ELD LIBRARY OF THE University of California. Class OF THE ERSITY. » WILLIAMS COLLEGE THE INDUCTION OF HARRY AUGUSTUS GARFIELD, LL.D. INTO THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT OCTOBER SEVENTH MDCCCCVIII PRINTED AT THE RIVERSIDE PRESS Jl^-Jf INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD N the twenty-fifth day of June, 1 907, at a meeting of the Trus- tees, heldinWiUiamstown, Harry Augustus Garfield, then Profes- sor of Politics in Princeton Uni- versity, was unanimously elected President of Williams College. He accepted the election, and a committee, consisting of the Rev. Dr. Merriman, Chairman, Mr. Delano, the Rev. Dr. Dewey, President Lefavour, Professor Perry, Mr. Stetson, and Mr. Warren, was appointed to make suitable arrangements for his induction into office. Later, it was announced that the induction would take place October the seventh, 1908 — a date which fell on the one hundred and fifteenth anni- versary of the founding of the College. To the Rev. Dr. Merriman and President Lefavour, as a sub-committee, was assigned the laborious task of preparation. Under their supervision an engraved invitation, bearing the seal of the College, was pre- pared and sent to the Governor of the Common- wealth of Massachusetts and to Ambassador Bryce ; to Presidents and Professors of Universities, Col- leges, and Theological Seminaries ; to teachers in 1 4 QOQO'V WILLIAMS COLLEGE Academies and High Schools ; and to represent- ative citizens of Massachusetts and other states. Two other circulars were issued by direction of the committee, one of which was addressed to the guests and delegates from academic institutions, and the other to the Alumni. Of the latter twenty- five hundred were sent out. These circulars con- tained all necessary information in regard to the details of the induction. The sub-committee also provided a handsomely printed program of the ex- ercises. Two local committees were appointed — a Committee on Arrangements, consisting of Bentley W. Warren, Willard E. Hoyt, and Dean Frederick C. Ferry, and a Committee on Entertainment, con- sisting of Bentley W. Warren, Willard E. Hoyt, Dean Frederick C. Ferry, Rev. Charles W. Burr, and N. Henry Sabin. All these committees dis- charged their duties with notable success. The following gentlemen served as marshals and had charge of the formation and conduct of the procession and of the seating of guests in the Chapel and in the Congregational Church : Marshal-in-Chief Dean Frederick C. Ferry Faculty Marshal Professor Henry D. Wild 2 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD Marshals for the Delegates and Guests Professor William E. McElfresh Assistant Professor Lewis Perry Alumni Marshals Henry W. Banks, Jr., '85 Herbert J. Brown, '85 Special Marshals Professor James G. Hardy Assistant Professor Karl E. Weston Assistant Professor Monroe N. Wetmore Mr. Elmer I. Shephard Mr. Elmer A. Green Mr. John A. Lowe Additional Marshals Assistant Professor Theodore F. Collier Mr. Samuel E. Allen Dr. Frank L. Griffin Dr. Carl W. Johnson Dr. WilHam L. Kennon Dr. Clyde S. Atcheson Mr. John S. Galbraith Dr. James Taylor, Jr., '95 Mr. Scott S. Durand, '90 Student Marshals Gilbert Horrax, '09 Gilbert Livingstone Morse, '09 3 WILLIAMS COLLEGE Leon Sherman Pratt, 'lo Stuart John Templeton, 'lo The following delegates from educational insti- tutions were present : t DELEGATES FROM COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES, AND THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES Harvard University, President EHot and Professor A. L. Lowell Yale University, President Hadley Princeton University, President Wilson and Dean Fine Columbia University, President Butler Brown University, President Faunce Rutgers College, President Demarest Dartmouth College, Acting President Lord and Secre- tary Hopkins University of Vermont, President Buckham Bowdoin College, Professor W. T. Foster Middlebury College, President Thomas United States Military Academy, Colonel Scott Andover Theological Seminary, Dean Platner Hamilton College, Professor F. H. Wood Bangor Theological Seminary, President Beach Colgate University, Acting President Crawshaw University of Virginia, President Alderman Indiana University, Professor J. P. Porter Amherst College, President Harris Trinity College, Professor R. B. Riggs Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, President RIcketts 4 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD Western Reserve University, President Thwing and Professor H. E. Bourne Wesleyan University, Professor W. P. Bradley Lafayette College, President Warfield Haverford College, President Sharpless Oberlin College, Professor A. S. Root Hartford Theological Seminary, Professor W. S. Pratt Marietta College, Professor E. K. Mitchell Mount Holyoke College, President WooUey Union Theological Seminary, President Brown Olivet College, President Lancaster College of the City of New York, President Finley The State University of Iowa, President MacLean University of Wisconsin, President Van Hise Tufts College, President Hamilton Whitman College, President Penrose Vassar College, President Taylor Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Acting Presi- dent Noyes Cornell University, President Schurman The University of Maine, President Fellows Lehigh University, Mr. E. H. Williams, Jr. Massachusetts Agricultural College, Dean Mills University of Minnesota, President Northrop Union College, President Alexander Smith College, President Seelye Wellesley College, Professor Elizabeth K. Kendall The Johns Hopkins University, Dean Griffin Radcliffe College, Miss Sarah Yerxa Bryn Mawr College, Professor Florence Bascom 5 WILLIAMS COLLEGE The University of Chicago, Dr. Francis W. Parker Simmons College, Professor F. E. Farley Clark College, Dean Bentley DELEGATES FROM ACADEMIES AND SCHOOLS The Rev. Huber G. Buehler, The Hotchkiss School The Rev. Dr. Henry Ferguson, St. Paul's School Mr. Arthur I. Fiske, The Boston Latin School Dr. Joseph H. Sawyer, Williston Seminary Mr. Alfred E. Stearns, Phillips Academy The Rev. Dr. William G. Thayer, St. Mark's School The Rev. Dr. Edward D. Tibbits, The Hoosac School Dr. Henry P. Warren, The Albany Academy The occasion was also honored by the presence of the following guests ; His Excellency, Curtis Guild, Jr., Governor of the Com- monwealth The Honorable James Bryce, The British Ambassador Dr. Franklin Carter, Ex- President of Williams College Professor F. G. Allinson, Brown University Mr. Horace E. Andrews, West Mentor, Ohio Dr. John Bascom, Williamstown Mr. George P. Black, West Mentor, Ohio Dr. John Crosby Brown, New York, N. Y. The Rev. William A. Brown, Union Theological Semi- nary Professor H. C. Butler, Princeton University Mr. J. H. Coit, New York, N. Y. Mr. H. B. Corner, Cleveland, Ohio The Rev. James P. Conover, St. Paul's School 6 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD Mr. J. D. Cox, Cleveland, Ohio The Honorable W. Murray Crane, Senator from Mas- sachusetts Mr. Zenas Crane, Dalton The Rev. W. V. W. Davis, Pittsfield Head-master Wilson Farrand, Newark Academy Professor G. D. Kellogg, Princeton University The Rev. Dr. Arthur Lawrence, Stockbridge Professor William Libbey, Princeton University Professor R. M. McElroy, Princeton University Mr. Amos B. McNairy, Cleveland, Ohio Mr. Charles MacVeagh, New York, N. Y. Professor Allan Marquand, Princeton University Professor C. H. Moore, Harvard University Mr. Junius S. Morgan, Princeton, N. J. Mr. Calvary Morris, Cleveland, Ohio Dr. James G. Mumford, Boston John Nicholson, High Sheriff of Berkshire County Mr. Charles L. Pack, Lakewood, N. J. Lieutenant H. B. Perkins, of the Governor's Staff Mr. F. H. Presby, New York, N. Y. Colonel F. S. Richardson, North Adams Senator C. Q. Richmond, North Adams Captain F. R. Robinson, of the Governor's Staff Mr. Max J. Rudolph, Cleveland, Ohio Mr. A. D. Russell, Princeton, N. J. Major Philip S. Sears, of the Governor's Staff President G. B. Stewart, Auburn Theological Seminary Major Ira Vaughn, of the Governor's Staff Bishop Vinton, Springfield Brigadier-General J. G. White, of the Governor's Staff 7 WILLIAMS COLLEGE At half-past nine o'clock — the weather was fine and the town never more beautiful — the first di- vision of the procession, composed of students — mostly upper-class men — in caps and gowns, pre- ceded by the Second Regiment Band of Springfield, the High Sheriff of Berkshire County, and Dean Ferry, the Marshal-in-Chief, moved from the Li- brary campus to Hopkins Hall, where the Faculty, in full academic dress, joined it. From this point the route lay across Main Street, past Morgan Hall to Jesup Hall. A large number of the Alumni, ar- ranged in the order of their classes, fell into line at this point, and the procession then marched along the walk in front of the Scientific Laboratories and between West College and the new Clark Hall to the President's house. There were gathered the Trustees, the candidates for honorary degrees, and distinguished guests. Here theyjoined the proces- sion in the following order: the Rev. Dr. Adams, the acting chairman of the Board of Trustees, and Governor Guild, the Governor's Staff in full uni- form. President-elect Garfield and Ambassador Bryce, the Trustees and the candidates for honor- ary degrees. The procession then proceeded to the Thompson Memorial Chapel, where the delegates and guests were already seated in academic order, and where morning prayers were held, at which the 8 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD Rev. Dr. Dewey of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Rev. Dr. Merriman of Worcester, both of the Board of Trustees, officiated. At this service the order of exercises was as follows : Processional Hymn, ^< How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord " ; Invocation ; Responsive reading of the Sixty-seventh Psalm ; Scripture lesson ; Hymn, *< Veni Creator Spiritus," sung by the choir; Prayer ; Hymn, « Let children hear the mighty deeds," sung by the congregation ; and Benedic- tion. The music for the last two hymns was com- posed by Mr. Sumner Salter, the organist of the College. From the Chapel the procession marched be- tween two lines of students, extending from the beginning to the end of the route, to the Congre- gational Church, where the exercises of induction took place. The procession observed in forma- tion the following order : the Undergraduates, the Trustees and the candidates for honorary degrees, the Faculty, the delegates, the guests, the Alumni. At the church the Trustees, the speaker in behalf of the delegates, the candidates for honorary de- grees, and the orator who presented the candidates were arranged in a semicircle on the platform, — the chair for President-elect Garfield occupy- ing the centre of it, with Governor Guild on the 9 WILLIAMS COLLEGE right and Ambassador Bryce on the left. In the gal- lery back of the platform the Faculty were seated. The delegates and guests were assigned places in front of the platform. Behind them came the undergraduates, while the Alumni filled the side sections of the church, and the holders of tickets occupied the galleries. The church had no decorations except two Amer- ican flags. Theseflags belong to the Class of 1 856, of which President James A. Garfield, the father of the President-elect, was a member, and were hung upon the rail of the choir-gallery behind the platform. One of them was the class flag. The other is associated with a meeting in the autumn of 1855 of Amherst and Williams students, mem- bers of the Class of 1 856 in the two colleges, " on the occasion of naming a high ridge, in the town of Charlemont, Mount Pocumtuck." The elder Garfield is said to have led his class up the moun- tain and to have carried this flag. A poem, "Under the Flag," suggested by the occasion, was read at the fiftieth anniversary of the class in 1906. The ceremonies in the church proceeded in ac- cordance with the following 10 ORDER OF EXERCISES INVOCATION Ex-President Franklin Carter, ll. d. THE INDUCTION 'ithe Reverend William Wisner Adams, d. d. Chairman of the Trustees THE ACCEPTANCE The President of the College CONGRATULATORY ADDRESSES In behalf of the Honorable Delegates President Woodrow Wilson, ll. d.. Of Princeton University In behalf of the Alumni The Reverend John Sheridan Zelie, d. d.. Of the Class 0/1887 In behalf of the Faculty Professor John Haskell Hewitt, ll.d. In behalf of the Undergraduates Ernest Hosmer Wood, of the Class of igog THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 11 WILLIAMS COLLEGE HYMN Ein' Feste Burg A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing ; Our helper He, amid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe Doth seek to work his woe ; His craft and power are great, And armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal. Did we in our own strength confide. Our striving would be losing; Were not the right man on our side. The man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who that may be } Christ Jesus, it is he ; Lord Sabaoth is his name. From age to age the same. And he must win the battle. 12 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD THE CONFERRING OF DEGREES Presentations Professor RICHARD AUSTIN RICE, m.a. Candidates for Honorary Degrees Doctor of Letters HENRY PITT WARREN Head-master of the Albany Academy (1813) ARTHUR IRVING FISKE Head-master of the Boston Latin School (1635) Doctor of Divinity FRANCIS BROWN President of Union T'heological Seminary (1836) Doctor of Laws JACOB GOULD SCHURMAN President of Cornell University (1865) CHARLES RICHARD VAN HISE President of the University of Wisconsin (1848) GEORGE HARRIS President of Amherst College (1821) 13 WILLIAMS COLLEGE EDWIN ANDERSON ALDERMAN President of the University of Virginia (1819) NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER President of Columbia University (1754) WOODROW WILSON President of Princeton University (1746) ARTHUR TWINING HADLEY President of Tale University (1701) ABBOTT LAWRENCE LOWELL Professor in Harvard University (1636) JAMES BRYCE 'The British Ambassador CURTIS GUILD, Jr. Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Benediction The Reverend William Wisner Adams, d. d. Organ Postlude 14 THE EXERCISES The exercises began with an invocation by ex- President Frankhn Carter, LL. D. : Almighty and ever-living God, in whom we live and move and have our being, as we gather here this morning we seek thy presence, thy bless- ing, and thy help. We praise thee for the revela- tion of thyself in Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom we have access to thee. We praise thee for the in- fluence of his life and death, for the uplifting power of his teaching and example. And now, our Father, we beseech thee to give us a clear vision of thy great goodness to us and to our fathers, and help us to feel a deep responsibility for our precious in- heritance and for our abundant opportunities. Help us to realize that we are dependent on thee for the performance of every good work and for every noble purpose, and we pray thee that that wisdom which is from above may animate every utterance and find a welcome entrance into every heart. We pray that the issue of this service may be for the enlarging of human minds, for the ennobling of human thought, and for the larger acceptance of a truly Christian view of the human life. We pray thee that all the teaching in this college and all its 15 WILLIAMS COLLEGE ongoing may be characterized by a grateful and reverent appreciation of the hfe and teaching of our Divine Master and by ardent loyalty to his leadership. Grant unto us, we beseech thee, that we may all follow him. Unite our hearts in devo- tion to the great purpose of his coming, the re- demption of men from sin and misery, and make this college a humble instrument in thy hands for hastening the day when he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. We ask all these mercies in his name ; and as he taught us, we would say : "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen." THE INDUCTION by the Rev. William Wisner Adams, D.D., Chair- man of the Trustees : Williams College comes to-day to a most im- portant transition in its history. On the twenty- 16 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD fourth day of June, 1907, Dr. Henry Hopkins re- signed his office of President of the College, the resignation to take effect at the close of the Com- mencement exercises of the present year. On the following day, June 25, 1907, the Trustees elected Harry Augustus Garfield, then Professor of Pol- itics in Princeton University, to be the successor of Dr. Hopkins and the eighth President of WiUiams College. There was but one name that came before the Board of Trustees. The election was absolutely unanimous, not in the sense that no one voted against him, but that every one voted for him, and he was elected upon the first ballot. The trustees voted a little later that the services of induction of the President-elect should take place on the sev- enth day of October, 1908, and to that function we are now come. President Garfield arose and was received wdth prolonged applause. The chairman continued, — I, therefore, acting as the chairman of the Board of Trustees, in the name of the board and by its authority, do now declare you, Harry Au- gustus Garfield, Doctor of Laws, to be the duly elected President of Williams College. In testi- mony whereof, vesting you with all the preroga- tives, powers, responsibilities and privileges of that office, I hand you this charter of the College, given 17 WILLIAMS COLLEGE by the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on the twenty-second day of June, 1793. According to the terms of the charter, "the purpose of the College shall be the instruction of youth in such manner as shall most effectually pro- mote virtue and piety, the learning of languages and of the liberal arts and sciences." The moral and spiritual requisites of a true manhood are always the same. They can be seen more clearly and complied with more completely as the genera- tions pass away. Since the giving of the charter the number of languages needing to be studied is larger than of old, as you know ; the number of liberal arts and sciences much larger; the devel- opment of knowledge and power attained by means of them incomparably greater. Correspondingly greater, therefore, should be the thoroughness of mental training, the well-poised personality, the large and firm grasp of thought, and the high and firmly-held ideals and aims. You know the high ideals of the best young men in college, their noble aspirations, the earnest devotion of their consecra- tion to their work, the charm of their enthusiasm, the vigor of their young manhood and the conta- gion of every fine and strong personality, — con- tagion peculiarly active in college life. You know, 18 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD also, the evil liabilities which come from the mate- rialism and greed of our time, the evil liabilities of the undiscerning to think much more highly of brawn than of brains, and to seek more eagerly social diversions than the intellectual conquest of the -world, the attainment of individual character and self-control, and of that daily power necessary to cope with the chaos of our time when everything is in flux, in order, as we believe, that there may come radical reformations and magnificent trans- formations for the grander life of man in the ages to come. We have confidence in you, sir, that you will be able to meet and be equal to the responsi- bilities of your high office in guarding against those evil liabilities and in ministering to these high needs. You have had experience in academic life and instruction. You have had experience in the administration of affairs in which you won the con- fidence of men in days gone by. Some of us here gathered to-day remember your father in his college days, his young man- hood, his noble temper