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THE INAUGURATION
OF
FRANK AYDELOTTE
AS
PRESIDENT OF
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE .
October 22,1921
SW ARTHM ORE, PENNSYLVANIA
T he I nauguration of President A ydelotte of Swarthmore C ollege in the
Out -D oor A uditorium , October 22, 1921
THE INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT AYDELOTTE
The Board o f Managers of Swarthmore College at a meeting
held March 8, 1921, elected Frank Aydelotte to succeed Joseph
Swain as President of the College. President Aydelotte took up
his duties on July 1, 1921, and on Founder’s Day, October 22,
was formally inaugurated into office.
The Inauguration was preceded by a dinner on Friday evening,
October 21, to the delegates of universities, colleges, learned and
professional societies. On Saturday morning the undergraduate
members of the College and the Faculty, together with the dele
gates and other distinguished guests, marched in academic pro
cession to the Outdoor Auditorium where the formal installation
took place. A detailed account o f the exercises and the speeches
will be found in the ensuing pages of this bulletin. Of the
general spirit o f the occasion, an article in The Quaker says:
What remains still fresh and memorable in our minds and hearts is the
atmosphere o f that august occasion, the fine intangible charm that gave the
affair its distinction, on that mellow, sunny October day in the breezy out
door auditorium.
The gathering o f scholars from sister colleges near and far, men and
women o f high attainment, in picturesque, academic costume; the great
audience thronging the steep woodland slopes beneath tall trees from which
drifted down, now and then, the silent autumn leaves— this was the setting
for the addresses o f delegates (prefaced by an affable and friendly speech
by Governor Sproul, an alumnus o f the college) by President Ferry o f Ham
ilton College, smiling, gracious, gently humorous; by Chancellor Lindley o f
Kansas University, resembling some venerable Quaker and uttering noble,
ethical truths; by Professor Merriman o f Harvard, who represented Oxford,
pleading for emphasis upon intellectual power, with a fine wistful spirit born
o f his sojourn at England’s ancient, yet ever-youthful seat o f learning.
3
TH E LIST OF D ELEG ATES
The delegates of universities and colleges, in the order of
establishment, were:
University o f Oxford— Professor Roger Biglow Merriman, B.Litt., Ph.D.
Harvard University— Professor John Livingston Lowes, Ph.D.
St. John’s College— President Thomas Pell, Ph.D., LL.D., D.C.L.
Yale University— Dean Wilbur Lucius Cross, Ph.D.
University o f Pennsylvania— Acting Provost Josiah Harmar Penniman,
Ph.D., L L .D .; J. Hartley Merrick, A.M.
Princeton University— Professor Frank Albert Fetter, Ph.D., LL.D.
Columbia University— Provost William Henry Carpenter, Ph.D.; Professor
J. Russell Smith, Ph.D.
Brown University— M ajor William Williams Keen, M.D., Ph.D., LL.D.
Rutgers College— Dean David Fales, Ph.D.
Dartmouth College— Burton True Scales, M.A.
Dickinson College— Dean Mervin G. Filler, Litt.D.
Franklin and Marshall College— President Henry Harbaugh Apple, D.D.,
L L .D .; Professor J. N. Schaeffer, B.Litt.
University o f Pittsburgh— Chancellor John G. Bowman, LL.D.
University o f North Carolina— President Harry Woodburn Chase, Ph.D.,
LL.D.
University o f Vermont and State Agricultural College; Professor Edward G.
Spaulding, Ph.D.
Williams College— President Harry Augustus Garfield, LL.D., L.H.D.
Bowdoin College— Dean Paul Nixon, A.M.
Union College— Professor George A. Hoadley, Sc.D.
Middlebury College!— Professor Frank W. Cady, B.Litt.
Washington and Jefferson College— Professor Louis W. Flaccus, Ph.D.
Moravian College and Theological Seminary— President J. Taylor Hamilton,
D.D.
Hamilton College— President Frederick Carlos Ferry, Ph.D., Sc.D., LL.D.
Allegheny College— President Fred W. Hixson, D.D., LL.D.
Dalhousie University— Professor H. Jermain Creighton, Sc.D.
University o f Virginia—Merritt T. Cooke, Jr., E.E.
University o f Cincinnati— Eugene Ewald Agger, Ph.D.
Colgate University— George William Douglas, Litt.D.
Indiana University— Professor Alfred Mansfield Brooks, A.M.
Amherst College— President Alexander Meiklejohn, Ph.D., LL.D.
George Washington University— Professor Elmer L. Kayser, A.M.
Hobart College— William B. Read, B.L.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute— Strickland Landis Kneass, C.E.
Kenyon College— William Budd Bodine, A.B.
4
Western Reserve University— President Charles F. Timing, LL.D., Litt.D.
Lafayette College— Professor James Waddell Tupper, Ph.D.
New York University— Professor Hyder E. Rollins, Ph.D.
Denison University— President Clark W. Chamberlain, Ph.D.
Wesleyan University— President William Arnold Shanklin, L.H.D., LL.D.
Pennsylvania College— President William Anthony Granville, Ph.D., LL.D.
Haverford College— President William Wistar Comfort, Ph.D.
Oberlin College— Reverend W. F. Bohn, B.D., D.D.
Delaware University— President Walter Hullihan, Ph.D.
Marietta College— Professor Howard H. Mitchell, Ph.D.
Davidson College— Reverend William Beatty Jennings, D.D,
Mount Holyoke College— Professor Ellen D. Ellis, Ph.D.
De Pauw University— Honorable James E. Watson.
University o f Michigan— Dean Alfred Henry Lloyd, Ph.D.
University o f Missouri— Professor John B. Hill, Ph.D.
Villa Nova College— Reverend Robert Fitzgerald, Ph.D.
Ohio Wesleyan University— Reverend Frank Pierce Parkin, D.D.
University o f Notre Dame— James P. Fogarty, LL.B.
Beloit College— Professor W. V. Bingham, Ph.D.,
Bucknell University— Honorable Ernest L. Tustin, LL.D.
State University o f Iowa— President W . A. Jessup, Ph.D.
Earlham College— Professor Don C. Barrett, Ph.D.
University o f Wisconsin— Professor Charles Forster Smith, Ph.D., LL.D.
Girard College— Vice-President Joseph M. Jameson, Pd.D.
College o f the City o f New York— Dean Stephen Pierce Duggan, Ph.D.
University o f Rochester— Reverend Professor Henry Clay Vedder, D.D.
Northwestern University— Professor Herbert William Hess, Ph.D.
University o f Minnesota— Professor John W . Adams, V.M.D.
Tufts College— Taber Ashton, Ph.B.
Trinity College— Professor William K. Boyd, Ph.D.
Washington University— Henry Clay Patterson, LL.B.
Cornell College— Professor Harlan Updegraff, Ph.D.
Pennsylvania State College— Professor R. L. Sackett, C.E.
Elmira College— President Frederick Lent, Ph.D.
Lake Erie College— Dean Sara C. Lovejoy, A.B.
Massachusetts Institute o f Technology— Professor Henry Paul Talbot, Ph.D.,
D.Sc.
University o f Washington— President Henry Suzzallo, Ph.D., LL.D.
Vassar College— Mrs. Leonard C. Ashton, A.B.
The Divinity School o f the Protestant Episcopal Church— Reverend Dean
George Griffiths Bartlett, S.T.D.
Cornell University— Dean William A. Hammond, Ph.D.
Lehigh University— Vice-President Natt M. Emery, Litt.D.
Drew Theological Seminary— Reverend Professor Robert William Rogers,
Ph.D., D.D., LL.D., Litt.D.
Crozer Theological Seminary— President Milton G. Evans, D.D., LL.D.
Muhlenberg College— President John A. W . Haas, D.D., LL.D.
Ursinus College— President George L Omwake, B.D., Pd.D.
5
Stevens Institute o f Technology— President Alexander Crombie Humphreys,
E.D., Sc.D., LL.D.
Smith College— Professor Richard Ashley Rice, A.M.
Vanderbilt University— Professor A . H. Wilson, Ph.D.
University o f Kansas— Chancellor Ernest Hiram Ldndley, Ph.D.
Colorado College— Reverend William P. Slocum, D.D., LL.D.
Rose Polytechnic Institute— President Philip B. Woodworth, E.E., D.Sc.
Juniata College— President I. Harvey Brumbaugh, Idtt.D.
Johns Hopkins University— Professor Frank Morley, Sc.D.
University o f Colorado— Professor Charles D. Fawcett, E.E.
Wells College— President Kerr Duncan Macmillan, B.D., S.T.D.
Radcliffe College— Mrs. W . N. Bates, A.B.
Bryn Mawr College— President M. Carey Thomas
Case School o f Applied Science— Professor Jeremiah V . Stanford, M.E.
Whitman College— Herbert F. Traut, M.D.
University o f North Dakota— Edgar Shorb, B .A .,L L .B .
Grove City College— Superintendent S. E. Downes, A.M.
Temple University— Dean LauTa II. Carnell, Litt.D .; Reverend Dean James
Henry Dunham, Ph.D.
Western College for Women— President W . W . Boyd, Pd.D.
Occidental College— Frank Coons, A.B.
Carnegie Institute o f Technology— President Arthur Arton Hamerschlag,
Sc.D., LL.D.
? ■
Drexel Institute— Alexander Van Rensselaer, M .A .; Professor Charles L.
Eyanson, B.S.
University o f Chicago— Professor Thomas Atkinson Jenkins, ,Ph.D.
Leland Stanford Junior University— President Ray Lyman Wilbur, M.D.,
LL.D.
Hood College— President Joseph H. Apple, D.D., LL.D.
Susquehanna University— President Charles Thomas Aikens, D.D.
Albright College— President Clarence Hunt, B.D., D.D.
Barnard College— Provost William Henry Carpenter, Ph.D.
Clark University— Professor Thaddeus L. Bolton, Ph.D.
Reed College— Professor C. H. Gray, A.B.
Rice Institute— President Edgar Odell Lovett, Ph.D., LL.D.
Municipal University o f Akron— Elva H. Grafton, Ph.D.
Phi Beta Kappa— Senator Albert Shaw, Ph.D., LL.D.
Sigma X i— President Clarence E. M cdu n g, Ph.D.
United States Bureau o f Education— Commissioner John James Tigert,
M .A., LL.D.
Board o f Directors o f City Trusts o f Philadelphia— President Cheesman A.
Herrick, Ph.D., LL.D.
8
LEARNED AND PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES
Alumni Association o f American Rhodes Scholars— President Leonard W.
Cronkhite, Ph.B., B.Sc.
American Academy o f Political and Social Science— Professor Joseph Henrv
Willits, Ph.D.
American Association fo r the Advancement o f Science— Professor John
Anthony Miller, Ph.D.
American Association o f Collegiate Registrars— Dean Raymond Walters
M.A. .
’
American Astronomical Society— Professor Samuel Goodwin Barton, Ph.D.
American Chemical Society— Director Charles Lee Reese, Ph.D., Sc!d .
American Council on Education— Director Samuel Paul Capen P h D
L.H.D., LL.D.
■’
American Institute o f Electrical Engineers— Professor Lewis Fussell P h D •
Carl Bering, Sc.D.
>
■
American Institute o f Mining and Metallurgical Engineers— Secretary
Frederick Fraley Sharpless, B.S.
American Library Association— Lois Antoinette Reed, B.L.S.
American Mathematical Society— Professor John Anthony Miller, Ph.D.
