Address in Praise of Founders

"U.N.B. Keeping Pace With Progress, Meets the Demand for Trained Specialists. The Address in Praise of the Founders by Paul Klimpke, Who is Retiring as Professor of Modern Languages---The Reason for the Waning Interest in the Classics---Why Study of Greek is Almost a Thing of the Past" The Daily Gleaner (21 May 1925): 8.

It is eminently fitting at a gathering of this kind that a brief part of the programme should be set aside in praise of the founders of this university and I appreciate the honor of being appointed faculty representative to speak at this occasion.

The successful and progressive development of a newly settle province is dependant on wise leadership especially at a time when the minister of the church, the family physician, and the learned judge formed a local triumvirate to whom the people in the settlements turned for counsel and advice. To meet the need of educated leaders the founders inspired by hope and endowed with a clear vision gave to New Brunswick this university where the training received in the local school might be completed and the Arts Building will stand a lasting memorial to Sir Howard Douglas, the Chief Founder, and his co-workers for their solicitousness in behalf of the educational welfare of the province. The charm of the exterior beauty and architecture of the Arts Building appeals to all; its solidity and strength promise a long and glorious period of service; its very site "on the hill" is emblematical of its purpose to send forth the light of learnover this valley and throughout the length and breadth of this province.

It was said of that great English statesman, Gladstone, that he was the best informed man of his day and able to converse intelligently on any subject. In order to be educated one must not only have a fund of information, but must also know how to assimilate and correlate this information to have the power to think rapidly and to think straight. This institution of learning, in common with the colleges of those days in this continent, offered the usual course in Arts with the several other studies grouped about the classics. The long list of her famous graduates proves how thoroughly the training of men was and is still being done here. Nor is it the training in the lecture room and laboratory alone that the student of to-day takes with him to his life's work, a great deal of useful experience may be gained from the extra-curriculum activities such as the debating society, the dramatic club, the editing of the college magazine, the musical organization, and athletics, provided, of course, these activities are properly co-ordinated to the more serious college work. Some of you may not agree with this statement and it must be admitted that now and then a student is carried away by his enthusiasm for the non-essential, yet the great majority of students is benefitted thereby: mens sana in corpore sano is as true to-day as it ever was.

This period of great scientific discoveries and inventions the beginning of which goes back to the introduction of steam as motive Power. From time immemorial till the early part of the last century man used the horse or other beast of burden, the slowly moving two-wheeled oxcart or perhaps a more pretentious horse-drawn vehicle, and the sail boat to travel from place to place and to transport his possessions; as soon as steam cars and steamboats reduced distances requiring year, months, and days in former times, to weeks, days, and minutes respectively, the oil soaked wick and candle gave way to gas and electricity, the loom in the home was rendered obsolete because of the mills, factories were built to supply us with all the articles of necessity, comfort and luxury until we have almost lost the proper perspective of what is necessary or a luxury, we travel on land and sea at a rate of speed never dreamed of before and even the air has been mastered by man's genius. We must bear in mind, however, that only untiring zeal and the painstaking effort of the scientist and the engineer have enabled us to enjoy the comforts and blessings of this present age. The call to-day is for the specialist. Hence it is not at all surprising to find that the old college with its arts course has expanded into the university of to-day with its departments of chemistry, forestry, and electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering to keep apace with progress and meet the demand for trained specialists. Men and women entering the university now select their course and department from several, while formerly they were all obliged to take the only course, the course in arts. That is the reason why there seems to be a waning interest in the classics, why the study of Greek is almost a thing of the past.

Canada is a country of equal opportunities for all and this ancient and honourable University of New Brunswick is preeminently a university of equal opportunities for all. Unfortunately there is no royal road to learning, nor has there been invented as yet a mechanical device to put an indifferent or indolent student through his course. And after all comment, the end of the whole matter is this: that in this university as in life, only those who have character and brains, only those who take their work seriously, and back up the talents God gave them with daily drudgery can succeed in the fierce and ever growing competition of this new generation. If the effort to enter this university is at all worth while it must be bounden duty of every man and woman leaving this institution of learning to measure up to the full standard of the successful university graduate: 'To be a public official without vice, a private citizen without wrong, a neighbor without reproach, a Christian without hypocrisy, a person with guile, submissive to law, obedient to authority, thoughtful, kind, and, above all, loyal to country and self,' Thus, and thus alone will the graduates succeed in their endeavors as loyal sons and daughters of the University of New Brunswick to approximate and exemplify the founders' high ideals.