The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-10

par1tively poor homes, some too old and
some too poor TO take a full course, but
after short stay they went into life TO
bless the world with the start they had re-
ceived, and to remain the fast friends OF
the infant college. Among these were 10
De found. later on. many successful preach
ers. able lawyers and doctors and business
| men In all callings with not few who be-
came politicians OF high rank. How this
came about at this crisis is instructive
story.
Il have already given the comprehensive
answer-the incorporators, the preachers,
worked for it. under the absorbing convic-
ton that such a college was necessity
| But how did they work? First they gave
| financial aid: then helped the agents to get
laymen to give, all the time talking college,
and especially Methodist college, TO the
| money went into the treasury and students
entered the young colege-Methodist boys
went to a distinctively Methodist college.
with this significant coincidence in air )st
1 every case: The money preceded the l.
dent. teaching that the way to get stude
Is to get money first. In other words, s,
dents follow the money.
1 1T is common in referring to the phe-
nomenal prosperity of that epoch to give
the chief credit TO the matchless Simpson,
but this Is a mistake. He did his part
| well after the students reached him. but it
was Samuel G. Cooper. Isaac Owen and
| Daniel De Mott, the industrious agents,
| soliciting money and getting IL, who most
of all sent students, always aided by the
| local incorporation, the preacher, who never
| lege II he could help IL.
| The second epoch began to begin with
| the mites, but was Enthusiastically In tull
feather with 1853 and lasted 10 1857 and,
| paradoXical as Ii may seem, Ii had its in
ception and vitality in the very prosperity
II was destined 10 destroy. When the char
| Ter or our university was granted there
| was a general distrust as to the ability of
| Methodists TO build or conduct a college.
1t was universally conceded that for
aNNfp eli. Inc and
| managing country churches they were a
| success, but ii was thought they had no
| adaptation to college work or TO church
hence. when in about a dozen years they
had from nothing built the largest college
edifice in the State, and had the greatest
gave way TO wonder and admiration, and
people Of all denominatiens and Of no de,
that could do all this In so short a time, in
such an out-of-the-way town as Green
| castle, could build and endow a college any
| where, and they began to clamor for a
| Methodist college in almost every town and
city in the State.
RESULT OF THE CLAMoR.
"As a result of this clamor twenty-three
Methodist colleges and collegiate institutes
were undertaken in the State during the
| ffties. Some of these built large and ex-
pensiye edifces. going heavily in debt in
most cases. and to most of them the sew
eral conferences of the incorporators of
our university detailed agents and presi-
dents from among the very best preachers
in the conferences to raise money and to
conduct the colleges. The conferences.
however. still recognized and performed
their duty as incorporators, and elected
the controlling board of this university,
and it often happened, if it was not so de-
signed, that one or more of the trustees
or presidents OF agents of these rival col
university.
What came of this episode is history now
All of these bi-colleges but one have de-
parted this life, only one of them bequeath-
ing to the university what was left of their
estate after paying debts. so complete was
the estrangement of the preachers and lay
men who had withdrawn from the univer-
sity; but leaving as legacy to the univer-
sity only the sad fact that not one in ten
of those who were most active In the ill-ad-
love with the spirit of conservation that
had made the university the success 1t be-
came in its first epoch. And why should
they? Had 1t not attained maturity that
would make it self-sustaining through the
ages? Had it not an endowment fund of
100000 all 1t had asked for? Had it not the
best college edif1ee in the State, all out of
debt except to the endowment fund? What
more could 1t ask? But most of those who
were leaders in that episode have gone home
leaving to the young men who took their
places among the incorporators legacy of
indifference and coldness towards the uni
versity which wholly incapacitates them
for any other interest in the university than
to go through the motions of electing trus-
tees and visitors, and to criticise the man.
agement and wonder why, with its 100000.
and later the magnificent gifts of the De
Pauws, il does not keep up with the uni
versity fed from the state treasury.
| But Notwithstanding the setback these
OBJECTIONS from the life force of the univer-
\ sity caused, such was the momentum il had
received in its first epoch and such was its
hold upon the people that in 1861, the last
year of the second epoch, we graduated a
| class OF twenty-three, while the older and
richer college graduated only seven-more
| than three to Its one.
other UNCONVENTIONAL colleges of the State.
entered upon a new epoch. That year the
State began to make appropriau tons to the
moribund old college which had fallen from
the front rank TO the very rear, with final
| extinction almost in sight. With the mil
lions it has already drawn from the State it
has built and equipped the largest and
| latest style of plant, besides having at easy
| command unlimited money for current eX-
penses. As result, so far as We are con-
| cerned. its graduating class is 121 this year
while ours is only 81. or just half of its
| number. although we had more than three
times its number at the beginning of the
| epoch with a certainty before us that un-
less we take new departure this difference
will grow as the years pass. To us as Meth
odists one fact has a humiliating signif-
| canoe At one time nearly one-half of the
| students at this state-fed college were from
Methodist families, though this year there
| are only about one-third, among whom are
| the children OF some Methodist preachers
| who-as incorporat0rs--continue TO elect
trustees and visitors to a college they will
not themselves patronize.
THE ONLY CAUSE.
ct cannot be claimed that any better
scholars are sent out from that institution
than from ours. In no department of life
work have her graduates ever outranked
the graduates from De Pauw University. /
refrain from saying further. Besides. it is
a delusion that the cost to the individual
student is perceptibly less there than with
US. The only cause for this disparity in
numbers is the more gorgeous plant and the
finer display the peoples money has pro-
vided and their better system of propaganda
| ism.
Whatever may be true as to the other
! nonstate colleges that regard religious in
struction important We are Enthusiastically
at the parting of the ways. We must either
timidly consent TO sink lower and lower rel
atively in the rank of colleges and see the
state-fed college become more and more ar
rogant as Ii draws more and more lavishly
upon its unlimited resources, or we must he
roically accept the situation and rise above
all adverse conditions and regain our lead
ership. Which shall il be?
The burning question before is not
what the Meth0dists of Indiana can do in
relation to this great wrong. but what they
ought to do. for they can and will do what
ever they are convinced they ought To do.