The University RecordVolume VI APRIL IQ20 Number 2THE POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THEENGLISH WORKINGMAN1By CONYERS READProfessor of History, University of ChicagoIn common English parlance the term workingman has for sometime been monopolized by the manual industrial worker. All otherswho will not be classified as gentlemen of leisure have had to find someother designation for their energies. They may be ministers or servants,assistants or laborers, but unless they drive a machine or handle a toolthey are not workingmen.How the industrial worker secured title to this simple and honorableappellation is a question which we can safely leave to the philologists.We are more concerned with the fellow which it denotes. He has answered in his time to many names. Historically speaking he is theoldest kind of fellow on earth; or at least he is the kind of which we havethe oldest record. He chipped the oldest stone implement in our museums, forged the oldest blade, molded the oldest pot. And the Lordalone knows how far behind these chance survivals of his handicraft hishistory ascends. To tell the whole story of his progress would involvetelling the whole story of civilization, and nothing of that sort can beattempted here. Of his political progress the recorded tale is far briefer.It carries us, in England at any rate, no farther back than the MiddleAges, and most of it falls well within the compass of the last hundredyears.The medieval prototype of the modern industrial worker was thecraftsman. He was then as he is now a townsman, though he certainly1 Delivered on the occasion of the One Hundred and Fifteenth Convocation ofthe University held in Leon Mandel Assembly Hall, March i6, 1920.6566 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDcame from the country in the first place and he long preserved a healthysmell of the earth about him. It was in connection with the government of his town that he made his debut into politics. At first he wasa more or less accidental feature in an urban community mainly devotedto trade, a hewer of wood and a drawer of water for the merchants whoran the town in their own interests. Later as he grew in numbers helearned how to organize his strength and was able to contend with hismasters for a share in the town government. In the long run he rathermore than won his way, and long before the end of the Middle Ageshe had become in the great majority of English towns the dominatingelement in municipal politics.It is unfortunate that we know so little about this part of his historybecause it is clear from the results he achieved that he revealed early acapacity for politics of no mean dimensions. This much at least is certain that the original basis of his organization was industrial and thathis political effort was directed through industrial channels. The English craft guild like the modern English trade union was not designed forpolitical purposes, but like the trade union also, it could be made to serve.In its early days the English craft guild furnished an excellent example of democracy in industry. It aimed to include everyone within thetown who followed the same craft. Practically the only qualificationfor membership which it required was that of good workmanship. If apprentices and journeymen were not admitted to the full privileges of theguild it was merely because they were regarded as not having completedtheir technical education. Not every one of them eventually attainedto the mastery of the craft. Not every Freshman for that matter getshis degree. But the assumption was that the apprentice would in timebecome a journeyman, and the journeyman in time a master. After allthe only thing which really counted for much in medieval industry washandicraft skill. Capital was hardly necessary. The tools of the tradewere few and cheap, power a matter of vigorous arms and legs, the shopa workman's bench in the front parlor and a sign above the street door.Given the technique, the equipment was easily found. And once an artisan was admitted to the guild the guild saw to it that he got his fair shareof the local business. Equality of opportunity was one of the fundamental principles of its organization, and in the days when the market waslimited by the town walls, when outside competition was rigorouslyexcluded, when fashion was not the inconstant lady which she has sincebecome, and when town populations just about held their own againstplague, pestilence, and famine, equality of opportunity was not so hardPOLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH WORKINGMAN 67to manage. The consequence was that the members of the craft stoodupon almost an Qqual footing. Making allowances for individual variations in manual dexterity they all did much the same thing in much thesame way. They purchased their raw material in the town market, manipulated it with the assistance of a few apprentices and journeymen intheir little workshops, and sold the product over their counters. Theywere at once buyers and salesmen, shopkeepers and artisans, employersand workmen, owners and operatives. Since the prices at which theybought and the prices at which they sold, the wages they paid, the hoursthey worked, and even the quantity and the quality of their finished products were all strictly regulated by guild ordinance, there was little playfor competition and small chance for any craftsman to forge far ahead ofhis fellows. Very likely the system discouraged individual enterprise,but it made for equality and probably came as near to achieving a reallydemocratic regime in industry as any system has ever come.When such organizations began to interest themselves in local politics it was usually with a view to winning the municipal franchise for theirown members. When they succeeded, and they generally did succeed,the master craftsman became the controlling element in the town government. No doubt he frequently abused his power in that narrow classspirit which has too often characterized the workingman in politics. Buthis very abuse of it proves how substantial his power was. Indeed itmay be doubted whether he has ever since played so important a partin local government as he played in the early Middle Ages. When itis recalled that a large proportion of the members of the medievalHouse of Commons were delegates from the English towns it mayeven be asserted that his influence was not inconsiderable in nationalaffairs.Had England stood still where she was in the early Middle Ages, hadthe English towns preserved their splendid isolation, had roads not beenbuilt and commerce developed, had America and the Cape route to theFar East never been discovered, had the Renaissance failed to awakenmen's minds and arouse their temporal ambitions, then the medievalcraft guild might have survived unchanged to our own day, and many ofthe evils incidental to what we call industrial progress might have beenavoided. But England moved before these powerful impulses along withall the rest of the Western world and the medieval craft guild moved withher. We need not call it progress, but we must certainly call it change.So far as the craftsman was concerned what affected him most were theincreased facilities for trade. It enlarged his opportunities, opened to68 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDhim a market for his commodities far beyond the limits of his town walls.This was a market which he could not control as he had controlled thetown market, but one in which he was eager to compete.. For such competition he found the guild organization rather a hindrance than a help.It hampered his action, restricted the free play of his individual enterprise and business acumen, limited his rate of progress to the pace ofthe slowest and stupidest of his confreres. Originally a fortress, it ultimately became a prison. And the consequence was that guild practiceshad to be modified and guild restrictions ignored.For one thing the increasing complexities of the larger trade necessitated the distribution of the different parts of a business operation. Itwas no longer possible for the same craftsman to be at once a buyer, amanufacturer, and a merchant. Some, the more alert, became entrepreneurs, others, the less alert, remained at the bench to produce whatanother man would sell. The latter in fact became subservient to theformer. In such wise from the democratic bosom of the craft guild differences and distinctions were born. While some of the abler mastersascended to the position of trading employers, others descended to aposition hardly to be distinguished from that of wage-earners.Furthermore, in proportion as the employer's interest in trade developed his interest in production as a guild monopoly diminished. He ceasedto care much what particular group of craftsmen made his wares so longas they were made cheaply. Presently he discovered that there wereworkers outside the guild ranks altogether, country workers in fact, whocould produce more cheaply. He began to draw upon them for his merchandise. And so he was instrumental in building up outside the townwalls a competing source of supply. The guilds fought hard to retaintheir monopoly but in the long run had to confess defeat. Indeed manyof their poorer members and many of their apprentices and journeymenwent over to the enemy and moved to the country in order to takeadvantage of the freer conditions there. And the town authorities,alarmed at this wholesale exodus, took steps to prevent it by conniving at the breach of those very guild regulations which in an earliertime they had been at such pains to enforce. The outcome was thatin the towns as in the country districts a large industrial class developedwho were not only not guildsmen but who ignored the guild law. It istrue that the guilds survived. Some of them indeed survive to thepresent day. But by the end of the seventeenth century Englishindustry had in large measure escaped their confines and they hadceased to have more than a social significance.POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH WORKINGMAN 69Time does not serve to trace all the steps in the transformation of thecraft guilds, but long before the factory had displaced the older industrial arrangements many of the characteristics of our modern industrialsystem had developed. The craft guild had become an associationof employers, a permanent wage-earning class had emerged, and the oldsolidarity of medieval industry had made way for conflicts over wages,hours, and conditions of work which differed only in degree from those ofour own day.From the point of view of the workingman in politics the significanceof all these changes lies in the fact that his political influence in the Middle Ages has been exerted through the medium of his craft guild. Itwas as a guildsman that he had come to dominate the town governmentand through the town government had been able to make his will felt inthe deliberations of the national House of Commons. Exclusion fromthe guild meant, therefore, exclusion from any further share either in localor in national politics. The political power which the early guildsmenhad won for the whole body of industrial workers became the monopolyof the small group which came to monopolize the craft organization.Town governments were converted into narrow class oligarchies and thevoice of the towns in parliament beca,me the voice of the merchantemployers. The average industrial worker was reduced to a politicalnonentity. He lost every legitimate means of political expression. Theonly kind of political action left to him was rebellion. We should expectto discover that when conditions got too bad he did rebel; yet it wouldbe hard to point to any considerable uprising in the whole history of England before the Industrial Revolution which drew its strength from industrial discontent. There were now and then local strikes in particulartrades, there were apprentice riots against foreign workmen and therewere probably industrial elements present in such agrarian disturbancesas the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 and the anti-inclosure tumults of thesixteenth century, but broadly speaking the English workingman of thosetimes