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body in this way: That a conti'st iK'twccii classos is just as fair as a contest 

 between football I'Icvens. providod it is a fair, s(|uare, and manly contest, and 

 under no other terms would I lie satisfied. Now, I do not want any college 

 ruslies. but if we are fioinjj; to have this sort of thinj; we will do it just as 

 reputably as a football team in its contest with another team. They have 

 agi'eed to that. Now they come in to me the very first day and say, " Mr. 

 President, the di.stance is measured off and everything gotten ready," and I 

 go out in the field at the api)ointed time and take charge of it, and when the 

 whistle blows the rush stops. The truth is I have taken seventeen-twentieths 

 of the glory out of it, and nobody goes intct it unless he wants to do so, and the 

 result is that they can not get anything like per cent of the students to en- 

 gage in it. I can not go into the details of that now, but it is recognized that 

 " Prexy "' has the situation in his hands. For instance, they have got a cane 

 and they have got a certain distance, and I go out in the middle of tlie fi(>ld. 

 They are already in their place. When I give the signal, they start. We had 

 over 5,000 people come up to see the rush last fall, and they came in auto- 

 mobiles and carriages and everything else. 



Now, the truth is that these fellows respect me in that situation. I have the 

 assigmnent of rooms. Whenever an executive order goes out it has got to 

 be obeyed, and if a fellow does not obey he will go from the college (juickly. 

 One rule is tliat no meeting can lie held in any university room without the 

 consent of the president. So if 1 assign the sophomores a room they can have 

 it, and anybody disturbing that nleeting will have to get out of the university. 

 If any university organization wants a room. I will say to them, " T will be 

 glad to acconnnodate .vou provided somebody has not been here before and 

 got the same acconunodation, but you must never interfere with anybod.v else." 

 The result is that we do not have any kidnaitping business. I have never had 

 any disorder with that sort of thing. Now. I use tliat simply to illustrate that 

 I believe iu the administrative principle. They would not think of having 

 anybody else as referee and would not think of doing anything until they got 

 Prexy's consent. So much for that. 



I will give you an illustration of another matter. I have never revised a 

 decision since I have lieen a college president, and what is more, I never will.- 

 I am very slow to make them, but when they are made they are made. A few 

 years ago our glee club went to Marysville ; a reception was given them, and 

 about 1 o'clock in the morning they got home drunk. That was about five 

 years ago, or six. I had liappened to come to Washington at the time. As 

 soon as I i-eturned to Columbus I went up to Marysville and saw the register 

 of tlie names of the students that had stopped there. I sent for these young 

 men to come in and see me. I told them that I had not read a paper. I said : 

 " I want you to tell me of your own free will just what happened as far a.s you 

 are willing, but I do not want you to incriminate yourselves." Everyone ad- 

 mitted the truth. I sent a second notice, saying : " Now, I want you to come 

 in a second time, to show why you should not be suspended from this university." 

 Every man came in. They went over the thing, and every last one of those 

 fellows went out of college. They went out until the next June. Several of 

 those boys came back and graduated, and are the warmest personal friends I 

 have in tlie State of Ohio to-day. I never have suspended a student from the 

 university who did not first say that he ought to be suspended. I stand 

 toward a student disorder just exactly as I would stand toward a disorder 

 if I was President of the United States. I say: "Tlie hiw has got to be main- 

 tained, and you get right out of here. If you want to have a class rush, you 

 can not have one if it is disorderly, and whenever you are disorderly and 

 that fact comes to my knowledge you will get out of this institution right 



