was one of the first to recog-
nize the equal rights of the sexes, and men have always been upon
equal footing within her walls. The fact that nine years ago there
were but 156 students in this institution, while this present year
there are five hundred and seventy-two, twenty-two of whom are
graduate students, but feebly indicates the difference between the
10
old conditions and the freedom and growth which have come with
modern spirit. The adoption of the seminary and laboratory
methods in nearly all the departments of the University; the ex-
tension of the elective system, enabling a student to select those
studies for which nature has given him aptitude, and which are in
some way related to his future life; the increased earnestness and
greater ambition on the part of our students; the tendency of
students to continue for a lifetime work begun in college; the uni-
Versal desire on the part of teachers and students to extend the
boundaries of human knowledge and to send out to the world in
Some published form the results of their work; the popularization
of the University by University Extension and other means; the
growing tendency to consider degrees, if given at all, as arbitrary
landmarks in one’s journey, and nothing for which one should turn
aside; the fact that the university student is amenable to the laws
of the state and has no privileges which the best citizen would
not claim for himself; that it is as much the duty of the student
as of the professor to see that no one shall do aught to bring the
university into discredit—these facts and tendencies are much
more important in the usefulness of the institution than mere
numbers. This work is not so much the result of the efforts of
any man or set of men as it is the product of the age.
The fact that we in our university life have already reached a
high plane makes it possible for us not only to see distinctly the wind-
ing valley through which we have passed, but compels us to look
up and beyond to the great ridge of the mountain which lies before
us, inviting us to its ascent. Our present vantage ground gives us
an intimation of the possibilities before us, and having ascended
the foot-hills and gained the first ridge of the mountain we can
never rest content until we have scaled to yet more and more ex-
alted heights this mountain of university progress.
The needs of the University are appearing on every side. While
she stands in the front rank among state universities her needs are
manifold and imperative, if we are to retain the vantage ground
11
which we now have. That $50,000 were given by our last legisla-
ture for a new building and our annual appropriation increased by
$10,000, notwithstanding adverse circumstances, shows a friendly
relation to and a faith in the University on the part of the state.
With an income of about $80,000 we can do more next year than
during any previous year of our history, but when we remember
that Cornell University, the State University of New York, has an
annual income of more than $500,000, the University of California
about $350,000, the University of Michigan over $300,000, the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin about $275,000, and each of these institutions,
except Cornell, located in a state of less wealth and smaller popu-
lation than Indiana, we find that we do not yet provide as well for
the wants of the State University as do our sister states. No in-
stitution anywhere of equal means stands so high among scholars
as this. She is always compared with those of much greater wealth.
In no university has the income been more wisely expended. Every
dollar spent in equipping Indiana University has counted for much
more than a dollar in the promotion of civilization in Indiana.
The encouraging lesson from our sister states is this: the
greater the development of the higher institutions of learning, the
more determination there seems to be on the part of the states to
provide still more ample means for their expansion and for in-
creasing their efficiency. In general the growth of this University
must first be in the direction of still greater efficiency, and expan-
sion will follow as a consequence. Our teachcrs now, in common
with the teachers of other schools in the state, give too many hours
to instruction. No university teacher with modern demands can
do his best for three or four consecutive hours in different topics,
especially with the more advanced students. If a lawyer should
be required to speak three or four hours every day before a jury,
his client would soon find it to his interest to go elsewhere and ob-
tain counsel having the time to acquaint himself with the facts
bearing on the individual case in hand, then to examine the law in
the case and to arrange his arguments. But it is said the teacher
12
should know what he is going to teach before he begins his work.
This is not more true in the case of the teacher than in the case of
the lawyer. The possibilities of any subject are infinite and it is the
duty of the teacher to open up these possibilities to the student.
He who presents this year the same matter in exactly the same
manner in which he presented it last year is by so much behind the
times. A multitude of workers in every department of inquiry are
adding new material and methods of work, and the teacher needs
more time to master these and to make excursions of his own. If
our instruction is to be the best, the work of the teacher must be
largely individual, and this means a reduction in the size of the
classes. The lecture has its place, but it is introductory or collat-
eral and not the chief thing. Both the reduction of the number of
teaching hours and the reduction of the size of the class, implies
additions to our force of instructors. Harvard has to-day a teacher
for every nine students.
It is becoming well known that Indiana University is a “train-
ing school’ for professors of more wealthy and larger institutions.