seems to have accepted his fate without violent remonstrance.During the civil wars of the seventeenth century, when much which washidden in normal times was made manifest, he did for a moment manageto voice his discontent. Then we hear the downtrodden London weaversexpounding the social compact to their betters and the London iron founders invoking the "laws of God, of Nature, and of Nations" in supportof their just rights. Then the Levellers, led by a quondam Londonapprentice, denounced alike the king and the Commons and presented aprogram of democratic reform which would have raised the industrial7° THE UNIVERSITY RECORDworker at once to political equality with his task masters. But it all servedto no purpose, at least to no immediate purpose so far as the seventeenth-century workingman was concerned. Two centuries later radical laboragitators were to draw inspiration from the pamphlets of the Levellers,and Chartists were to borrow some of their formulas. Immediately thedemocratic panaceas of the civil-war period left the industrial workerwhere it found him — the prey to his masters, a supernumerary in thebody politic.After all, if he did not lack the spirit, he lacked the strength to asserthis rights. It must not be forgotten that he constituted a small minorityof the population of seventeenth-century or even of eighteenth-centuryEngland. Notwithstanding remarkable industrial development underthe Tudors, the Stuarts, and the early Hanoverians, England was still, atthe beginning of the last century, unmistakably an agricultural community. The average Englishman was still a tiller of the soil and thoughindustrial workers were far more numerous than they had been they wererelatively few in numbers, and that few scattered and unorganized. Thegrowth of country industry was in itself a disintegrating force, for itinvolved the destruction of that compact, urban solidarity which had beenone of the chief characteristics of medieval industry and one of its chiefpolitical assets. It is true that the workingman after his exclusion fromthe guild formed associations for his own protection which were the forerunners of the modern trade union. Had these succeeded in combiningtheir forces as they did in Germany in the Gesellen-verbande or in Francein the confreries they might perhaps have asserted themselves to someeffect. As it was they were scarcely strong enough to hold their own inthe face of guild opposition and could rarely accomplish so much as asuccessful local strike. Of political action they never dreamed.If then we consider as a whole the political history of the working-man from the days when he first began to organize into craft guilds downto the days of the first factories we are forced to the conclusion that thelast state of that man was worse than the first, that he did not progress,he went backward, that his political fortunes did not improve, they deteriorated. Possibly this was inevitable. We may if we like regard it asthe run backward preliminary to the long leap forward. Anyway thefact is undeniable. We need not attempt to assign the blame, thoughit must appear that by and large the man who became the exploitingemployer emerged from the same class as the man who became the downtrodden wage-earner. The earlier course of English industrial historyon the whole supports the contention that the workingman is no morePOLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH WORKINGMAN 71immune from the temptations of industrial prosperity than any otherson of Adam.About the middle of the eighteenth century there began in Englandthat remarkable change fn industrial technique which produced whatwe usually call the Industrial Revolution. Its general characteristics aresufficiently familiar. From the point of view of the workingman perhaps its most significant feature was the substitution of steam power formuscle power as the motive force in industry; for it was that substitutionwhich made possible the introduction of labor-saving machinery andchanged the whole relation of the worker to his work. For one thing ittended to reduce the demand for his labor. One man with a machinecould do what ten men had done before. For another it opened the doorto new sources of labor supply. Women and even children could beutilized in the new processes to a degree never before dreamed of. To aconsiderable extent this increased labor supply was absorbed by the enormous expansion of industry occasioned by the Napoleonic Wars on theContinent. But even so there were more workers than there was work.This gave the employer the whip hand in the situation. He was ableto exact long hours for low wages and so to reduce the earning capacityof the workingman to the level of avbare sustenance. Indeed, thanksto the public provision for the relief of the poor, he went even farther thanthat. After the so-called Speenhamland Act of 1785 the English localauthorities practically guaranteed a certain minimum income to theworkingman, based upon the size of his family and the price of corn. Ifhe did not receive this minimum from his labors the balance was madeup out of public funds. The employers often took advantage of this situation to pay their workers something less than a living wage and chargedthe deficit to the community at large. So extensive was this practicethat it was estimated early in the nineteenth century that one-seventh ofthe population were in receipt of poor relief. This meant that the standard of living of the industrial worker was reduced to the lowest pointcompatible with keeping body and soul together. \ He was indeed hideously overworked, underfed, underclothed, and undersheltered. At thesame time improper labor in the factory and in the mine was stuntingthe growth of his children and weakening the fecundity of his wife. Thevery circumstances which made his position intolerable robbed him ofhis strength to combat them. ~From another point of view also the introduction of new machineryplaced the workingman more completely than ever at the mercy of hisemployer. Under the old system the important factor in industry had72 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDbeen handicraft skill. The tools of trade had been simple and cheap,not inaccessible to the thrifty worker. Under the new system they werenot only elaborate and expensive but they could not be run without theapplication of power which was more expensive still. No. workingmancould dream of furnishing himself with such equipment, nor could he onthe other hand dream of competing against it with his old equipment.He had to work at another man's machine or he might as well not workat all. Of course if he did not work the machine could not run. Butthat alternative was not in fact open to him. He had no accumulatedresources upon which to subsist without working. The idleness of themachine might mean financial distress for the employer. For the workerit meant nothing less than starvation.Yet from still another point of view the Industrial Revolution contributed mightily to the strength of the workingman and in the long runprovided the means of his salvation. In the first place it greatly increasedhis numbers. If the initial effect of the introduction of labor-savingmachinery was to reduce the number of available jobs, its ultimate effectby diminishing the costs of production was so greatly to increase thedemand for manufactured commodities that English industrial activityexpanded at a truly phenomenal rate. Probably the demand for industrial workers lagged behind the supply. Certainly the workingman gotlittle of the profits from this enormous increase of business. But in anycase the rapid development of industry drew to the great industrial centers a steady stream of immigrants which had the effect, in the course ofof the century, of converting smiling country England into the greatestindustrial community on earth. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the industrial workers constituted a small and scattered minorityof England's population. At the beginning of the twentieth centurythey constituted a large and a well-concentrated majority.Probably the Industrial Revolution contributed as much to thestrength of the workingman by concentrating his numbers as it did byincreasing them. There was a great deal more to it than the introduction of the factory system, but certainly the development of the factorywas one of its conspicuous features. The old industry had been in allits various changes a domestic industry. With a few interesting exceptions the workingman's home had been his workshop whether he workedfor himself or for someone else. This arrangement had had its disadvantages even in the days when machines were driven by hand or footpower. The introduction of steam power made it impossible, for the onlyway in which steam power could be used economically was by employingPOLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH WORKINGMAN 73one steam engine to drive a number of machines. That meant thatmachinery instead of being scattered over the countryside in peasants'cottages had to be arranged with reference to one common drive-shaft,in fact concentrated under one roof. Of necessity the concentration ofthe industrial workers followed. So we got the factory and around thefactory the factory town. It was an ugly place, a dirty place, and anextremely unhealthy place. To the country immigrant it meant theloss of clean country air, of green fields and hedgerows, of primroses onspring roadsides and skylarks in midsummer skies, and all these weregrievous losses indeed. But it offered something pretty precious inexchange. It offered, in fact, human society. For the country life, notwithstanding all its charms, was a lonely and an isolated life, while thecity life, for all its grime and misery, was teeming with social opportunity.The city brought men together who had never been together before. Itprovided contact between mind and mind. It made good schools possible; it made cheap newspapers possible; it made evening conferenceson front doorsteps possible. Most important of all, it made industrialand political organization possible. And the discipline of the factoryitself, harsh though it was, contributed to the same end. Men longaccustomed to work by themselves learned perforce how to work together.They discovered the value and the strength of co-operative effort. Theydeveloped esprit de corps. From this point of view the Industrial Revolution was a great constructive force both in society and in politics.By drawing great numbers of men together it created out of countlessscattered individuals compact communities, united by their work, unitedby the proximity of their living, united in their scanty pleasures,united above all in their common miseries. Perhaps these results couldhave been achieved by other less painful methods. But it is doubtfulwhether they could have been achieved anything like so rapidly. Onthat account it may well be questioned whether the Industrial Revolution did the workingman as much harm as it did him good, or to statethe matter more broadly, whether these seething cauldrons of social corruption and social energy which we call great industrial centers havenot, in the general reckoning of human progress, been worth all that theyhave cost.This much the Industrial Revolution assuredly did for the Englishworkingman: it defined in unmistakable terms his grievances and itorganized his strength to redress them. The grievances were the familiarones — long hours and short wages. The organization at first naturallyfollowed the lines laid down by the miserable wage-earners under the old74 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDregime — combinations of workers by trades. But progress was slow inorganization because, when these feeble trade unions appealed to thegovernment to redress their grievances they spoke to deaf ears, when theyresorted to the alternative of the strike they broke the law. They didworse than break the law; they provoked the enactment of a new and morestringent law. In 1799 the employers were able to secure the passageof an act in Parliament forbidding the workingman to combine for higherwages or shorter hours, forbidding him to attend