USA > Ohio > Delaware County > Delaware > Fifty years of history of the Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio : 1844-1894 > Part 12
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The secret of perpetual green, The marvel of the buds that blow, And where the purple clusters leave, And how the golden apples grow.
So be her golden age the time Of dawning strength and matchless youth,
To bring from out her century's prime The earlier reign of right and truth.
Be strong her feet to lead the way ! Be wise her heart to rule her own ! Be true her sons to hail the day When Faith and Science reign as one !
We praise her for the best we know, We bless her for the good we keep Of those who taught our youth to sow What now our age doth surely reap.
We crown her heroes, those who knew The burdens of an earlier time-
Great souls that touched our own, and drew Our plodding steps to ways sublime.
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God's peace be on them where they bide ! Whether above our steadfast gaze, Or lingering still to guard and guide New feet in learning's pleasant ways.
O, Alma Mater, fare thee well ! The sun dips in our western sea, And life is late, and who shall tell How near the silent oarsman be ?
About to die, we give thee hail ! We greet with joy the crowning years,
Nor mourn that "heart and flesh can fail," Since now thy day of glory nears.
Our daughters rise thee blest No doubtful bar of rights to hold
Half of thine own from honor's quest, Or shape this new life to the old.
Then read between these halting lines The nobler things they cannot say ; The faith that knows no changing signs ! The love that lives and grows alway !
THE GRADUATE IN PUBLIC LIFE.
By HON. JOHN W. HOYT, Class of 1849, Ex-Governor of Wyoming.
MR. PRESIDENT : In responding to your call, this inorn- ing, I am conscious of mingled and conflicting emotions. For, while the occasion itself awakens the most delightful recollections of those sunny days when, as a youth, I drank at this then newly-opened fountain of learning, and here gained such inspiration as was offered by the noble men who
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presided over the institution and its several departments, on the other hand, I am deeply saddened by the fact that most of those who were iny honored instructors and yours have long since passed from this scene of their labors.
The brilliant, learned, and ever faithful Dr. Edward Thomson, who first sat in the chair of administration, and whom every student admired and loved; the singularly refined and reserved, yet very able and critical, as well as zealous and beloved, Herman M. Johnson, Professor of Ancient Languages, and Dr. Frederick Merrick, who, in those times of limited means, so earnestly sought to cover the whole vast field of Chemistry, Physics, and Natural History,-all these are with us in spirit only, and in these cherished portraits which look down from the walls about us.
But, again, we find ample ground for rejoicing in the growing prosperity of the noble institution here founded, fifty years ago, and in the continuance at their posts of two of the inost gifted, faithful, and efficient of the little band of professors who began the work of instruction-the one so widely distinguished, not only for the skill and success with which he has conducted his classes for half a century, first in mathematics, and finally in philosophy, but also for the exceptional eloquence of his speech, and for his clearness, cogency and power as an author, in dealing with some of the highest problems that can interest the human mind; the other, a man no less distinguished for those qualities of the inind and those graces of the spirit which have made his very presence a source of inspiration, than for his zeal as a teacher, and for those rare linguistic attainments which have so greatly strengthened his department, and have also made his published works authorities wherever known .*
* References to Professors L. D. McCabe and W. G. Williams.
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After these words, I hardly need say that I am glad, indeed, to be here, and to join with you all in this Semi- Centennial Jubilee.
But I have been asked to say something in particular con- cerning "The Graduate in Public Life." And what is the significance of this phrase? Let us look at it for a few moments.
In the more limited sense, the term Graduate means a familiarity with at least the elements of all departments of knowledge-certainly a good command, if not a mastery, of one's native tongue; a tolerable acquaintance with those languages which open to one the wonderful treasures of the Grecian and Roman civilizations, those precious, priceless legacies bequeathed to all the world ; something of an intro- duction to those modern foreign tongues so rich in the resources of the literature, science, art, and philosophy pro- duced by the Latin and Teutonic peoples; a knowledge of numbers, simple and applied ; an outline of the physical and natural sciences, so rapidly growing day by day ; such key to a knowledge of man's mental and moral constitution as may be had by a study of the elements of psychology and ethics ; a glimpse of literature and art criticism ; a simple outline of the vast fields of sociology and political economy ; a general survey of what man has done in all ages of the world.
