Wayne County, Ohio - Chapter 22: History of the University of Wooster, 1910 (part 2 of 4)

Then the orator proceeded to show the demand for such justification. The effort to secularize education was never stronger. And among some most interested in "enlarging the bounds of human knowledge," prevails a disposition to dethrone religion. Yet we know that if religion appears, "it must be given the regnant place. This is due to the nature of religion. It was only when skepticism had prepared the way for a lifeless and powerless syncretism that the gods of the provinces stood peacefully in the Pantheon at the capital [Rome]. To say of religion that it may have a place which is not supreme is to say that it may have no place. * * * It is a Cjuestion of principle, and therefore of vital importance - whether in the educational system religion is or is not to be regarded as constitutive, architectonic and dominant." The so-called conflict of religion and science is then mentioned as making still plainer the demand for the strongest vindication of the right relation between religion and education.

The synod's spokesman then proceeded to a selected line of proof that "Revealed religion when set free, as Christianity, to exert its legitimate influence on the world, at once and in the most powerful and unique manner began to assimilate the elements of human knowledge, and disclosed its harmony with intellectual activity and its appetency for human learning. Moreover, it stimulated in the highest degree the human mind to increase and systematize its knowledge, and has thus revealed itself, historically, to be the most powerful incentive to the search for truth and unity, and the chief factor in the intellectual training of the race." After the necessary seclusion of Israel while the world was making progress in knowledge of nature and the arts, came New Testament Christianity with just this distinguishing feature - "assimilation and subjection and employment of human knowledge." The Greek tongue was used, introducing its dialectic philosophy and analysis. This was held to lie a unique fact and was regarded "as the intimation of God himself, in the pages of inspiration, that human learning belongs to religion." Then this most competent authority asserted as "one of the most impressive and instructive facts" in all church history that "from the apologists onward, in the schools of Antioch and of Alexandria, in Carthage and Hippo, in the old Rome on the Tiber and in the new Rome on the Bosphorus through the period of the ancient church, religion is the great inspiration of intellectual labor." The same influence is traced through the Middle ages and the universities of the Western world show its power.

This whole history was held to show that while a thirst for knowledge actuated this activity, it was "a thirst for knowledge which, in turn, owed its existence and intensity to the unicjue fact that Christianity alone among religions can assimilate and employ all the truths of human philosophy, of science and of literature." And our own continent but continues the demonstration. "When, therefore, a body representing organized Christianity founds and guides and fosters a university, it is only true to the spirit of Christianity as it is revealed upon the pages of ultimate revelation and as it is manifest in the entire history of the Christian church."

"We are, therefore," continues Doctor DeWitt, "no narrow bigots in respecting, as we do, in this young and growing university the normal union between religion and education. We do but act in harmony with the lessons of history when we make Christianity the underlying, the governing, the formative element of the system of training here adopted and employed. For if liistory justifies any system of education as the wisest in its methods, as the liroadest in its culture, as the noblest in its ultimate fruitage, it is that system which affirms that Jesus Christ, as represented by Christianity, is the author and finisher of human knowledge, as he is the author and finisher of religious faith." This representative address closes, after kindliest expressions concerning the retiring and incoming administrations, with these fervent words : "We thank God, also, in this secularizing age, and take courage, confident that the triumphs of the past are but the pledges and harbingers of greater triumphs in the future, as, under God, we shall do our part in bringing all science, all philosophy, all literature and all art into subjection to Him who is the head of all- intellectual principality and power and into unity with Him who is Himself the ultimate and eternal truth."

The ceremonies (if it he right to use that word concerning proceedings far more characterized by simplicity and conviction than ceremony) were continued by a charge of deep seriousness from the president of the board of trustees, Dr. John Robinson. The incoming e.xecutive was I>idden in expressions as firm in their authority as they were gentle in their conveyance of personal feeling: First, to recognize the times as "peculiar, auspicious and hazardous." Mind was said to be awakened. "Practical" education was clamoring. Rival systems of thought were contending. "Skeptical (|uestionings and startling hypotheses" were in the air. And society was breaking out here and there into "Nihilism." Therefore, second, this demand of the times must be remembered, viz : that the "education given here shall be thorough." Truth can be defended only with the "best weapons." Superficial cramming will not answer in times when the axe is laid to the root of the tree. "A broad curriculum and thorough training" must be forthcoming. Thirdly, the executive was charged to remember that students were being trained as members of society, and must be learning how to obey law and to preserve order in their coming life. "They will need wholesome restraint and direction. Submission to divine and human law is to be prepared for by obedience to college law. Let your government be paternal, forbearing, by appeal to manhood, reason and conscience ; yet peremptory if need be * * * but all pervaded

Especially, fourthly, was he bidden to keep in mind that "this university originated in and has thus far been conducted with supreme regard for the interests of Christ's kingdom. It is the child of prayer. It is the child of the church - I trust also of God. It is the agency of the church of this state for discharging her responsibility in the line of thoroughly trained, pious, devoted workers for all departments of society. * * * Ultimate and mighty help in the cause of Christ in the whole broad world - this is the primary end of its existence, the justification of its being, the vital spirit that pervades the whole organism. Not a narrow spirit is it, but the deepest and noldest that a human institution can seek. Where the trust, and peace, the love and hope and joy of the Christian prevail, the mind is best fitted for safe, deep and thorough investigation. Spiritual health is at once the best tonic and mightiest stimulant to intellectual vigor.

"The sheet-anchor of hope for our race is the church. But the church must have for her ministry men trained to defend her against all the subtleties of error, to set forth impressively her great system of truth and salvation, and to push her coiK[uests to the ends of the world.

"In the name of the dear old church, as well as of the board of trustees, 1 charge you, therefore, that you make this primary purpose of the university the chief end of all your arrangements, your government, and your teaching. Let your teachers be men and women who can say of all their work 'O Christ, I do this all for Thee.' consecration to God be the very centre

These impressive addresses helped to deepen the already almost oppressive sense of responsibility and insufficiency with which the inaugural address now came to be delivered. "I stand in some amazement," said the new president, after receiving the keys and kindly words from his predecessor, "before a sinewy, well-appointed, rvell-settled, yet still developing institution with impetus enough' already gained to go alone if its parent-body should forsake it, hut with such brawn and promise in its proportions that parental pride has no notion of such a surrender and would not listen to its saying 'Corban' for the world.

"Pushed forward with unexampled energy and success (so far as I know the history of church-colleges), attaining at once an honorable rank both as to resources and intellectual products, already planting its taught as teachers, and jireaching in many lands and languages by those to whom it has preached, sensitive to modern educational progress in its methods, while true to our changeless principles in its life, jj-, university all the cherished convictions of my life's experience and observation recognized and practiced. * * * j satisfied with the theory of the institution, charmed with its judiciously outlined courses of study; and shall be, I am sure, responsive to the many wants 1 perceive yet to be supplied. And 1 promise you faithfully to press them upon you and the communities you represent to the full extent of my opportunities and of your patience.

"Now, therefore, relying upon you (as I trust we shall lioth rely upon God), to the development and not to the alienation of this great interest I (daring reverently to use the words of my father's inaugural) 'give myself this day.' "

The theme of the inaugural address was "Intellect and Character." No disparagement of the first is necessary to the supremacy of the secoml. The powers of the human mind, nearly illimitalile, are to be exalted, directly in the interest of character. "For if intellect he so much what must character be, being more'" The asserted supremacy was proi'en liy demonstrating that character conditions intellect: i, in its exercise: 2, in its development; 3, in its safety: 4, in its usefulness: 5, in its enjoyment: 6, in its final result. The danger of "an insane devotion to the intellectual as opposed to the moral" was pointed out. The danger is a "return to an essentially sophistical period in which, man shall float about in an endless whirl of shallow thinking' with no fixed inoral com'ictions to guide and no religion to ennoble. Out of such a period will come a world as fully given over to a false intellectualism as ever the antediluvian world was surrendered to a false animalism."

1'he address closed with sentences tracing the relation of the theme to the university. "Gentlemen and l)rethren, we are certainly building into the largest and surest forces of human nature and therefore, hopefullv into tlie widest plans of the l)eneficent h'ather of all in llis education of the race, when we consider this princi])le settled for this institution and actixelv applv it to the institution's whole inner life. Our ideal must he that of a careful and thorough intellectual culture under the continuous pressure of an atmosphere of conscience and duty. This dominant idea must so shape our curriculum that no character-making study, gentler or sterner, shall be omitted. Our motto demands this. Christ and character are, in a certain high sense, synonyms. * * He taught its elements, exemplified its highest type, commended and commanded it to all men, and made the issues of eternity pivot on it. We shall never wander from Christ while we make character condition all our intellectual discipline and we shall never misconceive character while we hold fast to Christ and keep him first in our motto and our hearts.

"But to realize this ideal in its perfection, to transfer this theory, in all its ampl'tude, into practice, actually to form character - a far more difficult task than to train intellect ; to overcome moral inertia ; to neutralize poisonous forces ; to evoke motive power and supply direction - 'Who is sufficient for these things ?' Let us invoke the only power which can bring to pass that which we long, above all things else, to see accomplished."

