Xavier University - Musketeer Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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CThe following statement was made by the Rev. Michael J. 0'Connor, S.J., president of St. Xavier College in 1900, to the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, with regard to the advent of the Twentieth Century.J PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE, 1900 The dawning century! May it bring to humanity a measure of peace and happiness filled up and overflowing! May it be marked by clean, whole- some living of the individualsg by just and honor- able patriotism of citizens, by old-time uprightness and comity of nations! May the scope of the edu- cation universally sought for in our latter day be so directed that the marvelous increase of material wealth and resources, which the dying century leaves us, prove but new incentive to grateful homage to the Eternal King, who rules us lovingly, guards our interests tenderly, and so shapes the destinies of our land as to fill every American heart with exultation, as he meditates upon the splendid place among God's peoples evidently pre- pared for his country if it but cleave to the prin- ciples of truth, justice and fidelity to its God. ,, , 25' ta 7? ' 1 FA 17 R Like 2 XV' 's 1 Y 1' L , iz. l f, X y 1' i it 4 5i!'.,,. A if 1 ' X95 ! ., . J 4.-A agnfroclucfion The past hurls its challenge to the future. The mid-century year 1950 is a time fo looking through the past to 1900, and fo peering ahead through the as yet formless future to 2000. Balanced in the middle of a century, 1950 could well indicate what that future will bring. So it is that the Mid- Century Musketeer records the events of the year to indicate how assiduously the Xavier family has assimilated the lessons of the past in making the present a good preparation for a better future. Xavier's past is replete with more glory and traditions than any historian has yet ade- quately chronicled. In 1831, when the Athenaeum was founded, the Rev. James O. Van de Velde, S.J., later bishop of Chicago, called the buildings on Sycamore Street an imposing sight. After the Athenaeum had been turned over to the care of the Jesuit Fathers and renamed Saint Xavier College, a Pittsburgh newspaper commented in 1842: It is one of the most flourishing institutions for the education of youth in the western country and when its many advantages become more generally known it will be among the most popular colleges in the Union. On June 28, 1900, twenty students were graduated from the college at commencement exercises in the Grand Opera House. The opening of the Twentieth Century found Saint ST. XAVIER COLLEGE, 1900 A NEW XAVIER RISES, 1920 , .. -1. ..-4gn-.- - -- 1-.,4Lzm-.iuuzsi .-, ahh-k,.e.n. mn..-,l1.u..aa .-..l.ufr.w.,......n-u.-.11-.una - L., . -Lmu1z.w5- as-swung - -

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.f7l,e WJ. Cmfmf, 7fNu:5Lefee1f' QTEK AN4 N Q E E E Ya ff' I 'I' QL Q' 0 EH! ' 1 C. ' 7950 XAVIER UNIVERSITY CINCINNATI, OHIO VOL. XXIII

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XAVIER'S PRESENT EVANSTON CAMPUS WAS THESE SPACIOUS GROUNDS OF THE AVONDALE ATHLETIC CLUB IN 1900 already the victor in many a fight against bigotry, poverty, and natural dis- aster. Its growth led to the move to the more adequate Evanston campus in 1920. In 1950, consolidation was taking place. The administration laid plans to keep Xavier a substantial force in the Cincinnati com- munity. This called for maintaining its high enrolhnent and enlarged curriculum, improv- ing physical facilities through a ten-step de- velopment program, and encouraging a faculty as alert as always to instill the principles of Christian living. , The year recorded in the Mid-Century Musketeer was one which undeniably ad- vanced the position of fthe University. The graduation rosters included the names of more than four hundred and fifty students, a far cry from the twenty who were awarded their diplomas fifty years earlier. The Mid- Century Musketeer records for all friends of Xavier, past, present, and future, the signi- ficant activities of 1949-50: academic, spiri- tual, co-curricular, and athletic. Some of the glory of Xavier's past is caught in the Mid-Century Musketeer in the words of alumni and others who have watched Xavier's work during the first half of the Twentieth Century. The spirit of the present CThe following statement was made by the Rev. James F' Maguire, S.-I., president of Xavier University, to The Mus- keteer, with regard to the approaching start of the second half of the Twentieth Centuryj PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE, 1950 If we could be cynical about man, we would smile knowingly and shake our heads over Presi- dent O'Connor's message. How well We have shattered his dream with two of history's most destructive wars and untold human misery since the dawn of the Twentieth Century. American education has fed on the pragmatic and materialistic philosophers whose ideas brought men to turn the nation's resources to their own purposes and not to God's greater honor. As a result, the Twentieth Century has run up some staggering statistics about family break-downs, divorce rates, salacious enter- tainment, organized vice, and juvenile delinquency. Or was Father O'Connor wiser than would appear? I think so. He knew that cynicism about man in any century is an easy pose. He had faith in God and faith in the ultimate goodness of man. Those of this generation who hold, along with Father O'Connor, that the welfare of man hinges on the principles of truth, justice and fidelity to God, find encouragement as they look down the long vista of the years and see his bright torch of idealism burning aloft. As we place our new marker mid-century, our sights are still clearly, unshakably set on the goals of life that Father O'Connor sighted fifty years ago. We of the Twentieth Century still have time. There are still fifty years before us-to right our- selves, to purge ourselves of our sorry past by a new pledge to the ideals that flow from the Father- hood of God and the brotherhood of man. is evidenced in the comments of the seniors on what four years at Xavier has meant to them. The past and the'present speak re- assuringly for the future XAVIER UNIVERSITY, 20007 XAVIER UNIVERSITY, 1950