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TOSEPH AREND DE BOER was born in Warffum, Gron- J ingen, Holland, June 17, 1861, of obscure parentage. His father's name was Jan Arend De Boer, and his mother's name was Anje Peiter Kuiper.
The mother was a woman of exceptional ability and ambi- tion. The father, honest, and industrious, was but a mediocre man. When but a small lad, the De Boer family came to the United States and settled in Albany, New York.
The father was not prosperous, and the boy Joseph for several years peddled papers on the streets of Albany. He thus supported himself, in part supported his family, and finally he was able to graduate from Albany High School. Then he entered Dartmouth College without a dollar to his name.
Teaching in vacations, doing manual labor, and carrying on various enterprises when in college, his ambition and ability to endure hardship enabled him to win his way through Dartmouth College, and he was graduated in the class of 1884. Upon graduation he became head master of the Holderness School for Boys at Holderness, New Hampshire, and there he continued one year.
Next he removed to Montpelier, Vermont, where he be- came principal of the High School. To this school he gave the best that was in him during a period of four years, and until his death Montpelier and the state of Vermont had no stronger champion of its schools or more earnest advocate of everything that tended toward their advancement than the subject of this sketch.
On August 1, 1889, Mr. De Boer became the actuary of the National Life Insurance Company, for which he labored with
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diligence and efficiency during the remainder of his life. The National Life Insurance Company, founded in 1850 by Dr. Julius Y. Dewey, who was its president until his death in 1877, in 1889 was wholly solvent but growth and prosperity were not particularly apparent.
To the genius and ability of Joseph A. De Boer must be given the chief credit for the rejuvenation of the National Life at that time and its substantial growth and development.
Mr. De Boer served his company as actuary, as director, as secretary, as vice-president and as president. He was one of the founders of the American Institute of Actuaries. His mind was mathematically inclined, and he became a famous actuary, and one of the prominent insurance men of the nation.
He served his community, his college, and his state faith- fully and vigorously as city representative, county senator, trustee of Washington County Grammar School and trustee of Dartmouth College.
Mr. De Boer not only was a great business executive, but was also one of Vermont's foremost orators. His arguments were models of logic and power. Although the Dutch lan- guage was his mother tongue, his English was flawless and beautiful. He had a fine speaking voice, a mind stored with historical and classical knowledge and a fund of apt illustra- tions. The passing of the years tends to make his voice and his name less familiar, but in his time those who heard Joseph A. De Boer speak can never forget his wonderful ora- torical ability.
It was the destiny of the writer of this short tribute to labor with Joseph A. De Boer daily for seventeen years, and in the very last days of 1915, he helped to bear the body of Mr. De Boer to its long rest.
No finer, abler or better man ever lived in Vermont.
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JOHN DEWEY
By A. R. Gifford
J OHN DEWEY is today easily the outstanding figure in American Philosophy and one of the great thinkers of the age. In his own country and throughout the civilized world he is recognized as a most stimulating and suggestive leader of liberal thinking and as the prophet of improved methods of education. More fully than any other American of the day, and in the best sense of the phrase, he merits the title "Citizen of the World."
John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont, October 20, 1859; both the Dewey family and the maternal line of Rich con- necting with early settlers who came to the colonies about 1640. On both sides he was descended from simple and sturdy farming stock and to this day there persists in Professor Dewey-the World Citizen-much of the reserve and modesty, the sim- plicity and rugged directness, which we associate with the best rural types. Proceeding through the Burlington public schools he entered the University of Vermont in 1875, and four years later was graduated with the degree of A.B. After three years of teaching-one spent in Charlotte-and a fourth year devoted to reading philosophy under the direction of H. A. P. Torrey, Professor in the University of Vermont, Dewey entered the Graduate School of Johns Hopkins University. His walks and talks with Professor Torrey and the encouraging advice of W. T. Harris, editor of the JOURNAL OF SPECULATIVE PHILOSO- PHY, had influenced him to follow his natural bent and to devote his life to philosophy.