Great, indeed, are even these limited attainments. But the term Graduate means yet more. It stands for such love of knowledge as will prompt to alertness for one's self and to systematic study after leaving the college, as well as to an earnest, practical sympathy with all who crave the possession of knowledge.
In the largest sense, the term implies yet more-vastly more, namely: the true Scholar, with such culture as can only come of an heroic and persistent effort in the many
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fields just alluded to. It implies an ever-increasing love of knowledge ; not such simple desire as sometimes passes for love, but a real and enduring thirst that will not be satisfied ; and not alone for a knowledge of things, but for a clear com- prehension of the meaning of things, of those principles governing the universe and man which lie in the Divine Mind, and the possession of which makes one, in a high and ennobling sense, like unto God in knowledge and power. It implies a spirit in full harmony with the moral order of the universe, and hence ever ready and anxious to do the will of God. It implies such love of God, growing out of a knowl- edge of his nature and purposes, as, being at once spon- taneous, pure and earnest, is ever deepening, and ever bringing the life more and more into harmony with His will. It also implies such love of one's fellows as makes of them, each and all, brethren, regardless of race, color or condition in life-brethren to be sought out, informed, guided, devel- oped, elevated, and brought into the Way of Life.
But I am to speak especially of the scholar in public life ; by which is meant all those walks in life which have to do with one's fellow men in their associate and corporate capaci- ties-those walks in which one stands for, and, by agree- ment, represents his fellows, whether in the humble affairs of the country neighborhood, the village community, the State, or the Nation.
The importance of this relation is to be inferred from the many and varied interests of the community to be studied, provided for, protected, and advanced.
What, then, are the great primary demands thus laid upon those who assume or consent to direct in public affairs ? Are they not these :
(1). The fullest possible knowledge of those represented- of how to meet their felt wants, their real wants.
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(2). A just regard for the sacred rights of others-a regard so high and so sincere as to leave little room for self- seeking ; a regard so profound, so all-controlling, that no sacrifice could be deemed too great, if, indeed, necessary to insure these rights.
(3). Consecration to the public good-such consecration as that of the brave Leonidas and his handful of heroes, stand- ing as a bulwark against the hosts of Persia, in the Straits of Thermopylæ; such consecration as that of the mighty Luther, giving himself to the vindication of what he con- sidered truth, in the face of the fagot and the rack ; consecra- tion like that of our patriot fathers in pledging their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to the cause of American Independence.
Do not all these conditions make it manifest that the practical scholar, with all his knowledge of men and things, his love of truth as being sacred and divine, his sense of unity with his fellow men, and his consequent yearning for that freedom which is essential to their growth in knowledge, power and virtue, his high consecration, therefore, to the general weal, is, of all others, the man supremely bound to make himself master of the situation by means of the largest attainable information concerning every field and phase of the public welfare ? In other words, what so reasonable as that the inan of large attainments ; of such wisdom as comes froní a profound study of man and of men in all history; of comprehensive views, such as can only come of an acquaint- ance with all sides of great questions, and with all tlie elements involved ; of that command of himself which comes of discipline and of self-subordination to the Divine Idea within him ; finally, of those pure and lofty aspirations which are given to those only whose souls are ever open to the influx of the Divine ;- what so reasonable, I say, as that lie
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who in a pre-eminent way stands for all these great requisites, should be placed in the direction of public affairs ?
And how remarkably is this rational conception confirmed by history! There have been isolated cases in which, by force of native genius, unaided by culture, men have wrought wonders in the world's behalf, but general history, neverthe- less, confirms the rational view.
This demand for knowledge and virtue in the high places of public life, though but half uttered, is a most real demand everywhere. It is also a growing demand. Nay, it is fast becoming a crying deinand, as every one must allow who watches the proceedings of almost any of our State Legisla- tures-nay, of the Congress of the United States, and of legislative bodies in general throughout the world.