and strength, and we re- member what he said of the worth of college train- ing to mankind and of the worth of this College to him. We remember that when he came to the high office of President of the United States he won the confidence and love of the nation, and the 19 WILLIAMS COLLEGE whole world mourned when by the hand of vio- lence he was taken away from the discharge of his duty. We believe, sir, that you will prove your- self not unworthy of such a father, — nay, more than that, that your work will show that you are a true and loyal son of the Most High, discharging the duties which God has given you as unto him and in the service of his kingdom. You will have with you a select body of men, the Faculty of this College, who will work with you in the far-reaching service of education and training, and who naturally, and very properly, will, from time to time, seek your aid in the dis- charge of their laborious duties. It will be your privilege, also, from time to time, to make selec- tion of others, the best that can be found, whom you will recommend for appointment in this Col- lege. You will have behind you and with you a body of trustees, chosen from various stations and relations of life, men of culture and of power, men representing many interests in life, men of con- spicuous devotion to the welfare of this College. You may also turn to them with confidence in their sympathy and cooperation. They will always be most ready to strengthen your hands and to furnish you with needed facilities for your work. I put into your hands, also, these keys, symbol 20 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD of the property committed to your charge and use in giving the best and most symmetrical education practicable in our time. Some of the funds repre- sented by those keys were given in noblest self-sac- rifice, with the prayers of the donors that their gifts might be greatly serviceable in the promotion of the highest manhood for centuries to come. All of the gifts were made because of the confidence of the donors in the purposes and aims of this Col- lege, because of their admiration for its history, their love of its traditions, their high hopes for its future in doing the work that colleges must always do for the promotion of the continual progress of mankind. Preserve the property sacredly; use it wisely, prudently, freely, for the purposes for which it was given. And may Almighty God, our Father in hea- ven, give unto you wisdom and grace to show yourself a man, according to his own heart, in the position where he has placed you. May he give you insight and courage, tact and efficiency, and the spirit of a continual faithfulness, according to the love which he has for you, in doing the duties which he has given you to do and according to the love which he has for the multitudes of young men that shall come under your charge, made in his like- ness every one of them, made to work with him in 21 WILLIAMS COLLEGE his everlasting kingdom and to share with him in his eternal glory. President Garfield responded as follows : — Dr. Adams and Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees of Williams College : I accept the trust you have committed to me; and, in all humility, with a keen sense of the great responsibility in- volved, but with reliance upon Divine favor, if what is done is well-pleasing in the sight of God, I assure you of my purpose to devote my best powers to the service of this College, — to the conservation of its property, the welfare of all connected with its life, and the preservation of its high ideals. Address of President Woodrow Wilson, LL. D., President of Princeton University, in behalf of the Honorable Delegates. Mr. President : I esteem it a real privilege that I was invited to stand here and bid you welcome to that singular fraternity to which college presi- dents belong. I think that you would deem it, and all who know the circumstances would deem it, an affectation on my part if I did not express, first of all, the personal feeling which is uppermost in my heart at this moment. I know, of course, that one element in choosing me to perform this ser- 22 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD vice was the delightful personal relationship which had existed between you and us at Princeton; otherwise there are men representing older insti- tutions and of longer experience who would have been entitled to stand in my place. Perhaps a public occasion is not ordinarily a suitable occasion for expressing personal friend- ship and personal confidence ; but perhaps, also, it will be an act of authentication of you to the gen- tlemen who have so trusted you with this high office to say what you have been at Princeton. I know that you have been honored by us on another occasion, and that you have won many friends by your experience at Princeton ; but I want to say that Princeton is rendered poor by your leaving, that Princeton has profited by your counsels, by your signal equipoise of character, and by the marked proofs of your deep-seated kindliness and wholesomeness of nature, and that any institution is singularly fortunate to get so strong a leader and so wise a counsellor as yourself. I think that the choice of a man like yourself, trained not merely in academic circles, but trained also in the broader circle of business and the world, has a singular significance at the present time. For, sir, it is important that college administration should receive more than a touch of statesmanship. 23 WILLIAMS COLLEGE It is that touch which you may be expected to give to the administration of this conspicuous and distinguished institution. For the college is now bound, in times of confused counsel, to supply the country not merely with men, in the ordinary pop- ular sense of that word, not merely with strong individualities, not merely with wholesome na- tures, — natures rendered wholesome by the puri- fying influences of counsel, — but also with men who can think, men who can interpret, men who can perceive, men who have something more than skill and aptitude and knowledge, men who look beneath the surface of affairs and know the gene- sis of affairs and can forecast — as much as it is given to men to forecast — the future of affairs, men who are ready to serve the country with something more than skill and knowledge, men who have a great surplus of energy and of under- standing to spend in the service of the country, men whose attention is not wholly centred upon making their own living, but is spent also upon the very exigent matter of lifting all the counsels of the country to a higher plane and place and oppor- tunity of vision. And so the function of the college is changing with the character and necessities of the times. I believe that we have centred our thoughts too 24 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD " much upon matters of curriculum ; that we have centred our thoughts too much upon serving the individual student who came to us and too little upon serving the country through the instrumen- tality of that individual student ; and that it is just as important to concentrate our attention upon the spirit of the college in respect to learning and the service of the country, and upon the organization of the life of the college, as it is to centre it upon the curriculum itself. The curriculum is a means of enabling the college faculty to promote a spirit and to perfect an organization which shall carry the students forward to better things ; and there- fore it is as important to draw the college together in its several parts and unite them in a common undertaking as it is to give instruction in the class- room and see to it that the students understand the difference between truth and error; because if the student does not draw near to the professor because of deference to him, there is coming a time when the professor will not draw near to the student because of deference to him. The student's attention is so much absorbed by the affairs of what he calls his life that the teacher gets only the residuum and balance of his intel- lect. There is coming a time when we must draw these elements together, and, subordinating nei- 25 WILLIAMS COLLEGE ther, unite them both upon an equahty, so that the hfe and the learning and the attention will all be indistinguishable, and there will be no contest, but our very pleasures shall give accent and salt and flavor to our intellectual ambitions. For the object of the university is singly and entirely intellectual. The object of sport, the object of social pleasure, is relief from the strain of work ; but pleasure is not pleasure, and any diversion is professional, if it be not simply a relief from the main object of col- lege ambition. It is this conception which, it seems to me, you, coming from a varied experience, having touched the world at many points and known men of many kinds, — it is this that you will seek, and this which you, perhaps better than any one else, will be in- strumental in accomplishing. I congratulate you upon the opportunity, and for my coUeagues^of all the colleges of the country I congratulate Wilhams College upon her choice of a man. Address of Rev. John Sheridan Zelie, D.D., of the Class of 1887, in behalf of the Alumni. President Garfield, one of your fellow college presidents who sits beside you to-day, who has said innumerable good things about life and work, said a few years ago that " the fortunate man is the 26 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD man who has the hard job." I recall that saying, not to apply it to your position, but to apply it to my own on the day when I am asked to express the good-will of your thousands of fellow- Alumni to you, and to do it in three minutes. And yet we want you to know that every man of us stands ready, if called upon, to give a reason for the faith that is in him that the act of this hour means the assured welfare of this College, which is bound up with nearly everything that we hold highest in the world. Your welcome is a welcome with reasons. It is pardonable and natural if many of those who sit before you to-day find their welcome colored largely by the remembrance that you belonged to that class in this College of which it is not too much to say that it now seems to have been able to sup- ply nearly everything that a commonwealth or a church or a college could demand. That class of yours was the first-fruits of an administration which began nearly thirty years ago, and neither you nor we might ask anything more than that this begin- ning of new things to-day, under your own direc- tion, should inspire these men that enter with you in the same way that that new start in the college life inspired yours so long ago. For every stage in your life there are some 27 WILLIAMS COLLEGE here to render a welcome to you as knowing that stage. Many of us would be content to see you translated into this office if it had been straight from that citizenship in which we were fellow-citi- zens with you, — that steadfast citizenship of yours which seemed to be yours as by nature. Others rejoice in your coming because you come freshly from teaching the principles of that citizenship and of great public interests to students who gave you their enthusiastic attention. The knowledge of it has made the college heart glad, as you come to it to-day, and prepared a like reception for you in the college body here. We welcome you back as the same Wilhams man that we have always trusted in every stage of your life, but we welcome you as something more, recognizing our debt to three universities whose touch has passed upon you, in two of which you were a teacher. And as it was a source of just pride to us to know that you were carrying the gifts of Williams to those two places, so it is our great happiness to-day to know that the loan is repaid with interest, and that we are to have the last and the best of you here at home. Not the least of our joy to-day is the pleasant tang of predestination that there is in the air. Some of us have to reproach ourselves year after year for 28 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD our remissness in dealing with that doctrine. It is not because we do not believe in it; we are always intending to say something about it; but when such a pronounced instance of it occurs as we recognize in your case to-day, it is a temptation to dwell upon the doctrine longer than you would have patience for it. I content myself with expressing for your fellow- Alumni our gratitude to Princeton for doing its immemorial work once more and bringing the lines of that predestination out so that they are unmistakable. And yet we want you to feel that this is not a mere gala day in the life of this College and that your welcome is not chiefly a sentimental wel- come. The earnestness of our good- will toward you springs largely from the deepening appreciation that we all have of what the office you hold means in the land. To a degree never known before, the names of those who hold a position similar to yours are become household words. Your judgments and words and doings are awaited with an expectancy and received with a seriousness and willingness which you may little appreciate, among thousands and thousands of men who have the college desire but do not have the college privilege. We welcome you into such a position as this because, in doing so, we welcome you not merely as our own, but as 29 WILLIAMS COLLEGE one more leader given to filling the world's ever- increasing hunger and need of leadership. We welcome you into that position because we believe that you, in all your training and experience, have become able to say almost instinctively that great word which our Lord put in the very forefront of his prayer, as the first word that men ought always to remember to say, — the word "Our." And we want you to realize how many more than this stu- dent body will expect to have a share in your life. We want you to speak to them. We do not expect you to do it immediately. We do not expect you to speak when you have nothing to say. We are sufficiently acquainted with academic affairs to know that many, many times in the life of a col- lege president he is too amazed to say anything. But as your judgments form, as you find the sure inspirations of your place, we want to hear from you ; we want a share in the words that come from your lips and the influences that go from your life to these students round about you. It is told of one of the Prime Ministers of Eng- land that his first ambition was that England might prosper under his administration, and his second ambition was that England might prosper. Because we believe that it is your first and consuming desire that Williams shall prosper, it is the absolute con- 30 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD fidence and desire of your fellow-Alumni that Williams shall prosper under you. Address of Professor John Haskell Hewitt, LL. D., in behalf of the Faculty. President Garfield : By the courtesy of my col- leagues of the Faculty there has been intrusted to me the pleasing office of extending to you, sir, their hearty congratulations on this auspicious oc- casion, and of giving you a most cordial welcome. Happily the Trustees have not departed from the custom that has prevailed here for three quarters of a century and have chosen a president from among the Alumni. It is to me the source of no small personal pleasure that, in this period of my service in the College, I can welcome to the presi- dency one who was a member of the first class taught here by me twenty-six years ago. The son of our most distinguished Alumnus, imbibing in the home the spirit of the teachings of the elder Hopkins and the traditions of the College ; pursu- ing your college course in the very first years of an administration that was in all respects brilliant and was especially marked for a high standard of scholarship; supplementing your academic train- ing by professional studies pursued in this country and abroad ; amid the exacting duties of the law 31 WILLIAMS COLLEGE becoming the ardent apostle of civic righteousness in a large city ; and, above all, the successful and popular instructor of youth in a venerable univer- sity, you come to the varied duties of your new office with rare equipment. You return to your Alma Mater after a score of years to find the number of students and alumni nearly doubled, the productive funds and the val- ues of buildings multiplied sevenfold, and instead of a Faculty of sixteen, a Faculty of fifty-eight members, who hold the degrees and represent the training of more than a score of institutions. This growth brings with it new and important prob- lems and weighty responsibilities. Worthily to rep- resent the College on various public occasions ; to attract hither deserving youth; rightly to adjust the curriculum ; to preserve the traditions of the college as to standard of scholarship and so protect the value of our degree ; to awaken and keep alive among the student body an enthusiastic love of science and letters ; — in short, to shape the pol- icy of the College for a century to come, — these things will devolve largely upon yourself. Though you assume your duties at an important crisis in the development of our educational institutions, you will probably not care to develop this College into a university, and, whether or not all accept 32 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD the statement of a recent writer that it is the func- tion of the small college to train boys in manli- ness and the humanities, it does seem all-impor- tant at this time that the American college should train youth in that idealism which shall hold in check the furious trend toward things material. It is a time when educators might well pay heed to the words of that prince of idealists, — Plato. " An intelligent man," says he, "will naturally choose those studies which result in his soul getting sober- ness, righteousness, and wisdom, and will less value others." It is to be hoped, sir, that under your prudent guidance, while holding to her traditions in placing culture above knowledge and character above culture, Williams College will help meet the important needs of our country in producing a statesmanship, a literature, and a scholarship of the first rank. It now remains to me to assure you that, in bearing the burdens and meeting the responsibili- ties of your office, the members of the Faculty, unanimously and heartily approving of the choice of the Trustees, pledge to you a most willing and hearty cooperation. May this gift of the presidency offered to you, sir, prove to be heaven-sent, and so, may your admin- istration be long, honorable, and of good success. 