Receiving the degree of Ph.D. in 1884, having also held a Fellowship at Johns Hopkins, he accepted a teaching appoint- ment in the University of Michigan. Here in 1886, he married Alice Chipman (who died in 1927), of whose six children four still survive. The Deweys also adopted one son. Going to the
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University of Minnesota as Professor of Philosophy in 1889, Dewey returned to Michigan in 1890 as full Professor in suc- cession to his former teacher George Sylvester Morris.
In the year 1894, Professor Dewey became head of the De- partment of Philosophy, Psychology and Education in the newly organized University of Chicago. Here, in 1896, he instituted one of the first experimental schools in the country and the first to be connected with a University. Here, also, in 1903, he pub- lished his epoch-making STUDIES IN LOGICAL THEORY. In this work emerges the doctrine of Instrumentalism,-a view- point in logic and theory common to William James and John Dewey and of which, since James' death, Dewey has been the protagonist without peer. This doctrine of logic as an art of adjustment and control rather than a form of demonstration or certain proof, foreshadowed in his earlier psychology and ethics, is the germ of later work in ethics, social theory, education and philosophy.
In 1904, Dewey was called to Columbia University. At that time he had already established securely his name and fame. The STUDIES IN LOGICAL THEORY and other essays had given him a position which bracketed his name with that of the great William James, his friend and his senior by seventeen years.
Since going to Columbia two important developments have taken place in Dewey's career. In philosophy he has rapidly ad- vanced in esteem and has secured an ever widening recognition as, "The Voice of the Age." Today he is the most famous figure in American philosophy, acclaimed by his colleagues and by liberal thinkers in general as "The Voice of American Culture become articulate."
Of Dewey it might be said as Croiset has said of Euripides: "He was rather a thinker than a philosopher, rather an investiga- tor than a dogmatist." Dewey's flair for critical reflection, for insistence upon the test of fact and evidence, upon a scientific detachment from prejudice and prepossession, find expression in his guiding principle. Experience is life; and life is change
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and growth. And so philosophy must resolutely attempt a "continuous reconstruction of experience." Recently Dewey has formulated his mature thought in two notable volumes: The Carus Lectures called EXPERIENCE AND NATURE and The Gif- ford Lectures published as THE QUEST FOR CERTAINTY. A brief and popular statement of his viewpoint will be found in a volume based upon lectures delivered in the University of Tokyo and entitled RECONSTRUCTION IN PHILOSOPHY.
The second great accomplishment is the achievement of a position of supreme eminence as leader and prophet of liberal social thinking in politics and law, in ethics and education. In the interests of improved education and more liberal thinking he has visited many lands in which great social transformations were under way.
In 1919 he was invited to deliver a series of public lectures at the University of Tokyo. An invitation to visit China followed and two years were spent in lecturing on education and philoso- phy in the coastal and some of the interior provinces. These lectures and their printed report in Chinese are said to have had a great influence on the student movement which underlies Chinese Nationalism. Turkey, Mexico, and Russia have also all been visited in the interests of progressive education and social transition to more liberal conditions.
Many universities have conferred upon Professor Dewey the honorary doctorate: Wisconsin, Michigan and Vermont in this country; Peking National University, St. Andrews, Edinburgh and the University of Paris abroad. The Rector of the National University at Peking greeted Professor Dewey saying: "We honor you as the second Confucius." At the Sorbonne he was hailed as, "The most profound, most complete expression of American genius."
Perhaps the highest honor in the world of philosophy came when Dewey received the appointment to deliver the famous Gifford Lectures for 1929 in the University of Edinburgh. In November of the same year Professor Dewey delivered at the
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University of Vermont the Marsh Lecture, an address commemo- rating the centenary of the publication of President James Marsh's American edition of Coleridge's AIDS TO REFLECTION. The preliminary essay in this work written by Marsh had a notable influence on liberal thinking in American philosophy and theo- logy at the time. During 1931, Professor Dewey has conducted seminar courses at Harvard, having been appointed William James Lecturer in Philosophy.
Professor Dewey's seventieth birthday was made the occasion of a great ovation in recognition of his leadership and eminence in education, social policy, morals and philosophy. A two-day celebration with sessions devoted to the influence of his work in education, philosophy and the social disciplines, had its culmina- tion in a luncheon given in the ballroom of Hotel Astor, New York, attended by 2,300 men and women. At this time James R. Angell, President of Yale, Jane Addams of Hull House, Chi- cago, and Professor James Harvey Robinson, joined in high encomium for the lofty attainments and wide-ranging achieve- ment of Dewey. Professor Robinson called him the outstanding thinker of this generation, the spokesman of the age.