any meeting designed forthose purposes, forbidding him even to converse about such matters withhis fellows. And that law remained on the statute books for twenty-fiveyears. During that period though it did not altogether destroy the tradeunions it effectually* prevented their use as an instrument for the redressof industrial grievances. Indirectly it had a great deal to do with forcingthe workingman to interest himself in politics, because it made clear tohim that so long as political power remained a monopoly of the employing class the whole force of the law would be ranged upon the side of hisexploiters.It may seem surprising that up to this time no mention has been madeof the general progress of political reform in England. That there wasprogress is undoubted, progress of the greatest importance to the workingman as well as to every other Englishman. But that the workingmanas such contributed to it or played any very conscious part in it is morethan doubtful. In the great seventeenth-century struggle between thecrown and Parliament he was at most a helpless spectator with small prospect of immediate gain whichever side won. The Revolution of 1688was accomplished without reference to him and, except in so far as hisreligious life was concerned, without direct relation to him. The riseof the cabinet in the eighteenth century took place in the clouds abovehis head. All these momentous changes were indispensable preliminaries to the democratization of the English government in the nineteenthcentury. They formed part of the precious political inheritance of theEnglish workingman, but they came in the days before he entered thepolitical scene.There was, however, another movement for political reform in England which developed contemporaneously with the Industrial Revolutionin which the workingman did play a part. This movement received itsimpulse in part from America and in part from the writings of the Frenchpolitical philosophers. It proceeded from the governing classes themselves, was not at all radical in its purposes, and it approached the vener-POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH WORKINGMAN 75able edifice of the English constitution with a reverence akin to idolatry.But it did admit the possibility of improvement and even advocated moderate changes in the direction of enlarging the representative characterof the House of Commons.With the outbreak of the French Revolution this reforming spiritwas quickened and to some extent it was changed. It became rathermore doctrinaire in character and lost something of its respect for prescriptive right. But except in a few instances it never drifted far fromits ancient moorings. During the early days of the Revolution it expresseditself in the organization of reform societies designed to agitate forsuch moderate changes in the English constitution as would bring it intocloser accord with the principles enunciated in the American Declaration of Independence and the French Bill of Rights. Most of these societies were middle- and upper-class affairs recruited from among men who.were already voters. But there was one of another order. Its founderwas Thomas Hardy, a master-shoemaker who kept a shop in Piccadilly.Hardy's first notion was to form a society of the unrepresented masses.Later he enlarged his plan so as to exclude no one who was not physicallyor morally unfit. But by fixing the membership fees at a penny a weekhe left the door open for the workingmen, and workingmen came in inlarge numbers. This so-called London Corresponding Society was notthe only one of its kind. There was another founded in Sheffield in 179 1by a few mechanics, which numbered at one time 2,400 members. Andthere were at least twenty or thirty others. Most of what is known aboutthese popular organizations has been gathered from the testimony of theirenemies. But it is clear enough that they set themselves resolutelyagainst violent methods. Though they advocated an extension of thefranchise to the working classes and a redistribution of parliamentarydistricts in accordance with the distribution of population, they proposedno more than could be secured by peaceful and constitutional courses.The only revolution which they desired was, in Wellington's famousphrase, "revolution by due process of law."From the point of view of the political progress of the workingmanthe interesting thing about these popular societies is that they representpractically the first organized attempt by the modern workingman tosecure a place for himself in the English body politic. How widespreadthe movement was it is difficult to- say. Hardy at one time estimatedthe total membership of the London Corresponding Society at 20,000,but it is doubtful if it ever numbered half that many. Of the other popular societies scattered throughout England not even the wildest guess76 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDat their numbers is possible. This much, however, may be said on theauthority of Francis Place, who probably knew more about the matterthan anyone else, "that vast numbers of the thinking part of the working people joined the London Corresponding Society as they did otherreforming Societies in various parts of England."There is very little evidence to show any connection between theeconomic grievances of industrial workers and their political activityat this time, and none at all to connect their political clubs with theirtrade unions. No doubt they entertained hopes that political reformwould improve their lot. Who does not? But the impulses whichdirectly provoked their interest in these matters appear to have been inthe main the same as those which prompted their superiors. There isno appreciable difference between the program of a democratic club likethe London Corresponding Society and that of an aristocratic club likethe Friends of the People. Both alike were stirred less by considerationsof necessity or of expediency than by principles of abstract justice. Bothindorsed with equal enthusiasm the French Rights of Man. Both forthe time forsook their stations in the social and economic order and stoodtogether on the broad generous platform of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. It is to the great glory of them both that this was so, and one ofthe most hopeful signs of the times.Unfortunately, however, this reform movement was destined to avery short life. At first the French Revolution had been acclaimed with enthusiasm in England. Many Englishmen regarded itas an attempt on the part of the French people to remodel their absolute government upon the English pattern. And the course of affairsin France up to June of 1791 on the whole justified that view of the matter. After that the increasing radicalism of the French movement alienated English sympathy. And in something like the way in which Englishsentiment toward Russia during the late war changed from enthusiasticindorsement of the overthrow of Czardom to universal condemnation ofthe Bolshevik regime, so it changed in the 1790's toward France as theprogram of Mirabeau and Lafayette gave place to the program of Dantonand Robespierre. Already in 1790 Edmund Burke had thundered forthhis* famous defense of prescriptive right against the untested innovationsfrom across the channel, and when war broke out against France in 1793the great mass of English people, irrespective of class, followed Burke'slead. Political reform became at once associated in the popular mindwith French propaganda and received in consequence short shrift. Thegovernment began a systematic persecution of the reform clubs; butPOLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH WORKINGMAN 77though government agents were active, they were no more active thanpopular fury. One has only to recall the raging mobs which destroyedpriestly's laboratory in Birmingham and laid siege to Dr. Parr's library atNorwich to appreciate how completely the government's policy reflectedthe sentiments of the vulgar multitude. The cause of parliamentaryreform was in fact put hors de combat for a whole generation to come. Ofthe reformers some were let off with a warning, many were tried for treason, one or two were executed, a few sent to drag out the weary residueof their days at Botany Bay. By and large the working-class leaderssuffered most severely. Hardy himself escaped the law, but he was notable to elude the mob. They attacked his house, broke his windows,and literally frightened his wife to death. His business was ruined andhe spent the declining years of his life in abject poverty. As for the work-ingmen's reform clubs they all came to an inglorious end during the lastfive years of the century. As the initial effort of the English working-man in modern politics they deserve more attention than they havereceived, but so far as any practical results were concerned they accomplished nothing.It is easy to abuse the governing classes for their intolerance, duringthese times, toward the feeble efforts of the workingman after betterthings political and industrial, but it must be remembered that they weretimes of war, that England was fighting for her very life against thegreatest military genius that the world has perhaps ever seen, and thatany movement calculated to distract her efforts from that grim businesssavored strongly of disloyalty if not of treason. Perhaps the employing classes exploited this war spirit for their own purposes, but we shouldnot make the mistake of assuming that they called it forth. We knowby experience how tense and intolerant the popular mind becomes underthe strain of war and how apt it is to call bad names and to do cruelthings. We have had our modern equivalents for the opprobriousterms which were hurled at our democratic forefathers who dared tospeak of liberty in the heat of the fight. For that reason we can perhaps understand and to some extent even sympathize with those repressive measures which the English government in Napoleon's daythought it necessary to take.The first fifty years of the nineteenth century were very significantyears in the political progress of the workingman not so much for whathe actually gained in political power — he gained indeed almost nothing— but for what he learned about it. They educated him for citizenship.So many factors contributed to his education that if I were to consider78 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDthem all, or even hint at them all, I should be led too far afield. CertainlyI should have to trace the development of popular education and the riseof the cheap newspaper press. But in the time at my command I shallhave to neglect these broader cultural aspects of the question and confine myself to matters of more immediate significance.The economic factor can certainly not be neglected. Probably itwas the most potent of all forces which drove the modern workingmaninto politics. He was never much of a political thinker, and neither political nor social theories appealed to him particularly strongly upon theirabstract merits. He was merely a poor man trying to provide bread andbutter for himself and his family in a hard world. When he was hungryand cold he was ready to support all kinds of plans for change. Whenhe was not he was usually content to leave the mysteries of governmentto his betters. Consequently his progress in politics was spasmodic.It made fair headway in periods of industrial depression ; it came virtuallyto a standstill in periods of industrial prosperity. But the stages of hispolitical progress by no means corresponded with the stages in the progress of political reform. By a strange perverseness, the times when theworkingman put forth his greatest efforts to effect a change were, generally speaking, the times in which the least change was made. The rulingclasses would not be coerced, and the arguments in favor of enfranchising the workingman lost force in proportion as he showed himself to bea violent and a turbulent fellow.During the Napoleonic Wars the English workingman was on thewhole better off than he had been before them or than he was to be afterthem. Notwithstanding Napoleon's attempts to strangle the Englishshopkeeper English industry gained more than it lost by war