eS ener Week and NE Diet a ak — The Centennial Exercises eas of t GROVE CITY COLLEGE : June 13-16, 1926 DEC 20 1926 e: ° “Ch ogigas sew Commencement Week AND THE Semi-Centennial Exercises OF Grove City College JUNE 13-16, 1926 ADDENDA CENTENNIAL NUMBER GROVE CITY COLLEGE BULLETIN Published Monthly by Grove City College. Grove City, Pa. Vol. 18: DECEMBER, 1926 Number 12 Entered as Bae Class Matter at the Aes Office at Giove City, . Under Act of July, 189 BOARD OF TRUSTEES GROVE CITY COLLEGE Mrederices hus Babcock.) tay ns ie, ve hla Ve lee!" President Reverend W. L. McEwan, D. D. - - + + Vice President Vaan ee MICKA y 2 Cees ty 2) Cor eo? eta NPA = Wt | Secretary PU ETArSha WR yes oer ante beet AlN a Vim cd TEASILFET FREDERICK R. BABCOCK Kev. W. L. McEwan, D. D. M. L. BENDUM M. L. McBripe HENRY BUHL, JR. WILLIAM S. McKay WILLIAM H. BURCHFLELD Joun Marsan W. L. CLAUSE WILSON A. CAMPBELL Dr. C. C. MECHLING H. J. CrawForp Harvey A. MILLER RAYMOND Cross EDWARD O’NEIL J. S. CRITCHFIELD JoHN G. PEw Dr. E. J. FITHIAN J. Howarp PEw ROBERT GARLAND REVAD GAL PLATT DD: Mark W. GRAHAM WILSON A. SHAW JAMES H. HAMMOND HAMILTON STEWART WILLIAM ALBERT HARBISON VERNON F. TAYLOR E. B. HARSHAW A. M. THOMPSON WEIR C. KETLER WILLIAM V. YOUNG SEMI-CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE General Committee Frederick R. Babcock, Chairman Mr. C. G. Harshaw Mr. Hamilton Stewart Mrs. William H. Craig Dr. E. J. Fithian Dean Alva J. Calderwood Mr. J. Howard Pew Professor Creig S. Hoyt Dr. B. A. Montgomery Professor R. G. Walters Mrs. Mark W. Graham Mr. Harry D. Book Mr. John McCune, Jr. Mr. J. Leo Fay Mr. A. C. Leslie Miss Martha Berlin 8:00 10:00 12:30 4:00 PROGRAM Sunday, June 13th P. M.—Baccalaureate Services. Address by the Reverend Clarence E. McCartney, D. D., Pastor of the Arch Street Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. The United Pres- byterian Church. Monday, June 14th P. M.—Ivy Day Exercises. Address by Professor Harry E. Winner, 01. The Campus. - 5:00—Art Exhibition. The Studio P. M.—Commencement Program of the Oratory Depart- ment. The Carnegie Auditorium. P. M.—Commencement Program of the Music Department. The Carnegie Auditorium. Tuesday, June 15th A. M.—Class Day Exercises. The United Presbyterian Church. A. M.—Annual Meeting of the Board of Trustees. Admin- istration Building. P. M.—Semi-Centennial Luncheon for Delegates and Guests. The Penn Grove Hotel. P. M.—Formation of the Academic Procession. Administra- tion Building. P. M.—Semi-Centennial Exercises. The United Presbyterian Church. - §:30—Informal Reception and Tea for Delegates, Alumni and Guests. The Colonial. P. M.—Semi-Centennial Dinner. The Penn Grove Hotel. Wednesday, June 16th A. M.—The Commencement Exercises. Address by Honor- able M. Clyde Kelly, Representative of the Thirty-Third Congressional District of Pennsylvania. The United Presbyterian Church. P. M.—The Alumni Luncheon. Reunions of the classes of 81, °86, "91, °96, "Ol, “11, "16, 21. The College Gym- nasium. P. M.—Historical Pageant. The College Athletic Field. oi Nad FOREWORD In connection with the Exercises of Commencement Week this year the College celebrated the Fiftieth Anniversary of its Founding. The formal exercises of the week opened on Sunday evening with the Baccalaureate Services which were held in the United Presbyterian Church. The address of the evening was made by the Reverend Clarence E. McCartney, D. D., Pastor of the Arch Street Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, formerly Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. The formal celebration of the Semi-Centennial Anniversary opened with an informal luncheon for the delegates and guests of the College which was held at the Penn Grove Hotel at noon, Tues- day, June 15th. At 2:00 P. M. the Semi-Centennial Exercises were held in the United Presbyterian Church. Following the formal ex- ercises an informal reception and tea was held at the Colonial, the college dormitory for women, and at 6:30 P. M. the Semi-Centen- nial Dinner was held at the Penn Grove Hotel. Mr. Frederick R. Babcock, President of the Board of Trustees of the College presided at the dinner. Those who spoke at the dinner were: Honorable John D. Meyer, Esquire, United States District Attorney for Western _ Pennsylvania, Mr. S. I. Connor of New York, Dr. Samuel Black McCormick, Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh, and the Honorable John S. Fisher of Indiana. On Wednesday, June 16th at 10:00 A. M. the Commence- ment Exercises were held in the United Presbyterian Church. The address was made by the Honorable M. Clyde Kelly, Representative of the Thirty-third Congressional District of Pennsylvania. The annual alumni luncheon was held at 12:30 P. M. and the events of the week were brought to a close with an historical pageant depicting events of interest in the history of the college and community. This pageant was under the direction of Miss Marietta Risely of the col- lege faculty, ably assisted by committee drawn from the faculty and community. ot ae TWO O’CLOCK UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH President Weir C. Ketler, Presiding PROCESSIONAL THE INVOCATION Reverend William L. McEwan, D. D. Vice-President of the Board of Trustees of Grove City College ADDRESS OF WELCOME Mr. Frederick R. Babcock the Board of Trustees of Grove City College GREETINGS President George L. Omwake, Ursinus College Representing the College Presidents’ Association of Pennsylvania Dr. Francis B. Haas Superintendent of Public Instruction of Pennsylvania Mr. Albert C. Leslie, 97 Representing the Alumni PRESENTATION OF DELEGATES Dean Alva J. Calderwood MUSIC Mrs. Ilse Poehlmann Moser President of Contralto Solo A RETROSPECT President Weir C. Ketler Fifty Years of Higher Education in Pennsylvania Dr. Samuel Black McCormick Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh THE CHURCH AND HIGHER EDUCATION Reverend Hugh Thompson Kerr, D. D. Pastor of the Shadyside Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, and President of the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church BENEDICTION Reverend William E. Purvis, D. D. College Pastor waa 1636 1701 1749 1783 1787 1791 1795 1812 1815 1819 1824 1825 1829 1833 1835 1837 THE DELEGATES Educational Institutions Harvard University Mr. Alva J. Calderwood, Alumnus Yale University Dr. D. Carroll McEuen, Alumnus Washington and Lee University Reverend John W. Claudy, Alumnus Dickinson College Mr. Charles T. Evans, Alumnus University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Emeritus Samuel Black McCormick University of Vermont Mr. William H. Child, Alumnus Union College Reverend Herbert H. Brown, Alumnus Princeton Theological Seminary Reverend William L. McEwan, Alumnus Hamilton College Mr. Harold O. White, Alumnus Allegheny College Dean Charles F. Ross Professor W. A. Elliott Auburn Theological Seminary Reverend Samuel H. McKinstry, Alumnus Center College Reverend William L. McEwan, Alumnus Lafayette College Professor S. Earl Orwig Rensselear Polytechnic Institute Mr. Deloss Murtland, Alumnus Theological Seminary of the Reform Church in the United States Reverend Paul J. Dundore, Alumnus Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Reverend James Doig Rankin, Alumnus Western Theological Seminary President James Anderson Kelso Professor Frank Eakin McCormick Theological Seminary Professor Arthur A. Hays Oberlin College Miss Sadie May Eakin, Alumnus Haverford College Mr. Elias Ritts, Alumnus Marietta College Mr. William B. Irwine, Alumnus Mount Holyoke College Mrs. E. J. Ingraham, Alumnus Muskingum College Reverend Don P. Montgomery, Alumnus DePauw University Mr. Gerald J. Bridges, Alumnus ses, 1839 1841 1842 1844 1845 1846 1848 1850 1852 1855 1856 1858 1859 1861 1864 1868 1869 1870 1874 1876 1885 1888 1889 University of Missouri Mr. Hillir McClure Burrowes, Alumnus Ohio Weslyn University Mrs. Lois Cory-Thompson, Alumnus University of Notre Dame Mr. John W. Ely, Alumnus Hillsdale College Reverend Will C. Chappell, Alumnus Wittenberg College Mr. Frederick Lewis Bach, Alumnus Mount Union College Professor George Arthur Cribbs Bucknell University Mr. Roy G. Bostwick, Trustee Hahnemann Medical College Dean W. A. Pearson Capital University Reverend W. E. Schramm, Alumnus Westminster College Professor James A. Swindler Ardian College Mr. William A. Walker, Alumnus Garrett Biblical Institute Reverend Norris A. White, Alumnus Albright College President Clellan A. Bowman Susquehanna University President Charles T. Aikens Whitman College = Reverend Charles E. Tuke, Alumnus Massachusetts Institute of Technology Mr. William T. Johnson Jr., Alumnus Vassar College Mrs. Henry H. Bagger, Alumnus Bates College Mr. Charles Earl Packard, Alumnus University of Minnesota Mr. Marc C. Leager, Alumnus Pennsylvania College for Women President Cora Helen Coolidge Ursinus College President George L. Omwake University of California Mr. Bert Bare, Alumnus Thiel College Acting President B. H. Pershing Colorado Agricultural College Mr. Edwin Lundy, Alumnus Syracuse University | Mr. Thomas C. Blaisdell, Alumnus Colorado College Mr. Stephen Lincoln Goodale, Alumnus John Hopkins University Mr. Samuel Grant Oliphant, Alumnus Stanford University | Mr. Perl. Vincent Gifford, Alumnus Temple University Dean James H. Dunham Seton Hill College Vice-President James A. Wallace Reeves we siees Slippery Rock State Normal School Professor R. A. Waldron 1891 Presbyterian Theological Seminary Professor Daniel E. Jenkins 1892 University of Chicago Mr. Werner F. Woodring, Alumnus 1897 Bradley Polytechnic Institute Professor Arthur Eugene Gault 1900 Carnegie Institute of Technology Professor Arthur Crawford Jewett, Director of College of Industries FOUNDATIONS AND SOCIETIES Department of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Superintendent Francis B. Haas National Education Association Superintendent William M. Davidson Pittsburgh Public Schools The United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa Secretary Oscar M. Voorhees American Mathematical Society Mr. Oscar P. Akers INVOCATION BY THE REVEREND DR. WILLIAM L. McCEWAN Pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh Vice-President of the Board of Trustees of Grove City College PRESIDENT KETLER: In opening this meeting today it is only fitting that someone representing the College should bring to the visiting delegates and guests some expression of the feelings of appreciation and the welcome that we of the College are experiencing today. Those in charge of this program felt that there was no one who could more appropriately bring such a greeting than a man who for years, in season and out of season, has put his time and effort and his very heart into the building of the College. Mr. Frederick Raymond Babcock, President of the Board of Trustees. ADDRESS OF WELCOME TO DELEGATES jae FREDERICK R. BABCOCK President of the Board of Trustees I regard it a very high privilege, as well as a great pleasure to extend a most cordial welcome to the distinguished visitors and friends of the college who are assembled here today. We somehow feel that your presence at this semi-centennial celebration which I, personally, like to term our Golden Anniversary, is an indication of your interest in the work of the college, and we hope your approval ot that work. We realize, of course, that fifty years of service on the part of an educational institution is not an extremely long period. There are no doubt some here today who have known the institution throughout its entire life, and whose contributions to it have con- tinued over the entire period. Its very youth, however, has compen- sating factors. Those whose connection with it is limited to a shorter time may well claim to have known, and have aided in its work during a very large portion of its history. Although fifty years is not a long period, it is still long enough to test the worth of an idea, or of an institution, and we believe that in the last fifty years the work of the college has born fruitage of a real and substantial char- acter. He who would know of this work need only look about. I somehow feel, speaking for the Trustees, that perhaps I am expected to dwell to some extent upon the policy and the accom- hee plishments of the college but in light of the fact that we are to be honored by learned and experienced speakers, I am rather inclined to follow the course of the least resistance and reminisce a little, be- lieving that perhaps some of you will be more interested in the story of what has actually transpired in the past few years than you would in any attempt on my part to define the desires and ambitions of the college. Naturally, in our work, it has been our purpose to create a back-ground for young men and women that would be useful in their lives, which they would not ordinarily obtain otherwise, through the building of character and a complete preparation for vocational service, therefore, it seems to me that a brief reference to the founder of this splendid college, and those who materially assisted him, would be quite fitting at this time. Doctor Isaac C. Ketler was a man God-gifted, and God-armed for the battle of right against wrong. When he spoke, he spoke with a purpose, with sound judgment and solid information. There is not a heart that loves humanity and feels that noble urge for right and truth and justice: there is not a devotee who bows his head in free worship to his Maker that does not thank God that Isaac C. Ketler lived, and his life goes marching on. Those who, perhaps more than any others, were responsible for what we now enjoy were those who knew and had confidence in Doctor Ketler—Mr. J. N. Pew, Mr. Samuel P. Harbison and Mr. W. H. Burchfield—and those of us who know what they did, and how their acts made possible these conditions will, I am sure, thank God that they lived and that their lives go marching on. Doctor Ketler conceived and planned, and they assisted in mak- ing possible this institution. In mentioning these men, I am not un- mindful of all the elements necessary to our success: the officers and the faculty: the student body and the Alumni: the Board of Direc- tors and the community. They all functioned well and equally and share in the accomplishments achieved. It has always been a joy to me to observe the very remarkable degree of cooperation and com- munity spirit existing. I have often said, and am proud to say it again and again that this Board of Trustees is one of the finest body of men over which I have ever been permitted to preside. Now, briefly, let me review a few incidents in connection with the changes and developments which show that they were not altogether matters of chance but rather foresight. I recall vividly walking from the office to the house one night eva with Dr. Ketler when he showed great joy and pride in the fact that Weir, although ambitious to enter the law, had decided to stay and assist him in the college work for a year or two at least. About that time we had our usual annual meeting and I happened to be made chairman of the (Nominating Committee to fill the vacancies on the Board of Trustees. We found that we had eight vacancies. I had a remarkably active committee and we went to the meet- ing with expressions of willingness to serve from several men if elected. Doctor Ketler said to me that Mr. Pew wanted to see me. I immediately located Mr. Pew who said “Mr. Babcock, I understand you have some very fine names to present to our Board of Trustees” and I replied “I think we have.” How many vacancies have you? Eight. How many prospects have you? About six. Then Mr. Pew said “I would like to suggest for the consideration of your committee the names of my son, Howard, who is an alumnus of the college, a very promising young man, and one who I am ambitious to see placed upon the Board, and my nephew, Mr. John G. Pew, a young man in whom I have great confidence.” Naturally, I was greatly pleased and immediately assembled the members of the Nominating Committee, and when the annual meeting convened, we presented eight names, including Mr. Howard Pew and Mr. John G. Pew, which we were happy to do. That was about the middle of June. Two months later, Mr. J. N. Pew was called to the Great Beyond, hence, I ask if it requires any great stress of imagination to assume that Mr. Pew was then and there laying the ground-work so that his life work would be continued. After Mr. Pew’s death, in due time, I was elected President of the Board, an act that I never could quite understand, and I never assumed any responsibility for it. The duties were minor, and the task was easy because Doctor Ketler led, and we followed. About one year after the call came to Mr. Pew, Doctor Ket- ler was taken from us. We were a ship at sea, without a rudder, so to speak. An institution conceived, founded, and developed by one man and that man had gone. What must we do? We all knew what we wanted to do but we wanted to do it without doing a great injustice to an individual and it became a difficult problem. Our dilemma became known and ambitious would-be col- lege presidents from all over the country were unusually active. We were receiving applications galore. One Saturday, just before noon, came a definite request for an interview regarding Grove City eta College. I naturally pictured an ambitious candidate. I had a defin- ite engagement and really had no time, and less desire, but he was insistent: said he had come to Pittsburgh for no other purpose and under pressure he was granted a five-minute interview, and he took less time. He proved to be Doctor Hoban, an educator assisting in the summer school at Grove City. He