The Sunday Oregonian., September 20, 1908, Magazine Section, Page 3, Image 51

A
DKAJS QT CRAJsSD OT.D MEM I 1 I , '4 '
IBT JOHN a HARWOOD.)
THIS ts dl
men as
.11
I HIS ta distinctly the' day of young
leaders In education. Wit-
Bess all over the land the youth
ful college and. university presidents
of forty or plus now engaged In as
sembling a quarter of a million stu
dents for another year's tussle with the
various forms of the higher thought;
also the great army of professors with
only here and there a face showing
the first marks of approaching age.
ft ill. for all this. America is not with
out her Grand Old Men of Education,
though it must be admitted that . they
are not nearly so numerous as they
were before the fad for young and
energetic buriness presidents and pro
fessors set in strongly. The Nicholas
Murray Butlers, the John Finleys. the
Benjamin Ide Wheelers have come to
the fore In recent years only, so that
whereas formerly a college president
or professor of SO was a commonplace,
today he is a rarety and so, perforce,
becomes a Grand Old Man of Education,
whether he likes It or not
The Grand Old Men of today divide
themselves Into two classes those who
re still actively engaged In the war
fare against Ignorance, and those who
are retired from presidencies or pro
fessorships, but still continue to take
what might be called an emeritus in
terest In education. At the top of the
first classification . stands the name of
America's best-known university presi
dent Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard not
because be is the oldest, but because it
is generally conceded that he Is more
widely known than any other educational
president of his day. Immediately after
' Ms name should be placed that of James
B. Angell. president of the University of
Jjicnigan. whose 9 years make him Presi
dent iiiiot's senior by Ave years. Presi
dent Angell's international fame la but
shade less than that of Harvard's head.
an-a the impress he lias made on educa
tion generally throughout the country
na oeen as maraed as president Eliot s.
rroni the standpoint of years of ser
vice as a university president "Father'
Angell is the grander of the two men
Counting in the Ave years that he served
as the executive of the University
ertnont. before he went to Michigan, he
has spent 42 years 17 more than half hi
II retime at the head of educational in
stitutions. Dr. Eliot's career as head of
Harvard goes back 53 years. Each has
been a university president longer than
any other man now living, and In the
history of education In this country but
few men have been kept at the head of
a collegiate seat of learning for aa much
or more than three decades.
It has been given to Dr. Angell to have
ha under his direct personal Influence
more young men and women than has
fallen to the lot of any other university
presiaent now living in all probability
of any university president of modern
times. Aa head of the University of
Michigan he has left his personal Im
press, to a greater or less degree, on
more than lOO.diO students. Counting In
his whole career as an educator, which
may be dated from 148. when he became
assistant librarian of Brown University,
It la safe to say that he has come In
direct personal touch with at least 125.000
searchers after higher education. Were
It possible to assemble all of these men
and women, many of whom have gone to
that great bourne whence no traveler re
turns, and ask them their opinion of
Jamea B. Angell. It Is a safe guess to
maxe that the entire eighth of a million
population sufficient to make a city the
sue oi Columbus, O., or Worcester,
Mass. would shout as with one voice,
"He's all right!" and then and there pro
ceed to give their college yelle for him.
with -rreie - tnnce repeated at the end.
One of Dr. Anrell'a marked character
istics as university president has been his
ability to secure the loyalty and affection
of practically every student who ever
studied under Bun and to control his col
legiate activities largely through these lm
pulses. This characteristic waa one of the
things former President Benjamin Har
rison had In mind when he paid the Uni
versity of Michigan the compliment of
having the best university president in the
world. John Flnley, head of the College
of the city of New York, and one of the
youngest of the ' blgr college presidents
of the present day. equaled ex-President
Harrison when he declared that the real
.capital of Michigan ia Ann Arbor (where
the university la located), and the state's
real head ia the university's head.
Two Presidents of Wide Influence.
Besides "making" the University of
Michigan and In doing so making It the
model for most of the other state univer
sities that have attained more or less
fame as educational centers In the last
quarter of a century. Dr. Angell has been
a man of large Influence beyond the con
fines of his campus and the world of edu
cation in general. In this respect being
like unto Dr. Bitot. In a marked degree.
