USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II > Part 62
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100
The John Hay Library, for which the initial contribution of $150,000 offered by Andrew Carnegie was matched by alumni and friends, was planned to afford stack room for 250,000 volumes, with possibility of extension, and includes a magnificent reading room, with seats and library tables for 200 readers. The university libraries contain 450,000 volumes. Spe- cial collections in the university library include: The Harris collection of American poetry, the Rider collection of Rhode Island history, the Wheaton collection of international law, the Church collection on the geography, history and resources of South America, the Cottrell engineering library, the Chambers Dante collection, the Lester F. Ward library of sociology
973
HIGHER EDUCATION
and paleo-botany, the Hammond Lamont library of English literature, the Hoffman Napoleon collection, the Mclellan Lincoln collection, the Walter Hammond Kimball library of liter- ature and history. The physical development to 1914 was principally in and about the old college estate, and the new centre developing for the Women's College.
The sesquicentennial of Brown University, 1914, was celebrated with appropriate cere- monies, including a revival of the torchlight parade and an evening pageant of the university. The World War had already broken out in Europe, but America's sword was still sheathed. University life was little changed because of events across the Atlantic, although the shadow of war fell nearer home when dispatches brought tidings of the death in one of the early battles of Henri Ferdinand Nicholeau, French instructor, who had returned to his regiment in the French reserve. America's entry into the war brought changes. Students enlisted vol- untarily, and many answered the call through the selective draft. In the intensive period of preparation the university conducted an all-year program, omitting vacations, and with other universities and colleges, undertook the work of training special units for military service. The campus became an armed camp, and the student body a military organization. Many Brown men went overseas, never to return. Soldiers' gate, on Thayer Street, opposite Man- ning, is their memorial, dedicated with appropriate ceremonies in 1923. Forming a graceful entrance to an enclosed quadrangle, it bears the names of those who carried on even unto death. With the end of the war, Brown felt the immediate effects of the movement "back-to- college," and faced new problems because of an enrollment surpassing all earlier experience. New buildings constructed or acquired after 1917 include: Metcalf Hall, 1919, dormi- tory for Women's College; Jesse Metcalf Memorial Laboratory, 1923, for chemistry depart- ment ; Littlefield Hall. 1925, dormitory ; Marston Hall of Modern Languages, 1926; Engi- neering annex, 1926; Hegeman Hall, 1926, dormitory ; Alumnae Hall, 1926-1927, social hall of Women's College. Other property acquired included Brunonia Hall, 1926, dormitory; Ely House, 1920, for extension department ; Sharpe House, 1921, and McVickar House, 1925, dormitories for Women's College; Faculty Club, 1922. Andrews Field has been abandoned, plotted for houselots and sold. Instead the university owns Aldrich Field, 1917, perhaps the finest baseball and general athletic field in the East, and Brown Field and the Brown Stadium, 1925, for football and track. Lyman Gymnasium, outgrown, has been supplemented by a new gymnasium at Aldrich Field, 1927-1928, at the door of which the Brown Bear, in bronze, greets friends and challenges foes. The university owns also an athletic field near the centre, for intramural games, and tennis courts both for undergraduate men students and for stu- dents of the Women's College. The name of the latter was changed to Pembroke College in 1928, so named for the college of Roger Williams at Cambridge.
Brown is particularly proud of its scientific laboratories, including the laboratory of physics at Wilson Hall, enriched during the thirty years in which Carl Barus, one of the most distinguished of American physicists, was head of the department; the Arnold Laboratory for biology, and the Metcalf Laboratory for chemistry, neither of the latter surpassed any- where in general excellence. In addition to the wonderful development of physical resources during the second period of the administration of President Faunce, for the most part gifts of alumni or friends of the university, the funds, or endowment, were increased from the $4,500,000 attained in 1914 to $9,931,000 in 1929. The funds included steady accretion, besides gifts made with buildings and other property to assure upkeep. Even the college fence was endowed, section by section, for repair and replacement by the classes which gave it. The university income in 1899 had been $210,000; in 1929 it had reached $1,412,000, almost equalling the endowment of $1, 159,000 in 1899. The alumni maintain a loyalty fund, through annual contributions, from which allotments for university purposes are made from
974
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
time to time. The state's contribution is exemption of the entire college estate, wherever located in Rhode Island, from taxation.
