University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

Page 25 text:

THE UNIVERSITY AND THE STATE councilman, district attorneys, superior judges and many other public ser- vants look back to the years they spent beneath the Berkeley oaks. Does the University repay the people of California for the money they have invested in it? Does it pay the people of a State to have educated men and women, scientific me n and women, expert men and women, learned men and women, high-principled men and women, patriotic men and women who know the dangers that beset popular government and are alive to offset those dangers; 1 If so, the University of California repays the people of California fur the money they have spent at Berkeley. The University is giving the State just those kinds of men and women. Is the University a democracy where merit alone counts, and wealth and station cut no figure? The spectacle of students waiting on the tables of their classmates and performing other so-called menial services, and losing neither their own self-respect nor the respect of their fellows, proves that the University is a democracy, at which many of the young men and women of ' this State are being fitted to take part in Californian and American demi icracy. i hit of many similar examples I have in mind one member of my own class, who. as did others of our classmates, worked his way through college and was not ashamed to perform, nor were his fellows ashamed to see him perform, any sort of service to support himself. Since graduation that man lias perfected mining processes which have saved the people of this State many times all that the University ever will cost them. Neither he nor others who have done much for the people of the State could have gotten their educations had the people not given them a free University. Such examples of the democracy and worth of the University are so common that those who are acquainted with them have long since ceased to regard them as anything but the everyday incidents of University life: as anything more than the expected, regular and sure products of the University ' s educatii nal grist. California and the world are better, richer and more livable because our University has given to many, many men and women the opportunity to excel an opportunity which never could have been theirs had it not been for the People ' s University at Berkeley. Californi a ' s people have done much. very, very much, for their Univer- sity. And the University, in its turn, has done, as it should, much, very much for the people of California. GEORGE C. PARDEE. 17

Page 24 text:

THE UNIVERSITY AND THE STATE SAX DIEGO MARIXK UN )l.oi;H ' Al. STATION sity and the world-famous Lick Observatory furnishes astrondmers to observa- tories in every part of the western hemisphere. There are those who hold that a State University, supported by the hard-earned mon ey of the people, should spend neither time nor money in teaching the dead languages. California would be ashamed were her University inferior in any particular to the best university our country possesses. It would be inferior did it not give to those who desire it the opportunity to study the classics. And so, as a matter of course, California ' s University teaches the dead languages as well as she teaches the material arts and sciences. In short, as it is needed and called for, no branch of human knowledge is neglected at the State ' s great school. It is the people ' s clearing house for learning and knowledge the people ' s educational forum. As such it must supply the State with every kind of knowledge and learning that is needed to fit such of its men and women as desire to avail themselves of it for that station in life to which they may aspire. But these are not the only things the University is doing for the State. It is fitting our youth to take their places in the State ' s public life. Her sons and daughters are busying themselves, as all good men and women should, more and more with their politics, the politics of the State. They are giving California ' s politics a higher tone, they are fighting political corrup- tion, they are striving for a better government for the people and for themselves. At every session of the Legislature there go to the State Capitol those who have worn the Blue and Gold. Two Justices of our Supreme Court and two Governors have hailed from Berkeley ' s great institution. Mayors, city 16

Page 26 text:

THE UNIVERSITY AND THE STATE The University and the State E love the University of California most of all because of her ideal of service to the State. As alumni, ve take pride in the knowl- edge that the lesson which she teaches most earnestly is the duty and privilege of citizenship. Immensely more important than the mastery of facts or the acquisition of polish is the advancement of the happiness and prosperity of the great mass of the people of this State. Knowledge alone, training alone, ability alone are not sufficient to attain this end. We need men who will apply these qualities in the light of ideals of service to their fellowmen. It is not enough for a university to teach the truth. The world needs men of character and determination who will go out into the world with enthusiasm and inspiration to fight for the truth. Ye rejoice that the University of California, fully mindful of her duty and privilege as bene- ficiary of the State, has as her highest ambition to give to the State men of such type. In her vistas of mountain and sea. the wealth of her rivers and fields, the blue of her skies and the gold of her sunshine, and the enterprise, refinement and broad humanity of her people, California is the favored daughter of our Union. It seems most fitting and appropriate that in these surround- ings there should grow up one of the greatest universities of the world great in the learning and ability of her faculty, in the wealth and beauty of her buildings and in the number and zeal of her students, but, greatest of all in her endeavor to aid in the solution of the living problems which affect the happi- ness and prosperity of the State and its people. To accomplish this end. two conditions at least must concur the University must continue to attract students who are democratic, ambitious and willing to work, and she must 18