Drexel University - Spartan Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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the proud moment has come to The Drexel Institute to tent-h love of country and pntri- otie endeavor in this time of need. Here is the t1'll8 development of Mr. D1'exel's illlll and purpose. He founded :ln In- stitute which should help people to help themselves, and by so doing he has enric-hed the resources of our llillltlllill lifeg it is the highest l'0l'lll ol' the reall obligations of LlUlllUt'l'tll'y, -the best expression of true AIll01'lUilIllS1ll. And this work, which in il sense has just begun, is destined to go on through gener- ations yet to come, by whom the name of Anthony J. Drexel will still be recalled with honor and respect. ' 20

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Institute is built. Its purpose is, to offer Opportunity-an opportunity to all, open to all, equally and without distinction. Mr. Drexel provided a. new Chance in life where none existed bet'ore. In carrying out his design, he conveyed to his Trustees by a Deed exeeuted in 1891, the ground upon which the Institute is now ereeted, at the corner of 32d and Chest- nut Streets, with certain securities to form the endowment fund, in trust, for an In- dustrial School which should be open to persons otf both sexes on equal terms, t'or edu- cation and improvement: and he called this school The Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry, in order to cover as nearly as possible the entire Held ol' human endeavor. This is not a university or a college, neither does it enter into rivalry or compete with any school or college, and yet it is a center of education, with aims and purposes of its own. Its curriculum has been made broad enough to include the neeessary instruction to tullil the intention ot its Founder, in Art, Science, and lndustry. lts school ot' engineering provides cou1'ses in civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering: the beautiful collection of objeets of a1't and the gallery ot' paintings which Mr. Drexel gave to it from. his own house form a. museum in which ll1't and architecture may be illustrated and taught, whilst, not to enter into too much detail which the present occasion does not eall tfor, the1'e Zl1'0 courses in domestie science and secretarial work in which young men and women may be instructed to earn their living and be useful in the world. During the last twenty-tive years this Institute has carried on its activities in Phila- delphia, steadily increasing the facilities which it otters to those who seek instruction and giving aid to greater llllllllX'1'S as time goes on, until it has to-day, under the en- lightened di1'ection ot' Dr. Hollis flodtrey, its President, more than twenty-tive lmnd1'ed students on the rolls. IVhat is perhaps otf the greatest- signilicance as well as of the greatest interest in this connection, is, that, whilst there are about six hundred ordinary students in the day schools oi' the Institute, the1'e are courses ot' instruction given at night which are prepared for men and women who work during the day: and the number of people who come to these night schools, to learn the different trades and occupations in which they tll'C engaged, is now very close to nineteen hundred. lint, whilst the Institute is thus carrying forward its beneticial purposes in regard to its students, on the one hand, it has been for years, and is now more than ever before, rendering, on the other, effective service to the community at large and to the state, be- cause, whatever gives strength to the unit strengthens also the whole fabrie of our social and national life, and we have a striking example before us to-day of the great and important part that an institution like this may take in support of the publie welfare. A situation has arisen which no one could have foreseen twenty-tive years ago, in whieh American nationality calls for the aid ot' the whole people, for the helping hand of every American citizen in the equipment of the nation and in national defeueeg and it is pre- cisely in the training of these devoted hands to do the work which lies before them that 19

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3-, INTRODUCING SIR ROBERT FALCONER DR. :HOLLIS GODFREY: IVilIia1n James startled us only a decade or more ago with his theory of second wind, of that mental state that goes beyond our ordinary power, when, having reached our limit, we go on to other powers greater and unknown, and so passing to a second state of powers, we may conceive a third. And I have thought in this last year that we were coming more clearly to that concept of NVillia1n James in the different lives that a. man or a woman seems to live to-day compared with the old lives. There is the life of every day, the life of the home, of the ofliee, of the shop, that life that was near ns, that is near us still, the immediate life, and out beyond that in the old days, in the very old days, was the national life. For very few of us then realized any more than we realize the earth or the air, very few of us realized that nation or realized how great a thing it is to be a citizen. And now we have come to recognize that as never before, and to see that life of the nation, and gradually we have come to still a third, a life beyond that, a sphere beyond that, the life that is important not only to ns of one nation, but important to every nation, standing together in this great struggle for life and for democracy. IVe are coming to know all sorts of pleasant things in this new life that were little known before. New relationships are coming up, new responsi- bilities. The border line of education, as I said, is rapidly being wiped out, and to-night we have with us one who is known almost as well on one side of the line as the other, one of the 1111311 who has done most for his country in this great war, one of the 1nen whom it is always an honor to have with us. I take great pleasure in introducing as the orator of the Convocation, Sir Robert Falconer, President of the University of Toronto. 21 .4-