The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-11

ing decade had made Baltimore the
brightest spot on the educational map
of the country and was the pioneer in
| the upward movement had leavened
the colleges and reused them from the
life of monotony and routine which
then prevailed and kindled strong
and widespread desire for better
Things. The significance of the work of
! that institution can hardly be overes-
timated. But financial clouds had al
ready begun to threaten this great
/ southern luminary, and there were indi-
cations that If the great work it had
begun was to be carried on, parts of it
at least must be transplanted to new
helds. 1t was at this crisis that our
munlt1cent founder entered the field
with the largest single gift ever made
to education In New England and one
| or the largest in the world. with the Of
Ter of more to come if sufficient coop
Grafton was forthcoming He selected
/ worcester as the site of his great enter
prise with piety to the region of his
nativity worthy of the greatest respect
and emulation, and in addition to the
fultlment of his pledges gave it the
! benefit of his own previous wide stud
les of education in Europe, and contrib
uted wisely matured plans and constant
! personal oversight and labor for years.
| 1t is as strenuously engaged in this
highest of all human endeavors that the
world knows him, and that we shall re-
member him, and l am sure that we all
] unite today, first of all, in sending him
| in the retirement his i'll health de-
mands (although it cannot assuage his
| interest to see the work of his hands
prosper) our most cordial greetings and
our most hearty congratulations.
! With dozen colleges within a ra-
dius of 100 miles doing graduate work,
the plainest logic of events suggested
at once a policy of transplanting to
this new field part of the spirit of the
Johns Hopkins university and taking
here the obvious and almost inevitable
next step by eliminating college work,
although the chief source of income
by fee was thereby also sacrificed, and
thus avoiding the hot and sometimes
! bitter competition for students, waiv-
ing the test of numbers and being the
first upon the higher plane of purely
graduate work, selecting vigorously the
| best students, seeking to train leaders
only, educating professors and advanc-
ing science by new discoveries.
! With the wealth, wisdom and interest
/ of our founder, with the high charac-
! ter and culture of our board of trus-
tees, with the intelligence of such a
community CT old New England with an
atmosphere of Intellectual freedom,
|
from the drudgery Of excessive teach
ing and examinations, with the youth
of the faculty, none of whom had
reached the zenith of their maturity,
with substantial and ample buildings,
abundant and forthcoming funds for
equipment, few rules and almost no dis
lcipline OF routine, of faculty meetings,
the motto on our seal, Fiat Lux" our
university color Whites it any Won
der if some of our young men saw vi
sions and dreamed Dreams or perhaps
in some cases fell in love with the high
est ideals or that the very memory of
the first stage of our history is today
as it has been in darker hours a most
precious memory and a basis of an
all-sustaining hope?
But life has its contrasts and com
petitions The reductions of our
force, which occurred at the end of the
third year, sad to US almost beyond pre-
cedent, although helpful elsewhere.
may be ascribed to fate, disease or to
the very envy of the gods. Some incl
dents should remain unwritten, but it
should be known that our trustees fore
saw from the beginning of the year, one
of the sravest crises and met it with
an unanlmity, wisdom and a firm
ness which even in the light of all that
has TRANSFERRED since, 1 think, could not
Re impro, ed on.
Although nearly half our faculty and
students left US in the hegira and our
income had dropped in almost the same
proportion, and only the departments
OF psychology and mathematics re-
manned nearly intact we Fortunate
Nv had left in every department young
men as promising as any in the land.
They needed simply to grow, and never
has there been such an environment
for faculty 10 develop as in this par
adise of young professors, las a lead
ing college president has called this
university. Now the years have done
their work and our faculty, although
smaller, was never stronger. never
more prolific, stimulating and attract
i've to students in proportion to its size
than it is, today.
These changes involved, however. but
little reduction of the number of in
stiuctors or of students, but materially
decreased for time the efficiency of
the university.
The income-bearing summer school
has been organized and conducted dur
ing the past seven years with the act
I've and efficient cooperation of large
local advisory beard under the direction
of Col. e. B. Stoddard and Charles M.
Ihayer, by which its social character.
which has contributed much to its sue
cess, has been established on a high
plane.
, This institution must be judged from
within and by educational and scion-
tii1c experts, and the commentators
! which we have lately received from
leading specialists have been so numer-
Gus, spontaneous and hearty in re-
, Spouse to our invitations to be present
, as almost to rival in cordialitv and low
atty to the now so definitely developed
, Clark idea and Clark spirit that of the
three alumni associations of the Pacific
) coast, Illinois and Indiana, organized
, during the present year.
J clark university has been instru-
mental in training well-nigh 300 pro-
{ fessors or special academic instructors
: mas numbered over 1900 different per-
| sons enrolled in its summer school not
j counting the hundreds who have at
: tended more than one session.
{ The other output of a university like
) ours is its scientific work and here we
have soc publications based upon WORK
Gone here of which % are books. The
university now publishes three journals
with hope of a new one as a more p ~
] manent way of marking the beginning
/ OF its second decade.
Small as we are if our departments
and students are measured by the sig
nificant criterion of the number of lhe
Z doctorates annually conferred here, we
rank among the best and largest insti-
tutions Of the land Although our fell
lowship funds have declined and that
! too in the midst of competition which
never existed or was hitherto dreamed
Of, our numbers of late years have
, slightly but steadily increased although
at the same time we could go on for
ever in doing valuable work of research
and publication like the French Ecole
des Hautes Etudes or a few other old
world institutions, even II we had no
students; and indeed America may need
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