TEE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



509 



I'ROFESSOR A. Lawrence Lowell, 

 President-elect of Harvard University. 



It is a curious fact that the two 

 institutions, after the unsuccessful at- 

 tempts to form a merger two years ago, 

 should now at the same time elect new 

 presidents. In the men selected and 

 even in the methods of selection, the 

 institutions have shown their individu- 

 ality. Harvard has in the most gentle- 

 manly manner elected a member of its 

 own set; the institute after floundering 

 about has chosen a man from the 

 antipodes. 



Professor A. Lawrence Lowell, elected 

 to succeed Mr. Eliot as president of 

 Harvard University, belongs to the 

 Harvard and New England aristocracy. 

 The cities of Lowell and Lawrence were 

 named from his ancestors, who for 

 generations have maintained traditions 

 of wealth and culture. Of this stock 

 he is typical, even to the extent of 

 having married his cousin and having 

 no children. In an address made very 

 shortlj- before the election of his suc- 

 cessor. President Eliot said: "When 

 the corporation selects some young man 

 to take my place I hope you will all 

 lock at him with this one inquiry — is 



this a promising joung man, is he a 

 young man who has in him a large 

 capacity to grow? '' But the corpora- 

 tion chose a man completely formed by 

 heredity and experience, eminent as an 

 author of important books on govern- 

 ment, trained first as a lawyer in 

 charge of large vested interests and 

 later as a professor, lecturing in 

 courses attractive to college students. 

 We may be sure that Mr. -uowell will 

 be as exemplary as president of Har- 

 vard as in everj' otiier relation of life, 

 and that the traditions and spirit of 

 the university will be safe in his hands. 

 Professor Ricliard C. MacLaurin, 

 president-elect of the J\Iassach\isetts 

 Institute of Technology, though born 

 in Scotland and completing his univer- 

 sity studies in Cambridge, has spent 

 most of his life in New Zealand, where 

 he was professor of mathematics in 

 Wellington. A little over a year ago, 

 he accepted the chair of mathematical 

 physics in Columbia University, which 

 had been vacant since the election of 

 Professor R. S. Woodward to the presi- 

 dency of the Carnegie Institution. 

 Professor MacLaurin has recently pub- 



Peofessoe Richaed C. MacLauein, 



President-elect of the Massachusetts 



Institute of Technology. 