had been selected by the summer faculty to convey a definite message to me, as President of the Board of Trustees. They had canvassed the field and agreed to recommend to the Board one whom they all knew: one who knew the college, and one who was at that time a member of their summer faculty, Doctor Ormond, the great philosopher of Princeton. His brevity and forcefulness impressed me. How about it, would he do? Immediately, I arranged a conference with Mr. Weir Ketler at my home where we considered and discussed every phase of the situation until long after midnight and I sent him home to consult his mother, and report. In due course, word came that in their judgment such a change would be a very happy one from their standpoint, and then it went to the Board, and in due time, Doctor Ormond was ap- pointed President of the college and we rejoiced in the belief that the move was a very wise one. That said in a word to the educational world that Grove City College would continue to go forward. A few months after Doctor Ormond took up his duties as President of the College, I happened to be in Grove City and Weir _Ketler said “Mr. Babcock, I am most happy in Doctor Ormond’s progress. I hardly would have believed it possible for any one man to do what he has done in so short a time.” Of course, that was very pleasing. A short time later, Doctor Ormond spent the night with me, at my home, and after dinner while he was smoking his cigar, he remarked to me “Do you know, Mr. Babcock, I find in Weir Ketler great possibilities. He is a remarkable young man and in recognition thereof, I have made him Secretary to the Faculty.” Then I told Doctor Ormond, in my own way, that since he had discovered what we all knew, that he had been brought to Greve City to bridge the span, and prepare Weir to be his successor, and that anything he could do to that end would certainly be appre- ciated and long remembered. Doctor Ormond was spared to us only two and a half years ily ale but he had done his work well and faithfully, and whea he was taken from us, Weir was put into the saddle. Let me say in conclusion that while Doctor Isaac C. Ketler arose to the pinnacle of achievement in the hearts of those who knew him and loved him, our honored President, Dr. Weir C. Ketler, en- joys an equally distinctive place in the hearts of all who know and love him. Never in the history of the college has there prevailed a finer spirit than exists today in every department and we are indeed happy to have you with us on this joyous occasion. PRESIDENT KETLER: In the work of higher education, this College is only one of many similar institutions engaged in a like enterprise. Many of the problems that confront it are common to all. And through the years it has received great benefits from the association with and coopera- tion with the other colleges of the state. It is fitting and gratifying that greetings should be brought from the colleges of Pennsylvania by one who has not only given himself in the upbuilding of a sister institution but who has been a leader in the larger cause of education in the State. I am glad to welcome and introduce President George L. Omwake, of Ursinus College, Secretary of the College Presidents’ Association of Pennsylvania. ADDRESS by PRESIDENT GEORGE L. OMWAKE Secretary of the College Presidents’ Association of Pennsylvania President Ketler, Members of the Board and of the Faculty of Grove City College: I have the honor to represent the Association of College Presidents of Pennsylvania. As such I bring you cordial greetings on the completion of fifty years of splendid achievement in the cause of higher education. I want to assure all of you who are associated with President Ketler in this work that in our Association we hold in high esteem, on account of his personality and scholarship, your representative in our Association. We congratulate Grove City College on her able leadership. The Association of College Presidents is not an organization of institutions but of individuals. It is naturally a highly exclusive body and it is a notable distinction to be a member of it. Yet mem- bership in this Association is significant chiefly because of what its —]4 members represent. As executives and administrative officers of the institutions of learning of this great state, the college presidents of Pennsylvania are charged with weighty responsibilities. They repre- sent institutions of all sizes and types. The majority of our mem- bers, however, stand for work of a character similar to that per- formed by this college. Most of the institutions of higher learning in Pennsylvania are liberal arts colleges, independent in their constitu- tion, and Christian in character and purpose. As one who works in a college of this kind I think I can enter into your celebration with peculiar understanding and appreciation of the joys of the occasion. The review of your history as just given by the President of your Board of Trustees reveals that Grove City has been blessed with great personalities. It is personality quite as much as scholarship that counts in the life of a college, yet neither one of these assets without the other avails anything, and what our colleges are con- cerned about just now is how to heighten the standards of scholar- ship in our State. Every institution today has to deal with two dis- tinct classes of students—those that are in college for the pursuit of learning and who aim to become scholars, and that other class who are in college to study, yes, but who are not interested in scholarship, whose purpose rather is to get such social adjustment as will enable them to get along in a world dominated largely by college men and women. The first essential is to recognize that we have these two classes of students in all our colleges and universities and that they require different treatment. It is equally important to recognize that both of these classes exist below the college in the great high school system whence come most candidates for college admission. I am glad for the chance to point out here in the presence of our distinguished State Superintendent of Public Instruction that in the recognition of these two distinct types of pupils in school and of students in colleges will we find the solution to the problem of schol- arship, and that the problem can be solved only by the intelligent cooperation of the Public School System and the Colleges. In this view I feel assured the State Superintendent concurs. Far more of the energies expended both in High School and in College must be devoted to the scholarly class, and the proportion of this class finding their way to college must be greatly augmented, so that the “schol- ars” rather than the “social adjusters” shall dominate the college life. I am no prophet, but I venture to predict that within the next decade or two liberal arts colleges will be devoting much more attention to instruction in the fine arts. We have reached the stage in American culture when an historical and critical knowledge, NE pele: if not technical ability, in the fine arts is expected in the educated person. An equipment of this kind will certainly be required of those who enter upon the humanitarian professions, such as teaching and the ministry. Art in the form of painting, sculpture, architec- ture, landscaping and music should be understood and felt by the truly educated in this day and generation. Another observation that will be appropriate in this presence and one that is not in the nature of a prophecy but rather the state- ment of a fact, is that colleges historically connected with the Churches are tending to emphasize their Christian standing with fresh avowals of purpose in the direction of character building and social righteousness. Encouragement along this line comes not alone from within the Churches but with point and forcefulness from in- dustrial and civic sources. Our country as a whole craves leadership that shall be more thoroughly imbued with the spirit and principles of Christ. It is with problems and tendencies like these in the forefront that you of Grove City now start out on your second half century. Great things yet to do conspire with great things already done to challenge your best efforts. Your sister institutions of Pennsylvania, sharing as they must the inspiration of our great age, unite in be- speaking for Grove City College unprecedented loyalty and support on the part of her rapidly increasing host of patrons, to the end that the refinements of education and religion, as represented in high scholarship and true Christian character may be made to flow forth in more copious streams to a world that is becoming more and more consciously athirst for these divine blessings. PRESIDENT KETLER: From its very inception the College has been closely identi- fied with Public Schools of the State. Its first President had been a teacher in those schools as well as a product of them and he had sympathetic understanding of the teachers’ problems. Throughout the years a very large percentage of the students of the College have been or have become teachers in the public schools. It is most grati- fying today to have with us the distinguished head of that great system, Dr. Francis B. Haas, Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State. ADDRESS By DR. FRANCIS B. HAAS Superintendent of Public Instruction of Pennsylvania piiss eet “In a form of government such as ours, an educational insti- tution to be worthy and to merit support can only exist insofar as it typifies in its life the persistence of a worthy ideal. The persistence of a worthy ideal through the machinery of an institution means that some individual must have originally conceived the ideal—must have been able to inspire others to be willing to work and sacrifice in order that the ideal might be realized. “This means that there must be gathered about the founder a faculty, a Board of Trustees, a student body; so that the concrete product of the ideal is evidenced in the enthusiasm of the alumni and friends. “Judged from these few criteria, Grove City College is a worthy institution and is making a worthy contribution to our demo- cratic life. This is of special interest to our Department because such a large proportion of the Grove City graduates have gone into the educational field. A few figures compiled some years ago dem- onstrate this. 1. In the twenty-five counties of Western Penn- sylvania there are thirteen colleges, yet fourteen of the twenty-five county superintendents of schools and nine assistant county superintendents received all or a part of their education in Grove City Col- lege. 2. While in the State the average number of superintendents of schools per college was six, twenty-five were Grove City College men. 3. In twenty counties in the western part of the State, while the average number of high schools per college was twenty-four, eighty-four principals received all or a portion of their training at Grove City College. 4. In 1916 and 1917, the average number of college permanent certificates granted per college was 5.95 and 5.85 respectively; the number granted to graduates of Grove City College was 29 and 22. 5. Estimates made several years ago showed that the percentage of the graduating class entering the teaching profession ran as high as seventy per cent. 6. In the five years 1918-1922, out of a total of two hundred fifty graduates, one hundred sixty-six were in educational work. RS [ly : gi “In conclusion, 1 take the liberty of pointing out what to me seems to be a real educational opportunity for service for institu- tions like yours—namely, the simplification and adaption of the ad- ministrative machinery to the needs of the teacher-pupil contact. This is a problem for leadership to work upon. “Seldom in our history has the opportunity been given for a worthy son to supplement and bring to full fruition the ideals of his father with whom he is in sympathy.” PRESIDENT KETLER: A College is judged by the men and women who have re- ceived instruction in its halls. And more and more, colleges are coming to depend on them for support. The College is proud of the records of its alumni and is grateful to them for their constant and substantial help. The next speaker has not only exemplified the finest standards of the College in his private business life but has been ready to give his time and thought and influence in every time of need. I am glad to present Mr. A. C. Leslie, °97, who will bring a greeting from the alumni. ADDRESS By MEA Ca Loc Lees 7 Chairman of Alumni Campaign for Endowment PRESENTATION OF DELEGATES The delegates were formally presented by Dean Alva J. Cal- derwood of the college faculty. MUSIC Contra lto Solo on wget Sia) aie Mrs. Ilse Poehlmann Moser A RETROSPECT Grove City College in the Last Fifty Years PRESIDENT WEIR C. KETLER Fifty years is a comparatively short time in the history of a civilization, or a nation or even, perhaps, of an institution. There have been times in the histories of civilizations and of nations and even, perhaps, of institutions when the record of the achievements of fifty years might easily be blotted out without causing any great loss or creating any serious break in the record of progress. But =| §——- while such a statement can truly be made of civilizations and nations and institutions in certain periods of time, it cannot be made of our civilization, nor of our nation, nor of Grove City College in the last fifty years. Grove City College is just fifty years old but what a marve- lous period it has been! Eighteen seventy-six might almost be said to be the beginning of the modern era. In that year the Nation celebrated the centennial of its founding. The Exhibition at Phil- adelphia was a great stimulus to the nation. The Civil War was over, its issues settled and the nation was rapidly recovering from the effects of the War and the Reconstruction. The great West had been opened by the transcontinental railroads and was being settled. It was during that year that Alexander Bell transmitted the first telephone message. The age of electricity, with all that it means to us today was just showing faint signs of dawn. In these fifty years practically all of its present development has come. Medical Science was entering upon a period which was to re- cord greater progress than in all the previous reaches of time. In this district the petroleum industry was emerging from chaotic conditions under the leadership of courageous farseeing men. And although the leaders of the industry had great expectations, it is safe to say that no one then dreamed of the progress that fifty years was to record. What an amazing record is the record of industry in this country in the last fifty years. Nor has education lagged behind. Public education with its free elementary schools and high schools is largely a development of these years. The world has never in any other period, in any other land witnessed such a development and it is during this period that Grove City College was founded and has developed and has made its contribution. Just as the soil and climate are determining factors in the growth of a plant, so in the founding and development of an institution the community back-ground and atmosphere must be considered. Fifty years ago this community was small, having a population of hardly more than two hundred. It was poor, there were no men of wealth in it. It was comparatively isolated, only recently had it been con- nected to the outside world by a pioneering railroad, financed partly, at least, by English capital. Why should it have been soil in which a College could and did flourish? No one can surely say. But for twenty years the community had been interested in higher education. Following an old New England custom the ministers of oy [ee the community had been leaders in this enterprise. First Reverend Richard Thompson and later Reverend Wm. T. Dickson and his wife, Mrs. Harriet L. Dickson, gave instruction in the higher branches to the young people of the village and the surrounding community. ‘There are those here today who received instruction in that early school, held in the minister’s home or in ‘the Church. Perhaps even more fundamental than these educational efforts was the religious and moral background out of which they grew. The community had much in common with the earlier sturdy Puritan Communities of New England. It was perhaps only natural that in 1874 when the local school district found it necessary to build a new common school building that a movement was started to provide suitable quarters for the in- struction of the youth of the community in the higher branches. A public meeting was called; the question was discussed and a com- mittee was appointed to solicit funds by private subscription so that a second story, devoted to the higher branches, might be added to the new school building. The committee went to work and the com- munity, in a spirit prophetic of its later history, responded in gener- ous fashion. The new building was erected and the local stage was set for the new enterprise. ‘Now for the actors and the play itself! In the spring of 1876 the Directors were looking for a man to conduct the school. A young man, Isaac C. Ketler, of twenty-two years of age, then study- ing in an Ohio institution applied. His cause was advocated by his friend, who was later to be so closely associated with him, James B. McClelland. Their joint efforts were successful and by a vote of four to three the school was given him. The leader of the new enterprise had an intellectual enthusiasm that had already driven him to overcome serious obstacles. His