Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-30
TAFT MUCH PLEASED
Glad of Opportunity to Go Back
to Alma Mater.
ADDRESSES YALE ALUMNI
Teaching of Good Government Will
Be His Policy.
DIRECTOR CH1TTENDEN SPEAKS
Head of Scientific School Shows
Great Strides Have Been Made
by New Haven Institution.

night. SAID thdt II was Il pleasure, since
he had To leave Washington. to go back
to New Haven. He spoke with enthusf-
asm of the work which is to he his of
teaching the young men of the country
who go to Yale the principles of good
government under the law.
The Yale men gave the President a
hearty welcome when he arrived at the
banquet hall. accompanied by Secretary
IIilles and the Presidents aid, Maj.
Rhoads. The long cheer, starting with a
bark and ending with three ''Tafts.' rang
through the hall as he entered and then
the crowd sang the famous ''Boola.'
Chittenden a Guest.
Director Russell II. Chittcnden of the
Sheffield Scientific School, the scientific
department of Yale University, was the
guest of honor from New Haven. and he
brought the latest message of their alma
| mater to the Yale men in Washington.
Justice Pitney of the Supreme Court of
the United States. a Princeton graduate
and a classmate of Gov. Woodrow Will
son. represented the Orange and Black
at the dinner. Assistant Secretary of the
Navy Beekman Winthrop was to have
attended as Harvard's representative, but
was unavoidably detained at the last
moment.
The President said:
1t is a pleasure if one has to go from
Washington to go to New Haven. and it
has been full of qualification to me to find
on the part of the professors at Yale a
disposition to welcome me.
Every toast at a meeting like this in
| cludeS Yale as subject. We have been
| there-we know what We have drawn
| from our mother. We have that kind of
| gratitude that makes us wish to express
| 1t whenever occasion arises.
Spirit of Old Yale.
| Yale is not the largest university in
| the country There are others that are
| forging ahead. under state aid under con-
| ditions that furnish more students. and
| to those We wish every advantage and
| every success. But l hope we may be
pardoned if feel that in the trad-
| tOnS and associations of old Yale there
| is a traditional spirit in which We have
| an advantage over younger institutions
| which have not had the centuries in
| which to form that spirit We like to call
the Yale spirit. and feel that bond of
| union that nerves us up to something
| better and something higher.
| Mr.. Justice Brewer, in his Grafton at
| the bicentennial. spoke of the public
| service to WHICH Yale was devoted, and
| culiar sense, with reference to the col
| lege.
| "What I am to do at Yale / am not
| sure. 1t is dangerous to have been on
| the bench long enough to acquire Il repu-
| tation for legal knowledge if there is no
opportunity to put you to any test on
| that subject. but when you are to be ex-
amined every day by bright young men
Portable states than that of a professor
| trying to keep two LESSONS ahead of his
| class.
| Not Like the Bench.
Il have sat on the bench and / know
how wise YOU can look without having a
/ bowling acquaintance with some of the
principles of law that presented to
you. but you cannot sit in professors
chair with any liberty OF surety among
the students and assume to know some
thing that you don't know. OF course,
it depends upon the discipline which one
| can maintain in the classroom If one
| can restrain any unruly, improper and
| irrelevant curiosity one might get along
| all right 1t is d great pleasure to me
| to think of going to Yale and talking to
| the seniors Of the academic department.
Perhaps, Ia; after VIII Whit .sn when l get
| secure the presence of some of the sci
| cntific seniors to talk to them about con-
| stitutional law and the government of the
| country, to describe to them and to make
| them know the value of the institutions
we have and the danger of accepting
every nostrum that comes along and Civ
| ing up those valuable foundations with
| out which we could not have had our
| government and without which We are
| likely to lose it's benefits. That is the
great pleasure l hope to have.
"Snug in This Country"
I'VE are a bit snug in this country We
are enjoying a great many benefits. and
we are rather pessimistc and contemp-
tuOus about them, without understand
ing why it is that we are so comfortable
and happy and all that sort of thing,
and without realizing how much of self
sacrifice and effort and self-restraint it
| took to bring about this condition. We
| may have to re-educate the American
people on that subject before they will
| get down to real common-sense view
| of the situation And / don't know any
| where that that re-education can begin
with more benefit to the public at large
| than I'm cur universities
Now, In my small way, | want to
| contribute. If / can. to bringing the future
| graduates of one institution in this coun-
! try to realizing sense of the benefit
| 1T is to be an American now, and to have
| been Americans for the last 100 years
| and to enjoy what the Constitution of
| the United States and this country with
| its traditions give u.s.
Development at Yale.
Prof Chittenden told the Yale grads
that the most important development at
Yale was the stride which is being made
| in the teaching OF the sciences. applied
and pure. The great new laboratories
which are being erected for the use of the
students there offer new and valuable
opportunities. he said Today. he said an
educated man must know something
about everything. including the sciences
and everything about something Yale
had been Il pioneer in the establishment
of courses of scientific study, and the
other institutions OF learning have follow
ed in her course.
Prof Chttenden discussed the great
strides which have been made in scientific
knowledge in recent years. saving that
for 1000 years. from the days of Pharoah
to the French revolution, the world had
stood still in science.
Tribute to President.
Justice Pitney paid a high tribute to
President Taft in his address, congratu-
lating Yale upon having given to the
country wise and patriotic a man,
and upon the fact that he is to return
there to add new glory to the old college
Jestingly he said that he himself had
been discovered first by Yale man, re-
ferring to his appointment by Taft to
the Supreme bench