Washington and Lee University - Calyx Yearbook (Lexington, VA)

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life, need a more direct training to this end than the usual hterary courses. 1 he proposed departments will also derive great advantage from the literary schools of the College, the influence of which in the cultivation and enlargement of the mind is felt beyond their im- mediate limits. The establishment of s uch departments would, I believe, add greatly to the im- portance and usefulness of the College. Respectfully submitted, R. E. Lee, President Washington College. To the Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees. It would be pleasant to pause for comment upon this letter and to bring out more fully its far-reaching compass. When it was written, there was no regular instruction given either in agriculture or in practical mechanics in any school in the State of Virginia. General Lee ' s plan, therefore, broke new educational ground, and had he lived to carry out his designs, Washington and Lee, ere this, would have become easily the first educa- tio,-;al institution in the South, if not in the whole country. General Lee beheld with the wide vision of the seer the needs of his people, and be was laying plans to meet those needs. He was planning for the present alumni and for their sons ' sons. His aim has been attained in part, but only in part. He was in educa- tion as in war, essentially an engineer. It seems appropriate, therefore, that the alumni should address themselves first of all to carrying out that part of his plan most representa- tive of himself — the development of the great profession of the engineer. This should come through the enlargement of the School of Engineering founded by him. This aim the Trustees of the Alumni Corporation propose to themselves and to their fellow alumni, whose help they ask in its accomplishment. The rest of General Lee ' s plan can be taken up later. The Trustees of the Incorporated Alumni have in mind many other projects which recognize the right and the obligation of Washington and Lee to the name and fame of George Washington as well as of Robert E. Lee. The realization of these projects would be of great value to the University and their discussion might be of considerable interest at this time, but further opportunity for such discussion will doubtless arise. In the mean- time, let us urge our readers, whether undergraduates or alumni, to begm at once to do what they can, by word or by deed, for the further upbuilding of Washmgton and Lee; for the upbuilding of Washington and Lee means holding high and carrying fo;ward the standards of morals, of character, of manhood bequeathed as our school ' s heritage by George Washington and Robert E. Lee.

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senior ilalDpers Here we have a military man. WoosTER Dudley RuCKER. who attended the Danville Military Institute, and is a graduate in Engineering from the V. M. I. After several years of engineering work, some of which were spent in Brazil. Rucker decided to take up the study of law ; and, bemg from the grand old county of Patrick, he could choose no other school than this, Rucker presides with due dignity over the sessions of Law 1911, and is able to get more work accomplished in a given length of time than any other class president has ever laid claim to doing. He is a member of the Theta Lambda Phi Legal Fraternity. They come from (he north, from the south, from the east, and from the west — and even from the miasmal swamps of Miami. Fla. William Franklin Blanton is the precocious youngster of 1911. for he will be compelled to wait a year after graduation before getting a license to practice. Frank has been promoted by his admiring fellow -students to the vice- presidency of the class. He is Secretary and Treasurer of the Florida Club, and a Graham-Lee man. He has taken part in the legal debates of the Goode Society, and carried off the medal in oratory in the Graham-Lee Celebration in 191 1. 18