father had opposed his ambitions. He was determined that his boy should stay at home and enter business with him. But the boy was not to be stopped. He ran away from home. In central Pennsyl- vania, he worked in the lumber camps and brick yards and saved enough money to start his higher education. Then by alternate per- iods of study and teaching he continued his education. One wonders what influence so stirred his intellectual faculties and desires. The only apparent answer is that as a boy in the country school he came in contact with two strong men who were his teachers, and that he was inspired to follow their examples. One, John W. Cannon, later played an important!part in the educational life of pt Western Pennsylvania and the other, Joseph Newton Pew, was des- tined to come to the support of the College at a critical period in its history and become a great leader in its development. Both of these men had studied in the Edinboro State Normal School and both had become, at least temporarily, teachers. It was only natural that he should study where they studied and later teach as they had taught. During the previous year he had taught the Scrubgrass School near the Allegheny River. He had been successful. A new build- ing had been erected and the directors asked him to return, promis- ing a salary of one hundred dollars a month and all he could make in addition. He preferred, however, to come to the village of Pine Grove, even though no salary was promised and though it would be necessary for him to build up his own school. He came because he knew the character of the community, it was near his old home and it had railroad connections with the outside world. Before he came to take up his work this young, poor country-school teacher confided in a friend that he intended to start a College. One wonders what the feeling of that friend must have been. On April 11, 1876, the new school was opened. From a letter written to his friend, James B. McClelland, it is evident that he originally planned to open it some weeks earlier but for some un- known reason the opening was postponed. On the first day thirteen students enrolled and during the term twenty-six. Comparatively few were from the village. Some had followed him from Scrub- grass, where he had previously taught. By fail the school had grown to over seventy and it was necessary to secure help to carry on the work. The school grew rapidly. Sessions were now held in the Presbyterian church as well as in the district school building and it soon became evident that it was necessary to form a new organiza- tion and provide better facilities for the work. Tradition has it that one of the men with whom he first dis- cussed the project of a new building, replied, “Young man, if that could have been done it would have been done long before you came here.” The other leaders of the community looked with more favor on the project and in September, 1878, a meeting was called to con- sider it. In writing the record of this first meeting the first President said: ‘““At this meeting Mr. Robert G. Black presided. In opening the meeting he said, “In view of the very great and vital interest which has brought us together, it is proper and wise that Divine Guidance and blessing be sought.” “The religious spirit of that Lis) poe first meeting of the citizens,” he continued, “has characterized the subsequent work of this school.” A committee composed of Wm. A. Young, Dr. J. M. Martin, James P. Locke, James Hunter and Joseph Humphrey, was appointed. The duty of this committee, known as a Finance Committee, was tc act in executive capacity until a permanent organization should be formed. They were to provide means for the purchase of grounds and the erection of a building and were to apply for a charter of — incorporation. In August 1879 the charter was granted for the pur- pose of establishing and maintaining a school to be known as the Pine Grove Normal Academy. It was a stock company with a cap- ital originally of $25,000, divided into shares of $10.00 each. When four hundred shares had been subscribed and 20 percent was paid in, the charter was to become effective. Captain R. C. Craig was appointed to solicit funds and early in the spring of 1879, the con- ditions being fulfilled, the committee purchased four acres of ground and began the erection of what is known today as the Recitation Building of Grove City College. It was completed and occupied in December 1879. The record of that achievement is quickly written and as soon read. But the achievement itself is none-the-less a notable one. It stands today as a great monument to the faith and courage and un- selfish devotion of the leaders of the movement and the community at-large that supported them. It was no easy task to secure the pledges in a community, then small and poor. Nor was the payment of the pledges a simple matter. In the erection of the building it was necessary for members of the first committee to pledge their own slender resources as security for money borrowed, for the new en- terprise. A failure would have meant disaster to them. Some paid their pledges by contributions of materials or by labor on the build- ing. But the difficulties were overcome and a vision became a reality. From that time on tae growth was a steady one. In 1882, a second building, now a part of the Physics Building, was erected. A small dormitory for women, built by Reverend Wm. J. McCon- key, throughout his life a staunch supporter of the institution, soon followed. This building was later purchased by the College. It was remodeled and is now known as the Music Hall. On Novem- ber 21, 1884 the charter of the Academy was changed by a decree of the Court giving the institution the full powers of a College. Even before this time college work had been given and from 1881 —22—— classes having completed collegiate courses of study had been grad- uated. The College continued to grow and it became evident that new facilities were needed. And on December 23, 1886, the matter was officially discussed by the Board of Trustees and it was decided to _proceed with the erection of a new building if sufficient money could be raised to justify the action. The President of the College was authorized to solicit funds and shortly reported that $9,000.00 had been pledged. Additional ground was purchased and the erec- tion of the present Administration Building was undertaken. It was completed on September 1, 1888. It was a great forward step. It, however, laid a burden of debt on the College and probably was one of the factors that made necessary an important change in the character of the College that was to take place a few years later. The period up to 1894 might well be known as a period of foun- dations. From very humble beginnings the institution had become a College with a substantial campus and group of buildings. It had secured an experienced and able faculty and most important of all, it had established a reputation for ‘the solid character of its work and the worth of its aims and ideals. During the period there had been a steady expansion of its work. The faculty had grown and the names of those early in- structors mean much to the students of that day and some of them, to students of a later day. In such a paper as this it is not pos- sible to name them all, much less value their contributions. One cannot overlook, however, the contributions of James B. McClelland and John A. Courtney, members of the first college faculty, who spent the remainder of their lives in the College, and Frank W. Hays and Samuel Dodds, who, coming a little later, served it so long. Among others who might be mentioned are Miss Ella Kinder, R. C. VanEman, W. S. McNees, Homer Rose and Horace Dodds. Of the contributions of the members of the Board in those early years no praise can be too high. To quote the first President, “To their wise and careful administration is largely due the success of the College. Severely economical where economy could be practiced with safety, generous even to personal sacrifices when the resources of the College were not adequate to its plainly evident needs, in- vesting every dollar of a sadly insufficient income where it would count most for the advancement of the College, in season and out of season they gave the College their time, their money and their consecrated service.” Among the men who served for a longer period, a ogre who never failed in their support of the College were W. A. Young, Thomas W. Dale, R. C. Craig, Newton White and J. C. Glenn. In September, 1894, while the College had property valued at $100,000.00 it was in debt; and needed additional equipment. There were fears that unless help could be secured the College might fail to meet its bills and that all that had been accomplished would be lost. Up to this time the College was a community en- terprise. Most the resources had come from the sale of stock in the enterprise to people either living in the community or within a radius of a few miles of it. Now it was realized that outside help must be secured if the College was to endure and grow. The Presi- dent of the College approached a number of leading men living at a distance from Grove City among whom were Mr. J. N. Pew, Mr. S. P. Harbison, Major A. P. Burchfield, Mr. Edward O'Neil, Rev- erend Wm. N. McMillan and Reverend Joseph T. Gibson of Pitts- burgh. . An interesting story is told of Mr. Ketler’s approach to Mr. Pew. When teaching at Scrubgrass there developed an opening in the principalship of the Schools of Parker City then a thriving oil community. He went down to investigate the position and while there was entertained at dinner by his former teacher, Mr. Pew, who was then starting in the oil business. During their visit Mr. Pew said that he felt it would be wiser to give up the teaching profes- sion and go into business with him. He saw no very attractive fut- ure in teaching. While the outlook for the oil business was attrac- tive and he felt they could make a success of it. In 1894, the inc1- dent was recalled and in approaching Mr. Pew, Mr. Ketler said, “Mr. Pew, years ago you asked me to go into business with you, now I have come to ask you to go into business with me.” After discussing the situation Mr. Pew agreed to take a place on the Board of Trustees if Mr. Harbison, Mr. Burchfield and other Pittsburgh men would join him. They agreed but with one im- portant condition. Up to this time the College was a stock corpor- ation. Mr. Pew and Mr. Harbison felt that the arrangement was not satisfactory and advised that the stock feature be eliminated so that the College might be incorporated in the class of eleemosynary in- stitutions. On Novemeber 4, 1894, the stockholders met in the College Chapel and without a dissenting voice voted to give up their proprietary rights in the College and make it possible for the College to be placed in the class of public charitable institutions with a self- perpetuating Board of Trustees. The unanimous action is all the a) Yee more unusual and commendable when it is remembered that there were 256 stockholders representing different religious denominations and maintaining different attitudes toward the College. The necessary changes in the charter were made and on January 2, 1895, the new Board was organized. The officers were: President, J. N. Pew; Vice-President, Reverend Wm. H. McMillan; Secretary, J. C. Glenn and Treasurer, Wm. A. Young. The Fin- ance Committee included, Major Burchfield who was appointed the Chairman, Mr. Harbison and others. Mr. Dale was Chairman of the Executive Committee, Dr. McConkey was Chairman of the Committee on Instruction and Mr. O’Neil was Chairman of the Library Committee. The new Board was not content merely to conserve the achievements of the past. They were quick to realize that much “needed to be done. At the first meeting a survey was taken of the needs of the College and steps were taken to meet those needs. As one reads the record of the meetings of the Board, one comes to look on it as a record of progress. There are few meetings that do not record achievements, more or less notable, or the consider- ation of ambitious plans for the future. Among the problems that received the attention of the Board during those years were: the enlargement of the Faculty and the establishment of new departments, the increase of salaries and the reorganization of the system of bookkeeping. A safe for the pro- tection of records of the College was purchased. The college prop- erty was surveyed, plotted and revalued. The insurance was in- creased and under the leadership of the Finance Committee the fin’ ances of the College were put on a sound basis. New property was purchased. Sewers were laid and sanitary improvements made. The Music Hall was rebuilt. Steam heating was installed; lawns were graded; walks were laid and the athletic field was improved. One of the notable events of one of those early Board Meetings was the announcement by the Chairman of the Library Committee, Mr. ‘O'Neil, that Mr. Andrew Carnegie had contributed $500.00 to the College for the purchase of books. The importance of a Library was early recognized. The records of the early eighties mark the start of it when the young President agreed to furnish $100 for the establishment of a Library if the Trustees would add $200 to it for a similar purpose. The growth, however, had been slow and Mr. Carnegie’s gift was most cheering. Nor did his interest in the Col- lege cease with that gift. Shortly afterwards he erected the Car- Si negie Library Building which has since served the growing needs of College and community and at a still later date gave twenty thousand dollars to the endowment fund of the College. The Library which received such an impetus at that time, has in recent years had a steady and substantial growth, largely due to the generosity and leadership of Mr. James H. Hammond, for many years Chair- man of the Library Committee of the Board. today it is the center of the intellectual life of the College. Impetus was given to the science work of the College by the Board of Trustees. Mr. Pew was especially interested in this phase of the work. A wing was added to the Administration Building to house the work in Chemistry. The present Science Building was remodeled to house the work in Physics. Laboratories were estab- lished and generous appropriations and gifts were made for equip- ment. New and experienced teachers were secured and since that time the place of Science in the undergraduate life of the College has been a steadily enlarging one. In 1904, the Colonial, a dormitory for young women was built by Mr. Pew. When it was opened, it was considered one of the finest structures of its kind in the country and even yet must be ranked high among such buildings. No man could have given more thought or attention to the building of his own home than Mr. Pew gave to the planning, erection and furnishing of the Col- onial. He believed that beautiful surroundings have an educational and elevating influence. The building reflected this idea in its beau- tiful furnishings and appointments and since that time the Colonial has not only served as a home for many hundreds of girls but through them has made its influence felt on the campus and in the larger community. A few years before an institution was started under the lead- ership of the College which received the generous support of Mr. Harbison and Mr. Pew. It was and is today known as the Grove City Bible School. Its aim is to bring to the community leaders from the various fields of Christian thought and achievement. It has never attempted to be merely popular or entertaining but rather to make its appeal thoughtful, constructive and evangelical. Many of the outstanding leaders and scholars of the Churches in this and other lands have appeared on its platform. During this period largely through the generous gifts of Mr. Pew, Mr. Harbison and Mr. Henry Buhl an endowment fund was established. To that fund in later years, a great addition was made in —26— the campaign carried on by the Trustees and alumni of the College. And in recent months through the Endowment Campaign the friends of the College have added to it in a truly magnificent way. Early in 1913 the present Gymnasium was dedicated. It may almost be said to mark the end of that period in the history of the College which had its origin in 1895. Many of the members of that Board had laid down their labors. Mr. Harbison, Mr. Burchfield, Mr. Young, Mr. Glenn and others had died in the few years pre- ceding that date. Just before the completion of the building in Nov- ember 1912 Mr. Pew, who for so many years had been the Presi- dent of the Board, was suddenly stricken in his office. And shortly after its dedication, in 1913, the first President of the College, Isaac C. Ketler, who had been identified with it from its origin was suddenly cut off. Thus in less than a year the College lost the President of the Board of Trustees and the President of the Faculty. It was a crisis period and there were many who were anxious about the future. The College was fortunate in having on the Board a small but important group of men who had served on that body for many years including Mr. O’Neil, Mr. Buhl and Mr. Wilson A. Shaw who are still serving on it as well as a group of younger men who had been elected during the few preceding years and who had assumed the responsibilities laid down by the older Trustees. And it was from this group that the Board chose a President, Mr. Frederick R. Bab- cock, who was to be the leader in that critical period and under whose wise leadership the