Address in Praise of Founders

"Dr. Harrison's Address Delivered at the University on Behalf of the Founders" The Daily Telegraph (3 June 1898): 1.

May it please Your Honor, Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Senate, Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Alumni Society, Ladies and Gentlemen:--

Of the founders of old King's College the one whose name still lives among us is Sir Howard Douglas. In a former address I tried to do some justice to the memory of this remarkable man after a careful perusal of his life, and after some correspondence with his son, General Sir Robert Percy Douglas, who died Sept. 30th, 1891.

Of the founders of what is known to the present generation as the University of New Brunswick, his honor the lieut. governor, our honored visitor, could speak from personal knowledge for he is one of the few men living who were in the house of assembly in 1859, when by a vote of 21 to 13 the house decided on the 7th of April that there should be a university, which shall be a body corporate by the name and style of the University of New Brunswick. The official list of the 21 who voted yea reads as follows: Hon Mr Tilley, Hon Mr Fisher, Hon Mr Watters, Hon Mr Brown, Mr Read, Mr Gray, Mr End, Mr McClelan, Mr McMillan, Mr Lawrence, Mr Allen, Mr McPhelen, Mr Macpherson, Mr Montgomery, Mr DesBrisay, Mr McIntosh, Mr Scovil, Mr Wilmot, Mr Vail, Mr Chandler, Mr Gilbert. These are names which the province and especially the university should never willingly let die. The Hon. Mr. Fisher once said to me with conscious pride "If it had not been for me this building would have been given to the moles and the bats."

Any body of latter-day legislators who should hand this noble structure over to the moles and the bats would stand forth in most unenviable contrast with the brilliant statesmen of 1859.

"As well kill a good man as kill a good book," said the great Milton. How much greater then I ask wold be the crime of killing a good university? The evils brought by such a deed upon the pick and flower of New Brunswick youth would be felt throughout all succeeding generations. New Brunswick would be a poor place to emigrate to, New Brunswick would be a country to get out of as soon as possible if her legislators in an evil hour should deny to her youth "such an education as would enable them to meet on equal terms and hold intercourse with the liberally educated men of other countries."

The elementary schools, the high schools and the university are the bulwarks of a nation in the war against ignorance, and the legislator who should succeed in weakening any one of these three interdependent parts of every complete system of public instruction would commit a crime against posterity.

In making these remarks I do not wish to give the impression that there is any danger to be feared from the government of today. They have proved their friendliness to the university by giving a grant for repairs of $1,500 which passed through the legislature without a hostile word. With this grant we put a new roof on the building and made many improvements such as painting the walls of the library in which we are now assembled.

I desire publicly on behalf of the university to make this grateful acknowledgement of the good will of your honored government. But in view of the recent attack upon different parts of our educational system and especially upon the university, I think it necessary to consider the question. "Is there anything in the present state of our Alma Mater that affords the slightest ground in reason for this attempt to place on her throat the political garrotte."

On the contrary, never before was the university so well able to invite a critical examination of her work as she is today. Counting 70 students in attendance during the past year, with a full staff of seven professors, I point with pride to the graduating class, who occupy 20 chairs in front of me. Nineteen candidates for the degree of B.A. and one for the full diploma in civil engineering and land surveying. Here is a class of 17 young men and three young women, representing the counties of Restigouche, Northumberland, Charlotte, St. John, Kings, York and Carleton and also the capital of Prince Edward Island; representing also various religious bodies, viz., the Church of England, the Methodist, The Baptist, the Free Baptist and the Presbyterian churches. Here, before our eyes, is the best possible evidence of what the university is doing for the different parts of the province and for different religious denominations. The generous benefaction the class have agree to make to their Alma Mater for the next ten years shows whether or not they appreciate the education they have here received.

As to the general body of the students I will let the professors speak by making brief extracts from their official annual reports to the senate. In my own report I have said: "It would be difficult to find anywhere a better class of undergraduates. There are few or no idlers now in college."

Dr. Bailey reports as follows" "The work of the classes under my charge has been very satisfactory. The body of the students have been regular, attentive and diligent, and the progress made all that I could reasonably expect."

Professor Stockley says: "The sophomore class in French is more advanced than are most second years' students."

Professor Davidson says in his report: "The senior class in economics is, I think, the best class I have ever had in that subject."

Professor Downing writes "that the number of honor students in physics is greater than at any time since his connection with the institution. For the year the interest and progress of the ordinary classes as a whole have certainly been above the average."

Prof. Raymond--A marked improvement in the quality of the work done in Greek and Latin.

The minutes of the board of discipline will show beyond question that with respect to the relations between the students and the faculty we never before had as satisfactory a year as the one now closing.

Does our work receive recognition from other universities?

The students who have completed our engineering course are admitted without examination to the final year at McGill university.