conditions.Prices were high, the demand for commodities generally exceeded thesupply, and though wages did not increase in proportion to prices therewas plenty of work to be had. It cannot be said that the English workingman was contented during this period, but at least his discontent wasnot so great but that it could be easily held in check by the stern, repressive policy of the government.With the ending of the wars in 1815 there came a very decided changefor the worse. For one thing the crops were bad, for another the English factories anticipating an enormous demand from the Continent produced far more than impoverished Europe, eager as it was to buy, couldabsorb. English warehouses were in consequence glutted with goods.English factories shut down and the English workingman found himselfout of a job just at the time when bad harvests and bad corn laws werePOLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH WORKINGMAN 79conspiring together to make the cost of living higher than ever. Outof this condition of affairs was born active industrial discontent, whichin the course of the next two or three years expressed itself in all sorts ofviolent forms. Much of it was mere hunger crying for bread; muchof it the blind striking out of desperate men convinced that their condition could be no worse and might be better. In general it lacked organization and it lacked leadership. On that account it submitted readilyto the guidance of popular demagogues like Hunt the orator and Cobbettthe journalist. Neither Hunt nor Cobbett were themselves of the industrial working class. Both of them were in fact country bred and bothbegan their political careers as staunch supporters of the establishedorder. Both also were converted to the cause of parliamentary reformrather through contact with upper-class radicals than through more popular channels. They addressed their appeal not to the workingmen inparticular but to the unrepresented classes in general, and the politicalagitation which developed under their stimulus cannot be accuratelydesignated a workingman's movement, though it recruited most of itsstrength in the great industrial centers of the north. Of the two, Huntwas the more striking and more popular figure though Cobbett was themore influential. In their different ways they furnished the two channelsthrough which ideas of parliamentary reform found their way from thestudies of the theorists to the minds of the crowd, the channel of thepublic meeting and the channel of the cheap newspaper press. Theirprogram was modest enough. It involved little more than a moderateextension of the franchise. , They were able to accomplish such spectacular performances in its support as the assembly of 80,000 in St. Peter'sFields at Manchester. But they did not succeed even by such tremendous demonstrations in converting the governing classes. The officialanswer to the crowd in St. Peter's Fields was the Peterloo Massacre, andthe official counter-check to public meetings and cheap newspapers wasto prohibit the one and suppress the other. For these and for other reasons, among which improving business was not the least, the agitationdied down after 1820. Immediately it led nowhere, but it was not without its value in the political progress of the workingman; It served muchmore effectually than the revolutionary societies to awaken his politicalconsciousness and it gave him for all times to come his cheap newspaper.Perhaps also it did serve indirectly to quicken an interest in politicalreform among the governing classes. It is, however, probable that thepeace and prosperity which followed 1820 were a great deal more effectivein promoting reform than were the disturbances and distress of the years8o THE UNIVERSITY RECORDwhich preceded. Anyway, during the 1820's the cause of parliamentary reform gained steadily in strength until it won for itself a place inthe program of the Whig opposition. Exactly what the Whigs proposedto do about it was not made clear. There were radicals in the party likeSir Francis Burdett who favored the complete enfranchisement of theworkingman. The leaders were not prepared to go that far. They wereindeed rather noncommittal, but the man in the street got the impressionthat when they came into power they would amend matters.When the Whigs came into power in 1830 they brought forward abill to extend the franchise and to rearrange the electoral districts. Asa concession to the workingman this Great Reform Bill was a completedisappointment. It gave him, in short, nothing, but it admitted at leastthe necessity for change and it made the way easier for further changeslater on. On these grounds he was led to support it. Of course he coulddo no more than exert pressure from the outside. But some pressurehe did exert. How much it is impossible to say. In Birmingham andin London clever middle-class leaders like Atwood and Place were ableto organize large political unions in support of the bill, and these unionsthough they were not workingmen's associations included a large working-class element. There was also a good deal of workingman striking andand workingman machine-smashing, though probably not much of thiswas consciously designed to coerce the reluctant king and the even morereluctant House of Lords. This much is clear, that the Great ReformBill was emphatically not a concession to the demands of the working-man notwithstanding that he did exert some of his strength outside ofParliament to assist in its final passage.By long-concerted shouting for "the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothingbut the Bill" the English workingman had persuaded himself that withthe passage of the Bill all his woes would end. He so^n discovered thatall his efforts had merely served to advance the political fortunes of theshopkeepers. His enthusiasm gave place to disillusionment, and thisdisillusionment was simply embittered when the first reformed Parliament met and proceeded to amend the old Poor Law in such a fashionas to rob him of the casual relief he had heretofore received from the statein hard times. No doubt there was much to be said for this measure, butto the poor man who had looked hopefully forward to redemption at thehands of the new Parliament it seemed like a piece of cold and calculatedtyranny. On the whole he felt that he had lost rather than gained by intermeddling in middle-class politics. The immediate effect was to disgusthim with parliamentary reform and to impel him strongly toward socialism.POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH WORKINGMAN 8 1An undercurrent of socialism runs through the political course of theEnglish workingman from the early 1 820's onward. He has never pinnedhis faith to the nostrums of the Socialists with anything like the fervorwhich the German workingman has, but he has been tempted to try themagain and again, particularly at times when the hope of relief by politicalaction seemed unusually desperate.It would take too long to trace the history of English socialism fromits simple communistic beginnings in the Middle Ages to the positionwhich it had reached when Robert Owen began to preach its gospel inNew Lanark. Its rapid development in the 1820's was largely the product of industrial distress. The general position of the Socialists of thattime was that the existing industrial evils were the inevitable resultof private ownership of the means of production. Some of them weremerely concerned with pointing out that fact. Others were ready withremedies. The extremists like Thomas Hodgkin frankly advocatedclass war. The moderates like John Gray and William Thompson deprecated conflict, and argued strongly for a system based upon mutualaid and co-operation. The solution which Owen himself proposed wasthe establishment of small communities run upon a co-operative basisin which the inhabitants were to work together and to share the resultsof their labor in common. Some of these men were merely closet philosophers, but some of them set out at once to win the workingman to theirway of thinking. Owen, as it is well known, actually established modelcommunities to demonstrate his theories and published a newspaper inLondon to expound them. Hodgkin lectured in workingmen's clubs.And there can be no doubt that even before the Great Reform Bill waspassed their ideas were widespread among the working classes*The medium which served to best purpose in disseminating them wasthe trade union, from which the legal ban had been removed in 1824.During the two years following 1832 the trade unions not only grewrapidly in numbers but they also developed rapidly in organization. Andthey became strongly imbued with socialistic ideas, particularly of theOwenite variety. Unorganized workers organized, allied unions beganto federate. In the early spring of 1834 under Owen's own guidancea Grand Consolidated Union of all the trades was created in London.Owen, still true to his pacifistic purposes, had no notion that this organization should be used to coerce the capitalists. There were others, however, like William Benbow who thought differently and who saw in it aninstrument by which they might violently overthrow the whole bad stateof industrial society. This group preached the gospel of direct action82 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDand the general strike, and tried to draw the Grand Consolidated afterthem. Owen's influence was strong enough to prevent their success,though he never came anywhere near achieving his own purposes. Hisconsolidated union had a short, a quarrelsome, and a thoroughly unproductive life.But the forces which destroyed it were not so much the contentionsat headquarters as the general failure which attended the efforts of localtrade unions to enforce their local demands. There was an enormousamount of local striking in the years 1833 and 1834, provoked generally bythe old grievances, but inspired often by hazy visions of a better industrial order. They were for the most part badly organized and badly ledand notwithstanding the imposing aspect of their national federationthey lacked any real unity of action or of purpose. Their widespread character frightened the employing classes and even frightened the government, but the measures which were taken against them were in excessof the requirements. All that was really needed was a little patiencein order that starvation might work its way. In the end starvation wasthe force majeure which overcame them.As a step in the political progress of the workingman this trade-unionmovement of the early 1830's deserves attention rather for what it failedto do than for what it did. Its political program, if it had any politicalprogram at all, was the overthrow of the existing industrial order. Itsmethod of procedure, so far as there was any method in its madness, wasthe industrial strike. In a rather ill-defined sort of way it representedan early adventure of the English workingman in revolutionary syndicalism. And its failure served very effectually, in England at any rate,to discredit that way to the millennium. Immediately it had a disastrouseffect upon the trade unions. Many were dissolved, and those whichsurvived suffered a large loss of membership. And it developed in themalso a cautious and a canny attitude. Hereafter, for over a generation tocome they abandoned politics altogether, they turned their eyes resolutelyaway from the beatific visions of the socialists and addressed themselvesto the grim business of wringing a decent living out of the world as it was.But outside the narrow limits of the trade-union world hope was notyet dead, though it was chastened. The flower of that hope was theChartist Movement.It is difficult to generalize about Chartism, so many elements wentinto the making of it, but the essential fact about it is that it was a work-ingman's movement, the first great movement to be engineered and controlled by workingmen in modern times. In its more orderly aspectsPOLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH WORKINGMAN 83it did not differ greatly "from the modern English labor movement, thoughof course it was dealing with unfranchised workers and not with voters.Its ultimate purposes