New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-12-21
ELIOT RAPS M0N0P0LfES
President of HHUmd Censures
Trusts and Labor Unions.

Speaking at the Quill Clubs Harvard dinner
at the Hotel Manhattan night, President Eliot
hVelghed strongly against the modern monopolies
OF the trusts. on the one hand. and of the labor
unions, on the other
One OF the greatest contests for public and pri-
vate liberty he said, lis the fight against monopo-
lies Centuries ago a monopoly was sold or given by
the King for the benefit of the government or of
his private purse for the reward of his favorites
Now, to-day monopoles established
under free institutions. The monopoly of the labor
union was created by freedom of association; the
monopoly of the trust created in the same
way. The hatefulness of both. however is just
the same as 1t was three centuries ago"
James Byrne. who was virtually the only other
speaker Of the evening. said he had so little con-
hdence In the possibilities of the law controlling
the trusts that he would not dwell further on the
subject.
From early In the evening until not long before
midnight the walls of the dining room Haunted the
Harvard crimson the universtys colors being like
wise expressed in the profusion of red roses and
Glove carnations which decked the board.
Landreth II. King, the president of the club. act
ed POSTMASTER. The large list of members and
guests included Chancellor MacCracken of the
New-York University. James H. Garfield, librarian
of Columbia; Professor Francis Brown. president OF
the faculty of the Union Theological Seminary the
Rev DR. Leander Chamberlain. Evert Jansen Wen
dell. Professor Charles p. Fagnani and H. e. Paine
President Eliot. who was greeted by the strains
OF Fair Harvard led by the Harvard Giee Clun'
and who received a right royal welcome, spoke on
The University and the Ethical Problem for Our
Time"
The modern university" ne declared. contrib
utes three primary things to the ethical problem
of the day. These Il love of truth and steady
search for it, freedom and belief in freedom. and
the great stirring motive of hopefulness"
He continued, in part:
The university of to-day is constantly asking
Pilates question What is truth?' but unlike
Plate stays for an answer. One of the
VellOuS sentences ever uttered "Ye shall know
the truth, and truth shall make you free" That
Is exactly what the university is teaching to-day
freedom industry freedom the individual in
est services a university render TO mankind.
The PurtanS, six years after landing, founded
Harvard College, TO train ministers, lest. the
scr1ption on our college gate says, the Church be
left to an iiterate Set OF preachers when the pres
ent teachers shall be no more. The institution
which has grown up from that desperately poor
foundation Will never get beyond that Puritan
idea-never! The university, however, has become
something more than truth teaCher-r is a truth
seeker. That characteristic difference between the
university to-day. And in seeking the truth it
demands facts.
Harvard is foremost in new methods for search
ing for the truth in history. Modern science
teaches that the records of the past must be
looked at with doubt and accepted only after the
most rigid investigation. Through freedom comes
free thought and free speech There is no other
way of teaching liberty except by freedom We
must give nations chance to practise free in
situations. and the only way TO learn freedom is
TO practise 1t. The function Of teaching freedom,
therefore, is one of the greatest duties in modern
clvtliZatlon The university also teaches hope
fulness. 1t also teaches righteousness, and this ia
the root Of hopefulness