— 33 — 



united earnest body with all differences of opinion or method har- 

 monized, and all equally willing to second every good move. 



In crediting the past with its due, the unceasing afforts of those 

 who have labored faithfully are kindly remembered. He who for 

 sixteen years has carried the burden of responsibility for the effi- 

 cient management of a department in a University, which depart- 

 ment had no defined policy, or at best an imperfectly defined one, 

 which University had not then the ready means to warrant the ex- 

 pense attendant upon properly defining a policy, who has borne 

 the burden throughout the many vicissitudes of fortune and who 

 has economically husbanded the necessarily limited appropriations 

 for its maintenance, deserves and has from the Alumni an expres- 

 sion of their highest commendation for faithful performance of the 

 task. Nor is the efficient work of one who spent seven years of 

 valuable time for our good, in the past, forgotten through his ab- 

 sence. 



The records of the Alumni of this department augur well for 

 those who possessing greater advantages are to follow us. Omit- 

 ting details let me say that those who have strictly followed Me- 

 chanical Engineering have done well. It is a source of regret that 

 a number have followed other paths. This is in part due to indi- 

 vidual circumstances and in part to the fact that the department 

 necessarily remained one of Mechanic Arts according to original 

 interpretation of the Charter long after it should have become one 

 of Mechanical Engineering. This transformation now effected 

 needs no further comment than to draw conclusions from the re- 

 cord. Chief among these is the fact that the success of the gradu- 

 ates indicates the demand of the world upon the department. 



It has always been a fixed purpose of Cornell University to send 

 out men to fit the times. Our lately established departments of 

 History and Political Science and Electrical Engineering clearly in- 

 dicate this policy. Twenty years ago educators and practical men 

 of the world were deliberating upon the nature of a department 

 which should represent the proper interpretation of "those branch- 

 es related to the Mechanic Arts." The interpretation then made 

 was believed to meet the demands of the time and was accepted 

 without criticism. After twenty years the question again arises 

 and is settled in accordance with the times more easily than be- 