were socialistic, though the socialism of its leaderswas of the Owenite not of the Marxian variety. But its immediate purposes were political. The Peoples Charter which embodied its programwas in brief a demand that the workingman should enjoy an equal place inthe body politic with every other class in the community, that he shouldbe able not only to vote but to sit in Parliament. The expectation ofits leaders was that once the workingman was able to exert his strengthat the polls, the social revolution would easily and peaceably be broughtabout by due process of law. But they directed their efforts toward winning the vote.The movement began with a small group of Owenites in London whostill kept the faith and still preached it. William Lovett, a cabinetmaker, and Henry Hetherington, a compositor, were the conspicuousmembers of the group. In 1829 they had organized a small society ofLondon workingmen for the propagation of Owenite ideas. During theagitation for the Reform Bill they stood aloof, and they took very littlepart in the trade-union movement which followed it. Their enthusiasmfor the reorganization of society upon a co-operative basis remained undiminished and they were satisfied that the change could only be effectedby the transfer of industrial control from the capitalists to the workers.They were, however, unalterably opposed to class war, not only becauseit was inconsistent with the principle of co-operation, but also becausethey thought it unnecessary. They had sufficient faith in the validityof their ideas to believe that in the long run they would win the supportof all classes upon their merits. We should perhaps classify Lovett andhis colleagues among the Utopians. But seven years of successive disappointments had taught them this much practical wisdom, that the bestideas in the world could not be realized without organized effort and adefinite plan of procedure. From 1836 onward they began to concernthemselves much less with the proclamation of their purposed and muchmore with the devising of ways and means. They came to perceive thatthe peaceful way to deliverance lay through the ballot box, and, thoughthey always regarded parliamentary reform merely as a means to largersocial ends, they were satisfied that once the working classes could exerttheir numerical strength at the polls the rest would be easy. So theyundertook to prepare a program of political reform and to rally the workingmen in England at large to the support of it. In such wise theChartist Movement of the late 1830's and the 1840's was born.84 THE UNIVERSITY RECORD *It took its name, of course, from the Peoples Charter which Lovettdrafted with Place's assistance and published in 1838. The contentsof this famous document embodied very little that was new. Many ofits demands had been put forward by the Levellers in the seventeenthcentury. They were briefly six — manhood suffrage, vote by ballot, abolition of property qualifications for membership in Parliament, equal electoral districts, and annual parliaments. These demands looked radicalenough in 1838, but the best proof that they did not imply revolution liesin the fact that every one of them except the last has since been realized by the peaceful, constitutional methods which Lovett advocated.Indeed, in the Peoples Charter, Lovett pretty clearly defined the coursewhich parliamentary reform in England was subsequently to follow.In formulating their program Lovett and his coadjutors could drawupon the accumulated wisdom of at least two centuries of effort. Theirmore difficult problem lay in organizing popular support behind it, forprecedent there offered them no guide though it furnished many warnings. The political unions of 1832 had accomplished much but theirstrength had been recruited largely from the middle classes and theireffort had registered merely a middle-class triumph. Lovett 's followerswere determined that they would have no repetition of that performance.At the beginning anyway they were resolved to confine their organization to the working classes. The trade unions offered an alternative, butthe trade unions had already tried and failed and were in no temper fora further effort. The organization upon which Lovett and his friendsfinally hit was an association of workers, the objects of which, as he himself stated them, was "to draw into one bond of unity the intelligent andinfluential working classes in town and country, to seek by every legal meansto place all classes of society in possession of equal political and social rights."Its membership was rigidly restricted to genuine workingmen, thougha few honorary members, like Francis Place, were admitted from themiddle class. It did not discriminate between industrial and agriculturalworkers and it clearly rested upon quite a different foundation from thetrade unions. Most of its subsequent strength was, however, drawnfrom the trades.The organization began with the foundation of a Workingman's Association in London in 1836 which set about at once to encourage theformation of similar associations in the country at large. It issued pamphlets, it published a newspaper, in the spring of 1837 it began to send forthmissionaries. And everywhere its propaganda met with amazing success. Before the end of 1837 over a hundred workingmen's associationsPOLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH WORKINGMAN 85modeled after its pattern and supporting its program had sprung intobeing. But its influence was not confined to orderly little debating societies. In the north its ideas took hold like wildfire not so much becauseof their reasonable appeal as because the north was seething once morewith industrial discontent. The year 1836 marked the beginning ofanother industrial depression in the great northern manufacturing centers which grew more serious in 1837 and 1838. It was attended by itsusual accompaniments, decreasing wages and increasing unemployment.The industrial workers began to grow hungry from lack of food and coldfrom lack of firewood. They became desperate, violent, ready to graspat anything which promised relief . Whatever Chartism was to thoughtful men like Lovett and Hetherington, in the north it was a cry of distress,the shout of men, women, and children drowning in deep waters. Car-lyle called it the bitter discontent grown fierce and wild. Stephens, oneof its owii leaders, declared that it was not a political question but a knif e-and-fork question. There were in fact two distinct elements in theChartist Movement almost from the first, there was the moderate elementwith a well-digested program, a definite organization, and a deliberateplan of action, and there was a vast disorganized incoherent elementshouting for the Charter because for very misery they had to shout forsomething and careless of means so long as deliverance in some formcame quickly.So far as Lovett and the moderates were able to direct its courseChartism remained true to its original program and its original plan ofaction. Its organization reached perhaps its highest perfection in 1840when all the local associations were grouped in county units and a central executive committee was established in London. Its constitutionalcourse of action was the circulation of petitions among its members andthe presentation of these petitions to the House of Commons. All thiswas as it should be and well within the law. The difficulty was that itbuttered no bread, and though Lovett and his moderates might be willing to repeat the process indefinitely the hungry men in the north lostpatience. They became a prey in consequence to hot-headed demagogues like Fergus O'Connor who sneered at Lovett and his "moralphilosophers ' ' and preached the gospel of physical force. How far O'Connor himself favored an actual appeal to arms is difficult to determine.He had a way of denying on Tuesday what he had affirmed on Monday.But at all events the effect of his teaching was, on the one hand, to drivethe moderates out of the movement and on the other to encourage actsof violence which brought down upon Chartism the full force of the law.86 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDIt was the influence of men like O'Connor that provoked the NewportRising in 1839 and accounted for the attempt to organize a. general strike,better known as the Plug Plot, in 1842. Both of these attempts wereridiculous failures. The fact was that though the O'Connorites weregood stump orators, as organizers and leaders of violent revolution theylacked every essential virtue. Yet O'Connor was the commanding figurein the movement from 1842 until almost the end. He was not a workingman, he was not even an Englishman. His qualifications were hisrollicking Irish personality and his exceptional capacity for self-advertisement. As a type of workingman agitator he is not unfamiliareven in these enlightened times. The chief instrument of his control, omitting his glib tongue, was his newspaper, the Northern Star, which he wasable by astute journalism to make the one single organ of the Chartistworld. There is some reason to believe that he was not above promotingagitation as a means of increasing its circulation. Anyway he was perhaps the single figure in the movement who managed to make Chartismpay handsomely.His breach with Lovett and the moderates had the effect of drivingthem toward middle-class radicalism and for a time in 1842 it looked asthough there might be a coalition of the two elements In Joseph Sturge'sComplete Suffrage Movement. But middle-class contempt for working-class leaders and the refusal of Sturge and his associates to indorsethe Charter as it stood prevented. Yet the attempt was of importance,for it indicated the weakening of class antagonism on both sides and foreshadowed the alliance of labor and liberalism which came later.In view of the fact that most of what the Chartists strove for hassince been achieved it is hard to reproach them with failure. Yet failthey did, for the cause which they fought for had not the slightest measure of success until long after they had ceased to fight. The reasonsfor their failure were manifold. The inevitable incapacity of their leaders and the dissensions among them had a great deal to do with it. Theopposition of the middle classes, supported by the whole power of thestate, had a great deal to do with it also. Probably one of the mostimportant factors was the lack of correspondency between their program -and their real purpose. The strength of Chartism lay in its protestagainst social and industrial evils which the famous six points scarcelytouched. It was political in its form but social in its content. On thataccount its development and its decline were really determined by whatCarlyle called the condition-of-England question. Its strength ebbedand flowed with the flow and ebb of industrial prosperity. The forcesPOLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH WORKINGMAN 87which gave it birth were much more the desperate state of the north thanthey were the reasonable principles of Lovett and his friends. It languished during the relatively prosperous years between 1842 and 1845;the temporary depression of 1847 combined with the general unrestwhich prevailed in Europe in 1848 revived it for a season, but it peteredout in the 1850's for lack of food to feed upon. The arguments in favorof the Charter were just as valid in the fifties as they had been in theearly forties but the driving force of misery was lacking, or at any ratewas greatly weakened. Whether it was because the repeal of the CornLaws had cheapened bread, or because factory legislation h&d correctedsome of the worst abuses of the system, or because in the general prosperity there was more work to be had and better wages to be earned, theworkingman was enough better off in the 1850's to lose interest in political panaceas however much they promised. Things appeared to becoming his way in the natural course of events and with bread on thetable and a fire on the hearth he could afford to bide his time.Notwithstanding all of which, he was a wiser man and a better manfor his experience, and if not directly yet ultimately Chartism contributedlargely to his political progress. It was