Milford chronicle., 1889-08-02
DUST.

It was the year 3O93. The Stanford uni
versity was holding its twelve hundredth an
niversary For three centuries and more the
great stone wall and bridge across the bay at
Ravenswood had been completed, so that
most of the professors from the elder univer-
sity at Berkeley CAME by this route, looking
down on the upper bay, changed into fields
with orchards Of two hundred and fifty years
establishment growing where the Nineteenth
century sloops and oyster boats came to the
prehistoric embarcaderos of Mowry's Land
ing and Alviso. A great industrial univer-
sity. Workshops reaching for miles along
the beautiful slopes of San Mateo, training
Schools art schools, language schools, scien-
tific schools. Berkeley for the classics and
the humanities, Stanford university for an
unparalleled grouping of the great industrial
and scientific activities Of the race. For mile
beyond mile ran the gardens, the green houses,
the intensive horticulture which for more
than thousand years had made the valley
regions of California the richest and most
thickly populated district in the world.
Statistics from the census of the year $3.50:
Population of California, forty-seven mil
lions; population Of the valleys which impinge
upon San Francisco, including the valleys
caused by the drainage of Suison bay, San
Pablo bay, and the upper half of San Fran
cisco bay, twenty-eight millions. One-half Of
these are in the Sacramento San Joaquin
valley, the other half within fifty miles Of
San Francisco city"
The president of the university, Leland
Stanford Ainsworth, a descendant of one of
tho Oregon Ainsworths of the Nineteenth
century, delivered his address: "Science is
endless" he said; ''the race goes on, ever i'm
proving Those were foolish fears Of the
men Of the dark ages, now almost prehistoric,
when this state was founded, this institution
established The social order has changed.
What they called revolution, and vainly
fought, has proved evolution. We have
come together, on this twelve hundredth an
niversary, under these ancient stone arches.
less to celebrate the past than to plan for
the new cOnquests Of nature Whispers have
gone forth to the world that in our chemical
laboratory strange discoveries have been
made. These discoveries we give to you to-
day, whether for human happiness or human
misery will depend upon yourselves"
The audience listened with some bewilder-
ment In that great hall, with its arches Of
weather beaten stone, more than 10000 peo-
pie were assembled, but delicate electrical
machinery made the speakers voice audible
and the speakers face clearly visible to every
one in the building, and even to the thou
sands who sat beneath the stately oaks outside.
What was this new discovery Would it
make life better worth livingl Would it give
a man longer hfel At least it was evident
that the discovery was one of thrilling i'm
portance in the mind Of the president He
spoke with the utmost earnestness "For
more than 100 years this university has held
as sacred trust group of scientific discov-
nF-ina u1oha nv IF r. H..
his formulas down and sealed them for this |
twelve hundredth anniversary. Three DAYS |
before its celebration the faculty Of This uni |
versity was to assemble, break the seals, test |
the formulas and decide whether to reveal /
the secrets or to destroy them forever. We /
met; We have decided; we create new pro-
fessorship, more important, perhaps, than /
any other In existence on the face Of the /
earth. We have chosen a hneal descendant |
OF the discovererof this groupof secrets, Pro
fessor Lemuel Jones Carey, and, going back
to one Of the almost forgotten writers Of the
Nineteenth century, we name his chair the
chair Of The Ethics Of Dust"
A ripple Of half annoyed amusement ran
over the audience. Was that ALT Only an
other Of those interminable modern subdivis.
ions Of biology, or psychology, or bothi
But the president went on: Professor
Carey was ON the right track when this went
It's remarkable that all his in
designations have fitted him to utilize and de-
velop this group Of new facts. Without him
the Ethics Of Dust would have had to wait
fifty years for an interpreter With him
you can catch a glimpse Of its scope today. It
IS nothing that you imagine. It is not long
Life; it is not money, or happiness, except in
cidentally. But, perhaps, it means all the
things which any Of you, or all Of you, have
ever dreamed about And the president sat
down. The wall at the back Of the stage
opened and revealed laboratory, strange
even to the eyes Of chemists there. Professor
Carey came toward, and set curious micro