33 WILLIAMS COLLEGE Address of Ernest Hosmer Wood, of the Class of 1909, in behalf of the Undergraduates. Mr. President : Reunions have become familiar to those of the students who have been here long- est. To meet with the loyal Alumni who flock back at Commencement never fails to arouse our enthu- siasm, and each year we look forward to that event with the greatest anticipation. But it is a greater inspiration to us, this gathering of eminent states- men and prominent educators from all parts of the country, who are here to witness the induction into office of the President of Williams College. It is an inspiration to every undergraduate, this expression of good-will toward the College and all that it stands for. The life which the average student leads tends to make him narrow. Our college world, to attain the object for which it exists, must of necessity be removed from the broader, yet distracting, in- terests of the outside world. In this atmosphere of isolation and retirement the undergraduate comes to feel that there is but one college, — his own, — to which all others are subordinate. It is only when he comes in contact with students of other institutions, or when he is present at an occasion like this, that he is drawn out of his 34 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD narrow shell and comes to feel that, instead of belonging to merely one college, he is in reality a member of the great intellectual brotherhood of America. The gentleman who to-day steps into the presi- dency of Williams knows this College from both points of view. He has been here as a student, and he has in the recent past been associated with a university whose ideals are of the most pro- gressive sort. He understands the broad signifi- cance of a college. It is impossible for us to prophesy how great will be the advancement of this institution under his guidance. Those of us who have been members of the pre- sent undergraduate body longest, who have only one year of college life remaining, cannot but feel the deepest regret that the members of the entering class can never know the influence of our late president, whose geniality and whose kindly and cordial friendship for young men are among the dearest memories of our college course ; and still, from the bottom of our hearts, we envy them the four years they have yet to spend under the leadership of a president whom the whole College regards as the creator of the new Williams of the future. We students are young men, still in the for- 35 WILLIAMS COLLEGE mative period of life. We do not presume to lay claim to mature judgment in all matters. We are here primarily to learn how best to go through life with the fewest mistakes. If at any time our actions may appear to be based on anything else than tact or discretion, it is for us to be judged ac- cordingly, but nothing can be further from our wish than to do anything which would injure in any way the best interests of Williams College. It is with this desire to do our utmost to contribute toward the general progress of Williams during the short time we are here, that we, as undergrad- uates, pledge to you, sir, as our incoming president, and to your administration the most loyal support of which we are capable. PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S ADDRESS I shall not undertake to make response to what has been said to me this morning. It would be impossible for me to convey to you an adequate idea of the impression it has made upon me or of the feeling of humility with which, as I stated to the trustees, I undertake this task. I shall leave it to that which is more eloquent than words, — to deeds, in the hope that in the administration of this office the deed may correspond, in some degree at least, with what you have been pleased to address to me here. The theme I have chosen for this occasion will be found in the answer I would make to the ques- tion, " What is the chief end of the American college?" Similar questions are being asked concerning organizations of every kind. None are too sacred or too long established to escape, and none should desire to be excused. Inquisitions are periodic. They vary in form and character with the times, but all grow out of a laudable desire to be rid of the worn-out and unfit. They are periods of na- tional house-cleaning, as necessary, though quite as disturbing, as their domestic prototype. We 37 WILLIAMS COLLEGE have been passing through such a period in recent months. Institutions of higher education having been reached in the process of upheaval, there has been much perturbation of spirit among educators and alumni. In the opinion of some, the time has come for the frank abandonment of the old order of things ; we are living in a larger world, on a more extensive scale ; what was suitable to our academic needs a few decades ago is no longer so. To others, the larger world is sadly in need of the intellectual and moral qualities imparted under the old order. Though the American college has been the subject of much discussion during the past few years, it has been treated, for the most part, in its relation to secondary schools on the one hand, and to professional schools on the other. But before we undertake to say what its relation ought to be to other educational institutions, we must make sure that its existence in any form is warranted. This depends quite as much upon end and object as upon performance. The mere fact that an insti- tution continues to perform some service is no sufficient reason for its continuance. The service must be adequate ; an impossible requirement un- less it be actuated by an object that is both definite and necessary. The charge of vagueness of aim brought against 38 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD the American college is, in part at least, well founded, and to this fact is largely due the weak- ening of intellectual stamina observed among un- dergraduates. It is rare that men are found idling in the professional schools. One constantly hears it said of a young man who has passed through four years of undergraduate life, with ease if not with dignity, that he is now at the law school working hard, with an eye single to the main issue. Vagueness of aim has given place to clear purpose. But that which is general is not necessarily vague. To train the whole body by vigorous and regular exercise, that one may be stronger and physically more fit for the pursuits of e very-day life, is quite as definite as to develop bodily prowess for par- ticipation in some particular sport. What is wanted in our colleges is an object that can appeal to every student, whatever may be the future life-work of each. This object must meet the requirements of the times, without sacri- ficing the rich heritage of the past. It must quicken and inspire men to new and higher conceptions of life, without rendering them less, but rather more, efficient members of society. Such an ob- ject is expressed by the word citizenship. Amer- ica's greatest need is that the men and women of the United States comprehend all that citizenship 39 WILLIAMS COLLEGE imports, and live up to its obligations. Hence, I venture to assert that the chief end of the Ameri- can college is to train citizens for citizenship. Many alumni, and most men without experi- ence of academic life, think of college as a place of pleasant comradeship ; a place v^here cultivated ease and boisterous zeal join hands for a season; a charming valley, as it v^ere, where the waters of the stream of life, let through protecting locks, flow gently between banks made glad by a thou- sand flowers, through groves set with stately and noble trees ; a place happily removed from the dust and heat of the weary highway over which the schoolboy has trudged; a place from which one embarks on the main stream of life after a season of preparation, which consists of learning how to paddle one's own canoe without responsi- bility for consequences. In other words, college seems to them a place of privilege, in which one experiences much that is pleasant and acquires something that is profitable. Too often men think of citizenship in the same way. It is regarded as a status of which one may be justly proud, but is prized chiefly for the per- sonal advantages and privileges it secures. The consideration which ought to move from the indi- vidual to the State in return for these privileges is 40 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD regarded as a burden to be shifted, land where it will. It is indeed true that college is a pleasant place and that citizenship is a privilege, but each is vastly more. If the chief end of the college is what I have stated it to be, it is important to form a clear notion of what citizenship is. Vagueness of aim is to be avoided at all hazards. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the legal meaning of the term, or to discuss the privileges incident to its possession. With its advantages we are sufficiently acquainted. Its du- ties are service and responsibility to the State, to the end that the highest ideals of the nation may be realized. These ideals differ among different peoples. Their roots are deep down in the subsoil of racial experience long since forgotten. But, in- asmuch as present experiences and existing con- ditions are constantly added to those of the past, it follows that national ideals, which are the fruit of national experiences, will change. In so far as these experiences are subject to man's control, it lies within the power of every nation to move its ideals upward, absolutely as well as relatively. But this power is exercised by the individuals composing the nation as a whole. There is no such thing as national power, expe- 41 WILLIAMS COLLEGE rience, ideals, apart from the individual, and the individual can no more escape making his im- press upon the nation's life than he can avoid shap- ing his own character. Hence it follows that there rests upon each citizen a direct responsibility for the well-being of the nation, and for what this involves, the maintenance of its ideals. This is so whatever the form of government ; but especially is it true when, as in the United States, govern- ment is based squarely on the proposition that the people rule. Not all have the gift to perceive the wave of feeling which sweeps through the heart of a peo- ple ; to interpret it, to formulate it, and to give it power. But all can understand and appreciate that to which the more prescient have given form and expression. All must be able to follow, though some only be trained to command, or have the gift of leadership. A great nation never lacked for leaders, but great leaders have frequently failed because of a supine people. A nation will be great and strong whose citizens, bound together by com- mon traditions, inspired by high ideals, march for- ward with eager and steady tread toward a goal which is ever advancing. To attain to that standard requires long and pa- tient effort, for it means that the vast majority must 42 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD be brought up to the highest level of well-trained, high-minded, efficient manhood. More specifically, it means that citizens must be trained to easy con- trol of their mental faculties as well as of their bodily power: — trained to distinguish between scientifically determined facts and loosely rea- soned opinions; to discriminate between things and conditions of varying value ; to be zealous in everything that makes for the advancement and welfare of the whole body. It means that the vast majority must be keen to know ; constant in ser- vice; quick to sacrifice their own for the common good ; possessed of a sympathetic understanding of all sorts and conditions of men, and not merely of those of the particular class with which each works and plays. It means that the majority must come at last to realize that a nation's highest wel- fare is somehow and always inextricably a part of the highest welfare of mankind everywhere; though, because of his finiteness and the limita- tions of time and space, man's service to man- kind can be best rendered through the channels of a particular nationality and under allegiance to a particular government. The nation that would grow from great to greater must bring the vast majority of its citizens to cherish the principles upon which the government is founded ; to know 43 WILLIAMS COLLEGE the nation's experiences, and to render a service that may be described briefly as consisting in effi- cient performance, by all, of the duties prescribed for all, and in the assumption, by each, of his full share of the burdens of government. Citizenship of this kind is no mere ideal. It is a composite of ideals and action. Ideals unattempted are dead things; they shrivel up as the disused powers of the body atrophy. On the other hand, action, not inspired and regulated by ideals, is motiveless, unhuman, machine-like. As I have said, to accomplish this result is a vast business, — time and patience are prime requisites to the task. It can be done by no one person or separate group of persons. In a sense it must be everybody's business ; but it must be the particu- lar business of some to set in motion and keep going the force that is to actuate the whole body of the people. The thing won't get itself done, and the agency selected must keep the object aimed at constantly in view. The preparatory schools are of necessity preoccupied with mental drill- work, — with, at most, the rudiments of learning. On the other hand, the vocational schools are engaged in preparing their students to earn a living, or to pursue research in some particular direction. As in the preparatory schools, the work of the 44 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD instructor is with the individual, for the use and benefit of the individual himself; w^hereas the busi- ness of lifting citizenship to a higher level requires v^^ork with the individual and a life for the individ- ual of a kind that will fit him to think and act for the State and for the whole body of society. To hope that, while one is chiefly and intensely occu- pied with learning how to serve self, he will, some- how, in the process, come to know how to serve society and the State, except by relieving them of the burden of his support, is as idle as to hope to regenerate the world by shutting one's self up in a monastery. The problems of government and society are quite as definite as the problems of any business or profession, but they are far more complex and difficult, for they include every other. They are always objective and impersonal, while most others are subjective, and have primarily to do with self's welfare. Under the established order of educational work in the United States, the col- lege is peculiarly adapted to the task of training citizens to this kind of citizenship. But while I believe it to be the chief end of the American college to devote itself to this task, I do not mean to say that it has no other aim. It has several others, but they are secondary or, more properly, contributory, or complementary, to this 45 WILLIAMS COLLEGE chief end. For example, it is certainly an object of the college to prepare students for the vocational schools. When, however, we reflect that some only are to be lawyers or doctors or clergymen or chemists or engineers, though all are citizens, it is clear that the college ought not to make the preparation of students for the professional schools the chief end of its existence. Again, it is true that institutions, other than the college, are actively engaged in training men and women to the obliga- tions of citizenship. The churches, the primary and secondary schools, and, one may fairly add, the hospitals and prisons, are so engaged ; but in none of these instances can we properly say that this is their chief object. Also, there are ways quite individual and non-institutional by which many of the great citizens of every nation have made themselves, or have been made, fit for citizenship. None of these considerations, however, relieves the college of its peculiar responsibility. Hence, we ought, by no means, to give assent to the sug- gestion that the college has outlived its usefulness, and should either sink into the high school or be merged in the university. Until the ideal of citi- zenship shall have been realized, the integrity of the college must be preserved, whether it main- tains an independent existence, or is part of a uni- 46 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD versity . The American college, like the American state, is a vital part of our system. It has long been the proud boast of Oxford and Cambridge that they have educated the governors of England. Should it not be the boast of the American colleges that they are performing the same kind of service for the United States ? But the governors of England and the governors of America are drawn from different classes, and the methods adopted must differ accordingly. Mea- sured by quantity alone, our problem is vastly more difficult than that of England. I pass novv^ from the general proposition to its application to the college. How can the college best accomplish this chief end of its existence .? No organization becomes effective until it finds itself. The process by which this is accomplished depends upon a few general principles of action, which, in the case of any particular college, may be stated as follows : In the first place, there must be a clear understanding, on the part of all con- cerned, of the function of the college, that is to say, a common object; otherwise there will be divided counsels among those in authority and friction with those under authority. In the second place, there must be a determined purpose to carry out this object. The atmosphere of an institution, 47 WILLIAMS COLLEGE whose members lack the courage of their convic- tions, is deadly, and will produce weak men and pusillanimous citizens. There must be, in the third place, a broad, vigorous, common life, and it must include the whole body — faculty as well as un- dergraduates. Anything which separates men into classes, based on objects opposed or unfriendly to the main object of the college, is out of place and, in the end, will inevitably divert the aim of the institution and change its character. There will always, of course, be groups within the whole body. Diversity of taste, of temperament, of pre- vious affiliations, will naturally and properly divide men into groups for different purposes ; but each, according to its kind, must contribute its share to the great end for which the whole exists, if it would qualify for a permanent and honorable place. Among the crew of a battleship are many classes and groups, official and otherwise ; but all must work together as one well-organized, har- monious whole, if efficiency in action is to be secured. The value of a common life for the college is appreciated the moment one grasps the supreme object of its existence. The nation demands, and tradition prescribes, a common life for the people of this country, and everything within our colleges, 48 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD which makes against the spirit of this demand, affects injuriously both the college and the char- acter of our citizenship. Indeed, I would go a step further, and say that, unless the colleges respond to this demand by shaping the life within their walls in accordance with its spirit, they had best be allowed to die. Conversely, the colleges have it in their power to shape the future of govern- ment in the United States, if they seize the op- portunity that is theirs. The common life of any community is broad and vigorous when each mem- ber shares in it to the fullest extent consistent with his powers and qualifications, but subject always to that sound maxim of equity: Sic utere tuo ut alienas non lades. For example, the tradition which separates the faculty and students is wholly inconsistent with this principle of a common life. There is a distinction between the two groups, of course, but it is based on something higher and finer than mere authority. The active body of the college is, in reality, divided into five large groups, of which four are undergraduates. The fifth is composed of graduate students, commonly called the faculty, who, by virtue of their larger expe- rience and longer training, are given places of authority. When, at the end of his school-fife, a young man elects to enter college, he voluntarily 49 WILLIAMS COLLEGE associates himself with a body of educated, culti- vated men. He, so to speak, puts on the intellec- tual toga virilis. He elects to cast aside henceforth the things of boyhood, and to associate with men. He has taken a long step upward, — vaulted from boyhood into manhood, one might say. To de- mand that he be granted the freedom of manhood and, at the same time, be excused from its respon- sibilities, is childish. It must be assumed that he is in sympathy with the object of the institution with which he has affiliated himself, even if he sees it but dimly at first, and that he stands ready to cooperate loyally, and to the full extent of his powers, in working