This much has been necessary to make it manifest that the initial ideas and views and purposes had suffered no alteration or diminution up to the opening of this fourth period. The clear duty for the future was as evident as was the behest of his times expressed in the motto of William the Silent "Je maintiendrais." It became the inspiration of the next sixteen years in the history of the institution, and a modest development resulted as must always be the case where a living organism is maintained.

The period had need of strong support, as it coincided with an epoch of rapid development in neighboring institutions. Ohio State University, which began its marvelous career in 1862, obtained, largely because of the example of Michigan's liberality to Ann Arbor, an even more ample supply of the appliances appropriate to the most pronounced educational tendencies and demands of the day. Miami was reopened and Ohio University reinforced. Oberlin's semicentennial came on, signalized by donations of hitherto unexampled generosity. Tlie Case School of Technology was rising. Western Reserve University had passed through its period of struggle and was firmly fixed in the affections and benefactions of a large constituency ( and largely Presbyterian ) in Cleveland. The same was true, in various measures, of Marietta, of Hiram and Mt. Union, and Baldwin and Denison. Just on our borders flourished again dear old Washington and Jefferson, with the new and vigorous institution planted at Grove City, Pennsylvania, by that marvel of energy and capacity. Doctor Ketler. It was something to have kept fairly apace with the general advance of the whole column.

One of the first things to receive attention was the ec|uipment of the gymnasium building and its actual use for something more than an auditorium. This was accomplished and awakened an enthusiasm which it would be difficult to restore even for a much finer and more appropriate structure. Almost coincidently military drill was added, thus providing for a physical culture efficiently supplemental to the gymnasium. The services of competent directors were engaged from time to time and a continuous record for good health among the students was preserved.

In examining the reports for 1884-5 board of trustees noted a larger attendance of students, the whole number having reached four hundred and sixty. Already three hundred and seventy-seven graduates had been sent forth (in fifteen years) and they were widely dispersed in the world. Gratification is expressed by the board of trustees with the disposition of the varied work, with increased efficiency of instruction, with successful government, with progress in the preparatory department, and with the removal by payment and pledges of all accrued deficit. It is noted with pleasure that Wooster has been furnishing more candidates for the ministry than any other college in the country except Princeton and more in proportion to the number of students than Princeton itself. It was maintained that already the university was becoming what the first president declared on dedication day it would become - "an ornament and power to the church, a pillar and bulwark to the state, a chosen and cherished home of literature, the arts and sciences."

It was becoming steadily more evident from the practice of neighboring institutions as well as from the growth in equipment and curricula of high schools in Ohio, and their increasing employment of college-graduates as teachers and administrators, that some form of closer relationship between them and our university must be devised. It was not without serious study of the situation that the change was made from the original custom of receiving students only upon examination. A certificate plan was adopted by which the first place of the applicant should be determined under condition of sustaining the classification accorded during the first term. This became a general movement and was sanctioned Iw the Association of Ohio Colleges. It has done much to counteract the disposition, especially among the liovs, to sacrifice the advantages of the last years of the high school, and has largelv increased the number who press on from the secondarv to the higher education. This method of entrance was authorized l)y the board of trustees in 1885. Care was exercised from the first to ascertain the exact character of the work done in the accredited schools. Coincidently a change was made in the curriculum which gave a l)ctter arrangement of studies in the natural sciences and the preparatory course was broadened.

Through some years, up indeed until 1891, efforts were made to sustain and develop certain academies into more or less intimate relations with which the university came. Visits were paid to these academies and such moral (not pecuniary) aid given as was possible with the faculty force then available. South Salem, Poland and Central College academies were co-operated with. Green Springs Academy was accessible if the university could have undertaken its administration and the payment of its indebtedness. This academy and that at Hudson were liberally assisted by Western Reserve University, but without any reasonable return for the expenditure and were hnally abandoned (see Dr. Haydn's History of Western Reserve University). The whole academy idea, once so prevalent and so really serviceable in Ohio, was moribund. The high school provisions became so ample and accessible that support of the other class of institutions became unnecessary. Constant efforts are now made to interest the high school pupils, and especially by the state colleges, which claim to constitute the natural termini of the whole system.

Some progress was made as to attendance. The catalogue of '87-8 records the first freshman class, I think, which reached one hundred. Seniors were forty, juniors forty-nine and sophomores fifty-five. Counting all departments, the enrollment reached seven hundred and fifty-seven. The denominational machinery was invoked in a request to have a standing committee in each presbytery to keep the university before the churches, and each presbyteiy was asked to send annually a visitor. Propaganda was also sought through a little journal. "The Christian College." It promised to be valuable, but an unfavorable interpretation of the postal statutes made its continuance unadvisable. More liberal interpretations are now made and with great ad- \'antage to the college world. The hoard's meeting of 1887 had been considered in its records as "peculiarly glad and hopeful," in view of no deficit, increased attendance, and the completion of the twenty-five thousand dollar endowment of the Hoge chair of morals and sociology. This endowment was raised through painful persistence in finding smaller sums on the basis of William Thaw's initial subscription of two thousand five hundred dollars. It was intended to allow the introduction of a chair of biology. This was authorized in June, 1887, but we could instal it only inconveniently in the fourth story of the main building.

The baccalaureate sermon of that year was the call to "Go Forward" (Exodus xiv;i5). It was contended that our university was so clearly "of the stock and tribe of Israel'' that we might rightly interpret our circumstances as the call of Divine Providence to push on - though only omnipotence could open the way for us through seas and deserts to the borders of the promised land. The special plea was for the sacrcdiiess of our enterprise as against those who thought of it too much as a secular thing, and with no special coA'enant relation to God and his church. In much the same way the dedication of our university to the country through realization of our Presbyterian educational traditions was urged in the baccalaureate of 1888. "Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times." ( Isa. xxxiii:6.) It was the centennial, approximately, of our federal constitution and of the ftdl organization of our denomination in the first general assembly.

In June, 1890, the board of trustees approved of changes in the curriculum and the introduction of a larger scope of electi\'es in the higher classes. That improved curriculum went into effect at once ami constituted a distinct advance. Just at this time, also, came the missionary alcove in the library, with improvement of the gymnasium and the employment of an instructor, plus the enlargement of Old Music Hall. They were not great changes, but they facilitated our work and each brought its own gratification. The alcove owed its origin to the talent and self-denial of one of the professors (Notestein), who had gained a prize of three hundred dollars for an essay on an important politico-social theme and dedicated it to increasing intelligent interest in that which he has always and justly contended was WToster's constructive idea - the winning of the world to Christ. An important step was now taken in filling the hitherto vacant chair of Biblical instruction and com- Idning with it the pastorate of the college ( Westminster) church. The university was every way fortunate in securing, at some pecuniary sacrifice to himself, the Re\'. Edgar W. AATrk ('84), then pastor at Van Wert, Ohio. The board filled the chair and protested against the relinquishment of a thousand dollars of salary by the president in partial provision for the incoming professor. But that release of salary continued until the final vacation of the executive office in 1899.

The assistance of Doctor Work in teaching and in the pulpit was the more necessary that the means might be founded for enlargement of the main building. The board resolved (June, 1890) that, "urged and encouraged l)v the growth of the institution and the growing demands of the higher education, we ])roceed immediately to raise the sum of t\ventv-fi\-e tliousand dollars for additions to onr central l)uilding, and the additional sum of li\'e thousand dollars for additional heating a])])aratus now imperati\'elv needed." The svnod a|)|)roved, much begging was done, the fnnd grew and in June, 1891, the board "took recess till after the laying of the cornerstones this afternoon," It was i8()2 l)efore the work was coni])leted, at a cost (with new lal)oratories and facil- ities) of more than forty thousand dollars. We had reason to be grateful that just at a moment when further progress seemed especially difficult the legacy of Selah Chamberlain (elder of the Second church of Cleveland) came, most unexpectedly, to our help. The inspiration of this gift, ten thousand dollars, lifted us over the difficulties at once. The added accommodations were a relief lieyond what can be appreciated by those who have not passed through similar experiences of hampering restrictions and their removal. It was like a new life in some departments. The architect might facetiously call the architecture "factory-style" and the many windows did admit the "cauld, cauld blasts" of our occasional blizzards. But it was "factory-style" in the other and more important sense. We filled its larger spaces with the hum of enlarged intellectual industries. The improvement increased our library facilities, relieved our embarrassed hallways, and brought all the natural sciences into a new and deserved prominence. We thanked God and took courage.

In 1892 the granting of Master of x\rts in cursii was disapproved and the facult}^ authorized to carry into execution some plan for bestowing the Master's degree. But the execution of this decree was arrested for years by failure of the Ohio Association of Colleges to stand together for the muchneeded reform of a discreditable practice. Items of gratification appreciated b}' the board of trustees in June, 1893, were "enlarged preparations made in some departments for special study ; the healthy religious life of the university throughout the year, the increased interest in the work of the literary societies, tlie furnishing of the Willard and Lowell society Iialls, the success of Wooster's representative in the state and interstate oratorical contests: the encouraging growth of the post-graduate department, and the very large matriculation of new students during a year of great financial stringency." It was recorded that, "with the forty-eight thousand dollars expended on recent improvements," the university now represents contributions in property and endowments "of not less than half a million dollars." "It presents in its solid basis of property and patronage and in its unique relation to the Pres- Iwderian church of Ohio, a signal opportunity and a cogent argument for progress. Its present and possilde future value is becoming annually more evident."

