Brown and White Vol. 4 no. 60

              faculty resolutions to prof harding no 60 alumni lunch yoi iv the baccalaureate sermon the exercises of commencement week opened on sunday morning by services in the packer memo rial church of the university the graduating class in number between seventy and eighty were present in cap and gown the reverend thomas b an gell d d of harrisburg pa preached the baccalaureate sermon from the text : finally brethren whatsoever things are true what s6ever things are honorable what soever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report take account of these things till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god unto a full grown man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of christ at the conclusion of his sermon dr angeiratfdressed t]se graduat ing class the well worn saying 1 the fate of your country is in your hands has a very real mean ing in its application to yourselves you who in common with thou sands of others throughout the land are standing on the threshold of your life work represent forces which cannot te accurately meas ured more especially in our day which is emphatically the posses sion of the younger men your position is not like that of any of those who have preceded you be cause every generation starts from a new vantage point knowledge which has cost them the slow and toilsome labor of years h?.s been put at your disposal with no effort of your own the difficulties which confronted them will not be yours but if you have had better forged and better tempered tools placed in your hands it behooves you to remember that it is because you have a greater work for the re cognition of the value of the moral and spiritual forces in life which i have mentioned as a characteristic of our time will not be tolerant of the failure to perceive that it is the inspiration of character not the self-seeking of material ambition which it needs you may remem ber that mr lecky has said that the foundations of national great ness are laid in the courage the up rightness the soundness and moder ation of judgment which spring from character rather than from without some have thought that in our own nation they have detected a degeneration in these things if this be true it is to the high inspi rations the noble ambitions the fresh enthusiasm of a younger gen eration that we look for its correc tive if it be not true it is still to you that we look to plant a little higher up the slopes of life the banner of moral progress which can alone ensure the well-being of our land that your ambitions continued on sixth page university day as usual a large and interested audience of the elite of the bethle hems and the parents and friends of the graduating class assembled in the chapel to witness the closing exercises of this week of weeks at the university immediately upon the appearance of the graduating class with president drown and the faculty at the head mr wolle to the delight of all present rendered the errand march in b flat by silas after the reading of the scrip tures and prayer by mr bird fol lowed by " the invocation " by guilmant on the organ william eagan binkley of hagerstown md second in standing in the graduating class delivered the salu tatory oration with clearness and distinctness he cordially welcomed all present to this the last assem blage of the class of 97 before its final departure from the portals of lehigh dwelling for a few short moments upon the happy years spent here and the duties and realism of the work and life to come and thus in a perfectly natural and easy manner reaching that most important obligation of every educated man his duty to the state considering the con tinual cry of political corruption mr binkley readily traced it to its source in the inaction and corrup tion of the people themselves and severely scored all men of ability who fail to assume their allotted responsibility in this great machin ery of government the whole address was serious and very much to the point it was well delivered and left an evident impression on the minds of the audience following the prelude in f by wely on the organ by mr wolle thos cedwyn thomas of wilkes-barre delivered an ora tion entitled " battling the ele ments mr thomas in his ca pacity as a student in mining engi neering chose as his theme the perils encountered and the heroism displayed in the quiet every day life of the average coal miner ; of the obedience to superiors the silent onward march without in centive other than love of all hu manity to which we pay such slight recognition his whole ad dress appealed strongly to the sympathies of his hearers and the applause it received was well merited ambrose everett yohn of sax ton pa was the next speaker his subject for the occasion being " engineering science with great depth of thought he consid ered the gradual growth of a neces sity for labor-saving machinery and the extraordinary supply that immediately meets the demand considering the part engineering science has played in securing com forts and coexistent happiness to the people and its application in continued on second page continued on fourth page dr drown mentioned gratefully the con tributions during the year from the phila delphia lehigh club and the lehigh club the alumni lunch was held in the gymnasium on tuesday at 12 o'clock the latter was tastefully decorated w r ith brown and white and red white and blue the large table which extended around three sides of the large room was well filled dr drown occupying a seat at the head of the table le high songs cheers and class yells were given in abundance through out the meeting president of the association l 0 emmerich 82 opened the speech making and told of the great value of the association as binding the men together and re newing their interest in the affairs of lehigh the class of 97 was given a few words of welcome and advised them strongly to form the '! come back " habit dr drown now spoke of the happy and harmonious relations of lehigh university and its alumni and said that no college could long exist and do good work without the loyal and enthusiastic support of its graduates but a college needed more than the cordial approval of its course in educa tion and loyalty implied more than com mendation namely counsel advice and criticism a successful college was one fitted for its environment and of this fitness the alumni were often the best judges qf the changes which had taken place daring the past year the most notable was !