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THR NEW YORK JOURNAL OF PHARMACY 



PRESIDENT BUTLER GIVES 



GREETING AT UNIVERSITY 



OPENING.- 



i6ist Collegiate Begins Impressively 



in the Gymnasium — Peace 



the Slogan. 



The Rationality of the College Men 



Allows Him to See Both Sides 



of Every Question, 



At the opening exercises of the Uni- 

 versity held in the Gymnasium, Presi- 

 dent Butler, in his greeting to the pro- 

 fessors,, ofificers and students, the Ameri- 

 can University most affected by the 

 European struggle, struck the key-note 

 of the war — militarism. 



Over twenty-five hundred thronged 

 the Gymnasium to attend the official be- 

 ginning of the i6ist year of Columbia. 

 The Stars and Stripes and the Blue and 

 White hung together over the great plat- 

 form when the processional of the Facul- 

 ty clad in academic gowns with vari- 

 colored hoods designating their respec- 

 tive degrees, marched in. 



Chaplain Raymond C. Knox opened 

 the exercises with prayer, then the j\Ias- 

 ter of Ceremonies rose to lead in the 

 singing of "Stand Columbia." The 

 strains of a beautiful orchestra mingled 

 with hundreds of voices raised in honor 

 of Alma Mater and the perpetude of 

 Peace. 



President Butler, who occupied a chair 

 on a dais erected on the platform greet- 

 ed the assembled University as follows : 



"To each member of the University 

 new or old, to the Scholares docentes 

 and to the Scholares discentes. I give a 

 hearty welcome on this opening day of 



the i6ist year of Columbia's long and 

 honorable life." 



Pie said in part : 



"Our usual interests however great, 

 our usual problems however pressing, 

 all seem petty and insignificant in view 

 of what has befallen the world while we 

 were seeking rest and refreshment in 

 the summer holiday. The murky clouds 

 of cruel, relentless war, lit by the light- 

 ning flash of great guns and made more 

 terrible l:)y the thunderous booming of 

 cannon, hang. over the European coun- 

 tries that we know and love .so well. The 

 great scholars that we would have so 

 gladly welcomed here, have not come 

 to us. They are killing and being killed 

 across the sea. Friends and colleagues 

 whom we honor are filled with hate to- 

 ward each other, and toward each other's 

 countrymen. The words that oftenest 

 come to our lips, the ideals that we 

 cherish and pursue, the progress that 

 we fancied we were making, seem not 

 to exist. Mankind is back in the prime- 

 val forest, with the elemental brute pas- 

 sions finding a truly fiendish expression. 

 The only apparent use of science is to 

 enable men to kill other men more quick- 

 ly and in greater numbers. The only 

 apparent service of philosophy is to 

 make the worse appear the better rea- 

 son. The only apparent evidence of the 

 existence of religion is the fact that 

 divergent and impious appeals to a pal- 

 pably pagan God, have led him, in per- 

 plexed distress, to turn over the affairs 

 of Europe to an active and singularly 

 accomplished devil. 



"What are we' to think? Is science a 

 sham? Is philosophy a pretence? Is 

 religion a mere rumor? Is the great in- 

 ternational structure of friendship, good- 

 will and scholarly co-operation upon 



