The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-06-10
PRINCETON'S PRESIDENT
WOODROW WILSON SUCCEEDS
 PROFESSOR PATTON.
First of the Great Universities to Put a Southerner Into the Executive Chair-The Choice Highly
 Satisfactory.

Princeton, N. J., June 9.-(Special.)- All Princeton was surprised this after noon by the unexpected announcement that Presi lent Patton of the University had resigned and that Prof. Woodrow Wilson had been unanimously elected to the vacancy by the board of trustees. This news will be hailed with delight by Princetonians all over the country, but especially by those graduating in re- cent years and by Southerners. He is young man himself, being under forty | five, and Is native of Virginia but was reared mainly in North Carolina. He is son of Rev. pr. Joseph Wilson,
 noted Presbyterian divine now con ] nected with the Presbyterisn University at ClarksvilIe. Tenn. He is q nephew of the well-known Dr. Woodrow of Colum-
 bia, s. c.
 Woodrow Wilson was graduated at Princeton in 1s7s, and is d classmate of Hon. Joe Hamilton of Mobile. For Il number of years he has been a professor
 here, teaching political economy and so-
 cial science. He has written several
 books, the most noted of which are
 Congressional Government and
 Life of George Washington" He Is a most lucid magnetic style. He has for some years been noted as one of the strongest men in his department in the whole country.
 Recently an Indianapolis paper pro- posed him as the sort of man for the Democratic party to nominate for The Presidency of the United States In the last few years he has been offered the presidency of the following universities and colleges: Johns Hopkins, at Baltl- more; Tulane, at New Orleans; Amherst. in Massachusetts; the University of Vir- gniana and that of our own State Uni yersity at Tuscaloosa.
 He declined all of these, believing that he could do his best work here at his alma mater. He is the first man elected to the presidency of this institute in its life of one hundred and fifty-six years who has not been a Presbyterian minis ter. However, he is a Presbyterian and an elder in one of the churches here.
 His cleo ,ion is generally regarded as signalizing to the country the great de- velopment that has taken place in the last twenty years. The great universities like Yale, Columbia and Princeton are putting at their heads young. vigorous, | broad-minded scholars of tact and execn- tive ability, rather than theologians. as | of yore
 Ex-President Patton will remain as pro- lessor of ethics. He urged the accept | ance of his resignation and earnestly | recommended Wilson as his successor. | The election is welcomed with great | demonstrations of delight by all the under | graduate student body and the hundreds | of alumni who are here attending com | mencement.
 To give an idea of the affection and | loyalty of Princeton's alumni let me say | in passing that of my own class of n | tnere are over sixty here attending their | 18th reunion.
 It is believed that Woodrow Wilson's election to the presidency will greatly | strengthen Princeton in the South from which section one-half of it's students | came in antc-bellum days. Princeton is | the first of the great Northern Universi- | ties to put a Southern man into the | eAeeu'iNe chdlr. F. P. Glass.
 Came as Great Surprise.
 Princeton, N. J., June 9-The chief | event in connection with Princeton's | 155th annual commencement, as the great surprise. came today in the annual l meeting of the Board of Trustees when President Patton resigned the presidency and Prof. Woodrow Wilson. professor of | Jurisprudence and politics, was elected to succeed him.
 President Patton made the following statement: 'I have resigned my office as president of the University because I desire to carry on my literary plans on a larger scale. T shall retain. my profess sorship in the university in the chair of ethics and the philosophy of religion"
 VAteran Killed hv A Neprn