American Ornithologists’ Union— President Witmer Stone, Sc.D.
*
American Philosophical Society— Hon. William Cameron Sproul, LL.D.
American Philological Association— Professor John Carew Rolfe, Ph.D.
American Physical Society— Professor Arthur Willis Goodspeed, Ph.D.
American Political Science Association— Professor Charles G. Fenwick, Ph.D.
American Psychological Association— Professor Clarence E. Feree Ph.D.
American Scandinavian Foundation— Director Henry Goddard Leach, Ph.D.
American Society o f Civil Engineers— President George S. Webster* Sc.D.
American Society o f Mechanical Engineers— Professor Robert H Fernald
Ph.D.
’
Association o f American Colleges— Secretary Robert Lincoln Kelly, LL.D.
Association o f American Universities— President Ernest H. Lindley, Ph.D.
Franklin Institute^—President Walton d a rk , Sc.D.; M ajor Robert* Bowie
Owens, D.Se., D.S.O., F.R.S.C.
Geological Society o f America— Professor Florence Bascom, Ph.D.
Institute o f International Education— Director Stephen P. Duggan Ph.D.
Modern Language Association o f America— Professor Gordon Hall Gerould, B. Litt.
National Academy o f Sciences— Professor Henry Herbert Donaldson, Ph D
Sc.D.
’
’
National Electric Light Association— Farley Osgood.
New York Academy o f Sciences— Professor John Tatlock, F.R.A.S.
Pennsylvania Forestry Association— President Henry S. Drinker, LL.D.
Society for Promotion o f Engineering Education— Professor Milo Smith
Ketchum, C.E.
United Engineering Society— Secretary Alfred D. Flynn, B.S.
7
TH E ORDER OF PROCESSION
The academic procession started from Parish Hall at 10.30 a . m .
and entered the Outdoor Auditorium in the following order: the
Chief Marshal; the President; the President Emeritus; the
Governor o f Pennsylvania; the President of the Corporation;
the Inaugural Speakers; the Board of Managers; the Delegates
from Universities, Colleges, and Learned and Professional Soci
eties; the Faculty; Representatives o f the Alumni; the Senior
Class; the Junior Class; the Sophomore Class; the Freshman
Class.
TH E O RD ER OF E X E R C ISE S
The exercises took place in the Outdoor Auditorium as follows:
Beading of Scripture— President Emeritus Joseph Swain.
Welcome to the President— Wilson M. Powell, President of
the Corporation.; William C. Sproul, ’91, Governor of Pennsyl
vania ; Professor Spencer Trotter, on behalf of the F acu lty;
President Frederick Carlos Ferry of Hamilton College, on behalf
o f the American Colleges; Chancellor Ernest H. Lindley, of
the University of Kansas, on behalf of the American Universities;
Professor Roger B. Merriman, on behalf o f the University of
Oxford.
Indniction of the President.
Inaugural Address— President Frank Aydelotte.
Alma Mater.
Wilson M. Powell, President of the Board of Managers o f the
College, was in charge o f the exercises.
A fter a moment of silence, Mr. Powell called upon President
Emeritus Swain who said: “ Nineteen years ago, when I was,
inaugurated President of Swarthmore College, Isaac H. Clothier,
then President o f the Board, read the 118th Psalm, omitting
certain verses. I shall read to you this morning that same Psalm,
feeling that the spirit o f Mr. Clothier is with us in the reading.”
Following the Scripture reading Mr. Powell addressed the
audience.
8
AD D RESS O F MR. POW ELL
Delegates, Friends o f Swarthmore : We are met to-day to inaugurate
and welcome a new President. Our pilot, great and successful, after nine
teen years o f unremitting labor, has been compelled by ill health to
resign. A new pilot will lead us; a new epoch begins at Swarthmore.
After the recent ruthless sacrifice o f the resources o f the world, both
human and economic, the future is more uncertain and more a matter o f
conjecture than ever before; and the study o f the fundamentals o f civ
ilization, the adaptation o f the old and the creation o f new processes to
meet the new condition, becomes imperative.
For this work Quakers are well fitted. The younger members o f the
Society have carried relief to all in need, regardless o f the cause o f suf
fering, regardless o f nationality; and from this unselfish work o f the
younger members we have gained the friendship and confidence o f all.
These young men and women, many o f them graduates o f this college,
sacrificed much and deserve great credit. Their purpose and their ideals
were and are o f the highest. We are proud to own them.
To these men and women graduates who went forward Swarthmore taught
a high standard o f civic duty, a fearlessness o f purpose and thought, a
religion based on life itself and on the manner o f life— to live as wellbalanced members o f the community, bearing its burdens.
In coeducational training, the founders o f Swarthmore, ahead o f their
time, were believers. With about 75 per cent, o f American college students
now under coeducation it has become a fixed American standard. Only a
comparatively narrow fringe o f colleges along the Atlantic coast hold to
the single sex, and these will have to look carefully to their methods if
their graduates are to maintain a proper position in public affairs. The
ever increasing number o f women actively participating in our industrial life
and now exercising the suffrage have given coeducational colleges a leading
position. The graduate, whether man or woman, o f a coeducational col
lege will have a great advantage in politics and in business.
Progress always comes through the study o f fundamentals; through re
search in the work o f the past, through hours spent in study, in thought,
experimentation and writing, oftentimes with no immediate success, but
finally leading to a better knowledge and adaptation o f basic laws.
To the institutions o f advanced learning and especially the smaller col
leges, we must look for this forward work.
The state universities, with unlimited resources, are able to expand with
out limit.- One state recently appropriated ten million dollars for its uni
versity and established the precedent o f a yearly $500,000 appropriation
for running expenses. Another state university a year ago enrolled 3,700
Freshmen. O f necessity, these state institutions must be open to all; no
selection other than scholarship, and that not rigid, can be made. The
teaching force must give all o f its time to instruction. The state electorate
demands, and always will demand, the highest possible efficiency in in
struction; it will not look favorably upon the member o f the faculty who
does the minimum o f teaching and the maximum o f research work. The
»
faculty therefore attracted to this class will be teachers, whose interest
is centered in instruction. These institutions, always potent factors in the
life o f the country, are invaluable; but research work there is almost
impossible.
The second class consists o f the large privately endowed collèges, keeping
open door to all applicants. Their work too is mainly that o f instruction
and must, o f necessity, be so. The income from their limited endowments
is used largely for the employment o f a teaching force o f men and women
whose minds are centered on instruction. In the past generations this was
not so.
The great thinkers do not seem to be attracted as in the past by the
same institutions because so much time must be given to instruction. The
personal contact between the faculty and the students is reduced to a mini
mum; lecture courses o f 700 to 1,000 are not uncommon.
For the third class, the small privately endowed college limited in en
rollment— Swarthmore’s class— this leaves a large field. With a high per
capita endowment, relatively larger faculties may be retained, the hours per
week for each teacher reduced to a minimum; and more time given for
original research.
This type o f small college will attract teachers who wish to do produc
tive research work, anxious to give a few hours each week to actual instruc
tion, but much time and thought to the study o f the fundamentals for
the real advance o f civilization.
The benefit to the undergraduate o f associating with and intimately
knowing such men and women whose ideals are o f the highest is inestimable.
Madame Curie, Edison or Darwin could not have contributed so much learn
ing had they been required to give many hours o f instruction each week.
The undergraduate, through small classes and intimate acquaintanceship
with such original thinkers, possible only in the small college, has broad
opportunity for starting in original research. The teacher, in turn, coming
in close touch with his small classes is invigorated and inspired and the
student is led forward, his latent possibilities discovered, and real advance
is made. Leaders o f thought will be produced and stimulated.
This is the field, in my opinion, for Swarthmore. In the next decade
we should endeavor to adapt the library and laboratories for original re
search work; not large, because the number o f persons using them will be
small, but perfect o f their kind. This field is unlimited, the possibilities
are great, and Swarthmore is in a postion to place itself among the leaders.
In research work latitude o f thought both for student and teacher must
be encouraged. Ordinarily a teacher does not receive adverse criticism,
however strange his views may be, unless perchance in the field o f religion
or government. And in these subjects great freedom o f discussion must be
permitted. It is the general experience that the most radical and danger
ous views on government and religion are held and expressed by those who
do not teach the subjects, who therefore speak as citizens and not as
teachers.
No college can hope to live long i f it teaches its students that but one
line o f thought is correct or possible. This is narrow. The undergraduates
10
must be taught to think fo r themselves, they must have opportunity to
learn, discuss and dissect all views, all lines o f thought— to become leaders
in thought.
There is one limitation which should be impressed throughout all re
search work; namely, that all thought must be optimistic, not pessimistic;
constructive, not destructive. The dangerous anarchist is the one who has
never gone beyond the boyish stage o f taking the clock apart, who has
allowed his mind to loosely ramble along its easiest course— destruction—
who has not advanced to the constructive stage.
With this single limitation in mind Swarthmore, heretofore always con
structive, now on her well-laid foundation has the opportunity to take vast
steps forward in education, to give opportunity to leading minds and to
aid in the development o f the fundamentals, to produce men and women
capable and trained to lead in the advance o f civilization and move forward
and upward.
The next speaker was the Honorable William C. Sproul o f the
Class of 1891, who was introduced by Mr. Powell in the follow
ing w ords:
“ No higher or finer ideal in life is possible than that which com
pels an active participation in affairs o f state in the welfare of all.
Among the many sons and daughters o f Swarthmore in public
life a member o f the Class of 1891 whom we all respect and
admire, and who has given much time and thought to the college,
has attained high position. I present to you the Governor of
the great Commonwealth o f Pennsylvania.”
AD D R E SS OF GOVERNOR SPROUL
Mr, Chairman, Learned Representatives o f other Institutions, and Friends:
The induction o f a President in a college is a very important event es
pecially to those who hold dear the future o f that college. The stepping
down, as Mr. Powell has said, o f the old pilot and taking on o f another
is a momentous event. It seems particularly proper that the Commonwealth
o f Pennsylvania should be represented in this meeting here to-day at
Swarthmore, almost within sight o f the spot where the great Founder o f
Pennsylvania first set foot upon this soil, and where he laid out that form
o f government for his Commonwealth, that plan o f administration, which
after a lapse o f 240 years, is still to all intents and purposes the funda
mental law o f this great State. This college, near Penn ?s landing place,
observes as its holiday the day nearest that eventful time when William
Penn first came to Pennsylvania and it is therefore fitting that the State
should make some note o f so important an event as this in a college founded,
maintained and supported largely by the descendants o f the devoted people
who followed the great founder o f Pennsylvania here to help him carve
a mighty Commonwealth from the wilderness and to undertake that “ great
experiment” which has been a lesson in peace and good will to the world.
11
It does not seem a great while since Joseph Swain was inaugurated here.
We all remember that day, nineteen years ago. Those o f us who were Tiére
will recall that some thoughtful soul rushed forward just before the new
President was to speak, and while John K. Richards, o f blessed memory
(who was then Solicitor General o f the United States) was still speaking)
and, as H r. Richards said, ‘ ‘ This is a day o f large men and of- -large
things,” raised the reading stand about two feet [Laughter] so as to bring
it within range"of Joseph’ s eyes.
Friends, these nineteen years have been days o f big things and o f big
men, as far as Swarthmore is concerned. We cannot pay too great a
tribute to that sterling character who has so successfully guided the destinies
o f the college during those two eventful decades. And now he has added
to his splendid services to the college in picking one o f his own students,
a man whom he taught [Applause] and whom he started upon his career
as a teacher, and in bringing him here, in the wealth o f his judgment, as
the best fitted man to lead this college during the next several decades, we
hope. [Applause.]
