The San Francisco call., 1906-08-21
Freshmen Listen to
Agricultural Expert
and DR.. Wheeler.

addressing the student body at Harmon
gymnasium during the first university
meeting Of the year. jestingly alluded
TO the raeager equipment and made
quate buildings in the department over
which he presides, and which he spoke
of as that dilapidated place by the
creek, which you all call Cow Col
leger"
Professor Wickson's satire apparently
scored no sort of hit with the presi-
dent of the university. for the latter
set his face hard while the deans gibes
at the Cow College" were being ut
tered. A whispered word to Dean
Wickson that his time was up"
brought the flow of agricultural humor
to an end and then President Wheeler
seemed relieved, but not before. He
made no reference in his formal ad-
dress to Professor Wickson's satirical
speech.
The university meeting was mainly
for the benefit of the freshmen. The
first meeting of the year always is
given over to the passing out Of coun-
sci to the incoming class. The root
ers" and the band. the glee club and the
faculty all were in evidence, as of old,
and the big gymnasium was packed
The registration, while not quite up to
last year, is sufficient to provide a great
student body, and the campus, as al
ways at this time, overfiows with stu
dents.
President wheeler's address to the
students this morning was in part as
follows:
Any one who is q candidate for ac-
had better learn right at the start. that
this present world, here at the juno
tion of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. is distinctively world or
work. This present age has developed
indeed the cult Of work and equipped
it with theology. Energy is the goo
who is worshiped therein, rather than
being: the creed has no faith but that
begotten by works, and the plan pro-
posed for the saving Of souls sets the
hygiene Of exercise above the medicine
Of theory and the nursing OF culture; 4i
things take their course is the supreme
heresy. Men of affairs constitute the
priesthood, and the fanatic extremists
by the dervishes, both bowling and
whirlfng, who compose the glorious
order of the hustlers.
FRUITS OF APPLICATION.
In the society which at the junction
of the centuries sets the tone for the
worlds civilization the men who count
are the men who do things, the men
who act creatively. IL they are manu-
factures, they venture with new ma
chinery and new combinations OF cap
ital; If they are traders, they create
markets as well as supplies; If they are
farmers, they vary their crops with the
varying markets; If they are scholars,
revel in pedantry; If they are preach
ers, they save souls rather than defend
creeds.
1t is natural for humanity that re-
fleets to reflect and not act. Careful
study of a cold bath on a
cold morning may hold the plunge in
check. A long fuse sometimes goes
Much learning sometimes becomes an
end unto itself and lthrottles research
For the many trees there are in 1t some
that have not seen the forest.
How often has a mariner found his
bearings by striking out through the
coast fogs for the open sea! How com
mon a thing 1t is for us to feel the
pains of indecision vanishing before
decisive act like a nightmare mist at
a morning awakeningi Herein lies
the germinal idea of that gospel of
century brought 10 full proclamation
at its close: Action the great cathar-
tic of the soul and life; creative sue
cess the measure and crown of being.
We are certainly under no constraint
to accept the gospel merely because
the century is its herald, but 1t is
worth while to note the fact. Every
department of life, business, statecraft,
politics. education, art, religion has felt
It's touch, and in all the civilized lands,
but America has been its holy land:
Here are found the fairest fruits OF
its temperate application, and here,
too, the grossest products of that ia
natical perversion which confuses ac-
tion with motion. Human institutions
other sanction than the law which
keeps a bicycle up as long as it moves
or a patent medicine in vogue as long
as it is advertised.
A review of the history of states
and political systems during the last
century shows clearly enough that
those which have had work to do. and
have done it are the ones which have
kept sound health. Exercise has puri-
fed the blood. In our government 1T
is discernible that those departments
and functions which have offered the
most real work have suffered least
from the blight of corruption or have
recovered quicker than those in which
politics is merry game and political
the debating society The Treasury
and Postoff1ce departments have worked
themselves clear of that sort of politics
which is form n OF sport. ana the for
discretion as it finds a mans work to
do. The type of men to which the state
is not embodied in the reformers who
write protests and who spend their
strength in planning vast sham amphi-
theaters wherein no man comes to fight
ana no man comes TO see. 1t Is TaIler
embodied in the men who go down into
the plain old arena and fight a plain
old fight.
ACTION IN REAL LIFE.
That form of scholarship which plays
with learning is called pedantry It
accumulates learning as whimsically as
the wind piles leaves. The material
is not assorted and arranged according
TO the axes and perspectives of real
action in a real world. 1t is all child's
play and not mems work. The correc-
tives which the century has been ap-
plying to educational method bend all
in the direction of giving the processes
of acquisition the form of real work
and vftalizing them with the spirit of
action. The older education impaired
the new stimulates dis
covery. The pupil is made an active
aggressor instead of a passive recip-
lent The laboratory and the seminary
are steadily displacing the lesson and
the lecture. The university is tending
more and more toward a culture Yield
ed by the processes OF action in real