From the beginning it had been felt that cottages for the young women were desirable. The feeling grew with experience and an organization of ladies had been formed to advance that interest. x\s early as June, 1884, the board of trustees recognized the need as one of highest importance, but it was not until 1895 that the donation of Mr. Hoover, made in 1894, could be utilized. The cottage bearing his name was opened in January, 1896, and proved at once helpful and attractive. The committee was fortunate in its selection of a place and the structure remains a worthy member of the new group of buildings, because a true cottage, at once homelike and convenient.

In the catalogue of 1894-5, as the twenty-fifth year was reached, a special declaration was made emphasizing the denominational relation of the university ; "The denomination to which this university belongs has, 'during this period, finally settled its own policy as to denominational colleges by erecting a special board to represent this great interest. The basal principles in the assembly in the wider work and the synod in the university are identical and it is certain that the churches will ultimately respond to the plans of both bodies." Allusion was also made to the general assembly's establishment of "College-Sunday," from which much was hoped. Through .this close relationship much that was gratifying had been accomplished in the twenty-five years past. "By further extension and intensification of it. the next c[uarter of a century will far surpass the record of the first." Only fifteen years are gone and already it is evident that these words were prophetic. Faith in the church, so confident in 1895, has abundant justification in the university of 1910 and will find further ground of assurance at the semi-centennial in 1920!

During 1894 (February) the present writer had opportunity to plead the cause of Ohio's many colleges before the Ohio Society of New York. In that plea Ohio was presented as not ashamed of the fact that most of her colleges were denominational. "She takes good care that not one of them shall be sectarian in any offensive or unchristian sense, and each one of them contains the neighborhood rejiresentatives of every form of Protestant faith." It was held that this condition of things was the logical secpient of the historical facts that Ohio was the first meeting place of the various populationelements in their new movements just after the Revolution and that all forms of church organization were planted very early on Ohio soil. It was declared to l)e in harmony with the noticeable fact that we had no metropolis in Ohio and needed none - our three great cities being ideally distributed for effectiveness in state control and for extended commerce and trade. Ohio has a claim to being the spot from which shall emerge the typical American character, and the typical American must come largely from the ranks of college-culture. It was claimed, moreover, that Ohio colleges were making a record in "drafting the l)est brains into the service of the world's moral and spiritual interest," and that "Ohio college ])eople, professors, trustees, patrons and students are happy in ])utting forth year by year a healing touch upon the whole vast world from which, Ohio men of New \'ork, you arc drawing your vast pecuni- ary gains." The many colleges of Ohio provide the choicest product of Ohio's greatest industry - that of "making men, the most men and the best men." Her numerous colleges are her "declaration of faith in the average man. She resiliates from Carlyle's Konigmann and "gigmanity" and from Caesarism and all that. She knows there is no aristocracy of brains. * * *

She holds to her heart the real source of her pride - those who in church and school and state have demonstrated that the tough resolution of medium or narrow circumstances hnds just the fibre it needs in the strong frame, the healthy brain and the high morals of her Tom Corwins and her Abram Garfields. * * * Instead of offensive discriminations, we open our collegedoors to all races, as to all fortunes. * * * Who doubts our need of men? And who denies the traditional belief of the race since Charlemagne's universities that the colleges are the seed-plots and propagating houses for men. * =1= * Men are not accidents. * * It recpiires the highest social vitality to start them, and the most assiduous care to protect them, and the most ingenious devices to direct them, and winds from all quarters to deepen their roots and straighten their trunks, and sunshine from favoring social conditions to stimulate them and the purest atmosphere for the leafy respiration of them and the richest soil for the burrowing roots of them. All, sirs, and all at their best - as when nature summons her marvelous energies to rear some incredible triumph of vegetalile architecture like a Calaveras pine four hundred feet high. The task and tax of every community that has ever risen to the elevated consciousness of Christian civilization is the rearing of men. It demands the supremest energies and repays the most la^-ish expenditures. And that is the reason Ohio's surface is dotted with colleges. And that is the reason why so many of them are so rapidly increasing in everything that helps to form and fashion manhood. And that is the reason they can afford the reproaches sometimes cast upon them, and even the partial disloyalty of those who overlook them, because they have faith that the waking* passion for man-making will presently overcome the passion for gewgaws and frippery. And then, sirs, they will be, eveiy one of them that does its work honestly, as large as any college had better be and as thoroughly equipped as every college ought to be. * * * Last of all, we extend the great purpose of Ohio, through her many colleges, from man-making to the making of public men. * * * What kind of public men do you want Ohio to produce? Are American statesmen needed to preserve and guide that which has demanded hecatombs of sacrifice to win and build? * * * Where then is the broad foundation to be laid which prevents men from liecoming doctrinaries with Guizot on the one extreme, or opportunists with Gamlietta on the other, and poises them as saYiors of the country with Thiers in France or CaYOur in Italy and our own peerless Washington? Where. I say, but in our colleger) in which eager youth are held in check to ripen, and fed while they grow, and stimulated to the noblest views of patriotism and cosmopolitanism before they go out to the frequently narrowing tendencies of practical politics? And in what colleges if not in Ohio's colleges? I believe in Ohio's young men of the twentieth century. * * * Aye, sirs, our past and our present assure us of the best material the sun ever shone upon. And the colleges of Ohio, linking hands with the whole secondary education, are pressing eagerly forward toward the goal of an ideal fundamental education of statesmen. * =i< * Jn the whole Ohio college policy there is nothing but that which has come through our great commonwealth's historical development. Nothing which does not already go powerfully toward manmaking for private life and public, and therefore everything to set forward and develop with a generous and confident loyalty."

The writer of this sketch w'as asked to introduce an admirable volume by Prof. John Marshall Barker on "Colleges in America," and wrote (in July, 1894) thus: "I cannot be unwilling to avail myself of any opportunities to turn the attention of the Christian public to the Christian colleges. It is a noble public and an equally noble object. I can conceive of no worthier thing than the care-taking of one generation that the next one, which must necessarily lie so long under its influence, and for which it is therefore so thoroughly responsible, should receive a Christian education. To ])Ut Christ at the center and make Him felt to the circumference (as Bungener said in speaking of Calvin's school-policy) is exceedingly difficult. But it is exceedingly important. It is. indeed, vital and pivotal." The dangers which surround this ideal were noted and traced to their causes in "general worldliness; speculative infidelity ; lowering the Bilile from supreme consideration ; false theorizing with regard to the limits of government and the lil)erty of conscience issuing in the demands for utter secularization of the states: the divided opinion of the church universal." These dangers were held to be both "imminent and actual. One section is thrown over towards utter secularism in public education by recoiling from a church education, exclusive and reactionary. The leading of the little child - the favorite indication of the millennium's arrival - is frustrated amid the clamor of the free thinkers and the uncertainty of the church and the (sui)posed) necessities of the state. We are slowly but surely, if we go on in this way, taking our children out of Christ's arms and our youth from l)eside his footsteps. And that is at once the most fearful siu against llim and the most terril)le injustice to them we could possibly commit. Adio can do anything to stay this destructive tendency? "God bless him," I would sav in Livingstone's spirit, "whoever he may be, that will help to heal this open sore of the world." I believed that Mr. Barker's book would help as I am convinced the astonishing success of the whole group of Ohio's denominational and Christian colleges has helped powerfully. These expressions of conviction are given space because they are but the common opinions of all who have given devoted service to AVooster L^niversity as to many others of the group mentioned.

No special effort was made to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary in 1895. The board of trustees recorded its "gratitude that the institution has more than fulfilled the most sanguine hopes and purposes of its founders in the Cjuarter century of its past history." By this we are to understand, of course, thankfulness for progress tozvard the original ideal. The attendance had reached an aggregate much beyond three thousand in the collegiate department alone - the graduates approaching eight hundred. The number of missionaries and ministers sent out had equaled forty per cent of the male graduates, and next in order followed the number of those who had entered the profession of teaching. Three hundred thousand dollars of productive and promised endowment were counted upon, buildings had been erected for astronomy, gymnastic instruction, and musical culture, with other such improvements as gave ample equipment for laboratory, library and literary work. The faculty had been enlarged and those now occupying the chairs had acquired invaluable experience. The inner history had been marked with unanimity and there had constantly been in attendance a large majority of Christian students fairly representative of the homes of the university's constituency. Coeducation had proved successful. Cases of discipline had been comparative^ infrequent, though a high standard of conduct had been required. Some gracious revivals had been experienced and the religious life of the university had been quickened constantly by earnest work on the part of the Christian associations. The outlook for further improvements was regarded as decidedly encouraging. Large advance in every direction was considered as not only imperatively demanded but as just within reach and the settled church relationship of the university was regarded as a sufiicient guarantee of large expectations.