Now, Joseph thinks that he is retiring to a well earned rest. He does
not look as i f he had retired on account o f ill health, does he? [Laughter.]
W e are thankful his recovery has been so rapid and sound that he will
be here for a long time to guide us with that practical judgment that
has been his, and which has helped greatly during the trying years that
have passed. So that he may not think that the balance o f his life will
be one round o f joyous restfulness, I reminded him last night that we
are about to call him into th e . service o f the Commonwealth, and get the
benefit o f his sage experience by making him a member o f the ' State
Council o f Education. [Applause.]
Now friends, it is a little hard to differentiate between the Governor
o f Pennsylvania and an alumnus o f Swarthmore and I am not going to
try. I have been very greatly impressed with President Aydelotte. I have
been impressed with what I have heard about him from those who know
him well. I have been impressed with the friends who have come from
a great distance and at mueh inconvenience to see him assume these im,portant duties, and bid him Godspeed on one o f the greatest d&ys o f his
life. I have been impressed with the way he seems to have absorbed the
spirit o f Swarthmore. I had a conversation with him last night, as I sat
by him in the meeting that was held here, that really filled me with joy.
He understands the spirit o f Swarthmore, he appreciates that atmosphere
o f cleanliness and morality and intellectual honesty which, Andrew D.
White said, pervades these Quaker institutions. He appreciates the sweet
ness and gentleness and wholesomeness which has characterized Swarthmore
through all o f her days. I think that we have indeed found a rare jewel
in President Aydelotte. [Applause.]
He finds here a strong institution; an institution which has been bnilded
upon substantial foundations; an institution which has earned the respect
o f the community, o f thè State and o f the national educational authorities;
an institution which has been successful and which has had its growth upon a
well ordered plan. Joseph Swain would probably remind me to say not too
12
well founded, because there are still many things needed here. [Laughter.]
Ilut President Aydelotte comes here at a time when the opportunity to go
forward and make Swarthmore.what he aims to make it, the best college
in the country,- is ripe fo r his attention, and I am sure, from the spirit
and devotion: which he already shows, that he is going to be successful.
I just want to tell you, as Governor and as a Manager and as an Alumnus
all in one, that I am filled with confidence and with hope for Swarthmore.
I think that we are most fortunate in our selection o f a leader. I am
sure that we are going to, have an era o f substantial progress and attain
ment, and that those young people over there [indicating students] and
their successors, are going to have a stronger and better Swarthmore, car
ried on according to the ideals o f its founders, progressive enough to keep
in the lead o f the educational procession, but yet never the hitching post
for fads.
I welcome you here heartily, President Aydelotte, and I am particularly
glad to have you come when we are making plans for great educational
progress in Pennsylvania. We are glad to have you here in Swarthmore,
to have your energy, your culture, your understanding and world-wide
appreciation o f educational methods, for the benefit o f this beloved little
old College o f ours.
Mr. Powell, presenting the Faculty representative, said:
“ To the Faculty o f the College we look for its standing in
scholarship. To it is entrusted the moulding of our future citi
zens. It is a high duty well performed and the influence of its
members far reaching. Among our faculty leaders is one beloved
by all, always unselfishly striving to bring out the best. He has
served this College thirty-three years. I present to you Dr.
Spencer Trotter.”
A D D R E SS OF PROFESSOR TROTTER
President Aydelotte: It has been said o f a certain American city, the
inhabitants o f which regard it as a center o f intellectual life, that it is
not so much a geographical situaton as it is a state o f mind— to be defined
from the standpoint o f psychology rather than that o f geography. There
is much truth in this point o f view, hidden as it is under the guise o f a
joke, and it might well be extended to many other places. Swarthmore
College, standing as it does on the green slope o f the upland terrace with
its wide outlook over the Valley o f the Delaware and the farther stretch
o f coastal plain, is, indeed, a wonderful and beautiful geographical situa
tion, But it has a far wider and deeper significance to the men and women
who have been nurtured within its walls. With these men and women
Swarthmore is really a state o f mind, and a name to conjure with; to
them its magic casements open on to the dim, delightful vistas o f memory
and forward into the glowing mists o f the future.
13
I t has been my great privilege to have served within these walls during
five administrations— Edward H. Magill, William Hyde Appleton, Charles
DeGarmo, William Birdsall, Joseph Swain— and to have made many dear
and valued friendships in the wide eircle o f its students and alumni, and
it is my further privilege, President Aydelotte, to be chosen by the Faculty
o f Swarthmore College to welcome you, Sir, the seventh o f its presidents
into the fellowship o f its charming life and associations.
Mr. Powell introduced President Ferry o f Hamilton College
with these w ords:
“ To all college presidents the induction of a new President is
a matter of great interest. W e have with us a man who made
a great reputation as Dean in one of our colleges and who is now
making a greater reputation as President o f one of our important
colleges. I present to you Dr. Frederick Carlos Ferry, President
of Hamilton College. ’ ’
A D D R E SS OF DR. F E R R Y
Mr. riV.aiTT.mn, Mr. President, Friends o f Swarthmore: It is a very great
privilege to welcome you, Sir, to your new office, on behalf o f the colleges
o f this country. I find particular pleasure in this, because I am one o f
so many who have been permitted for a long time to claim your friend
ship and to be favored often by kindly counsel and inspiration at your
hands. We welcome you today into that peculiar fraternity made up o f
college presidents. Their calling is extra-hazardous.
There are many
great companies that will insure one’s house from fire, his automobile from
theft, his health from diseases, commencement day from rain; but there
have not been found any companies that will insure college presidents for
continuance in office. [Laughter.]
The ancient mariner who could safely steer his bark between Scylla and
Charybdis was counted a master o f navigation. Y ou will find not only the
faculty for Scylla on one side, and the Board for Charybdis on the other,
but also the undergraduates in front o f you, the alumni behind you and
the great public all about. [Laughter.] They will demand that you say
and do so many things that i f you were not yourself but only one o f us
ordinary men, you would often be too amazed to do or say anything at
all, [Laughter.] But gloomy forebodings are not for such as you. We
know how wide and thorough has been your training for this high office
on which you enter today. Y ou have been teacher or pupil or both in a
high school, in a normal school, in a great state university, in a distinguished
technical school, in Harvard University, and in a small college o f O xford; you
have lived in California, Kentucky, Indiana, on the banks o f the Charles,
and on the banks o f the Isis. We recall those trying days o f the 8. A. T. C.
and remember that the only things that pleased us then and the only thing
still retained by the colleges from that gloomy period is the War Issues
course which you directed.
14
The Duke o f Wellington is reported to have said that he was very unwill
ing to be Chancellor o f Oxford University because it exposed him unpleas
antly to the company o f literary persons [Laughter]. We remember that
even that ordeal cannot disturb you because you are a professor o f English
literature and by your books have long since earned your right to write.
I would congratulate you today that you are called to the presidency o f
a small college. Those gloomy prophecies o f a few years ago, that the small
college was doomed to be exterminated, are no longer heard. The only
extermination threatening them today is that, through being allowed to
become large colleges, they may cease to be small colleges. [Laughter.]
What else could so withstand the pressure o f the materialism o f these
days as the idealism o f the small college? Where else can the ambitions
o f our American youth be so stimulated? Mr. Edison, who, whatever we
think o f him in his interrogatory moods, appeals to us strongly in his
hortatory ones, advises that the young men o f this country, should not
content themselves by learning to do the possible— there are others who
can do that; they should aim to do the impossible. We remember how
that same ambitious spirit was expressed in the ballad sung by those
young Americans who toiled under the tropical sun o f Panama in the build
ing o f the great canal:
“ Got any rivers they say are uncrossable?
Got any mountains you can’t tunnel through?
We specialize in the wholly impossible,
Doing the things that no man can do.”
We sympathize with the feeling o f the Quaker mother who said to her
son, “ I f God make thee a good Christian and a good scholar, then thou
hast all thy mother ever asked for thee.” So we congratulate you on this
great task o f continuing here to make good Christians and good scholars.
A certain prime minister o f England, in taking up the task o f high office,
is said to have had two wishes, first, that England should prosper under
his administration, and, second, that England should prosper. [Laughter.]
We know so well that it is your only great ambition that Swarthmore Col
lege shall prosper that we are entirely sure that it will prosper abundantly
under your administration.
Mr. Powell then said: “ While university presidents are not
quite as much interested in a college president, still we send
them so many people that they always like to be here at an
occasion like this. W e have with us the President of the Asso
ciation of American Universities, Chancellor Ernest H. Lindley,
of the University of Kansas. ’ ’
15
A D D R E SS OP CH ANCELLOR LIN D LEY
Chancellor L indley : Mr. Chairman, President Aydelotte, your Excel
lency, Friends o f Swarthmore: I come here this morning with a very rich
cargo filled beyond the limits o f my voice to convey. First I want to bring
the felicitations o f more than a score o f the larger private and state founda
tions, felicitations to this man who is known throughout the nation as an in
tellectual and educational leader. Then, I bring a message from free soil
Kan Han, the Kansas o f John Brown, the Kansas that is proudly conscious
o f its function as the nursery o f great causes; the “ spiritual tuning fork ,[ J
as William Allen White has said, “ the spiritual tuning fork o f the nation.”
And then I bring with even more pleasure a message o f many o f those who
love the noble President who has just retired and o f those who share also
in the friendship o f your new President. It was my fortune to have Joseph
Swain as friend and beloved teaeher and chief in another university, prior
to his advent at Swarthmore. And it was my joy to be the friend and the
new colleague o f the new President. I belong to the “ I-told-you-so ” club.
[Laughter.] I am one o f the increasing number that will say that we knew
from the start that Frank Aydelotte, with his scholarly ideals, with his
judgment, with his tireless industry, would win his way to a place o f com
manding leadership. I come today in the interests o f what Swarthmore has
held most dear across the years, a concern for men.
A few years ago, there was throughout this country a timely discussion
o f the conservation o f our great natural resources. We heard very mueh o f
wasteful methods o f mining minerals and the ruthless destruction o f forest
and o f water sheds, whereby each year millions o f tons o f rich soil were
washed into the sea, never again, perhaps, to be used by man. Yet, through
out the early stages o f this discussion, there was scarce mention o f the most
tragic waste that goes on wherever men live, that waste which is due to the
suppression o f human talent. A survey, somewhat scientific, o f the unequal
distribution o f the successes among men o f three great countries, England,
France and America, shows that in a people o f homogeneous population, you
can find a million o f that population, which contributes .one hundred times
as many men o f success as another million. I t is not a difference in
heredity. I do not refer to inequalities o f character. I refer to the dis
tribution o f what we know o f the chance to develop otherwise suppressed
power. A s a result o f this survey it was a deliberate judgment o f those
who made the inquiry that on the average only about ten per cent o f the
brain power o f this generation is in the game. A little while ago, on the
basis o f intelligence tests, made among one hundred thousand men, an infer
ence was made as to the population o f my adopted state in respect to mental
capabilities— it was found in a state whieh sends as many young people to
college in proportion to the population as any other state in the country
that, for everyone who goes to college, there are three to nine mentally
capable who do not have that opportunity. We wonder when that flood tide
will be reached. I warn you, i f we realize our greatest possibilities as a
people, that tide will not reach flood until the other three or nine shall have
had their chance.