his first great political effortof modern times and it taught him lessons in self-government and self-control which he badly needed to learn and which were to stand him ingood stead later. It revealed him also in rather less lurid colors to thegoverning classes and showed him to be neither so stupid nor so terribleas their untutored imaginations had painted him. And so, although itwas essentially a class movement it helped to break down class barriersand to prepare the way for that mutual respect upon which moderndemocracy must be based.The collapse of Chartism drove the workingman once again awayfrom parliamentary reform and into trade unionism. And his politicalactivity during the next thirty years was in the main exerted through histrade-union organization. Indeed the history of his political progressfrom the 1850's to the present day is by and large the history of the political progress of the English trade unions. This is not altogether so, butit is so nearly so that the development of trade unionism is easily themost important factor to be considered.The trade unions revealed a truly remarkable growth during the twodecades following 1850, a growth not only in numbers but also in thedevelopment of their organization. For one thing they became morebusiness-like. A few bitter experiences revealed to them the fact thatthe ordinary workingman, however honest and however popular he might88 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDbe, did not necessarily make a good administrative officer or a goodfinancial manager. This was a useful lesson in itself, and its educationalvalue was far-reaching. Immediately it resulted in the rise of a newtype of trade-union official who was selected for the purpose by reasonof his superior business capacity and who was paid a salary in order thathe might devote his whole time to the task. This meant that tradeunions got to be better led and better organized, that their funds weremore judiciously managed and their strength more wisely exerted. Foranother thing, the trade unions began to amalgamate. Local unionsof the same trade drew together into national confederations, unionsof allied trades combined. The first great amalgamation of this sortwas that of the engineering trades under the leadership of William Allan.This example was followed by the carpenters under Robert Applegarth,and this in turn by others. By i860 a number of the more importanttrades were united in great national unions with headquarters in Londonand branches in every important industrial center in England.One effect of this national consolidation in the same trade was toenable the national unions of different trades more readily to co-operate.Their leaders in London came into almost daily contact one with theother and a small group of them presently emerged as the guiding spiritsof the whole organized English labor world. Of these William Allan,the engineer, Robert Applegarth, the carpenter, Daniel Guile, of theiron founders, Edmund Coulson, of the bricklayers, and George Ogden,of the shoemakers, were the conspicuous figures. They were all closefriends, all men of high character and exceptional business capacity, allmen of the world, not easily to be distinguished by their dress or theirmanners or their educational equipment from the rank and file of theemployers who confronted them. In themselves as well as in their solidarity they contributed greatly to the strength of the trade-union cause.Workingmen as they were, and in absolute sympathy with their untutored followers, they were yet able to meet and deal with business menand politicians on their own ground and in their own jargon. The daysof the workingman leader with a knotted bandana about his throat, whostood fumbling his cap before his betters, was past.These new leaders were in an admirable position to direct the strengthof the workingman toward political reform and they might have doneso had not the memory of Chartist failures created in the minds of theirconstituents a strong aversion from any further intermeddling in suchniatters. This aversion was strongly reflected in the local trade unions.It was not in fact to any marked degree overcome before the very end ofPOLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH WORKINGMAN 89the last century. The only kind of political activity which the localtrades were disposed to countenance was the kind which sought to securelegislation favorable to their own union interests. They felt strongenough to fight their own battles. All they wanted was a free field andno favor. And this attitude was generally speaking reflected in thepolitical conduct of their leaders. Allan, Applegarth, and the rest weremore interested in securing the passage of laws admitting the trade unionsto legal status and conceding their right to strike than they were in promoting the extension of the franchise or a fair arrangement of electoraldistricts. Indeed the local trades even looked askance at an increase ofgovernment control or of government regulation of industrial affairs.It was not until the i88o's that they were prepared to indorse bills forshortening the hours of labor or providing for unemployment. All suchmatters they felt could better be arranged by free barter, supported bythe boycott and the strike. In fact, both in his political and in his socialcreed the organized workingman of the 1870's was as ardent a supporterof the principles of laissez faire as was the stoutest Corn Leaguer inManchester.The consequence was that organized labor as such played a verysmall part in the promotion of the parliamentary reform bills of 1867and of 1884. We should expect to find the industrial workers in particular very much interested in the agitation for the extension of the franchise in the 1860's since its main purpose was to secure the vote for them.Yet it was not until Gladstone's reform bill of 1866 had been defeatedthat they took any concerted action, and then it proceeded from a nondescript organization which sprang up in opposition to the amalgamatedtrades. And it is not recorded that even this body accomplished anymore than one single demonstration at Chelsea. No doubt workingmengathered in crowds and shouted for reform. They even broke windowsand tore up fence railings. But there have always been a sufficient number of them available to stage performances of that sort for any cause.Almost every crowd that has ever gathered has been mainly a working-man's crowd, but it has not always by any means represented a work-ingman's movement, though it has sometimes been convenient to describeit as such.It may as Well be admitted that the real strength behind every reformbill passed in the nineteenth century was middle-class strength and thesentiments which formulated them middle-class sentiments. They didnot come in response to the demands of the unfranchised workers butin response to a reasonable conviction on the part of those who already9° THE UNIVERSITY RECORDenjoyed political power. They mark important stages in the politicalprogress of the workingman in that they gradually elevated him to aposition in which he could exercise political power. But the gift wasconferred from above, not exacted from below. And it registers ratherthe progress of the middle classes toward democracy than any real progress of the workingman in politics.With the passage of Disraeli's reform bill in 1867 the rank and fileof the workingmen got the vote and the opportunity which they had longdemanded, of exerting their strength at the polls. In the days of theLevellers or of the Chartists this would have appeared a long stridetoward the millennium. But the steps which the workingman of 1867took to realize his new opportunity were feeble and halting to say theleast. Trade-union officials confined their efforts to urging the workersto make sure that their names got on the voting lists. The only attemptat an organized labor party was the creation of a Labour RepresentationLeague in London in 1869, formed mainly for the return of workingmento Parliament. But even that did not get under way until after the firstelection under the new Reform Bill, and until 1874 it did not succeed insecuring the return of a single workingman's candidate to Parliament.This meager result was partly due to the League's lack of resources, butit was mainly due to the failure of the workingman to support his ownfellows. From the very first he showed his preference for candidates ofsocial position. His class feeling, which was strong enough in his industrial organization, he did not carry over into political action. Othersentiments, far older sentiments, prevailed with him there— deference forthose above him in social station, old traditions of a ruling class, distrustof his own capacity to sustain the political and particularly the socialresponsibilities of public office. We may say if we like that he had notyet thrown off the habits of mind formed under a feudal regime. Atany rate he was, in 1868, no more a democrat than those above him. Nolabor party was formed in that year because no labor party could beformed. Labor itself would not suffer it. And the immediate effect ofgiving the workingman the vote was simply to increase the constituentsof the two old parties. The workingman does not seem to have discriminated much between the two. The Conservatives won almost asmuch support from him in the three elections following 1867 as did theLiberals.Yet it is undoubted that his influence in politics was very strikinglyincreased by his securing of the franchise. Though no labor party cameat once into existence a labor vote did. It would have been more effectivePOLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH WORKINGMAN 91if it had been better organized, but it was there, old party leaders realizedthat it was ther& and began to adjust their program accordingly.They began also to listen with more deference to the demands oftrade-union officials. In 1868 an annual congress of all the trade unionswas established, and it met thereafter regularly in London and regularlyappointed a parliamentary committee to look after the interests of thetrade unions in Parliament. Allan, Applegarth, and their group dominated this committee and through it they were able to exercise a greatdeal of influence on legislation. It does not appear that they made anysystematic attempt to align the labor vote in support of their parliamentary program. Nevertheless a connection existed. There is, forexample, good reason to believe that the Liberals were defeated in theelections of 1874 because of Gladstone's refusal to repeal the law againststrikes.It has been remarked more than once that trade unionism in England thrives in prosperous times and declines in periods of industrialdepression. We may then ascribe the remarkable growth of trade unionsbetween 1867 and 1875 in large part to the extraordinarily favorablebusiness conditions which prevailed during those years. In 1874 thisprosperity suddenly came to an end and was followed by a long period ofhard times. The effect upon the workingman was as usual very distressing. Wages went down, hours went up, unemployment increasedby leaps and bounds. The trade unions, which were almost all of themmutual-benefit societies, were hard put to it to provide support for theiridle members. It was futile to organize strikes when employers were onlytoo glad of an excuse to close-down their factories for a season. In factthe trade unions were helpless to cope with a situation which was rapidlybecoming desperate. The politicians were equally helpless. Liberalleaders were prepared to support a further extension of the franchise,but it was pretty clear that the franchise would not feed the hungry andclothe the naked. Yet the politicians had nothing further to suggest.But the Socialists had. Once more they appeared upon the scene,and this time they brought a quiver full of arguments borrowed from thearmory of Karl Marx himself. Their new gospel was not in essentialsso very different from their old one. Like Owen they insisted that therecurrent evils of industrial society sprang from the defects of the industrial organization. Like Owen they denounced capitalistic control ofthe means of