College continues to prosper. One of the features of the summer work of the College at that time was a graduate school of Philosophy. Dr. Alexander T. Ormond of Princeton University, recognized as one of the country’s leading philosophers had been for several years a teacher in that school and a trusted friend of the President. When the Board of Trustees was seeking a man to become President of the Faculty, in what seems almost a providential way their attention was turned to him. At a personal sacrifice he accepted the presidency of the Col- lege. His reputation as a scholar gave assurance to the World at large that the standards of the College would be maintained. His knowledge of the College gave confidence to the Faculty. In the comparatively brief period of his service he accomplished much. He had a great vision for the College. He reorganized the Faculty and enlarged it. He rewrote the course of study. And he inspired those with whom he came in contact with his spirit and ideals. In spite of ill health he worked on, until suddenly in December 1915 he died while on his way to visit his brother at Elderton, Pennsylvania. Thus in barely more than three years the College had lost three leaders and was just entering the trying period of the War. The time alloted does not permit more than a brief review of this period of the history of the College. We are still in that period and so close to it that a correct appraisement of its achievements is more difficult. During this period the campus has been largely extended. Memorial Hall was built in 1914 by the Family of Mr. Pew and stands as an enduring monument to the constructive work of Mr. Pew. And only recently they have greatly enlarged and beautified the Colonial which is a silent, though unnamed, memorial to his interest in the College and the young women who attend it. In the Samuel P. Harbison Fund, the Family of Mr. Harbi- son have provided a magnificent endowment for the Department of Bible and the distinctly religious work of the College. In no more fitting way could his spirit and influence on the life of the College be perpetuated. Only recently, the memory of Major A. P. Burchfield has been perpetuated in a beautiful way by his Family in the establish- ment of the Major A. P. Burchfield Scholarship Foundation. But interesting and important as are these substantial mem- orials, even more important is the continued interest of the families of these men in the College and the definite and personal assump- tion of their responsibilities on the Board of Trustees by their sons. In this latter period of College history, the Board has shown the same spirit that characterized their predecessors. In all the difficulties and problems that faced the college during the war and after it, there has been the same vision, the same confident courage and the same generous interest. When the difficulties seemed to loom unusually large to the President of the College he has ever found confident and reassuring support in the members of the Board and in the actions of that body. There are few colleges which owe more to the Board of Trustees, past and present, than does Grove City College. In this period, under their leadership the Faculty has been largely increased, the student enrollment almost doubled and the financial resources of the College have been more than doubled. One of the developments of recent years has been a growing sense of responsibility and an increasing measure of support on the pal 7 a part of the alumni and former students of the College. Always loyat and ever helpful, it was not until after the death of the first Presi- dent that they set themselves to a great task. And in establishing “The Isaac C. Ketler Memorial Foundation” they accomplished a task that at first seemed little less than impossible. In the recent Endow- ment Campaign they have assumed even larger responsibilities and their achievements have been more substantial by far. I feel that I must bring this paper to a close, however, faulty or inadequate it may be. I realize that it has been only possible to touch briefly upon a few of the events of college history in these fifty years and these perhaps not always the most important. I have not attempted to emphasize the dramatic side of this story although Sir William Ramsey in writing for a British Audience says: “The story of achievement is so remarkable, and so characteristic of Am- erican life, that it seems worth our attention in Great Britian—not as a model to imitate, for that would be possible only under condi- tions totally unlike those which exist among us, but as a record of achievement, and as a measure of one kind of educational machinery. The success must appear so incredible to European readers that I am almost afraid to tell the story. Yet it is one of those truths that are too strange for a novel, one of those things that no one dare invent. or could exaggerate.” I have not been able even to mention all the important names. of the College history, much less recite their contributions to it. The development of many phases of the College has been overlooked. We had said nothing of athletic history and nothing of war records. in °98 and the World War. But though this paper may fail to re- call these services, the records are not lost: they are indelibly written in the College itself. That is the true and enduring record. It is the monument of the vision, and courage and sacrifices of those who as trustees, teachers, students and friends have believed in it and given to it. But before this record closes a word should be said about the community. The College was in its origin a community enterprise, and it has never lost its close relationship to the community. It has undoubtedly contributed to the community but it has also gained much from the community. It has had not only the generous fin- ancial support of the community in every time of need. It has had not only the sympathy of the community in every difficulty and period of crisis; but it has drawn from the spirit of the community many of its finer ideals and it has gained much from the religious eg ee, atmosphere of the community and the sturdy moral character of its people. Through the years, the College and community have gone forward hand in hand. In the last few years the College has owed much to the generous support it has received from the General Education Board of New York which was established by Mr. John D. Rockefeller. In the period following the War the Board generously aided the College by granting substantial sums for current expenses.and in the Endow- ment Campaign made the magnificent pledge of $100,000.00. This aid and the helpful and sympathetic attitude of the officers of the Board encouraged the Trustees of the College to launch the recent endowment campaign for the College. Another factor that contributed to the success of the Cam- paign was the aid of the Board of Christian Education of the Pres- byterian Church. The cooperation of the officers and members of the Promotion Department as well as the ministers and laymen of the Church were of invaluable assistance. As to the record of those who have gone out from the Col- lege in these fifty years, and that, of course, is the most important record of all, no one could write it in full and I shall not here attempt it at all. They have gone out into many vocations and all over this country and into foreign lands. On the whole they have made worthy contributions and at times notable ones. Throughout its history, the College has sent out a, perhaps, unusually large num- ber of men and women who are rendering a distinctively public service in the teaching profession and in the Christian Church. The past, the present, and the future generations of students have justi- fied and must justify the College. Fifty years of history has been written. That record, all who will can read. The record, if not spectacular, is, at least, substan- tial. The College, first of all has aimed to serve the needs of the community and in serving to uphold sound standards of scholarship and conduct and to maintain its loyalty to the Church and the fundamental principles of Christianity. It is realized that while much has been accomplished, much remains to be done. The College now enters upon its second half century with a full realization of the tasks confronting it. There is no tendency to minimize its problems but the record of the past gives confidence to the hope that with the support and. cooperation of the friends of the College it will go forward to even greater usefulness and service. To quote Mr. Joseph Newton Pew in a letter written late in his life to Isaac C. 5 — Ketler, “If we all work together and work all the time we are sure to have a great College.” PRESIDENT KETLER: Among the great leaders of higher education in Western Pennsylvania, History will record the name of the next speaker. He is a product of higher education of this district and after rendering distinguished service in distant fields came back to be the leader of a great forward movement in the life our great neighboring Univer- sity. Few men can speak with more authority on the history of edu- cation in the Commonwealth than he. And it is with pleasure that I introduce Dr. Samuel B. McCormick, Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh, who will speak on the subject, “Fifty Years of Higher Education in Pennsylvania.” “FIFTY YEARS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA” ADDRESS By DR. SAMUEL BLACK McCORMICK Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh Mr. President and friends of Grove City College: I esteem it a valued privilege to have a part in these anniversary exercises. Grove City College in the visible and concrete expression of the work, covering a period of 37 years, of its founder and president, Isaac Conrad Ketler. Dr. Ketler took the theological course in Western Theological Seminary, receiving his degree in 1888: but it happened that a part of his course was taken with my own class (1890) and in this sense he was a classmate of mine. This ac- quaintance thus formed soon developed into friendship which re- mained unbroken until his death in 1913. Dr. Ketler was a man of rugged honesty, positive character, untiring industry, high ideals and lofty conception of the duty he owed to God and to his fellow- men. Neither Allegheny College nor Westminster was far distant, but he had in mind for the new school a service to the community and particularly, I think, to the public school system in the training of teachers of higher rank, which neither of these colleges or other colleges farther away had at that time even thought of rendering. The spirit of service to the community and to the Commonwealth, which he put into his college was one which was greatly needed then and is as greatly needed today. That spirit has grown as the oo Bee College has grown and under the administration of his son, Weir C. Ketler, it continues in all its original power, manifesting itself in a constantly increasing measure and variety of finely effective endeavor. I know no college which exceeds Grove City in its am- bition to render the largest possible good to those who come under its influence and to use its resources to its utmost in devotion to public welbeing. The class of 1880 to which I belong in Washington and Jef- ferson College entered upon its collegiate career in 1876, the year Dr. Ketler started the school at Grove City. The subject assigned to me, Higher Education in Pennsylvania During the Last Fifty Years, covers the exact period of my life, from my freshman year until today. For this reason I shall present very largely my own observations during this period, a method of presentation which will necessarily have its limitations but which will also have some ob- vious advantages as well. Even as a college student I recognized the fact that the American College, the distinctive educational crea- tion of the American people with a history of which any nation might be proud, was not making its work count for as much as it should. It was very early in my life after leaving College that I resolved that if ever the opportunity came to me, I should put forth effort to enlarge the field of its influence and to extend the reach of its beneficent activities. That opportunity did not come to me until 1897 and long before that time Dr. Ketler with much the same mind was actually doing what I had only dreamed. It is a notable fact that the changes in higher education which have come about in America have happened within this last half century. The curriculum of the College fifty years ago was with trifling exceptions, the curriculum of the College one hundred and fifty years ago. Twenty-five years ago in preparing a sketch of my Alma Mater I happened upon a comparison of Harvard, Princeton and Jefferson College in the fifties which showed that these three Colleges were substantially alike in faculty, student body and material equipment while now they are as unlike as three institutions of learn- ing could well be. The American College of fifty years ago and the American College of today are of course basically the same; but they have been affected by the spirit of a new age which came in after our civil war and which differed greatly from the period which preceded AU: Before 1800 the following Colleges were established in America: Nes a 8. 1. 1636 Harvard, now Harvard University. 2. 1692-3 William and Mary. Now taking on a new and mod- ern form and curriculum. 3. 1701 Yale. Now a University. 4. 1746 Princeton. Now a College and Graduate School. 5. 1753 University of Pennsylvania. Began in 1740. Char- tered 1753. Medical School 1765. Law Professorship 1790. 6. 1754 King’s College (Columbia). “Now a University. 7. 1765 Brown. University in name only. 8. 1766 Rutgen. 9. 1769 Dartmouth. 10. 1783 Dickinson College and Law School (1834-1890). 11. 1787 Pittsburgh. Now a University. Academy 1787-1889. Western University of Pa. 1819-1908. Became Univer- sity 1892. University of Pittsburgh 1908. ‘12. 1787 Washington and Jefferson. Jefferson Academy 17787. ; Washington Academy 1793. Jefferson College 1802. Washington College 1806. W. & J. 1869. 13. 1787 Franklin and Marshall. 14. 1793 Williams. 15. 1794 Tusculum (Tennessee) 16. 1794 University of Tennessee. Now a University. 17. 1794 Bowdoin. 18. 1795 University of North Carolina. 19. 1795 Union College. 20. 1798 ‘Transylvania. The dates of the following may or may not be correct: 21. 1696 St. Johns. Annapolis. 22. 1742 Moravian College for Women. 23. 1723 Washington (and Lee) 1749) 24. 1776 Hampton-Sidney. 25. 1785 College of Charleston. 26. 1791 University of Vermont. It will be noted that this list includes 26 Colleges of which 6 to-wit—1. Pennsylvania 2. Dickinson 3. Pittsburgh 4. W. & J. 5. F. & A. M. 6. Moravian for Women, are in Pennsylvania. Added to these six the following came into existence up to and including 1876: 1807 1815 Moravian College—Moravian ocecccccscssseeenesnensces Bethlehem Allegheny—Methodist onncecceccnccssssssssuncesssssnsensennees Meadville ALE Cae Li, Lo: 24. Zon 26. sHye 28. rep 30. Bil) S2} 33: 34. 32 36. ai 38. BY: 40. 1826 1832 1833 1842 1846 1846 1849 1850 1852 1853 1856 1855 1858 1863 1862 1864 1865 1866 1867 1867 1867 1869 1869 1869 1870 1876 Lafayette—Presbytentan 4 en ee ee Easton Pennsylvania Col.