University of Chicago - Cap and Gown Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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purpose. It was an inner passion for unity which lead him to undertake so many tasks and formulate so elaborate plans. The wheels within wheels really formed a closely articulated mechanism for conveying a single purpose and idea over a vast extent of territory and through many sections of society. He could not endure loose ends in thought or action. He would not. trust his ideas to the long result of time, or the slow processes of evolution. He was not content, in Miltonts phrase, to Hlet truth and error grapplef and hope that in some future age the truth might win by its own inherent strength. He must embody that truth in some immediate visible organization, must give it hands and feet, and construct for it a pathway into all the ends of the earth. He was instinct with the spirit of the crusade. But his crusade against the powers of darkness was no planless outburst of zeal. The hosts were marshalled, captained, provisioned; with tireless vigilance each station in the journey was determined, and the end crowned the work. No man in our generation was more greatly dowered with constructive imagination. The same power which has enabled others to construct mentally cathedrals, bridges, tunnels, or great industrial enterprise, the power which in others gave birth to ideal creations in art, philosophy, or literature, in his mind blossomed into farareaching schemes for the education of the people. On a certain porch by the shore of an inland lake he sat day after day for many successive summers, and in silence dreamed out his plans for this University. Indeed he was always dreaming, and his spirit was far in advance of any associate. I have seen him summon a stenographer and in a single hour plan a new institution of learning, with all officers and departments down to the minutest detail, doing this partly as recreation from more difficult tasks. I have seen him stand by a sand heap and paint in Vivid sentences the building that was to rise and the work to be done a century hence. In these visions he united the imagination of, the artist With the faith of the Christian. He carried with him daily the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Men have said that he had extraordinary resources at his command and therefore accomplished extraordinary results. In truth he had no resources until he proved to the world that he could wisely use them. When he organized thousands of students through- out the country for the study of a subject that was esteemed the dryest and dullest of all disciplines he had no resources whatever. When he was a professor at Denison and Morgan Park, he was almost destitute of resource. When he came to Chicago he had no assurances but such as might be withdrawn at any time, if he failed to evince a mastery of the situation. Through his whole life this man Hwent out not knowing whither he went. lf others placed in later years large means at his disposal the question remains why they gave it to him and not to others. All over the land were institutions calling for supportwwhy was it granted here rather than elsewhere? Because the man was here and not elsewhere. Hlnstitutions are but the shadows of men. Wealth alone is powerless to establish a seat of learning. It can no more create a university than it can create a human being. We may put millions into a treasury and the heart of youth still be unstirred; the voice of scholarship may still be silent and the fountains of inspiration lb

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still be sealed. But when the man comes who can take our gold and by his insight, foresight and energy transmute it into the fellowship of scholars. into the eager pursuit of truth whether it lead to joy or pain, into undying allegiance-to the ideal and the eternal-then waiting wealth follows the man as the tides unswervingly follow the moon. But President Harper had more than imagination and faith-he had a tenacious and indomitable will. His entire being tingled with vitality, and his will was simply immense Vitality and action. His vast power to originate sprang from a wealth of passion, for the passions are the driving wheels of the spirit. He was no ascetic or recluse, but took a frank undisguised enjoyment in the good things of life. Always he ielt delight in sound, and therefore studied musicmdelight in color and gave it expression at all academic functions A delight in festivals and pageants and paintings and sculpture. It was his principles, not his taste, that made him a staunch advocate of democracy. A man of warm red blood, he carried within him a store of intense feeling which made his will inflexible. In the glow of his own nature he fused the most diverse elements of the constituency around him. In his tremendous purpose were included men of all political parties, all sects and creeds and Classes. He instinctively divined the strength and weakness of men he knew; to their weakness he offered support, to their strength he offered a sphere of action. And the world amazed, saw men who could agree in nothing else, agree in upholding the educational enterprise of this leader unprecedented and unsurpassed. But let us not forget todayefor he would have us remembertite-that his great ambition Was not tobe an administrator or executive, but to be a teacher. Administrae tive duties were thrust upon him and he could not escape. The love of teaching was inborn and he could not lose it. On his sick bed he reached out a feeble hand and holding up his book on the Minor Prophets, just from the press, he cried: iiI would rather have produced that than be President for forty yearsl It was the voice of the scholar refusing to be silenced by the babble of administrative cares. With what sinking of heart he turned from the comparative leisure of the Professors chair to assume the burden of the Presidency none can know save those who fifteen years ago stood by his side. Plato in his Republic says that in the ideal state the magistrate will be chosen from among those who are unwilling to govern. Surely in this respect also Dr. Harper was amply qualified. More than once we have seen him plunged into uttermost dejection as he felt that he was sacrificing as a scholar to the desultory Vexatious demands of an office. More than once he has been tempted to drop the burden and resume the work in which he delighted. In recent years he felt a growing sense of isolation, and became increasingly sensitive to the misconstruction which always surrounds men of originality and achievement. But his conscience and his religion held him to his mighty task. Are not our greatest warriors those who hate war? The fact that President Harper hated official routine, and longed to resume the simple personal relation of teacher and student gave to his administration peculiar power. But a still deeper element in his power was his absolute unselfishness. Not a particle of vanity could his closest friend detect. All the honors heaped upon him, all 18