^The twenty-sixth year ( 1895-1896) was the transition year to a much improved curriculum with additional electives. The attendance during the following four years was not c[uite sustained, probably owing to increasing dissatisfaction with the continued exclusion of intercollegiate games, a policy adopted in June, 1891. The totals, not reckoning post-graduate or medical students, but including summer students, were these: For 1895-6, five hundred and eighty-nine; for 1896-7, five hundred and sixty-five; for 1897-8, six hundred and thirty; for 1898-9, six hundred and ninety-four. Subtracting the summer students, the totals were respectively five hundred and forty ; four hundred and twenty-five ; four hundred and twenty-three ; four hundred and eleven. Regarding only the collegiate department, the totals were respectively : two hundred and sixty-nine ; two hundred and forty-three ; two hundred and forty-seven ; two hundred and forty- four.

At the close of the commencement exercises of 1897, on an issue connected with collegiate dramatics, the president tendered his resignation to the board, which had not sustained a policy to which he was conscientiously committed. It was to take effect at the close of the following collegiate year, the expressed cvish and hope of the president being that by special effort the institution might be entirely freed from debt. The issue was submitted to the synod in October, which put on record a declaration sustaining the president's position. In the following March, he stated that "the resignation placed in the board's hands at the last commencement and held in abeyance according to the request of the board, is now withdrawn, because the occasion for it then had been removed in his view- by the action of the synod at its last meeting, which has fixed the policy of the institution in the matter then under consideration. He then offered his resignation, constrained by the conviction that under the present circumstances the needs of the institution demanded the trial of a new policy for its development, i. e., an executive president. Fie wished to open the way for this policy and to do all he could to persuade the board to ado])t it." (Minutes Vol. II, p. 37.) The resignation was accepted, the services of the retiring executi\'e were continued in the chair he had already occu])ied (Hoge professorship of morals and sociology) and kindly resolutions were passed. Some gratifying things were mentioned in the board's, reports of 1898 (June). "The close of the administration of the retiring president leaves matters in an excellent condition for the one who shall be chosen to fcjllow^ him, who will add, we trust, another record of advancement in strength and influence to the already remarkable career of the institution.'' Thanks were tendered to the faculty for the "generous and self-sacrificing spirit thev have exhil)ited in contril)Uting during the past year one-tenth of their salaries to the linancial relief of the institution."

The presidency was tendered to the Re\-. Dr. J. C. R. Kwing, of the Presbyterian College at Lahore, India, but his missionary zeal would not i)ermit him to accept it. 'I'hereupon the board re(|uested the former president to continue in the discliarge of the official duties so long as would be neces- sarv. This tenure extended throughout the following college year. The board took a contented view of the year and a confident view of the future mainly because success had again been attained in relieving the institution from all indebtedness. "Hopefulness," the record reads, "seems to pervade all ranks that the university of Wooster is upon the eve of a new era of usefulness and prosperity." The board expresses the greatest anxiety that "the faculty in all its plans and work as well as the individual professors in all their contact with the students" should "labor unceasingly for the cultivation of the hearts no less than the minds of those committed to their training." The presbyteries were again rec|uested to appoint two visitors annually in order that the university might be brought into "closer and more vital relations with the churches." It was also advised that "earnest and successful pastors" should be invited to spend Sabbaths now and then in the college pulpit. A high-grade teachers' department was advised and the expediency of keeping in touch with the teachers of the state was urged. The board concludes : "Now is the time for all friends of AToster to join hands to push forward and enlarge the work of our beloved university. AVe must have half a million of dollars in the next ten years to equip the university so that she can offer all the ad- which any other institution can offer within the borders of our state. AAA must attempt great things and expect great things as servants of God. * * * Let our motto be : 'No second place' for Presbyterians in the educational field in Ohio."

In closing the review of this period, the financial aspect of it deserves notice. It proved, fortunately, the end of the system by which the president was to be responsible for the pulpit of AA^estminster church, general administrator, even to giving excuses, charged with the duties of a full professorship and still expected to represent the university among the churches, to plead its cause before the synod and to beg from door to door the funds necessary for maintenance and development. These various tasks could not all have been carried forward in any fashion but for the kind cooperation of the faculty, the timely help of the board of trustees, the confidence shown in the idea of the university in general respon.se by contributions and patronage. Perhaps it was necessary that this stage should have been continued for the first twenty-nine years of the university's career, with occasional help from financial agents - who found their work exceedingly difficult. But it is a matter of congratulation that so feeble and inadequate a policy should have been now and forever abandoned.

During this period there were dark clays, but there were also bright ones. Now and then the ledger closed with the balance on the right side. Just at the time of need came the larger donations, securing the Hoge professorship, the Brown professorship (in a single gift), the Hoover and Chamberlain sums, which secured the two building projects, the generous Pratt gifts, the most timely and helpful bequest of Judge Robinson, the property gift of the Aylesworth will and many another gift for scholarships and improvements. On the wdiole, while it was a constant struggle, there was at no time defeat, but always a reward of success in modest proportions.. One of the pleasantest memories of the years will always remain the generosity of the institution to those to whom it extended free tuition (and the privilege of giving a note to those wdio were neither children of the ministry or candidates for that office or the mission field). As early as 1885 the sum so given for that year reached five thousand forty-five dollars. In the following years it approximated four thousand dollars. In 1 890-1 it was four thousand seven hundred and fifty-five dollars. It was not changed despite the pitifully small sum of the annual contribution solicited to meet this drain upon the funds, until 1897, when it was reduced to one-half instead of full free tuition. The writer is thoroughly convinced that this generous view of the university's opportunity to serve the church from which its life was drawn, has had its reward, and that this policy has powerfully aided in demonstrating to the church that the university is an indispensable instrument in advancing the work for which it was founded - the frankly avow'ed object of w'inning the world for Christ.

The previous periods have shown us a development apparently arrested in some directions and not rapid as a whole: but they have given evidence of a solid foundation on which to build and of quiet confidence and bright hope concerning the future. Moreover, a distinct era w-as beginning to dawn - an era characterized by a general awakening of the educational consciousness. It was becoming manifest in the more generous profusion of our communities for secondarv education and the still larger generosity to the state uni- A'ersilies, as well as by the hitherto unprecedented contributions of the great fortunes to jirivate and denominational institutions.

Here was an o])portunity, not for every man, but for the larger man who might be ))rovidentially disclosed as Fitted by sjiecial gifts and experiences to meet the new demands. ,\nd not an ()])portunit\' for him alone, but for him in combination with all the forces which had been brought into being by the ])ast tweiitv-nine vears and those which were latent in the hearts of a noble constituency to which he might win new and strong coefficients.

The discovery was the Rev, Edward Holden (now D. D., LI.. D,), then jirofessor in Beloit College and the right hand of I 'resident Eaton in all advances for which friends and means were to be found. Professor Holden was born April 30, 1863, graduated from Beloit College, in 1888, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1891. He was recalled at once to his Alma Mater and continued there until chosen president here. The election occurred at a meeting of the board of trustees held in the First Presbyterian church on July 27, 1899. He was unanimously elected and, being introduced to the board, the record significantly says, he "cordially accepted the office, made some appropriate and effective remarks and requested that he might be set immediately at wurk." Here was the man ready for the larger handling of enlarging interests, one who could make way for his cause into the well-intrenched counting-rooms of the men of large business affairs to persuade them that their best-paying investments were to be found in man-making, as well as he could enlist the large-hearted women of means in an enterprise less directly philanthropic and emotional than the objects to which they had been accustomed to contribute. Robust and vigorous in body ; acute and intense mentally : strong' in the faitli of the "glorious gospel of the blessed God," and in that specific faith wdiich removes mountains and thoroughly convinced of the centrality and vitality of religion in education ; he was the man for the place as clearly as the place was for the man. President Holden made it evident at once and since that a man of strong wdll may be full of sympathy ; that high ideals are compatible with unwearied patience in their realization, and that daring initiative may be combined with unshrinking perseverance. Already accjuainted with the inner life of America's best colleges by personal inspection, he has added a careful study of the best institutions of the mother country, and has kept full}^ abreast wfith the demands of the modern college. Forcible in address and in the style of all written documents, his propaganda pellets and pleas have the effect of grape-shot and are like Luther's words - "half battles." Realizingtbe opportunity at Wooster, he refused within his second year here the tendered presidency of his o\vn admirable Alma INIater and soon thereafter repeated solicitations to another position of commanding importance. Replying that "a man must get his w'ork done,'' right manfully has he adhered to a task which most men would have deserted under similar temptations. One of our fellow-townsmen (editor Lemuel Jeffries) has written of him as the "up-todate president with brilliant ideas of a modern college as "possessing a peculiarly magnetic personality which has won for him success as a master of students'' ; and as "certain to secure grand success for the University through his wonderful zeal and energy." More recently the editor of The Interior (Nolan R. Best) has wn'itten of Wooster's president as "a man dominated liy an intense, idealistic passion for the upbuilding of Christian education and uniting therewith phenomenal gifts of business ability which had won the confidence of the hardest headed sort of practical men."

Nor must it be supposed that President Holden's entire energies are gp-en to the financial forwarding of the University. He finds constantly ways of cultivating acquaintance with and impressing uplifting thought upon the student body. The freshman class is entertained at his hospitable, home as they enter college life ; and the senior class is assembled for a final social benediction from Doctor and Mrs. Holden, reinforced for this occasion by the faculty and tnrstees. The president effectively presides in faculty meetings., taking part in all that concerns the internal intellectual and disciplinary and religious life of the University. He delivers from the pulpit the opening sermon of each term as well as the baccalaureate discourse at the year's close. He conducts the daily chapel exercises with lirief, clear, impressive and strongly evangelical expositions of scripture. On matriculation day, early in December of each year, he delivers an earnest and helpful address to those finally enrolled. multitude of special cases demanding aid of various kinds command readily his sympathy and help.

