The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-06
E. HH. DILLON m gsD.
A UNIVERSITY MAN SHOULD KNOW LITTLE OF EVERYTHING
 AND ONE THING THOROUGHLY
Harvards New President Discusses Relations of College
 to Its Students and to the Community
Special from United Press.)

| O~N~SSN~ So0s< f.q | Boston. Oct. 6s-EeTore the greatest l gathering of eminent educationalists
 ever assembled in America and to the
 lusty cheers of nearly ten thousand
 graduates and undergraduates of Fair
 Harvard Abbott Lawrence Lowell | was to-day inducted president of Americas oldest university Every l element of inpressiveness possible to produce through the use of inaugural l customs grown venerable through 1 nearly 300 years of the existence of Harvard was used to dignify the in- auguration. Speeches in Latin the waving of thousands of crimson ban ners and the noble strains of 'fSchu- bert and Goetno'' echoed through the gray old houses of the university and lent a flavor to the ceremony unlike anything heretofore used in America. The ceremonies to-day opened with
 a procession of collegians in cap and gown from Philip Brooks House to University Hall. where, after the call to order by Sheriff Fairbairn of Suf- folk County and the 'sLaudate Domi- num- by chorus of Alumni, Dean exercises with prayer, Then came an oration in Latin by Lester Burton Struthers. a senior. and at it's close John D. Long. former governor of
 Massachusetts and president of the board of Harvard Overseers, in a brief speech formally inducted President Lowell into the .headship of the univer- sity. He said:e
 Abbott Lawrence Lowell-you hav- ing been duly chosen as president of the Harvard College. I do now in the name of it's governing boards and in accordance with ancient custom. de- clare that you are vested with all the powers and privileges of that office. It is a great trust but it is laid on you in full confidence that you will dis charge it in the interest alike of the college we. love and the democracy it serves. I deliver into your hands as
 badges of your authority. the college charter, seal and keys. God bless
 you"
 In his inaugural address President
 Lowell said in part: a
 1.-The object of the undergraduate de- partment is not to produce hermits, but men fitted to take their places in the community and live in contact with their fellow men. The college of the old type possessed solidarity which enabled it to fulfill that purpose well enough in it's time, although on a narrower scale and a lower plane than we aspire to- 1t was so small that the students were all well acquainted with one another, or at least with their classmat es. Before the end of the nineteenth century election in some
 
 leges But the new method brought divergence in the courses of study, pursued by individual students, an in- teliectual isolations which broke down the old solidarity.
 ITO that disintegration the over. shadowing interest in athletic games appears to be partly due. I believe strongly in the physical and moral val ue of athletic sports and l believe that their exaggerated prominence is L- III. 4, l. e.. : 41.-k ..zI contests offer to students the one com mon interest, the only striking occa- sion for a display of college solidarity.
 s9The changes wrought in the col 1ege have let in light and air. May we not say of the extreme elective system what Edmond Sherer said of democracy; that it is but one stage in an irresistible march toward an un- known goal. In a peculiar degree the present state of the American coll 1ege bears the marks of a period of transition This is seen in the com paratively small estimation in which high proficiency in college studies is held both by undergraduates and by the public at large, in the lack of any accepted view of the ultimate ob- ject of a college education.
 "On this last subject, the theory is that the main object of the college should be to prepare for the study of a definite profession or the practice of
 
 subjects pursued should furnish the knowledge immediately useful for that end.
 Now that we have established graduate schools of engineering and business administration, we must ex- anime this question carefully in the immediate future. If the college courses are strictly untechnical, the requirement. of a small number of elec- lives in certain subjects, as condi- tion for entering a graduate profes- sional school, is not inconsistent with liberal education. For a man des- tined to reach the top of his prefes- sion a broad education and firm grasp of some subject lying outside of his vocation is vast advantage.
 "The last of the aspects under which propose to consider the college is that of the relation of undergradua tes to one another. To what extent do undergraduates talk over things in- tellectual, especially matters brought. :. before them by their courses? The sf11delats In the law school talk law in