Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1913-02-13
WOODROW
WILSON
The Story of His Life
From the Cradle TO
the White House
By WILLIAM BAYARl HALE
Copyright. 1911. 1912. by Doubleday. Page
Il Co.
CHAPTER WI.
Princeton's Nav President.

vzky long line OF men. reaching
back 100 years, who had filed ii were
each In his time among the most dis
tinguished divines and scholars of the
land by II sort of instinct or chance
Princeton had gravilated toward the
aristocratlc. Lattery the university
had come to be known as the most
charming country club In America.
Its retiring head had avowed IL impos
sible that 1t should be other than II col
lege for rich mems sons
Whatever may have been expected
of him, II was impossible for the new
president, who, by the way. was the
first layman to occupy the chair, to
fall into the eascful tradition Of the
office. II was impossible for him mere
ly to institute n few necessary reforms
and let things go on much as before
He had scarcely been inaugurated
when everybody became aware that,
for good or III. the Judgment dry had
dawned over the quiet campus and the
ivied halls There was to be no lnck
Of initiative, no fcnrfulness and trem
bling before novel proposals, no shirk
ing of responsibility, no failure OF
nerve
There was no undue precipitnncy
President Wilson spent year study
ing conditions he already knew them
pretty well--from his new vantage
point lie did not, however. feel hHy
necessity of awaiting the lapse of n
year before undertaking to bring the
scholarship and the discipline OF the
school up to what they already were on
paper Students who failed to pass
their examinations were dropped, rich
or poor, with or without social "pnll
Work was absolutely demanded
There was. OF course. m immense
sensation when the Princeton students
found that from that day forth they
must 70 to work Work had not been
q Princeton tradition The reverbera
lions OF Indignation roiled through the
skies iA .rFrral years until there
came IN Il trW body OF students, pre-
pared ana willing to live up to the pew
standards
During that first year also com
mittee on revision of the course OF
study wars appointed to report the fol
lowing year
If Princeton was to he Il place OF
work 1t was to be fruitful work, worl,
worth dolag. worth taking four years
out of a young mans life to do. II
was to be. above all, M President VIII
son saw II and continually phrased 1t
work that would ut young man t,
serve his country better.
He even went 80 far as to say TIM
he wanted the university to make IL
graduates henceforth as unlike thei
fathers az possible-by which. o
course. he meant that fathers, beinl
settled in their opinions and in rever
erence for what is established, have I
part to play different from that Of
sons, who particularly must sympa
thiZe with the recreative and reformn
tive processes of life and society. THAI
saying blnnChed the cheek of many al
elderly Princetonlan; II was spoken II
an understanding of the necessity OF
opening college doors to the new facts
which modern science has added t.
the store OF human knowledge; spoken
also In appreciation of the new sociN
conscience that has been born In tn,
world. though 1t Is slow in coming I,
the birth In colleges,
If 1t had fallen to President Eliot OF
Harvard to proclaim the new age III
which the old educational ideas had
ceased to suffice. Princeton under the
presidency OF Wilson, now took up the
completing work of positively con
structing n system which should con
tain the new ideas, the new subjects
and not only contain them, but organ
ize them, coordinate them, put then
into proper sequence and relation.
President Wilson's committee after
months of labor. the freed aud en-
thusiastic labor OF eager men, promul
gated revised, or. rather. new. sys
tenn OF collegiate study II was III,
first positive attempt made to bring
the new college education into intell
gent and systematic relationship rs y
body of discipline, All Interested II
education know OF the revolution
wrought by the department system
that has ever since prevailed at Prince
ton. While II offered the widest scSp,
for the election" of studies, II prac
ideally assured that the studies "elect
ed" should lead to one settled purpos,
that is, 1t intelligently co-ordlnated
students work, 1t turned him out o
college not with n Smattcring OF
thousand subjects. but with n prett,
thorough training in some one hroaC
group OF subjects.
President Wilson is entitled to tn
credit of presiding over this revision