—Lutheranr 22..cecseceeceseseeeseenteo Gettysburg Haverford— Friends yee ea ee ee Haverford Villa Nova (Augustian (Roman Catholic Villa ..... Nova BucknellBaptist ye ee eee Se ee Lewisburg St. Vincents—Roman Catholic (charter 1870) Beatty Waynesburg—Presbyteriay ccsccsesscesecceecsiree Waynesburg Geneva—Reformed Pres. oecconsmccsmecsne apeie). To Beaver Falls Westminster—United Pres. o..c.ccccssceee New Wilmington Beaver (Women)—Methodist. Now dead (or living in Jenkinstown School) Irving—Lutheran (dead) ccecccccseccssseccescenceee Mechanicsburg Albright--Evangelical 22) 2e 7s oo ee Myerstown (Founded 1881—Chartered 1895) Tusquehanna University—Lutheran ........... Lelins Grove Pennhsylvamig tated acme eth in ps State College (1855 Charter 1859. Farmers High School 1874. Charter: (“Penn State College”) Pennsylvania Military College .csccccccsscccsccsscescsemeeen Chester Swarthmore-—Hrends i Vain coe as a Oe Swarthmore Lehigh University (Charter 1866) ccc Bethlehem Lebanon Valley—United Brethren on Annville Muhlenburg—Lutheran 2. ccccccccscssecssecsessmseeseeseee Allentown (66?) Cedar Crest (Women)—Reformed ....... Allentown La Salle—Roman Catholic ..ccccccccecccscssscssnseneee Philadelphia Ursinus---Reformed i. ya. eee Collegeville Wilson (women)—Presbyterian 00000... Chambersburg Pennsylvania (women)—Presbyterian ........... Pittsburgh hiel—-buthetatl alee eee Fee ee ee Greenville Grove City—-Presbyterian spree oe Grove City From 1876 to the present six colleges have received charters, making forty in all, to wit. 1878 1878 1880 1884 1883 1905 Juniata-—Dunkard eos See Huntingdon Duquesne University—R. Catholic ow... Pittsburgh Bryn Mawt-s-P rien iis Mn eB aoa Bryn Mawr Temple University—Baptist 2 ecccscceccsescncss Philadelphia Seton Hill (women)—Roman Cath. ........... Greensburg Carnegie Institute of Technology ou... Pittsburgh (If Drexel Institute (1898) is of college rank these fig- ures should be seven and forty-one) So far as institutions of learning are concerned, only six dy eae have come into existence since Grove City and while one of these was Bryn Mawr in the East, a college distinguished for its devotion to scholarship and another of these was Carnegie Institute of Tech- nology in the West, an institution which has already contributed much to practical science, yet it is obvious that it is not in the estab- lishment of new institutions of learning we are to find the story of what has happened in the realm of higher education in Pennsylvania in the last fifty years. Rather in my opinion that story is the story of the University and of the trend of education following the founding of the Univer- sity in America. When the centennial year dawned there was no University in this land of universal education. The nearest approach to it was the University of Pennsylvania, whose Medical school was established as a part of the University in 1765 and which instituted a professorship of Law in 1790. Yet even in this most ancient Uni- versity the relationship in 1876 between the scholastic and the pro- fessional parts of the University was too loose and casual to justify any serious claim that Pennsylvania had yet become a University in fact. Before the year closed, however, the University had come into being in the near-by city of Baltimore when Johns Hopkins was born. Here was America’s first University and out of it has come much of what has influenced and directed the course of events from that time forward. This is not the place to tell the story of the early beginnings of this famous University under the presidency of Daniel Coit Gilman; the assembling of a small group of eminent scholars from America and Europe, the flocking of young men avid of knowledge and ambitious of scholarship, to sit at the feet of these distinguished men; the researches; the seminars, the productive re- sult of these studies published and given to the world to fire other youth with like aspirations; but out of it came the real University of Pennsylvania; and Harvard and Yale in 1887, and even Princeton (1896) anticipating the Graduate school which might justify the name of University: then Clark University (1889) and the Uni- versity of Chicago (1892): then the State Universities, which had the name from their beginning but which were merely Colleges sup- ported by public taxation. The University of Pennsylvania had just removed (1872) to West Philadelphia and was given the op- portunity of which it quickly availed itself, not only to expand its curriculum but to develop its scholarship as well. In 1876 it had the College of Liberal Arts, its law, its medicine, and its University hospital: it was ready for its own scientific school, which included a Chemistry, Engineering and Architecture; then Music: then Dent- istry: then the Wharton school: then Graduate school: then Vet- erinary and the rest. Under the same inspiration Dr. Holland gath- ered under the Western University of Pennsylvania charter, schools of Medicine, Law, Dentistry and Pharmacy. No one can forget how in Clark University, under the inspiring leadership of G. Stanley Hall, who gathered also scholars from the whole University world, the story of Johns Hopkins was repeated: how when Senator Stan: ford gave millions for the founding of a new University (1891) on the Pacific Coast, David Starr Jordan took with him from Indiana University a group of brilliant youth who became the nucleus of another coterie of scholars: and how William Rainy Harper went out from Yale to try the experiment of establishing on new lives, in the second city of America, a University which, with almost un- limited financial resources, could select from any other University its most brilliant men and set them to work to establish there a center of learning of scholarship and inspiration which in time would make an irresistible appeal to the youth of the middle west. What a mar- vellous providence that there was ready for this awakening a Alman, a White, a Harris, a McCosh, a Hall, an Elliott, a Harper, a Jordan, a Pepper, a Low, a Butler, an Angell, a Northrup and the others who caught the splendid vision and who were capable of creating, under the inspiration of this vision, the American University. THE COLLEGE AND THE COMMUNITY In 1876 the Colleges of Pennsylvania like all other colleges of the land, were Colleges and nothing more. The towns in which they were located were endured if they were endurable: but they were only a convenience to furnish dormitories for the students whose only refuge was the homes of the citizens. It did not even occur to the Colleges that any duty was owed to the community in return for the taxes of which they were exempt. The town was universally at violent odds with the gown. A sharp line was drawn between the College and the community. The College was superior and admitted it with a somewhat supercilious air which put the common people outside of its sympathy and life. It was a college, an insti- tution which cared for scholarship and culture and confined its efforts to inculcate a love for these only in the students who were in the class rooms. It seemed to care no more for Education as such than it did for making steel rails or threshing machines. The public schools and their teachers were foreign to their interests and normal schools were despised as an inferior institution. Professional schools, ONY bake then almost entirely propriety, and separate were of the same order as the mill and the manufactory and not educational institutions at all. The curriculum was Latin, Greek, Mathematics and Philosophy with opportunity for French and German. The student was sup- posed already to know English tho occasionally there was a professor who loved literature and inspired in his students a love for it like his own. Chemistry was taught from a text book, the students privileged to watch the professors perform certain spectacular experi- ments which sometimes were successful. Physics was a form of mathematics and botany was an attempt to verfy the text book by an appeal to nature. Biology was only a pious attempt to disprove Darwin’s origin of species and the text book which was most effec- tive in this was written by Agassiz, the really great teacher in Har- vard. In Economics the students learned the righteousness of free trade, because all the text books were written by College professors who believed a tariff an invention of Satan, a little later going out from College to learn quite quickly that what they learned was not so. Psychology, what there was of it, was entirely introspective. Ethics was a closed in affair which had nothing for the students after the first hundred pages for it was yea and amen from the first word to the last. The way I have described this curriculum seems only to disparage it. I have the intention rather to indicate its narrow limitations. As a fact it was much better than it would appear from this description of it. If the College knew no science, the Colleges had in them such men as Gibbs, Henry and others, and conceived the physical world a mere convenience to be endured, very much as the theologians considered the human body, yet it did have a high regard for the human mind and spent effort to train men to think— with I sometimes imagine, considerably greater success than Colleges are achieving today. If the College of 1876 had a narrow curriculum, it stuck to it, with few excursions into the unknown, and the stu- dents knew a whole lot about it when they got through. Not to disparage, therefore, but to exhibit is my aim. When I remember my own father who was physician, who prepared me for the sopho- more class in College, who knew all the mathematics taught in his day, whose light reading was Plato and Horace and Telemaque in the original, who was a trained chemist and was accustomed to make his comments on Joseph Cook’s lectures on the Trinity in chemical for- mulae, I realize that the College of the period before 1876 did for the student some things the modern college does not do; but the college of today is a vastly different institution, even if some believe pore it is not better. It teaches English even if it has abandoned Greek. It teaches Science, and employs a scientific method, even if it makes mathematics elective. It assumes that its graduates can find a noble field for services in the public school system and in the world at large and prepares them for their altruistic life career. It covers a broad field in Ethics and fortifies the student against the time when he will face the hard problems of practical life. If it does not teach. philosophy any more effectively, it does open to him the powers of the mind and does give him a stronger hold on the realities of life. The world is no longer a neglected physical thing but is a throbbing bundle of energies which man must learn to know and to subdue to his own intelligent will. If it does not give the student the same mastery of the classics, it does make clear to him that language and mathematics and science and philosophy alike are but instruments for the revealing and development of his powers of personality and are to be used for the noble and inspiring purpose of enabling him to accomplish a finer work in the service of his fellowmen. Personally, I think the College today is a vastly better institution than it was in 1876, wider in its outlook, broader in its sympathies, more intelligent in its objectives, wiser in its curriculum ‘and more effective in its achievements: but whatever may or may not be true as to this, the college today is an altogether different insti- tution from what it was in 1876. John Henry Newman said in 1852 “If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of society. Its art is the art of social life, and its end is fitness for the world. It neither confines its views to particular professions on the one hand, nor creates heroes or inspires genius on the other. Works of genius fall under no art; heroic minds come under no rule; a university is not a birthplace of poets or im- mortal authors, of founders of schools, leaders of colonies, or con- querors of nations. It does not promise a generation of Aristotles, or Newtons, of Napoleons or Washingtons, of Raphaels or Shakespeares, though such miracles of nature it has before now contained within its precincts. Nor is it content on the other hand with forming the critic or the experimentalist, the economist or the Engineer, though such, too, it includes within its scope. But a University training is the great ordinary means to a great but ordinary end; it aims at raising the intellectual tone of society, at cultivating the public mind, at purifying the national taste, at supplying true principles to popu- lar enthusiasm and fixed aims to popular aspiration, at giving enlarge- ate brake ment and sobriety to the ideas of the age, at facilitating the exercise of political power and refining intercourse of private life. It shows him how to accommodate himself to others, how to throw himself into their state of mind, how to bring before them his own; how to influence them; how to come to an understanding with them; how to bear with them. He is at home in any society; he has com- mon ground with every class; he knows when to speak and when to be silent; he is able to converse; he is able to listen; he can ask a question pertinently, and gain a lesson reasonably when he has noth- ing to impart himself; he is ever ready yet never in the way; he is a pleasant companion, and a comrade you can depend upon; he knows when to be serious and when to trifle with gracefulness and to be serious with effect. He has the repose of mind which lives in itself, while it lives in the world, and which has resources for its happiness at home when it cannot go abroad. He has a gift which serves him in public, and supports him in retirement, without which good fortune is but vulgar, and with which failure and dis- appointment have a charm.” Herbert Spencer in his tractate called Education, the education which is of most worth, states in order of importance, the activities which constitute human life: “1. Those activities which directly minister to self preservation. 2. Those activities which, by securing the necessaries of life, in- directly minister to self-preservation. 3. Those activities which have for their end the rearing and - discipline of off-spring. 4. Those activities which are involved in the maintenance of proper social and political relations. 5. Those miscellaneous activities which make up the leisure part of life, devoted to the gratification of the tastes and feelings.” John Stuart Mill unites these two interpretations of Education in his St. Andrews rectorial address of 1867: ‘Whatever helps to shape the human being—to make the indi- vidual what he is or hinder his being what he is not, is part of his education. Education in the narrower sense is the culture which each generation purposely gives to those who are to be its successors in order to qualify them for at least keeping up, and if possible for raising, the level of improvement which has been attained. Univer- sities are not intended to teach the knowledge required to fit men for some special mode of gaining a livelihood. Their object is not to make skillful lawyers, or physicians, or engineers, but capable and cultivated human beings. What professional men should carry away with them from a University is not professional knowledge, but that which should direct the use of their professional knowledge, and bring the light of general culture to illumine the technicalities of a special pursuit. Men may be competent lawyers without general edu- cation, but it depends on general education to make them philosophic lawyers—who demand, and are capable of apprehending principles, instead of merely cramming their memory with details. And so of all other useful pursuits, mechanical included, Education makes a man a more intelligent shoemaker, if that be his occupation, but not by teaching him to make shoes; it does so by the mental exercise it gives, and the habits it impresses. It is a very imperfect Education which trains the intelligence only, but not the will. No one can dis- pense with an Education directed expressly to the moral as well as the intellectual part of his being. The moral or religious influence which a University can exercise consists less in any express teaching, than in the pervading tone of the place. Whatever it teaches it should teach as penetrated by a sense of duty; it should present all knowledge as chiefly a means of worthiness in life, given for the double purpose of making each of us practically useful to our fellow-creatures, and of elevating the character of the species itself-exalting and dignifying our nature. A University exists for the purpose of laying open to each succeeding generation, as far as the conditions of the care admit, the accumulated treasure of the thoughts of mankind.” The biological aspect of Education insists upon the real and practical as the only rational basis of the speculative and the ideal, that the fundamental utility of it shall have recognition; and that it shall develop self-expression and responsiveness as of primary worth. Perhaps G. Stanley Hall has best expressed the psychological aspects of Education “Experiments on the senses, motion, time of psychic actions, fatigue, pain, rhythm, etc., now take most of the vital problems of perception, association, attention, and will, into the laboratory; they quadruple the power of introspection while ob- viating all its dangers; they shed new light into dark corners; and they have already reconstructed many old doctrines. . . . In the mod- ern laboratory, conditions, whether of a bit of nerve fibre or cell of a normal human being are varied indefinitely and really enlarge human experiences. Men sleep on balances with apparatus that record the slightest change of pulse, respiration, circulation, heat; they test themselves with mild doses of narcotics, tonics and other nervines; AT they multiply or reduce air-pressures over the entire dermal sur- face; they select a square inch of skin, and with every known test, educate it for months; they fatigue definite muscle-groups; they measure the exact time and force of memory and will; they register diurnal and even monthly perodicies; they explore the hypnotic state; they apply the various forms of electricity, light, heat, sound, with chemicals for taste and smell.” And about the sociological aspect, Professor Hanus says: “Education demanded by a Democratic society today is an education which prepares a youth to overcome the inevitable dif- ficulties that stand in the way of his material and spiritual advance- ment; an education that from the beginning promotes his normal physical development through the most salutary environment and appropriate physical training; that opens his mind and lets the world in through every natural power of observation and assimilation; that cultivates hand power as well as head power; that inculcates the appreciation of beauty in nature and art, and inserts on the per- formance of duty to self and to others; an education that in youth and manhood, while continuing the work already done, enables the youth to discover his own powers and limitations, and that impels him through productive effort to look forward to a life of habitual achievement with his head or hands or both; that enables him to analyze for himself the intellectual, economic and political problems of his time, and that gives the insight, the interest, and the powers to deal with them as successfully as possible for his own advance- ment and for social service; and finally, that causes him to realize that the only way to win and retain the prizes of life, namely, wealth, culture, leisure, honor, is an ever-increasing usefulness, and this makes him feel that a life without growth and without service is not worth living. The only real preparation for life’s duties, opportunities, and privileges in participation in them, so far as they can be rendered intelligible, interesting and accessible to children and youth of school age; and hence the first duty of all education is to provide this participation as fully and freely as possible. From the beginning such an education cannot be limited to school arts— reading, writing, ciphering. It must acquaint the pupil with his material and social environment, in order that every avenue to know- ledge may be opened to him and every incipient power receive appro- priate cultivation.” While I shall in the remaining part of this address refer to changes of a specific kind which have taken place, I wish to insist med 4 ea that the real and enduring changes have been the quiet permeating of the entire educational process by the conceptions and ideals of the men who since the middle of the nineteenth century caught the new and higher vision and translated it into a program. As a re- sult interest in higher education has vastly increased; the creators of great fortunes have been inspired to give untold millions so that these may in turn become producers of educated men and women; colleges have come to look out beyond themselves, below, to increase the efficiency of the secondary schools, above, to encourage pro- fessional schools to incorporate more largely the university spirit, and into the whole field of education to rejoice in the increase of resources wherever endowments may come, whether the individual institution shares in the good fortune or not; in short, a new and vital spirit of altruistic endeavor for the public weal has displaced the narrow and selfish spirit which once so largely prevailed. This is what I see looking on what has happened in the last half century, a change marvellous in itself and potential of still more wonderful things in the immediate future. SPECIFIC CHANGES I have left for myself an inadequate part of my time in which to refer to the specific changes which have taken place in this fifty year period but which should have particular, as over against the general mention. Some of these concern the public school system of the Commonwealth with reflex influence upon the Colleges and Universities. 