It nevertheless makes no difference i f they go up to the universities, i f
these universities have failed to provide a standard o f life and a way of
life which is adequate.
A little while ago, Sir Philip Gibbs, surveying Europe, said, “ The ideal
ism o f the world is dead.” I say in this dark hour o f the w orld’ s history,
college men and women must be idealists as never before, loyal not to an
abstract idealism, but to a concrete, practical idealism, resolutely clinging to
the certainty that the higher human qualities are imperishable and that there
is an active force in the nature o f man which makes for civilization and peace,
and which makes for the redemption and release o f the latent powers o f men.
This idealism, this, and the way o f life appropriate thereto, commits colleges
and universities to principles which I have only time to mention. One is
that, whatever we do in the college or university, we must make quite sure
that our chief purpose is to teach youth and to show youth by the contagion
o f example and by precept, the art exquisite, the endless art o f treating
persons as persons and never as things; every outstanding problem o f man
and industry turns on that pivot o f the treatment o f persons as persons in
the saeredness o f their individuality.
The second is that we who a^e interested in education, must treat per
sons not as they are, but as we believe them capable o f becoming.
Why are mothers ever enshrined in human hearts? As the mother looks
into the face o f her babe, she says, with eyes turned toward the future, |‘ My
child may some day be President o f the United States. ’ ’ Any medical man,
if cold hearted, would say to her that her child, as it lies there, is a bundle
o f inability. She refuses to see its weaknesses. She determines that her
child shall have an opportunity o f becoming President o f the United States.
And we do not smile, because we know there would never be a President of
the United States worthy o f that great office, i f mothers should fail to treat
persons, not as they are, but as they are capable o f becoming. The great
problem o f education o f America today, dealing with thousands, instead o f
hundreds, is the discovery in time o f the possibilities o f human youth.
The leadership we must seek in America is not universal leadership. Those
Napoleon-like, Caesar-like leaders are not satisfactory. We need a democratic
type o f men and women, who are the best to lead others o f their group. In
a democratic education we need those leaders, with the far-seeing eye to dis
cover those with special gift, to educate them, and lead them into fullness
of power to serve. I f we are intent on that supreme factor in education,
if we are seized with this possibility o f human life, then we may say with a
great American seer:
“ We call these millions men; but they are not yet men. H alf engaged
in the soil, pawing to get free, man needs all the music that can be brought
to disengage him. I f Love, red Love, with tears and jo y ; i f Want, with his
scourge; i f War, with his cannonade; i f Christianity, with its charity; if
Trade, with its money; i f Art, with its portfolios; i f Science, with her tele
graphs through the deeps o f space and time can set his dull nerves throb
bing, and by loud taps on the tough chrysalis can break its walls and let the
new ereature emerge erect and free,— make way and sing paean! The age
of the quadruped is to go out, the age o f the brain and o f the heart is to
17
come in. The time will come when the evil forms we have known can no
more be organized. M an’s culture can spare nothing, wants all the material.
He is to convert all impediments into instruments, all enemies into power. ’ ’
Mr. Powell said: “ In these times it is impossible to overestimate
the importance o f close unity among English speaking nations.
W ith the election of our new President, Swarthmore has placed
itself in the lead in this line. The colleges have a large field, and
much work must be done. I believe for the first time, in the
history of the United States, that the great University of Oxford
has sent a delegate here to take an active part in the proceedings.
It gives me great pleasure to introduce Professor Roger B. Merriman, Balliol ’97-’99, now a professor at Harvard.”
AD D RESS OF PROFESSOR MERRIMAN
Mr. President o f the Corporation, President Aydelotte, Ladies and Gentle
m en:— It is my very great pleasure and privilege to bring you, on this
auspicious occasion, the cordial congratulations and good wishes o f the
ancient University o f Oxford. Oxford follows, with joy fu l pride, the careers
o f her sons in peace and in war; she is naturally both proud and glad that
one o f the earliest and best o f her Rhodes Scholars should have been called
to the presidency o f this splendid college.
But President Aydelotte is far more than an alumnus o f O xford; he is
one o f her most indispensable and effective servants today. I t has been
largely through his unswerving loyalty and devotion that the Rhodes Schol
arships have been established today on firmer foundations than ever
before; that the value o f an Oxford career has come to be appreciated in
the United States; and that the standard o f the scholars has risen so high.
I f he does for Swarthmore what he has done for this great educational
trust, his presidency will be memorable in the annals o f the college.
There is certainly something peculiarly fitting and happy in the calling
o f an Oxford man to the headship o f an institution like this. It comes
as an assurance that amid all the changes, distractions, and troubles o f
these recent tragic years, America remains loyal to her English heritage—
a very precious heritage. In matters educational and academic, I take it,
that English heritage stands for two things: first, for the idea that a col
lege should exercise some measure o f supervision over the development o f
the student’s character— that it is in some measure responsible for his
moral as well as for his mental growth; second, for the idea that the object
o f a college education should not be primarily to impart information,
but rather to give the student intellectual power— that the subjects taught
make little difference, provided that, in the course o f the studying o f them,
the pupil learns how to teach himself. Now time was, and not so very long
ago, when this country was so fascinated by German educational models
that it seemed as i f both these ideas had been utterly lost sight o f— as if
18
American universities and colleges were destined rather to manufacture
highly trained specialists than to produce thinking men and women. To
day there are, happily, abundant signs that this country is returning to
better ways; but it is to colleges like this rather than to the larger uni
versities that America must look for the preservation o f the ancient ideals.
The college system at Oxford and Cambridge, which makes those universities
what they are, grew up as the result o f a divine accident; and the at
tempts to reproduce that result, by artificial means, in the larger American
universities, have not hitherto met with unqualified success.
But here, where your numbers are smaller, and the contacts so much more
intimate, you have an opportunity to do a work which it is doubtful whether
the universities can any longer fully perform. I am confident that your
new president realizes this opportunity and will make the most o f it. And
I could not wish you any fairer destiny than that, under his wise leader
ship, you should hold true, in all its many implications, to that good old
Oxford motto— the motto o f William o f Wykeham— that “ Manners Maketh
Man” ; that you should enjoy the priceless advantages o f intimate associa
tion in the pursuit o f a common ideal; and that you should proclaim, by the
words and the deeds o f the graduates you send forth, as well as by the
training that you give them here, the everlasting superiority o f the moral
over the material world.
Then followed the induction, in which Mr. Powell spoke these
words: “ On behalf o f the Corporation of Swarthmore College,
its Faculty, Alumni and Undergraduates we are today hand
ing over to thee, Frank Aydtelotte, a great trust— that of the
leadership o f this College and the many persons who come to it
for inspiration. W e look to thee for its forward and upward
progress. In the name of the Corporation of Swarthmore Col
lege and with the united benediction of the Board, the Faculty,
the Alumni and the Undergraduates, I pronounce thee, Frank
Aydelotte, installed in the office of the Presidency of Swarth
more College. May God bless thee! ’ ’
INAUGURAL AD D RESS OF PRESIDENT AYDELOTTE
An occasion like this, Sir, -ceremonially marking my entrance upon duties
which I have already in fact begun, adds much to the pleasure with which
I undertake my new work; but no ceremony, however solemn, could make
me feel more deeply than I do already the seriousness o f the task on which
I am engaged. In industry, in government, and in international relations
we are entering upon an age which brings new and difficult problems for
the minds and souls o f men. The key to success in meeting them lies in
education, and never perhaps in human history was the r61e o f the teacher
more important. Our colleges and universities are taxed to the utmost
to take care o f the increased numbers o f students. This pressure upon
19
our facilities for higher education is perhaps the one result o f the war in
which we can feel most satisfaction. The situation which it creates, how
ever, involves the sternest necessity for the national economy o f - our educa
tional resources and for the wisest possible use o f them. The problem is a
national one. No institution, however restricted its clientele, can without
breach o f trust be so administered as to ignore the national need for the
greatest possible provision o f facilities for higher training and for the
wisest and most effective use o f such facilities as are available.
This is especially the case in an institution like Swarthmore, which enters
this year into so rich an inheritance from the last administration. During
the twenty years just ended the alumni and friends o f the college, under the
guidance o f that great leader who has come here today to give his bless
ing and his counsel to those o f us whose task it is to carry oh his work,
have built and equipped our educational plant and provided an endowment
sufficient, at least for the present, for the task that lies before us. W e are
the trustees o f an inheritance accumulated by men and women who counted
not the cost in their own lives or health or ease or leisure. Our endowment
is not one o f money alone, but also o f loyalty and love; it must be counted
not merely in the figures o f our investments and our balance at the bank,
but also in terms o f devotion in the hearts o f living men and women to
the cause which it is designed to serve. I am not a member o f the Eeligious
Society o f Friends by which this college was founded and is still largely
maintained. I can on that account the better pay my own tribute to the
devotion o f that society to the great cause o f education and to the liberality,
both in money and in spirit, o f their support. I t is the solemn duty of
those o f us who are charged with the administration o f their trust to dedi
cate ourselves whole-heartedly to the task o f making the wisest possible use
o f these funds and this plant toward the education o f the youth o f the
nation for whom they have been provided. It is our duty to give careful
and anxious thought to the question o f how this may best be done.
■
One o f the commonplaces o f educational discussion in this country is
De Tocqueville’s skepticism as to the possibility o f reaching, in a democracy
like ours, the same high level o f education and culture which is the glory
o f the older nations on the other side o f the Atlantic. De Tocqueville
wrote seventy years ago, and it is no discredit to his genius that events
since that time have in many respects proved him wrong. That a democracy
will have its fair share o f men o f genius and o f scientific ability, that we
have had our share o f such men, I need not stop to prove. That democracies
can set an example for the whole world in severity o f academic standards
is proved by the deserved eminence o f our American professional schools
and o f the undergraduate training, at once liberal and thorough, o f the uni
versities o f the great English democracy from which we sprang. -However,,
university education in England is still, as compared with ours,, restricted to
a much smaller percentage o f the population. W e have opened 'wider the
doors to higher education, and it is evident that i f democratic -government
is to be successful, these doors must be opened wider still. A t the heart
o f De Tocqueville’s criticism still lies the question as to whether the wide
popular extension o f higher education is compatible with high standards o f
20
attainment. No intoxication with our own success must be allowed to per
suade us that we have as yet answered this question in the affirmative. Now
that the pioneer stage o f our education is past, at least for many institu
tions and many parts o f the country, the time has arrived when we must
meet that challenge and try to produce, on a far wider scale than we have
ever done before, higher education which shall be in fact what it is in name.
As a nation at this period when we stand at the height o f material suc
cess, we are in grave danger o f falling into the error o f believing that what
we have done well is all that there is to do. We have applied knowledge,
only a small part o f which we discovered ourselves, to the exploitation o f
natural resources, which we did not create, and have produced the most
stupendous material wealth and the highest average standard o f living which
exists or has ever existed in the world. But man does not live by bread
alone, nor by coal or steel or cotton or all that may be made thereof,
however cheap and abundant. It is still true that beauty and intelligence
and morality are the ends o f education and o f life. All our industry, unless
it serve our spiritual ends, produces only a weary round o f degrading toil
and degrading luxury, carrying within itself, as the events o f the day too
clearly show, the seeds o f its own dissolution.
