The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-22


 - ernrnent" Is no name to conjure with. It represents at best another channel into which to pour the best of her mind and heart, and another script on which to write large the principles for which she stands.
 She must move automatically from the duties of the woman to those of the officer. And the same social tact | and womanly grace are desired of her afternoon tea. | The duties of a president of col lege for women are likely to be the | reverse side of her pleasures. Such l duty lays all life under contribution. l It is possible. in Matthew Arnold's | phrase. ''to fulflI one's task in hours | of gloom,' but this is not the char acteristic temper of the successful teacher. still less of the successful | president, under the variety of claims already described. Hope, good cheer, energy, enthusiasm. all go to make up what is called initiative in the college | world.
 To be e thoroughly equipped woman ! of business, to be uniformly gracious, taetfuI, intelligent and broadly sym l pathetic to the best in scholarship, Is l the unique attainment of the ideal wo- man president Success and failure follow the ofice. and are none the less l absolute because the effort to desig- nate or teach the requirements Is in- | tangible.
 l No forces have done more to definite | ly fix public opinion as to women's ea- | pacity than those who. through signal ability and rare qualities of mind and
 heart. have ,dlgnifed. high ofices in
 educational institutions. S1 I ships, deans or college presidents, none l but unmarried women have ever serv- 1 ed. Alice Freeman, the first president | of Wellegley College. was for seven years a power in that institution. The fact that she subsequently married in no way detracted from the purity and permanency of the imprint left on the college, whose character was then Miss Caroline Hazard, present pres | ident, is another type who, with finely 1 developed mental powers and execu- tive ability, has all those qualities of
 sympathy, tact. energy and versatil-
 ity so vital to the office.
 The destiny of Mt. Holyoke. sug- 1 gested by it's origin and enforced by 1 it's history for so many years. as a peculiar and welcome expression of ] democracy in scholarship, is of neces-
 sity advanced by the unusual charac- ter ana powers or the president, Mary E. Wool1ey. The college has about
 1t a spirit of unity which speaks for l the executive ability of, women. Miss Woolley was one of the first students 1 to enter Brown University, wien it 1 opened it's classes to women. and was
 the first woman to be graduated from | that University with the degree of A. B. Her place on the platform at the installation of Nicholas Murray Butler at Columbia University. in vir- tue of 'fthe cont uous influence of Mt Holyoke among the oldest institu- tions of learning" seemed appropriate
 It Is the lot of some presidents, as of some institutions, to touch the popu- 1 lar heart, and in still rarer cases to
 hold the popular heart.
 It has been recognized that posi- l tions of authority and influence in coll
 leges for men should be held by col 1 lege-bred men of high standing as l scholars, and we understand that col leges for women cannot be controlled l effectively in any other way.
 Miss Thomas of Bryn Mawr is an ex- ecutive of great ability; she is scholar who knows the value of schol- arship. In the fifteen years of her | service, Miss Thomas has demonstrated | that 1t maybe possible for women to accomplish when the obstacles in the way of broadest development and op- ] portunity are removed She has never faltered in her own faith in pure schol- | arship, and she has never permitted substitutes for it. that she could de- tect. to pass unchallenged. Her hand has been offered in generous help wher- ever there was a chance for honest work and clear-eyed estimate of re- suits. and she has served the cause of women's education by her free and vigorous condemnation of what seem ed mistaken compromise.
 -w.az Al. duties of the deans vary greatly. In some institutions the of1ce follows closely the model of purely disciplin- ary and administrative post, in others these functions have been combined with those of teacher. The lady prin- cipal of Vassar assumeS charge of the social side of life and the main dis cipline of the college proper. The sec retary has in hand the management of the educational machinery, the ar- ranging of classes. consultation with students in regard to their courses of study, deficiencies, etc. Both officers are voting members of the faculty, though having no class room duties, and they are under the general guid- ance of the president.
 The function of the Dean of Radcliffe is not to teach, as the lectures are de- iivered by the corps of instructors at Harvard Miss Irwin's remarkable in- tellectuality and her notable ancestry, give her unusual prestige. Her train ing for the important work, in which she is engaged, has not been on purely academic lines. Her own initiative as student has been stimulated by large opportunities in extended travel, and in social experience. through a wide ac- quaintanee with noted men and women. As director to young women in their choice of studies, as an examplar to them Of rare scholarship, as a guide to lead them to higher ideals, Miss Irwin Is filling a great place among Amerf can women educators.
 In view of all that women have ac- complished, 1t was not surprising that Miss Marion Talbot should have beep