148 CHARLES RICHARD VAN HISE— CHAMBERLIN. [Mkmoib !^"xvii, 



interest and of representative character. On the geological side, it is a climacteric work, 

 comparable to the treatise on metamorphism on the physicochemical side. 



The intensive studies of Van Hise on the iron-copper-bearing formations naturally led him 

 to more general studies of the philosophy of ore deposits and directed him in issuing a series 

 of special papers on ore deposits, among which "The Principles Controlling the Deposition 

 of Ores" (Journ. Geol., Vol. VIII, 1900) and his presidential address before the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, delivered at Denver in 1901, may be taken as types. 

 In these the function of magmatic waters in the original enrichment of lodes and that of vadose 

 waters in secondary enrichment of these were strongly set forth and assigned leading roles. 



With his acceptance of the presidency of the University of Wisconsin in 1903, Dr. Van 

 Hise made a serious and at first confident effort to continue his geological researches in addition 

 to his administrative duties, but he soon became so deeply engrossed in the humanistic phases 

 of Ins new work that there was little time left for effective research in the old lines, and so his 

 foremost interest shifted to new lines. The old and new interests, however, merged, in a 

 measure, in his study of the application of natural resources to the general welfare of man, 

 especially the conservation of natural resources, to which he made several notable contributions, 

 among them the best book on the subject. 



It was natural that he should pass from this special line of economic study to the more 

 general aspects of current commercial and industrial questions. In these his chief interest seems 

 soon to have centered on the coordination of effort which he held to be the key to the solution 

 of the vexed questions that agitate this field. Most notable among his writings in this line is his 

 book "Concentration and Control, a Solution of the Trust Problem in the United States." 



The utter breakdown of the political tenets that had incited the leading industrial legislation 

 of the United States previous to the war, just as soon as the real stress of war had brought out 

 the realities of the case, and the precipitate rush of the Nation into practices diametrically 

 opposed to those adopted in its previous legislation, deeply interested President Van Hise and 

 led to his book "Conservation and Regulation in the United States During the War." 



President Van Hise was profoundly interested in the war and made its probable, intellectual, 

 ethical, and economic outcome a special subject of study. As an administrator he vigorously 

 marshaled the resources of the institution over which he presided in support of a strenuous 

 prosecution of the war, while personally he contributed directly to it by lectures, papers, and 

 other service of notable value. His most conspicuous service was the aid he rendered in the 

 conservation and allocation of our food resources. As the war drew to a close he became 

 especially interested in the formation of a League of Nations. He prepared an address on 

 this subject in which, with his ever-present regard for the practical and the attainable, he, drew 

 with greater definiteness than most other advocates the features which such a league should, 

 in his judgment, embody. This was essentially his last contribution to the public welfare. 



As the administrator of a great educational institution, President Van Hise naturally 

 regarded science as the bedrock on which educational practice should be based, but he did 

 not interpret science in any narrow or technical sense; he viewed it broadly as an expression of 

 the carefully sifted and thoroughly proved reality disclosed in each and every field of inquiry. 

 Research as an indispensable condition for discovering, demonstrating, and enlarging the body 

 of science, as also for rescrutinizing and renovating that which had previously passed for science, 

 he held absolutely essential to a true university. He went farther and regarded it as essential 

 also to education in all grades; for the renovation, the reconstruction, and the reshaping of the 

 subject matter taught in all the grades he held scarcely less vital to primary education and 

 the public welfare than the addition of new subject matter on the frontiers of knowledge. 

 Important as he held original research to be, however, he held its application to the affairs of 

 life and its incorporation into the lives of citizens as a working, guiding, inspiring factor to be 

 an equally important function and an equally imperative obligation of a State institution. He 

 was fortunate in coming into the presidency of an institution whose working lines were already 

 set in the directions he approved. With his inherited advantage he pushed the university 

 forward in its adopted lines with great success. 



