Swarthmore College - Halcyon Yearbook (Swarthmore, PA)

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To encourage among Friends the patronage of our only College the President traveled during this year through Pennsylvania- and adjacent States, also through the West and in Canada, speaking many times upon the value and importance of a modern college course of study, and especially of having all our schools, when pos- sible, in charge of College graduates. To secure this result a course in Pedagogics was organized at the College at this time, and made one of the elective studies, having its full weight toward the amount of work required to obtain the College degree. It was stated in the Report of the Managers for this year that the number of graduates of our College then engaged in teaching was thirty-five, twenty-four of whom were teaching in Friends ' schools. The observatory of the College was erected during this year at an expense of $6,000. raised bv the indefa- tigable labors of Susan J. Cunningham, our Professor of Mathematics. Nineteenth Year, 1887-88. — The only changes in the Faculty this year were the resignation of Lemuel L. Green, M. Sc, Professor of Physics: the appointment of William C. Day, Ph. D., as Professor of Physics and Chemistry; the promotion of Dr. Charles S. Dolley to a full Professorship of Biology, and his appointment as member of the Faculty. As a result of the special efforts made in the past year there was now an increase of 46 per cent, in the College classes, the whole number of College students, reaching 169, with the total enrollment of 253 in the Col- lege and Preparatory School. The increased number of students and the constantly advancing standard of scholarship in the various departments promising at n early day to demand several additional professor- ships, now turned the attention of the Board toward the necessity of having some of these professorships endowed; and the increased interest and activity of Friends, as a result of our great loss by fire six years before, and the exertion necessary to rebuild the College, without incurring any mortgage upon the prop- erty, and all within the limits of a single year, seemed to inspire Friends with a hope that the College could now soon be placed upon a successful financial foundation by the endowment of some of the professorships, none of which had yet been endowed. The sum of $40,000 would, at five per cent.. endow a professorship at the price then paid a full Professor, $2,000 a year. The modest attempt was first made to endow one professorship, by starting a conditional subscription, the clearly expressed condition being that no subscription was valid unless the full amount of $40,000 was subscribed within the current college year. Any amount was accepted, from a single dollar up to thousands, and the commencement of 88 (the date fixed for the closing of the lists) was approaching and $8,000 yet remained to be obtained, to give validity to the subscrip- ' ' 4

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and individually in all their class-room work. Just how this influence was exerted it is far easier to understand than to clearly explain. It was always more through what she zvas. and was so unanimously felt to be, than through spoken words. And yet her words, at proper times, in our meetings for worship, and in our public collections, were words that silently and surely brought about in the minds of the students the results which she felt it important to produce. Whoever may have read her two little volumes, recently published, with the unambitious title of Words by the Way, will be convinced of this. One of the most important later results of her sixteen years of most valuable service may be said to be her successful introduction, among the young women, for the past two years, of an admirable and practical system of self-government. But if I dwell longer on this important theme I shall not cover, within the limits prescribed, the history of two-years, as I have usually done in each chapter in the past. I therefore reluctantly leave a theme which is worthy of far fuller treatment than is possible in this one chapter of history. The only other changes in the Faculty this year were the appointment of Benjamin Smith, A. M., Professor of Rhetoric and English; the resignation of Elizabeth Clarke Miller, A. B., Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, and the appointment of William Penn Holcomb, Ph. D., Professor of History and Political Science and Lecturer on Pedagogics. It will be seen that the condition of the College in that early day required a combination of so many subjects for each Professor that his title was almost as long as his program. The number of students in the College and Preparatory School remained nearly as last year, with the College slightly in the majority. This was the case for the first time last year (1885-6), and the majority of the students were always in the College after this so long as the Preparatory School was kept up; while in the early 8o ' s the Preparatory School outnumbered the College in the proportion of two to one; in the later 8o ' s the order was reversed. From that time onward, as our good Preparatory Schools increased, the standard of the College has been raised to meet present requirements, until the end so long sought was happily reached some years since, and Swarthmore became a College in full standing, without the incubus of an added Preparatory School, under the same management, and dwelling under the same roof. We by no means assert that this union was a mistake in the beginning, as it was adopted from the force of circumstances, and has doubtless been the means by which our one College has grown, at last, to a College of full stature, the equal of most of our Colleges, and surpassed by but few of the older Colleges of the country, and has attained to even more than a national, enjoying now an international reputation, a reputation which, on a careful examination of our announcements and our work will be freely acknowledged to be well deserved. 13

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tions made. The friends of the College grew more anxious with each passing day, until, at length, the members of the Board, true to their loyal attachment to the College, as they have ever been from the beginning, under the influence of a powerful inducement, divided among them the pecuniary responsibility for the $8,000 needed to complete the $40,000. That peculiar inducement will ever remain a most interesting incident in the history of Swarthmore College. It was simply this, that three good friends of the College agreed with the Board that if they would assume the $8,000 required, each of them would endow a separate professorship, at $40,000 apiece. Thus, as the result of this year ' s anxious work, it was publicly announced on Commencement Dav that four pro- fessorships had been endowed, with a total sum of $160,000. The names of the three friends, who added this to many other kind deeds of a similar nature, should be mentioned here: They are Isaiah A ' . Williamson, since de- ceased: Isaac H. Clothier, and Joseph Wharton. I will close this chapter by the following quotation from the Report of the President of the College, made to the Board of Managers, in the Autumn of 1888. The Report says, after announcing the success of the effort to endow some professorships: But our work is yet unfinished, and we should not rest satisfied until we are so situated financially that we can afford to advertise tuition for Friends ' children at very low rates, a moderate sum for the actual expenses of living. After much and careful thought, I am well satisfied that such a position as I here indicate, can be safely taken by the College onlv after the full endowment of ten professors ' chairs, to accomplish which result the sum of about a quarter of a million dollars must be added to our endowment fund. That there will be found friends of Swarthmore abundantly able and willing to supply this need within the lifetime of the present generation, I confidently hope and expect. ' ' These hopeful words were written fourteen years ago, and the number of endowed professorships still stands at four. Shall we not expect the added six before the present generation all pass on to the Life Beyond? The College has made a constant advance in the character of its work, and is most worthy of the assistance of in- terested Friends. Shall it languish for the want of this much-needed and well deserved assistance? I can but still believe that the hope expressed fourteen years ago will be amply fulfilled by the present generation.