November 20, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



729 



of the ideals that we then discussed together 

 are now realized in this golden land of prom- 

 ise, and rank us far above our own modest 

 sense of our deserts. 



If I came home slightly intoxicated with 

 academic ideals, so were all of us in some de- 

 gree, according to our temperament, but a 

 reality that was sobering enough soon con- 

 fronted us. I can not enter here upon the 

 details of our disappointments, culminating 

 in the tragic hegira to Chicago and elsewhere 

 of three fifths of our faculty. If ever there 

 was an academic tragedy, a via crucis, a veri- 

 table descent into Avernus, it was here. The 

 story of these years has been carefully written 

 out, with everybody heard from, and all the 

 divergent interpretations of what occurred 

 and what it meant faithfully set down, and 

 filed away in our archives, and perhaps after 

 another twenty-five years or yet another, it 

 may be published. 



Sufiice it to say that although we started 

 with far less than, justifiably or not, we had 

 hoped for, we began the fourth year, 1893-94, 

 with only about one fourth of the total annual 

 resources that we had the first year. In the 

 seven years that followed, down to the found- 

 er's death in 1900, we had for all purposes only 

 four per cent, of the income of $600,000 plus 

 that of $100,000 more for the library, that is, 

 less than $30,000. Several of us who remained 

 here were tempted by larger offers to what 

 seemed more promising fields, but, on the 

 whole, and I believe no one regrets it, we 

 elected to stand by here. These lean years 

 were, however, characterized by two features. 

 First, they were years of unique harmony. 

 There was no friction. We stood and worked 

 shoulder to shoulder. And this is of prime 

 importance in a small institution like this. In 

 a great university discords can and always do 

 occur, but here, where discontent in any de- 

 partment disturbs the whole institution, ac- 

 cord is one of the prime necessities. The 

 other feature of these years was intense de- 

 votion to research and to teaching, and our 

 productiveness, whether compared with our 

 numbers or our income, has never been 

 greater, and indeed, I wonder if that of any 



other institution has been greater relatively 

 to its size. Perhaps the alumni of these days 

 were, and will ever be, a little nearer to the 

 center of the hearts of those who went through 

 them, and it is significant, and can be no 

 cause of jealousy to others, that it is they who 

 are leading in the epoch-making activities that 

 center about to-day and mark this as the date 

 from which henceforth our alumni will be a 

 potent factor in our future history. Their 

 newly and well organized support, their en- 

 thusiasm for the spirit of research, which is 

 our inspiration, will henceforth greatly re- 

 enforce all our best efforts here and be an 

 inspiration to our future development. 



With the dawn of the century came also the 

 college, which has given us 51 students who 

 have already taken degrees in the last eight 

 years, although it has its own independent 

 purpose. As to it, we are brethren, children 

 of the same parent or, to change the figure, a 

 married couple, and unlike married couples 

 we can never be divorced, so that he who 

 would make discord between us is an enemy 

 to both, and every man who helps the other 

 is a friend to both. Any encroachment of 

 either upon the other's domain or any effort to 

 profit or exalt the one at the other's expense, 

 is bringing discord into sacred family rela- 

 tions. Our two-in-one or dual unity is 

 unique, delicate, imposes new responsibilities 

 and presents also inspiring possibilities for a 

 new solution of some of the highest academic 

 problems. I think we can truly say that each 

 is now a noble stimulus to the other. We are 

 proud of the college and we are so just in 

 proportion as we know and understand its 

 problems, aspirations and achievements. We 

 are proud of the name and the work of its first 

 great president and of the rare men he 

 brought here, whose growth in knowledge and 

 power, together with those of the college 

 alumni whom they trained in his day, consti- 

 tute his living monument, and we of the uni- 

 versity salute the college colors in our deco- 

 rations to-day, and hail with pride and give 

 our heartiest Godspeed to the second presi- 

 dent of the college, who is not only carrying 

 out the ideals he inherited of a three years' 