1. The outstanding fact already alluded to more than once, is the realization upon the part of higher education that it has rela- tionships and obligations which cannot be ignored. It is a section and only a section of a great system and this has come to consciousness only in the period we are considering. The public school system of Pennsylvania dates from 1835 and was at that time a marvellous movement forward in Education. As time passed defects developed and in 1911 the Enactment of the school code gave another forward impulse like to the original one in 1835. The reorganization of the state department, the utilization by the Commonwealth of the state normal schools and the raising of their standards of instruc- tion; the remarkable development of secondary education and the multiplication of high schools; and the insistence upon college prepa- ration even perhaps the bachelor’s degree in order to teach in their schools, constitutes one of the most absorbingly interesting chapters in the history of the Commonwealth. It all happened under my own wees, tae observation and in fifty years. In 1876 if the public schools of Pennsylvania were dying of thirst it was not the college which would have brought the cup of cold water. It was busy with its own job and this job had nothing to do with the schools. In the change which has come about higher education in part cause and part effect—that is, higher education inspired the progress, trained the teachers, and suggested perhaps the curriculum; and then, in turn, the new and more advanced requirements compelled higher education to adopt new and advanced methods and standards and above all a new spirit of cooperation, a new sense of responsibility, a new conception of relationship, a new understanding of its function in a process of which it was only a part though an extremely important one. COLLEGE AND THE PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL 2. Another phase of this same awakening was the develop- ment of the idea that the college did not end the educational pro- cess but that there was beyond it another step of that progress for which it was also responsible—namely the professional. Fifty years ago there were theological schools—the only educational institution which still insists on being purely and solely technical—and the college existed largely to supply these schools with men adequately trained for this advanced study. Fifty years ago there were medical schools—with few exceptions detached independent, proprietary, and conducted for profit. The college had no interest in nor relation- ship with these. Fifty years ago there were few schools of law— most young men registered and studied with preceptors, as I did forty-eight years ago, and of course the College had no interest in, nor relationship with these. Today the proprietary medical schools are all gone; law schools, a part of the university, are universal and to them prospective lawyers go for their preparation; new profes- sions have come into being, dentistry, pharmacy, engineering, edu- cation, business, accounting—and for all of these higher education has responsibility and recognizes it—a responsibility which consists at least in this—that “what professional men should carry away with them from a University is not professional knowledge but that which should direct the use of their professional knowledge and bring the light of general culture to illumine the technicalities of a special pursuit.” So large a place has higher education in the pro- fessions, that many of our graduate schools are engaged almost ex- clusively in the training of teachers who expect to make teaching a profession in school, college, university, and in administering the ai4o2- system of public instruction. In this place, on this occasion, I need not enlarge upon this even if time permitted; for when I recall the number of men and women who have gone out from this College, not into the ministry only but into teaching, I know that one great purpose inspired Isaac Conrad Ketler fifty years ago and that was to do this very thing for public education and for the ennobling of the professions in our country. . NEW METHODS INTRODUCED IN SCIENCE 3. I have witnessed in higher education in Pennsylvania another change—almost all of it taking place in the last fifty years— namely, the substitution of science for the classics and the laboratory with its scientific method for the form of instruction which had pre- vailed theretofore. This change is so radical as in itself to constitute a new period in higher education. I do not mean that chemistry and physics and biology and geology and astronomy and the other sciences had not been a part of the college curriculum. They were. But the method of teaching them and the change in the method of teaching all other subjects of the curriculum, resulting therefrom, was a complete departure from what had previously prevailed. Fifty years ago the College did not know what research was and had no particular concern with the extension of the field of know- ledge. Under the new impulse research lies at the very foundation of higher education and in the primary cause of all that has taken place in modern times. Fifty years ago the application of science to industry was not thought of; today our Mellon Institute and simi- lar departments in other institutions, are solving the problems of industry and multiplying its products marvellously. If there was a Pittsburgh in 1876 it was a city of iron and glass and other manufactures built by trial and error; today it is a community of industries proceeding out of the University laboratory. Fifty years ago higher education had to do with the inculcation of what was known; today it deals with the science of living. The scientist of today is not concerned with establishing a thesis; he is seeking after the facts whose ultimate is truth. We hear him abused as a des- troyer of faith and as a foe of religion; instead he is engaged in find- ing out what is and leaves to others the interpretations in which he is not interested or for which he may have neither the time nor the capacity. But his method is becoming the method of every seeker after truth, in every realm of human interest, and is gradually transforming both the material world and the world of human experience into a laboratory out of which eventually will come the feel Uh facts which, interpreted by high-minded and spiritually endowed souls, will lift men to higher thinking and finer living. It is now to the University and its laboratory all men come in faith that the solution of their problems will sooner or later be found. It has discovered the bacilli of virulent diseases, supplied the anti-toxin and has contributed to health and the prolongation of human life. It has delved into the records of the past, reading the story of how this planet came to its present form and home life in all its forms has evolved; and reading the story, too, of the doings of men so that history has become for the first time a reliable guide in instructing rational life and helping to direct affairs for the well being of gen- erations yet to come. The State appeals to the College and Univer- sity to help in the problem of government and economics and So- ciety. All this the teacher of youth is doing in these institutions of learning, and all this wealth of knowledge and power youth today has at his hand as he engages in preparation for the life he will live, more nobly and more beneficiently, we trust, than was possible for those of us who will shortly celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of graduation from College. HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN 4. Another development in the last fifty years is the higher education of women. If Pennsylvania had the first University in America, it also had the first college for women, for the Moravian College for women seems to date from 1742. Beaver College, whose work at Beaver ceased only a short time ago, was chartered in 1853: the Pittsburgh Female College did excellent work for years: Cedar Crest was organized in 1867: Wilson College and Pennsylvania Col- lege for Women were both chartered in 1869: Bryn Mawr in 1880: and Seton Hill, chartered only six or eight years ago, began its work in 1883. But as a fact, practically the entire history of the higher education for women has been written in the last fifty years. It is probably not an over-statement, made however without thought of instituting a comparison, to say that along with the first university and the first woman's college, Pennsylvania also has the most dis- tinctively scholarly college for women in America. Neither should we forget that women have long been admitted to most of the Col- leges and that in the last quarter century they have had a place in these not less important than that held by men. In the University of Pittsburgh there are perhaps more hundreds of women students than there were individuals when I became Chancellor in 1904. What the schools and departments of education and the Graduate Athy. | on schools of the Commonwealth are doing for young women in train- ing them for the highest positions in the public schools deserves a chapter by itself. Lack of time forbids anything but mention of Athletics which fifty years ago were in their infancy in College, of the pension sys tem for college and university professors set in motion by the Car- negie Foundation and now all but universal; of the provision, both in instruction and in discipline for the physical health of students; of the chairs established in Colleges and universities, for religion and ethics; of the increase of salaries, both in public schools and higher institutions of learning, so that the teaching profession is coming into a new position of dignity, respect and social importance; of the endowments which in these last years have come to our colleges, constituting a new epoch in philanthropy and creating vastly en- larged facilities for education; of the unprecedented influx of stu- dents into our colleges and universities, to the extent that if in fifty years our population in Pennsylvania has more than doubled, our school population has trebled, our school enrollment has quadrupled, our college students have increased seventeen fold, from 3057 in 1875 to 52,624 in 1924: of the improved mora! and religious life in college over that of former years, a fact in spite of irresponsible and oft repeated statements to the contrary: of the extension of instruction in that our universities and colleges are carrying their class room work out into communities far removed: of the College and University Council, established in 1895, which regulated the degree-conferring privilege, prevents the abuse of this provilege and the establishment of inferior institutions, the functions of this coun- cil now exercised by the State Board of Education; of the summer sessions, now quite general whereby students and particularly teach- ers have the opportunity to spend the summer months in profitable study: of the cooperative and clinical method, reviving, under the greatly improved conditions, the preceptorial method once prevailing in law and medicine, whereby the student of engineering, education, business administration, dentistry, pharmacy, etc., may unite study with practice in an effective way: of the standards of admission to college, much higher, and the quality of teaching, much better: of the professional schools which have become practically graduate in- stitutions: of evening schools, taking an ever increasingly important place in this larger institution: of the exchange of professors, both at home and abroad and the interchange of students: of the alumni spirit and the tremendously important part alumni are taking in 4 5 increasing the resources of the colleges and universities and in serv- ing upon boards of trustees: the large number of foundations estab- lished for the benefit of students and the colleges and universities: the Rhodes scholarships and the influence they have had, not only upon American scholarship but upon English-speaking peoples and their relations: and so on almost infinitum. In all this Grove City College has had an honorable and useful part. The lad of 23, only started in his own education at that time, did not dream of the great thing he was doing when he gathered here fifty years ago, that small group of boys and girls »which formed the beginning of this college: but he was initiating an undertaking which was to make history in fifty years and which is destined to make still greater history in the next half century. For myself and for the University of Pittsburgh, whose official rep- resentative I have been appointed, I bring felicitations upon the achievements of these years and genuine good wishes for the in- creased usefulness and prosperity of Grove City College in the years to come. All honor to Isaac Conrad Ketler and those who helped him to realize his dream; and all honor to his son and successor, Weir Carlyle Ketler and those who are helping him to make a better and greater college upon the foundations laid in faith fifty years ago. EREDIDENT KETLER: In the history of our modern civilization, as well as in the history of our own Country, the school has been dependent on the Church for its origin and inspiration and for much of its support. Grove City College has frankly recognized its debt to the Church and has ever had as its aim, the development of Christian character as well as knowledge and intellectual power. It is therefore most fitting that we should have on our program today one whose interest in young men and women has extended beyond the formal boundaries of the Church and has led him to give his time and powers to the leadership of the educational agencies of the Church of which he is a member. We are very happy to have with us Dr. Hugh Thomp- son Kerr, Pastor of the Shadyside Presbyterian Church of Pitts- burgh and also Chairman of the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church. He will speak to us on “The Church and Higher Education”. alia; pate “THE CHURCH AND HIGHER EDUCATION” ADDRESS By REVEREND DR. HUGH THOMPSON KERR Minister of the Shadyside Presbyterian Church President of the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church Eighty-five years before the founding of Harvard, the first institution of learning established in this country, and 150 years before the founding of Yale, five institutions of higher learning had been established on the South American continent. The University of San Marcos at Lima was established as early as 1551 and the University of Mexico in 1552. University education had gotten away to a long lead in the Spanish American countries. If edu- cation, as has been said, is the key that unlocks the door of civili- zation, then we ought to have had, in the Southern continent, the finest civilization of our Western world. And yet the republics of South America are considered among the most backward nations of the world. There is much illiteracy and much superstition there, and education, which followed the traditions of those early uni- versities, ran out into the sand. The educational ideal which was there established was too limited, too restricted, dealing almost entirely with other worldly subjects, looking upon the natural world with hesitation and crown- ing theology queen over all the sciences. Education which deals with only one department !of