He has frequently had his advice sought
by Presidents and other National leaders
in various walks of life. His career as a
diplomat embraces a mission to China and
another to the court of the unspeakable
Turk, and his services have been drafted
several times when important treaties
were to be drawn up by this country with
some of the Powers. In brief, for a great
many years now (Just as in the case of
Dr. Eliot) Dr. Angell has been considered
by those in a position to Judge accurately,
as one of the truly broad and Influential
men of the country. The average man is
aware of the fact that whenever Dr. An
CM
ELt.OT07MAr.VARD AND ANGELL OF
UKftsmsiTY presidents lomgsr than
gell or Dr. EI lot says anything publloly by
word of mouth or type, each has the coun.
try for an audience.
A good many more parallels could be
pointed out In the careers of these vener
able educators. Each Is down East born
and reared. Each received his collegiate
education in his native state, and got his
educational polish in Continental univer
sities and by Continental travel. Each
attained a university presidency by begin
ning his teaching career as a tutor and
climbing up rung by rung through the
power of his own Initiative and ability.
As president neither has allowed himself
to be fettered by that often-held-to-be-sacred
thing known, as college tradition.
Though both men are now well past the
three score and ten mark, they are still
to be classed among the go-aheads. In
deed, ever since Michigan got Angell as Ha
president and Harvard elected Eliot to a
corresponding station, neither Institution
has experienced a lethargic moment; there
has always been something doing for it
and by it. Though a minor parallel. It Is
also interesting to note that the country's
two oldest and beat-loved university pres
idents are not as fond of the great college
game of football as most of their young
men would like them to be. President An
gell, however, has not gone as far aa
President Eltot In his attacks on the
game. The former's chief objection to
football Is that the average college Btu
dent attachea too much Importance to It
and thereby neglecta to an appreciable
extent In the Autumn the real object of
going to college. To Illustrate his point
the doctor ia fond of telling the following
story, which you may or may not have I
read before:
The Doctor himself and a friend were
dining at a ulnverslty club. As both are
nterested In literature. It was but natural
that the conversation, in the course of
time, should drift around to Tennyson.
Said the friend, with a sigh: "I revere the
passing of Arthur. Close at hand, at an
other table, sat a college youth, who
chanced to catch the remark about "Ar
thur." Mystified, he turned to his com
panion. "Who's Arthur?" he queried.
"Does he play quarter or half? And what
team Is he on?
President Angell Is a splendid story
teller, and ts not averse to spreading
laugh on himself. His account of his re
ceptlon by the Sultan's Grand Visler,
when he became Lncle Sam's Minister
to Turkey In 1897, has brought tears
of laughter to more than one set of eyes.
It seems that the only language common
to the two men was French, and poor
French at that. Dr. Angell made what
was- undoubtedly the poorest speech of
his life, but no sooner had he finished
than his audience of one began to clap
his hands. Not to be outdone in polite
ness, the new Minister rose and bowed
his thanks. Immediately the Grand
Vizier rose and courteously bowed his
visitor to the door. Dr. Angell obediently
taking his departure. And not until
some time later did the latter learn that
when the Grand Visler clapped his
hands, he did so to summon his secre
tary: that when Dr. Angell rose to bow
the Grand V lzier thought he desired to
depart, and so rose In turn and showed
his guest the way out, the doctor Inter
preting this action as a desire on the
part of the Sultan's representative to
have the Minister take his leave.
When Eliot Became Harvard's Head
Immediately following his inauguration.
In 1869, aa Harvard's 2Zd president.
Charles W. Eliot, then M, set about re
modeling the college curriculum, with
the result that he soon became the fath
er of what Is now known as the Amer
ican elective system of college study.
Oliver Wendell Holmes has recorded the
fact that In the first days of his presi
dency Dr. Eliot proved something of an
educational sensation and a veritable
hustler. He made the corporation meet
twice a week Instead of once. He at
tended the meetings of every faculty,
and not Infrequently kept them in ses
sion until midnight while pushing his
plans for a revised, curriculum and other
reforms.
