The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-31
PATTON IN DEFENSE
PRINCETON'S PRESTDENr M
CLARES STUDENTS OF THE IT
NOT INTEMPERATE.
AT TIMES ARE B0ISTER0US,
THE NATURAL RESULT OF THE
OVERFLOW OF ANIMAL
SPIRITS.
HE GIVES A WORD OF WARNING.
Sabbath Lecture to the Students on
the Recent Princeton Inn
Affair.

PRINCETON. N. J, Jan. 8O-A few
days ago President Francis L. Patton
announced that he would address the
undergraduate body today upon the
subject of temperance AS a conse-
quence, Marquand chapel was crowded
at O'Clock today. In the audience
We're several signers of the Princeton
Inn liquor license, among them Grover
Cleveland. Prof. Charles Woodruff
Shields, whose resignation from the
Presbyterian church has caused crfti-
clsm growing out of his signing the
petition, and Prof Charles Greene
lockwood. DR.. Patton said:
Al their meeting in October the attention
OF our trustees was turned to the recent
agitation which has so seriously involved fhe
good name of Princeton university A com
mittee was appointed to consider the whole
s90!ecC ana report at a subsequent meeting
Oh the trustees. Ihat report was presented
and adopted at the meeting held Dec %
1t was resolved that a strict literal and i'm
partial enforcement of the existing law re-
spectifg intoxicating drinks be enjoined upon
the faculty, and that the president of the
univ erslty De asked to make a statement to
the students on the whole question.
bear testimony to the high moral tone OF
me students OF this university. I know that
tney nave been misrepresented and misunder-
stood Their hilarty, their boisterous out
Dursts OF eXuberance; their songs which ofte,
have more baCChanalian sound than I would
wish, and, IN some instances their inexcusa-
Die acts OF wrong-dOing have produced i'm
pF6Ss4ons which the facts will not Justify.
anu Iney nave on many occasions been
charged with drunkenness for no other reason
lnan mat, under the influence Of the gre
S&IIous instinct which sometimes assumes an
almost irrational mode of expression animal
spirits have been allowed too much freedom
ana speech and action have not been kent
Wlthn those metes and bounds which mature
socate with sobriety
But there was never less reason for ad
verse criticism of Princeton than during the
period in which it has been sd unsnarIDgIv
bestowed upon us. I have taken pains To Ana
out the truth, and l am still mistaken in
my conviction that the tendency in Princeton
IS steadlly IN the direction of a diminished
use or alcoholic drinks. Still, I must not be
blind to the fact, and after making all al
loWance for willful misrepresentation or mis-
take am constrained to believe that there is
Tar more of what Is called moderate drinking
among US than the wisest and best friends Of
princeton could wish, and there are those
among you who are putting their future in
peril by the excessive use Of intovico+I1a,
drink. ''--le
There is nothing unnatural in the desire of
the trustees for vigilant enforcement of
what mas for many years been the law of the
university in regard to alcoholic liquors
While I am in full sympathy with YOUR feel
ing that the university man is not to be
treated as though he were in q preparatory
school, ! am ready to take my full share of
responsibility for the report which as chair
man OF the committee dealing with the cues
tion, was made to the board of trustees.
There are two classes of men whom I have
particularly in mind: Those who have al
ready fallen into Incorporate habits. and
those who are in danger OF forming those
habits Drunkenness is practically an un-
pardonable sin in our academic life 1t must
be understood that man cannot be guilty of
repeated acts of intoxicaton and continue in
this university if his offense is known to the
authorities.
I wish more particularly. however. to saw
a kindly word to those who are understood to
be moderate drinkers. II any duty is intui-
lively given us in consciousness it is temper
ance l mean the duty of self-control. Let me
caution you, then. against the habits which
put self-control in peril