life always ends in obscuring some of the finer issues. It was so with the ancient learning of the Chinese and is true also of the restricted and limited educational ideals of the Mohammedan world. It is impossible to neglect the world that lies about us and the laws that operate without bringing tragic con- sequences upon ourselves. Like the old abbe who was found in the Rocky Mountains enjoying the glories of the world and its magnifi- cance, we must know this life well and understand the operation of its laws if we are to;enjoy the world that lies beyond the horizon. We have swung, in our day, to the other extreme, and as Dr. Matthews of Kings College, London, has said, for the first time in history we are making the experiment of trying to make per- manent a purely secular state. Such an experiment has never before been tried. Always there has been related to the civilizations of the egies past some common belief in the supernatural, but we are trying to develop a civilization on the theory that there is no necessary con- nection between civilization and religious faith, We have not yet established such a civilization, but we are experimenting with it. Many of our educational institutions have not yet sold their birth- right of spiritual freedom, but there is a tendency in many of our large universities to overlook the spiritual background and deal merely with things as they are. The battle today in our educational institutions is in the realm not of physical science but of psychology, and we are face to face with the problem of substituting for con- sciousness and personality a mechanistic view of the universe which has little regard for anything that is personal or spiritual. We are being told that the only permanent thing in the world is some form of energy. Matter itself has been reduced to energy and personality is only a refined form of energy. It is the atom or the electron or some knot in the ether that is permanent and such a theory of edu- cation, if persisted in and carried to its legitimate conclusion, will undo all our ideals and bring us to a disastrous end. It is too limited, too restricted, and is blind to the larger and finer issues of life. It is not necessary to argue here for the existence of another form of permanency in life which we call personality, and personality ought to be the ultimate end in all education. It has always been the standard by which nations and civilizations have been judged. Nations live by the names that endure in their records and not by the monuments or monoliths which they erect. The nation that lives is the nation that calls its roll of heroes, that erects its West- minster Abbey and records in its Hall of Fame the names of those who have lifted the nation to a higher level. Florence and Venice are equally magnificent in their architecture and monuments, but we love Florence best because with her the names of the great are asso- ciated, and when we think of her we think of Dante, Giotto, Michael Angelo and Savonarola. The nation that thinks by erecting some Tower of Babel she will enter into immortality is always mistaken. Civilization cannot be erected by brick and mortar, and all our mod- ern Towers of Babel that are built merely of things will perish. Al fred Austin has said that we have not outgrown our Babel building, and that men will continue to build towers as long as they forget God. Institutions that keep the spiritual viewpoint are the best asset of the nation, for out from those institutions come personalities that are in touch with life that is and life that ought to be. We associate personality with power. These are days when we maou, speak in terms of power, and the great problem of the modern world is the release of power—water power, electric power, chemical power —and we are being taught today that there are untapped resources of power within one’s own personality that may be released through proper understanding and proper education. A scientist has re- cently experimented on three young men. They were given the conventional tests and then they were hypnotized and told that they were physically weak. Then their strength was again tested, and under the suggestion of weakness their physical power dropped 30 percent. Then under the same hypnotic spell they were told that they possessed unlimited power and when the tests were made their strength rose to 40 per cent above normal. They were more than one-third stronger than they had ever known. Where did that extra strength come from? Not from the outside but from within the resources of those young men themselves. There are within each one of us vast reservoirs of energy if we could but release them. That is what the scientist is doing. He is releasing radio power, electric power, atomic power, and the business of education is to release the hidden forces of personality, faith and hope and love, and let them flow out for the healing of the world. Personality is associated with life, and when we speak of life we think in terms of relationship. The more contacts we have in life che deeper and broader our personalities are. The more of cul- ture we touch the more cultured we are. We are hearing a good deal in our day concerning cross-fertilization of cultures, meaning that it is necessary that the Orient shall have contact with the Occi- dent and that the culture of the East shall mingle with the culture of the West and bring forth a higher and better culture. What if there is an environment that is entirely spiritual? How poor and limited and weak our culture will be if it merely touches the things that are material and perish with use, and how rich and fertile that culture must be which is in touch with the things of the spirit. After all, personality in touch with the spiritual will do more for the world than ail the battle lines of far flung armies. History is full of examples of the dominance ‘of personality over the forces of life. The far flung Empire of Rome, with its vast colonial dependencies, fades away and out of that civilization there rises a single person- ality that endures and turns the current of history out of its chan- nel. Personality is associated with life that touches the spiritual world. We associate personality finally with service. In its lower ———t)(}—— form we think of life as the survival of the fittest, but in its higher order we come in contact with life that lives for others. The highest personality is God. He is the only perfect personality, for in Him thought and will and feeling mingle and operate, in perfect harmony. And of Him it is written that “God so loved the world that He gave.” True personality thinks in ‘terms of service. It does not seek to get, it strives to give. It does not seek to acquire so much as it seeks to contribute what it has for the welfare of others. This is the true educational ideal. Education is not for the building of life. It is a far better thing to make a life than to make a living. On every hand we are told that education wins the prizes of life and a place in “Who’s Who In America;” that in the end it outruns in the acquiring of wealth, the common uneducated crowd. That is a poor, low ideal. The school or college that is doing its best for the nation is turning out young men and women whose personalities have been so cultured that they believe not only in things as they are, but in the world that lies beyond, and more than ever before the nation needs good men, and if it has good men its future is secure. “Get your man,” says Thomas Carlyle in his incisive way, “and all’s got.” We congratulate Grove City on the attainment of fifty years of service. It is an institution like the world is the hope of the church and the hope of the nation. We pray that in the next fifty years there may be the same loyalty to the church, the same sincerity of purpose and the same fidelity in the things of the spirit to him whom we call Lord. BENEDICTION REVEREND DR. WILLIAM E. PURVIS College Pastor, Grove City College Wednesday, June 16, 1926 THE COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS June 16, 1926 by the HONORABLE CLYDE KELLY Representative of the Thirty-Third Congressional District of Pennsylvania THE VOICE THAT BEAUTIFIES THE LAND President Ketler, graduates of the class of 1926 and friends. It ee ong is an inspiration to have a part in this notable commencement oc- casion. In order to be here I left Washington last night after a strenuous day in the U. S. Capitol, the oldest building in the world which has been continuously the meeting place of a representative assembly. However, that Capitol and the ideals of democracy which it embodies, would be impossible without educational institutions. Only an enlightened people can rule themselves. I have been delighted with the expression of American ideals by these two honor graduates who have spoken so splendidly of the history of human liberty and the true meaning of a college educa- tion. It is high time that we deal as they have done with fundamentals and separate the essential things from the non-essentials. Sometime ago I witnessed the most marvellous industrial pro- cess I have ever seen—the making of radium. Six hundred tons of carnotite ore from Colorado were placed in huge vats and covered with 600 tons of powerful chemicals. Through complicated refining operations this great bulk was reduced to a quarter of a ton of material. It was then placed in kettles and boiled until evaporation had performed its work. This was repeated many ‘times until at last there remained a residue of a teaspoonful of radium. Twelve hundred tons reduced to a single gram but the essence thus secured was the most wonderful and precious element known to science. That radium is the philosopher’s stone sought by the alchemists of old. It has the power to break up atoms and transmute metals. It is a radiant body sending forth sparkling particles. Put that radium on a cancerous growth on the skin and those sparks beat down through the tissues, destroying the disease cells but working no in- jury to the good cells. Radium is a miracle worker but after all it is only educated carnotite ore. For education itself is the development of the inher- ent qualities in the individual. Education is never a pouring in from without; it is a developing from within. And there must be the spark within or the educational process will be as disappointing as though the scientists tried to extract a gram of radium from six tons of common field stones. Grove City College for fifty years has been a great refining plant. Into its portals has come youth, vibrant with potentialities, —52— but undeveloped and unconcentrated for action Through the years of study and training those possibilities have been discovered and developed. On successive commencement days young men and women have issued out into active life, equipped to radiate enlightening, uplifting influences through every circle of which they formed a part. In so far as they have proved worthy of their opportunities they have helped swell the community and national voice to a clear, vibrant chorus of justice, patriotism and true Americanism. Before William Penn and his Quakers settled this common- wealth of ours, its hills and valleys were the possession of the Dela- ware Indians. These original Americans had ritualistic services in the worship of the Great Spirit. One of the songs used in such wor- ship described the voice of nature. It told of various sounds blending into one mighty voice, the roaring of the thunder, and the chirp of insects; the crashing of falling trees and the sighing of the leaves in the breezes; the clamor of the great waterfall and the whistle of the little song bird; all blended into a harmonious voice, which the Indians termed “The voice which beautifies the land.” There is truth as well as poetry in this concept of the original Americans. There is a harmony in the sounds of nature, every one of which expresses instinctive and perfected qualities, the very high- est expression of which the instrument is capable. But mankind embodies no such automatic perfection. If men express their very worst qualities and such sounds become the dom- inant note, the result is the terrible discord of evil and destruction. Such a voice does not beautify, it scourges the land. To keep such discord from becoming dominant is the task of every truly educated man and woman today. Last week I visited the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition in Phila- delphia. Unfinished it is as yet, but already it forecasts a triumphant celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the signing of the immortal Declaration of Independence. At the entrance is a mammoth illuminated representation of the Old Liberty Bell, the most priceless relic of America. Upon every building and in every hall are to be found models of this bell of "76. The whole exposition seems to be built around this one historic object. Now let us think a moment. What makes Old Liberty Bell of such unmeasurable value? Is it because it has great money value? Its actual intrinsic worth can be measured by a few dollars. Is it ie because it is a perfect masterpiece of the bell founders craft? It is really defective for it was recast twice before it was accepted and finally split asunder. Is it because it is the largest or the oldest bell in America? No, it can claim no such distinction: Liberty Bell is priceless because when the deaf old bellman in Philadelphia pulled the rope on that far off Fourth of July, it sounded out the highest and best aspirations of patriotic Americans. Its brazen tongue spoke for all the brave souls who, in every Colony were pledging their lives, fortunes and sacred honor in the cause of liberty and self government. There were other voices in the air in that great crisis hour. Tories and Royalists shouted their vigorous and venomous protests against the folly of independence. Selfish souls who feared that war would disturb 'their ease and interfere with their money making, roared out their opposition. Reckless ones who welcomed war as an adventure shrieked in gleeful anticipation. These conflicting sounds canceled themselves, while the dom- inant note proclaimed. by the old bell overhead was the voice of those who seriously and solemnly declared: “Sink or swim, survive or perish, we are for the Declaration. Independence now and Inde- pendence forever.” I know there are new thought psychologists today who declare that the idea of a collective mind or common spirit in a nation is an absurdity. They argue that there can only be a collection of individual minds and wills, each separate jand distinct from the other. If that be true, America is a foolish experiment, doomed to wreck and ruin for it is founded upon shifting sands and not upon rock. America is built upon the faith that free citizens can and will cooperate for the common good, despite selfish interests. Some one has said that the five gospels of Americanism are the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Wash- ington’s Farewell Address and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural. I believe that the statement is true. Yet when you put those great charters into the crucible, the essence of each and all is the same—a sublime trust in ‘the people to choose, at whatever cost, the better part of the common good. The Mayflower Compact is a pledge of co-operation and obedi- ence. “In the presence of Almighty God and of one another, we do mutually promise to enact such laws as shall be for the good of the Colony, to which we do promise willing submission.” at es What ‘is the Declaration? A challenge to all the world that men are created equal, have unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and that governments derive their great powers from the consent of the governed. Then, most important of all, the pledge of co-operation for the national welfare. ‘Trusting in Divine Providence, and in the support of this Declaration, we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.” The Constitution of the United States is but the elaboration of one statement. “We the people of the United States in order to promote the general welfare, do ordain and establish this Consti- tution.” What is Washington’s Farewell Address? Only a solemn re- commendation from the Father of his Country to his beloved fellow citizens to sink individual, sectional, partisan interest in the greater glory of the good of all. Lincoln’s Second Inaugural is but a cry of faith from a break- ing heart that the people would suffer all things necessary in order that there “Might be preserved that form and substance of govern- ment which shall give to all an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life.” All of these great documents breathe the spirit of confidence that the voice of America will be a clear and compelling collective voice and will speak for the good of the nation in every trial time. That the faith so expressed was not misplaced is proved by the suf- fering and sacrifices of Americans from Lexington to the Argonne Wood; by the victories of peace from Washington to Coolidge. There have been times in our history when there seemed to bk a conflict between the interests of those who made up the citizenship of the United States at the time and the future welfare of the nation. Whether the newly established nation should purchase Louisiana, the great empire west of the Mississippi in 1803 was one of those questions. Senator Plummer of New Hampshire declared in the United States Senate that if “This western world be admitted into the Union it would destroy the might and influence of the states then in