'I cannot help being amused." wrote
Holmes to his good friend Motley, "at
some of the scene we have In our med
ical faculty this cool, grave young man
proposing In the calmest way to turn
everything topsy-turvy, taking the reins
In his own hands and driving as if he
were the first man that ever aat on the
box." Still further along in the same
letter. Holmes told of a paasage-at-arms
between a member of the medical facul
ty and the new president. The profes
sor Inquired of the president why he
proposed to change the medical school's
methods, which had been in successful
operation for upwards of 80 years. To
which the president suavely replied: "I
can answer Dr. Blanks question there
is a new president
In such fashion Dr. Eliot began his
career as president of Harvard, and in
much the same fashion he has directed
the affairs of the famous university for
be past 3 years, during which period
its growth has been little short of phe
nomenal. .Dr. Eliot's well-known ability to
bring other men around to his way of
thinking, or to put through plans that
he believes are right, is aptly illustrat
ed by the anawer which United States
Senator William M. Crane, when Gov
ernor of Massachusetts, Is said to have
given to a delegation of Boston busi-
ess men who urged him to appoint
Harvard's president on the commission
to report on the proposed dsm across
the Charles River. "The law says,"
said the Governor, "that the commls-
Ion shall consist of three members. It
THE STTXDA1 OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND,
NOW LIVING
PRES. iBEiSkll MAJnT
OJT THE UHIVEIiSITY
I appointed President Eliot there would
be only one member." Dr. Eliot Is said
to have laughed heartily when the
Governor's reply was repeated to him.
A quiet humor has been one of his
marked characteristics; and it has aid
ed him greatly in hie career as presi
dent. This humor he has displayed
even when lambasting football, and in
his fight for clean athletics. No fol
lower of present-day college sports
needs to be told at length of President
Eliot's views of and stand on athletics
aa pursued In the colleges of the land
at the present day.
Beginning with his tutorships in
mathematics at Harvard, his aim
mater. Dr. Eliot has been engaged in
directing educational work of young
men for four years more than halt
century. Dr. Angell's teaching career
dates back 60 years, but for six years
he left his booka to be editor of
Providence, R. I., newspaper. Dr. Eliot,
on the other hand, has stuck strictly
to the educational last Once, how
ever, he seriously considered, lor the
space of two weeks, an attractive prop
osltion made to him to become super
intendent of a large manufacturing
company at a salary of 15000 and the
use of a house. In the end, the de
cision was In favor of a professional
career, and not long alter tne doctor
became professor of analytical chemis
try at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology at a salary considerably
smaller than the one offered him as
mill superintendent.
f
Benj. Andrews, Civil War Veteran.
Another down-East born and reared
grand old man of education who is still
active as the head of the University of
Nebraska, Is E. Benjamin Andrews,
now in his 66th year. Of all the grand
old men he was graduated from college
later In life than any other; he was SC
before he got his sheepskin. This was
due not to lack of mental ability on his
part, but to the fact that when the Civil
War broke out he dropped his studies
he waa then preparing for college
and enlisted as a private in a New
Hampshire regiment. When he was
mustered out he was a Second Lieuten
ant and minus an eye. lost in '64 while
fighting before Petersburg. Though a
majority of the grand old men were old
enough to take up arms when the war
broke out. Dr. Andrews alone respond
ed to the call for volunteers.