toward that object. That this program involves hard, as well as high, thinking, should occasion no surprise. The student has chosen the companionship of schol- ars, of men who have learned to see things in right perspective, as well as to discern their finer shades and qualities. In such company, it is to be expected that the sports of the field will be subordinated to intellectual interests, and that the common purpose demands a common life in which all shall share. If our young man objects to this standard, if he seeks a pleasant place of residence in which to while away four happy, care- less years, let him not seek entrance to the college 50 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD whose aim is high and serious. He will be out of place there. Assuming the soundness of the general propo- sition, in what way should it affect the actual life of our colleges ? The question can be conveniently treated under three heads : the care of the body, the training of the mind, and the development of the moral and religious nature. ( 1 ) As sound bodies conduce to clear thinking, and clear thinking is essential to good citizenship, it follows that careful attention should be given to physical training. Every college man should participate in some sport. Bodily skill and balance furnish not only healthful and enjoyable relax- ation from the pursuits of the study, but contribute directly to one's control of the intellectual faculties. The bare statement of these undisputed truths is condemnation enough of one-sided development of athletics in our colleges. " Supporting the team " in the cheering section is an unwarrantable sacri- fice just in so far as it takes any man away from his own exercise. Spontaneous cheering is natural and commendable; but organized, it easily degen- erates into a purpose to disconcert the oppos- ing team, and in so far forth is unsportsmanlike. The movement toward the further development of intramural athletics is a direct response to the 51 WILLIAMS COLLEGE demand that every college man should engage regularly in some form of health-giving sport. Intercollegiate athletics, within reasonable limits, are productive of good results, but the limits are easily exceeded. We Americans are justly charged v^ith overdoing things. Our enthusiastic athlete proves too much for his case. It is true that inter- collegiate athletics stir up an interest in sport ; that to put a winning team in the field inspires a still greater enthusiasm; that it develops admirable nerve ; that it keeps men out of mischief and adver- tises the college. But it is also true that a school for athletes, devoting its whole time and energy to the business, would be far more successful in these respects, and that over-developed athletic activities in a college advertise it in a way to be deplored. In other words, we should be governed in this matter, as in every other, by constant reference to the object we have in view. It is neither fitting nor necessary that college students should culti- vate professional skill in any of their sports, inter- collegiate or otherwise. They should ''play the game" with as much skill as is consistent with devotion to the chief end of the college, and no more; or, to express it somewhat more specifi- cally, with as much skill as is possible to those who are devoting themselves to the task of train- 52 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD ing their minds to grasp and deal with the most serious problems of the age, — the problems of citizenship; with as much skill as is consistent with membership in an institution whose chief end is intellectual rather than physical. But the moment so much is said, it becomes ap- parent that the burden rests upon the authorities of the college to see to it that the intellectual in the life of the place flows strong and clear. It is narrow and short-sighted to cut off, or even dimin- ish, athletic contests, except for the excellent rea- son that they interfere with something higher or better. The true basis of any program for rees- tablishing the proper balance between the curri- culum and the campus is positive, not negative. Vitalize and enrich the intellectual life of a col- lege, strengthen its moral fibre, direct its energies toward a definite goal, and the exaggerated value set on secondary things will disappear. ( 2 ) Coming then to the question of the train- ing of the mind, — what shall the college man be taught ? Vocational schools find comparatively little difficulty in deciding what to teach, for each vocation has its definite body of requirements, among which accurate and extensive knowledge plays the largest part. But the college cannot avoid the difficulty that inevitably accompanies the 53 WILLIAMS COLLEGE training of powers and the cultivation of a way of looking at things, as distinguished from the acqui- sition of knowledge. To adopt as a plank in our educational platform the statement which I have ventured to formulate concerning the college, does not lessen the difficulty, for citizenship of the kind described is possible only among men whose minds are well trained and broadly cultivated, and whose view of hfe is generous, as well as clear. It there- fore follows that those subjects should be taught which train the several aptitudes and powers of the mind. Extensive knowledge cannot take the place of intensive training. While all subjects lend themselves to this result, some are more suitable than others. Experience has proved the value of language, mathematics, philosophy, and science. The several subjects included in any one of these general groups call out and develop the same kind of powers. Taken together, any one group of such subjects constitutes a field of knowledge, which, for the student, is a training-ground, different in character and discipline from any other. The sub- jects of each group supplement and complement the subjects of any other group. Thus, though it is impossible to be well informed in all subjects, it is within the reach of every man of average ability to be trained in the intellectual processes 54 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD and informed concerning the fundamental princi- ples of each field of knowledge. Therefore every college student should be required to take courses in each of these general fields or groups. Breadth of training makes a balanced man, and balance is as essential to intellectual progress as to walking. It is a condition precedent to success to the scholar as well as to the citizen. Viewed from the stand- point of personal inclination and taste, the same program should be followed, for the student can exercise no intelligent choice between the several groups of subjects until he has been made familiar with the extent and general character of each. Within the limits of any one field, however, the case is entirely different. There, great freedom of choice should prevail. That some subjects produce better results than others in the same general group is due rather to the accident of time and to perfection of method, than to qualities inherent in the subjects. Consider, for example, the teaching of Greek. Both the lan- guage and the method of instruction have been standardized, if I may borrow a term from the shops. This result has come about, in part, because the language is "dead," thereby lending itself to fixed methods of analysis and treatment, and in part because it has been studied long enough, 55 WILLIAMS COLLEGE since its revival, to enable teachers to agree upon the authors to be read and the order in which their work can most profitably be placed before the student. These considerations give to Greek, as to Latin, a peculiar claim to consideration as a discipline, wholly aside from the question of literary quality and historic value. A like result, so far as intel- lectual training is concerned, may be obtained in the teaching of a modern language, but with far greater difficulty. Methods of teaching, the sub- stance and extent of courses, differ so widely, that in reducing the results to ^ common basis for class- room work, serious loss is inevitable. Furthermore, the outcry that is heard when a modern language is thoroughly taught, raises the suspicion that op- position to classics is due largely to the very thing which commends them to the educator, namely their value as training subjects. If modern lan- guages are to be treated as substitutes for the classics in any real sense, they must be studied with the same degree of attention to grammatical construction and composition that is required of the student of Latin and Greek, subject only to such differences as arise because of the fact that they are still spoken languages. To those who ad- vocate the substitution solely on the ground that 56 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD French and German are useful languages, and that thoroughness is less essential than facility, I have only to repeat that the college is not a voca- tional school, and that mastery of one's mental processes is more important than fulness of know- ledge and ease of expression. *' There is love of knovv^ing without the love of learning," said Con- fucius; *'the beclouding here leads to dissipation of mind." The same reply can be made to those who com- plain that too little attention is paid to the sciences in our colleges. What is most often meant is, that the instruction has in it too little of practical value. Modern life is set in the midst of a vast laboratory. One must blunder at every point who fails to understand scientific method. The scientific way of looking at things is essential to the student. It is of almost equal importance to the business man and to the man of affairs. It is called into requisi- tion in almost every successful enterprise. It ought to be applied to the consideration of most political questions. The problems of society and govern- ment are not to be solved without weighing the scientific facts involved, in a scientific way. In all these relations, however, completeness of know- ledge and expert skill can be left to the few who intend to pursue scientific work as a vocation ; but 57 WILLIAMS COLLEGE familiarity with scientific method is essential to all who pretend to positions of responsibility in any field. It should, therefore, be the aim of the college to train the mind of every student in this method of thinking, and, at the same time, to make him familiar with the common data and the underly- ing principles of the sciences. The eagerness of our students to get into the thick of things as quickly as possible is typical of American life. We would be masters without serv- ing an apprenticeship. We would solve age-long problems overnight. The college student finds, for example, the principles of political economy irksome. He would plunge at once into the midst of questions that are taxing the powers of the most experienced. What men are doing and thinking to-day is useful as illustrative matter for under- graduates ; but it must be carefully distinguished from that which is finished, or so far finished as to be measurable. The unknown quantity in political and social problems is human nature, and experi- ence is its best measuring-rod. Lack of experience and ignorance of human nature are as fatal to good government as the prejudices of self-interest, and the college student is as ill-equipped in this direc- tion as he may be well informed concerning fun- damental principles. 58 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD But it must not be supposed that this program for the college leaves no place for the develop- ment of ripe scholarship and the refinements of culture. So far as the faculty members are con- cerned, the necessity of beginning at the begin- ning with each generation of students, and direct- ing them with patience over familiar paths, does not prevent advanced work. Indeed, one cannot keep alive to the particular subject he is teaching, unless he carries on work in his own field beyond that which is suitable for the undergraduate. This is doubtless far easier to do in a university where one finds opportunity to try out the results of his work in the graduate school and feels the stimulus of the larger group of men occupied with advanced subjects. But the highway of scholarship touches the world at all points, and he who chooses may take the product of his labor to what market he will. In the case of the undergraduate, the incen- tive to push beyond the minimum, or even the maximum, requirements of the curriculum, will always exist where the elder members of the com- munity possess the qualities of leadership and are progressive men. When this fortunate condition exists, the lecture plays an important part. Large bodies of students may, with the least waste of 59 WILLIAMS COLLEGE time and effort, be shown the broader aspects of a 'subject, and its relation to the whole field of know- ledge. Moreover, the lecture loses nothing of its inspirational value by reason of numbers. But, as a means of training the mind and strengthening the intellectual powers, the lecture is of the least possible value. Nothing can take the place of hard, regular work on the part of the student, under the personal guidance of a competent instructor. For certain subjects, I am convinced that no better method will be found than that which is pursued under the preceptorial system at Princeton, and which is substantially the method of the great teachers a generation and more ago. It makes the largest possible allowance for the personal equa- tion. It accommodates itself to the ambitions of the scholar and to the necessities of the man of average ability or poor preparation. It is an effective means of binding together faculty and students, and makes plain the way to a strong common life. The requirements of the curriculum should take into account the several kinds of men who come to our colleges. They may be divided into three classes : ( i ) men of earnest purpose, with native powers of unusual character and promise; (2) men of earnest purpose without unusual native powers ; and ( 3 ) men who may, or may not, be 60 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD endowed by nature with special gifts, but whose most striking characteristic is lack of earnest pur- pose. The men who compose the first class need no urging, they stand ready to seize the opportu- nities held out to them. They do not rest content with mere pass-work or with minimum require- ments. They touch college life on all its sides, but with a due sense of proportion in its several parts. They become not merely well trained, but highly cultivated. They carry away the attainments of the scholar to the enrichment of citizenship, and become leaders among men. But students of this class must not be left to supply their own higher intellectual wants. To require them to continue in the training-field after they have gained control of their mental powers, and are well trained in the use of the intellectual processes and principles of the several fields of knowledge, is a waste, and may easily become a vicious waste by destroying purposefulness. As a reward of merit, men of this class should be permitted to concentrate upon fewer subjects in their last two years, that the fruits of scholarship may be secured to them. The experi- ments which are now being made to adapt the Oxford and Cambridge systems of honor courses to our use, will be followed with lively interest by all who are impressed by the failure of our col- 61 WILLIAMS COLLEGE leges to make adequate provision for men of schol- arly mind and earnest purpose. The second class of men to which I have alluded must, however, not be neglected. The danger at- tendant upon the introduction of honor courses is, that the large body of men of earnest purpose, but apparently of ordinary endowment, will receive less attention and inspiration than at present. Any system which neglects the training of the men of this class is unsuited to our American needs, for to this class belongs the large majority and by it the average of our citizenship is determined. As a class, these men will not become scholars, but, by association with scholars, they may cultivate schol- arly tastes and learn how to appreciate the best in everything : — the beautiful things in nature, the refinements of art and literature, the progress of nations, and the achievements of science. Nor will this equipment be to their own advantage only. As citizens, they will aid in making the communi- ties in which they live better, cleaner, and more beautiful places. Furthermore, the man of slow development finds his place in this class. In the end, he may outstrip his fellows and make a larger contribution to the world than the most brilliant of his comrades. To neglect his training is to waste some of our very best material ; for, 62 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD unaided, such men may not find themselves until it is too late. But it is of the third class that I wish especially to speak. The young man who enters college and remains there without discovering an earnest pur- pose to be the best that he can ; to do his part to the best of his ability; and to bear his full share of responsibility, ought not to be in college. He is an unprofitable member of the community, and is likely to prove unprofitable as a citizen: — it is of such stuffs that our undesirable citizens are made. He may be brilliantly endowed, possessed of a strong personality, and gifted with persuasive powers to an unusual degree, but his influence is bad, if for no other reason than that his brilliant parts cannot be imitated, and his faults will be. Usually, however, such men are not possessed of gifts of a high order. They merely appear to be. Frequently they are good fellows, as the phrase goes ; but to be merely a good fellow is not suf- cient to qualify one for a place in college. In the language of the campus, this kind of a man is a loafer. He is, however, to be distinguished from the man who desires to apply himself but has not yet learned the art, and from the intellectually one-sided man who at least loafs discriminatingly. These two need training and friendly guidance, 63 WILLIAMS COLLEGE but they do not lack earnestness of purpose or force of will. The men against whom we should close the doors promptly and effectually are those who loaf because they choose to, and who do not propose to change their occupation. For the college to do otherwise, is to foster and encourage qualities most hurtful to the great object we are seeking to accomplish. This brings me to the question of the develop- ment of the moral and religious nature. It is hardly necessary to say that this means more than mere morality. Our undergraduates should be expected to lead clean and upright lives as a matter of course. Clean living is essential to manliness, and uprightness to good citizenship. The virtues of a good citizen in a republic like ours are not to be distinguished from the virtues of a good man. Aristotle was convincingly clear upon that point, and experience has demonstrated the soundness of his teaching. But a profounder conception of citi- zenship will be discovered when we base it, as morality itself is based, upon Christ's interpreta- tion of the law, summed up in the most luminous, the most inspiring words ever spoken: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." 