The Days of a Man 



D893 



Need of 



competent 



teachers 



Success 



not 



measured 



by 



numbers 



road from kindergarten to university. A friend 

 once having argued that there was already "too 

 much education" and that to increase it further was 

 simply to swell the volume of unrest, he replied as 

 follows : 



I insisted that there cannot be too much education any 

 more than too much health or intelligence. Do you happen 

 to know any man who has been too well educated? Where 

 does he live? What is his address? If you cannot find such a 

 man, you cannot speak of overeducation. 



In directing that in the new institution applied 

 science, pure science, and the humanities should be 

 equally fostered, he did not forget that knowledge 

 itself must precede any use made of it, applied 

 science being in a sense a by-product. He further 

 insisted that "machinery is not a mere labor-saving 

 device but labor-aiding, adding to the value of 

 men by increasing their efficiency." 



Concerning the faculty he wrote: 



In order that the president may have the assistance of a 

 competent staff of professors, we have provided that the best 

 talent obtainable shall be procured and that liberal compensa- 

 tion shall always be offered. . . . Ample endowment may 

 have been provided, intelligent management may secure large 

 incomes, students may present themselves in numbers, but in 

 the end the faculty makes or mars a university. 



That the institution would in time attract great 

 numbers Stanford took as a matter of course, al- 

 though he found, in California or elsewhere, few 

 who shared his optimism. But he was never de- 

 ceived by the cheap test of popularity. For he knew 

 that a few hundred men, well trained, would count 

 for more than as many thousands hurried in droves 

 over a ready-made curriculum. So it was agreed 



C 488:] 



