University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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LL. D., conferred by Tulane University in llldB. Its effect on the State at larj e is shown by the fact that the hist year of President Houston ' s adniinistriition tlicre were seventy moi ' e apphcants for admission than could be accommodated. No wonder that friends of the A. M. regi-etted to lose a head so active and yet so sane. President Houston has been tco much concerned with administrative work to have time for extensive reseai-ch, but he has nevertheless made publications that have received commendation in the highest quarters. The most considerable is a monograph entitled A Study of Nullification in South Carolina : New York, l Oo. His latest is a paper on Cotton Production, read befoi ' e the American Economic Association in 11104. President Houston was married December 11, 1K95, to Miss Helen Beall, of Austin, a grand-daughter of ,?udge E. B. Turner, long federal judge of the Austin district. They have two children living, David Franklin, Jr.. and Helen Elizabeth, having lost their first child. Duval, at the age of two. President Houston on returning to the University of Texas found it in good condition. To (luote from the University of Texas Record for February: The institution was in a condition of greater solidarity and its wheels running more easily than ever before. The conservative yet progressive administration of President Prather had at once given confidence to the existing Faculty and student body, laid the foundations for active expansion, and brought home to the people of the State a feeling of proprietorship and pride in the University as a real factor in the commonwealth. The path of the new- President, whoever he might be, was marked out for him and, to a great degree, made easy. Pi-esident Houston for his part posses.sed manifest advantages for the vacant post. He was a Southern man, of botli Sdutlicin and Northi ' rn training: a man acquainted with the best University work in America, and withal of large and successful administrative experience. Better yet, he was thoroughly familiar with conditions at the University of Texas, and possessed the regard and confidence of both Faculty and student body. Most of the former had been his colleagues before he went to College Station; the latter still preserved the tradi- tion of his capacity and fairness as Dean of the Academic Department. He did not have to waste time studying the situation, or employ the politician ' s arts to win the University ' s confidence. He began at once therefore to di- rect the institution ' s affairs with a sure hand and the end of his first term shows no false step. He continues the quiet, business-like methods of his predecessor; has introduced no startling novelties; has been ready to hear ad- vice, yet the fruits of his careful thought on educational problems are already beginning to appear. A full an- nouncement of his policy may be expected in his coming inaugui ' al address. In the meantime one thing is .sure: Never were the confidence in the President and hopetullness about the future of the University .so widespread or so d( eply felt as now.

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