Under these circumstances, general and individual, success of a large ])attern might h.ave been and was confidently predicted. But there arose, in addition, special exigencies which gave yet ampler field for the forces of the new executive and excited all those latent in the University's constituency and powerfully aided to open the doors of access to generous interest and aid from without. The narrative of the eleven years may be traced, mainly from tlie records, in its main features, but, necessarily, many jfieasing details of tins brilliant period must be omitted.

The inauguration took ])lace on No\'eml)er 3, 1899, a day to l)e remembered for the exceptionally violent weather without and the exce]fiionally strong enthusiasm within. Trustees, faculty, alumni, students and many invited guests, filled and overflowed the large auditorium ( klethodist church). From two o'clock to five close attention was given to a ])rogramme, enlivened with music and punctured with student demonstrations of a very li\ ely sort. In the address of welcome the trustees, the faculty, the .\himni, the students, (jther institutions, theological seminaries, the synod of Ohio and tlie citizens of Wooster were all represented. It was to be expected that the dominant ideas of the Uni\-ersity's life would ap])ear at tlie fourth inauguration as they had ap])eared (as we have seen) at the three ])receding occasions. Mi-. Scovel said : "W e are near the .summit of things, tlierefore, in all we do today no need more imperative in the world of education today than an ideal Christian college. This institution does not pretend to have attained thereto, but it does claim to have erected that standard and to be pressing toward it steadily. Fail of it we may, in this and that particular, but lose sight of the idea we never will. The methods of approach to that ideal, the various particulars of decision as to what it may mean in this and that application of principle must be left to the united wisdom of the students, faculty, trustees, patrons and synod, all of whom have reason to hope for the guidance of the good spirit of God. * * *

Our great fundamental principle itself insures ultimate success, and this has been accepted without reserve by the president-elect. It is therefore with peculiar pleasure that I discharge the duty assigned to me and present the president-elect to the president of the board of trustees for the administration of the oath of office."

The second president, in behalf of the board of trustees, of which he was the presiding officer, impressively signalized the urgent demands of the times upon all educational institutions and quoted the strong utterance of Dr. John Robinson at a previous inauguration, with which our readers are already familiar. "Such, my brother, was the ideal institution,'' he then said, "in the hearts and minds of its founders and fathers. It is well to keep this ideal ever in the fore-front. For it is the plaster-cast that you and rve are to endeavor to reproduce in substantial and polished marble. We have no reason to be ashamed of our backing. Presbyterianism is a mighty power for truth and righteousness in the earth today. * * * By some it is esteemed the most potent force of Protestantism now existing." Emphasizing the representative feature of the Presbyterian system. Doctor Taylor was led to apply it thus : "This institution is the creature and agency of the Presbyterian church of Ohio. Of this church the synod annually elected is the representative. The synod, in its turn, elects a board of trustees as its representatives. The trustees in turn are empowered to select the faculty, including the president. * ^ *

The church of Ohio reposes faith in its synod ; the synod reposes confidence in the trustees ; they in turn, confide in the faculty and I may add it will be necessary for the faculty to trust the students and have faith in them. This whole system of trust being mutual, works both ways. * * And all must confide in the great church, the mother of all, for sympathy, encouragement and sufficient material aid to perfect machinery and equipment." Then Doctor Taylor eloquently impressed the "solemn weight of responsibility, solemn and dirdne," which rests upon the faculty and concentrates in the executive. "Bear- ing such a trust, you have a right to the confidence and support of all who are interested in the University. And this you have at the outset. * * *

That your career in this office may prove most honorable and glorious, for the welfare of men, the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom is our earnest prayer as Ave w'elcome you to this high sphere of duty." Dr. S. J. Kirkwood, connected -with the University from its opening, appropriately extended the hearty greeting of the faculty, assured that the new e.xecutiye was "in accord with the views that we, as a faculty, hold in regard to the purpose and work of Wooster." Dr. John C. Sharpe (principal of Blairstown, Pennsylvania) extended the alumni welcome as coming in the time of the "most prosperous era known to any land since the dawn of civilization," and "in the golden age of education when the growth of interest in higher education is far outstripping progress in any other human interest in our country. * *

For this mig'hty work we pledge to you the loyalty of AVooster's sons and daughters doing valiant service in every worthy vocation and in every clime throughout the whole world." George A. Custer (1900) assured the new president that the students believed in Wooster's past and were more than ever confident, nowc of her future. On the basis of their observation and e.xperience thus far they said: "You told us once you were on our side. We are on your side. You may depend upon us to stand by you. You may consider us henceforth your avowed friends. Let the compact of friendshi]) he signed and sealed, and it is our determination that our obligations he sacredly kept." Thus came to expression a bit of the true AAYoster spirit which is thoroughly characteristic of the whole forty years. Anything contrary has only been a ripple on the water's surface. The students have never subscribed to the notion elsewhere current that there must he hostility between those u'hom common pursuits and common aims should make the firmest friends. They do sometimes sing: "There'll he no faculty there," hut they don't act as though they believed it.

The brief address of Prof. Henry P. Smith (Lane Seminary) presented half humorously the practical side of the college executive "whose 'chair' must he the office-chair, his department the art of begging and booming and building." And yet, he said, that "vital, virile character was the paramount need of the Christian college," and that the "religious influences of the college determines the size of the delegation to the seminarv." Pie rejoiced that Wooster "is and ever has been honest with souls as well as with minds, loval to truth and to Idim who is the truth and courageousl)' claiming that highest scholarshi]) is in no wise inconsistent with Immhlest (liscii)leshi])." Dr. Trum- bull Lee (of Cincinnati) gave the synod's welcome. Most appropriately he emphasized the fact that Christian and secular education had come to the parting of the ways. He maintained that "Christian religious thought must be vitally articulated with all parts of a true educational system," and that "this can only he accomplished by means of schools not dominated by secular influences, but controlled by the church." In eight distinct but succinct propositions Doctor Lee showed just what can be accomplished in the way of an ideal Christian education by such institutions as Wooster. "The . educational climax," he contended, "is to educate the conscience and the will. Conscience and will must be influenced by a standard of right. That standard is found in the word of God alone." Eloquently he urged that "the church caring for her children, careful of their culture, strange to all alien forms of education that shut out of view her altars, her ordinances, and the hope and inspiration of her gospel, the church providing institutions with sufficient equipment and competent Christian instructors, is the church of the Firstborn, is the permanent factor of an imperishable civilization that underlies all our progressive steps into the future already dawning upon the world with latter day glory." Jacob Frick extended the greeting of Wooster's citizens, claiming that "the welfare of the University and that of our city are identical. * * * This

The inaugural address made kindly allusTn to the past and expressed a fine determination to maintain the same lines, hut with broad views as to the relations of usefulness which the University must maintain toward all professions and all the needs of society. Believing the L'niversity "always to have been hospitable to the highest and best intellectual tendencies of the times as judged from the standpoint of a progressive Christian scholarship;" he declared it to he his purpose to "urge the most modern and practical methods of imparting knowledge." He did not mean to he dictator. "The source of power in the University of Wooster is the synod of Ohio. To the synorl belongs the elective power of the board of trustees." That hoard "should contain men of sound judgment in finance, men who represent the great business interests of Ohio - also men of the broadest scholarship. * . * * The method of government in the Universitv of Wooster insures, through the synod, the spirit of fidelity to the standard of the Presbyterian church of .Vmerica. The synod aspires to serve the nation by training men for all the callings of life to intellectual honesty and independence of mind, but it desires to provide a safeguard to all benefactors of the college against false systems of thought being fostered and taught with its consent, in Wooster.'' With this declaration, so exactly correspondent to the original and oft-repeated utterances of the University's past, the president joined most judicious and winningexpositions of the relations he desired to maintain with the alumni, the students and the citizens of Wooster. It was difficult to tell which of the many applauded points of the afternoon elicited the greatest enthusiasm, but the two which stand out in memory most vividly were these ; The announcement of the purpose of H. C. Frick to build a twenty-five thousand dollar library building; and the grateful surprise awakened by President Eaton when in closing a remarkable tribute to the new president he affixed to him on the spot, by the authority of the board of trustees of Beloit College, the degree of Doctor of Divinity, as "an expression of their confidence and affection.''

There followed upon this auspicious afternoon an inauguration bancpiet rich in all the elements that could combine to make such an occasion significant and contributory to an intelligent and lasting -enthusiasm. "Three hundred and sixty guests," it is recorded, "sat down to a feast of \vit and wisdom which continued from seven to eleven." Reluctantly we must leave the contents of these admirable addresses untouched, though the aggressiveness of Chicago was so well represented in the breezy speech of William McSurely ('86) - now Judge IMcSurely - and Charles Krichbaum's idealistic and poetic tendencies found the spirit of Wooster and praised it, and though there was mingled wit and wisdom in H. B. -Work's words and those of Miss Mary Eddy. President Tliwing (Western Reserve) voiced the good wishes of all Ohio colleges, and all was closed by an admiral'le and arousing address ( Dr. R. V. Hunter) full of history and strong witli statistics, on "The Church and College." Again we hear the echo of original purposes as the demand is urged that the denominational colleges shall have a faculty of scholars, devotedly Christian, loyal to their denonvination hut enjoying the "largest liberty consistent with the genius of Christianity and the conviction of a denomination."