The year that he graduated from
Brown, which he afterward headed as
president, he married, and that year,
too. ha began his career as teacher,
which has suffered only one Interreg
num, when, in the 70s. he filled a Bap
tist pulpit for about two years. Thir
teen years later, after holding various
professional positions throughout the
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I country, he found himself president of
I Brown, and there he remained until the
year of the Spanish-American War,
when the attempts of some of the educa
tors under him to restrict what he called
his inalienable right of free speech led
to his resignation. The trouble began
when some one released a private letter
written by Dr. Andrews, in which he ex
pressed the belief that "sixteen-to-one"
was all O. K.. or words to that effect. It
has been stated and never denied that
this and other announced political views
of Dr. Andrews caused John D. Rocke
feller to withdraw an offer of a gift of a
million dollars to the university. At any
rate, the committee of the faculty that
waited on him and asked him to keen his
political views to himself was handed out
the reply that a gift to the university
which would stifle freedom of speech
would work to no good end.-At heart a
big majority of the faculty sympathized
witn ur. Andrews after he had stated
his views of the attitude of a university
president as to free speech, and largely
because of this strong faculty following
he was promptly reinstated after he
handed In his resignation as president. In
the end, however, the Inadvertence of a
friend In making public the president's
privately expressed political views led to
his leaving the university.
Today, Dr. Andrews is chancellor of the
University of Nebraska, which post he
has held for eight years; between the
time of his leaving Brown and going to
Nebraska he was superintendent of
schools of Chicago. He has marked his
career In Nebraska by systematizing and
greatly enlarging the usefulness of the
university and by refusing an increase
in salary. He Is still as free of speech
as when he was at Brown, and when he
talks or writes one 1 sure to have some
thing interesting to listen to or to read.
The oldest of all the Grand Old Men
is professor Francis A. March, emeritus
professor of the English language and
comparative philology at Lafayette Col
lege, with which Institution he has been
connected as Instructor and professor for
t3 years, going there Immediately after
his graduation from Amherst in 1846. He
is another of our down East born, reared
and educated Grand Old Men, yet In every
inch of his six feet and a half and his
long flowing white beard he is the pa
triarch of the Biblical picture and not
the typical Yankee. For his work In phil
ology he has been loaded down with hon
ors by various educational bodies both
here and abroad.
Three years younger than Professor
March, and living in deep seclusion, is
Timothy Dwight, who announced his re
tirement from the presidency of Tale nine
years ago by shuffling into the New
Haven office of a National news associa
tion, and handing the man in 'charge a
scrap of psper containing the news of his
resignation. "I wish you would send It
out for me so that the boys can know
about it." he requested; and then, when
the happy newsgatiierer, scenting a
SEPTEMBER 20, 1908.
of
MICHIGAN BEEN
ANY OTHER MEN
PJ2E6IDENT CHAS. W. EIJOT9HARVARD clAMES B.KGELL.
"scoop," said he would be only too glad
to do so, the simple-minded old man, who
had kept his nose buried since the middle
40s in his beloved Greek and New Testa
ment books, naively asked that the bill
for sending out the announcement be
handed to him.
Daniel Cott Oilman, now emeritus presl
dent of Johns Hopkins University and an
influential figure in the work of the Car
negie Institution, and William Jewett
Tucker, until last year the active presi
dent of Dartmouth College, are two other
Yankee born, reared and educated Grand
Old Men. Oilman is 77, and Tucker is now
facing the last milestone of his race for
three-score and ten years. Of the same
age as Dr. Gilman is Professor Basil L.
Gildersleeve, who Is the only Southerner
among the Grand Old Men, he was sum
moned to a Johns Hopkins professorship
by Dr. Gilman back in 1876, and Is one of
the world s leading Greek scholars. If
you haven t, some one of your acauaint-
ance has undoubtedly studied Greek with
the aid of Professor Gildersleeve's text
books. Professor Simon Newcomb, with
73 years and a term of years as professor
of mathematics and astronomy at Johns
Hopkins to his credit. Is properly In
cluded among the Grand Old Men, while
still two other Johns Hopkins men mak
ing five in all who should not be over
looked are Ira Remsen, the university's
present president and Its professor of
chemistry since its founding, and E. H.
Griffin, dean of the college faculty and
proressor oi nistory and philosophy. The
latter Is nearlng 6s; at 62 President Rem
sen is the youngest of the Grand Old Men.
Besides being one of the world's lead
ing chemical experts. Dr. Remsen is not
ed as a lecturer, speechmaker and toast-
master, and has the distinction of having
Deen tne nrst man orrered a chair bv Dr.
Gilman when he undertook the founda
tion or Johns Hopkins University.
