The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1908-11-17
Notable Gathering of Big Men
from All Over Great Northwest

larged institution of 1888, refounded by
President A. j. Anderson, up to the
present college made possible by the
beneficence of DR.. d. K. Pearsons and
many generous friends east and west.
He developed the propositions that
the history of the college which he
had reviewed in picture illustrates first,
the faith Of its founder. Either Cush-
ing Eells was a man of marvellous fore
sight OF else he was prOvidentially led
in deciding to establish a college in
memory of his friend. DR.. Whitman,
at the point which now proves to be at
the geograp phical center of that "Old
Oregon for which DR.. Whitman lived
and died 1t illustrates, second, the
friendship of one true hearted man
for another. Gushing Eells had no
thought of perpetuating his own name
in the institution which he founded
With sublime self lfabdication he
founded it in the name Of his friend
and obliterated himself in laying it's
foundation continued President Pen
rOSa
THAT history of the college il
lustrates in the third place a contin-
uous story of patriotism. Whether you
reflect upon the heroic career of DR..
Whitman, or the sanity life and SER
vice of Gushing EellS, or the splendid
generosity of that great-hearted Chi
cago business man, DR.. Daniel Kim
ball Pearsons, you see in them all, ex-
pressing itself in different forms, the
same spirit of patriotism, ready to
give money, self, even life, for the sake
:: Of the country over which the Stars
and Stripes float. The making of
American citizens has been the keynote
of the life Of the institution Fourth,
the history of the college illustrates a
rare devotion from the unrivalled self
sacrifice of Father Eells to the self de-
NAL of lthe.-college students and fac
ulty whose gift has made Billings hall
and the gymnasium possible. The
college has been made glorious by the
devoted service of succession of no.
BILE men and women.
"Such has been the history of the
college. Today it stands chiefly for
two things, scholarship in the finer
sense of the word, and for a broad,
free, earnest Christianity. The in
tellectual work Of the institution is
represented by the facts that it now
maintains 16 departments, offers 240
courses in the college, has a faculty
of 36 persons in all, and is credited by
the Carnegie foundation for the ad-
vancement of teaching, with having
the same entrance requirements as
Harvard university. Its work is re-
cOgniZed by the colleges of New Eng
land as upon the same level as their
own and it's students have been re
ceived into the best of them without
examinations to equal standing Whit
man college has believed always that
the Pacific northwest needed stand
ards of thought and life no whit lower
than the east and it has been willing
to wait patiently for western recogni-
tion of those standards of scholarship
which New England has recognized it
as maintaining these many years past.
THE Christianity for which the col
lege stands, and must ever stand, is
nom sectarian, yet earnest. 1t is worth
noting that Gushing Eells never
planned to found denominatiOnal in
stitution in Whitman seminary. The
original charter contains no sugges-
ton of any such purpose and now
that the denominational ties which for
II years bound the college to Congre-
gationalism have been generously re-
leased by the nagnimity of the Congre-
whose directors appreciate the eX-
college to serve all the people of three
great states. The college hopes to meet
the religious needs of all sorts and
conditions of men and to bring to
bear upon the moral and spiritual life
of it's students, whether Catholic or
Protestant, the simple. inspiring, trans
forming influences of the gospel of
Jesus Christ"
He closed by analyzing the Whitman
spirit as found in its faculty and stu
dents today. 1t is made up of loyalty
to high ideals, earnestness of purpose,
simplicity of thought and life and a
kind of western democrac V which
knows no distinction between rich and
poor. strong or weak. but emphasizes
the common brotherhood Of all.
Dean Hendricks Address.
Dean A. w. Hendrick, of Whitman
college, then delivered an address on
1.-The Greater Whitman and It's Aim to
Become the Representative Private In
stitution of the Territory of Old Ore
gon',' during the course of which he
said:
"a glance at your geography will
demonstrate to you at once that the
city of Walla Walla seems to have
been naturally chosen as the place at
which to found an educational insti-
tuition which would be located central
ly to the region of old Oregon.
When Father Eells standing at the
mound which marked the spot where
Marcus Whitman was massacred. re-
solved to found this memorial to his
fellow missionary, he little conceived
of the fact that at the spot where he
stood was the geographical center of