The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-07-01


have troubles OF our own
The president had a busy day as
the honor guest of the Yale COM
mencemen1 exercises
He attended meeting of the Yale
corporation, spoke at the midday din
ner of the alumni. presided over a
meeting held for arranging a memo
rial for Yale men who died on both
two hours with President Hadley at
the commencement reception and
rushed q meeting of the Skull and
Crossbones' to board his private car
attached to the midnight train for
Washington.
The Skull and Crossbones'' is a Sc
cret society founded by the presi-
dents father when he was a student
at Yale All the Tafts have belonged
to 1t. and its proceedings are shroud-
acterizes college fraternities. The
president passed into the mystic
shrine of skull and bones temple all
alone and all of the secret service
guards had to keep watch outside.
An Uproarious Greeting.
The president was given an up
roartous greeting which was renewed
when turning to, President Hadley. he
addressed himself to Mr.. President
and fellow Yale men.
President Taft said in part:
Since the fourth of March / have
learned a number of things and 1 am
making no reference to the weather
bureau either. I have learned that in
the opinion of the American people,
one of the chief functions of the pres
ident of the United States is to in
crease the box receipts and the sale
of excursion tickets. I am not here
and I am not invited here on any
such notion. 1 have come because I
could not help coming to be a Yale
man and to be part of Yale.
SYOI will think nnSSf hlV before the
end of this presidential term that
am as inevitable a presence at the
alumni dinner as the ham and chick
en- that we are all so fond of. 1 hope
may have the pleasure for a great
many years of listening to the Rindly
benediction that we all value so much
and that we all go ahead feeling bet
ter for, from President Dwight.
II want to congratulate the president
of Yale university upon the degree
which was conferred upon the president
of Harvard university in such beauttful
felicitouS and friendly terms as those
he used this morning. 1t made man
warm to Harvard as some of us sell
dom do. Then too, it meets my full
approval that we orthodox men of Yale
should recognize and seem to approve
the liberality of the theological views
of Harvard.
"I may also note in the relations of
the university what has been previous
ly noted on this occasion number OF
times, that the courteous convention
by which Yale always loses on Harvard
class at Cambridge, and Harvard al
ways loses on Yale class day at New
Haven. is still maintained.
''Then the recognizing as master of
arts that musical critic, Brother Kreh-
billet, who from that chair Of power in
the Tribune office at New York has
marked down composers and elevated
musical artists, we may well concur In
and approve.
Voyage of the BattIeships.
"And then the corporation took up the
question of the navy and I assume
from its action although the spoies-
man of the university was q little bit
chary on that subject, that 1t approved
the voyage of the sixteen battleships
around the world and that 1t recog-
nized in Admiral Sperry the supreme
equipoise and the determination which
was able to meet the requirements of
the custodian of $150,000,000 of United
States property. which if lost could not
be restored in more than a decade and
trip that while it was criticised at the
time, there is no single order of my
predecessor-ma of whose orders
tended SO much to the peace Of the
world-as the order by which he sent
around the world-not as a messenger
of war, but as messengers of peace
those wonderful mechanisms known as
the sixteen battleships of the United
States"
The president spoke in the warmest
terms of praise and affection for Prof.
w NJ. Summer, who in retiring from
the Yale faculty after many years of
active service, was honored with a doc
tor of laws degree. In conclusion the
president said:
I'VE occasionally hear echoes from
various directions of the dreadful con-
dition that exists in universities. but 1t
won't turn a single Yale man, or a
single man from allegiance to the uni
versity of his choice or from allegiance
to the conviction well founded, that
there is no atmosphere with a higher
inspiration than that which you re-
IL al