UC-NRLF F3 HOT 23 W* The Drexel Institute MONOGRAPHS WHAT ABOUT PROGRESS? AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE DREXEL INSTITUTE ON THE OCCASION OF THE SPRING CELEBRATION, 1916 BY R. A. FALCONER, D.Litt., LL.D., C.M.G. President of the University of Toronto PHILADELPHIA THIRTY-SECOND AND CHESTNUT STREETS 1916 Fa WHAT ABOUT PROGRESS ? :: AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE DREXEL INSTITUTE ON THE OCCASION OF THE SPRING CELEBRATION, 1916 BY R. A. FALCONER, D.Litt., LL.D., C.M.G. President of the University of Toronto "Blow Gtit, you bugles > over the rich Dead ! 1 There's* none of these so lonely and poor of old. But, dying y has made us rarer gifts than gold'' Rupert Brooke. WHAT ABOUT PROGRESS? One of the most dominant convictions of the era in West- ern civilization which has just closed was that Progress is a justifiable conception. The average man, especially of the New World, was persuaded that this age had made progress beyond all other ages, and that our future was assured. He took for granted that by reason of the inherent powers of Democracy and the immense natural resources of this continent we were bound to reach a position of pre-eminence such as no other period of the world's history had seen. Accordingly institutions and individuals were judged by a supposedly progressive standard. A man and the com- munity in which he lives must be progressive, a business must be progressive, so also the University as the director of organized knowledge. Very few, I imagine, had defined their terms, and when you asked this modern man what he meant by Progress, he would in all likelihood give you a vague and quite insufficient reply in terms of material development and the application of science to industry. This complacent state of mind prevailed up till August, 1914, but in that month a hurricane smote Western civili- zation, and ever since, the comfortable home that we had reared for ourselves out of our axioms, opinions, and assumptions has been swaying so violently that broad fissures are appearing in its walls, and we are often fear- ful lest we shall have to abandon our former domicile. Small wonder, indeed, is it that the dogma is crumbling, for if you seek the manifestations of progress mainly in the accomplishments of science, nowhere will you find such marvelous results as in the superb instruments of modern war artillery, aeroplanes, superdreadnaughts, submarines; and yet these are being used to^destroy with unprecedented slaughter millions of the most civilized men of Europe at the most hopeful and productive age of their life. We may well ask, Does Progress mark the history of man? 789263 THE DREXEL INSTITUTE MONOGRAPHS Progress Not ^ ' ls