Another famous chemist among the
urana uia Men is professor Charles F.
Chandler, of Columbia University.
whose aeventy-two years do not keep
him from working daily In his beloved
laboratories. He has been Columbia's
leading chemist for forty-four years.
He was one of the three founders of
the university's famous school of mines,
and at his suggestion the Havemeyers,
of sugar fame, gave the school che pa
latial home which it now occuDies.
Many times he has been called upon
by his city, state and nation for the
sort of assistance which only an ex
pert chemist can give, and several years
ago his services to chemical science
were generously recognized across the
water when he was made president of
the British Society of Chemical Indus
try. Four years Professor Chandler's
Junior is the head of the other big me
tropolitan university New York Dr.
Henry R. MacCracken. who has been
teaching for over half a century, and
who attracted world-wide attention to
his university when he induced Miss
Helen Gould to provide It with, the Hall
of Fame. Through Chancellor Mac
Cracken's influence the country's two
most famous women philanthropists
Miss Gould and her Intimate friend.'
Mrs. Russell Sage are firm friends of
the University of New York, giving
llDerauy to it when occasion warrants.
Two Grand Old Men Not Graduates.
Two men who hold only honorary
college degrees and have never been
connected with a college in any capa
city other than that ot student, but
who, nevertheless, are entitled to be
placed among the Grand Old Men of
Education because of the great lnflu
ence they have exercised on public
school and collegiate education in this
country, bear the names of William
Torrey Harris and William James
Rolfe.
For 17 years prior to his retirement
In 1906, on a Carnegie pension, W. T.
Harris was more or less constantly In
the public eye as the Federal Commis
sioner of Education. But it was years
before he became commissioner that he
began to put his impress on the edu
cational methods of the country by in
troducing into the public school system
of St. Louis the first successful course
of nature study In the country. He, too,
was one of the men who gave kinder
garten work its foothold in the public
schools, and as founder of the School of
Philosophy he has done as much, if not
more than any other man living to sti
mulate philosophic study in America,
He Is looked upon by philosophers gen
erally as possessing one of the best
philosophic minds of modern times, and
he has long been recognized as the
head of'the education movement' which
admitted nature studies into the curri
cula of school and college without less
ening the importance of historical and
classical studies. Thus he checked the
naturalistic movement in education
which, started by the elder Agasslz,
threatened for a time to make subsidi
ary the traditional courses of study.
William James Rolfe, on the other
hand, has been credited with having
created the English department of the
public school system and greatly In
creasing the study of the mother
tongue in the colleges. When he be
came a teacher In a bankrupt academy
near Boston, after leaving college at
the end of his third year when his
money gave out, he introduced the now
universal, but then unheard of, method
of teaching English by employing the
works of standard authors, such as
Shakespeare, as text-books. The suc-
Replacing Our Oaks
;AR-off New Zealand Is the country to
which forest experts have turned.
seeking substitutes for the vaiuaDie
American woods used by the furniture,
cooperate, implement, and similar wood-
using Industries.
Manufacturers in this country nave
been facing a constantly decreasing sup
ply of available hardwood timber for a
number of years and the time is at nana
when efforts must be made, looking to the
preservation of the American species
most in demand and to scour foreign
lands for trees which may prove valuable
s substitutes.
Seven different New Zealand hardwood
trees have been put through a series of
tests bv the United States Forest Service,
in co-operation with the University of
California, in the timber testing labora
tory at Berkeley. The trees showed up
remarkably well in comparison with
white oak, which is one of the strongest
woods in the United States, developing
nnder test when In an air dry condition
a crushing strength of 8600 pounds to the
square inch and a bending strength of
13,100 pounds to the square Inch.
Four Woods Excel Oak.
Four of the seven New Zealand woods
tested developed a bending strength even
greater than white oak, and three of the
woods showed a greater crushing
strength. The New Zealand woods found
to have a bending strength as mgn or
higher than oak were the black maire.
ma.tal. puriri, and silver pine, while the
first three of these have In addition de
veloped a greater crushing strength than
oak.