The coal miner digging his way through our Pennsylvania hills and
the operators who provide him with tools and machinery, direct his work,
bring the product to the surface, and send it on its way to our industrial
centres, are useful members o f society. Their united efforts produce for
us our great supply o f coal— the largest single motive power o f the wheels
o f industry. But it would not occur to any one o f these men to think for
a moment that the coal which they produce is an end in itself. It is not
merely necessary for us to produce coal; we must also burn it. We must,
by processes which still seem to the uninitiated wonderful, transform it
into heat and steam and that invisible but powerful electric force which
lights our cities, turns our wheels, and transmits human intelligence through
the ether. Unless coal could be so transformed it would be o f small value
to society.
A ' similar transformation, but far more wonderful, is possible for all the
material products o f our civilization. We must and can so distribute and
use them as to produce or make possible the development o f finer bodies
and minds and souls. The end o f all industry is the production o f human
beings o f a finer quality, and unless this end is realized and achieved, no
measure, however great, o f material success, can redeem it from failure.
It is the task o f our institutions Of higher learning to train leaders
who will have the vision and the power to direct this great transformation.
It is the danger o f our higher education that it oegupy itself too exclusively
with training men to produce the means without giving them the vision to
realize the end. We have learned how to do the first task with conspicuous
success; we must now learn how better to do the second. Doing it better
demands in the first place that we develop a clearer conception o f the
function o f the college o f liberal arts, and, in the second, that in our colleges
and universities we do our duty by students o f conspicuous ability as well
as we are now doing it by the average.
21
In the United States professional education in law, medicine, theology,
engineering, and in the many other new professions is far superior to the
training given in our colleges o f liberal arts. We have been able from the
nature o f the case to realize the professional school problem as a unified
whole, while the tendency o f our liberal education during the last few
decades has been away from unity toward confusion. Our colleges and
universities have, in my opinion, rightly departed form the old single
curriculum, but they have departed so far that the college o f liberal arts
in this country today, instead o f being a unit, is a conglomerate o f depart
ments which are often too little conscious o f their relationship and de
pendence one on the other. We act on the theory, though perhaps we would
not avow it, that all subjects in all departments are and o f right ought to
be free and equal. W e are in danger o f sacrificing the education o f our
American youth to the jealousies and courtesies o f the departmental system,
to the grotesque fiction o f the equality o f all courses before the registrar.
In our professional schools the teaehers o f one subject have commonly a
fair proficiency in several or all the branches which go to make up the
professional course. They may teach now in this department, and now in
that. In teaching one subject they constantly build on the foundation
laid by another. In the college o f liberal arts, on the other hand, depart
mental lines are mueh more rarely crossed. Courses depend less frequently
on the work o f preceding years, and modesty or pride too often leads the
teacher o f one subject to affect ignorance o f every other. As institutions
we refuse to commit ourselves to any definite answer to the question o f
what constitutes a liberal education, except for our clumsy departmental
requirements, demanding a certain distribution and a certain concentration
but not too much o f either. We measure the achievements o f our students
in minute units which bear theoretically a quantitative relation to their
education as a whole, which theoretical relation is proved utterly false by
the experience o f every student and every teacher who has ever thought
about liberal knowledge in any attitude except that o f the whining school
boy whose morning face shines with some other light than that imparted
by intellectual enthusiasm.
We can never again return to one course or two for all our students o f
liberal arts, but we must simplify and unify the courses for the A. B.
degree, allowing a certain number o f major choices as to subjects, and, once
the major choice is made, insisting rigidly on the implications o f that
choice. We should test the student’s proficiency in his work as a whole
by comprehensive examinations which will demand an understanding o f the
relations between different subjects, which will make each year depend
upon those that have gone before, which will eliminate the possibility of
success by cramming, and which will enable us to substitute a qualitative
for a quantitative standard for our degrees.
This should involve, it seems to me, a more limited program o f studies
and a more thorough standard o f attainment in each. The time needed for
such thoroughness may perhaps be gained by a different method o f securing
for the student his fund o f general information. Our common ideal o f
knowing something about everything and everything about something, while
22
impossible o f attainment, is one which is worth our best efforts even to
approach; but translated into terms o f college courses it becomes impos
sible to approach except for the perpetual undergraduate. Closely connected
with the lack o f thoroughness in our undergraduate courses is the total lack
o f an efficient method o f imparting that superficial knowledge o f miscel
laneous subjects which constitutes so important a part o f the education o f
every man. I f a student o f Physics wishes from mere intellectual curiosity
to know something about Psychology or French literature, he ordinarily
takes courses in those subjects. In most cases the only courses available
are designed for students who will eventually specialize in those depart
ments— wholly unsuited in their emphasis on foundation details for the
needs o f our browser. His browsing he should do, but not in the elass
room. He should instead read a book about Psychology or as many works
o f French literature as his interest will justify, and he should devote his
academic hours to work which is for his purposes more important. He
would thus economize his time; he would not spoil his habit o f doing up to
the best o f his ability whatever he undertakes to do; and he would besides
cultivate the taste for thoughtful reading which would enable him to con
tinue his education effectively after his college days are over.
The training o f the men without whose leadership democracy and industry
cannot survive, demands, in the second place, better training for our best
minds, demands the cultivation o f more intellectual initiative and indepen
dence than ordinarily result from our college courses at the present time.
We need an independence o f thought which does not come from school-boy
perfection in lessons learned, under the system o f daily supervised study
which is proper to the secondary school. W e use this method too much
in our colleges and universities. It is no doubt successful in bringing the
mediocre student up to a mediocre standard, but it is, in my opinion, in
jurious to the intellectual development o f the best. These best men and
women need that independence o f thought which comes from lonely grap
pling with intellectual problems and from the facing o f tests o f a severity
unknown, or at least extremely unusual, in our colleges and universities
today.
Perhaps the most fundamentally wasteful feature o f our educational insti
tutions is the lack o f a higher standard o f intellectual attainment. We
are educating more students up to a fair average than any country in the
world, but we are wastefully allowing the capacity o f the average to pre
vent us from bringing the best up to the standards they could reach. Our
most important task at the present is to check this waste.
The method o f doing it seems clear: to separate those students who are
really interested in the intellectual life from those who are not, and to
demand o f the former in the course o f their four years’ work, a standard
of attainment for the A. B. degree distinctly higher than we require of
them at present and comparable perhaps with that which is now reached
for the A. M.
I do not believe that we should deny to the average, or below average
student, the benefit o f a college education. He needs this training, and
we need his humanizing presence in the colleges, but we should not allow.
23
him to hold back his more brilliant companions from doing that high quality
o f work which will in the end best ju stify the time and money which we
spend in education.
With these more brilliant students it would be possible to do things which
we dare not attempt with the average. We could allow them to specialize
more because their own alertness o f mind would o f itself be sufficient to
widen their intellectual range and give them that acquaintance with other
studies necessary for a liberal point o f view. We could, I think, at least
partially obliterate the distinction between vocational and libéral studies.
This is strikingly true in such a subject as engineering where the brilliant
student can dispense with a great many o f the detailed technical applica
tions o f scientific knowledge because his very power o f reasoning enables
him to apply fundamental principles to detailed situations. The time
thus saved could be used for the development o f general intelligence through
liberal studies in such a way as to turn out in the same length o f time that
we are now giving to engineering courses, men who would be at once more
fundamentally trained in their subject and more broadly educated.
We could give these more brilliant students greater independence in their
work, avoiding the spoon-feeding which makes much o f our college instruc
tion o f the present day o f secondary school character. Our examinations
should be less frequent and more comprehensive, and the task o f the student
should be to prepare himself for these tests through his own reading and
through the instruction offered by the college: he should not be subjected
to the petty, detailed, day-by-day restrictions and assignments necessary for
his less able fellows.
B y altering the character o f our instruction from a secondary to a col
lege and university level, we ought to be able to dispense with some o f
the drudgery o f teaching and release at least a portion o f the time o f col
lege and university professors for study and research, thus in turn raising
the whole level o f our education.
This development which I have indicated is, I am glad to say, already
under way. The separation o f honors men from the main average body o f
students is already taking place in a number o f institutions in the country,
and we are witnessing' today a gradual development o f a system o f junior
colleges which will operate eventually to release our endowments for higher
education for specifically higher training.
As a part o f this program o f national economy in education, it seems to
me incumbent upon small institutions with limited resources to limit de
cisively both the numbers o f their students and the subjects which they
teach. I am glad to say that there is already a marked tendency in this
direction, and that Swarthmore is one o f the institutions which has taken
that stand. The size o f an institution need have no effect on the quality
o f its work with such limitations as I have mentioned.
While smaller institutions must limit the subjects which they can teach
and must necessarily undertake sparingly or not at all to give instruction
above the A. B. degree, it seems to me absolutely necessary to the life o f
our educational system that they should do their utmost to encourage re
search on the part o f members o f the Faculty and that the provision o f
24
books and laboratories for this work is as necessary a part o f our educa
tional expenditure as are the materials for purely undergraduate instruc
tion. Our smaller colleges cannot provide the materials for research in all
possible subjects as can the large universities, nor is it necessary that they
should. By wise provision for supplying the specific needs o f the members
o f their faculties in this direction the spirit o f research can be kept alive
and the money thus spent will in the end produce as much benefit in rais
ing the intellectual tone o f the. institution as could any other, possible ex
penditure. In this College the observatory given by Governor Sproul rep
resents one such provision for research which, under the direction o f Dr.
Miller, is bearing splendid fruit, and we have in the Friends’ Historical
Library the nucleus o f another, which, through the efforts o f a small but
distinguished body o f Curators recently appointed by the Board, will I
hope, soon be greatly enlarged.
The increase in numbers o f our various institutions during the last two
or three years has had an inevitable tendency towards the lowering o f
standards. That tendency, i f allowed to go unchecked, would do more than
anything else to endanger our educational system. To check it, to put the
emphasis on quality rather than quantity, to limit the numbers o f our stu
dents and the subjects that we teach, to try to do up to the highest possible
level those things that we do, it seems to me, is the program indicated by
the educational situation which now confronts the country.
In this generous rivalry for higher intellectual standards is to be found
the unifying principle which will unite competing institutions. Science and
scholarship, literature and art must necessarily transcend institutional or
even national boundaries and demand from their votaries an allegiance
which swallows smaller rivalries and loyalties. In our own local situation
we are fortunate to be able to count among our assets the stimulus o f the
well deserved reputation o f Haverford and Bryn Mawr for training gradu
ates o f intellectual distinction, and the great scholarly resources o f men
and books and laboratories o f the University o f Pennsylvania. To work
ing in friendly rivalry and cooperation with the other institutions o f our
State and o f the Nation, to making the best use we can o f our resources,
to the carrying out o f this program o f the highest development o f the best
minds which come to us to be trained, I today pledge myself and, in so far
as I can speak for it, this College, which has done me the honor to choose
me as its head.
25
INAUGURATION D IN N E R
O ctober
21,1921
On the evening preceding Inauguration Day, Swarthmore Col
lege gave a dinner to delegates from universities, colleges and
learned and professional societies attending the inauguration. It
was held in the college dining-room in Parrish Hall, which was
attractively decorated.
REM ARK S OF H O W A R D COOPER JOHNSON,
TOASTM ASTER
It is with very deep regret that I have to announce that on account of
the serious illness o f his wife, the toastmaster o f the evening, the Honor
able A . Mitchell Palmer, o f the Class o f 1891, is not present. Mr. Palmer
is a speaker o f great power and rare talent. He was the War Attorney
General, and as Alien Property Custodian succeeded in reaching the German
mind through the pocket-book nerve.
