University of Notre Dame - Dome Yearbook (Notre Dame, IN)

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The Diamond Jubilee THE Diamond Jubilee of the University of Xotre Dame will be celebrated next year and it is essentially appropriate that this Jubilee should be signalized by those material attestations of progress and achievement and loyalty, that might naturally be expected to grace the culmination of three quarters of a century of unflagging endeavor. The Xotre Dame of 1917 will be a more handsome Xotre Dame. The magnificent new library will have been com- pleted. The famous quadrangle, acclaimed by disinterested critics as one of the three finest in the entire United States, will have been duplicated by a second one of equal merit, presenting to the view of the thousands of alumni and other vis- itors, an even more imposing array of college buildings. The plans whose attain- ment is reasonably assured by 1917, will see the University of Xotre Dame, exter- nally, as well as in the more momentous phases of scholastic achievement, one of the greatest educational institutions on the American continent. Time ' s inscrutable processes sometimes make the reward of heroic purpose a thing of tardy bestowal. But Time, unlike the contemporary critic, can afford to wait. The men who thought in 1842 that the founding of a University in the Indiana wilderness was the foolhardy undertaking of visionaries, have long since been claimed by the enshrouding obscurity that awaits the mind of feeble com- pass. Even Eather Sorin, heroic dreamer and doer, lived to witness the school ' s Golden Jubilee and the utter confounding of those who prophesied that these men who prayed and labored, were dupes of futile folly. The sturdy pioneers, and scores of others who succeeded to their toil and responsibility, have been gathered with the Eternal Hosts, but the spirit that actuated them in every endeavor, the Ideal that marked their goal, still flames and inspires the men of the present, the students and teachers of today. The Diamond Jubilee in 1917 will worthily commemorate three quarters of a century of unfaltering progress, of undiminished striving, of unremitting devotion to the most sublime of objectives. The success engendered of noble aspirations, the renown achieved by prominence in exalted labors, have been Xotre Dame ' s in liberal measure. The world has acclaimed her greatness. It remains only for her own to honor her in the manner she deserves. The tribute of loyalty must be the tribute of the men of ' 16, of ' 15, and of the other years stretching backward through three quarters of a century. Her eminence in scholarship, patriotism and meritorious endeavor, no one will have the hardihood to question. I?ut the crowning testimonial to Xotre Dame ' s greatness is the reverent esteem of those who have known the campus and the classrooms, the deeds and the traditions, of the old school. All alumni and old students who are able to visit the school on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee, should avail them- selves of the splendid opportunity for a general reunion. Whether their mem- ories are those of the Xineteenth or Twentieth century, they will be abundantly rewarded by the gratifying evidence of Xotre Dame ' s unwearied progress, and the substantial manifestation of her extensive achievement. 17