An Idea of the true strength of these
woods is given in tne technical report
which shows that with white oak at 1.00
the compressive or crushing strength of
the New Zealand woods is as follows:
Black maire, 1.18; matal, 1.06; and puriri.
.a. The woods which developed an
equal or greater bending strength are as
follows: Matai. 1.22: silver pine, l.oo;
puriri, 1.41, and black maire, .156. The
last figure shows that this wood has
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PJ2E SIDENT OP
cees of this innovation was 'so pro
nounced that it secured for the daring
young educator a high-school prlnci
palshlp. As principal he enlarged on 'his
scheme for teaching English, with even
more successful results than he had
first obtained, and it was not long be
fore the idea began to be taken up
elsewhere, finally reaching to and en
tering the colleges themselves, which,
when Professor Rolfe began his new
method, did not require any English
for entrance. Now every college In the
land has English for one of Its entrance
requirements, and even the little red
BChoolhouses of the countryside teach
English after the Rolfe method.
Today, In his 81st year. Professor
Rolfe Is still engaged in Ms study of
Shakespeare, which he has pursued
since 1868, when he gave up his posi
tion as principal of the Cambridge
(Mass.) High School. For years he has
had recognition as one of the world's
leading Shakespearean scholars.
Seven years Professor Rolfe's Junior,
and, like him, New England born,
reared and educated largely eelf-edu-cated
Dr. Harrla learned of the exist
ence and the importance of the three
R's in a Connecticut backwoods district
schoolhouse, the farm on which he
spent his boyhood being 30 miles re
moved from the nearest town. An in
fant prodigy, he began going to school
when he was 4, and a year later could
read as well as most grown folks of
the countryside. At 6 he began to
teach himself Latin, out of an old text
book which he found. By the time he
was 13 he had been at five academiea
In an effort to find the course of in
struction that he wanted to pursue,
largely a mixture of science and nature
study. Because the curriculum of Yale
would not permit him to devote most
of his time to such study he withdrew
from that college when he had about
half completed the regular course of
study, and from then on educated him
self while he filled various positions
running from teacher to superintendent
of public schools In St. Louis.
It was after he left St. Louis tnat ne
got Interested deeply In philosophy. For
a year he spent the greater part of his
waking hours In a study of Kant. At
the end of that time he says he began
to understand what the philosopher
was driving at. and, pleased with this
partial success, he determined to make
philosophy one of , hjs mental fields,
with what result has already been told.
(Copyright, 1908, by the Associated Lit
erary Press.)
From NewZ caknd
more than one and one-half times the
bending strength of oak.
Some Woods Weaker.
The wooda tested which fell below the
strength of oak (1.00) were rlmu, .68 for
compression or crushing strength, and;
.86 for bending; kauri, .70 for compression:
and .94 for bending, and totara, .67 for;
compression and .70 for bending. The:
showing even for the last three woods Is
not bad when it Is considered that the
compression Is made with clear straight-'
grained white oak.
These strength tests of seven of New
Zealand's most valuable timbers may'
prove of great benefit to American manu
facturing interests, if experiment shows:
that the woods can be Introduced into
this country and planted with the same
success as the eucalyptus of New England
and Australia, or if it is found that the
islands have enough of the various spe
cies to Import a little to this country.
Cannot Depend on Imports.
The United States will not be able to
depend on Imports to any great extent,
for wood users realize that there is an
approaching shortage of timber In other
countries as well as this, and each na
tion must cultivate and protect its own
forests. It is, therefore, likely that plant
ing experiments will be made with many '
of the valuable foreign woods, in view
of the success made with the eucalyptus
In California.
American hardwoods are In a constant
ly descending supply, and if foreign trees
are found to meet the same uses to which
white oak and hickory are put it will
afford an opportunity to replenish the
native supply by well-directed planting.
The hardwoods practically all grow in the
Eastern and Central Western states,
where there are no national forests, al
though a plan has been proposed a num
ber of times for their establishment in
the White Mountains of New England
and the Appalachians in the South. For
the present the protection and conserva
tion of the country's hardwood resources
depend upon individuals and corporations
which own the land.