Butler Alumnal Quarterly (1921) Butler University
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Butler University Digital Commons @ Butler University Butler Alumnal Quarterly University Special Collections 1921 Butler Alumnal Quarterly (1921) Butler University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/bualumnalquarterly Part of the Other History Commons Recommended Citation Butler University, "Butler Alumnal Quarterly (1921)" (1921). Butler Alumnal Quarterly. Book 11. http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/bualumnalquarterly/11 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the University Special Collections at Digital Commons @ Butler University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Butler Alumnal Quarterly by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Butler University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ii:iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiii«iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiijiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!= Shelf .^^7g. m2 (Tb.T. Accession No | T_Xj 3-JQ_ BONA THOMPSON MEMORIAL BUTLER COLLEGE LIBRARY s Received ni.3 =TiiMiimiuiiiiiiiiiminiiii!iiiiiniiiiiiiunniiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiinH iCffliS COPY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Lyrasis IVIembers and Sloan Foundation http://www.archive.org/details/butleralumnalqua10butl Butler Aliminal .^ Quarterly FOUNDER'S DAY NUMBER April, 1921 Vol.X, No.l INDIANAPOLIS Entered as second-class matter March 26, 1912, at the post office at Indianapolis, Ind., under the Act of March 3, 1879. College Trained Women Opportunity to Enjoy DELIGHTFUL SUMMER OF TRAVEL In high type educational work. Positions paying $200 to $400 per month We finance you. Excellent busi- ness training. Opportunity for permanent business connection. Positions open for summer will be filled in the order the applications are received, with preference to women best qualified. Give age, education and experience when writing for particulars. MR. HOOVER, 58 E. Wash. St. CHICAGO Ho, Ye Butlerites! Let us Nominate THOMAS CARR HOWE for MAYOR At the Primary Election, May the 3rd Butler Alumnal Quarterly Vol. X INDIANAPOLIS, IND., APRIL, 1921 No. 1 Founder's Day Address By Dr. Thomas F. Moran, of Purdue University National Poise and Sober Second Thoughts Mr. President, Members of the Faculty, and Students of Butler College: I would like to say first of all that I am very proud to stand before you this morning. I was very glad to accept the kind invitation which came from Butler College because we feel that Butler and Purdue have a great many things in common although their kinds of education differ somewhat in detail. I have noticed as the years go by that the bonds of friendship between these two colleges are strengthening, as I think they should do, and I have noticed it with a great deal of pleasure because I do not see any reason why all of the colleges and universities of this State, and of this country for that matter, should not be found shoulder to shoul- der, fighting aggressively and sympathetically for the great things of education, for what helps one of us helps all of us, and after all we are all tending towards the same goal and striving to accomplish the same purpose—perhaps by methods which are somewhat dis- similar. So, on the basis of our academic relations and of our ath- letic relations, I have noticed that Butler and Purdue are friendly rivals and kindly enemies. We hope the bonds of friendship will grow stronger as the years go by. A few years ago I was giving some lectures in the northern part of the State in company with one of the professors from another institution in Indiana. As we walked about the city one evening 3 ' 4 Butler Alumnal Quarterly he told me something of his trials and tribulations (he was Professor of English) in teaching English to his Freshmen. He said among other things that it was his custom to have themes written and handed in at periodical intervals. Sometimes the subjects were assigned, and sometimes dug out by the student. One Freshman chose "Dante" for his subject. He began: "Dante was a poet. He was a great poet. He bestrode this narrow world like a Colossus. He stood with one foot in the Middle Ages and with the other waved a salute to the rising sun of modern literature. ' While I am glad to bring the greetings from a sister institution of learning, I will refrain from any such gymnastics as Dante's salute to the rising sun. If I should attempt it in this limited space I am afraid it would be fatal not only to my personal welfare but to my professorial dignity. There are many things we could talk about on Founders' Day, and is it not well that the memory of the founders should be kept green among us? Many of the founders of these Middle West colleges builded better than they knew. They laid the simple foundations of education and laws of right living which through all the years have been adapted to the needs of the day. I have chosen to speak for a short time on the subject of "Na- tional Poise and Sober Second Thoughts." It seemed to me that while in this atmosphere of unrest, this hurly-burly condition of the world today, it might be well to consider a thoughtful and deliberate subject of this kind. It is a fine thing to have poise. It indicates self-control and a nice balance of mental mechanism. It is a guaranty against hasty, impulsive action, and is also an antidote for mental stampede. It is a good quality on the athletic field, in legislative halls, and in the business world, and it leads to that confidence which is the forerunner of success. I think we will all agree with the old prophet Isaiah when he said: "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." The sober second thought rather than the fleeting impulse of the moment. Now national poise is very much the same thing because a nation is simply a group of individuals acting in corporate capacity. It is well for nations as well as individuals to cultivate that fine poise Founder's Day Address 5 and balance which leads to the best results. Poise is partly natural, partly acquired. It comes with age, education and experience. Only in very rare cases of high mental endowment, such as Alex- ander Hamilton, does mental poise come in early life or with a comparatively small amount of education. But experience nowa- days comes more rapidly than ever before. We say we are a young nation, and that is true according to the calendar, but the calendar is not always the best unit of measure. The history of Great Britain goes back for more than five hundred years. France goes farther back than that, and France is antedated by Greece and Rome, and they in turn by the Oriental countries. China goes back nobody knows how far. Chaldea and Egypt have a civilization that was old seventy-five hundred years ago. We are a babe compared with the old nations of the world, and yet we have had an experience which gives us considerable age if we measure life by deeds, not years. A year in ancient Chaldea would mean nothing compared with a modern year, and it is true that a year of the twentieth cen- tury is worth a whole cycle of Cathay. In the early days of the Christian era things moved very slowly, but in this hurly-burly twentieth century things move rapidly and a great deal of experi- ence is packed within the space of a very few years. So the average man has lived more and experienced more than Methuselah, the son of Enoch who walked with God. Someone told Mark Twain once upon a time that Methuselah was nine hundred and sixty-nine years old when he died, and Twain's comment was, "What of it? There was nothing doing." That is not true of the age in which we live, because so much that is vital is being done in our day, and although we have lived but a short span of years we have experi- enced and witnessed the most significant part of the world's civi- lization. And after all, are we as young as we sometimes think we are? It is only one hundred and thirty-seven years since we won our own independence from Great Britain and started out upon our own career, but we have other ways of measuring time besides that. We have just celebrated the three hundredth anni- versary of the coming of the Pilgrim Fathers. Seven years ago we celebrated the three hundredth anniversary of the landing of 6 Butler Alumnal Quarterly the first successful English colony on our shores. Twenty-eight years ago we celebrated the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492, and in 1965 I suppose we shall celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of the first colony in North America, and in 2000 our successors in this favored land will observe with appropriate cere- monies the one thousandth of Leif Ericsson and his Vikings who came from the North to New England. But our institutions antedate both Columbus and Leif Ericsson. Chaucer, Shakespeare and John Milton are our literary ancestors. When Stephen Langton wrote the Magna Charta he laid the foun- dation for American as well as British institutions. We are just as much interested as our British cousins in the battle of Hastings, and the Grecian and Roman wars of Tacitus are the beginning of our history as well as of the British, and although from one point of view we are a comparatively young nation, from a truer point of view our history and our institutions go back at least fifteen hundred years. Now this being the case, would it not be well, on occasions of this kind where thoughtful people are gathered together, to take account of stock and ask ourselves whether or not we have grown up and whether or not our actions really do accord with our growth.