Vlmost coincident with the erection of the Erick library (of which more in another place) went forward such improvements in the main building as increased its conveniences, changed the old tower-form and iu-o\-ided neu' recitation rooms, d'he furrow for the foundation of the new chapel was drawn at the close of commencement exercises in June, 1900, and the president's \-acation was spent in foreign travel, partly concerned with study of old-world institutions of learning. The Irstorical statement of former catalogues tracing the svnodical origin of the Uni\-ersit_\- is continued with slight alteration in subsequent issues. This first year witnesses also the substitution of a ''scientific'' course for the former "literary" course, and the establishment of matriculation-day. The minutes of the board of trustees bear testimony to the new achievements and to the new hopes, enkindled by the "wisdom and labors" of the new president and pledge co-operation in his plans and policy for the "larger life of the University" appreciating most cordially his "enthusiasm and consecration." His "liberal yet firm and prudent policy" and discipline are recognized. Tbe marked increase in enrollment is noted and tbe restoration of intercollegiate games is approved. The president's home has been secured and a favorable financial report is presented, the total assets heing four hundred and eighty thousand six hundred and fifteen dollars and seventy-three cents.

In connection with questions raised in 1897 and '98 concerning the exact powers of the synod as owner and controller of the University, it was discovered by that able lawyer and devout Christian, Thomas McDougall, of Cincinnati. that no statute of Ohio legitimated the transfer of their trust to an ecclesiastical body by the trustees of any institution of learning incorporated under the general law of March, 1853. Since the control of the synod, involving care and support, had been tbe root-idea of tbe University from the beginning, it was necessary at once to remedy this tecbnical irregularity strangely unperceived for nearly thirty years - even when a special legislative act. admitting the election of alumni trustees had been passed bv the General Assembly at the instance of Wooster's board of trustees. Accordingly the lioard, in November, 1899, adopted the following resolution presented Iw Dr. Wm. iMc- Kibbin, of Cincinnati : "That the board of trustees will cordially co-operate with the committee of the synod of Ohio to olitain such legislation as will secure the control contem[)lated in the charter of the University." This joint effort to place the original relation upon a satisfactory legal basis obtained its desired result in the passing by the Legislature in April, 1900, of "An Act to Supplement Section 3751 of the Revised Statutes." The subject was brought again to the board's attention at tbe February meeting of 1901 in a paper by Doctor McKibbin and another liy Doctor Hills of Wooster. Both papers were referred to a committee to report at the June meeting of that year. Order was then taken. Doctor McKil)1)in submitted "Amended Articles, or Certificate of Incorporation of the University of A\'ooster, accepting the provisions of the act of General Asseml)ly ])assed April, 1900 (94 O. L., pp. 331 and 332), and known as sections 375 and 3751c of the Revised Statutes of Ohio. The articles were unanimously acce])ted and a copy was ordered to be sent to the synod "for its acceptance of the powers proposed to be conferred upon it." The synod accepted, of course. The essential part of the whole transaction may he most clearly apprehended by citing the action of the board of trustees. After reciting in full the proYisions of the original charter which provided for the election of trustees by the synods to replace the incorporators (who were to serve only until November i, 1867) which also declared that "the said University shall be under the care of said three synods," the hoard continues ; "Whereas, The University of Wooster, incorporated as aforesaid, desires to avail itself of the provisions of an act of the General Assembly of the state of Ohio, passed April 16, 1900 (94 O. L., pp. 331 and 332), and known as sections 3751b and 375 ic of the Revised Statutes of Ohio, as a part of its articles or certificate of incorporation ; now

"Therefore, Be it resolved by the hoard of trustees of the Uni\ersit}' of Whioster, located in the city of AV'ooster, AATyne county, Ohio as follows :

"j. That said the University of Wooster accept the provisions of sections 3757U of the Revised Statutes of Ohio and confer on and grant to the synod of Ohio in connection with the general assembly of tbe Presbyterian church in the United States of America the care of and control over said University and the right to appoint thirty trustees in classes as heretofore, and of whom at least seven shall he resident freeholders of said AATyne county, Ohio, and of whom three-fourths shall he communicant members of the Presbvterian church in the United States of America, and not more than five of whom may he non-residents of the State of Ohio; six of whom shall he nominated in classes as heretofore, by and from the alumni of said University as provided l)y .section 3751(1 of the Re\'ised Statutes of Ohio, and the residue shall be nominated by the hoard of trustees of said University; and the right to ap- ])oint such additional number of trustees as said synod may from time to time deem necessaiA- for thediest interest of said University uiion certifying its action to said hoard, and upon nomination by the hoard as aforesaid; and the further right, in the event of the rejection by said synod of any or all nominations of the said hoard of trustees, on its own motion to elect a trustee or trustees, to hll the vacancy or \acancies for which nominations were made the said hoard of tru.stees.

"2. That said University confer on and grant to said synod the rigiit to l>rotect the jiroperty and funds of said University, in the event of tlie misuse or di\'ision of said ])ro])erty or funds by the hoard of trustees, or otlier person re])resenting said lioard, in such legal manner and in tlie name of such ])crson or corporation as said .synod may direct l)y resolution, certified hv its clerk, to am- ci\ i1 court, ha\'ing jurisdiction o\'er said Uni\ersit\'."

This action, now of record in the office of the secretary of state, so thoroughly thought out and so well-grounded in its historic foundation, would seem to have been another of the fortunate happenings in Wooster's history. Arising in a question of doubt, it settled everything to the complete satisfaction of all concerned. It clinched the nail already driven home by many declarations of the thirty past years and made absolute that "guarantee" so strongly insisted on liy the first president. Doctor Lord, and so repeatedly mentioned by that indefatigable and wise first president of the hoard of trustees, Dr. John Robinson, and so constantly referred to in the catalogues. It seemed especially timely at the dawning of the new day of prosperity and expansion which had come to the University with the new administration.

The financial report of June, 1901, shows an Increase of contributions from churches and individuals and almost the whole amount needed for the handsome Memorial chapel in hand. Newly adopted rules are commended by tbe board. New buildings for science-extension are hoped for. A school of oratory is projected and schemes to meet enlarged expenses are discussed. 'File spirit of hopefulness has bloomed into confidence and larger things are expected.

But the enlargements came through previous destructions - a not unfamiliar way of divine providence in producing the greater changes in human affairs. The fire of December ii, 1901, still a mystery as to its proximate cause, seems to have unfolded into a clear design to permit an apparent (and in some sense a real ) calamity to become the open door into tbe coveted and expected larger life. The story of the loss may have its aspects' of touching reminiscence, but the more important story is that of instant recovery from momentary depression ; the development of almost unsuspected lireadth and deptli of attachment to the L^niversity ; the rising to the occasion of President Holden, carrying with him all the discouraged ones by his resourceful energy ; the co-operation of many warm hearts and willing hands; the actual self-denials of many ; the readiness with which aid from the outside met the great need and stimulated the inner and the innermost circle to greater effort and resistless enthusiasm. The story has been told, perhaps best told, by Professor Compton in a special number of the IJ^ayne County Democrat issued in December. 1902, in connection with the dedication of the new buildings. The ruins were still smoking when we held the gymnasium meeting at ten A. M. of December 12th, when Doctor Hills eloquently reminded us that as the corner-stones had come tlirough the fiery furnace uninjured and were "still there," so the old principles and purposes of the L^niversity were the guarantee of success. If built upon again as foundations we could not fail. Tbe evening meeting called hy the city's Board of Trade and enthused by the presence and courage of President Holden who had been out of the city the previous night but had sent a heart-rousing telegram early in the day, proved how impossible it was to burn the University out of the hearts of Wooster's citizens. The people determined that, aided by the insurance-money (only sixty thousand dollars unfortunately), they would rebuild that which had been the nucleus of the whole enterprise in 1866. James Mullins put the heavy burden in motion by a subscription of five thousand dollars and was followed by his son Walter in a subscription of one thousand dollars, who was followed in turn by Mr. and Mrs. John McSweeney with one thousand dollars and these added to Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Frick's one thousand dollars and many smaller sums carried the amount to within about fifteen thousand dollars of the supposedly necessary forty thousand dollars. The subsequent ten days were scenes of ingenious division of labor among classes and alumni and citizens within and county men without and such responses were met as made certain a rehabilitation of the University, yet the size and style and proportion of that rehabilitation Were still uncertain. But that uncertainty disappeared when the challenging gift of Andrew Carnegie - the one hundred thousand dollars on condition of two more within sixty days^ - followed by Louis H. Se\'erance's pledge of a fifty thousand dollar science building (ultimately costing him seventy-five thousand) came to our knowledge. Now everybody hastened to have part in what was to be an assured magnificent advance. We all resolved that conditions should be met without fail. From far-off mission fields came donations redolent of affectionate self-denial. It was the writer's privilege to receive eight such contributions. But enough; let us use Professor Compton's closing paragraphs. "The gifts came in so rapidly in the last few days that the indefatigable treasurer, Jesse McClellan, to whom large credit is due for the success of the canvass, could only record, not add. * * * There were more than five thousand givers. The crisis was momentous, the victory glorious. It was a dramatic chapter. December ii, 1901, the fire: December 22, the electrifying offer; February 21, 1902, nearly four hundred thousand dollars raised and the ever memorable jubilee. December 1 1, 1902. the dedication of the new buildings and the realization of the New Wooster. It is too much to a.scrihe to man alone. God's hand is in it." The names of the citizens' committee should find a place in this permanent record: Walter D. Foss (chairman). Louis F. Holden, L. P. Ohliger, F. W. Miller, W. J. Mullins, I. N. Kinney, C. M. Gray, Albert Dix, George J. Swartz, J. S. F. Overholt, Robert C. Taylor, R. D. Firestone, A. Cunningham, David Myers, Prof. J. II. Dickason. Prof. J. O. Notestein, 1). S. Firestone, David Nice. W'ill Long, John 1'.

