Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-06-24

Two thousand one hundred and forty-five
young men have graduated. Of these SOC
have engaged in teaching; lO1, that is one to
every 81, has been a college professor; %
have been college presidents. The alumni
alcove will contain among its 1000 books and
1000 pamphlets the works of 20 men well
known in literature and philosophy and sci
ence; 260 have prscticed medicine, Is of
whom have been professors in medical
schools; 429 or 90 per cent. have entered the
ministry Of whom Is have been professors in
theological seminaries. Today Bangor.
Bates, Andover. Harvard, Yale and Union
seminaries have Bowdoin graduates upon
their faculties. Eight hundred and one, or
81 per cent. of the number, have studied law, /,
of whom large proportion have sat upon
the bench PA, or 10 per cent. of the num-
Der, have been prominent in politics; 23, or
one 10 each hundred, have been elected to
Congress, seven have been United States
senators and one has held the highest office
in the nation. With the exception of the un.
expired term caused BY the death of her most
distinguished senator. the State of Maine has
had Bowdoin graduate in her congressional
delegation continuously since 1925; and dur
ing IA out OF its &C years the State has had a
Bowdoin graduate for Governor. Sixty-fve
have devoted themselves to journalism, and
among the papers whose editorial staff has
contained Bowdoin men are nearly all the
leading papers of Maine, Boston and New
York; 20 per cent of the graduates have en-
gagged in one Of the three leading profe ssions,
and if We include teaching and journalism " e
may say that 80 per cent. of all the graduates
have engaged for longer or shorter period
in distinctively literary OF professional work.
Bowdoin gave to the late war 266 of her sons.
The ten classes from sc TO 60 out of 395
men gave IFS or 45 per cent.
These facts are commended to the friends
of Bowdoin and TO the citizens of Maine.
Think what its means TO a community that
its health, its rights of person and property,
its political policy Its educational interests,
its Interpretation of current ents, its relig-
ious faith have been guarded and guided
and maintained by men who brought to
these high services the fruits of ancient wis
dom the results of contemporary experience
recorded in foreign tongues, the sound re-
suits of the latest science, and above all
minds trained to habitual contemplation OF
great historic monuments aud lofty moral
ideas The difference between the scholar
and the ignoramus in your teachers chairs
the difference between the jurist and the pet
tifogger in your courts; the difference be-
tween the scientific physician and the qnack
al the bedside of your sick; the difference
between the men of learning aud the fool on
your editorial statfs; the difference between
the statesman and the demagogue IN your
legislative halls; the difference between the
rational believer and the declaming charla-
tan IL your sacred desks that is in large
measure the difference between civilization
and barbarlsm between the peaceful secur
ity of society and the lawless violence of an
archy; between the glorious light and liber-
ty of the kingdom of God, and the darkness
and bondage of a perpetual reign of super
stition, injustice and oppression. He that
can appreciate Alright the infinite width of
that celestial diameter that separates these
two conditions knows how vital is the or
ganic relationship between the college and
community,
These facts constitute the claim of the
college upon the community for men and
money. The need of money is urgent, vet
it will be met The history of the college
in the past is the pledge Of her support for
the future. The same history is also the
refutation of the objection that would send
man and money to institutions elsewhere
that are already well endowed When
Maine was politically a province, the wisdom
and generosity of the Fathers decreed that
intellectually this community should be free
and independent. Will any son of Maine
now rise up and say that having become po-
litcaly an equal and independent state, she
shall now begin to take a dependent and
provincial attitude in matters of education?
The mao who without specific reason ne
elects the institutions of his own state to
support those of other reverses the work of
those who made a political province an in
tal1 ,,a1 -.
his power to reduce a sovereign state TO an
intellectual province.
As this principle of the organic connect
ion of the college and the community makes
clear the duty of the citizens to support the
college, is likewise it marks out for the col
lege line of policy from which it may not
venture to depart.
The community has right to say whether
those of its members who are to be the
standard bearers of its literature and the ex-
ponents of its life shall stand in living con-
tinuity with the classic writers who are the
great masters of literature, or whether they
shall be left TO the pitiful alternative of
either using secondhand reproductions, or
relying on their own unchastened originality
As long as the college remains the faithful
guardian of the rights of the community to
be represented in the supreme parliament of
the worlds greatest minds as long as the
college stands to indicate the claim of the
community to its share in all that is grandest
and purest and brightest in human thought
and achievement, so long will Latin and
Greek, the mother tongues of civilized hu
manity, demand of each candidate for cole
giate honors that he render account of his
native powers and acquired training in terms
of their own perspcuous elegance and fine
precision. Modern Languages, Mathematics
and Chemistry, one or more of the special
sciences, Rhetoric and Philosophy must like
wise be required. The elements of these
subjects may be taught thoroughly and still
leave room for elective studies. The advan-
tage of such elective studies is that they enlist
the will of the student more directly in the
work of self-education; and also that they
develope whatever special aptitude he may
possess.
To meet the need of physical training an
ample and commodious gymnasium has been
erected, and with a competent director in
charge, the college will begin the coming year
fully equipped for the important work.
Moral and religious training is an essential
part of the work of the college. The COM
munity has a right to the assurance that so
far the influence of The college can secure it,
the graduates shall go forth in spirit OF
reverence toward God, and unselfish service
to their fellowmen.
The college is under the control of the
Congregational denomination. Its teaching
must be evangelical without being contro-
versial.
Thac init alao has r,rvht % an,