The Delta independent., 1908-08-14

was certainly an occasion of great
interest and enjoyment for the three
thousand alumni in atten'i ance and for
many friends besides. A beautiful new
$50, 600 chapel and a still finer Carnegie
library were dedicated during COM
mencement week; five educational con-
ferences. led by men like Theodore
Burton, who is an Obo orlin alumnus,
Norman Hagood of "Colli rs" and Ham
lin Garland, whose Color. do stories are
so deservedly popular were held; the
Ben Greet Woodland players and Thomas
Orchestra in repeated performances,
were other attractions besides many
student plays and ceremonies.
Commencement day was marked by
the stately procession in Academic
robes, of a long line of distinguished
visitors, faculty and graduates; and
commencement night was turned into
midsummer Nights Dream" by means
of Japanese lanterns, fireworks and an
indescribable procession of classes, of
old boys and new. Each class dstin-
guished itself by some "stunt" sug-
gestive of old times; but the class of
1904 were voted winners when they
appeared trundling with anxious care
all the baby carriages and go-carts
available in the village, some occupied
by the real baby and some held down
by dolls or Teddy bears.
To alumni, the best part of the COM
mencement was of course the reunion
of old friends.
About twenty-five of my own class
were back, only one of them at home
west of the Mississippi river, and you
may be sure talked Delta County to
them morning. noon and night!
The National Educs tional Association
held in Cleveland during the first week
of July was valuable opportunity for
all interested in educational interests.
attended many of the sessions, going
into the city for the day from Oberlin.
The trend of thought in most of the
conferences seemed to me to be strik-
ingly sociological. President G. Ttanley
Hall of Adolescence" fame was a
distinguished and popular speaker.
Jane Adams and Booker Washington
were only less attractive.
Musical treats, banquets, sightseeing
expeditions through the fine boulevard
and park system of the city and along
river and lake front, and visits to
Cleveland's many and important manu-
featuring plants We're arranged. The
welcome and hospitality of the people
of Cleveland in general was as hearty
as the greeting sure to be extended to
the teachers of the land when they
gather next year in our own queen
city of Denver.
We of the West sometimes hear the
states in the east or center spoken of
as Gods country" but an Ohioar
who had spent some time in Colorado
said to me yesterday 81 am going back
to Colorado to live sometime. That's
Gods country out there" Well it's
all "God' country" and it's well to fee
at home in the good old state of presl.
dents as well as in the grand old state
of promoters. Each section of the
country has advantages which the other
does not possess. The West is how.
ever the country of the future. The
East has done nothing which the West
is not either doing or about to do on a
finer and larger scale.
Colorado has only to emphasize the
value of widely diffused education. as
Ohio with her many colleges has done,
in order to become the apex of the
United States intellectually as she
already is it's crown and center physi-
cally.
Yours Sincerely,
CoRNELIA M. JOHNSON.