64 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD Without love of this kind, intellectual endowment, the trained mind, and the most comprehensive knowledge are nothing, or worse than nothing. Upon these two commandments, indeed, hang all the law and the prophets. They are of the essence of the faith of western civilization. They led the pilgrims across the sea and comforted them in the wilderness. They directed and controlled the acts of the founders of our several commonwealths, and guided the framers of the Constitution. Wherever a school-house was opened in the Colonies, there also a place of worship was established. Church and State were wisely separated as organizations, but they were firmly united in the hearts of the people of each community. Upon the preserva- tion of this union depends the future welfare of our country, for through its power alone can the great body of our citizens be lifted up to higher planes of civic life. How essential it is, then, that the young men in our colleges shall be trained to live by the light of these commandments. The un- derlying principles of the Christian religion should be taught, without limitation of sect or narrowness of construction. Its literature and history should be known to every college man, to at least the same extent that the literature and history of other great world-movements are known. 65 WILLIAMS COLLEGE As if in opposition to this part of the program, one sometimes hears it said that the college is not a theological seminary. True ; nor is it a law school, nor a professional or vocational school of any other kind, as already pointed out. Hence, it should not teach theology ; but the principles of right living, the foundations of faith, and the place and influ- ence of religion in the world are principal subjects in the field of philosophy. To omit them is to ig- nore the vital relation existing between God and man, and the part that religion and religious be- liefs have played in the development of the race. To fail to give to our young men a sense and ap- preciation of the dynamic force of religious faith in the progress of human affairs, is to leave them ignorant of the greatest and most profound fact in history. If, in what I have said, I have seemed to some of you to have omitted the praise due to this, our beloved institution, for past achievement and for peculiar fitness to perform her part of the supreme duty resting upon the American college, it is from no lack of appreciation or affection, but rather that I might emphasize the universal character of the obligation. All that can v^th propriety be said on this occasion is, that the founder of Williams Col- lege was a soldier-citizen, who shortly before his 66 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD death on the battlefield, in 1755, made provision by will for the establishment of a free school in this place, and that from the beginning of its ex- istence until now, Williams College has taught the obligations of citizenship. The greatest, most hon- ored, and best beloved of all Williams teachers made clear to his students the value of civil lib- erty and the relation of the spirit of Christianity to the State and to the progress of civilization. He rejoiced that it had become possible to instruct a whole people concerning the end of government and the ground of human rights. "The highest earthly conception," wrote Dr. Mark Hopkins, *«is that of a vast Christian commonwealth, instinct with order, and with such triumphs and dominion over nature as modern science is achieving, and promises to achieve." THE CONFERRING OF DEGREES The candidates for honorary degrees were pre- sented by Professor Rice, as follows : FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF LETTERS Henry Pitt Warren, graduate of Yale Col- lege ; for thirty-five years head-master of the Al- bany Academy. This Academy, modelled at its foundation in 1813 on the public and grammar schools of England, has never swerved from the tradition of those schools, fidelity to the humani- ties. While the Empire State has allowed almost every other local academy to succumb to the high or boarding-school, its capital city still supports this time-honored institution with confidence and liberality, sensible of the quality of its administra- tion and its output. Arthur Irving Fiske, graduate of Harvard College, master and head-master, for the last thirty- five years, in the Public Latin School of Boston, the oldest school in the United States with a contin- uous existence. For age unrivalled, it unites with age a continuous maintenance of classical training. 68 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD From its foundation in 1635 to the present day Greek and Latin have been required of every boy for entrance. Another no less vaUd title to fame rests on the fact that it sends more boys to Har- vard than any other school in the country. Nor is this title lessened because the school is located in Boston. The Latin School is not the easiest wslj to Cambridge. Whichever claim to lasting regard be thought the higher, there w^ill be no hesitation, in this gen- eration, in ascribing the prime share in the result to the Head-master. FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF DIVINITY Francis Brown, graduate of Dartmouth Col- lege, Hebrew scholar and professor ; Director of the American School for Oriental Study and Research in Palestine during the past year ; now elected President of Union Theological Seminary in^ the City of New York. His relation to this In- stitution is a witness to the progressive spirit abid- ing in it: his election a mark of the progressive fulfilment of that larger hope cherished by its late president, Dr. Charles Cuthbert Hall, which he stated in these terms: *'To preserve forever the activity and efficiency of the Protestant prin- 69 WILLIAMS COLLEGE ciple of liberty, and fearlessness in the pursuit of truth, and the freedom of the Spirit in its inter- pretation." And President Brown adds: *< Com- bining with this, loyalty to historic Christianity, while emphasizing the genuineness of Christian experience and the importance of practical ser- vice." As once in days of gloom Williams College showed its estimate of values by especial wel- come to Dr. Briggs, so now it would testify again to its faith in an institution, which, emerged from the shadows, is revealed steadfast in the liberty for which Christ has made us free. FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF LAWS Jacob Gould Schurman, graduate of the Uni- versity of London; since 1892 President of Cor- nell University. There are doubtless many in this audience who can remember the distinct shock to the intellectual consciousness of the East given by the founding of Cornell. It has taken all these forty years for some to recover from it, to understand the seemingly defiant declaration of the founder that his univer- sity was to be " an institution where any person can find instruction in any study." With what sneers 70 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD it was greeted, with what contempt regarded by the high priests, and particularly by the novi- tiate of tradition ! And when fairly launched, what difficulties combined to hinder it ! A State univer- sity without the support of the State, it had even to create the schools which should supply it with students. Yet to-day, who will deny that the dream of the founder is nearing fulfilment, that Cornell has rightfully won triumphs elsewhere than at Poughkeepsie? The present administration has, in loyalty to the ideals of the founder, enlarged the opportunities, and advanced steadily toward the realization of that novelty in education, a people's university. Charles Richard Van Hise, graduate of the University of Wisconsin; Geologist and Metal- lurgist, Professor and Author, now President of the University of Wisconsin, — a State institution that can rightly be regarded as a model of its class. There may be some difference of opinion be- tween you, sir, and two of your neighbors on this platform as to which sort of university exercises the widest and most beneficent influence, which is most truly national, or typical of the Ameri- can mind. They must, however, agree that it will be through you and your university that efficient 71 WILLIAMS COLLEGE aid will be given in the solution of a problem that engages the attention of the educational world: " Whether the applied sciences shall win for them- selves positions in it as studies in the liberal arts." George Harris, graduate of Amherst College; Professor in the Theological Seminary at Andover; since 1899 President of Amherst College, which, founded in 1821, began its existence in a some- what unusual feeling of hospitality toward this in- stitution. The first article of its charter provided for the incorporation of Williams College with it whenever its Trustees should decide to remove this College into the vicinity of Amherst. Its first president was the then President of Williams, and he took along with him such students as, despair- ing of the future of the Berkshire institution, de- sired a better county — if not a heavenly. The century has proved beyond doubt that there has been ample room in western Massa- chusetts for two institutions with similar aims and methods, while incipient regrets and jealousies have faded in the strengthening of a generous rivalry. Edward Anderson Alderman, graduate of the University of North Carolina ; President of the 72 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD same, 1896-1899; of Tulane University 1899- 1904; in the latter year called to be the first President of the University of Virginia, founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson. Here was estab- lished at the outset a freedom of elective studies unknown at the time in any other institution in the country. A chief distinction of the University has ever been the example of an honor system, and this has eventually brought to Williams College what she to-day counts as one of her most valued possessions. To the Presidency of this university Dr. Alderman "has brought his zeal for demo- cracy, his genuine understanding of the Southern life, his sympathy for the people and their aspira- tions for culture and power." Nicholas Murray Butler, graduate of Co- lumbia University, chosen to be its President in January, 1902, under whose administration it continues to be " a school of thorough intellectual training, whose chief and permanent value to the city lies in the constant witness it bears to the usefulness and the nobility of the intellectual life." At home and abroad it is recognized as a public servant, striving to fulfil to the utmost '* its possibilities in the education of future citizens, who shall be fitted to serve their fellow-citizens and 73 WILLIAMS COLLEGE the State: striving also to utilize for educational purposes not only the resources of the Univer- sity itself, but the countless other educational resources of the metropolis." There are beyond question problems in the administration of Columbia known to few if any of her sister universities. To keep her true to in- herited responsibilities and unspotted from the world, yet an active force in the life of such a city as New York, is indisputable evidence of the pos- session of talents of no common order. WooDROw Wilson, graduate of Princeton Col- lege; President of Princeton University since 1902. The date of the founding of Princeton College would seem to indicate that a fair expanse of what is popularly known as history must lie between it and this celebration, but when the modern passion for marking epochs shall attack it, a clearly divid- ing line will be drawn in 1902. The historian of this latter epoch will not fail to signalize a new de- parture in university, or rather college, education, which is working a revolution in the undergradu- ate hfe of Princeton. It may be too soon to predict with confidence the entire effect of this departure known as the preceptorial system, that is being watched with keen interest by the college world, 74 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD but "it has already produced more and better work: it has begun to make reading men, and it has brought teachers and pupils into intimate rela- tions of mutual interest and confidence : it already shows interesting results in the new attitude of the undergraduates, in the increased ability to study, and in the intelligence of approach and facility in work." To have won even a reluctant consent, to have secured the means for the trial of a scheme involv- ing such enormous outlay, as surely marks a new epoch, as it bears witness to serene faith, construc- tive imagination, and creative genius. Arthur Twining Hadley, graduate of Yale College; in 1899 elected President of Yale Uni- versity. There is no one familiar with the early history of Williams College who has not recognized its dependence upon Yale, — I would rather say its intimate relation with Yale in its beginning — a relation which might truly be characterized by the term foster-parent and foster-child. Williams has drawn presidents and professors from this her an- cestral house ; she has also found in Yale a spirit- ual supply. This may seem to some to have shown itself only in the matter of policy, discipline, or 75 WILLIAMS COLLEGE method of instruction, but beneath these external manifestations there has been a recognition, an appropriation of what Mr. Justice Brewer, at the 200th anniversary celebration, characterized as the spirit of Yale, to make education the means of service rather than of power. Through this intel- lectual kinship Williams has come to know that, in the words of Mr. Hadley's inaugural address, " she must evoke in the whole body of her students and Alumni that wider sense of their obligation as members of a free commonwealth, which the America of the 20th century requires." Abbott Lawrence Lowell, graduate of Har- vard College, Trustee of the Lowell Institute in Boston, Professor of the Science of Government in Harvard University, an institution which, with a history stretching over two hundred and sev- enty-two years, leans less on its past than many a younger one. Its attitude is rather that of the athlete pressing forward towards a goal as yet un- attained, but clearly discerned. Harvard is not merely the gracious mother of liberal education in America. Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety." 76 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD She asserts no infrequent claim to leadership, and she has generally made good that claim. The breadth, not only of her endeavor but of her real- ized purpose, interprets to America the meaning of a university. The Right Honorable James Bryce, Ambas- sador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from Great Britain to the United States of Amer- ica. There can be no need at this moment to set forth the incidents in your diplomatic career which the citizens of this country have long been follow- ing with admiring interest, but on this occasion we cannot fail to recall your connection with the Uni- versity of Oxford as Regius Professor of Civil Law. Your presence here revives thus in no unreal way the historic background of all New England colleges. That connection had, however, issue of more vital importance than the furnishing of bril- liant decoration to a local, I might say, provin- cial, assembly, for it was under the impulses and responsibilities of that professorship that you, a second Columbus, crossed the sea to discover, to the surprise and profit of all English-speaking peoples, nay, of the civilized world, "The Amer- ican Commonwealth." 77 WILLIAMS COLLEGE His Excellency, Curtis Guild, Jr., Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Williams College would gratefully acknow- ledge the courtesy which prompted you to respond to an invitation from the confines of your province. It is also meet that on this occasion she pay due recognition to the authority that legalized her ex- istence, and, together wdth the power of conferring degrees, gave aid and comfort in days of afflic- tion. Williams College is proud of Massachusetts. Her loyalty is^ unquestioned. In loyalty and pride she offers to-day her highest degree to him who, graduated at Harvard College in 1881 with the highest honors, has since, as citizen, as soldier, and in the conduct of the highest office of a sovereign State, borne unfailing witness to the best traditions of his Alma Mater and the intellectual life. ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT I regret to announce that Mr. Stephen Carlton Clark is detained at home by illness — fortunately not serious. It has been suggested by the donors, of whom Mr. Clark is one, that under the circum- stances the dedication exercises at the new build- ing be omitted, and that no formal addresses of presentation and acceptance be made. It is fitting, 78 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD however, and within the spirit of this request, that I voice the sentiment of the College by an expres- sion of appreciation. The inscription upon the tab- let placed in the main hall of the new building tells of the gift with pleasing directness and simplicity. It reads : THIS BUILDING REPLACES THE ORIGINAL STRUCTURE ON ANOTHER SITE WHICH TOGETHER WITH THE WILDER CABINET WAS THE GIFT TO WILLIAMS COLLEGE IN 1882 OF EDWARD CLARK LL. D. ALUMNUS 1831 TRUSTEE 1878-1882 REBUILT BY HIS FOUR GRANDSONS AND THEIR MOTHER IN 1908 The President and Trustees of Williams Col- lege accept the gift gratefully and will preserve it faithfully, for it is a memorial of affection for one who held his Alma Mater in thoughtful remembrance. 