644 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 621. 



walls, with thousands more begging for ad- 

 mittance, which we expect some day to take 

 care of through Mr. Carnegie's munifi- 

 cence. Surely Lehigh can rejoice with us 

 on our Founder's Day, for we hope to keep 

 in close touch with your university. You 

 need us. We can not do without you. We 

 have already captured some of your good 

 men for our technical school, perhaps we 

 can reciprocate in the future, for as yet we 

 are but a year old. 



And now, lest I weary you, let me hasten 

 to discuss the theme I have chosen for my 

 address, namely, 'The University and the 

 World's Great Workshop.' Of course, I 

 shall speak only of the modern university, 

 totally dissociating it from the scholasti- 

 cism of the middle ages. 



In a recent and very excellent article by 

 Professor Edward Sisson, of the Univer- 

 sity of Washington, on Francis Bacon and 

 the modern university, full credit is given 

 to this learned man, as being the founder 

 of the universities of to-day. 



I quote one or two paragraphs from the 

 article referred to that are apropos to my 

 theme : 



Bacon says: "I may lament that no fit 

 men have been engaged to forward those 

 sciences which yet remain in an unfinished 

 state." Professor Sisson, commenting on 

 this remark of Bacon, says : 



The sciences which Bacon knew have been ad- 

 vanced to a plane far beyond the highest imagina- 

 tions of even his great mind and new regions of 

 knowledge have been opened of which he could 

 not dream. 



Even more significant is the fact that we have 

 given up believing in the possibility of a finished 

 science! All sciences are iinfinished and it there- 

 fore becomes the duty of every devotee to labor 

 for their advancement. The universities, after 

 centuries of inertia, have at last waked up, or 

 rather, vigorously aroused to their duty to be 

 creators as well as conservators of the store of 

 knowledge. 



The use of Latin as an exclusive means of com- 

 munication and the worship of Aristotle as the 



source of final authority upon all questions were 

 the two great prerogatives of the medieval uni- 

 versities. All this has been changed, and we live 

 in the dawn — yea, in the broad light of a better 

 day. 



There was a time when a university edu- 

 cation did not stand for what it does now; 

 indeed, I am sure that there are those in 

 this audience who can remember when the 

 graduates of our universities, particularly 

 those who received a technical education, 

 were looked upon with doubt or even sus- 

 picion when they applied for a position in 

 any of our manufactories or workshops. 

 Perhaps it was in some instances in the 

 earlier days a well-founded suspicion that 

 the applicant had surfeited himself with 

 book learning and had no knowledge what- 

 ever of the practical side of the position he 

 sought. Happily that day has passed and 

 the time has come when our mills, factories 

 and workshops, in fact every important 

 industry, appeal to our universities and 

 technical schools to furnish them with men 

 who have not only been taught to think, 

 but to do things. 



Setting aside for the moment the purely 

 professional schools, where would the great 

 industries of our land be to-day without 

 the men who have come from our universi- 

 ties and technical schools ? 



I know I lay myself open to criticism by 

 those who will say that many of our great 

 industries have, been originated and devel- 

 oped by self-made men, men who had only 

 the most meager education to start with. 

 Certainly we must grant all this, but let 

 us take as an illustration that Nestor of 

 the steel industry in America— your hon- 

 ored citizen— my friend John Fritz, a man 

 loved by everybody on earth and in heaven. 

 Did he not go through mighty struggles, 

 struggles that no man will ever know but 

 himself ; did he not have to master the very 

 problems which is the province of the uni- 

 versity to teach your students 1 True, you 