The university in 1930 included (1) the undergraduate college for men, with courses leading to the degree of bachelor of arts, bachelor of philosophy, and bachelor of science in chemistry or engineering; (2) Pembroke College, for undergraduate women, with courses leading to the degree of bachelor of arts and bachelor of science; (3) the undergraduate school of education, granting the degree of bachelor of education; (4) the graduate school, granting advanced degrees. The undergraduate school of education was in process of elimi- nation, in view of the development of Rhode Island College of Education as a state college offering four year courses for teachers leading to the same degree. The enrollment of. students in 1929-1930 was 2204, of whom 1357 were undergraduate men, 499 were under- graduate women, 290 were graduates, and 58 were teachers finishing courses in the school of education. Registration in extension courses totalled 2374. The faculty included 107 pro- fessors, 43 instructors, 10 lecturers, and 51 assistants and demonstrators, a total of 211. In the enrollment of undergraduate men twenty-six states were represented. The distribution of patronage appears in the following classification indicating the per cent. of the total under- graduate enrollment contributed by states and sections : Rhode Island 33, Massachusetts 21, New York 16, New Jersey 8, Connecticut 7, all New England 63, southern New England 61, southern New England, New York and New Jersey 85. The fact that 25 per cent. of the patronage comes from New York and New Jersey reflects the strength of the alumni organ- ization centering in New York City. The distribution of undergraduate students in courses shows preference for studies, affected in part by requirements, as follows: English, econom- ics, mathematics, history, biology, engineering, Latin, chemistry, French, German, philosophy, psychology, social science, political science, geology, Greek, Spanish, music, Biblical litera- ture, astronomy, physics, botany, Italian, education, art.
President Faunce, retired emeritus, in 1929,* turned over to Clarence Augustus Barbour, his successor, a flourishing university, broad in liberal culture and wealthy in estate and foun- dation. The physical plant included eight halls devoted to lecture and classrooms, three devoted in whole or in part to offices of administration, four laboratories and an astronomical observatory, eight dormitories, two gymnasia and a swimming pool, four athletic fields, a hall of recreation for students and a club for the faculty, a house for the President. The physical plant for Pembroke College,t additional to the university plant, included four recitation and administration buildings, five dormitories, a gymnasium, a recreation building, a house for the Dean. Thus it had grown from that day in 1764 when the university consisted of James Man- ning, President and faculty, and William Rogers, student, seated probably at either end of a table in the living room of the parsonage of the Baptist Church at Warren-a university with a teacher and a student, but without a home, without a foundation, and without a library. Thus it had grown also from that day in 1850 when Francis Wayland made his return to the presidency conditional upon the raising of $125,000 as an endowment fund and the inaugura- tion of a more liberal curriculum. Thus also it had grown in thirty years from the day in which in the crisis of the Andrews controversy the university was revealed to the world as rich and proud in spirit and noble in tradition, but pinched by stark poverty in the effort to carry forward the work of educating youth without the financial resources that are absolutely necessary.
THE STATE COLLEGE-Rhode Island State College is a federal-state college. Senator Justin Morrill of Vermont introduced in Congress, in 1857, a bill granting public lands to the several states for the support of public colleges. The bill was passed by Congress in 1859,
*Deceased 1930.
¡Name selected for women's college.
