The Days of a Man 1:1913 



hardly conceive of it without me. Hoover now rose 

 and proposed "three cheers for the Chancellor." 

 But few understood why they should cheer over what 

 seemed (to most, at least) a painful separation, and 

 he got only a slight response. 



Dr. Branner's promotion was, of course, acceptable 

 to all, particularly as he had effectively occupied the 

 presidential chair at various intervals during my 

 absences in the East. He himself assumed the new 

 responsibilities with some personal reluctance, stipu- 

 lating that he should not be asked to remain longer 

 than 1915, when he would reach the age of sixty-five. 

 It transpired, however, that he finally remained 

 until August, 19 16. 



In retiring from executive work I relieved my mind by a few 

 notes on the university presidency in America and its relation 

 to the general subject of higher education. These formed in 

 some sense my answer to the assertion that the office is an 

 anomaly in academic development, the conventional head being 

 a "monarch" in a body which should function as a democracy, 

 and that in proportion to his monopoly of public attention on 

 the one hand and of power on the other, the scholars who really 

 compose the institution suffer a lowering of their relative 

 valuation. 



In this indictment there is a certain degree of truth. The 

 office of president, however, must be considered as representing 

 a temporary stage in the development of "a republic of science 

 and letters," though under present conditions he is indispen- 

 sable to such achievement. 



Forward movement, even more than actual accomplishment, 

 is the immediate need, and in every "going concern" some one 

 person must furnish the initiative. To call our schools "univer- 

 sities" does not make them so; they are such only in part, and the 

 larger their student body the more likely they are to fall short 

 of their ideals. For while it is no legitimate function of a 

 university to teach the elementary grammar of any language, 



n458 3 



