Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1908-09-25
COLLEGE OPENING.
Middlebury Has Auspicious Open
ina Yesterday.

yesterday, and President Thomas was
obliged to hold the opening exercises in
the Congregational church. The stu
dents occupied the body of the church,
the men on one side and the women on
the other, and many friends of the col
lege occupied seats on the side and in
the gallery. After devotional exercises
President Thomas delivered his opening
address. His subject was "The Student
and the College," and he spoke in part as
| follows:
"Three months ago on this day of the
month and in this place the ancient
parchment charter of Middlebury College
was placed in my hands, and l was for.
mally inaugurated the ninth president
of Middlebury. Impressive as that oc-
casion was, it but little surpassed in sig
nificance and Importance our present
meeting. / am now face to face for the
| first time with those for whom and with
whom l must chiefly labor. l did not
come to Middlebury College for the sake
of its alumni, nor yet for its friends and
supporters, but for the sake of its stu
dents. You, who are before me, brought
me here, and you have my success or
my failure in your keeping. If / fail
with you, | can not win for Middlebury
if | win with you, no man knoweth the
achievements and the glories which are
hereafter in store for the college of which
| from now on each one of YOU is a part.
The initiative in all college improve
ment and advance rests with its students.
What you need and what you will use
is what will be done In the long run
the students of college can have what
they want, in so far as their wants lie
along the line of the true growth and
usefulness of College. Nothing can
withstand an earnest, healthful and
rightful student demand, and without
the demands of its students no college
can make progress.
Perhaps it ought not to be 80, but
modern benevolence is conducted on
very strict business principles. Men
who give largely, who add immense
sums to the endowment of educational
institutions, do not give in response to
eloquent appeals. 1t is not matter of
favoritism, or personal friendship, or
fortunate introduction. 1t is cool bust
ness calculation of what can be done
with the money.
An efficient college on an endowment
of S4O0 900 is sure TO receive help to in
crease its efficiency. A college which
is rendering adequate educational return
on a property of $l0,0000 900 is bound to
experience further prosE Gritty. 1t is
neither wealth nor poverty which at
tracts educational investments, but ef-
fectiveness in the educational product,
that is, the student.
For myself feel that my arm is Just
as strong as you men before me make it,
Give me a manly spirit in the student
body, cleanness and integrity of life, in
dustry and application in the pursuit of
truth, fairness and honor in your deal
ings one with another and with the col
lege, and know / can strike blows that
will tell. On the other hand, deal mean
ly by the college, be shiftless and care
less in your bearing and conduct, skimp
all you can and remain utter strangers to
ennobling ambition and the deep love of
power ami of truth, and you will palsy
my every effort, and render me stan-
mering and abashed whenever l set forth
to find friend.
/ can plead for small college. l think
could plead for one man-one man
with the love of truth in his heart, with
ambition to do a mans work in the
world and do it well, struggling up out
of poverty and narrow environment 10
make himself an equal in mental power
with the best men of his age. If that
shall be the typical man of Middlebury,
| can do my work. But without that
student back of me, represents tive of the
entire student body, ! can kindle no fire;
l can not even believe in my own Cast.
can not work for crowd of loafers.
can not do much for flock of silly
imitatOrs of the senseless customs of
other places. l can work for Middle
bury; Middlebury ideals and worthy ira
ditions; Middlebury men and women.
That is what ask you to be.
| l desire to petition for earnest student
cooperation in the matter of earnest and
conscientious application to college work.
You will find me bit old fashioned now
and then, and one old fugy idea which
l cherish is that college il an academic
institution and place OF learning. l
can not give up the notion that a student
ought to come to college to study, and
| that if he will not study, or can not find
anything in the curriculum worth study
ing, it is unkind 10 keep him in college.
Many man is spoiled in college, and
goes utterly to rack and ruin, and this
happens, believe, because he does not
do what he is supposed to do. A young
man in bank who utterly neglects his
work. not only never becomes a banker,
but if he is allowed to continue his prac-
tices, he becomes untitled for anything
else, and makes shipwreck of his charac.
ter. To continue in college and not at.
tend to college work is worse than use.
less, and hope to have conscience and
grit enough not to allow any OF you to
spoil yourselves that way.
Undoubtedly college is far more than
place of recitations, text books and
lectures. There are certain general in
fluences that come from the communal
life of the student body which are inval-
liable. Often graduates look back upon
these as more beneficent in effect upon
character than anything they learned in
recitation room or laboratory. Here is
where separate college community,
like our own, has great advantage over
a city University. where stndenta Ii We at