ESSAYS ON YALE TWENTIETH CENTURY YALE By ARTHUR TWINING HADLEY Fifty years ago there were few institutions in the United States that could rightfully claim the title of university, either on account of the standards of their scholarship, the character of their instruction, or the reputation of their individual professors. To-day there are many. New endowments, like those of Cornell or Chicago, vie in munificence with those of Harvard or Yale. State universities are supported by the public on a scale which provides for a still larger annual expenditure than that of privately endowed institutions. Under these circumstances some people have predicted that universities like Yale would lose their importance; that those who wished their education to be cheap or practical or progressive would resort to new places and leave the old ones wrapped up in a mantle of traditionalism. This prophecy has not been fulfilled. The new have not crowded out the old. There has been a differentiation of work between new and old which enables each class of institutions to render the kind of service for which it is specially fitted. President Harper once said that the thing which Yale had and which Chicago did not and could not have was Connecticut Hall. The things for which it stands cannot be bought for money or created in a day. "A university is not a school but an atmosphere." The Yale atmosphere has distinctive qualities arising out of the long history behind us; and it is precisely these quali ties which enable Yale and places like Yale to render distinctive services to their students and to the country. They have a body of traditions which are valuable in themselves and doubly valuable under existing circumstances in American life. They are places where for generation after generation men have been giving devoted service to the teaching of letters and of science. The example of unselfishness and idealism set by these men has meant more than their concrete teaching itself. They have transmitted to their students a respect and an enthusiasm for the kind of things they themselves were doing. They have trained up graduates loyal to these ideals at a time when such ideals and such loyalty are greatly needed in the affairs of the nation and the world. Yale stands to-day more distinctively than ever before on the side of idealism against commercialism. Both in his college course and in his professional school life, the boy is influenced to make capacity for service the goal of his ambition rather than capacity to make money. Our college has been a place where men were trained for public service. Our technical schools have been nurseries of professional progress even more than of professional success. Yale also stands on the side of continuity against the restless pursuit of novelty. We are accused of being unprogressive. We can face the accusation calmly when we remember that Yale originated the American system of graduate instruction and the American system of agricultural education; that she had the first university school of the fine arts, and that she has to-day the leading university press of the country. People do not always recognize how important these things are, because they have grown out of small beginnings. But their success and the success of other things like them emphasizes the fact that true progress represents quiet and continuous movement rather than a series of spectacular jumps. Finally, Yale stands for poetry as distinct from prose. It is hard to define just what this statement means; but every Yale graduate who looks back on the years of his college life will see that the things whose remembrance he most cherishes are not those that he could most easily justify by utilitarian standards; that he loves Yale because she is a place that has grown, instead of being made to order; that the word Alma Mater is no unmeaning metaphor, but represents a permanent object of loyalty and of affection which are delightful in their very irrationality. These are things for which Yale stands, and these are things which the country needs. Those who complain that Yale is unpractical or irrational or prefers history to headlines are simply emphasizing their own need for the distinctive kind of service that Yale renders. As long as the country is over full of men who are pursuing temporary forms of success, or fads in literature and art and politics, or the immediate conventional objects which can be expressed in prose instead of the more subtle and elusive ideals which constitute the poetry of life, lessons like those given by Yale to-day will continue to be needed. No man can tell what changes in organization the next century will witness. No one can predict the alterations in methods of teaching and in subjects taught. But the Yale ideals and standards of to-day are so distinctive, so necessary to the American people, and so deep rooted in the hearts of Yale graduates, that they are likely to inspire Yale's whole contribution to twentieth century civilization. YALE'S CONTRIBUTION By WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT History is again repeating itself, and, therefore, in order to understand the patriotic and martial spirit which suddenly animated Yale University in 1898, we have only to transplant into that period the wave of enthusiasm and devotion which has just swept over us. Not only in spirit, but even in detail, does the parallel hold. Those of us who remember that sultry spring night, two years ago, when, at the first sign of serious trouble in Mexico, fifteen hundred students suddenly began to parade around the Yale Campus, cheering the flag and the country, will not be surprised to learn that on the same kind of night, in the spring of 1898, there occurred a demonstration of almost the same sort. In fact, the two demonstrations were alike even to the details of calling upon President Hadley, then Professor Hadley, and Professor Phelps, for speeches upon the merits of a war. There were several popular demonstrations during the months just preceding the war, one of which the Alumni Weekly described as follows: On Monday afternoon [March 28, 1898] a few Sophomores began parading on the Campus in front of Farnam Hall. Their cheers for "Cuba Libre" soon attracted more of their classmates, and the company, now augmented till it numbered about thirty, marched to Pierson Hall, where a large number of Sophomores room. Here about thirty more recruits were enrolled. From Pierson the company marched to the Hutchinson on Crown Street, where still more Sophomores joined the parade. In front of the Hutchinson the recruits were divided into companies, while every man who was able to secure a sword appointed himself an officer. The adjutant reported, after inspecting arms, that the company was provided with one musket, two brooms, two flags, and various swords and sabres. These arms were relics, for the most part, of the Civil War. From the Hutchinson the Sophomores, under the command of Provisional Colonel Julian Day, proceeded to the Green, where they marched, countermarched, and charged imaginary regiments of Spaniards, to the considerable interest of the crowd which had gathered to watch them. After this drill the company marched through Phelps Gateway, gave a cheer for Cuba Libre, and disbanded. These demonstrations, however, were not merely a sign of spring and full spirit. Directly after, the weekly military drill, which was then a regular but optional course at Yale, began to be attended by an increasing number of men, and a little while later, on April 25th, it was announced that a Yale Battery, consisting of 175 men, would be organized and prepared for action. Great enthusiasm greeted this announcement and in a very short time the required number of men had enlisted and were ready to begin training. The men were sent to Niantic, Connecticut, after some delay in securing their equipment, and began active preparation for war. The Yale men who were appointed as officers of the Battery were: H. T. Weston, '98 S., 2d lieutenant; D. C. Twitchell, '98, and F. V. Chappell, '98 S., sergeants. On the day after the departure of the Yale Battery for Niantic, we find the following tribute in the Journal and Courier: The real "Yale spirit" stuck right out yesterday morning when the Yale volunteers for the light battery answered the roll-call in the armory and left the city to go into camp at Niantic. There are those in the colleges and out who are thinking and saying that fine young men who are being educated can "do better" than to go to War, and they cheerfully imply that it is well enough to let other young men who are not so fine and not so educated do the hard work of fighting for the country. The Yale volunteers do not agree with such thinkers and sayers. Their |