Again I say, the voice of Wisdom, the voice of Justice, the voice of a divine Charity, each and all demand that the precious interests of society shall be committed to the ablest, truest, and best equipped of its numbers-demand, therefore, that the best endowed shall be equipped, and that they who have been equipped shall rise to the full measure of such demand.
Woe to the scholars going into public life who do not loyally meet this solemn demand ! Nay, woe to the colleges and universities of this and every land if they do not so instruct, discipline, direct and inspire those upon whom they place the seal of their approval as worthily to fit them for their great and solemn mission to their community, their country, and the world !
At 12:30, on Wednesday, June 20, occurred the Alumni Banquet in the old Thomson Chapel. Covers were laid for four hundred, and the seats were all taken. After two hours spent in feasting, James M. DeCamp, class of '67, of Cincin-
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nati, as toastmaster, introduced the literary portion of the programme.
" Hope writes the poetry of the boy, but memory that of man." Fond recollection spans the five decades as with a hand-breadth and it seems but yesterday when strange and timid we stood in the shadow of these gray walls, first slaked our thirst at yonder spring, first felt the awe of the mighty seniors, and for four years lived in an enchanted realın where every tradition was truth and every trivial fact, circumstance and scrap of conversation was clothed in the purple vest- ment of authority.
These grounds, these walls, breathe the sacred influences of those who guided our ways and instructed our minds. The very air is tremulous with the invisible but felt presence of those who stamped their spirit on our lives.
We recall that paragon of dignity and grace, the first Pres- ident, whose tones were sweetest music to our ears, the in- comparable Thomson. We honor the memory of that sec- ond President, "rich in saving common sense and in his sim- plicity sublime;" the saintly Merrick, who literally poured out his life and means for this University, denied offspring by kind Heaven that this college might be the child and heir of his love. We miss his venerable for11, but we rejoice that he lived to see the splendid University Hall, and then, like the patriarch of old, " gathered up his feet and departed in peace."
Our college is noted for the consecrated scolarship of its Faculty, for the unique and unparalleled circumstance of having had a trinity of instructors, Merrick, McCabe and Williams, throughout the whole of its history, concerning which they can say "a part of which I am, and all of which I've seen."
Only less remarkable in continuous length of service is the 30-year record of Whitlock, Semans, and Perkins.
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Is it too much to say that these men, with their associates, all under the guidance of that quaternion of leaders, Thom- son, Merrick, Payne and Bashford, have made this college what she is ?
Our College is notable in having made a success of co- education. It is now quite 17 years since the marriage of the two institutions, and "what God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."
Our University is in line with the modern methods of elect- ive courses fitting the student for his specialty in life, and it encourages reasonable athletics, but declines to follow the lead of those colleges which favor optional prayers and com- pulsory base-ball.
Our University is not here alone in these material build- ings and apparatus, but it lives in the lives of its graduates. We are constantly representing the University by our daily thinking and doing. Her influence is felt in the far-off Orient, in the plateaus of South America, where Thomson, Drees and La Fetra, Scott, Sites, Lowry, Davis and others are elo- quent and faithful exponents of the principles imbibed here. She speaks from the graves of the Union soldier, where on southern battle-fields Clason, Buchwalter, Andrews and others offered up their scholarly lives that the Union might live.
The beauty and significance of this day is that we meet on a common level, sons and daughters of the same mother, and are therefore equal in her eyes. Our personal successes or failures, our titles and degrees, or lack of them, are not re- garded. Whatever our distinctions in the public eye, the only question our mother asks is this, " Has our education made us better men and women ? Is the world happier for our living ? Are we nearer God in spirit and purpose than ten, thirty, fifty years ago?" Has our education made us
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tender and truthful, sympathetic and helpful? Have we developed nobility of soul and that refinement and "good taste which is the conscience of the mind, and that con- science which is the good taste of the soul?" If so, then indeed is our mother proud of us, for I take it that character building is the ultimate aim of all culture worthy of the name.
President Bashford is right ethically and religiously when he carves on the foundation of University Hall, "Christ the chief corner-stone."
