The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-04-05
His Career at the University of
North Carolina During the
Formative Period of
His Life.

about them is that be-
ing so commonplace
10 they shoud have climb
ed so high James
| Bryce. III The American
- commonwealth, makes
thic statement in the chapter entitled
-.Ubr Great Men Are Not Chosen
Presidents" He says further that
down TO the time of Andrew jack
son, in 1928, the presidents were
statesmen. were men OF education, or
administrative ability, of a certain
Iargeness of view and dignity of
c~haracter:'' and that from JacksCn,s
time to the Civil War they were sol
diers or politicians such as Van Blu
rem. P0lk. and Buchanan. who were
selected as hgure-heads for the Presi-
dental chair. Mr.. Bryce said recent
~. when visiting the University of
North Carolina. ami when told that
Folk attended the University, that the
most uninteresting biography he could
think of would be a life of james
Knox Polk.
It may be that MI. Polk received no
education in college, and no admlniS-
tratiVe ability in the g~ubernatorial
Chain of Tennessee. and no idea even
of the meaning Of craftsmanship while
representing Tennessee in the Congress
OF the United States His biography
may be absolutely uninteresting, and
MI. Bryce s crltlClSTl may De just
Who knOWSo
But these matters are not to be de-
tern1ined in this paper. h purpose
of this paper is to offer some addition
al facts for Mr.. Folks biography.
These facts concern his student days.
the OrmatiNe period of his life. And
may it not be claimed here, without
too much assumption, that the for
NATIVE period OF any mans life is in
tfrestinG. whether no active period of
life afterwards is famous. Infamous.
.r mediocre.
Sources Of complete information do
not offer themselves readily on the
student life of this man, or of any
other man indeed, who has long since
teen dead with all of his fellow stu
dents. Som information concerning
scholarship is available from the Uni
NerSity records; some from the Dialec-
tic Society records concerning society
duties. Still other information con-
corning Folks private life, might be
secured form his letters, if those let
ters could be produced. But with all
If this data, hardly any light would
he shed upon a very important activ-
ity in his college life This ACTIVITY is
technically known as the campus
course The college man will under
stand Immediately the meaning of the
term. Those uninitiated in college
terms, however, might consider this
one jestingiy. SO it might be we'll to
explain to them, in passing to the data
available, what the campus course
involves.
The campus course is that side of
college life which is a practical hu-
man nature study, and in which the
laboratory consists Of many types of
men. On the campus men meet each
other, stop to pass the time of day,
to exchange q Joke, be ~jovial; men
gather In groups, the groups gather
into a united body; a fine spirit, the
college spirit, plays in, over, and
through them all. Among these men
arse practical problems of college life,
problems about which men differ and
thoughts clash in friendly and honor
able debate. And in this difference OF
'plnlon the very inner natures and the
Very principles of the men involved
are laid bare. This is the campus
course
James Knox Polk entered the Soph-
"more class of the University of North
carolina in the fall of 1915. at the
age Of nineteen. He graduated at the
mead of his class III 1913. At his grad
nation Polk held the highest honors
III mathematics and in the classics
ana delivered the Latin ~SalutatOry
throughout his college course his
scholarship surpassed that of his class
mates. The faculty report Of the De
cember examination OF 1916 says thai
folk dnd VIM. d. Moseley were the
best scholars in the Junior Glass. 1.-The
whole class is high" concludes tn
report IN all Of his college undertake
InGs, Polk was accurate, and. indeed
brilliant. Although he was called {
'duliard president" that term changed
10 "dullard tudent' would not apply
to his college days.
Polk was accurate not only in hi.
scholastic duties, but in his habits q
daily routine. A witty student of tina
aay, who was making an argument
sald that his argument was just a.
true as the fact that Polk would arist
IN the morning at the first call.
POLK roomed in the South Building
with William d. Moseley in Numbe1
ID. The room is situated on the third