Barrett. The board of trustees, present at the dedication of Memorial chapel, passed the most appreciative resolutions, gratefully mentioning all classes of those who had helped the great consummation. The exercises of dedication on Deceml)er ii, 1902, though much was still unfinished, were accompanied with genuine enthusiasm. President Moffatt incited our zeal by the assertion that "Presbyterian institutions have allowed themselves to be crowded back until today they occupy not the first but the fourth place in denominational schools. Presbyterians have not sustained what the fathers founded a century ago." Dr. S. S. Palmer, president of the board, in presenting the keys to the moderator of synod, reminded him of the increased responsibility which would devolve upon the synod in the maintenance of the larger university, as it accepted these buildings. That moderator (Dr. R. J. Thompson, of Lima, Ohio) emphasized the union of synod and university, and declared : "There is no stronger friend of education than the Presbyterian church," and the "Presliyterians of Ohio have finally realized what they have in the Lhiiversity of Wooster." The city was gay with decorations and full descriptions of the various Imildings were published. The "white city on the hill" has attracted many descriptive pens, hut none more intelligently appreciative than that of the Interior's editor - the well-known Christian layman, Nolan R. Best - in a sketch recently published in that widely-read journal : "Although people of a philosophic turn of mind are always ready to warn one against attributing' perfection to anything mundane, it is impossible to suppress the instinct to call the Wooster college buildings perfect. What could he thought of that they want. The architecture is an example beyond criticism of that style which the world of art has agreed to set aside for the use of higher learning - the English collegiate Gothic - expressed as purely in each unit as it is harmoniously in the group. The buildings have been planned with such foresight of the particular uses for which each is designed that no convenience is missed, no necessity left unprovided for. Heating, lighting', r'entilating and watersup])ly are taken care of in the latest methods known to practical science and all are supplied from the university's own powerhouse, which alone would win the university the admiration of any observer who appreciates the mechanical beauties of high-class machinery. But to patrons and students far more important is the generous modern ecpiipment of the buildings. * * , *

Nothing is extravagant or pretentious, hut there is absolutely no stint of apparatus. Everything that a teacher of undergraduates can need is there.

mentation. So in the biological building, the young man preparing for medicine will bnd there the best microscopes and a vast variety of slides for advanced work in anatomy and physiology. The library facilities are also of the most liberal. * * * In evei'y way \\'ooster has put itself beyond the necessity of apologies for what it affords the young men and women under its care." But it must not be supposed that the new administration found it all plain sailing after the buildings were completed. Then, indeed, came the struggle to meet inevitable deficits which always follow such extensions. President Porter man}- years ago begged the alumni of Yale to remember that whoever gave a new building and did not provide for the care and expense it entailed laid a new burden upon the management. It was not an easy thing to convince even the newly aroused generosity of Wooster's friends that a much greater endowment was needed to meet the budget entailed by the multiform facilities and the increasing faculty. It had to he explained that even a larger enrollment of students meant a larger expenditure, instead of creating a fund for other expenses. More books in the library and more apparatus in the laboratories and more prir'ileges of all sorts for the student-use of all the ad\-antages offered meant more income, or larger deficits. The situation became accented when the president reported in February of 1903 that the deficits of two years would amount to nearly forty thousand dollars, all of which ought to be in hand, if possible by the following June. Since the dedication in December, 1902, only five thousand three hundred dollars had been raised to meet this sum and five thousand dollars of that had come from one ever-generous friend of the university. In May a special board meeting was held and more aggressive efforts and appeals resolved upon. In June an improved situation, but twenty thousand dollars still to be raised and that in short order to secure two conditional pledges of five thousand dollars each. Special appeal was to be made to the synod in view of the "cpnckened spirit of the Presbyterian church in behalf of her schools of higher learning which found expression in the last general assembly." It was to he urged that the time had come "for binding this university more closely to the hearts and purse of the Presbyterians of Ohio." since "the university is the synod's educational creation, subject to its ownership and control and entitled to its abiding interest and its generous benefactions." The elaborate .scheme resolved u])on seems to have largely succeeded, and while there is some subsequent borrowing the effort was seriously considered early in 1904 to raise the endowment to one million dollars. President Holden thought it could he done, hut would recpiire many workers in the field and several years of labor.

During these current years and on there were the constant evidences of the highest success in the internal life of the university. Without important exception, the annual reports show increased enrollment, departments better manned, excellent steadiness in the studentdiody, an encouraging general religious life and constant annual quotas of those who were constrained by love of the Master to undertake his service at home and abroad. Library facilities were increased. Here and there a salary was raised, always within the sacred limit of one thousand five hundred dollars however, and the generous custom of the Sabbatic year was begun with the senior Prof. J. O. Notestein.

In 1906 the often-mentioned additional accommodations for the young women of the university Was taken up in earnest. The cost was to be fifty thousand dollars, but the investigating tours, in which Doctor Holden visited the leading women's colleges of the country, changed the estimates. In the end the palatial building cost one hundred and ten thousand dollars, something more than half of which was the contribution of Louis H. Severance, wdio insisted that it should be called Holden Hall. Thus another angle was reached and passed on the toilful acclivity of the university's upward movement.

But the pressure for more endowment came now to be considered as imperative. The budget of 1906-7 had been put down as eigbty-one thousand four hundred and ninety-six dollars. That of 1907-8 was to be seventy-eigbt thousand six hundred thirty-six dollars and seventy-two dollars plus the first installment of the paving assessment. Deficits up to June, 1907, amounted to eighteen thousand one hundred and sixty-eight dollars and forty-seven cents. Courageously this burden was sbouldered by the indomitable president, aided and abetted by faithful and laborious field-agents and stimulated by tbe good wishes of the growing multitude of Wooster's friends. The general education board, administering Mr. Rockefeller's bounty, thought it worth while to help an institution which had more than doubled its assets in five or six years - they had reached nearly one million and a quarter - and initiated the effort to raise five hundred thousand dollars by April i. 1908, by a subscription of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars conditioned upon the whole amount by the date just mentioned and the extinguishment of all debt. Louis H. Severance added a like sum with similar conditions and Andrew Carnegie followed with fifty thousand dollars. Here then was an open way to the half million of fresh eudowunent if the twm hundred eighteen thousand one hundred and sixty-eight dollars and forty-seven cents could be brought together. And this must necessarily be a harder task than the four hundred and twenty thousand dollars of the rebuilding fund. There were no such commanding and heart-reaching circumstances. It was no longer . life and death, but only life and a larger life. Besides, everybody had given over and over again and many quite recently, and the close of 1907 was wintry in the financial skies. But there could be no postponement and no relaxation of conditions. Since, then, it must be done, ways and means were found to' do it. Again there was division of labor and responses from many quarters. Such an opportunity could not be lost. With much painstaking the triumph of the 'first trial was repeated and the completion of the subscription announced. Then another jubilee and a red-letter day was added to the Wooster calendar - March 31, 1908.

Throughout these recent efforts constant reference has been had to the "forward movement" of the synod of Ohio, responding to the enthusiastic call of the general assembly uttered in 1903. The olijective point of that stirring summons was tweh'e million dollars to be raised by the entire denomination "for the purpose of endowment of our Presliyterian colleges in the several states " Of this movement the board's report to synod in 1909 says : "Ohio's quota of that amount is one million two hundred thousand dollars. As goes Ohio so goes the country. The synod determined to do its full share - ten dollars per member. Thus far the effort has been a magnificent success. * * * It is with the deepest appreciation and gratitude that we acknowledge the earnest effort and large generosity of the entire Presbyterian church, and the friends of Christian education, to the extent of six hundred seventyseven thousand five hundred and seven dollars and nineteen cents toward the million dollars of the new^ endowment, leaving but three hundred twenty-two thousand four hundred and two dollars and eighty-one cents to complete what you began in the synod of 1903."