79 WILLIAMS COLLEGE But it is something else also. It provides the department of geology with a delightful and commodious home, admirably arranged and fully equipped. It is an appropriate memorial, an effec- tive building, and an harmonious member of the group on West College Hill. By the good use we make of the gift we hope to justify the generosity of the donors. BENEDICTION BY THE REVEREND DR. ADAMS The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. The church was filled to overflowing, and there was no lack of enthusisam and applause during the exercises. A pleasant and interesting feature of them, when one recalls the curiously related histories of Amherst and Williams, was the sponta- neous and prolonged cheers which greeted Presi- dent Harris of Amherst when he rose to receive his degree. It was a sincere and unmistakable demonstration on the part of Williams men in honor of their long-time rivals. THE LUNCHEON A lunch was given in Lasell Gymnasium at the close of the exercises of the induction, and was attended by six hundred Alumni and guests. Ham- ilton W. Mabie, LL. D. '67, presided. With him at the table of honor on the platform sat President Garfield, the Governor of Massachusetts, Ambas- sador Bryce, President Eliot of Harvard, President Alderman of the University of Virginia, Presi- dent Van Hise of the University of Wisconsin, President Butler of Columbia University, ex- President Carter, Frances Lynde Stetson, and the Rev. Dr. Adams. At the conclusion of the repast, which was enlivened by songs and by class cheers for President Garfield, — a large company of ladies had meanwhile occupied the galleries, — Mr. Mabie rose and spoke as follows : ADDRESS OF MR. MABIE I don't know, Mr. President, Mr. Governor, Mr. Ambassador, Guests, Alumni, and Friends of the College, — I don't know how oppressed Dr. Garfield may have felt by the responsibility of his position when he came here, but I have reason 81 WILLIAMS COLLEGE to believe that he has been considerably cheered since then. Certainly no man could enter upon this difficult position under happier auspices than he. The day itself could not have been fairer, nor could the mountains — of which Emerson said that their names ought always to be included in the list of the Faculty because they are among our greatest teachers — have presented themselves in more friendly aspect. He has been inaugurated in the presence of his own family, happily continu- ing to the second generation the distinction of the earlier generation; in the presence of innumer- able friends, — who is not his friend ? — in the pre- sence of a great body of alumni who are to become his friends if they have not already established that relation with him, and in the presence of this noble group of educators from all over the country. He comes at a happy hour, after two administrations which have put the College — I think I may say even in this presence — in the forefront of Amer- ican colleges. First, the genial, kindly, wise, de- voted administration of President Henry Hopkins. I shall always think of him as he spoke two years ago at that memorable anniversary of the Hay- stack Meeting in the Chapel, with the eloquence of perfect simplicity and sincerity, expressing his conception of religion as the animating principle 82 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD in a man's life, free, generous, and progressive ; and then, again, as he spoke after the baccalaureate sermon at Commencement those few, simple, sin- cere words so full of the heart of the man, of his beautiful spirit, and of his devotion. He passed out of our sight, but he has passed into our hearts. His life is part of the spiritual endowment of the Col- lege. And before him the College enjoyed twenty years of the administration of President Carter, who brought here a reputation as a scholar, and who, during the term of his office, held the College with a firm hand to the ideals of character and con- duct and intellectual life, to whom, to its last day, the College will owe a debt of gratitude. Now, in due course of the proprieties of such an occasion as this, I should introduce to you first the Governor of the Commonwealth, and next the British Ambassador ; but both of these gentlemen have no relation to time-tables, and v^th charac- teristic generosity both of them have assigned their places in the due order to others whose rela- tion to the time-tables is intimate. We are to-day fortunate in the presence of a group of college presidents. Now, one of the most remarkable discoveries which a student makes after he comes out of college is that the college president is a human person. In college he sup- 83 WILLIAMS COLLEGE poses that the president is either inhuman, unhu- man, or superhuman. If he tells the truth, he is always regarded as tyrannical and cruel. If he is agreeable, he is always denounced as a person whose word is not to be depended upon. Every college president has to choose between these alternatives. As a matter of fact, gentlemen, the position is a very difficult one, and as we discover years afterwards, a college president shares in our humanity. There is a delightful story told by Mr. Lowell of one of President Eliot's predecessors. This old President of Harvard College, as it was in those days, had noticed that the students frequented a certain tavern in great numbers, and he made up his mind, after expressing that insatiable curiosity which is characteristic of college administrators, to discover the reason. So one day, during recita- tion-time, he went to the tavern, sat down, and when the proprietor came to him said, " Mr. So- and-so, the students come here in great numbers, do they not?" — "Yes, sir, they do." — "Now," said he, "is there anything that they have when they come here?" The proprietor, thinking that the president of the college knew the ground on which he was standing, said frankly, "There is." The president said, "Will you bring it to me?" 84 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD So a cup was brought to him filled — I speak sub- ject to President Eliot's correction — with what was then called "egg-flip," not known, I believe, to modern taste. The President sipped it slowly and with evident contentment, and then called the proprietor again and said to him, "The students take a great deal of this, don't they?" — "Yes, sir, they do." — "Well," said the president, "I should think they would ! " Now, I am not sure that any academic occasion anywhere would be complete unless the oldest uni- versity in the country were represented. Perhaps you noticed to-day that no degree was conferred upon President Eliot. That was because Williams College was the first college, after President Eliot's inauguration at Cambridge, to confer an honorary degree upon him. We did confer an honorary degree to-day upon a distinguished Har- vard man. Professor Abbott Lawrence Lowell. Mr. Bryce has written the great book on the American Commonwealth, and I think ten years from now we shall all be agreed that Mr. Lowell has written the great book on the English Gov- ernment and People. There is a tradition that, in the old days, when the President of Harvard College opened the chapel exercises with prayer, he always prayed 85 WILLIAMS COLLEGE " for Harvard and all inferior institutions of learn- ing." Now, whatever we later and smaller insti- tutions may feel about the superiority of Harvard, whose achievements and leadership we are all glad to recognize, we are all of one mind with regard to the position, the character, and the distinction of the President of Harvard College. To say that he has been a leader in American education is to be guilty of a commonplace ; but when one thinks of the variety of his interests, of the courage, the in- dependence, the intelligence, and the positiveness of his utterances, one understands how it is that he has become a kind of oracle in these later days, and that in any group of American citizens Presi- dent Eliot must hold a conspicuous place. It is a great pleasure to greet him here on this occasion. SPEECH OF PRESIDENT ELIOT President Garfield, Mr. Toastmaster, Alumni of Williams : We have all been rejoicing to-day at the congratulations heaped upon Williams College on its achievement — the achievement of the Col- lege in procuring for its head President Garfield. In all those congratulations I have most heartily joined. But I should like to turn the thing about a little, now. I want to congratulate President 86 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD Garfield on the position to which he has attained in Williams College. I want to congratulate him upon his entering upon the calling which, to my thinking, is the most delightful in the world. We have just heard of some of the possible draw- backs in that calling, and one of the drawbacks, perhaps, is that odd anecdotes come down from generation to generation, concerning preexisting presidents. But on the whole I desire to testify, out of my own experience, that the position and work of the president of an American college is the most delightful position and the most desirable work that I have ever heard of. In the first place, it is a permanent position. Pre- sident Garfield can look forward to thirty-five or forty years of steady, persistent labor for this in- stitution. It is a rare privilege, that, gentlemen, in this world, and particularly in this American world. And then, he will come in contact always with hu- man nature on its best side. That is an enormous privilege. Men and women never appear to so much advantage as when they are taking counsel with the president of a college concerning the wel- fare of their sons. I congratulate President Gar- field that he can look forward to many years of such delightful, hopeful, encouraging interviews. Then, what dehghtful intellectual contacts with 87 WILLIAMS COLLEGE the youth of the college this position affords ! Long service as president of a college is perfectly sure to make a man an optimist through and through. He will become perfectly convinced of the good in human nature, overmastering, predominating over all the evil. He will be perfectly sure of uni- versal salvation, simply because the cases of ulti- mate character-failure in the great stream of edu- cated men that flows before the president of a college are so infinitesimally few. It is one of the great satisfactions of a college president. I con- gratulate you on it. President Garfield, before- hand, that when you see young men slip, fall, give way, sin, you may know that almost all of them will absolutely recover within your knowledge. Think what that teaches about the salvation of the human race, when we remember how much more about motive and the inner consciousness and genuine good-will God knows than any of us can know. I say the president of a college is happy in that he inevitably becomes a convinced optimist with regard to human nature. Again, how numerous are the intellectual con- tacts with great men, with remarkable geniuses, with the conversational lights of the time, with the professional lights of the time, with the politi- cal lights of the time, which a college president 88 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD enjoys ! I was talking once with Dr. Oliver Wen- dell Holmes about the felicities of life, and he sud- denly said to me, "I think the greatest felicity in life is an abundance of striking and interest- ing intellectual contacts." Now, that is what the president of a college is enjoying all his life — a multiplicity of most interesting intellectual and moral contacts. It is a most inspiriting intercourse with mankind which all of us in this calling have. Besides, I was just telling President Garfield of another great pleasure that college presidents in our country enjoy, and that is, a steady intercourse from week to week and from year to year with a small group of men who are absolutely devoted, in a disinterested way, to furthering the work of the college and to supporting him, the president. I mean the executive committee of such a college as Williams, I mean the President and Fellows of Harvard College, — the board of control who have the initiative and the control of the property. It is a great happiness, a great privilege, for the pre- sident of a college to have this steady intercourse with a small body of lovers of their work and of the institution for which they work. It is a great, enlightening, inspiriting thing to work for love with lovers of a noble object. Then there is the object itself to which Presi- 89 WILLIAMS COLLEGE dent Garfield is going to devote his life. He told us this morning, in that simple, sensible, coura- geous discourse of his, the object for which he was going to work in Williams College, — the making of good citizens. Well, many men have said that. It is said in almost every baccalaureate sermon that is preached before colleges and universities of the country every year. But later in his dis- course he told us, by implication, what he meant by a good citizen. He meant a man of intellectual resources, of intellectual powers well trained, of pubhc spirit, who loved God with all his mind and his neighbor as himself. Now, that is a fine defi- nition of citizenship. What an infinite satisfaction President Garfield is going to have in working thirty or forty years toward that ideal, with your support, with the concurrence of the flood of young men who will pour through this College ! Is there a nobler or more satisfying function in the world? I congratulate President Garfield on what he has attained to already, and on his prospects of usefulness through what we hope will be a long life. Mr. Mabie: What is more interesting than the contrast be- tween different points of view? I could not help 90 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD recalling, as President Eliot enumerated the feli- cities of the college president, what the Duke of Wellington said about his position as Chancellor of the University of Oxford. He said that his great objection was that it exposed him unduly to liter- ary persons ! Our narrow definition of public life has visibly widened during the past few years. Not long ago we thought that the only public man was the man in politics. We have come to see, as Dr. Edward Everett Hale pointed out years ago, that every man who contributes to the life of the nation, and every man who anywhere, in any field, defines its ideal, is a public man. I am going to introduce to you one of the leading public men of the United States. A few years ago, a little group of men in the University of North Carolina — and as I think of it I can see Chapel Hill and hear the mocking- birds, as Dr. Alderman has often heard them, singing there in the moonlit nights of April and May — became oppressed by the illiteracy of that state and banded themselves together, with the zeal of apostles, to preach education. North Caro- lina had objected ever since the Revolution to being taxed, and it objected especially to being taxed for school purposes. Somebody has said that the ideal taxation is to secure "the maximum of 91 WILLIAMS COLLEGE • feathers with the minimum of squawk.'* In North Carohna it was all "squawk" and no feathers. Now, this little group of men, of whom Dr. Al- derman was one of the leaders, entered upon a campaign of education. They spoke with tire- less energy and with growing eloquence in every school-house of the state and at all the four cor- ners of the roads. It was a hand-to-hand campaign. They not only awoke North Carolina, but they awoke the whole South, and the result has been that educational movement which is to-day not only the real reconstruction of the South, but one of the most inspiring tendencies and movements of American life. Dr. Alderman was first Presi- dent of his own Alma Mater, afterwards President of Tulane University at New Orleans, — that de- lightful institution in that most delightful city, — and is President now, and the first President, of the University of Virginia; — and if any of you think that is an easy undertaking, you don't know Vir- ginia. In Charlottesville you must always be care- ful to say *'Monticello," and you must always say <'Mr. Jefferson," and there are many other things that you must do. No college is more beautiful than the university, as it spreads its white columns in the moonlight encircling that beautiful lawn, and yet I should venture to say, if we did not 92 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD have reporters present, that I doubted whether any position could have been more difficult than that to which Dr. Alderman went. The first time that I went there, after he was there, three years ago, I had the pleasure of attending a meeting of protest held by the students on the steps of the library. They had been in a state of great destitu- tion in the matter of quarter-backs. They were about to have a critical game, when one of the best quarter-backs in the country arrived at the col- lege. He was immediately put on the team, and all the university fell on its knees and thanked the Lord for his providential interposition. Then Dr. Alderman, who had just come there, and whose popularity, based on his character and his ability and his eloquence, was a great asset of the uni- versity, discovered that this young man had been dropped from another institution, — whose pre- sident is also here to-day, — and he promptly forbade his appearance on the eleven. It is impos- sible to imagine the thrill of indignation that ran through the institution, and the eloquence which was spouted on the steps of the library that after- noon revived the great traditions of revolutionary and forensic ability in Virginia. Dr. Alderman stood firm ; the tide rose and raged and sank again ; and then all the university said, <*What a splen- 93 WILLIAMS COLLEGE did will he has! How he stands by the stand- ards ! " That is what Dr. Alderman has stood for all through the South. I want to introduce him to-day as one of the leaders of the South and one of the foremost public men in America, — Presi- dent Alderman of the University of Virginia. SPEECH OF PRESIDENT ALDERMAN Mr. Toastmaster and my Fellow-Alumni of Williams College : When I set out from my home in Virginia to this great gathering, I set out with a peace in my mind which passeth understanding; for there is no such peace as the peace that belongs to the man who has no speech to make at such a function as this, or who has made his. So when last evening, at a late hour, I received a kind note stating that I would be asked to speak here to-day, while I appreciated the privilege, I saw that peace of mind take wings; for the consciousness that you have a speech to make, as man}'' here will testify, gnaws at your nervous system like hunger at your vitals. I well know that it is commonly thought of a Southern man that he is a silver- tongued orator, just born so, — that somehow he can thrust the right hand of oratory into the frock coat of statesmanship and eloquence of any 94 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD sort will gurgle forth. But that is not my condi- tion, and I am always reduced to the necessity of thinking and even of writing. And besides, I feel to-day that there is hardly anything worthy left to be said, so much that is worthy has been said. I am exactly in the condition illustrated by that story you may have heard of the somewhat arbi- trary method of determining the nationality of a man by the way in which he goes out of a trolley car. If an Englishman goes out of a trolley car, he justs gets right up and goes right out of the car. If an Irishman goes out of a trolley car, before he starts he looks around to see if he has left any- thing. If a Scotchman goes out of a trolley car, he looks around to see if anybody else has left any- thing. Being of Scotch blood, I looked around ! I should be lacking, ladies and gentlemen, in proper feeling if I did not give expression to the sense of distinction and pride that I have in being of this noble company that is gathered here to- day. I appreciate the honor and the courtesy of the hour. It is a noble distinction to be welcomed into the fellowship of the life of Williams College, and it has been an inspiration to me, as to each one of us, I dare say, to stand here to-day and witness the enthusiasm and devotion of men to an ideal and to an institution, and to see a strong man, with 95 WILLIAMS COLLEGE a noble name which he has proven himself worthy of, dedicated and consecrated like a high priest of old to that which is, as President Eliot has so beau- tifully said, the noblest and most delightful service that men can engage in. I feel that I must bring to you the fraternal greetings of the University of Virginia. There are many points of likeness and of unlikeness that come into my mind between that institution and this. Widely separated as they were in the cir- cumstances of their birth, Williams owed its origin to a masterful religious impulse and the desire of far-seeing and righteous men to better the social life about them; Virginia owed its birth to one myriad-minded old idealist who had an everlast- ing faith in the final rectitude of public impulse and in the final virtue and perfectibility of men. Virginia, I think, was the first deliberate gift of human enthusiasm and of democratic idealism to the nation and to the century. Behind Williams, then, was the attainment of the Christian ideal; behind Virginia, a hitherto undreamed-of concep- tion of civic virtue ; behind both, a belief in men and a faith in the majesty and the dignity and the power of knowledge. Williams and Virginia are alike, too, in this: they are both situated away from the great tides 96 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD of life, away from the great industrial centres of our time, and they both have, as a glorious and practical asset, a certain rare and noble beauty. The more I think of beauty in an institution, — beauty of buildings, beauty of architecture, beauty of scenery, — the more it looms up before me as a practical spiritual asset, and my heart goes out to the institution, no matter how powerful, no matter how throbbing with energy, that is not beautiful. For you cannot calculate, you Alumni of Williams, nor can the Alumni of Virginia properly calculate, what it has meant to you or to the world, in the storm and stress of life, to look back and see the col- lege with all its pageantry of noble hill and green grass, — to see it in the witchery of white winter, in the lustiness of spring, and in this solemn time when the autumn death is touching its leaves v^th gold and russet and brown. It steals into the ima- gination of men ; it grips the heart of men; and therefore I feel that Williams and Virginia unite in the common possession of that most precious thing — beauty. If Williams