In recent years John Dewey has devoted increasing attention to practical and energetic activities designed to ameliorate social conditions and to secure a larger and wider enjoyment of social justice. Besides serving as president of the League of Independ- ent Political Action he has published NEW INDIVIDUALISM, a brief work which outlines a suggestive scheme of social adjust- ment to the new conditions of an age of industry, machinery and congested city life. A further series of articles on LIBERTY IN THE MODERN WORLD has been announced for early publication. Thus does Professor Dewey fulfill the role of spokesman of the age, combining the voice of the prophet with the dynamic impulse of the leader-protagonist of justice-freedom and the liberal life.
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GEORGE DEWEY
By Vrest Teachout Orton
TT has often been said that George Dewey's career was spec- 1 tacular but that is only a half truth. It was so only toward the end. The career of America's first Admiral after Farragut, may be likened to that of a competent actor who, after playing ably in the provinces for half a century is, in the last quarter of his life thrust suddenly into the glare and acclaim of Broadway. The world more than applauds ... it goes into ecstacies. Here is the greatest actor of all time! Broadway is fickle ... his run is short. The actor stumbles; the world that yesterday wept with joy, today laughs with derision. The player is shuffled from the bright lights and the play goes on. When he passes some years later the world learns that he was alive just before he died.
The villain in our piece was not Dewey, it was the great American public. It was the giddy, capricious mob that cut the ridiculous figure, not the sturdy Admiral. It was the vast, shilly-shallying American populace that was absurd, not George Dewey. He remained steadfast; the indomitable, laconic Vermonter and the honest sailor. The people as Mark Sullivan has remarked, provided the irresolute and ridiculous element in this hectic drama.
George Dewey, son of Dr. Julius Dewey was born in Mont- pelier, Vermont, December 26, 1837. His boyhood was normal. At fourteen he entered Norwich and, appointed by Senator Foot, entered Annapolis in 1854. There he was known as "Shang" Dewey, behaved like a human being, and was graduated fifth in . his class. In the Civil War he served under Farragut from whom he learned the value of discipline and action and distinguished himself for conspicuous bravery and independence. For the next thirty years he served on different ships and at many stations. In
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1867 he married the daughter of ex-Governor Goodwin of New Hampshire, but she died four years later. In 1870 Dewey was put in command of his first ship the NARRAGANSET and while mak- ing a survey of lower California coastline, he remarked, apropos the current rumblings of war with Spain: "If war with Spain is declared, the NARRAGANSET will take Manila." Even then he was studying the situation in the Pacific, particularly in the Philippines. He served as light-house inspector; as secretary of The Light House Board at Washington and in 1882 put to sea (because of poor health) in command of the JUANITA, later as chief officer of the KEARSARGE, cruised in European waters and became convinced of the uselessness of a United States European Squadron. Later while chief of the Equipment Division (1890- 1894), he was responsible for the rejection of this policy. In 1895 he was president of the Board of Inspection and in 1896 was promoted from captain to commodore.
Dewey was now sixty years old. The stage was just being set for the big act. Ranked by seven superior officers, he was given command of the Asiatic Squadron because, to quote his admirer, Theodore Roosevelt, he had, "faithfully for long years made ready himself and his weapons," and because, "he could go into Manila if necessary." He took command on January 3, 1898.
Without discussing the economic and imperialistic reasons for the Spanish-American war, it is evident that the United States had determined before that war to have the Philippines. The blowing up of the MAINE in Havana harbor, February 15, 1898, precipitated the declaration of war. On February 16, Dewey moved his base to Hong Kong, more accessible to Manila, and, convinced that war was coming, he got ready for it; buying supplies, holding target practice and negotiating with Williams, American Consul at Manila, to gather informa- tion about Manila and its defenses. Upon the declaration of war, Dewey, picking up Williams (who had come to meet him), sailed the six hundred miles to Manila Bay and at mid- night of April 30, 1898, anchored outside the harbor.
