Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-14

| the shapiug of the Constitution. so compact
| of high sense and tragic compromise; that
| interpreted it's spirit; that widened colonial
vision from provinciaism to empire; that
| fixed faith in average humanity as the
| philosophy of a new civilization and that
set the frame work of the great popular
experiment in forms of imperishaDie
| strength and beauty.
Its Future Destiny.
| Whether the University of Virginia shall
| realize it's great destiny rests upon the de-
cision of the commonwealth of Virginia,
whose civic life it has energized and en-
nobled. upon the will of its alumni whom 1t
| has invested with cultured manhood, and
| upon American citizenship. whose public
| spirit it embodies. / have emphasized
everywhere the idea of service due from
| the university to the state, and shall con-
| tinue this emphasis, for I should sin against
| the mighty dead if L did not bring to these
| brave young men straightforward mes
| sage of social duty. In Ben Hills phrase,
| this shall be the University for Virginia
| as well as the University of Virginia.
| Great states care for their universities, be-
! ieving such care to be mark of greatness
in states. l believe that this state, which
| has always known how to act broadly, will
! make it axiom of it's legislative life to
| cherish and strengthen its chiefest in situa-
! ton in proportion to income and prosperity.
An additional annual income of 100000
could be wisely used here. We need men
| here, first and foremost-great scholars and
| teachers to reinforce our overburdened
! corps-and books and instruments and
buildings and then more men.
What Universities Stand For.
| Universities stand both as servants and
| as symbols of the spiritual insight and
| the social needs of their epochs. The Greek
peoples studied philosophy because the need
of their time was ethical. The Englisnman
is intent upon the getting of general Gull
ture because his need is for the man of
! breadth and culture Will In the second
decade of the republic popular thought
| conferred upon the rights of man and the
| bounds of political freedom. The state
| ment of the purpose in the founding of
! the university therefore, drawn up by the
same hand that had drawn up the DeeIara-
! ton of American Independence, while re-
| fiecting this mood of the age, passed be-
| yond it with a daring comprehensiveness
| that marks our founder as a master of
| foresight and Interpretation.
| President Eliot, a great modern master
| and interpreter of educational method and
| purpose, has recently declared that there
| are three Indispensable attributes of a true
/ university: Freedom in the choice of
| studies; opportunity to win distinction in
| special lines of study; a discipline which
| imposes each individual the responsible
| ity for forming his own habits and guiding
| his own conduct
Know the Discipline of War.
| The Americans of the southern states are
| the only Americans who have known in
direst form the discipline of war and the
education of defeat They alone of this
unbeaten land have had intimate experience
of revolution and despair. The University
| of Virginia as their chiefest servant has
! shared with them this stern, self-reveaIing
! tuteIage. One can never know what fair
| visions of its destiny filed the eye of
| Thomas Jefferson He beheld it guiding
| wisely the local life Of Virginia He be-
| In11 tr~afr aty1ty
! leadership in the state and nation; as an
| insprer to the great northwest and south
| west as those states swept into ordered
| life; but his optimism, well as human
| limitations. shut ii out from his sight, in
| its sacredest relation, the source of
| light to land left In darkness and silence
| by the storm of war. Is there in academic
! annals such a story Of precious privilege
and fulfillment?
Sort of Men It Has Graduated.
| This university is just one of the cir
| Gle Of American Institutions seeking to
| guarantee the right answer to these large
| questions of human welfare. A sectional
| Like a sectarian university is unthinkabIe,
and we are spiritual neighbor to Harvard
| and Columbia, to Michigan and Texas. TO
/ Oxford and Cambridge. As a brief answer
| to the vital question. What sort OF men
| have you made? L may reply 10 per cent
of our students come TO US from thirty
nine states other than Virginia; $50 of orr
! alumni have preached the gospel through
out the world; Al have occupied chairs in
l5l universities and colleges IN thirty-three
states and four foreign countries, fifty
seven of these being elected in seventeen
northern and western STATES Our sons
have governed twelve states. and admins
tered supreme justice in seventeen states;
I IL of them have enacted laws in the fed
eraI Congress, and in law, medicine, bus l.
ness and engineering host of them are
serving men about the world.
The Presidents Pledge.
The new president. while in his In
augliraI he sounded the note of progress,
also made 1t clear that he held dear the
traditions of the Institution. and his policy
is to- be only the development and adjust
ment of Thomas Jefferson's ideas so TO
meet the demands Of the present and the
future time.
81 pledge myself. under God he said
ito do what I can to cherish and to mag
Nifty, come good days or III, this inspiring
university character. There are things
that are eternal and the substance of this |
ancient spirit of the University Of Virginia
is one OF them" He declared his belief :