Our past is luminous with the golden sacrifices of illus- trious men.
Our future is assured and expanding under the wise and lovable leadership of this gentle giant ( Bashford.)
Our mother's face is lit with the dawning splendors of the twentieth century. O mother, we salute thee. On thy brow we print the kiss of reverent affection.
THE GRADUATE IN BUSINESS.
WILSON M. DAY, Class of '71, Cleveland.
Has the college graduate any business to be in business ? The theme assigned me affirms; Mr. Andrew Carnegie de- nies. It must be admitted that Mr. Carnegie speaks with recognized authority on some subjects, and with assumed authority on a great many others. When Mr. Carnegie ven- tures an opinion on trusts, we listen, for undoubtedly he knows what he is talking about. When he discourses on wages in Pittsburgh, and castles in Scotland, and newspaper syndicates in England, and money-making in general, we give him due deference. Shall we accept his ipse dixit on the college graduate? Let us see : "The total absence of the college graduate in every department of affairs should be deeply weighed," says Mr. Carnegie. "I have inquired
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and searched everywhere, in all quarters, but find scarcely a trace of him. Nor is this surprising. The prize-takers have too many years the start of the graduate ; they have entered the race invariably in their teens-in the most valuable of all their years for learning anything-from 14 to 20. While the college student has been learning a little about the bar- barous and petty quarrels of the far-distant past, or trying to master languages which are dead, such knowledge as seems for life upon another planet than this as far as bus- iness affairs are concerned, the future captain of industry is hotly engaged in the school of experience, obtaining the very knowledge required for his future triumphs. I do not speak of the effect of college education upon the young man training for the learned professions; but the almost total ab- sence of the graduate from high position in the business world seems to justify the conclusion that college education as it exists is fatal to success in that domain. The graduate has not the slightest chance, entering at 20, against the boy who swept the office, or who begins as shipping clerk at 14. The facts prove this."
Summed up, then, there are three counts to his indict- ment :
First. The college graduate is not in business.
Second. His college training positively unfits him for business.
Third. He is not wanted in business.
Undoubtedly, Mr. Carnegie has the popular side of the ar- gument. Every office boy in the land will loudly applaud him. Every humorous paper will back him up with the in- evitable cartoon in which the average college graduate is de- picted as a young man with a predisposition towards high collars, an abnormal development of biceps and a constitu- tional aversion to hard work, not knowing a sight draft from
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a monthly statement, or a balance sheet from a bill of lading. Every illiterate millionaire, raised suddenly to a position in community where his lack of all that goes to make a great man renders him an object of ridicule or of pity, will find solace in the Carnegian theory. But what are the facts?
First. Is the college graduate an unknown quantity in the business world ? Let this congenial company, presided over by one of Ohio's most enterprising and successful bus- iness men, give answer. Alongside the name of a DeCamp, place that of a Mast, a Wright, a Hamilton, a Fairbanks, a Hitt, an Elbert, and a Pattison-all sons of Ohio Wesleyan who have won distinction in the world of affairs. Broaden- ing our view, can we not name in the communities which we represent a score or more of the leading inen of business who are college graduates? Even under the eaves of Mr. Carnegie's mills in Pittsburgh and among his business asso- ciates in New York, are many college mnen whose names are a tower of strength in the financial world. A recent list of 65 famous New Yorkers who owe no small part of their bus- iness success to their college training includes such namnes as Chauncey M. Depew, Charles Francis Adams, Austin Cor- bin, and several other presidents of railroads, 18 bankers, IO merchants, including Alexander T. Stewart and John Jacob Astor, 7 heads of prominent trust and insurance com- panies, and five heads of leading publishing houses. Surely, Mr. Carnegie must have been searching with his eyes shut when he reached the conclusion that the college graduate is not to be found among successful business men.
Second. Is it true that a college training is fatal to suc- cess in business ? Let a few college men of business answer. Says President Low, of Columbia College (who has been himself a business man) : " While it is harder for a college graduate to get started in business than for one who enters it
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as a boy, in five years from the time he does start, other things being equal, the college graduate will be the peer in business of his friend who began as a boy, and while equally successful in business, he will fill a much larger place in the community than the one-sided man can ever hope to fill."