The university of Chicago awards to one of our graduates a $300 fellowship.

Harvard receives our best graduates with open arms, places them in the final year in arts and gives them when necessary $150 each from the Price Greenleaf Aid for poor students. Two of our men are now there under these conditions, and several members of this class have received permission to enter the final year in arts after graduation here. Such is the recognition given to our work by the greatest university on the continent of America. There can be no doubt then, that as to what is taught in our arts and engineering courses, we have the endorsement of those most competent to judge, and the arguments against the university under this head do not affect this university alone. They strike at the established principles and foundation of all collegiate education.

Is the state under any obligation to provide an Arts course? Let no lawyer, however eminent, suppose that his opinion on this matter should weigh equally in the balance with the opinions of educators who have made such problems a life-long study. the names of Ryerson and Dawson are destined to live as long as there is life in Canada. These men have made their pronouncement on this very question in this province and concerning this university. Year after year we publish their immortal answer in our Calendar: "New Brunswick would be retrograding and would stand out in unenviable contrast with every other civilized country both in Europe and America, did she not continue to provide an institution in which her own youth could acquire a collegiate education." "The idea of abolishing the endowment cannot be entertained for a moment." The New Brunswick house of assembly endorsed these opinions in 1859. Does the present house of assembly contain men better qualified to judge of these high duties of the state than were Gray and Tilley and Wilmot and Fisher and Chandler and John C. Allen and A. R. McClelan? If so, they are indeed a brilliant lot.

The University of Maine has been called on to answer the same question and this year the Maine Calendar contains on its first page the clear pronouncement of Ralph Waldo Emerson:--

"I praise New England because it is the country in the world where is the freest expenditure for education. We have already taken at the planting of these colonies (for aught I know for the first time in the world) the initial step which for its importance might have been resisted as the most radical of revolutions; thus deciding at the start the destiny of this country, this, namely, that the poor man whom the law does not allow to take an ear of corn when starving nor a pair of shoes for his freezing feet, is allowed to put his hand into the pocket of the rich and say you shall educate me, not as you will but as I will, not alone in the elements, but by further provision in the languages, in sciences, in the useful as in the elegant arts. The child shall be taken up by the state and taught at the public cost the rudiments of knowledge and at the last the ripest results of art and science."

I respectfully commend these golden words of Emerson to his popular and energetic namesake the honorable the leader of the government in New Brunswick to whose safe-keeping the interests of the University of New Brunswick at the present time are largely entrusted and I believe safely entrusted.

In connection with the University of Maine I shall endeavor to meet an objection against this university, an objection which seems to have force in the mind of the premier himself. It is this: If you divide your yearly grant by the yearly number of graduates it brings the cost to the province of each graduate in the vicinity of $900. With us this year, this objection scarcely holds for if you divide the university grant of $8,844 by 20 we have the modest sum of $442. But the income of the University of Maine is $67,000, of which $15,000 is for an experimental station, leaving 452,000 for salaries and purposes of instruction. In their latest Calendar the number of graduates was 25. Applying the same elementary process of division we get as the public cost of each graduate the sum of $2,080 instead of $442.

The test is by no means an infallible one, but supposing it cost the province $900 to educate George E. Foster, it cost the dominion of Canada $9,000 a year to pay the same Hon. George E. Foster for his services as finance minister. Supposing it cost the province $900 to educate F. E. Barker and J. A. Vanwart, how many thousands a year does the dominion pay for the services of His Honor Mr. Justice Barker and His Honor Mr. Justice Vanwart? I contend that it is not numbers we should aim at as the quality of the work we do.

Two men like A. B. Bangs and C. C. Jones, now studying at Harvard, will in the end bring this university more credit than will a score of half educated men.

I have spoken of the living. The Hon. James Mitchell, sometime premier of New Brunswick, who at our last encoenia received the honorary degree of LL.D. and who for so many years ably represented the Alumni Society in the senate, has gone from us, leaving behind him a reputation of unsullied integrity in all the relations of life and of unswerving loyalty to the University of New Brunswick. I saw his brother Masons throw the green sprig of friendship into the grave of his rest and I wold fain add my testimony to his sterling worth. But the commissioners who sent in their able report in 1854 had something more in view than the primary college, with its course of permanent studies in arts. they recommended additional courses of collegiate instruction. The first of these is that of civil engineering and land surveying. This the senate have already provided for; nor can it be denied that the establishment of a chair of Civil Engineering was a move in the right direction. Already 13 students in engineering have completed successfully the full course of four years and taken their diplomas; and indications point to a considerable increase in this department in September next. The government engineer has entrusted important work to Professor Dixon, and the government have the means of knowing the valuable work he is doing here with his pupils, some of whom are now occupying responsible positions.

