Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-06-20

ers; each eager to advance his own
department so far as Is consistent
with the symmetrical development of
the college as a whole. We there
fore expect from you a just and equal
consideration and support for each
department.
AS experienced mariners we feel
that the ship is reasonably safe from
wreck in III hands, but we know
that greater progress may be made
under one who adds to the composite
of our opinions some thought sugges-
ted by his own general view. While
we feel that you may fairly have a
policy of your own, yet we expect you
to carry it out by present methods
while you are winning us over to bet
ter methods as they are worked out.
The temper of our student body Is
familiar to you, and their zeal for
alma mater will soon take on the
aspect of loyalty to your person.
Therefore our success in securing
cordial compliance with wholesome
regulations Will depend to a consider
able extent upon the popular idea as
to your views. So may it be your
happy fate to seem to be just what
you are, strict In essentials, but toll
Grant in n~on-essentials. One of your
most congenial duties will be the gen.
eral oversight of organizations for
relaxation in the lines of athletics,
music and so forth. And we feel con-
ident that you will tactfully manage
the spirit of earnest work before us
as the true aim of recreation.
The president of an institution is
its organ of communication with the
general public, which will doubtless
regard you with signal favor. Some
where in that region there must be
unsmitten financial rocks. So pray be
our Moses and evoke the copious
| stream which a live institution needs.
/ need not praise your predeces-
sors, sir, for you give them the high
est praise by accepting the college
presidency in the condition in which
they have left 1t. They would join us
in wishing you to reap what they
have sown, since a worthy super
structure glorifies its foundation. Our
modest tree has borne much fruit
which has found a ready market, and
we expect increasing thrift under
your wise care.
President Demarest, l salute you,
and / welcome you on behalf of tho
Faculty.
In presenting the congratulations
of other colleges and universities,
Dean West, of Princeton University,
spoke in part as follows:
after a period of phenomenal
growth and concentration of endow-
ments and students in the larger n
iversities there are signs of a revul-
sion of feeling in favor of the small
college. Too often the larger col
leges have been abandoning the all
important truths from which the
American college system derived its
life and strength. But at last, after
a generation of experiment, 1t does
seem that the time is passing when
people are willing to believe that a
large crowd of students, each going
his own gait as he pleases, when he
pleases, and if he pleases, makes a
college, or that haphazard selection
out of a ~bewilderipg mass of elective
courses will give an education. 1t
Is not refreshing to find that the
very person who so roundly de-
nounced Greek as a college fetch
some twenty-five years ago has only
during this commencement season
seen a great light and has come out
against the evils of the free-elective
system.
"Let us take heart. The things
that cannot be shaken will remain.
A free elective system is a failure. It
will pass away" becauseit is irrational.
1t is based on a negation-the denial
of the ability of the best educated in
telligence to find out what arc the
essential studies that ought to enter
into a college education. How absurd
is all this! For If the wisest college
or university does not know better
than the entering freshman at least
some things which that freshman
ought to study, 1t does not know
enough to be a college. And If 1t
be true that the colleges and univer-
stiles actually do not know enough to
know this, how In the world is the
bewildered freshman to find out what
he ought to do?
I'VE are passing out of a time OF
educational anarchy into a g stage
OF educational order. 1t is becom.
ing clearer that the old Fashioned
small American college stood for GER
tain priceless truths, which the lar
ger colleges have been In danger Of
losing. One of these truths is thai
the best education cannot be secured
without ample training In those few
studies of central Importance which
underlie civilized human thought and
attainment. And another of these
truths is that the object of a college
Is not to turn a boy into a mathema.
tician, a biologist, a historian, or g
philosopher, and still less to turr