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When the first day of May dawned, the Spaniards were astonished-there was the American fleet! Dewey was sea- sick in the early morning but felt better when the shore batteries opened a feeble fire and when his fleet closed in on the Spanish ships. He then gave that famous order; "You may fire when ready, Gridley." As if manoeuvering in splen- did review the American fleet circled the enemies' vessels five times, hurling shot after shot with increasingly better mark- manship. After two hours of firing Dewey was dumfounded to learn his ammunition was nearly exhausted. His terse order was to, "draw off for breakfast." The no ammunition report was later found to be erroneous but Dewey's laconic order was too good to be forgotten. When the smoke lifted the startling result was evident; several Spanish vessels had been sunk, many were in flames but not an American ship was greatly damaged and not a single American killed. After breakfast fighting was resumed, and it took only an hour to annihilate the rest of the Spanish fleet.
The power of a four hundred year old empire, once the greatest in the world was, in three hours, demolished forever! A new power, the United States of America, arose and stood among the world's great nations. Of Dewey's part, R. F. Dibble has succinctly said :
It was he who made possible what others had planned; by his action in sinking the Spanish fleet he consummated the fulfillment of national hopes more than a century old; the political figureheads of his day owe, in abundant measure, their place in history to his deeds. ... Unim- portant, almost unknown in his own country and rather unimpressive in personality, as he was, by one lucky stroke he leapt into dazzling popular- ity and saw the country at his feet in rapt adoration-for a time.
The news of Dewey's great victory, because of the severed .. cable, did not reach America until seven days later. With public anxiety ended, the country went wild! Congress made Dewey an Admiral and provided that he never retire. A Dewey-for-President boom was talked of; Dewey's sinking of
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the Spanish fleet was compared, in his favour, to the great naval engagements of all time and he was ranked with Nelson. Exaltation ran riot.
Dewey remained in Manila until enough troops arrived to hold the new possession, then he sailed for home. After seventeen months of suspense his arrival let down the flood gates of national frenzy. The era of great heroes to be wel- comed by Broadway had come. Never before had the Ameri- can people gone so utteriy and completely delirious over one man. Songs and poems were composed in his honor; babies and towns named after him; degrees from universities con- ferred on him; a triumphal arch erected in New York; a gold sword was presented to him by the Congress, but Dewey, stoically enduring the intoxication of the mob, was to be most deeply touched as he said later when, in Montpelier, Vermont he was welcomed by the "home folks." Books have been written of these impetuous times-no few words can reveal the grandeur of the Dewey apotheosis.
The rest can be told quickly. Dewey, on November 9. 1899, was married to the widow of General W. B. Hazen. She was a dashing and beautiful lady, rich and cultured, a Roman Catholic and socially ambitious. Dewey was sixty- two. The American people, having taken him to their hearts, felt queer when someone else usurped this privilege. A few days later the Admiral, no doubt as a token of his love, deeded to his wife the Washington house that the Nation by popular subscription had presented him as a token of its affection. Whispers and gossip became open criticism. This was not quite all. On April 3, 1910, the Admiral, having been be- seiged for months to become presidential candidate, gave a statement to the press, in which he said: ". .. If the Ameri- can people want me for this high office, I shall be only too willing to serve them. . . . Since studying this subject I am convinced that the office of the President is not such a very difficult one to fill . . . . " and he ended with the näive sen-
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tence: "I think I have said enough at this time and possibly too much."
Poor old man. The reaction was not pleasant. It was one of laughter and ridicule. He never had another political am- bition. He appeared in the limelight a few times after this and died in 1917.
By no means did the gallant Admiral remain in disgrace the rest of his declining years. The public realized, when it took time to think, that, this näive and sturdy old veteran had sim- ply been honest with himself and proceeded according to the course he had thought out alone. Dewey was not a politician and knew nothing of chicanery and charlatanism. His last days must have been happy in the Washington house and in the beautiful country house on the Potomac. They enter- tained widely, his diversions were many and he was always the hero of Manila Bay. He liked to represent the navy at public functions. His last days were quiet. He gave up banquets and ceremonies and led, as he was accustomed, a natural life, once saying that longevity was the result of "Buttermilk, lots of fresh air and a simple life." The disease of arteriosclerosis was active almost two years before it wore him down, but he did not take to bed until January 10, 1917, six days before the end. Once more the name of Dewey was blazoned before the world. People remembered him as a figure from another age, as indeed he was, for the new century was well on its way and a new and better war was just beginning.