No better encomium could be paid to the men who have selected
her faculty. It is now recognized that a succession of the best
equipped young men is to be preferred to a more permanent corps
of instructors who have reached their level at $1,500 a year. Even
with our increased income we must still depend on rising young
men, but we can at once hold them up to a higher level than the
one at which they have been taken from us in the past.
There are general needs of the institution which I may men-
tion here. We need funds to vastly increase at once the facilities
of our library. While it is the best working library of its size in
the state, it is yet far short of our needs. Anything short of all
the available books on any topic is unsatisfactory. No teacher or
student can be sure that he is abreast of the times unless he has
access to or is familiar with all that has been published in his line
of investigation. We need more room and equipment and conse-
quently a greater teaching force for physical training. Systematic
13
instruction and training in the gymnasium is now recognized to be
the natural and necessary accompaniment of the modern univers-
ity. Athletics should be under the direction of a medical direc-
tor who is an expert in medical science, who knows the laws of
the development of the human body, and who can seize upon and
direct the best instincts of college men. In general a sound body
is the condition of a sound mind, and physical training is now the
outlet for the animal energies of the college man. Wisely directed
athletics in the modern university, by giving a legitimate outlet
to the student's God-given animal spirits, has done more than any
other one thing to eliminate class rows, hazing, vandalism, and
other forms of time-worn traditional rowdyism.
When I leave the general needs of the University and turn to
the departments I find urgent demands in every direction. While
I recognize the perfect equality of departments, it will not be un-
fitting to illustrate our needs by citing the needs of one. In the
department of Physics we need a new laboratory building, addi-
tional equipment, and consequently additional instructors. The
fact that there is great demand on the part of the High Schools of
the state for teachers in physics is reason enough that the Uni-
versity should equip herself for preparing these teachers in the
best possible way. But this is only one reason. The training ob-
tained through the use of the best instruments and methods in the
modern physical laboratory, carrying delicate experiments to the
utmost refinement of accuracy, is inestimable in value in the sub-
sequent work of the student, it matters not in what field it may
be. Its wide application to the wants of modern life makes it ap-
ply in a special way to the immediate needs of the state.
What I have just said concerning the needs of the department
of physics, may, with slight modifications, be justly said concern-
ing many departments now in the University and those that are yet
to come. It is for us, the trustees, to make known these wants to
the state, and we may depend upon the impetus of every institution
14
of higher learning and upon the spirit of the age to help us gain
one more ledge of the mountain. t
It is as true of institutions as of individuals that the world will
help those who have first learned to help themselves. I have al-
ready called attention to the devotion of its friends to the Univer-
sity. They have done all in the past that they could. The Uni-
versity must be chiefly maintained by the state, but has not the
time come, when we, as do the universities of other states, should
receive something from private sources 2 Cornell University, the
State University of New York, owes the greater part of its wealth
to private munificence. Henry W. Sage alone gave $1,500,000. There
is not only the fortune of Ezra Cornell, but also the magnificent li-
brary building, the Young Men's Christian Association building,
Sibley College, Sage College, beside other buildings. The endowed
department of Philosophy, scholarships and other gifts, are the
substantial recognitions by private capital of the worth of that in-
stitution. To the University of California was given the Lick Ob-
servatory. The gift of a citizen built the assembly hall and en-
dowed the chair of Philosophy, and numerous fellowships testify to
the loyalty of friends.
The doctrine that the state universities are to be supported
from the treasury of the state is well established, but that it should
receive help from every possible source should also be evident. There
is ample opportunity in the University for persons of small or large
means to do something for higher education in Indiana. A book
to the library, a scholarship to help some struggling student, a
building in honor of some person, the endowment of a department,
while benefiting the coming ages, each would have its place and
would not be lost to the individual giving it, in the larger fame of
the University. The University would welcome assistance from
any quarter in any department whatever. We should do the thing
which, in view of all the conditions, we can do best.
And now to our departing President I would say: You with
your associates have kept the light burning; you have added fuel
15
to its flame; you have carried it nearer to the top of the mountain.
From its greater elevation it commands a larger horizon. From
its intenser brilliancy it shines with a greater luster. Indiana
University would have been fortunate indeed to have had you con-
tinue to bear her colors from ledge to ledge, but other possibilities
and other duties open out before you. May that brilliant success
which you have here achieved be even more marked in your new posi-
tion. We congratulate the university to which you go; you have
our friendship and our highest hopes. The prayers of this com-
munity are with you. When you come to another milestone in
life's journey, may all about you say, as they do here, well done,
well done.