production and demanded for the workingman the wholeproduce of his labor. But in place of Owen's co-operative communitiesthey proposed to substitute national control. Most of them agreed with92 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDLovett that the means of salvation lay through the ballot box and theyintended to accomplish social revolution by organizing the full votingstrength of the workingman in its support.Their program demanded immediate political action and it ran counter to the accepted policy of the Amalgamated Trades. Neverthelessthey found stout champions in the trade-union ranks, particularly inJohn Burns and Tom Mann. For something like ^.ve years these ardentyoung socialists contended in the Trade Union Congresses with the oldchampions of laissez faire trade-unionism. And in 1890, thanks partlyto the great victory of Burns and Mann in the dock-workers' strike of1889, they finally won the day. The effect of their success was far-reaching. It involved the definite abandonment by the trade unions oftheir old policy of letting general politics alone and committed them toa program of social legislation for which they could hardly expect support from either of the existing parties.It was from this new unionism of the early 1890's that the EnglishLabour Party was born in 1899. Its birthday marks the definite re-^ntryof the trade union into the field of general politics. It marks even morethan that. It marks the beginning of an effort on the part of the tradeunions to dominate the politics of the workingman. For the EnglishLabour Party as it was originally constituted limited its membership totrade unionists and to members of a few relatively small affiliated organizations. Naturally it courted the support of the whole workingmanvote, but it made no place for unorganized labor in its councils. It wasin fact a party run in the interests of labor by a trade-union committee.It first began to play an active part in politics in the election of 1905.Before that time workingmen had been elected to Parliament. Indeeda scattered few had won seats in every election since 1874, but their success represented the result of local efforts and they stood on no commonplatform, though they did attempt to follow a concerted plan of actionafter they took their seats. Usually they went by the name of the Liberal-Labour group. In the election of 1906 the new labor party secured thereturn of twenty-nine members. These, combined with the Liberal-Labour group, gave the workingman a fighting strength of some fiftyin the House of Commons. In the election of 1910 they lost a few seats,but by reason of the more evenly balanced strength of the two greatparties their parliamentary position was really stronger.From 1906 until the outbreak of the war they worked in close harmony with the Liberals and their influence upon liberal policy was veryconsiderable. If one considers the social legislation passed in the HousePOLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH WORKINGMAN 93of Commons since 1905 the strength of that influence is apparent. Old-age pensions, national insurance against sickness, disability, and unemployment, child welfare acts, sweatshop regulations, minimum wage laws,and national employment bureaus — all of these demanded by Labor havebeen conceded by Liberalism. In fact the whole trend of social legislation during the last two decades in England has to a considerable extentjustified the assertion that Labor was leading Liberalism by the nose.From the point of view of that democratic ideal which admits nodistinction between class and class the fundamental defect of the EnglishLabour Party as it existed before the war was that it did create such adistinction and sought to emphasize it. Practically the only group outside the organized labor group which it admitted to its councils was theSocialists. Though it did not indorse class war it provided the meansfor it and offered special privileges to the one group in the middle-classranks which preached it. It had another grave defect in that it didnot completely represent the very workingmen which it aimed to servebecause it was fundamentally a federation of trade unionists and not afree-for-all workingman's party. The Great War just passed revealedto its leaders both of these defects and set them at work to correct them.In 191 7 the Labour Party was completely reorganized. Instead of atrade-union affair it was converted into a national democratic party,which, though recognizing the unions, based its organization upon localparty associations. Membership in these associations was thrown opento every hand worker and brain worker who accepted the constitutionof the party and subscribed to its program. In fact the Labour Partyvirtually placed itself upon the same footing as the other two great parties in the kingdom. It not only threw off the shackles of the tradeunions but it also definitely rejected the Marxian principle of politicalorganization along class lines. For though it proposed to limit its membership to hand workers and brain workers there were few in Englandwho would fail technically to qualify under one or the other of thesecategories. At the same time it stated its program rather more explicitlythan it ever had before, but with no essential change. Arthur Henderson stands today on much the same platform that William Lovett stood80 years ago — A reorganization of industrial society along socialistic linesto be accomplished gradually and by due process of law. Lovett wouldperhaps have deleted the work gradually, but labor leaders were morehopeful of an immediate millennium in his day than they are now.I have paid a great deal of attention to the evolution of the LabourParty because it is the one political movement of present-day England94 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDwhich has been beyond question a workingman movement. But it neverhas commanded anything like the full strength of the workingman inpolitics. The best showing it ever made in a parliamentary election wasin December, 191 8, when it returned sixty-one members to the House ofCommons out of a total of over six hundred. This means that the majority of the workingmen never have supported the Labour Party platformat the polls. Most of them are still to be found in the ranks of the Liberals and of the Conservatives. And the influence of the workingmanin modern English politics has been much more potent in modifying theprogram of the old middle-class parties than it has been in promotingthe program of its own. The practical consideration behind the reorganization of the Labour Party in 191 7 was probably the realization byits leaders after nearly forty years of effort that class politics, successfulas they were in continental Europe, could not be made to go in England.The Labour Party as a workingman's party was a failure, and it was onthe whole well for English democracy that it was so. For democracymust build its hopes not on class distinction but on class co-operation,not on interests which conflict but on interests which conform.BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTEThere is a great mass of literature bearing on almost every phase of this subjectthough there is nothing which deals with it as a whole. It may be worth while tosuggest some of the more useful books for a more detailed study. On the early craftguilds one of the best brief accounts is in E. Lipson, An Introduction to the EconomicHistory of England, I, chap. vii. On the decay of the craft guilds, cf. G. Unwin, Industrial Organization in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, and also, for less detailedaccounts, W. J. Ashley, The Economic Organization of England, chaps, ii, v; and J. A.Hobson, The Evolution of Modem Capitalism. For the Levellers Movement, G. P.Gooch, English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century, and T. C. Pease, TheLevellers Movement, may be consulted. There is no single adequate study of the Industrial Revolution in English. Its earlier phases are admirably discussed in P. Mantoux,La Revolution industrielle au XVIIIme siecle en Angleterre. There are three volumesby J. L. and Barbara Hammond which cover well the effect of the Industrial Revolutionupon the workingman. They are entitled: (1) The Village Labourer, 1760-18 32;(2) The Town Labourer, 1760-1822; (3) The Skilled Labourer, 1760-18 32. The effectof the French Revolution upon political reform in England is well handled in G. S.Veitch, The Genesis of Parliamentary Reform, and in E. R. Kent, The Early EnglishRadicals. A convenient annual survey of economic conditions in England from 1800to 1832 will be found in W. Smart, Economic Annals of the Nineteenth Century.G. Slater, The Making of Modern England, chaps, i, iv, is particularly good on the situation immediately following the Napoleonic Wars. For the unrest associated with thepassage of the Great Reform Bill, cf . J. R. M. Butler, The Passing of the Great ReformBill, chaps, i, iii, vi. G. Wallas, Life of Francis Place, is easily the best thing on thepolitical unions of 1832. The rise of English socialism and the views of the Englishsocialists of the 1820's are well treated in M. Beer, A History of English Socialism, I.POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH WORKINGMAN 95On the origin of the English trade unions and on their whole history there is one excellent book, S. and B. Webb, History of Trade Unionism, of which a new edition hasjust appeared. Cf . also George Howell, Labour Legislation, Labour Movements and LabourLeaders. On contemporary English trade unions the English Labour Year Book, particularly the volume for 1916, contains a fund of excellent material. The Chartist Movementhas been much written about in English and in German, though the best study is inFrench, i.e., E. Doll6ans, Le Chartisme, 1830-48. In English the best single account is byMark Hovell, The Chartist Movement; cf . also F. F. Rosenblatt, The Chartist Movementin Its Social and Economic Aspects, and F. W. Slosson, The Decline of the Chartist Movement. On the relations of the workingman to politics since Chartism there is verylittle of value. The Webbs give something in their History of Trade Unions andG. Howell rather more in his study of labor movements cited above. One phase of it istreated very superficially in A. W. Humphrey, A History of Labour Representation.Unfortunately there is no study comparable to Butler's Passing of the Great ReformBill for the later reform bills of 1867 and 1884. Charles Seymour, Electoral Reform inEngland and Wales, chap, x, contains a good account of the way in which the laborvote was cast between 1867 and 1884. The history of the modern English LaborParty has yet to be written, though there is an excellent summary of the main factsin the English Labour Year Book for 1916; cf. also, for a rather unsympathetic account,A. L. Lowell, The Government of England, II, chap, xxxiii, which brings the storydown to 1908. The program of the Labour Party as stated in 191 7 and the reorganization in that year is very well explained in A. Henderson, The Aims of Labour. Fora sympathetic treatment of the workingman in current English politics the Englishweekly, the New Statesman, is perhaps the best place to look. Sidney Webb's occasional contributions to the New Republic are excellent though not always unbiased.THE BOARD OF TRUSTEESBy J. SPENCER DICKERSON, SecretaryAPPOINTMENTSIn addition to reappointments the following appointments havebeen made by the Board of Trustees:-F«d^£fe£^^ -in< kh&» '&®p®$me$&**GiLeonard D. White, Associate in the Department of Political Science.Appoi'n*™'yn-Mf rVmyiftrr "RprH trt n nnn rnirfriir Fn^i m hip in (InP,f?pTirtmcnt-of History.