New-York tribune., 1918-09-26
War Spirit Reigns at Opening
OF Colleges and Universities
Columbia and N T. u. Have Thousands of Members ir
Students Training Corps-Mlitary Departments to
Open Next Tuesday, as at 647 Other Institutions

Many Of the 500 colleges and univer-
sites and lat technical schools of the
country, at which military schools
under the direction of the War Depart
mcnt will be established next Tuesday,
opened their academic branches yester-
day with their campuses buzzing with
The orderly confusion Of military prep
Grations. Columbia and New York uni
vcrsities, whose students training
corps alone will have thousands Of
members. opened in the city yesterday.
Yale, with its artillery school. will open
$500 enrolled.
Columbia's 165th year opened with
nearer sense of war probably than has
touched the university since Alexander
Hamiltons day, due in large part to the
preparations in the gymnasium for the
organization of the military school.
The opening exercises for that reason
were held in the chapel for the first
time since the university moved to
Morningside Heights.
There was martial fervor in the
strains OF ;'Stanu Columbia" and def
mite note of war IN the prayer offered
by Chaplain Raymond c. Knox. but the
address of Dean Harlan +. Stone dealt
with war problems only remotely. Dr..
Nicholas Murray Butler, president of
the university, was unable TO be pres
ent because of cold.
Prayer for Victory
Chaplain Knox. who was on the
Mount Vernon when that transport was
unsuccessfully torpedoed, said in his
prayer:
"Let Thy cause of justice. of right,
be the bond that unites us to our al
lies, and may we strive together with
unstinted valor and unshakable valor
until the victory is won"
The men who are to take an intensive
course at Columbia in preparation for
entering the medical service of the
navy were addressed by Captain G. A
Lung, U. S. ~, commanding officer of
the United States Naval Hospital.
These students will be quartered on the
Granite State, at Ninety-sixth Stree.
and the Hudson River, will have clint
cal experience at several Of the larger
hospitals of the city, and will march
caily from the Granite State to their
studies. Columbia also has a naval
training unit of 800 men.
Chancellor Elmer E. Brown. in his
address at New York University, said
that the "softness of academic life"
to which he had referred at the June
commencement exercises had vanished
utterly; that New York University and
the colleges of the country had at
tanned definite place in the nations
war plans and were fulfilling their des-
tiny manfully.
He sent a cable message to General
Pershing extending greetings on the
gency military academy, and saying:
I'VE engage in this undertaking with
new consccration TO those principles
for which America with her allies is
now fighting and will continue to fight
till the victory shall be won" In his
address he said in part:
"In common with other American col
leges and universities we meet at this
time for the opening of a new academic
year under conditions vitally different
from any we have known in our past
history. | welcome you to a year of
strange experience. We do not shrink
necessity of this age of great de-
cisons. We shall 90 forward seriously
and resolutcly, venturing an educa-
tlonal undertaking not unworthy of
that high tide in human affairs which
occasions such extraordinary measures.
Under Military Rule
"This university, in its centres at
Bellevue and here at the Heights, will
in few days be organized on war
footing. The greater part OF our stu
dents here will be soldiers. under mill
tary orders. Our campus is already
an encampment of the National Army
Three months ago l spoke against an
undue softncss in our academic life.
That softness has passed away moro
completely than any of US could at
that time have foresecn. Even those
Of our number who for adequate rea-
sons will not be soldiers during this
present term will be working under
conditions not far different from those
that obtain in the military organiza-
ton"
Everything but the winning of the