Los Angeles herald., 1906-01-31
ENDOWMENT IS
NEARLY RAISED
0CCIDENTAL'S 100000 is IN
SIGHT
Time Limit Expires Last Night Of
January-servlce Of Thanks
giving Tonight Is
Planned

The efforts to raise the endowment
fund of $500. 900 for Occidental college
are expected to prove successful,
which will insure the generous offer of
o. T. Johnson.
Last night but few dollars were
lacking, which are expected to be sub
scribed today, the time limit expiring
tonight.
Dr.. Hugh X. Walker. pastor of I'm
manuel Presbyterian church, and DR..
w. S. Young. the acting president of
the college, have been prominent in
procuring the funds.
A conference and service of thanks
giving will be held this evening at the
Central Presbyterian church, to which
the friends of the college are invited
With the new financial era also
comes new incumbent in the presi-
dency, as John Willis Baer, assistant
secretary of the board of home mis-
sons has accepted the presidency of
the institution.
Invited Last Year
Last September Mr.. Baer was in
vited to become the head of this young
but rapidly developing Presbyterian
institution, but he could not then see
his way clear to give up his work in
the home board which has been his
master passion. and he declined the Of
fer. Within a few weeks, however, the
invitation has been renewed unani-
mously. not only by the trustees but
also by the faculty and the student
body, and after thought counsel and
prayer he has been led to accept the
privileges. responsibilities and duties
of one of the most important and most
promising institutions in the west, un-
der the care of the college board.
Mr.. Baer's reasons for severing a re-
lation which has been extremely corr
dial and most fruitful as well, are told
frankly in the following statement, to
which he feels that the church is en-
titled, since he is an officer not of
board alone but also of the church. He
says
Why the Change Is Made
For fifteen years I have been living
away from and outside of my own
home. My heart responds to the demand
made upon me by my own family and
l now heed the call to cease being
wanderer up and down the land
Further, I find that the drafts that
have already been made upon me ply
sicially prevent me from keeping up
the itinerant pace which has been mine
for so many years. Notwithstanding
it costs me much to break the ties here,
l see my way clear to do so and heart
lily I will devote the rest of my life
to having a part in training for God
a portion of the student life on the Pa
cifc coast. My home mission work
grips my affection the new opportu
nifty thrills my life with enthusiasm
and I consider it an opportunity full
of rare privileges and welcome it as a
life work.
You may be interested to know that
/ have gladly consented to remain with
the board of home missions until the
meeting of the next assembly, and next
May, at DR.. Thompson's request, I will
go with him to that meeting in Des
Moines. At that time my work will
cease here, though in my new field l
shall consider it always a privilege to
be out and out a home missionary"
Predict One Thousand Students
Concerning the future of the college
some interesting facts are taken from
a recent letter to his people from Rev.
Malcolm Jones Mcleod of Pasadena,
near Los Angeles In asking for $4,000
toward the endowment Of 100000 de-
sired, he said:
IF this endowment is pledged we
can more than likely secure John Will
lis Baer for president. And if we Sc
cure Mr.. Baer ! should not be sur
prised to see Gin fact, personally l shall
confidently expect to see) a splendid
Christian college down here in High
land Park with thousand students
a dozen buildings and a million-dollar
endowment, and all inside of ten years
There are 315 students in Occidental
today. OF these twenty-one are study
ing for the ministry and the foreign
tield-more than in all Stanford"
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A@,In,-- Rr-Irrn A-H-rMnrR