975
HIGHER EDUCATION
but vetoed by President Buchanan. A revised bill was introduced in 1861, passed June 19, 1862, and approved by the President, July 2, 1862. It provided for the grant to the several states of 30,000 acres of public land for each Senator and Representative in Congress, for "the endowment, support and maintenance of at least one college (in each state) whose leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture, in such man- ner as the legislatures of the states may, respectively, prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life." No state was permitted to locate public lands beyond its own borders; the act provided for an issue of land scrip, which a state unable to locate public land within its borders might assign, the income of the fund realized from such a sale to be applied for the purposes named in the act. Rhode Island, in 1863, transferred its right to Brown University, stipulating that the university should establish a school or department of agriculture, pay all the cost of locating lands and perfecting titles, apply the income arising from the sale or other disposition of lands to the support of the agricultural school or department, and receive and educate as students on free scholarships, at $100 per year up to the entire income, such per- sons as should be appointed. The General Assembly was to nominate, and the Governor and Secretary of State to appoint on the free state scholarships persons who otherwise would not have the means of obtaining a college education. The university's attempt to locate public land in Atchison, Kansas, before the land scrip was issued failed. Dismayed by failure and the accumulating cost of locating land, for which the General Assembly declined to reimburse the university in any part, the university applied for and was granted permission in 1865 to sell or exchange the land scrip, realizing therefrom $50,000 in government bonds.
The state had made a hard bargain with the university, and the latter had undertaken an obligation which it scarcely could afford to perform-that is, apply the income of the fund both to establishing and maintaining a school of agriculture and to free scholarships. A report by a committee of the General Assembly in 1869 that neither the state nor the university had acted in complete good faith seems to have been amply justified. The state had avoided its obligation to establish a school of agriculture by assigning its land scrip to the university; the university had reached out for the endowment without having the means to conform to the terms of the grant. Its only effort to comply therewith was the designation of certain courses of lectures on agriculture by professors of such subjects as pure mathematics as a "depart- ment of agriculture." Other committees of the General Assembly reported from time to time that there had been no practical compliance with the letter or spirit of the law. The univer- sity, on the other hand, asserted its willingness to provide practical instruction in agriculture if the state or citizens would provide a suitable farm for demonstration and experimental pur- poses, and money for the purchase of suitable apparatus and equipment, but contended that it was unable to do either from the land grant money or its income, while still yielding to the state the tuitions of holders of state scholarships. The General Assembly did nothing to relieve the situation; on the other hand, it continued to make appointments on free scholar- ships at the university.
When Congress, through the Hatch act of 1887, made $15,000 available annually for the support of an agricultural experiment station, Rhode Island, in 1888, made an appropriation for the establishment at Kingston of an experiment station and school of agriculture and mechanic arts. Brown University, in 1890, offered to surrender to the State the $50,000 realized from the sale of land scrip under the Morrill act of 1862. The General Assembly was not in session at the time, and the Governor asked the Supreme Court for an advisory opinion. The court* declared that the agricultural school at Kingston was not entitled to
*17 R. I. 815.
976
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
the Morrill grant, because it did not purport to be a "college of agriculture and mechanic arts," and that Brown University, as the only institution in the state of collegiate grade teaching agri- culture, was the proper custodian. A law providing further federal support by an annual appropriation for public colleges promised to improve the situation so far as the university was concerned, and Brown University, in view of the court's opinion and the new act of Congress, withdrew its offer of surrender. The state, in 1892, designated the school at Kingston a college, under the name of Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and, after suggestion of taking the question of right to federal money to the federal courts, an agreement was negotiated with the university for a surrender of the original grant, upon payment of $40,000 to the university by the state as compensation for free state scholarships.
Neither Rhode Island nor Brown University had realized in 1862 or at any time in the thirty years that followed an opportunity for both to make Brown University a state univer- sity. A comparatively small annual state appropriation would have sufficed to start in the university a genuine department of agriculture or college of agriculture, complying with the Morrill law, as the beginning of a genuine adventure in providing collegiate education "to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes." Brown University lost its opportunity to obtain support from the state, which must have been forthcoming had the university acted to promote agricultural education. And the State of Rhode Island lost thirty years in the development of its own public college. Whether the result reached in 1892-the establishment of a distinctly state college and the continued maintenance of the university as an independent, privately endowed institution-was the wisest solution of the problem is debatable, with little prospect of substantial agreement. With the continued progress of the Rhode Island State College, the debate tends to become academic rather than practical. Against the cost of duplication of plants in part must be set the advantage of having two institutions of collegiate rank in the state, one of them the state's own college, and the other a university guaranteed by its charter the broadest possible liberty in teaching.
