The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-11-15
THE SALT LAKE HERALD: SUNDAY. NOVEMBER Is, 1908

made up of thirty Of the alumni, re-
fused to ratify the choice The corpora
ton refused to recede, and again named
Mr.. Eliot Then the board of oyerseers
capitulated. but not gracefully. and at
the next commencement dinner the
young president hadsa cool reception
He Began recognizing.
No sooner was he elected-in May,
1s69-and inaugurated-in October
than the work of construction and CO.
ordination at Harvard began. For 1t
is as a constructor-not -destroyer-that
President Eliot rightly says he cares TO
be remembered. Departments of the
university like the medical school. indie
pendent OF the university in matters
too vital to be tolerated longer, were
soon brought into proper relations to
the governing body. The law school
was revitaliZed, and a dean-Professor
C. c. Langdell-chosen who. in due
time, radically altered its mode OF
teaching and studying law, and who
lived to see the school take first rank
Later the divinity school was APP
preached in the constructive spirit and
transformed from a sectarian training
school for the clergy of the Unitarian
denomination TO a school of theology
where representatives of many SectS
both teach and study. Its standards OF
admission were raised; its degrees We're
made honorable, because representa-
tives of proved scholarship; and its
status as a part of the university was
bettered greatly.
So far from being content to know
only the life Of the college proper. and
TO preside over its faculty meetings.
the new president was prompt in as
Stunning the right to preside over the
faculty meetings OF the various profess
sional schools, and at once asserted
prerogatives never claimed before
Overturned Like FIapisck.
DR.. Oliver Wendell Holmes. then on
the faculty of the medical school, in a
letter TO Motley, the historian de-
scribed the sensation which this atti-
tude OF the new president made at the
time. He wrote. in 1871:
Our new president has turned the
whole university over like a flapjack
There never was such a Embarrassment
as that in our medical faculty.
1t is so curious to see a young man like
Eliot, with an organizing brain, firm
will, grave, calm, dignifed presence,
taking the ribbons of our classical
coach-and-six, feeling the horses
mouths; putting check on this ones
capers. and touching that one with a
lash, turning up everywhere in every
faculty q belong to three, on every
public occasion, at every dinner orne,
and taking it all as naturally as If he
had been born president
The new president began his reign
with two-folo conception of his func-
tiOns. He was. first, the executive head
of large and complicated esta blish-
ment. with plant valued at some mil
lions of dollars. and considerable force
of employees. On this side he has looked
upon the university as a superinten-
dent might look upon his factory In
deed, he seems to have this analogy
consciously in mind. In one of his an
nual reports he figures out the econom-
ic loss involved in letting a plant VAL
ued at several million dollars lie idle
during the long vacation of three
months. On this side his efficiency has
been Incompatible.
The Practical Side.
1t was this practical side that was
emphasized in his contention for short
ening the college cOurse-or at least
for making it possible that the course
should be taken in three years.
But his most important service 20
American education has been his en-
phaSis on the elective system and the
broadening of the college course. When
German were hardly regarded as re-
spectacle adjuncts of college curricu-
lum. The course was laid out, and if it
failed to meet the needs of a student so
much the worse for him. If he could
not get on with Latin, Greek and math-
ematics he might as well get out.
Conditions are hinted at in a frank
comment that he made in the Century
in 1884. mo knowledge" he wrote, "of
either French or German is required
for admission to Yale college and no in
struetion is provided in either language
before the Junior year. Could we have
stronger evidence of the degraded con-
ditions of French and German in the
mass of our schools and colleges
President Hyde of Bowdoin college
summed up DR.. Eliot's services in say
ing: He went up and down the whole
length of our educational line, con-
demning every defect, exposing every
sham, rebuking every form OF incom-
the truth, an injury to the common
wealth. a crime against the individual. +"
Open to New Ideas.
All his life DIR. Eliot has been omen
to new ideas. He has always taken an
active and outspOken interest in public
affairs, and recently has become the
strongest upholder of the commission
plan of government for cities in New
England. Only the other day he an
nounced that while he had been accus-
TONED TO taking an occasional glass of
wine or beer he had lately become con-
WINGED that moderate drinking was
harmful and had given it up. This in
cident is characteristic in showing his
constant accessibility to argument 10
which most men above 20 are irnpervi