Mr. President, Delegates to the Inauguration, Ladies and Gentlemen: On
behalf o f the Corporation, Faculty, Alumni and Undergraduates o f Swarth
more, I extend to you the heartiest o f welcomes to our little Quaker College.
W e hope you may enter into that spirit o f academic unity which has ever
characterized Swarthmore and that you will come again, and often. In
future years we shall draw deeply from the store o f friendship and wisdom
that you have brought to us upon this occasion. I am first going to call
upon the distinguished Provost o f our great neighbor, the University o f
Pennsylvania, Dr. Josiah H. Penniman.
A D D R E SS OF
DR. PENNIMAN
Mr. Toastmaster, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: This is not the
first time Pennsylvania and Swarthmore have met within the last week.
When I first knew that I was to come here to represent the colleges in
the neighborhood o f Swarthmore, I thought, possibly as the University wa,s
older and larger, that I might be in danger o f displaying an air o f superi
ority, but I heard we were going to play the Swarthmore football team
last Saturday, and the feeling was modified. I then thought that possibly
I might have to speak to you as an inferior, but I am here as an absolute
equal [Applause]. When I heard the score o f the game, which I was not
privileged to see, my first thought was to telegraph President Aydelotte
“ Blest be the tie that b in d s ." Probably a tie was better than any other
score could possibly have been, but it left, I am sorry to say, some disap
pointment in the minds o f our Swarthmore opponents, particularly in the
last few minutes o f the game.
26
Swarthmore and Pennsylvania. The colleges o f this neighborhood and
Swarthmore; a sisterhood; a brotherhood; a union o f institutions that stand
for the high things o f life, the things that are reaily and truly worth while.
For after all, as someone has said, 11a man ?s life consists very largely
o f communion and conversation with himself,” and according to the rich
ness o f his own life, to the things lie is able to say to himself, or that
one o f his many selves says to another self, is the interest o f the life which
he lives. Through memory, that marvelous g ift o f God, we are able to
reproduce the past. We are able at fifty, at sixty, at any age, to go back,
and the man o f fifty may -talk with himself as he was when he was a boy
o f eighteen or twenty in College. Institutions also can look back over their
history, and in the light o f experience they can converse with themselves
as they were in the days o f much smaller things. The thoughts o f Swarth
more men and women, as they commune with themselves, and with each
other, must be rieh and inspiring.
Mr. President, it is no ordinary institution to which you have been called
to be its head. Ladies .and gentlemen, friends and members o f Swarthmore
College, it is no ordinary man whom you have chosen as your President.
We read “ what’ s in a name?’ ’ A college president with such a name
as that will Ayde-a-lotte. I hoped that the representative chosen to speak
for the colleges, would be the President o f Haverford, for then you would
have had Comfort and “ a id ” or “ aid and com fort,” as they will soon
come to be known. It is a good old English phrase. Indeed you do want
aid a lot. You have got Aydelotte [Laughter],
On this occasion I want in these words which, while spoken in jest, are
spoken also in seriousness, to bring to you o f Swarthmore at the inauguration
o f your new President, a message indicative o f the profound reverence and
love we have for your retiring President, Joseph Swain, and o f the deep
respect which we have for Swarthmore College, as well as an assurance
o f our belief that the fine traditions and splendid history o f this Quaker
institution, will prove to be an inspiration to this new President, and to
all its present students, through him and under his leadership, and that
Swarthmore will show what a college o f this kind can do in developing
the character o f manhood and womanhood as its great contribution to
the life o f this noble land o f which we are so proud to be citizens. The
institutions o f the neighborhood o f Swarthmore salute you.
T h e T o a s t m a s t e r : “ It gives me unusual pleasure to welcome
the next speaker, who for four years graced the Chair of English
at Swarthmore. His charm o f personality and high attainments
in scholarship created a love for English literature which his
students have not forgotten, I feel highly honored in presenting
to you this evening Dr. John L. Lowes, o f Harvard University.”
27
A D D R E SS OF PROFESSOR LOW ES
I f ever there was an instance when the marriage o f true minds did not
admit impediments it is this union o f Swarthmore College and Frank Ayde
lotte. I have the privilege— which I share perhaps among those here this
evening only with President Swain— o f knowing well both contracting
parties. I know Swarthmore, for I spent four happy years here— received
as a friend among Friends in spite o f the fact that my F was the small
one— under the leadership for the man who has built on its old and strong
foundations the new strong Swarthmore o f today. And I have known Presi
dent Aydelotte from the days when we were both o f us, younger than now,
in Indiana, to the days when we have hobnobbed under the shade o f the
Cambridge elms. And what I know further is this:
Swarthmore has its roots deep in a long tradition that reaches, baek to
George Fox and Swarthmore Hall in Lancashire in the mid-seventeenth
century— a tradition which I think is never entirely absent from its con
sciousness as a badge and symbol o f high calling. But i f its traditions
are old, its spirit is new, and its mind open. Thought is free here, as I
know, who have experienced the hospitality o f the place to ideas which do
not bear the stamp o f sect or creed. What Swarthmore really stands for
is service to the immediate needs o f its own day in the guiding light o f
principles that have come down from a past o f plain living, plain speech,
and high thinking.
Now President Aydelotte also represents an ancient and great tradition—
the tradition which has made and kept Oxford the bulwark o f a noble
humanism through the eenturies. And as in the case o f Swarthmore that
tradition goes baek to England. But (also as in the case o f Swarthmore)
President Aydelotte is American to the core, and contemporary to his finger
tips. He stands closer officially to Oxford than any other American, and
he knows intimately from within what Oxford stands for. But he has
taught in a Western State Normal School, and in a Southern B oys’ High
School, and in a Western State University, and in an Eastern Institute o f
Technology, and he was born in Indiana and married in Massachusetts, and
has been a denizen o f Kentucky, and now lives in Pennsylvania, and has
written a book on Hogues and Vagabonds, and is President o f a Quaker
College— and i f that is not tempering tradition with liberality, not to say
independence, then let me be no more a pedagogue, but keep a farm and
carters!
Now i f there is anything under the menacing skies o f the world today
that we need it is precisely that balance between the steadying power o f
tradition and the open minded responsiveness to new conditions which both
this -college and its President represent. And that balance is needed no
where so cryingly as in the colleges. Tradition without flexibility is mort
main— the dead hand o f the past upon the aspirations and ideals o f the
living present. Liberality untempered by tradition degenerates into the
avid acceptance o f all the yeasty collection o f fads and vagaries that boil
and bubble in eager but untrained minds. The great humanistic doctrine
o f balance and proportion implies the resolution o f the opposing forces
28
o f freedom and restraint— o f surging forces to restrain (without which
restraint becomes an empty sh ell); o f the cheek that is exercised upon ex
uberant and well-meant inovations by the wisdom o f the w orld’s hard-won
experience. And I know no happier augury for Swarthmore, and through
Swarthmore fo r agencies o f wider reach, than the union o f its old tradi
tions and new activities with the rare blending o f initiative and sanity o f
temperament in its President. And from an institution which has held
firmly for well-nigh three centuries to these same ideals, I bear felicitations
on the event.
T h e T o a s t m a s t e r : “ Among the tenets of the early- Friends
was their insistence upon the education o f their children. The,
George School at. Newtown, Pennsylvania, controlled by the
Society o f Friends is a great modern preparatory school. Its
principal will extend a greeting from the Friends schools : Pro
fessor George A. Walton, whom I have the pleasure to introduce. ’ ’
AD D RESS OF P R IN C IPA L W ALTON
The Golden Age o f Quakerism lies ahead. Its greatest activity will be
education. Although Quakers have done distinguished service in preaching,
business, politics, and relief work we now are more likely to achieve great
ness as teachers. Modern conditions do not favor the intensive cultivation
o f the g ift o f vocal ministry. The Quaker contribution to business is indi
vidual and varies, as different men vary. The same is true in politics.
There is no way in which the Society o f Friends can enter either field as
an organization. It is also often true that pressing obligations o f business
and politics so absorb the energy o f our members as to draw them away
from intimate relations with the Meeting and while the Society o f Friends
retains their membership, their love and veneration, it fails to receive their
advice and leadership. Thus it is difficult for any definite Quaker ideal
to become traditional in either o f the fields o f business or politics. In relief
work we have done marvelous things in an organized and representative
capacity but it is generally viewed as an emergency measure. For educa
tional work, however, we already have endowed institutions for permanent
service. However much individual teachers may exemplify the spirit and
ideals o f Quakerism in other schools, these specifically Friendly institutions
focus all o f our educational endeavor, set .the standards for it and make
conspicuous the devotion o f our Society to education. Thus the circum
stances o f the time join with the native genius o f our people to place educa
tion as the foremost concern o f the Society o f Friends, although I doubt
whether the truth o f this viewpoint is as yet generally realized by the
membership. Friends Schools look to Swarthmore College for leadership
in convincing the Society o f the primacy o f education. We also look to
Swarthmore College to supply that most essential element in all educational
activities: teachers. The college already has an honorable record in the
production o f teachers. One third o f our teachers at George School have
29
done their under graduate work within these walls and in every case except
one the position was not offered to them until their superiority over many
others was clearly evident. It is worth noting in passing, that all o f these,
whether members o f Friends or not, contribute to the essential friendliness
o f the School.
Friends schools are sympathetic with the public school system and our
work is supplementary. A dual system o f education, public and private, is
a safeguard o f liberty. Universal education is a new thing in the world
and judged from the standpoint o f the life o f nations it is still in the ex
perimental stage. The experience o f Prussia, however, for the last two
generations reveals the danger to liberty in a tightly organized, state con
trolled, system o f education. The dual system o f public and private pre
vents either from being used as a political instrument.
A t present universal education out o f necessity rests upon a compulsory
educational law. It is to be observed, however, that the effects o f such a
law are not wholly beneficial. A system o f private schools can do valuable
service in repairing the damage done— tho damage, for instance, o f over
crowding and o f the lower standards which become necessary to persuad
ing different boys and girls to remain in the High School for four years.
Efficiency in universal education also requires at the present time consoli
dation, at least in high school grades, and yet consolidation is not without
its defects, as many children are compelled to make long journeys or are
thrown into hurtful surroundings and tempted away from school and parental
supervision. There is plenty o f work for Friends schools and other pri
vate schools but, being supplementary to the public system, we fail utterly
unless the instruction and discipline and spirit o f school life is o f the
highest excellence. W e look to Swarthmore College for leadership in secur
ing such excellence.
New ideas that deserve a trial are more easily tried out in private schools.
Friends schools wish to be progressive in the sense o f presenting their
students with every possible advantage and we hope that Swarthmore Col
lege will view our experiments with favor and counsel us as to our success
or failure.
Now it goes without saying that i f our schools are to be supplementary
to the public school system they will have to be heavily endowed so that
all classes o f society may have the opportunity to use them. Education is
so very costly that only the extremely well-to-do can afford to pay the full
individual cost per student. Education is the greatest opportunity open
before the Society o f Friends and should be our primary concern, but we
must open opportunity to those boys and girls whose lives will likely prove
most worthwhile. We have no interest in the financially profitable work
o f educating children o f wealthy families. We want to have a large enough
endowment to keep our rates low and we want to do such excellent work
that with many applicants available we can disregard parents’ means and
choose those students who will enter upon their studies with the spirit o f
preparing themselves for a useful life. None o f us are sufficiently endowed.