has the great dignity of the Hay- stack Meeting investing it with a certain spirit- ual charm, Virginia has the dignity of having established — and is now about to celebrate its semi-centennial — the first College Young Men's 97 . WILLIAMS COLLEGE Christian Association in the world. The two most scholarly-minded Presidents of the United States, I dare say, were those most intimately connected with the lives of Williams and the University of Virginia. Now, if I have one point to make this after- noon, it is this : we owe much to a group of men, among whom the President of Columbia is a fore- most figure, who are endeavoring to bring about a certain international understanding and schol- arly sympathy between this country and the other great collateral nations of the world. I am going to suggest that we ought, while not neglecting that larger idea, to look a little nearer home and carry out the principle in our own life. I hope to see the day when such exchanges of professors as now go on between America and Europe will be established, at least, between New England and the South, — that these temporary instructors may remain a definite length of time, sufficient to teach what they have to teach and to learn what they ought to learn. And I am going to suggest that it would be a good thing for this nation if more North- ern boys came South for their education, and pre- ferably to Virginia, and more Southern boys went North, preferably to all the colleges represented by the presidents here. I believe that if your North- 98 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD ern professors came to us, they would teach us many things, — orderly persistence, scientific-minded- ness, technical power, and many other phases of a high civilization. It does not become me to say what they might learn, but I believe that there is some- thing to be learned of a people who have suffered from loyalty to their ideals, who are homogene- ous in blood, and who exalt personality and honor above all things on this earth. We have hitherto relied for understanding on the tourist or the commercial traveller or the writer of impres- sions, and we cannot afford to neglect these men ; but what we want to do is to bring youth together whose hearts are young, whose emotions are gen- erous, who are quick to receive impressions, and whose feelings are such that they will be enabled to gain a splendid vision of the whole land, the whole nation, quit of all the memories of a trou- bled past about an unproven theory of govern- ment, and now at last marching all one way to the music of national progress and national right- eousness. There have been times, gentlemen, when it was difficult for Massachusetts and Virginia to speak kindly of each other or to think kindly of each other, but there was a time in the far past when they could, and, to use an old and reverent 99 WILLIAMS COLLEGE phrase, in the providence of God that time has surely rolled around again. For many generations these people have misunderstood each other. You have all heard of the little Southern boy who thought that "damned Yankee" was one word until he was fourteen years old, and you have doubtless heard little better of the New England boy with a vague, naive conception of a South- erner as a man whose simple morning breakfast was a cocktail and a chaw of tobacco. Or, to illus- trate it a little better, I think I will venture to tell a story that President Wilson told me last night, and then it was so good he told it to me again this morning. I asked him to tell it again. In fact, I don't know whether I ought to use it or not. I don't know what the ethics of other men's jokes is. It is getting to be dangerous to take things nowadays, especially if you write a receipt for them. I can foresee a complete separation here- after between larceny and politics. But I am going to tell this story. A Southern man comes home late at night, and his wife meets him at the head of the stairs and says, "John, what time is it?" He says, "It is just midnight." But at that moment the clock strikes three, and she says, " Well, what do you think of that? " He says, " My dear, would you believe that 100 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD damned Yankee invention against the word of a Southern gentleman?" I think that idea obtains in many places, and yet I want to say that while these two great sec- tions have sometimes faced each other and misun- derstood each other, I believe at heart they have always liked each other. There has been a sort of curious interest in each other, like that most singular of all reconciliations that occurred when John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, in their last days, found it possible to look into each other's faces and to behold there lineaments of dignity and grandeur and goodness. Certainly, no sections in the world appreciate each other's approval and shrink from each other's disapproval as do these two sections. When a man like Lamar has the courage to speak of the royal greatness of Charles Sumner, or a Northern man like Charles Francis Adams has the courage to speak of the royal greatness of Robert E. Lee, there is a certain fine glow of approval that runs through both sections. That is because they have respect for each other, and respect is the foundation of understanding and of appreciation. They are very much alike, and I could mention many likenesses. There is a moral dignity which belongs to both, such as belongs to those who have not acted commonly or 101 WILLIAMS COLLEGE meanly in great crises. There is a notable calm- ness and assurance that belongs to both, born of the fact that they have acted in great historical times with dignity and with power. Names big as the earth have come out of the life of both. From each have gone swarms of colonists to build new states on the Pacific coast, in the great West, and on the Gulf. Great builders of states, therefore, both of them are, with their sons looking back to them as mothers, — the South leading in pioneer- ing and New England following with institutions of orderly persistence and power. This nation can never be understood by one who fails to reckon with New England's philosophy, with her educa- tional theories, with her ability to translate demo- cracy into efficiency ; nor can it be understood unless he considers the simplicity of the South, its reverence for home, its pride of origin, and the purity of its thought about government and the state. And so my prayer for Williams College, this noble and sincere foundation of yours, gentle- men of WiUiams, is the poet's hope that she may mix with men and prosper; and who can doubt that, with such a leadership and with such friends as have revealed themselves here to-day, it will prove, as President Eliot long years ago said in 102 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD his inaugural address when he began that career of service and helpfulness and power to America that is so complete and so beautiful, "that the same God who prompted the fathers to create will give wisdom to the sons to preserve." Mr. Mabie : I should like to say to Dr. Alderman that if he should happen to speak here again, or if the charm of Charlottesville should become known in Williamstown, in case of an interchange of pro- fessors, there would be an avalanche down in that direction. I advise him to go slowly. I should like to say one word, before intro- ducing the next speaker, about the services of one of the gentlemen who received their degree this morning. I remember that a number of years ago. Professor Bliss Perry, who has made Spring Street an historic highway, and who passed by way of Williams and Princeton and the office of the "Atlantic Monthly " into the chair of James Rus- sell Lowell, where we are all glad and proud to have him sit, said that the campus life at Prince- ton was far too pleasant. Now, it has been the extraordinary power of President Wilson, without diminishing the pleasure of the campus life, to achieve a result which many Americans respon- 103 WILLIAMS COLLEGE sible for colleges had believed impossible. He has made study, if not popular, at least necessary. There is an inscription on the wall of a student's room in a certain institution not far from the place where Dr. Eliot lives, which reads, " Study is not allowed in this room to interrupt the regular course of college life." President Wilson has re- stored study as a part of college life at Princeton. I should like to say to you to-day that I think he has rendered a great service to American educa- tion ; he has reinvigorated the will and the purpose of a great many boards of trustees and faculties everywhere in the United States, Every American who keeps himself posted with regard to educational matters knows how efficient the German university has been in the last twenty years in furthering the material development of Germany, — how it has allied science with busi- ness. There are a great many Americans, however, who do not know the extraordinary completeness with which some of our Western state universi- ties serve the state. They do not know how inti- mately those universities have united themselves with the public life of the state and become the efficient instruments of industrial, creative energy. The University of Wisconsin is one of these insti- tutions. Our relations with it have been peculiarly 104 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD intimate. We have given it two presidents, Dr. Chadbourne, one of the most versatile and ener- getic college officers that we have ever had, and Dr. John Bascom, one of the most inspiring teach- ers that any American college has ever had. I am sure we shall all be glad to take this opportunity of remembering that Dr. Bascom has just cele- brated his 8oth birthday, and that neither in body nor in mind has there been any recession of that burning energy and that piercing insight which made him a leader in our thought a generation ago. Now, it is a great pleasure to introduce to-day the President of the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Van Hise. SPEECH OF PRESIDENT VAN HISE Ladies and Gentlemen: I did not know that there was in this audience another gentleman who had been so unhappy as I have been for the last dozen or fifteen hours until I heard President Alderman speak, and I found that there had been another man in like plight. I also came here with perfect peace of mind, and found that peace very rudely disturbed by a communication which met me here, saying that it was expected that I should speak briefly to you this afternoon. 105 WILLIAMS COLLEGE The University of Wisconsin has been very highly honored by Williams College to-day, and as I have sat here to-day, it has seemed to me that it was an additional bond between the two insti- tutions, of which there are many which have ex- tended through a great number of years. Already your toastmaster has mentioned two of the bonds which connect the institutions, but these are only two. The Dean of our College of Liberal Arts is a Williams man, and he has persistently maintained at Wisconsin, so far as he was able, the spirit of Williams in that College of Liberal Arts. Many of our professors are Williams men. As has been said, Paul Chadbourne was President of the Uni- versity of Wisconsin before he came to Williams as president, I believe, and for thirteen years John Bascom was the most potent spiritual force at the University of Wisconsin. To-day I have listened with great delight to President Garfield's address, since we know now that the old ideals of Williams are to be retained and developed. This statement was received by me with great contentment, being satisfied with the product which you have sent West. At the present time, the chief danger, as it seems to me, of many colleges is that they are aiming — or a great many of them are aiming — to become uni- 106 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD versities and to undertake the vocational work of the university. President Garfield has announced to you that this is not his aim, that Williams Col- lege is not to enter these fields. It seems to me that in this decisive statement, made in his inaugu- ral address, he has shown a wisdom and a courage which few in a similar position have shown. The field of the College of Liberal Arts is so great that it may well be the ambition of any institution to adequately cover that field. Fifty years ago, the only fields of the college — or practically the only fields — were the languages, literature, and mathe- matics. Since that time there has been the rise of a great group of pure sciences, which have been so formally and strongly treated that they have become liberal arts, and there has arisen the great group of the humanitarian sciences, — political economy, political science, and history, — which again are the field of liberal arts. Thus the field of this College at the present time is at least three times as broad as it was fifty years ago. In cir- cumscribing the work of Williams, in deciding upon this field, and in the determination to de- velop the work along these lines, with the old spirit, — the spirit which has obtained here for a century, — is the great opportunity for Williams. Those colleges which attempt to become univer- 107 WILLIAMS COLLEGE sities without the resources of universities are unable to compete satisfactorily along the voca- tional lines, and at the same time they limit them- selves in this great field which is their peculiar possession. However, I can say to President Garfield that he will require firmness and strength and deci- sion if he is to carry out his program. The same fibre, however, I have no doubt will appear at the proper time, that has appeared this morning when speaking of athletics, and when speaking of the three grades of students and the undesir- able group that he does not care to have at Wil- liams. He will have great need of fibre to hold to this field. Just as the college president, in many cases, has been anxious to make the col- lege into a university, just as many of the trade schools that were founded as trade schools are be- coming colleges of engineering, so the ambition of the individual professor will appear to develop his department into the graduate school or the pro- fessional school. He will be asked to adjust this course or that course so as to complete the train- ing for certain degrees ; he will be urged to add this subject or that subject in engineering so as to make the student further advanced in engineering when he leaves the college; he will have a simi- 108 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD lar request with reference to medicine, — just this subject or that to be added; and if a firm hand is not kept at this point, WiUiams will find her- self, despite herself, developing along these lines. There is room in this country for the college and for the university. It would be a great pity for the higher educational institutions all to become of the one class or the other, and it is a great pleasure to me to know that this problem has been clearly thought out by your president, and that he comes here with a fixed policy in reference to it. It seems to me that in this conclusion which he has reached you have the assurance that Williams in the fu- ture will play an even larger part in the devel- opment of high-grade men, who will influence the development of other educational institutions, and who will advance the nation in even a greater measure than in the past. This is the opportunity, the glorious oppor- tunity, of Williams College, — the great enlarg- ing field of liberal arts. I hope she may ever hold to it. Mr. Mabie: On a certain occasion when Rubens was ful- filling an ambassadorial function, he was spoken of as "His Catholic Majesty's ambassador who 109 WILLIAMS COLLEGE sometimes painted." — "No," said he, "Rubens the painter who sometimes helps His Catholic Ma- jesty." Now, the ambassador whom we have with us to-day not only represents one of the most cap- able and important sovereigns on the other side of the ocean, but he is still more the ambassador of the English people. In fact, we have claimed him long as one of our chief ambassadors. It was an Englishman who said years ago that the most remarkable thing about the United States is that it is always going to the devil and never getting there. Mr. Bryce has explained why it does not get there. So much has already been said to him and about him that it would be impertinent and out of taste for me to add another leaf to the crown. It is sufficient simply to introduce him as Dr. Bryce. SPEECH OF AMBASSADOR BRYCE Mr. Toastmaster, Mr. President, Your Excel- lency the Governor, Fellow-Graduates of Wil- liams College: The warmth of your reception both in the church some two hours ago and now, for which I thank you most deeply, diminishes the timidity with which I would naturally arise to address a few words to you, — a timidity which is 110 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD only natural in the youngest but one of your grad- uates, — for Governor Guild is still my junior, — and which has been increased by the fact that I have spent the whole of this forenoon and part of yesterday evening in the company of a group of those who inspire me with the greatest awe, — I mean your college presidents. You have heard four or five of them this morning already. Syd- ney Smith is reported, on one occasion, when he was sitting beside a lady at dinner whom he had in vain endeavored to draw into conversation, to have said, "Madam, I perceive that you are a failure; you crumble your bread." When I sit beside a bishop I always crumble my bread, and when I sit beside the Archbishop of Canterbury I crumble it with both hands. I have been crumbling my bread all this morning in the presence of this group of illustrious college presidents, for whom I feel a reverence which is enhanced every time that I come to a college gathering like this and perceive how great and how increasingly impor- tant is the place that they hold in your country. I could hardly overcome my awe of them, if it were not softened by the fact that personal knowledge of those in particular whom you have heard this morning has shown me that they are human as well as superhuman, — especially superhuman in 111 WILLIAMS COLLEGE their optimism, and human in the very best sense of the word, namely, that they are men who have learned to be kindly and indulgent as well as dis- cerning. Timidity, however, will not prevent me from ac- knowledging my thanks in the most hearty way to you, the President and Trustees, for the honor you did me in conferring a degree upon me this morning, making me a member of this ancient and most interesting College, — a College which has not only the interest of being the natural out- growth of the strong minds and strong wills of rocky Massachusetts, — which always reminds me of what Ulysses says in the Odyssey about rocky Ithaca : " It is rough, but it is a fine nurse of men" ; — but here you stand in this green basin encircled by richly wooded hills, among the memories of those terrible conflicts which gave North America to the British race, one of which is commemorated in that flagpole and elm tree which stand on the site of the old fort of western Massachusetts. It is a great thing, gentlemen, not only to have the natural beauty of which Dr. Alderman spoke, but also to have those historical associations which carry you back to the days when your fathers had harder work to do than teaching and meeting and dining together; and you who have entered into 112 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD their labors must be thankful for the manly spirit and the courage and the faith of the men who could withstand the French and the Indians, one of whom could see that the time would come when a school and a college would be needed here, and who made his bequest in 1755 to found that which you are now enjoying. You may