The San Francisco call., 1897-03-24
GALA DAY FOR
THE UNIVERSITY
Berkeley's Twenty Ninth
Birthday Fittingly
Celebrated.
Speeches by DR.. Joseph Le Conte,
Hon. William R. Davis and
]. A Elston.
DR.. Le Conte Traces the Sources of
Truth and Social Advancement to
Science and Evolution.

BERKELEY, CAL, March %. - The
twenty-ninth anniversary of the birth of
the State University was celebrated this
morning in the Harmon Gymnasium. 1t
was the twenty-first celebration of the
kind that has taken place at Berkeley.
President Kellogg presided, and with
him on the platform were: Hon. Will
liam R. Davis, president of the Alumni
Association, and Professors Hilgard.
Lange, Bradley, Wickson; Regent J. W.
Martin, Regent Denicke, Colonel Ed
wards, DR.. LIE Conte, and ]. A. Elston '97,
president OF the Associated Students.
Elston was the first speaker. He spoke
of the student body. He told of the
growth of student sentiment and customs
and deprecated Bourbon celebrations,
as now carried out, as "senseIess extIava-
gance." He favored strong student sem
timent in favor of rules of propriety In
college life and urged that such state of
affsirs would come about as natural
growth as the university becomes older.
Hon. William r. Davis was then intro
duced and spoke in part as follows:
One of the sons of the university, take to-
day the point of view of an observer. This
does not mean fading of the old devotion,
but the acquiring OF newer and broader one.
University of California in three aspects:
First, in time; second, IN its scope; third, IN
the State.
In time. it has six stages. The conception of
Durant. Kellogg and the faithful band of fore
runners who from the beginning foresaw and
proclaimed in the wilderness that civilization
reached in 1868, when the State founded the
university in law by the act of March %, 1868.
That is the day we celebrate. The thud stage
was the embodying of the university in the
nOus TIT n n nd q ar NJ Ia nj
cation and lie of the State.
The fourth stage was the passage OF the per-
petual tax act OF 1aS9-the turning of special
acts of appropriation to the fixed purpose of
perpetual support. The fifth, now upon US, is
the building era. And the sixth stage in
time is the PASSAGE of the act of 1897, by
which the policy of permanent support has
been confirmed. These six stages denote en-
bodiment and demonstrate growth.
Let us make no mistake; 1t is the State, the
com on wealth that is the end not the schools
not science or philosophy ii is the uplifting of
the race that is the end, not human knowl-
edge.
DR.. Joseph LIE Conte, the veteran sci
enlist was then presented and spoke for
over an hour on the true idea OF a univer-
ton of his address he drew upon science,
religion, art, philosophy and evolution,
concluding with the idea that science has
come not TO destroy. but to fulfill. He
also told or the characteristic defects OF
the English and German universities and
contrasted them with the universities OF
America. In making this comparison he
said:
The American university has two distinctive
features. They are the close union of the COL
lege and the university and the full recogni-
ton of the professional schools. The real
trouble with our American universities is that
the rush for practical life is so very urgent
that there is a strong tendency in the scien-
titic depar tments to crowd back the profess
sional courses into the undergraduate, and in
the traditl onal professions of law and medi-
cine to dispense with the college course en-
tirely.
Science is so recent and its course so rapid,
there is such accumulation OF new mate
rial and such fermenting of new ideas, that
there has not yet been time enough for organ
ization into rational knowledge, which is
philosophy. Intellectual food is gathered and
digested so fast that there is no time for di-
gestion, assimilation and incorporation into
our essential human nature.