Hear next the testimony of James W. Alexander, a Prince- ton graduate and vice-president of the Equitable Life So- ciety of New York : "However it my be with the boy whose talents, temperament and environments are such as to limit his prospects and ambition to a life of physical labor in a subordinate capacity, who can doubt that the boy who has within him the germ of some future master in affairs will be all the more of a leader by reason of a thorough college education and even that he will outstrip in the inere matter of time the boy whose only training was sweeping the shop or adding up columns of figures at the desk." Mr. Charles L. Colby, a graduate of Brown University and President of the Wisconsin Central Railroad, says this: "I earnestly be- lieve that if two men of equal ability start together in the race, one an educated man and the other without a college training, the college man will win every time in the long run." General Brayton Ives adds this testimony: " All the progress I have made in civil life, including my present occupation-banking-is directly traceable to the special advantages afforded by iny education." Finally I quote from the distinguished president of the New York Central Railroad, Chauncey M. Depew, a Yale graduate : " The col- lege-bred man, under equal conditions of capacity and health, has a trained intellect, a disciplined mind, a store of information, and breadth of grasp, with the fearlessness which it entails, that enables him to catch up with and pass his rival. Hundreds of college graduates within the last five years have begun in the various departments of railway
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work at the bottom. They are firing on the locomotives, working in the machine shops, switching in the yards, keep- ing books in the treasurer's office, serving in the freight and passenger departments, and my observation of them for this period has demonstrated the value of a college educa- tion."
Third. Is the college graduate wanted in business? I am firmly convinced that, whether welcomed or not, he is absolutely needed. Machinery and methods are constantly changing. Business is now conducted on a large scale. Stupendous transactions, in trained hands, are as easily con- summated as were formerly the petty operations of a local and limited business. What the business world of to-day wants is not the one-sided man who is slow to comprehend and introduce larger methods, but the man of quick and com- prehensive thought, of wide grasp, of easy adaptation, of ab- solute fearlessness born of complete self-mastery. What the community at large wants is a man who can lead in all important measures for the public weal; who can frame a resolution or plead a cause without resorting to the aid of his chief clerk or his legal counsel; who aspires to fill a large place in a community and not be known simply as a money-grubber ; who is not the man of an affair but the inan of affairs. This, I apprehend, is the high privilege, the rare opportunity, before every young collegian whose face is set towards a business career. May this great insti- tution of learning, crowned with its fifty years of glorious history, grasp the import of this call. May it none the less continue to fill the ranks of the ministry, medicine, and the law, but more and more inay it send out into the world of business young men of thorough discipline, of lofty and sensible ideals, and of broadest conceptions of a universal brotherhood.
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THE GRADUATE IN SCIENCE.
PROFESSOR A. E. DOLBEAR, PH. D., Class of '66, Tufts College, Mass.
MR. CHAIRMAN, BRETHREN ALUMNI, LADIES AND GEN- TLEMEN : I was pleased to receive from President Bashford an invitation to be present at this banquet, not because I was anxious to speak on the occasion, but because it gave me an added reason for coming to Delaware, and to this in- stitution, which I so much love. But President Bashford invited me to speak about Science and the Alumni for ten minutes, and I consented.
My obligations to this institution are so great, and in so inany ways, that I feel as if I could not express them, nor do too much to repay them, and I most heartily wish that that million dollars, which we were told on Monday the Univer- sity needed, could at once be raised. It set me thinking how it might be done in this way: Let all the Alumni pay their just debts. The tuition in most institutions in the country is one or two hundred dollars a year, yet here inany of us paid hardly anything. I think my scholar- ship cost me five dollars. I owe, then, not less than four hun- dred dollars, and with interest twice that. Dr. Nelson told us there were over 1,300 graduates, not counting the women ; and if each of us were to pay a fair tuition now, it would bring at once into the treasury of the college the sum of 400 x 1,300 == $520,000, and if we allow interest, we should have nearly three-quarters of a million. If the women were to do like- wise, the full million would be raised.
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