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

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and for every community to pass at times through periods of strain and stress in order to try their nerve and to see that what is best and most courageous in them shall have opportunity to express itself. As the years roll by the memory of the great days of April will stand out as giving proof of California courage and California gayety of heart ; plenty of legends will arise and imagination will probably place haloes upon wrong heads and bring into light the wrong heroes, but for all that there will remain the ineffaceable memory of having passed through a great crisis. It will be no small thing in the future that can shake the courage and the belief in the sympathy of man for man in the hearts of those who lived through the great days of last April. Two things stand out in the experiences of the members of the University who dwelt in Berkeley, first, the dispatch of the University cadets to aid in maintaining order in San Francisco and second, the swift organization of relief for refugees upon the campus of the University. Early on the 1 8th of April the rumor flew about that martial law had been established in San Francisco and later came a rumor that the University cadets were to be given the opportunity to show whether their military training made them of the slightest use to the community at large. There exists some haziness as to the precise circumstances that led to the dispatch of the cadets to the city. But it is quite certain that at an early hour upon the 1 8th of April the idea of being of use occured to the fertile mind of Colonel Force and that a request for the military services of the cadets was brought to Berkeley and received by Captain Nance, who decided to act, upon the direct authorization of Prof. Stringham, acting as president of the University in the absence of President Wheeler, who was at that time on his way to Texas to deliver an address at the inauguration of the new president of the University of Texas. It had been inspection day for the cadets and the men were almost expecting a summons. The summons came in the course of the afternoon ; the cadets reached San Francisco after dark in the evening ; they were allotted to a particular section of the city between the areas assigned to the regular soldiers and the California National Guard. In the city they remained for two nights and two days doing regular guard duty and reassuring the citizens by their presence. This is not the place to go into details of the military experiences of the University cadets. It is enough to say that unjust rumors were spread about the state as to their conduct, rumors which can be authoritatively denied. Not only is there in existence a testimonial signed by many hundreds of citizens of the guarded district, testifying to the good behaviour of the University soldiers, but out of the thousands of accounts of experiences collected by the History Committee of the Committee of Fifty, not more than one or two speak slightingly of the University cadets, while many hundreds of them speak in the highest praise of the gentlemanly and kindly conduct of the University boys. After long and harassing guard duty the cadets returned wearied and tired out, but conscious of having passed through an

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appear that attempts were made to hold classes during the eight o ' clock period and it was not until later in the morning that the seriousness of the situation in San Francisco began to be appreciated. Then and not till then did the members of the University realize how splendidly their buildings had stood the shock, and in the days that followed when the extent of the wreck of the buildings at Stanford began to be realized, the splendid work of the builders of both the old and new buildings of the University of California became a subject of pride and thankfulness to all who had ever been connected with the State University. But while we may echo a year afterwards our gratitude to architects and builders, old and new, for the way in which they placed our foundations upon the rock, yet we should remember that a University is more than its buildings and bear in mind that the income of the University has been seriously affected by the events of last April. The details of the loss the University suffered through the fire in San Francisco can be seen in the last report of the Secretary of the University. The details can be read there, and it is enough to say here that in addition to the loss of the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art and to other direct losses amounting to nearly $36,000.00, the income of the University has been reduced by nearly $ 1 00,000.00 a year through the burning of income-producing buildings in the city of San Francisco. The State -met this loss of the University for the remaining months of 1 906 by a special grant made by the emergency Legislature of $83,800.00, which enabled the University to continue its work without impairment of its efficency to the end of the year. A University is more than its buildings, yes, and a University lives by more than its money income ; the real effect of the great days of April has been upon the souls of those who dwelt in Berkeley last April. It has been said with justice that the disasters of last Apnl are more mem- orable for the spirit of gay courage and of earthquake love, which manifested itself in all classes in San Francisco, than for the material damage done by earthquake and by fire. It is good for every man and woman

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experience such as has never before been afforded to any battalion of cadets in any State University in America. Nor was their service without its casualties. Private Aten of the class of 1 908 was severely wounded in the course of duty, though it is satisfactory to be able to report that he has since recovered. If the men students of the University had their opportunity in helping to guard the city, the women students expressed their energies in the help that they gave to the refugees. Perhaps a defense of coeducation may be found here. Most certainly a community of men students could not have washed the clothes of the refugees, and even the refugees themselves, could not have cooked for them, and could not have taken care of the babies, in the way that the women students did. Hearst Hall was turned into a lying-in hospital, and the kindly administration of the women students of the University of California will long be gratefully remembered by the refugees from San Francisco who made their way to Berkeley. It was no slight work to provide for those thousands of scared beings, and though the citizens of Berkeley did nobly in throwing open their houses and providing food and clothing for the thousands of refugees, it was the women students of the University of California who took upon themselves the kindly care of the refugees in the relief camps. Never will the aspect of the University campus in April, 1906, be forgotten. If the members of the Legislature of the State of California had visited Berkeley during the last days of April, 1 906, they would have been proud of the institution that the State of California maintains and would have realized that the sons and daughters of the State who get their education here learn more than Latin and Greek, than physics and mathematics, that they learn how swiftly to organize, when a crisis in human affairs calls, to afford protection, aid, and sympathy in time of need.