Very few of the young men who received free scholarships in Brown University under the Morrill grant became farmers. They took their places in the life of Rhode Island in vari- ous services, usually attaining high rank in the professions. Among them, in later life, were one chief justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, two associate justices of the same court, three or more justices of the Superior Court, several district court judges, clerks of courts, eminent lawyers whose leadership at the bar was undisputed, clergymen and physicians, editors, substantial and successful business men, more than one member of the State Board of Education, two college professors, a mayor of the city of Providence, a mayor of the city of Pawtucket, a secretary of state, many members of the General Assembly. These were men who did not "have the means of obtaining an education for themselves." Their records in after life are indisputable proof that the income of the Morrill fund was used well by the State of Rhode Island and Brown University, even if not for the purpose specified in the law and not probably to the best advantage ultimately. The appointments on free state scholar- ships ended in 1892.
GROWTH OF STATE COLLEGE-Rhode Island State College, to which the name of the insti- tution at Kingston was changed in 1909, grew slowly in its earlier years, in spite of a valiant effort to attract students through offering a great variety of subjects for study. In 1901 the organization of a school of mines was announced, and part of a four-year course was outlined. With the purpose of serving all parts of the state, including towns that did not maintain high schools, preparatory courses were offered, and special short courses for boys from farms were planned. The college encountered, and with difficulty overcame, no little opposition on the
977
HIGHER EDUCATION
part of some who had little faith in the venture or who feared the new college as a possible rival of Brown University, and indifference on the part of others. President Butterfield in his last report (1905) declared: "For the years 1900-1902 the average number of students entering the freshman class of the college from the high schools was but three. For the past three years ( 1902-1905) it has been eleven. . ... I hardly see why the high schools of Rhode Island alone should not furnish each year at least twenty-five or thirty students for our fresh- man class. . . . . I fear that there has been a feeling in some quarters, that the college was a burden, and even a nuisance and should be starved to death." The total enrollment at the time was 139, of whom only forty-nine were college students with regular standing, the remainder including fifty-seven students in the preparatory department, fifteen special stu- dents, and twenty enrolled for a poultry course of twelve weeks. The faculty consisted of eleven professors and ten instructors. The college estate was valued at $250,000, including three granite buildings, Davis, Taft and Lippitt Halls. A new man and a new birth came to Rhode Island State College in 1905 in the new President, Howard Edwards.
A SURVEY-The General Assembly was scarcely friendly when, in 1908, it made provi- sion for a special investigation of the college by a commission. Fortunately the commission was unprejudiced, and entered upon its labors with an earnest thoroughness that merited this characterization of the report: "It is monumental in its thoroughness, painstaking intimacy of detail, judicial attitude of mind, detached impartiality in the ascertainment and considera- tion of facts, and comprehensiveness of its conclusions and recommendations. The commis- sion was composed of five representative citizens, prominent in the life of the State, unrelated to the college, and, in the main unacquainted with it. The report of this commission was epoch-making in the affairs of the college. Its cumulative marshalling of facts was over- whelming, and its conclusions were generally accepted as decisive." The commission con- sisted of Walter E. Ranger, Commissioner of Education; Dr. James E. Sullivan of Provi- dence, Charles H. Ward of Middletown, George F. Weston of Providence, and Hormidas J. Cartier of Warwick. It was directed "to visit the Rhode Island College of Agricultural and Mechanic Arts, make a study of its aims, plans and work, determine its educational value to the state, consider ways and means by which its service to the state may be enhanced, and report thereon, with such other suggestions as they may deem proper." The commissioners' report, presented to the General Assembly in 1909, reviewed the legislation of Congress under which the federal-state colleges were established and fostered, the history of federal-state col- leges generally, and of the Rhode Island College in particular. While emphasizing the state's "solemn compact with the United States Government" to maintain a college, set forth in the General Assembly's resolution in 1863, accepting the Morrill grant, "that the faith of the state be and hereby is pledged to the United States that, upon receipt of the scrip provided to be issued under the said act of Congress, it will apply the proceeds thereof to the objects and in the manner prescribed by this act," the commission replied with facts to criticisms of the college which had occasioned the inquiry. The commission unanimously advocated the continuance of the college and its extension on the lines already laid down. The report marked the beginning of a new era at Kingston ; Rhode Island had adopted its college, and thereafter maintained a more sympathetic attitude, indicated both by the willingness of the General Assembly to appropriate money for buildings and current maintenance, and by the increasing patronage or growth of the student body. The current annual state appropriation exceeds $150,000.