Tlie total assets of the University of A'ooster May 31, 1899, were $452,551.87. Of this amount, $181,737.42 was credited to endowment. At the time of the fire Decemlier ii, 1901, the total assets were reduced by the loss of the main liuilding and its wings $184,174.00. The university received v$6o,ooo insurance on its loss. Crediting this amount, the total assets would stand December 12, 1901, the day after the fire, as $328,377.87. 'Fliis may rightfully be said to be the financial foundation on which the present administration had to build, although in this amount the first half of the Library and the new Cha]iel are included.

and special endowment : also outstanding pledges and annuities, which when paid will be credited for endowment, amounting to $229,911.11. If all these proYe to he good we might sa}' that we haue $985,279.63 in line for the endowment. We hace in addition to this our present plant ; land, building and ecjuipment. which amount on our hooks to $871,970.20, or total assets of $1,857,249.83.

But. as Doctor Cause ( first secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Aid -for Colleges) was accustomed to say: "Nothing is so hungry as a college." When current income and current e.xpenditure had been, for the first time in the uni^-ersity history, equalized, the need of further development in various directions was perceived to he imperative. The largest of all the plans was. projected and an effort has been commenced to provide for a largely increased endowment and for at least two buildings - a dormitory for men and a much desired gymnasium with a possible chapel-extension, according to original plans, to make yet more attractive and effective the work of the Christian Associations of men and women. John R. Mott reports a friend ready to give two thousand dollars to commence this enterprise. No less an amount than six hundred thousand dollars is considered adequate to meet these needs. Of that sum the first three hundred thousand dollars has been subscribed - one-half by the general education hoard and the other by a friend of the university whose ]iersonality is as yet kept in reserve. The active canvass now in progress has secured up to this present writing ( September ist ) three hundred and ninetysi.x thousand dollars - leaving two hundred and four thousand dollars to he .sought for. The conditions are completion by the closing day of the current year ( 1910) and the extinguishment of all indebtedness. There will doubtless he another jubilee and another red-letter day in Wooster's calendar. Along with other enlargements, the university's campus has grown to dimensions which ])ro\'ide for the certain and undoubtedly rapid development of the future. From the original twenty acres the campus has now extended to a total area of sixty-three acres. Part of this is a recent addition separated by only a street's breadth from the main block - a most timelv addendum as pre-empting what would have jiroven inaccessible within a very few years.

The constant increase of students during the present administration has kept pace with other iphases of progress. During i907-'o8 the total enrollment without the summer-school students was seven hundred and thirty-three: with them, one thousand six hundred and twenty-one. For i9o8-'o9, the total reached eight hundred and twelve without the summer-school roll : with it.

there were one thousand eight hundred and one. The largest freshman class in the university's experience - one hundred and sixty - came in the year just closed.

This growth has been accompanied by a gradual increase of the' faculty until it now numbers, counting instructors and adjunct-professors, thirty-eight. The new department of history, long desired, opens with tlie college year just before us (1910-11).

An important change in the charter has been under consideration for more than a year. It contemplates the relincpiishment by tbe synod of Ohio of the right to elect the trustees of the university, thus surrendering all control of the institution. The moving consideration for this change is the desire to acquire for the institution the benefits of the pension-fund of the Carnegie foundation. The matter was presented by the board of trustees to the synod at its meeting in October, 1909. A postponement until the meeting of 1910 was agreed upon. Aleanwhile a careful study of the subject was to l)e made by a committee which will report at the approaching meeting.

The remarkable success of Wooster's president for tbe decade past has drawn upon him the atention of those who constitute the Board of Aid for Colleges in the denomination as a whole. Three or more times they have sought his services as secretary. The last attempt was l:)ut a few months ago, and the following resolution was unanimously pas.sed by tbe board of trustees; "The flattering offer * * * only accentuates the esteem and affection in which the board of trustees holds President Holden. It is the sense of this board that the services of President Holden for the present and for years to come are indispensable to the progress and development of the university of H'ooster and that it would therefore be a calamity to the institution at this time to sul)tract from it his forceful ])ersonality. In saying this we have all the while in mind President Holden's good, together with the prosperity and destiny of the university which must be forever associated with his name, and which will remain a monument to his unselfish devotion and labor, for it is seldom gi\-en to one man to accomplisb so mucb in eleven short years as the nolile work he has accomplished during his administration.

"We are not unmindful that his services as as.sociate-secretar\- would open great avenues for usefulness. Nevertheless the work to be done by Doctor Holden here must necessarily bring him in close and affectionate relations with young men and women which are in the highest sense ])ersonal and that ])ersonal relations and affectionate regard are the highest earthly rewards.

the Universit}' of Wooster and prays God that he may be permitted to give many years to the work to which he seems to have been divinely called." At the recent commencement the constant expressions of undisguised satisfaction on the part of all concerned for the welfare of the university - faculty, alumni, patrons, students and citizens - furnished ample evidence that the affectionate respect and devout wishes of the board of trustees awakened loval echoes in all hearts.

Now that the governing principles of the University have been discovered and described and the chronicle of events has been brought down to date, there remain many aspects of this multiform life which are best understood and estimated when treated separately. They vary, of course, in relative importance, but no one of them can be fairly omitted. And precisely for that reason each must be dealt with as briefly as may be at all consistent with the purposes of this historical sketch.

Faculty changes have been many, naturally, and it is impossible, though the material is at hand, to give even the names, dates, antecedents and characteristics of so large a number. The inner history of the teaching body has been, what it might have been expected to be for a body of men gathered to practice such definite principles for so noble an end, one of great harmony. Personal animosities have been unknown. Differences in religious convictions have led to but one resignation. Changes for inadequacy have been very few. Those who have gone to other fields of usefulness have entered upon them with warm commendations from the body they left. Many names are starred thus in the records, of which mention can be made only of two. Dr. Edgar W. Work, of New York, and Prof. Dr. James Wallace, of Macalester College. Some have been added to the faculty in later years who have received the warmest and most appreciative welcome, but none have seemed more worthy or competent than Wooster's own product, such as Notestein, who is the glory of our teaching force, and that ideal dean - Compton. Lecturers who gave their services gratuitously were Judge Welker (United States court), the Rev. Dr. Jeffers (while professor at Western Theological Seminary) and Prof. John De Witt (while at Lane Seminary). The first faculty has been frequently described and the pen of the present writer would be ready enough in lingering over their gifts and graces, since it has been his privilege to have personally known them all in one or another relation of life. But space forbids except to mention the exceptional ability as teacher and author of Dr. C. S. Gregory, whose forcefulness and analytic talent can never be forgotten and whose bow

3'ct abides in strength as a brave defender of that faith in God's word, ''once delivered to the saints." There must also he recorded the appreciative testimonial of the hoard of trustees as Dr. Willis Lord sundered his connection with that body : "We can never forget that he came to us at a critical period in our history, - rvhen, in fact, our history was yet to he made. We were not insensible then, nor have we become so, to the risks attendant upon the assumption of the position to which w'e ventured to summon him. That the University has passed these perils so successfully w^e feel is largely due to the wisdom, skill and fidelity of its first president. We would have been thankful if the students, so strongly and rightly attached to him, could have further enjoyed his counsels, sympathy and instruction. * * * Associated as his

For those who have "fallen upon sleep" wdiile still members of the faculty there must be reserved an assured place in the grateful memories of their successors. In every case they were held in highest esteem by the people of the city and county as well as by the University communit\o They had obtained this testimony, that they pleased most those who knew them l;est.

The first of those wdiose "hands were laid to the plow, hut, behold I it was a palm," 'was Miss Annie B. Irish, Ph. D. She possessed rare gifts and had enjoyed some unusual advantages. The hoard of trustees entered this record : "The death of Miss Annie B. Irish has touched our hearts with profound sorrow as a personal bereavement. By her lovely and symmetrical Christian character, her remarkably able management of her department and her faithful and efficient work as a Christian among the students, she had won our warmest admiration and love. Counting by years, her life was short: counting h_v w^ork done and results achieved, it was longer than that of many who have attained to threescore and ten years." Miss Irish died February 12. i88h. Her portrait was presented to Hoover Cottage, June 6, 1889, and memorials of her winning character and elevating influence were read h_v ladies rejiresenting the Woman's Advisory Board.

The whole community shared in the grief of the L^niversity circle when Karl Merz, Mus. D., the founder of our musical dejiartment, was taken from us. His death occurred in January, 1890. The following testimoinal was ]iuhlished soon after: "A man of remarkable abilities and dixersified gifts, developed by unremitting a])])lication, he mastered and enriched the science and art of music in its composition and literature, and gained a more than national reputation.

"As exemplary and great-hearted as he was industrious and efficient, he had by eight years of unceasing kdndness won an exceptional place in the confidence and warmest affections of the whole community.

"He was attached to his associates in the faculty, invariabl}^ found on the side of just authority and thoroughly loyal to the ideal of the institution.

"A fei'Yent and intelligent religious faith both underlaid and crowned his life. It is hoped that the department he adorned and toiled for may euer bear testimony in its future deYelopment to the gifts and character and faith' of its founder."

The close of the same year (December 22, 1890) witnessed the removal of Dr. James Black, D.D., LL.D., from the work to 'which a long and fruitful life had been devoted. The records of the board of trustees show how profoundly the fifteen years of his professorship (Greek and English) had wrought themselves into the University's life. The hoard emphasizes its estimate of "his superior intellectual capabilities, his high literary qualifications for the position he occupied and his unexcelled genius as a teacher. * * *