The second special course of study recommended by the commissioners was that of Agriculture. There is no doubt that this matter has hitherto received but little attention from the university authorities, chiefly because the funds were not forthcoming. It required a farmers' government to bring the question to the front, and I am convinced that the occasion is propitious for doing something real in the direction of agricultural education. the honorable the commissioner for agriculture and his deputy have convinced me that they are in earnest in their desire to have a professor who could advance the interests of the farming community.

During the Easter vacation I spent several days at the university of Maine, which has until lately been regarded as an agricultural college. President Harris and Prof. Woods, the director of the agricultural department, devoted not a little of their valuable time to further the object of my visit. They gave me freely their advice, based on the results of a wide experience. they first disabused my mind of the idea that there would be any necessity for a model farm, much less of an experimental station in connexion with the university in order to do good work in agricultural education. After examining our calendar they said that we should have first an foremost a professor of agriculture chemistry. My colleague, Professor Bailey, and myself had previously come to the same conclusion, and the commissioner for agriculture and his deputy had independently expressed the same opinion.

On my return from Bangor I took the first opportunity of informing the premier of the results of my inquiries and observations. He asked me to make a report to the government, which I have done at much greater length than would be appropriate on this occasion.

A professor of agriculture chemistry should be able to take the whole subject of chemistry, which is now mainly confined to first year students, and distribute it over as many years as he thinks necessary, thereby at the same time greatly strengthening our science course and enabling Dr. Bailey to devote more attention to other subjects. In the analysis of soils and fertilizers and in formulating rations for milk and meat production the new professor could do a great work for the farmers of the province. He would be expected to lecture not only in the university but wherever and whenever the agricultural societies required his services. Short winter courses might be offered to intending farmers who are unable to devote a longer time to study. In these lectures the fundamental principles of agricultural science might be discussed briefly. The student, while he could not obtain anything like a complete training in six or twelve weeks, might gain an insight into the ways in which science helps agriculture and might be guided and moved to reading at home the most helpful agricultural literature. He would also feel that he would have in the professor a competent instructor to whom he could write for information.

I have reason to hope that the government, the senate, the farmers, the agitators, the alumni and the students might agree in thinking that the appointment of a professor of agriculture would conduce to the general prosperity not only of the farming community, but of this university.

There is one other matter about which I should like to say a few words before closing this address. We are constantly being told that the university is not in touch with the teachers and schools of this province. Let us examine this statement with some thoroughness. The subjects for entrance examination given in the old calendars were arranged by a committee of Grammar and High school teachers appointed at my request at one of our provincial institutes for the very purpose of keeping the university in touch with the schools. The changes that have been made from time to time have in almost every instance arisen from request on the part of the teachers. The July matriculations were instituted by the chief superintendent for the express purpose of keeping the university in touch with the schools. All the associate examiners are or have been teachers in our high schools. Entrance papers are sent to any grammar school centre where a student wishes to be examined. County scholarships are offered at these examinations. Inspectors of schools preside. A high school or a grammar school pupil can thus be sure of entrance to the university without leaving home. Teachers holding a first class license are allowed to enter upon the second year by passing in languages and chemistry. Our noble-hearted benefactor the late Asa Dow, whose lamented death we regretfully record this year, has perpetuated his name in the university by founding scholarships for teachers only. We have had this year 14 licensed  teachers among our under graduates. The chief superintendent of education is president of the senate and the chancellor of the university is a member of the board of education. All these are strong connecting links, one wold suppose, between the university and the teachers and schools. But these are not all. The teachers elect a representative to the university senate, who must, however, be a graduate of the university. This last restriction is particularly complained of. I fail to discover any just cause of complaint. The representative on the senate of a body of teachers can do but little good unless he is qualified to deal with questions of college education. How can he deal intelligently with these if he has never had a college education? But it may be answered he is a graduate of some other college. In that case let him first show his interest in the University of New Brunswick by applying for an ad eundem degree, and becoming a member of the Alumni Society.

There is one other loud complaint, viz., that the chancellor of the university does not go about enough among the schools. This is probably true, but it shall be true no longer for he has made his plans to visit every High and Grammar school in the province if possible once a year.

And now, my young friends of the graduating class, it is impossible for me to express the mingled feelings that stir within me in trying to say good-bye to you. You have done many good things and achieved many successes. Especially you have done nobly for the university by your generous class benefacture by which you start for the first time in the history of this university a loan fund for needy students. The spirit that animated the gift makes me feel young again. It is the best answer to those who strove to cry us down. The name you give your alma mater will spread like wild-fire. It is her best advertisement when a graduating class such as yours will shout, "Floreat Academia;" the vales will redouble it to the hills, and the sound will reach through every grammar school and high school in the province.

In departing let me say to each one of you, in the words of the Hebrew prophet, "What does the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy Lord."