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY STATE COLLEGE-Federal support was increased from time to time, including besides the $2500 paid annually by the State of Rhode Island as interest
R. I .-- 62
978
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
at five per cent. on the first Morrill endowment, that is, the $50,000 paid by Brown University to the state; for experiment station purposes annually $15,000 under the Hatch Act, $15,000 under the Adams Act, and $60,000 under the Purnell Act; for agricultural extension service annually $11,680 under the Smith-Lever Act, and $20,000 under the Capper-Ketcham Act ; for "instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts, the English language, and the various branches of mathematical, physical, natural and economic sciences, with special reference to their application in the industries of life, and to the facilities for such instruction," $25,000 under the Morrill Act of 1890, and $25,000 under the Nelson amendment of 1907, a total of $174,180.
The college estate, land, buildings and equipment, have been provided by the state of Rhode Island and have a value estimated at $1,500,000. The buildings, for the most part, are substantial structures of granite and steel, the former hewn from a quarry on the college premises, and enclose a broad, open campus close to the crest of Little Rest Hill. The main entrance is west of the old Washington County State House, and the road winds through a memorial gate and passes a simple monument to the alumni, students and members of the fac- ulty who died in the World War. The campus overlooks a broad valley sloping to the west and south toward the ponds that are the headwaters of the eastern branch of the Pawcatuck River. The college land follows the slope of Little Rest Hill to an athletic field, and the exper- iment station farm in the valley. The granite. buildings include Davis, Taft, Lippitt, East, Agriculture, Ranger, Bliss, Edwards and Hammond Halls. Davis Hall, built in 1898, occu- pies the site of the earliest dormitory. Other buildings were constructed : Lippitt, 1892; East, 1909; Ranger, 1912; Agriculture, 1921; Bliss, Edwards and Hammond, 1928. Edwards Hall is a combined library and assembly hall; Hammond Hall serves as a gymnasium and drill shed for the cadet battalion. Other buildings are South Hall, a practice cottage for home economics, farmhouses, barns, hothouses, poultry sheds, and a central heating plant. The dormitory accommodations provided in buildings owned by the college are supplemented by fraternity and sorority houses erected by associations of students. Fraternity and sorority houses are conducted under strict college supervision.
With the growth of the college as the number of students increased, all except strictly college departments were discontinued; in 1918 the enrollment had passed 250; the current enrollment is 600, that being the number established by the Board of Managers as the maxi- mum consistent with the facilities in classrooms, laboratories, etc., provided. Applications for admission exceed annually the number that may be admitted. The college offers four-year courses in agriculture ; in mechanical, electrical, chemical, and civil engineering; in practical applied science; in home economics; and in business administration. Extension courses in agriculture and home economics are provided, and the work by the experiment station is closely correlated with the agricultural interests of the state. The college also offers opportu- nities for preparation and training for teaching, and is Rhode Island's principal agency for training teachers of agriculture and home economics under the provisions of the federal voca- tional education act and the state industrial education act. The college is governed by a board of managers of seven members, consisting of the State Commissioner of Education, the State Commissioner of Agriculture and five appointed by the Governor, one for each county. "Our state system of public education is no longer a system of schools alone, but one of school and college," said the Commissioner of Education in an address at the col- lege. "We need to remember that this institution is a vital factor of the state government in its entire educational enterprise; that it is the public's college and that it serves the public's youth, as the elementary school cares for the public's children. Rhode Island State College clearly exemplifies free public education administered by the state government. .... As the opportunities of high school education, following free elementary school instruction, were
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.