192 GEORGE W. ATHERTON. 



career ; but later, through official neglect and public indiffer- 

 ence, its affairs had reached a low ebb, and at the time when 

 Dr. Atherton was elected president the entire work of the college 

 was carried on in a single building, which also served to shelter 

 the families of several professors, and the total assured income 

 of the institution was $30,000 per year from the Morrill fund. 

 For the following college year, 1882-3, the number of collegiate 

 students dropped to 34 and the total enrollment to 87, while the 

 graduating class numbered 5. 



The growth of the college in numbers and in material equip- 

 ment in the twenty-four years of Dr. Atherton's administration 

 was nothing short of marvelous. The enrollment of 87 in 

 1882-3 became 800 in 1905-6; the graduating class, on whom 

 he conferred their degrees .at his last official act, numbering 86. 

 The faculty increased in the same period from 16 to 66, besides 

 20 " assistants in administration." The work which in 1882 

 was carried on in a single building was, at the close of his ad- 

 ministration, distributed among fourteen, the cost of the new 

 buildings erected having been nearly $1,000,000, this including 

 the magnificent Schwab Auditorium and Carnegie Library. 

 The total of the State appropriations to the college during his 

 presidency was nearly $1,500,000, as compared with $183,000 

 during all its previous history. 



Despite the demands of his college work, Dr. Atherton found 

 time and energy for other notable public activities. He was a 

 leading spirit in the activities which resulted in the passage in 

 1887 of the Hatch act providing for the establishment of agri- 

 cultural experiment stations, and also in 1890 of the second 

 Morrill act providing further endowment for the colleges of 

 agriculture and mechanic arts. He was largely instrumental 

 in organizing the Association of American Agricultural Colleges 

 and Experiment Stations and served two years as its first presi- 

 dent. In 1887 he was appointed by Governor Beaver chairman 

 of a commission of five, appointed under a joint resolution of 

 the legislature, *'to make inquiry and report to the next legis- 

 lature . . . respecting the subject of industrial education." 

 Special reference was had in the resolution to the question of 

 the incorporation of industrial training into the existing system 