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GRENVILLE MELLEN DODGE
By K. R. B. Flint
RENVILLE MELLEN DODGE, the son of Sylvanus and T Julia (Phillips) Dodge, was born in Danvers, Massa- chusetts, April 12, 1831. His opportunities for securing an education were limited, but he attended the Durham (New Hampshire) Academy in the winter of 1845-46 and in Septem- ber, 1848, entered Norwich University from which institution he was graduated in 1851 with the degree of Civil Engineer.
Immediately following graduation he went to Illinois, where for some months he engaged in general land surveying. In November, 1851, young Dodge entered the engineering corps of the Illinois Central Railroad, and in 1852, he en- tered the service of the Rock Island Railroad being given charge of the important surveys of the road.
From this time on till 1855, he was engaged in several en- ginering projects for the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad in one of which it was determined that Council Bluffs, Iowa should be made the terminus for this road.
During the years 1855-61, he engaged extensively in mer- cantile business in Council Bluffs, freighted upon the plains and traveled and traded with the Indians. It was he who sent the first train through to Denver and opened there on Cherry Creek one of the first mercantile houses under the firm of Baldwin, Pegram & Company. He also engaged in banking during this period.
In 1855 he had organized the Council Bluffs Guards and was commissioned captain in July, 1856. In April, 1861, he tendered the services of this company to the governor of Iowa for service in the Civil War, but the offer was declined by the governor because he was unwilling to leave the Iowa frontier without protection.
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In the same month, he was sent to Washington to procure military equipment for the use of the Volunteers and through his energy and persistence he was able to succeed in his mis- sion. The Secretary of War, recognizing his ability, offered him a captain's conimission in the regular army, but the offer was declined as he felt his services were needed by the state of Iowa. The Secretary then telegraphed Governor Kirkwood requesting that Captain Dodge be given command of one of the state regiments and on July 6, 1861, he was appointed colonel of the 4th Iowa Volunteers with authority to organize and recruit it.
His military service was conspicuous. He participated in many engagements and in the battle of Pea Ridge, March 6-8, 1862, when all the field officers in his command were killed or wounded, Colonel Dodge was wounded in the side. In recognition of his services in this battle he was commis- sioned brigadier general on March 31, 1862. On June 7, 1864, General Dodge was commissioned major general of Volunteers.
During the War he was often called upon to use his engi- neering skill in rebuilding railroads and bridges that had been destroyed by the Confederate Army. He rebuilt, in 1862, the Mobile and Ohio Railroad and the work was pushed with such vigor that by September trains were running over the road from Columbus to Corinth.
General Grant, in his MEMOIRS, gives the following estimate of General Dodge as a soldier and an engineer :
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General Dodge, besides being a most capable soldier, was an experi- enced railroad builder. He had no tools to work with except those of the pioneers-axes, picks and spades. With these, he was able to in- trench his men and protect them against surprises by small parties of the enemy. As he had no base of supplies until the railroad should be com- pleted back to Nashville, the first matter to consider, after protecting his men, was the getting in of food and forage from the surrounding country. He had his men and teams bring in all the grain they could find, or all they needed, and bring in all the cattle for beef and such other
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food as could be found. Millers were detailed from the ranks to run the mills along the line of the Army. When these were not near enough to the troops for protection they were taken down and moved up to the line of the road. Blacksmith shops with all the iron and steel found in them were moved up in like manner. Blacksmiths were detailed and set to work making the tools necessary in railroad and bridge building. Axemen were put to work getting out timber for bridges and cutting fuel for locomotives when the road should be completed. Car builders were set to work repairing the locomotives and cars. Thus every branch of railroad building, making tools to work with, and supplying the work- men with food, was all going on at once, and without the aid of a me- chanic or laborer except what the command itself furnished. General Dodge had the work assigned him finished within forty days after re- ceiving his orders. The number of bridges to rebuild was one hundred and eighty-two, many of them over deep and wide chasms. The length of road repaired was one hundred and two miles.
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