Economic conditions are naturally pushing Friends’ children out o f Friends
schools into the public. There is need for a statesmanlike consideration
30
o f the financial problems o f Friends schools and colleges. In the past our
separate efforts to secure endowment have interfered with each other. We
must find a better way but should, I think, beware o f organizing ourselves
too tightly-into a system. Friends General Conference has made effort from
time to time to get at this problem but it seems likely that greater results
will be accomplished by a movement among the schools themselves. I hesi
tate to say that we expect the leadership o f Swarthmore College in this
matter. We must not shove all o f our burdens on the sturdy shoulders of
President Aydelotte but one thing is certain— the schools can do nothing
without the full understanding and approval o f Swarthmore College.
The essential characteristic o f a Friends school is to be found in its
inward state and not in such outward features as the religious affiliation o f
its pupils and teachers ; the teaching o f religious subjects, or compulsory
attendance at meetings for worship. These things are valuable but sec
ondary. A Friends school may employ them all and yet fail. The primary
essential is that the spirit o f instruction and discipline be love; using the
word in the gospel sense, which being interpreted in the language o f the
day would be respect for and interest in the pupils as individuals and a
general recognition o f the worth o f human responsibility in all dealings.
While education may involve the depositing o f much information with the
pupil, the essential thing in Friends School is the drawing forth ; the de
velopment o f power on the part o f the pupil. It is essential that a Friends
school be orderly and well conducted but order Will be secured primarily
by cooperation o f teachers and pupils to make the school good. Coopera
tion is a powerful instrument in the development o f character. Punish
ment becomes a sometimes necessary but nevertheless secondary means for
securing good order. I t is essential that scholastic requirements be diffi
cult but under sympathetic teachers the pupil develops will power and
endurance and other moral qualities through mastering the difficulties in
his lessons. A Friends school must give the student the opportunity for
self-discipline through study. We are grateful for the sympathy o f Swarth
more College with these aims and could not carry them out without her
support.
Friends schools recognizing the worth o f human personality and being
concerned to give the maximum development, must heed the religious side
o f the student’s nature as well as the intellectual and physical. I t is our
concern to train to worship as well as to think and to exercise. There is
no part o f our work, at present, more poorly done than training students
to worship. It is because we teachers and managers for the most part
have not ourselves been trained along lines o f religious education. I am
convinced that the student who learns how to worship God in Friends Meet
ing gains self-control and goes through a unifying and integrating process
that makes him a much more capable personality. Our primary aim is the
development o f the powers o f body, mind and spirit and just as health o f
the body makes the mind more productive, so a healthy well nourished and
growing spiritual life, releases additional intellectual powers. All three,
phases o f personality are closely inter-related. They develop, o f course,
at different rates at different times. Friends schools must undertake to
31
nourish this development at the right time, but how much we feel ourselves
to be working in the dark and with stone age instruments! Can Swarthmore
College help us forge something better?
The ordinary mid-week meeting for worship o f the Society o f Friends
has failed utterly to contribute anything to schools which attend. The
regular First-Day Meeting is better but leaves , much to be desired. In
some instances a meeting for worship in the school itself has proved useful,
although it does not prepare the students to meet the conditions which they
find outside on leaving school or college. The study o f the Bible and of
Quakerism are often helpful in religious and moral development and yet
one year my most interested and alert student in Senior Bible was expelled
for lying and other offenses.
Cannot psychologists or other wise men help us out in the work o f religious
training, both by a further exploration o f the religious processes o f the
adolescent, and by making available for practical use their present fund
o f knowledge. Friends Schools are more or less alone in feeling this concern
o f religious training. We are not big enough to command the attention
o f psychologists’ ambitions for a national reputation. They would rather
work on mental intelligence tests. But Swarthmore is the Friendly col
lege and it would be most inspiring to have the light come from her.
T he T oastm aster : “ Nineteen years ago, some of us listened to
an admirable address at the Inauguration of Joseph Swain, as
President of this College, and I have the unusual honor o f present
ing to this audience that same speaker, one of the greatest college
presidents America has ever produced, President Thomas of
Bryn Mawr College.”
A D D R E SS OF PRESIDEN T THOMAS
Mr. Toastmaster, President Swain, President Aydelotte: I venture to
hope that yoii will not judge my extempore remarks too severely. I have
been in continuous committe for the past week— in Washington at the call
o f Mr. Gompers helping to organize the “ General Committee on the Limi
tation o f Armaments,’ ’ in committees in New York, in committees in Phila
delphia and in endless committees at the college. Some o f my sub-com
mittees have sat up to all hours o f the night. I am under the impression
that I have not been to bed for a week. This is very discouraging. Presi
dent Aydelotte, for a new college president but there is no blinking the
fact that from now on committees will be your sad fate. You are destined
in future to sit in committees hour after hour, year after year, and at the
conclusion o f innumerable days o f discussion you will find that your com
mittees have reached the same conclusions that you yourself would have
reached without any discussion in a few minutes. [Laughter.] Things
go on just the same with or without committees. Bight prevails after a
season and leaders lead in the same old way in committees as elsewhere.
And yet I have come to believe absolutely in democratic government by
32
committees. We have been trying it out at Bryn Mawr since 1916 when
we adopted our new plan o f associating the faculty with the president and
directors in running the college. Our faculty elects a committee o f three
o f its members to attend all meetings o f the directors and to take part in
all their discussions and it also elects all the committees o f the faculty
which are responsible for initiating and enforcing the éducational policies
o f the college. I have found our new plan o f government a great support
to me as president. It Ehs had the happy result o f bringing one by one
the members o f the faculty who are elected to these important committees
into touch with college problems in a much closer way than ever before
and has proved again what we ought to know by this time that in order to
shoulder heavy responsibilities people must have responsibilities placed upon
them. In spite o f incessant committee work on the part o f all o f us Bryn
Mawr College has gained enormously. Each member o f the faculty is now
in a sense before unknown behind the serious educational administrative
issues o f the college and is trying to solve them.
When democratic government grows a little older it may perhaps learn
how to operate in a less costly way than through committees. A fter all
autocracy has been functioning since the beginning o f history and long
before history began and democracy is barely one hundred and fifty years
old and cannot be expected to be as efficient or as economical in money, time,
or man power as it will be later. For example, fâculties might choose a
faculty representative as shipping companies choose captains o f their ships
or as banks or railways choose presidents. It would be an enormous saving
o f the time o f a faculty o f scholars whose highest work is teaching and
research i f some plan could be devised whereby one member o f the faculty
Could be elected to represent the faculty on all important administrative
and executive committees for a certain definite period and then another
and another member so that in time the whole faculty would be acquainted
with college problems and would contribute his or her constructive ability
to the college or university.
Before coming here this evening I had only time to read over my address
made at President Swain’s inauguration nineteen years ago. I prophesied
great things from his administration. I said that “ coming as he did frbm
a great western coeducational university he would be able to bring to us
in Pennsylvania the fresh life o f the west and that under his administration
Swarthmore would both aid and be aided in its development by the Uni
versity o f Pennsylvania, Haverford and Bryn Mawr, and that it might
be expected from the happy centering in Philadelphia o f four such great
educational foundations that not only liberal culture and professional train
ing should be given to the men and women o f Pennsylvania, but that the
students should be drawn to our borders from afar and that Philadelphia
should become again what she was in Revolutionary' days, thé home o f letters
and patriotism.”
In looking back as we do tonight over the nineteen
years o f President Swain’s administration it seems to me that my prophecy
has been amply justified. Swarthmore has taken her place as a college
in the front rank, her faculty has been immeasurably strengthened and
her reputation for liberal and progressive thought now reaches far beyond
the boundaries o f the State o f Pennsylvania,
33
Under President Swain a very interesting, and I believe a unique, ex
periment has been worked out at Swarthmore. As far as I know Swarthmore is the only coeducational college which admits an equal number o f
men and women, 250 men and 250 women. This is true coeducation. In
looking forward tonight to President Aydelotte’s administration I should
like to make another prophecy, especially i f like the prophecy I made nine
teen years ago it will fulfill itself. I should like to prophesy that under
President Aydelotte Swarthmore College founded by the Quaker Church
which has from the beginning given women equal opportunities to preach
and an equal share in all religious duties and government, should lead
the way in what I believe will be the future development o f coeducation
and should have not only an equal number o f men and women students but
also an equal number o f men and women on its governing Board o f Trustees
and more important still an equal number o f men and women o f the same
academic rank teaching in its faculty, that is, as many women as men full
professors, assistant professors and instructors o f the higher salaried grades.
A t Bryn Mawr College we have never made any difference between men
and women as heads o f departments, or as full professors, or in advance
ment from one academic grade to another, or in the salaries paid for the
same work. I have for years kept a table o f the number o f years our men
and women have served in the different grades in order to be absolutely
sure that no discrimination was made in favor o f men— or o f women. As
far as I know women have never received such fair treatment in any
- coeducational college and I can think o f nothing more appropriate or
more splendid than for a Quaker coeducational college to lead the way
in this.
I have been fortunate enough to have as my two neighbors at dinner
on one hand the United States Commissioner o f Education and on the other
hand, first Dean Cross and then President Swain. Dr. Tigert has been tell
ing me that by and large all the high salaried positions in the public schools
o f the different states o f the United States, that is, all the superintendencies,
all the supervisorships and all the principalships are now filled by men. It
is quite true as he says that at present the legitimate rewards o f high
excellence in the teaching profession are reserved 6y men for men but it is
not at all improbable that now that women vote we shall soon see the
beginning o f a great change. It is quite possible that at first in some o f
the western states and then more slowly in the eastern states we shall find
women demanding equal representation on the State Boards o f Education
and the governing boards o f state universities and as a consequence o f
this representation seeing to it that positions high in responsibility and in
financial reward are as open to women as to men and refusing to permit
women to be discriminated against on account o f sex or on account o f their
desire to marry and have children.
M y other neighbor, President Swain, has been pointing out to me some
o f the advantages o f becoming an ex-college president. He tells me that
ever since he has resigned the presidency o f Swarthmore he is able to take
a cup o f coffee at dinner without lying awake all night. He also tells me
that he has made a study o f the continuance in office o f the college presi
34
dents o f the United States and that he finds that the official life o f a col
lege president is only five years. Either they lose their official heads or
they lose their physical health and resign. This also, President Aydelotte,
is very discouraging but on the other hand here are President Swain and I
to prove the contrary— he after nineteen years and I after twenty-eight
years— are still here to wish you a long and healthful reign.
President Swain and I have also reached the conclusion tonight that
the way to a college presidency seems to be through teaching English.
President Aydelotte, Provost Penniman and myself have reached the presi
dential chair through a professorship in English and President Comfort
through a professorship in French which is a closely allied subject; and i f
I may make another prophecy based on Professor Lowes’ eloquent address
this evening he too is a professor o f English on the high road to a college
presidency.
In closing I wish to remind you that within a few weeks the Conference
for the Limitation o f Armaments is to meet in Washington. I have seen
so many reforms come in my life that I think I may venture to predict that
you will see come in your lifetime the greatest reform in all the world—
international peace. When I was a child in Baltimore the higher education
o f women had barely begun. Nobody knew what would be the effect o f
educating women and the most terrible things were prophesied. We girls
who wanted to study Latin and Greek had no idea what would happen
to us. We were told that we should be physically ruined for life, that no
man would marry us and that no woman who read Greek could be a mother.
But we were so anxious for an education that we decided to risk whatever
came, even death itself. I have lived to see every opportunity for college
and professional education open to women with the approval o f everyone.