■ •; retirement of professor h wilson ! n/ding after twenty-five years service in the department of physics and electrical engineering this announcement would be received with regret by the alumni who have grateful recollections of professor harding's happy and thorough methods of instruction and of his personal interest in his pupils but they will be glad that he is to have a well-earned rest after an unusual length of college service in recognition of his great services to the university the trustees have voted to retain his name in the register as professor emeritus of phy sics the university was fortunate in securing a man to fill the chair of physics and elec trical engineering who will maintain these departments in the highest efficiency—pro fessor w s franklin who has has been for some years professor of these branches in lowa state college professor franklin is a graduate of the university of kansas and continued his studies in mathematics and physics at harvard and berlin his inves tigations and writings put him already in the front rank of american physicists and educators dr macfarlane continues fortunately to be connected with the university as lec turer on mathematical physics in which subject he has an international reputation the most notable event of the year has been the gifts of mrs eckley b coxe to the university of which you have already heard through the college paper and the daily press mrs coxe could have devised no other form of gifts which would have more fitly symbolized or more lastingly perpetuated tke loving memory in which the name of mr coxe is held at the uni versity the memorial students fund of 20,000 which she has established at the university is for the purpose of helping students who without such help could have no hope of obtaining a college educa tion the interest of this fund is to be used exclusively for the living expenses of stu dents and not for their tuition the large technical library of mr coxe which mrs coxe has also given to the university is also a most fitting memorial to a student and scholar through these books his in fluence will te impressed upon the succes sive classes of students who shall find in them and in the story of his life a needed inspiration and help to accurate thinking and fullness of knowledge at the last faculty meeting the following resolutions adopted by the faculty were presented to pro fessor harding : the present month marks the close of twenty five years of active service given to the lehigh uni versity by h wilson harding a m as professor of physics it is highly fitting that the faculty of the university should choose this time for placing upon its records a statement which shall show in lasting form its hearty appreciation of the ability and faithfulness with which professor harding has discharged the duties of bis office and its sincere regret that he is to be no longer an active member of the university's teach ing force for several years after professor harding assumed control of the department of physics the work of that department was in the main auxiliary to the various courses then established it was his duty to teach the subject of physics in such a way as to impart at once the broadening influence of a cul ture study and the thorough mas tery of the principles of physical science needed by future engineers and chemists in the performance of this task he met with gratifying success ; but with this success he was not content he early rec ognized the great future which lay in the further development of that part of physics which has to do with the principles and applications of electricity and magnetism he made it his aim to round out the facilities for engineering education offered at the university by add ing a fully equipped course in electrical engineering through his efforts there was offered at first a one year course in advanced elec tricity embracing the most essen tial principles and the most useful applications of the rapidily ad vancing science this course af forded an excellent opportunity for ambitious students and sent out some who have won well deserved distinction as electrical engineers but professor harding continued to work for the establishment ofa course at once as thorough and as broad as those in civil mechanical and mining engineering ; and in 1888 his earnest efforts were crowned with success a ful four year course in electrical en gineering was then added to the school of technology and the de partment of physics became the department of physics and elect rical engineering professor hoarding's foresight was justified by the great and im mediate popularity of the new course its usefulness was very largely increased by the noble building erected to serve the pur pose of a physical laboratory which in its inception plan and equip continued on second page lehigh university south bethlehem pa thursday june 17 1897 commencement edition the brown and white