Stanford University - Quad Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

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1904 of 1912. And why should it not? For the most typical men among the Stanford students of the pioneer days are now the most influential members of Quad the Stanford Faculty. Of all the early Stanford devices, the one which has proved most valuable is the arrangement now generally adopted by progressive insti- tutions, the system of ' Major Professor. ' The Stanford course of study is wholly elective, but the unchecked elective system early adopted at Harvard, was at Stanford from the first subject to a most wholesome modification. One subject must be chosen by each student as his Major Sub- ject, to be taken as a specialty throughout his college and university training. This was the basis of his profession, the backbone of his education. The senior professor in this subject then became his ' major professor ' or t ' .r officio adviser throughout his course, and his choice of elective studies must meet the approval of this professor. The student seeking easy studies without serious purpose cannot maintain the respect of his adviser and thus naturally drops out of the University. By this system, the student is given the widest freedom of choice without the risk of wasting time in wrong subjects, or under the wrong teachers, or in mere pursuit of pleasure. The teacher is stimulated by the pres- ence of earnest students who set the pace to all the others. At the same time all students aiming not at work but at social distinction are dropped from the race. From the first the standards of ' passing ' at Stanford, have been of the highest. The student who can not or will not do his work faithfully day by day has been at once sent away. By letting frivolous men go home, and go home at once, there has been each year less and less occasion for any other form of discipline. Students bent on training themselves to be useful have little occasion to break the laws of common decency. The men who are sent to college mav do this, but the men who go to college have something better on hand. The fees an idler pays never make good the mischief wrought by his influence. Some of our institutions have been slow to learn this lesson, and, in this fact, may be traced one cause of their relative decline in scholarship and influence. The era of building at Stanford, the ' Stone Age ' of its history, began with the year 1900. In 1902, the Great Church, ' The Stanford Minster, ' was finished, to be dedicated early in 1903. In 1903, the Outer Quadrangle, the far-ofif dream of the pioneer days was com- 15

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Stanford cratic dirccliu ' ss. W ' halcveT is [o he done is done in the simplest, Ouad slraightest a . witlnuii waste of time or strength. The student pur- 1904 ' ' - ' ' I ' ll ' ' ] ' ■ ' ' -■• turning aside for something he does not want, nor swerving from his real aim through any bait of degree, nor tlie lure of any i)rize. The ideal of the old universities of England has been ]X ' rsonal eultiu ' e : that of the deep-rooted universities of Ger- uvAuv has been personal thoroughness; that of the American institu- tions has been personal effectiveness. To this end culture and thor- oughness are vitally essential, but only as means to the greater end of usefulness in life. And in personal helpfulness to the community, and in the happiness which springs from worthy activity, the phrase ' suc- cess in life ' as used by the founder of Stanford, finds its meaning. In the front rank of institutions essentially democratic, thor- oughlv effective, and therefore in line with the spirit of the times, fair- est of all in surroundings, wealthiest of all in money, and wealthiest in love and tears and in fragrant memories, Stanford University has increased its means for investigation without losing the spirit of roman- tic comradery and mutual helpfulness which so enriched its crude but glorious pioneer days. The Stanford spirit still survives within the circle of its minster chimes, and it is carried over the world wherever the Stanford feet may wander. The Stanford man is adequate for whatever the fates may give him to do. Already the political and social life of the Pacific Coast is undergoing a transformation. Where- ever the spoils system has ruled the Stanford man is on the other side. He counts as a moral influence and a physical power as opposed to bigotry, intolerance, vulgarity, venality or corruption. Wherever he is, he is a force that must be reckoned wnth, and the side he represents is alwavs that of wisdom, democracy, and freedom. Like teachers, like students, the professors at Stanford have been men of intellectual honesty, men of simple tastes, devoted to truth, devoted to their stu- dents, and equal to whatever they may undertake. They have been not ashamed to be teachers, men without longings to be anything else, men who have taken ' the vow of poverty ' which science has always demanded and who have taken it without regret, putting aside the showy things of life, for the sake of the ' things which abifle ' in the lives of men and in the truth of God. ' They were not only our teachers but our friends, ' as Agassiz once said of the men who had helped him most. And the spirit of the early days still remains with the Faculty 14

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Stanford ])k ' tc(l — lon ;- since a l)usy lii c uf art and science — and its many rooms Quad th(M-onohly e(iui])pcd. In the same year the Chemical Laboratory was 1904 linished, in its day one of the greatest in the country, but already too small for its multifarious activities. The excellent Gymnasium was completed in 1904, and the University Library, already crowded with its million well selected volumes, the Mecca of investigators from every part of the world, was occupied in 1906. The present Law Library of 40.000 volumes now occupies the building presented by Thomas Welton Stanford. This furnishes a more appropriate home for this great department than the old library of the beginning of the century. The Quadrangle of the Museum, completed in 1904, is now filled with valu- able material from all parts of the world. The native races of Western America and Polynesia are especially well represented. The most recent attraction is the large series of life-size models of the people from Bering Sea to Panama and Samoa in their own houses. Phonographs are attached in the doorways, repeating their daily conversation of these people and in their own tongues. The demand for proper preliminary training in the Department of Medicine has rendered necessary the construction of another build- ing similar in character to the Laboratory in Chemistry. In this build- ing, finished in 1907, the work in Physiology and related subjects is now carried on, the building formerly used for Physiology now being turned over to the Department of Botany. The first three years in the course in Medicine are now given in the buildings on the Campus. Clinical Medicine and those branches needing hospital facilities are cared for in the commodious hospital on the corner of X and California Streets in San Francisco. The physicians and surgeons in charge of this work are professors in the University, employed at generous sala- ries and giving their whole time and effort to the advancement of medi- cal education. The crowning feature of the work in Medicine is the generous endowment for advanced research, the work in this depart- ment being open only to graduates in Medicine. The remarkable results shown in the recent investigation of the contagious diseases of the tropical Pacific have already given the professors of this department a world-wide fame. Since the cessation of necessity for large expenditures in building, the Faculties in Philosophy, Ethics, Comparative Religions, Forestry, , Political Sciences, Archccologv, Pal?eontologv, Astronomv and Art have 16