existence and compel them to establish separate, independ: ent empires. Still the voice of America spoke for purchase and the action taken made possible the United States of today. The national wel- fare took precedence over selfish interest. Came a time when Fort Sumpter was fired upon by the forces UAL fr of Secession. ‘Let the erring sisters go had been the demand, wide- spread and vociferous. Pennsylvania, on Mason and Dixon’s Line, must suffer |greatly in any war between North and South. The easiest, most selfish way would have been to refuse to aid in co- ercing the states of the Stars and Bars. But the very day of the attack upon Fort Sumpter saw Pennsylvania in action. The House and Senate suspended all rules and passed a resolution providing for the organization and equipment of the militia and ordering the Ad- jutant General to supply all men requested by the President of the United States. That was three days before Abraham Lincoln called for troops and explains why Pennsylvania soldiers were first in Washington for the defense of the Capitol. Action such as that in Pennsylvania and all the loyal states was possible only because there was a body of citizens who would vote and work and fight, not for selfish but for national interests. Theirs was the voice which indeed beautified the land, drowning out all discord and division. I want to earnestly urge the graduates of this class of 1926 to help create the dominant note of the voice of America and to help make it one which will beautify the land in this new, dynamic age of ours. You here today are a part of that great army of 1,500,000 young men and women who will this month of June issue forth as graduates from American educational institutions. Think of the power of such a voice, if it be united and harmonious, to demand that America measure up to her full possibilities for justice between man and man and between the nations of the world. You owe that to America. You would not have the education of physical, mental and moral powers without your Government. It has always been accepted that in a people’s government the people must be enlightened. Because you live in America, you have an education in reason, judgment and conscience aimed to make you self-governing citizens in a self-governing nation. A democracy can- not exist without schools. The faith of the fathers was that you would make such use of the schools that you would be worthy sov- ereigns in a free Republic. You owe it to the men and women of the generation you will succeed. In spite of all the mistakes and tragedies of that generation, there has been marvellous advancement along many lines. Material prosperity, through industrial triumphs, comes to you as an inheri- 156-« tance. Building over a swamp and morass of misunderstanding and conflict, that generation has built a bridge to serve you in the onward and upward climb. This generation has been like: An old man going a lone highway Who came in the evening cold and gray To a chasm vast and deep and wide. The old man crossed in the twilight dim, The sullen stream had no fear for him. But he turned when safe on the other side And built a bridge to spand the tide. “Old man,” said a fellow Pilgrim near, “You are wasting your time by building here; Your journey will end with the ending day, You never again will pass this way, You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide, Why build you this bridge at the evening tide?” The builder lifted his old gray head. “Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said, There followeth after me today A youth whose feet must pass this way. This chasm which has been as naught to me To that fair haired youth may a pitfall be. Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.” He, too, must cross in the twilight dim, How may you keep faith with those who comment so con- fidently upon your enlightened judgment? I believe that the essence of patriotic American service today is to be found in the spirit of voluntary co-operation for the common good. It must be voluntary. The communist who prates about the dictatorship of the proletariat talks loudly of freedom but seeks to forge the chains of class despotism. The Russian Red Guard is the symbol of a liberty which means ruthless, cruel crimes against human rights. Voluntary co-operation is mutual agreement built upon com- mon counsel and expressing the dominant will and voice. Through laws enacted by orderly procedure, we may deter- mine this dominant voice and I knew of no other way in a Republic where the people have power to enforce legislative action. Therefore, obedience to Constitution and laws is an essential Maher to patriotic service today. It is the key to the portal of the future welfare of America. The challenge of today to you, graduates of 1926, is to make certain that the Constitution and the laws be not betrayed and sold and that sacred covenants be not made the scoff and sport of crimi nals. Voluntary co-operation means more than obedience to law It means that active determined egorts shall be made by each indi- vidual to make the laws embody justice and righteousness. The motto of forward-looking Americans today is not “My country, right or wrong”; but “My country, if right to keep it right, if wrong to make it right.” ‘No American can perform his obligation of citizenship with- out casting his ballot on election day. The vote slacker is as vicious as the coward who refuses to aid America in time of war. Every election day is a national emergency day. A real emergency exists. every time the polls are opened for an expression of the people upon those who shall act as their representatives, whether in high office or low. I heard President Coolidge deliver an address recently at the opening session of the Congress of the D. A. R. He stated that the indifference of American citizens to their franchise obligations is the most menacing sign upon the horizon of Government. In the last Presidential election, he pointed out, not one half the eligible voters cast their ballots on election day. That is overthrow of the fundamental American principle of majority rule. It is govern- ment by default, rule by the minority, in whose train many evils lurk. Just now the newspapers are carrying glowing headlines and lengthy articles dealing with the Senatorial investigation into the recent Pennsylvania Primary Disclosures are being made of vast sums of money expended for the purchase of public office. But that is not the most sinister sign upon the horizon. Still more men- acing is the fact that with all the efforts made less than half the eligible voters of Pennsylvania went to the polls to put their ex- pression of judgment and conscience into the ballot box. I sincerely hope that every graduate of this class of 1926 will make a com- mencement day resolve and keep it—never to allow a primary or election to pass without registering the vote which is an American’s greatest privilege and obligation. wha. Ah, my young friends, I wish I could give you some magic formula, some patent panacea to resolve all your problems and meet all your obligations for the years that lie ahead. But there is none to be given. Only through the time tried, age tested qualities of faith and work and co-operation shall you mount the stairs of the life which means success. Faith in a people’s government, the form of government which alone justifies God’s great aggregate—the People. There are pessi- mistic, cynical voices raised today against democracy. “Keep power as far from the people as possible,” they say. ‘Use a sieve and sift out delegates who may sift out candidates for public office.” Such an attitude is that of the old, shrivelled doubters, never of vibrant vouth. It seems that the years which whiten the hair often dwarfs and narrows the heart and implants fear instead of courage. George Westinghouse as a young man caught a vision of the airbrake which he believed would transform railroad transportation conditions. He visited Cornelius Vanderbilt, President of the New York Central Railroad and laid his plans on the great magnate’s desk. But Vanderbilt, the pioneer man of faith, had grown old and weary. He scarcely deigned to look at the plans and then ordered the youthful enthusiast out of his office saying that “he had no time to waste on a fool who expected to stop railroad trains with wind.” Westinghouse returned to Pittsburgh, secured financial help and established a mammoth factory to turn out air brakes for every railroad in the world. Then he too lost his confidence in progress. Came a day when two young men from Dayton, Ohio, appeared in his office and laid upon his desk their plans for a heavier than air flying machine. Westinghouse, grown old and lacking faith, waved them away with almost the same expression used by the Vanderbilt of a former generation, saying that he “had no time to waste on fools who ex- pected to fly like a bird.” ‘No doubt we are the people and wisdom will die with us,” has always been the chant of the self centered, the narrow and the pessimistic. As you join the great American community as full fledged active members will you not counteract that ancient, base- less cry by holding your faith in man’s limitless development, in the progress which is the onward stride of Almighty God? Besides faith there must be work. You know that efficient ples study is labor and it requires study to make an efficient, effective American citizen. I am almost daily receiving letters from gradu- ates of high school and college which prove that the writers do not understand at all our dual form of government and the division of authority between the states and the nation. There is astonishing ignorance among Americans as to the actual conduct of government and the schools themselves are much to blame. Still, the practical is better than the theoretical. If you will study, vote, obey the laws and help to influence others to obey them, you will be, “not a hearer of the word only, but a doer also.” Faith, work and co-operation are the three Graces of Ameri- can citizenship and the greatest of these is co-operation. Your edu- cation has been valueless unless it has trained you for teamwork. The ability to co-operate with others for a worthy cause is a hall mark of the educated man, not only, but of the sane man in 1926. I heard a magazine writer tell of an inspection of an insane asylum. Out on the grounds, a mile away from the main buildings, he found a little guard, looking after twenty-five insane inmates. He watched for some time and then went up to the guard and said, ““My friend, what would you do if these insane men should get together and come at you all at once. You are not armed and you do not even have a club? What would you do if they should get together and come at you all at once?” The guard responded, “You belong right here, my friend. If these fellows could get together with anybody or with any thing they wouldn’t be here. That is the trouble with them. That's why they’re in an insane asylum.” It is a test of sanity to be able to work together. The world will perish when men cease to co-operate. I want to point you to the highest ideal possible to the mind of man—the team work of inaividuals for the good of all. Is that a visionary ideal too high for men and women? Some cynic has said, “Selfishness is the one motive which determines the actions of men.” That is a false doctrine unless perchance by selfish- ness is meant the personal satisfaction which comes through service of fellow men. There is a growing number of those who derive their highest pleasure from helping to make others happy. Everyone of these is a living proof that noble co-operation is practical and expedient. Are you looking for masterpieces? Look about you. There is adit WES more spiritual life in a living, breathing picture than can be found in all the galleries of the world. I know masterpieces of simple everyday people which are richer and finer than any artist has ever found. A little, white haired mother in my district sent her son to the defense of Old Glory in the World War. He enlisted in the Marines and was one of those who made Belleau Woods an im- mortal name in American history. Forty days and nights in the front line wore the nerves of himself and comrades to tatters. When they were sent back to a rest area unrestraint ran riot. There was a brawl in the barracks and a sergeant was shot dead. This lad was declared guilty though he tearfully plead his innocence. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in the penitentiary. Then the little mother proved that mother love never falters nor fails. She told me the story. ‘They blamed my baby,” she reported, “But he was a good boy, always good.” There were some doubtful points in the testimony and after a long time I secured the President’s approval of a reduced sentence and then a parole. In my private gallery of memory masterpieces there stands out this one of that mother welcoming home her boy. Her arms tightly holding him, her white head on his shoulder, tenderness in the dim old eyes, eager affection in the tear filled young ones. She said to me “My boy fought for America and now he’ll work hard for America.” No masterpiece on a wall ever showed such lights and shadows. Every now and then I see a friend who has been a letter car- rier in the postal service for thirty years. He has a wife and five children and only for the past two years has his salary been one which could be said to provide for an American standard of living. Yet this man “looks the whole world in the face for he owes not any man.” His children have been educated, three of them being college graduates My friend’s hobby is children. He belongs to a great fraternal organization which maintains a home for orphans. All his spare time goes to this home of which he is President. The little ones know him as “Daddy” and his presence brings great rejoicing. There is a masterpiece in my private gallery of this man whose name will never be carved on any roll of fame. I see him surrounded by youngsters, for whose safety and happiness he has worked and saved and planned. They love him and laugh with him. In his ——(} |< eyes is a glow and gleam and his face is lighted up as though with an inner flame. He says, “These orphans, without proper care in childhood, might drift into vice and crime. I am happy in seeing them get the right start so that they will become good and useful American citizens.” The lighting in that picture is indeed a master- piece. I have another masterpiece in my private gallery. A lad, Louis Caton, standing on the stage in Town Hall, New York City, pour- ing out with golden voice a flood of melody which charms a note- worthy audience of 3,000 persons. Leading to that triumphal night is a road, rocky and rugged, stretching back to a home of poverty. The boy fights his way up- ward from a steel worker’s place in the mills. Brave struggling, un- yielding determination, a singing heart! At last he stands before the critics and the musical artists and is acclaimed as a new star in the firmament of song. That night he said to me, “I am supremely happy when the people’s faces light up as I sing.” What painting on a gallery wall has more of touching beauty and inspiration? These masterpieces are not uncommon. Look around you with seeing eyes and you will find them: pictures that turn darkness into light and gray into gold. That little quatrain of Edwin Markham expresses a fundamen- tal truth: “I built a chimney for a comrade old, I did the labor not for hope nor hire, And then I travelled on in the winter cold Yet all the day I glowed before the fire.” Every fundamental of Americanism is based on the belief that regard for the rights and welfare of others can and will determine the action of individuals. Greater still than that is the faith of the Master Christian that men can and will radiate love for God through love of fellow men. Christianity is the scientific religion for it em- bodies the master passion, love, as the stimulus great enough to awaken response from the upward urging spark in the heart of every man and woman. If you will dedicate yourselves to the great cause of the com- mon good, I can promise you a place in any army destined to cer tain victory. All history records the one fact that for injustice and oppression and tyranny, doomsday comes at last. ee In March, 1919, I visited Coblenz, the bridgehead of the Am- erican Army in Germany. I saw Ehreinbritstein, the Gibraltar of Prussia, on the lordly river Rhine. It was an armored fortress on an armored mountain. Above it was a staff, where waved an emblem of hope and confidence to every believer in the divine rights of the people, and an emblem of warning to every believer in one man rule anywhere—the Star Span- gled Banner of America. Graduates of Grove City College, I bring you a challenge to enlist in the Army of the Common Good whose marching song of progress shall be sung in a voice which beautifies the land. I promise you that the battle will result in victory, that it will help to give American statesmanship without treason; legislation without lawless- ness; business without brutality; steps upward to the green gardens of brotherhood instead of downward to the jungle of selfish greed; the wisdom which is ‘better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold. And I submit to you, Graduates of Grove City College, that there are ideals well worth your while in this throbbing, dynamic, radio active year of 1926. evne ls PRINTED / IN U.S. A, 877188 Manufactured by GAYLORD BROS. Inc. Syracuse, N. Y. Stockton, Calif. Hi | nt il Hl i | | Mi Hl ) i wil Wii