I have seen the triumph o f universal woman suffrage not only in our own
country but all over the world. Nothing could have seemed more impossible
when I was a ehild. Another great reform, prohibition, is now in operation
in the United States, and it is coming with great rapidity in all other
countries o f the civilized world.
But these reforms and all the other advances made by civilization will be
lost to us and our children unless we can have international peace, an asso
ciation o f nations, an international court o f justice. The responsibility o f
bringing these things about rests on everyone now living and above all on
those o f us who live in the State o f Pennsylvania founded by peace loving
Quakers and in the City o f Philadelphia, the City o f Brotherly Love.
T he T oastm aster : “ Those o f you who are not members of our
Religious Society will probably think that there are no educated
people in this vicinity except among the Society o f Friends, and it
is almost true. [Laughter.] The University of Pennsylvania
teams are known throughout the country as the ‘ Big Quakers’
and we have three genuine Quaker institutions, the one presided
over, by President Thomas, Swarthmore, and Haverford, the
oldest of the three. Its record for scholarship and culture is
35
recognized everywhere, and it gives me pleasure indeed to present
W. W . Comfort, President o f Haverford College.”
AD D RESS OF PRESID EN T COMFORT
The selection o f a president o f a college is always a matter o f importance
and concern to the alumni and friends o f the institution. In the case o f
Swarthmore, the selection o f President Aydelotte is a matter o f great inter
est to this suburban community and to the growing patronage o f the College.
To Haverford, Dr. Aydelotte’ s appointment to this responsible position
o f trust and leadership was o f especial interest. W e had an opportunity
through a passing visit to make his acquaintance and to be impressed with
his personal charm and force o f character. I am neither a prophet nor the
descendant o f any, but I made a prediction at the time to some ‘o f my
colleagues that Dr. Aydelotte had in store for him some such ‘career as
that whose inception we are celebrating to-night.
Swarthmore and Haverford have much in common— due to our fproximity,
our denominational affiliations, and our service to a larger dhdenominational constituency. Many o f our alumni know each other and discuberqur
common problems together. Even in athletics our paths frequently cross
in matches which inspire keen rivalry and mutual interest. Apparently
we would rather beat each other than anyone else. Thirty years p'go these
contests were sometimes marked by rough tactics on the field and by
ungentlemanly behavior on the part o f our followers and sympathizers. I f
I may say so to President Aydelotte, it is a pleasure to feel that Our per
sonal relations are likely to be sympathetic and o f advantage to both Quaker
colleges in the maintenance o f friendly relations between them.
The election, then, o f Dr. Aydelotte, cannot be a matter o f indifference
to Haverford. We congratulate Swarthmore on securing as president a
gentleman whose knowledge includes the best o f English and American
systems o f education, whose acquaintance is wide and catholic, and whose
devotion to sport for sport’s sake is founded upon experience and convic
tion. To him I believe the helm may he handed with confidence in his
scholarship and his high standards o f work and play.
T h e T oastm aster : “ From his home in old Kentucky where
wine, women and song, have been supplanted by grape juice,
your own wife and community singing, a graduate o f Vander
bilt was the first of the Rhodes scholars from Tennessee to the
University of Oxford. His career since his return from Oxford
is truly, remarkable. I have the honor of introducing to you the
United States Commissioner o f Education, John J. Tigert.”
A D D R E SS OF COMMISSIONER TIGERT
Ladies and Gentlemen: I assure you it is a very great honor and a
distinct pleasure that I have' in being here this evening to represent the
36
United States Bureau o f Education. However, it is also a great responsi
bility, as I am reminded whenever I am introduced as I was just introduced;
it awakens within me certain feelings o f incapacity, and I long for the
time when once I was introduced by a Sergeant to some soldiers in France.
He said, “ Men, I know two things about this fellow. I know his name
and X know he is about seven feet tall. ! ’ And then, when he was ready
to call my name, he didn’t kntfw it. [Laughter.]
It is a great pleasure and a deep responsibility to bring felicitations o f
the Federal Bureau o f Education on this occasion. First, I want to bring
felicitations to the retiring head o f the institution whose personal acquaint
ance I have not had the pleasure o f enjoying, but whose reputation has
penetrated to all parts o f the nation. I want to felicitate him upon being
able to retire in peace after these nineteen years o f conspicuous service,
with the vigor o f manhood in his body and the smile o f youth still upon
his face. I am glad that he is retiring without the sound o f clashing arms
and without the smoke o f battle about him. I hope, Dr. Swain, that you
will be spared many years, yea many decades, as the grand old man o f this
institution. [Applause.]
I would like, in the second place, to bear my felicitations to President
Aydelotte, in being called to the head o f an institution like Swarthmore.
In the United States I think, my friends, that we are very prone to value
institutions o f higher learning very largely according to the number or
character o f the buildings, the size o f the income or the endowment, and
the number o f students. Yet, after all, I think an institution o f higher
learning and other similar institutions are like individuals, and that, just
as an individual is esteemed more because o f the personality that he of
she may possess than for any other reason, so the greatest value in an insti
tution o f higher learning is something that might be described as the atmos
phere that pervades it. It is not buildings, endowment, and trees and other
material things that constitute a great institution. These are necessary,
but the spirit is a vital factor in the making o f a great college. Measured
from the standpoint o f material things Swarthmore College might not be
considered as one o f the greatest institutions in this nation, but measured
by intangible criteria— its spirit, its culture, and its traditions— it might
well be considered one o f the greatest in the world. I congratulate Presi
dent Aydelotte in being called to an institution which is rich in classical
learning, but at the same time, where not only intellectual, but the moral
and spiritual values are emphasized. The man who made the discovery
that in order to perform operations successfully it was necessary to have
sharp instruments, made an important discovery. I submit to you that
the man who discovered that these instruments must not only be sharp, but
must be sterilized, made a more important discovery. The knife which is
sharp and which is foul with germs will do greater damage than the dull
instrument because it will carry deeper the nocuous disease, and the con
tamination which comes will be more complete. The man whose mind is
emancipated but whose character is not shaped by education, is not only
not benefited by the process, but he becomes thereby a greater agency for
evil in society. When you give a man knowledge without reference to proper
37
training o f Ms will and formation o f character, you make it possible for
the man who would be only a foot-pad, highway man, or house-robber of
the common garden variety to become the head o f a great banking institu
tion, or the president o f a large insurance company and there rob the
policy holders or the depositors. I think all along the line, that we, who
have to do with education, must continually stress that there is sometMng
else beyond the emancipation o f the mind. The French philosopher Amiel
has expressed this thought beautifully when he says : ‘ ‘ Humanism is but
the emancipation o f the mind. Christianity preaches and brings salvation
by the consecration o f the will. One makes better by enlightening; the
other enlightens by making better. It is the difference between Jesus and
Socrates.” . ;
I congratulate President Aydelotte in coming to an institution o f this
character, and I want at the same time to congratulate Swarthmore Col
lege on the selection that it has made. I do not do this alone because you
have called one who, at a very tender age— which I have learned is really
a crime— [Laughter] has become an international figure in education, and
who has served in all these various capacities described by a previous
speaker. The description reminded me o f a teacher we had in the army in
France, a Jew by the name o f Gentile, who taught English to Polish
soldiers in the American army in France. I not only feel that the insti
tution should be congratulated, because it has called a man with that won
derful versality wMch was so well described, and who has achieved so
much in other institutions, notably in the chair o f English in Am erica’s
greatest technical institution, but likewise because he has demonstrated his
ability as a capable administrator in connection with the Khodes Scholar
ships and elsewhere. I might go on at this late hour, until you become
hungry again— to enumerate his many good qualities, and explain how I
count Swarthmore College very fortunate because o f the personality o f the
man, as much as for his various achievements. I have something else in
common with- President Aydelotte beside the scant hirsute adornment that
covers our heads. I also went to Oxford University, and during my stay
there, I first became acquainted with him. M y earliest recollection o f him
was watching him go down the Isis, as the Thames is called at Oxford, pull
ing the “ E igh t” for B. N. C.
I had the opportunity o f coming to know President Aydelotte in Oxford,
and we who have enjoyed the benefaction o f Cecil Bhodes have come to
look on him as our leader and spokesman. Therefore, in bringing my
felicitations, I think I can speak on behalf o f the Bhodes scholars. I want
also to speak personally for myself, and say that it is a source o f deep
personal gratification to see my friend honored in this way and to say I
am sure that Swarthmore College will benefit by the selection. I wish
Frank Aydelotte a successful administration and I am sure he will go on
and add to the reputation brought to this institution by Dr. Swain, and
will at the same time add to his own manifold honors and achievements.
I have recently been called to carry out a program in the nation, and I
feel I am peculiarly fortunate in having such men as Aydelotte, a man
whose ability and friendsMp I so much prize and appreciate, to work with
and cooperate with. I think we take up our tasks at a very fortunate time,
38
at a time when there is throughout the nation, a great educational awaken
ing. President Harding, the day before yesterday, at William and Mary,
brought to mind a thought which I think was conceived in a new way. We
who are trying to build up education, are constantly bemoaning that our
buildings are too few, our teachers are so poorly paid, and our equipment
is so inadequate. President Harding pointed out that as long as the col
leges and universities are overcrowding, as long as school houses are in
capable o f taking those who come, as long as we cannot find teachers, we
can feel well assured that education is being highly valued. That is a far
better condition than that we should have empty colleges, too many teachers,
and school houses without occupants. We have a great pride in education.
The whole nation is awakening at last to the value o f education. For a
long time we have talked about our wonderful system o f education in the
United States, and we have boasted the fa ct that we spend more money
upon education than any other nation in the world, but I believe now we
are coming to appreciate the true significance o f education in this country.
I believe the time is coming when we are going to build a great educational
system in the United States which will assure to this nation perpetuity,
because it is an old truism that education is the basis o f national perpetuity.
I challenge anyone today to point to any nation in the world which might
be considered really a nation o f great power and great influence among
the fam ily o f nations, which does not stand high in education.
I am glad, therefore, my friends, that we are working at a time when
such great opportunities are opening in an educational way in the United
States.
I hope in my small way in Washington, to cooperate with men like Presi
dent Aydelotte and institutions like Swarthmore. Again, I bear to you,
President Aydelotte, not only the felicitations o f the Bureau o f Education,
but, i f I may be so bold to do so, the felicitations o f all the Bhodes scholars,
and above all my personal good wishes and desires for your most success
ful administration. I thank you. [Applause.]
T h e T o a s t m a s t e r : “ T o those who have spoken tonight we ex
tend our sincere appreciation. To you all Swarthmore bids good
night. ’ ’
INAUGURATION COMMITTEES
The Board of Managers’ Committee on the Inauguration w ere:
Howard Cooper Johnson Chairman; Emma C. Bancroft,
Joseph Swain, Caroline H. Worth, Henry C. Turner, Robert
H. Walker, E. Pusey Passmore, Wilson M. Powell, Ex-Officio.
The Faculty Committee on the Inauguration w ere:
Professor Gellert Alleman, Chairman; Vice-President John A.
Miller, Dean Raymond Walters, Dean Ethel Hampson Brewster,
Professor Spencer Trotter, Professor William I. Hull, Professor
Isabelle Bronk, Professor Harold C. Goddard, Professor Jesse
H. Holmes, Professor Robert C. Brooks, Professor W . Carson
Ryan, Jr.
39
Swarthmore College Catalogue Supplements, 1921-1922
A digital archive of the Swarthmore College Annual Catalog.
1921 - 1922
42 pages
reformatted digital