Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-24

presidents. William l.. Penfeld. 30: Thomas
Edwards, 80, and Eben w. Martin 80;
secretary. Minott E. Porter '93: treasurer,
James II. Russell. '03
The banquet was attended by about fifty
former students in the university DR..
Mark F. Finley, 'TS the retiring president
of the association, acted as the toastmas-
ter for the occasion. President Angel was
the first speaker of the evening He re-
ferred TO the pleasure it gave him to be
present and gave some statistics to show
the growth of the university, which were
received by the banQueters with cheers.
Education the Dominating Passion.
I'VE had many foreign visitors to the st.
Louis fair last year and to them, when
they stopped to see US. / said that the
dominating passion in the west IS educa-
ton. In other way will the people of
the west pour out their money as In edu-
cation, with a greater joy This Is due
first to the finely developed and organ
lied high schools throughout the west. In
this particular the west has outStripped
the east. l remember several years ago
that President Eliot spoke IN rather de-
rogatory terms of high schools as prepara-
tory for college. He preferred endowed
preparatory schools. In his last annual
report I glad to note, however, that
the preparation of the majority of stu
dents now entering Harvard is done at
high schools. The east has found out
something which the west learned some
years before. This passion for education
in the west is secondly due to the pros
perity. which enables the parents to send
their children to college.
II regarded as the most marked educa-
tional phenomenon in the past seventy -fiye
years of the United States history the
establishment. organization and growth
of the great state universities throughout
the north, west and south frontier where
no M nj 1iac hot
are we TO do to handle this enormous
/ problem of the passion for education. We
have great task before US
President Angel spoke of the Efforts
among the students and graduates to in
crease the buildings Ann Arbor. The
alumni have obtained subscriptions for
900, of which $GoCE0 is paid in toward
a memorial hail. to be erected on the south
west corner of the campus. The younger
members of the alumni working for a
Michigan union building, like the Harvard
union where the students can get together
and talk, read and play games together.
Mission of University.
DR. Nathaniel West, the Oldest living
graduate, who was the next speaker. seemed
to lay aside his four score years as he
talked. and he carried his hearers from the
ludicrous to the serious in his recounting
of the old days of the university when the
students bet that some day the univer-
sity would have 200 students and twenty
professors"
II would like to dream of the future
There will he not only 12,CO0 students at
Ann Arbor, but more. When | came here
two years ago and saw list of more than
20 gradu ties in Washington, l was amazed
II to prepare men for the puSHc service.
from the highest to the lowest branches. if
to make them acquainted with politics, with
Jurisprudence, with art, with literature
with science If to enable them to share in
the benefits of mankind is the aim of the
university. our alma mater has not failed
bat has attained the highest glory. The
best recommendation for the university is
the body of alumni: the jewels of alma
mater are her graduates scattered from the
rising to the setting of the sun" He re-
counted many stories of the old days of the
university. DIR. West belonged to the sec
ond class that graduated from the insti-
tuition.
Representative Charles A. Towne of New
York creared much amusement with his
well-told stories, In serious vein. he
pointed out that the alumni of the unfyer-
even to Madagascar. Justice Job Barnard
of the District Supreme Court, taking the
lawyer as his subject. poi1t cut that grad
yates OF the university had been called to
the bench of every court in the land from
the Supreme Court down. and that the In
fuence OF the university was thus extended
wonderfully throughout the land.
Towne Doomed for President.
IF Representative Towne would run on
strictly non-partisan ticket for the presi-
dency of the United tates, every member
of this association would vote for him"
declared Judge William L. Penfeld of the
State Department. AS to the influence of the
university in international law, Judge Pen
field directed attention to the late Cushman
X Davis and to Justice William r.. Day.
men who have become leaders In that re-
spect
Representative Martin of South Dakota.
the next speaker. predicted that the politi-
CAL social and population center of this
country would coincide with the geograph-
ical center, which was within $50 miles OF
lis South Dakota home. Representative
Edwin DENLY of Michigan followed with
praises for the work of the university un-
der President Angel, and Representatives
| have shoes for fifty different