Brown and White Vol. 6 no. 41

              but the time has now come when we must seriously ask the alumni to help in maintaining the institution which trained them and we feel sure that their loyalty and affection will prove to be some thing more than mere words we do not forget that the graduates of lehigh are yet in their early man hood the first fourteen classes up to 1882 graduated only 109 men of whom 93 are liviog the subsequent classes were larger but the total number of graduates does not exceed one thousand to ask this small body of young men to contribute large sums of money to the university would be unreason able but i think we can fairly ask them to contribute regularly a small amount each year as they are able and that the response to the appeal will be general and hearty the college best justifies its existence that best fits young men for life in all its activities — busi ness professional social and politi cal there is something more to be expected of the college course of today than mere acquisition of knowledge there is the college life the college atmosphere the subtle influences which go to make character it is well recognized that there are types of college graduates each one bearing the characteristic marks of his alma mater the result it may be of some dominating mind which has left its impress on the minds of the young men who have come under its influence so it may be said that the graduate of the technical or engineering school bears the mark of its rigid curriculum and reflects the master minds which have influenced him we like to think of the lehigh man as one characterized by earnest purpose who having practically begun his professional work before leaving college realizes more fully than the average college graduate what is his place and duty in the life before him and with becoming modesty and self reliance begins a new phase of the students life in the school of experience it cannot be denied that the abrupt transition from the second 1 ary to the professional school be it law medicine or engineering tends to narrowness in thought and gives the student a distorted perspective of life's activities as a whole the tendency today is to put all professional instruction on a graduate basis and i am hopeful that we shall before long be able to require an adequate preparation for engineers also the six years course which lehigh university announced two years ago solves this question i think satisfactorily — a course in which the first two years are of a general classical and literary character the next two years a mixed course of general and professional studies and the last two years of professional studies only a connected and coherent cou r se of this kind does not unduly postpone the day of actual work in one's profession which is the case when a three or four years professional course is added to four years undergraduate study continued on third page it is a trite observation that we never know what a man's capacity is — or what his biavery or courage until the emergency arises to put him to the test the recent war was a great revealer of persons and as might have been expected lehigh men were not slow in offer ing their services to the country of the class of 98 five promptly volunteered and the total roll shows over thirty men in the army and navy it is character that tells in the long run and if the alumni are conscious that the life at lehigh planted and developed the brown and white lehigh university vol vi south bethlehem pa tuesday march 21 1899 no 4 calendar tuesday march 21 — at 7.15 p m meeting of the kconomic so ciety in saucon hall wednesday march 22 — at 7 meeting of the forum m sancon hall mandolin club rehearsal thursday march 23 at ? p m smoker in the gymna sium friday march 24 — at 7 p m meeting of the mathematical club in professor thornburg's lecture room saturday march 25 at 2m p m baseball lehigh vs rutgers indoor meet with rutgers at new brunswick mandolin club rehearsal the forum notices the last of the series of debates for the selection of speakers to represent lehigh in the lehigh lafayette debate to be held oe may 12th will occur on wednes day evening the question se lected is that one chosen for the lehigh-lafayette debate a»d is " eesolved that discriminating duties should be imposed to ia crease our merchant marine messrs bailey fletcher and free man wiil support the affirmative side and messrs meaker shulte and garman will speak for the negative the judges will be members of the faculty or corps of instructors the economic society the regular meeting of tke economic society will be held oa tuesday evening at 7.15 o'clock professor stewart will speak on " the basis of the triple alliance than the course i have just de scribed therefore embrace every opportunity afforded to supple ment your narrowing study and to become acquainted with the minds that have dominated the world there is one other thought that i wish to present if an engineer commits a blunder unlike in any other profession his mistake will follow him like nemesis ; and as a result of this engineers are the most careful people in the world an engineer analyzes both quanti tatively and qualitatively while all others analyze only qualitatively for this reason the engineer is the safest man to follow in the investigation of any new or diffi cult subject consequently i would like to see engineers de voting their time and themselvefe to the solution of the social politi cal and other grave problems that confront the world today a lecture on monday morning professor j b johnson dean of the engi neering faculty of the university of wisconsin delivered a short talk to the junior and senior civils he said in part : your education which is to fit you for the engineer ing profession is limited to a study of the materials laws and forces of nature together with the amount of mathematics etc necessary to fully understand these in other words you deal with the dead material things of this world and are turned wholly away from man — from those things which make up the culture studies as far as the results are concerned you might have studied upon mars or the dead moon for these forces etc act there as well as here this specializa tion is done because a knowledge of these is what you will need in your profession ; but in doing this you are conscious that you are in a separate field from the so-called learned professions it is true that you are the pioneer of all civiliza tion ; that were it not for you all would lapse into barbarism ; im portant and absolutely necessary as you are this is not the thought that i wished to present to you this morning you will all grant that it is more or less of an embarrassment for you not to be acquainted with so many things that the members of the learned professions know and to feel that they know very little of what most interests you this state keeps engineers separate from the rest of the world and they consequently associate only with each other now is there any remedy for this undoubtedly there is and as an example i shall state my method for overcoming this to a greater or less degree during the last sixteen years i have belonged to a literary society which meets twice a week for the purpose of studying the great minds that have influenced the world — principally men of litera ture since they constitute the greater part of the world's master minds and i realize that the sum total of the benefits accruing from this study has been of ines timable advantage to me — it has kept me from becoming clannish has furnished a diversion for me and has developed in me a taste in composition which i could not have otherwise gotten therefore i would recommend this course not only to engineers but to all specialists deep draught is re quired now-a-days and to have this we must be more or less narrow the wisdom of choice now is rather to know what not to do than to know what to do but this is the serious part of life and since that must be narrow it is necessary to have some other diver sion entirely separate for this nothing to my mind can be better the coach mr hecker arrived yesterday afternoon and was out with the men in a short practice annual meeting and banquet of the northeastern lehigh club of penna at wilkes barre march 14 1899 the following account of this successful banquet we condense from the wilkes barre daily news of march 15 : brown and white neatly en twined and conspicuously dis played were the colors at the sterling hotel last evening where the lehigb university club held its eighth annual dinner with alumni and guests about forty sat at the board and a more intel lectual looking gathering of men has never been seen in the city they came from every profession and from almost every section of northeastern pennsylvania and their love for the alma mater was apparent in every face and in every voice mr arthur long president of the club opened the post prandial exercises in a felicitous speech in which he recalled gratefully the happy days at lehigh which had so well prepared them for the serious work of life president drown was then called on to speak for the university he said he knew that he cculd say nothing which would cause a lehigh alumnus more pleasure than that the high standard which had always characterized the uni versity was maintained for he knew that the loyalty and devotion of the lehigh alumni was ground ed on the pride they took in its work and that numbers or wealth would count but little with them in comparison with the inspiration which comes from the best work done with the best motives not withstanding the fact that the university's endowment had been unproductive for a number of years the teaching force had been increased rather than diminished and the instruction has been kept up to date and fully abreast the other great technical schools of the country