all be proud, gentlemen, to be members of such a college ; and I am glad to congratulate both the College on hav- ing as its president Mr. Garfield, and Mr. Garfield as being President of Williams. I remember an old friend of mine once said to me, "I never congratulate an acquaintance who is going to be married until I have seen the bride." And here I am in the happy position of knowing both the bride and the bridegroom. I congratulate you. President Garfield, on having this College as the ship whose helm you are to take, and I con- gratulate the College on having as its president you, who, bearing an honored name, show that you are sensible of its responsibilities and mean to hand it on, with a further lustre gained in useful educational work, to those who come afterward. Gentlemen, I had the pleasure — I mention it because it gives me a sort of proprietary right in your president — of knowing Mr. Garfield more than twenty years ago, when he came to the Uni- 113 WILLIAMS COLLEGE versity of Oxford, not, indeed, to become a perma- nent member of that university, but drawn by its fame and desiring to pass some months of study there and carry away some recollections from it. I thought he did well then to know something of our English university life, and I can say to you that it is very inspiring and very helpful to know something of your university and college life also, and to see how, by different methods and yet with the same spirit, we are endeavoring to attain the like goals. If I had more time, I could willingly talk to you about some of the curious differences which strike me between your college life and ours, and one of them which I should dwell upon is the different position occupied here by the college president, to which we have nothing in England exactly corresponding, — no functionary who is so important, no one from whom so much is ex- pected in so many different ways. A college presi- dent must be a statesman, wise and tactful, with large outlook over all the educational problems which the progress of the years brings up. He must be in touch with his trustees, with his faculty, with his alumni over the country, with his under- graduates. He must know enough of all the sub- jects taught, not only to know how the curriculum 114 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD should be constructed, but also to know how he is to find out who are the best men to be selected for the professorships. He must have a sane judg- ment of practical affairs, a judgment which was symbolized by the delivery to you, Mr. President, to-day, of the power of the keys, — a term which has carried down from the Middle Ages and from early Christianity many deep significances. And the college president, with all these functions to discharge, with so many calls made upon him, with the growing demands made upon him to deliver his opinions upon the great questions of the hour, has need to be very thoughtful and a large-minded man. I think you could see, after hearing the words that fell from President Garfield to-day, that in him you have such a man. Sometimes it has occurred to me, in thinking of the place which college presidents have come to hold in this country, that if you had time to take from numerous other questions which are occu- pying your attention to alter in any way your Constitution, you might create a third house of Congress, and it might be composed of the presi- dents of the great universities. It would be a house not inferior in intellectual distinction to either of the two houses into whose hands you now confide your destiny. 115 WILLIAMS COLLEGE Gentlemen, one thing strikes me very much whenever I return to America from England, and that is the growing importance that universities hold in your country. I don't believe there is any country in the world where the universities are so important a factor in the public life of the country. That is a subject which it would be very interesting to trace to its causes in your so- cial and intellectual condition. For the moment I must be content to note that it is a singular and interesting, and I think a hopeful, fact that in no country do universities exercise so great a power as they do here ; in no country do the universities receive within their walls so large a proportion of the population; in no country, therefore, is uni- versity influence so widely diffused and does the educated class tend to become so large a propor- tion of the population. Every time I come here I am more and more struck with the opportunity given to the universities and with the intellectual authority they exert. This cannot be for anything but good to you ; this cannot be but the augury of a happy and blessed progress. It is one of the things which an Englishman sees with joy when he comes to a country in whose fortune he is no less interested than he is in his own. May I ven- ture, gentlemen, though I have no commission 116 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD to do so, to express to you, on behalf of the an- cient university to which I belong, — a university whose origin we do not know because it began so far back, — may I venture to express to you the hearty good- will which the members of that an- cient university feel for the colleges and universi- ties of America, and our earnest hope that they — and Williams College in the forefront of them — may continue to discharge for the race to which we belong such functions as our universities have fulfilled in England for eight centuries, and such functions as yours are now fulfilling, to the bless- ing and profit and honor of your country. Mr. Mabie: The last speaker to-day, gentlemen, is the Gov- ernor of the Commonwealth. It is entirely in the order of fitness that the Governor of Massachu- setts should be not only a college man, but a man cultivated in all the generous arts. I am told that he especially likes to go to Holy Cross, because there the study of Latin is alive and they under- stand his quotations. Now, I want to say to him that if he chooses to quote Latin this afternoon, while we may not understand precisely what he means, we shall recognize the language in which he speaks. I think it was Paget who said, concern- 117 WILLIAMS COLLEGE ing the teaching of the ancient languages in the Enghsh public schools, that while the boys did not learn the languages, they went out of the schools confirmed in the suspicion that there were such languages. It is a great pleasure to introduce Gov- ernor Guild. SPEECH OF GOVERNOR GUILD Mr. Toastmaster, Your Excellency, Mr. Presi- dent, Fellow- Alumni of Williams College: It is a very great privilege to be permitted publicly thus to thank you and to express my high appre- ciation of the great honor that you have done me in the conferring of this honorary degree, and the particular honor that I feel has been done me in conferring it on this particular and most felicitous occasion. Certainly, — I am going to quote Latin now, — Williams in her choice of a president has recalled the old Latin tag, if I may change the gender of the subject, — ^'O pater pulcheVy Jilius pulchriorJ' For certainly, if new lustre could be added, sir, to a name made glorious by father and by brother, it has been added by one who has ever been ready to leave the money-making part of his profession to devote his brain and energy to the promotion of all acts of good citizenship, and who 118 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD finally leaves the splendid prospects of his chosen profession that he may serve the scholarship, not of Princeton merely, not of Williams merely, nor of Massachusetts, nor of New England, but of the United States of America. Standing here for lack of a better, as for the mo- ment the chief magistrate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you would not pardon me, I am sure, if I did not express to you the pride that the whole Commonwealth has in this splendid insti- tution in its northwestern hills, — in the days of the Colony the frontier fort of civilization, in the days of the Commonwealth the frontier fort still of civilization, — the frontier fort of New England education. He was a typical founder of American commonwealths and of American colleges, this Ephraim Williams, — a man of wide travel, unusu- ally wide travel for his day, — a man devoted to the public will and with little or no selfish pur- pose, going forth to what was the great battle of Lake George, where Englishmen and Irishmen and Scotchmen and Yankees fought, sir, for the prevalence of Anglo-Saxon ideals on this conti- nent, stopping there at Albany and writing his will leaving his property for the foundation of this in- stitution, and then, with that true touch of self-con- sciousness without which no Yankee is supposed 119 WILLIAMS COLLEGE to live, penning the letter of instructions in which he says that he really does intend to leave his property " for the benefit of those unborn, and for the sake of those poor creatures I am mostly concerned for fear my will should be broke ! " He did not say by doctors of laws, sir, but I sup- pose there were lawyers of a certain sort in those days. He died the most glorious death that it is given to a man to die. He died in behalf of his country. He died the death that Gushing died in his battery at Gettysburg. He died the death that Gustavus Adolphus died at Ltitzen, — shot at the head of his men on the day of his country's victory. And the man died in a very splendid way. His life, for its time, was a splendid life, a successful life, a respected life, a useful life ; and yet we have the word of the first President of Williams College that it was not altogether a happy life. President Fitch says in his memoir, you will remember, that this soldier-sailor-pioneer founder of Williams College, all his fife, was discontented because of his want of a liberal education. As you have heard from the reading of the charter this morning, this College was founded not only for the promotion of virtue and morality, but particularly for the study of the "humani- 120 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD ties" and of such arts as should produce good citi- zenship. It is not extraordinary that this pioneer, going to what he thought might be his death, should have left this fund to encourage an inspi- ration in the generations that came after him to bend their energies, not to what they could get for themselves out of the world, but what they could get out of themselves to put into the world for the benefit of humanity. We are accustomed to call upon universal edu- cation as the panacea that is to cure all the evils that arise — and some evils do arise — from uni- versal suffrage; but if education is not used for the public good by the educated, it is no more a power than a stagnant pool is a power before it has been fitted with a dam and a mill-race and a water-wheel. Educated men the salvation of the republic? The men who exploit bogus mining corporations are not uneducated; the men who poison humanity with quack medicines are not uneducated; the employers of labor who refuse to allow their men to enlist in the militia and learn the duties of citizen-soldiers are not uneducated; the business men who perjure themselves and secure further perjury from physicians to escape the duty of the jury-box which the Republic has the right to demand of every intelligent citizen 121 WILLIAMS COLLEGE are not uneducated; the bankers, the business men, the clergymen, the college professors, who take vacations in Europe during the month of November, or are too busy with the ticker or the bridge-table or the golf links to get out and vote on election day, on one side or the other as their consciences tell them, — these men are not uned- ucated men. If education is to be of value, it must be because the individual learns that education is a responsibility as well as a privilege, and that as in the old days men said, *'Mohlesse oblige,'' in a republic it must be Sagesse oblige, and the edu- cated man must be a leader in any decent American citizenship. In the headlong rush of competition we are apt to think nowadays too much of the so-called prac- tical education. The old classical education was weak in that the young man could not go out from ■■ the academy or college properly equipped for the immediate earning of his living, and it is true that, in order to make the largest possible number of power-looms or storage-batteries in the shortest number of hours, a man will not be much helped by the study of Bancroft or Von Ranke, or the memorizing of passages from Chaucer or Dante, or the consideration of Marcus Aurelius or Locke. But if our education is to be complete, if it is, as 122 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD you have so wisely said, Mr. President, the duty of a college to fit men for citizenship, if it is in time of war wise that the private soldier should be a "thinking bayonet," — something more than a cog in a fighting machine, — so it is well, in time of peace, that the citizen should be something more than a cog in a mere industrial machine. We do need technical schools, we need more of them, for upon the possession of skilled artisans and skilled professional men depends the prosperity of any country. But the existence of a nation does not depend upon these, but upon the men whose instinct and education make them not merely capable of earning a good living, but, as the late Governor Russell used to put it, of leading a good life. The existence of a nation depends, not upon the man who is a skilled artisan, but upon the man who is a skilled citizen, a good neighbor, and a good friend. It is possible, of course, that a man may be all these without the study of the lib- eral arts. A man may be pure, high-minded, active in public fife, who knows nothing of anything in connection with the drama except such frank vul- garity as that of such men as Zola, or <' Tess of the D'Urbervilles," or the revival of the degenerate dances of the worship of the Phoenician " Aphro- dite " ; but he will certainly have a better notion of 123 WILLIAMS COLLEGE public life and of private life if he is enjoying the clean wit of Oliver Goldsmith and the condemna- tion and dissection of the coxcomb in " She Stoops to Conquer," if he has learned to despise hypoc- risy and meanness and pedantry with Moliere, and if, finally, he has read and learned and let sink into his soul that splendid soliloquy on responsi- bility in public office which Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Henry the Fifth before the battle of Agincourt. A man may be a true type of gentle- man who has never read any other instructions than those of Mr. Charles Schwab, advising young men to get out of school as quickly as possible and get into a remunerative occupation and stick to it until they have accumulated their " pile" ; but oh, I think we shall agree that he is much more likely to become what we may call a gentleman, — and that is a title of honor which belongs to no one particular nation, — if he has managed to make himself familiar with that beautiful picture which Thackeray draws of the life and death of Colonel Newcome. He may be able to resist what may seem to him the new and pleasing doctrines of Anarchy and Socialism, although he may think that they are objectionable without any study of literature beyond the Sunday supplements of the *' yellow" newspapers; but he will find it much 124 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD easier to resist them if he has read the story of the Leather-Dresser of Athens, and Jack Cade, and John of Leyden, and the experience of our own Plymouth settlers at first when they tried to hold all property in common, and the utter failure of the French nation in the Revolution to maintain the maximum or any regulated price of any gen- eral commodity. He may feel a despair of the success of some good cause when he hears how few men gather to support it, and he may retire and think it is a failure, if he has not been versed in history. But oh, how much easier it is for a man to get hope out of any failure, thinking that ultimately there must come success, if he has read the story of the charge of the Ten Thousand at Marathon ; if he has read how the patchwork army of Leonidas at the Pass of Thermopylae held back the greatest conqueror of his age, the scourge of Persia, at the head of Asia's victorious army ; if he has read the story of Charles Martel of Tours, and how the conquering horde of Saracens was seized with a strange fear and fell backward, south from Europe ; if he has read the story of the great storm that engulfed the Spanish Armada and settled that the dominant policies, not only of Europe but of America, were to be those of the Anglo-Saxon and not the imperial policies of Spain. 125 WILLIAMS COLLEGE A man who has read the story of history cannot be an atheist and keep his eyes open. He must appreciate that there never was a more awful blasphemy uttered than those words of Napoleon, " Providence is always on the side of the strong- est artillery." Providence is not on the side of the strongest artillery, and there is no more certain truth in this world than that the man or the cause is sure to succeed, if the cause or the man is for the general uplift of humanity. But I fear I have spoken to you too long, — I have spoken longer than I intended, — and possi- bly I have touched upon subjects which may make you think that I am a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Divinity rather than Doctor of Laws ; but I thank you for your indulgence. And now, as we depart, morituri te salutant — those who are about to die salute thee ! And as we pass back again to the struggle in the arena of life, as gladiators in the arena waved net and trident and sword and shield to the imperial purple of a Csesar, so do we, going back to the battle of life, wave our last salute to the Royal Purple of Wil- liams. The Purple — may we be mindful of its significance ! Let those of us, sir, who wear it by right of inheritance and those of us who wear it by right of adoption learn the lesson of the color. 126 INDUCTION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD Crimson may be the badge of courage; blue, of sublime hope and aspiration; green, of vigorous and everlasting life ; but purple, sir, is the color of fruition, of success, of achievement, — the color not of dreamers of dreams, but of doers of deeds. You have adopted as the color of this College the color consecrated to kings. The very word "king" — in the old Anglo-Saxon *'cyng" — means, and even more surely meant in the old days in the dark marshes and forests of Northern Europe when our Saxon forefathers met in their turbulent meetings — the forerunners of our New England town- meetings — and chose their king, one whose life is consecrated, not to himself, but to his entire tribe. May we learn the lesson of the Purple — the color of achievement, the color of those who do deeds, not for themselves, but for all the people among whom they live and whom they love ! And when the call comes to us, as it came to the founder of this college, whether it be in the blazing sunshine to make our sacrifice and go forth to death, if need be, but to a glorious death, or whether it be alone and in the darkness, as it came to the Hebrew prophet, to go forth to a bitter and inglorious duty, — whether the call comes in light or in darkness, in health or in suffering, may we, the wearers of the Purple, 127 WILLIAMS COLLEGE mindful of its message, answer as the Hebrew prophet answered, *«Here am I; send me." Mr. Mabie: Now that the nation's needs have been properly and officially recognized, and that the usual tribute to woman has been paid, I declare Harry Augus- tus Garfield duly inaugurated President of Wil- liams College. Immediately after the luncheon a large number of delegates, guests, and Alumni of the College attended a reception given by the President and Mrs. Garfield at the President's house.