^TTapi^ymoia^^^L^Q Tricifi'rtg nurse to be under the direction of theHealth DcpQjitinottt.Piufcssui- 0l"!Klili4steWi^r Science and Tactics was made ex officio memberoHho B p^foToTPfeysical Culture and Athletics.RESIGNATIONSThe Board of Trustees has accepted the resignations of the followingmembers of the faculties:Yoshio Ishida, Research Instructor in the Department of Physics.Elbert Clark, Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy.R. S. Bracewell, Associate in the Department of Chemistry.Theodore B. Hinckley, Teacher in the University High School.Lillian Cushman Brown, Instructor in Art in the College of Education.Leo Finkelstein, Instructor in the Department of Chemistry.Conyers Read, Professor in the Department of History.GIFTSThe E. I. DuPont deNemours & Company Corporation renewsfor the year 1920-21 the gift of $750 for a Fellowship in the Departmentof Chemistry.Mr, Charles R. Crane renews for another four-year period his subscription to support the work in Russian Language and Institutions.John F. McMillan has bequeathed the sum of $1,000 as an endowment fund.Mr. Charles H. Swift provides the sum of $500 for the expenses of atrip to Asia for scientific investigation by Assistant Professor WellingtonDowning Jones of the Department of Geology.96THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 97The donor of the Theology Building in addition to the previousgift of $200,000 has pledged a further gift of $100,000 toward the erectionof the building.A donor whose name is withheld presents a collection of lithographedportraits of nineteenth- and twentieth-century authors and scientistsmade by William Rothenstein of London.The National Association of Audubon Societies presents to theMuseum of the School of Education a valuable collection of birds andfeathers.JOHN CRERARBy THOMAS W. GOODSPEEDThis sketch begins and ends with the last will and testament ofJohn Crerar. In more respects than one that will was unique. Ithad the following very unusual beginning:My father, John Crerar, a native of Scotland, died in New York when I was aninfant, leaving my mother, my brother Peter and myself his only heirs. My motherremained a widow for a number of years and was then married to William Boyd.The issue of this second marriage was one son, my half brother, George William Boyd,who died unmarried in i860. My step father died in 1864, and my mother wasagain left a widow with her two sons, Peter and myself. My mother died March 28,1873, and my brother Peter died in 1883, a widower, leaving no children.My mother's maiden name was Agnes Smeallie. She was born in Scotland in1795 and a line of relationship on her side is clearly defined.My first cousins are children of my late uncles, James and John Smeallie, lateof Florida and West Galway, State of N.Y., brothers of my mother. Through themI have second cousins and third cousins. These cousins, first, second and thirdcan be readily traced: some I have seen, others only heard of by the hearing ofthe ear.With these explanations it remains with me to make a disposition of my estate.I am a bachelor and was born in New York City, but have been a citizen of Chicagosince 1862.It will be noted that in this unique preface to the will the slightestpossible mention is made of the father, and none whatever of anyrelatives on his father's side, while much is told of the mother and offirst, second, and even third cousins on her side. And yet so far as therecords show the Crerars were a more ancient and numerous familythan the Smeallies. The Crerars appear in the earliest Scottish parishregisters of marriages and births. These important records seem tohave been instituted, at least in the country districts of Scotland, bythe Presbyterian church when it displaced the Catholic church in thebeginning of the seventeenth century. The register of the parish ofKenmore records the marriage on May 14, 1637, of "John Dow Crearar"and again in 1640 of " John Dow Crerar," evidently his second marriage.This carelessness about the spelling of family names seems to havebeen common in Scotland. The Crerars were a numerous family andwere scattered through many parishes. They belonged to the commonpeople and appear, for the most part, to have lived in country districtsand, probably, followed agriculture.98JOHN CRERAR 99The parish register of Dull, County of Perth, from which JohnCrerar's father, John, migrated to the United States when a youngman, records that a John Crerar, early in 1788, married MargaretMcFarland. They had three sons, Peter, born late in 1788, James,born in 1789, and John, born July 2, 1792. Peter and James marriedin the same parish and each had a son named Donald. One of theseDonalds will appear later in this story. The youngest brother, John,apparently left the old home unmarried and settled in New York City.There he met and married Agnes Smeallie who had also migrated fromScotland to New York in her youth. Both were Presbyterians, andthey doubtless found each other in the Scotch Presbyterian church towhich their son, John, remained greatly attached to the end of his life.The naming of their other son Peter shows the family attachment ofthe father. Had there been a third son there would have been anotherapostolic succession, apparently, of Peter, James, and John.Ancestors on the mother's side are not traced farther back than1 7 10. There are bewildering differences in the ways in which theyspelled their names, as Smeallie, Smellie, Smaill, Smeal, Smalle, Smale,etc. These differences in spelling constantly occurred in the samefamily. In the record of the births of the three children of AlexanderSmellie of the parish of Kirkliston the first-born was written Smeal,the second Smellie, the youngest Smeallie. The father of Mr. Crerar'smother, Andrew Smeall, born in 1748, was the son of John Smale. Thedaughter of Andrew Smeall was Agnes Smeallie, the mother of JohnCrerar. In his last will and testament he says she "was born in Scotland in 1 795 . " The register of the parish of Kirkliston, however, recordsthat she was born April 1, 1797. But this is only another evidencethat the most devoted sons do not always retain in mind the exactyear of their parents' birth. Where and when John Crerar, the father,and Agnes Smeallie were married does not appear nor when they migrated to the United States. We are not told the father's business andknow nothing of his circumstances at the time of his death July 23,1827. We only know that he left a widow and two sons, Peter, the elder,and John, an infant a few months old. As the will says the widowand the two sons were "his only heirs," it may, perhaps, be believedthat the little family was not left destitute. This is rendered stillmore probable by the fact that the mother a few years later marriedWilliam Boyd, a business man occupying the important and no doubtlucrative position of head of the New York branch of the iron and steel business of an English house. Whatever may have been the circumstances100 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDof the family before, they were no doubt much improved after thismarriage, and all the boys were given such education as the schools ofNew York City afforded.The mother must have been a woman of character, intelligence,and attractiveness. Her sons were taken to the Scotch Presbyterianchurch and certainly John early became a devout and zealous Christian.Young Crerar was a diligent student. He did not carry his educationthrough a college course, but did continue it long enough to conceive alove of books and a habit of reading which always remained with him.The New York of Mr. Crerar's childhood was what would now becalled a small city. When he was born, in the early part of 1827, itspopulation was less than 175,000. While he was growing to manhoodit increased to 300,000. When he left it to make his home in Chicagoit had become a large city of 850,000 people.Young Crerar continued in school till his eighteenth year and thenentered the service of the house of which his stepfather was the NewYork manager. Here he remained for several years, advancing from oneposition to another, and about 1850 was sent to the branch house of thefirm in Boston. He had become a bookkeeper, and was sent to Boston,perhaps, to organize, or reorganize, the bookkeeping. At all events heremained only a year or so and then returned to New York. It does notappear that he became again associated with his stepfather. He founda better position than that house had for him and became bookkeeperfor another large iron firm. He continued this work, always on the lookout for something better, for perhaps three or four years, until he wastwenty-nine years old. He must have been anxious to get into businesshimself. He could not but be conscious of the possession of businessability, but he was always a modest man, and being without capitalhis way into independent business activity seemed to be hedged up.It was just at this time that a great piece of good fortune, the greatestof his business career, came to him. He made the acquaintance ofMorris K. Jesup. Mr. Jesup was a little more than two years youngerthan Mr. Crerar, but he was already in business for himself. He hadestablished himself in the business of dealing in railroad supplies in1853, and during his commercial career became a man of very largewealth. He came to be one of the leading business men of the country.But it was his long life of philanthropy, a life devoted to the service ofmankind in religion, in education, in charity, in encouraging explorationand scientific research, that made him one of the eminent men of our^history. He lived till 1908, but retired from business in 1884 because,JOHN CRERAR io Ias he said, " I found that both business and charitable work were becoming so absorbing that one or the other must suffer if I continued to doboth. So, after careful consideration of the whole matter, I retiredfrom business and have devoted my spare time to working for othersand for the public interest." Mr. Jesup was then only fifty-four yearsold. He lived twenty-four years longer. He had lived during thethirty-one years of his business life for both his business and the public.It may be justly said that he devoted fifty-five of the seventy-eightyears of his life to his fellow-men.Commander Peary said in 1 910: "To Morris K. Jesup, more thanto any other one man, is due the fact that the North Pole is today atrophy of this country." His biographer, William Adams Brown,gives a summary of the official positions he held which indicates thewideness of his sympathies and the scope of his philanthropicactivities :He was president of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, aposition to which he was elected in 1899 and which he held until a few months beforehis death. For more than a quarter of a century he was president of the AmericanMuseum of Natural History, of which he had been one Of the founders. He was oneof the founders of the Young Men's Christian Association, its president from 1872to 1875, and at the time of his death, chairman of its Board of Trustees. For twenty-two years he was president of the New York City Mission and Tract Society. ....For more than thirty-five years he was president of the Five Points House of Industry.He was president of the American Sunday School Union, of the Peary Arctic Club,of the Sailors' Snug Harbor, of the Audubon Society of the State of New York, of theNew England Society, and of the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut. He wasfirst vice-president of the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf andDumb, and vice-president of the Union Theological Seminary, of the American Societyfor the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and of the Pilgrims. He was one of thefounders and for many years vice-president of the Society for the Suppression of Vice.He was treasurer of the John F. Slater Fund for the Education of Freedmen, and amember both of the Peabody and of the General Education Boards. He was a memberof the Rapid Transit Commission, which built the first subway in the city of NewYork. He was one of the founders and for seven years a trustee of the PresbyterianHospital. He was a trustee of the Hospital Saturday and Sunday Association, of theSociety for the Relief of Half Orphan and Destitute Children, and of the Brick Presbyterian church, and a member of many other scientific, educational and philanthropic institutions, in which he held no official position, but in the work of which hewas actively interested.This was the man with whom John Crerar became acquainted aboutthe beginning of 1856, with whom he became associated in business, andwhose partner he remained to the end of his life. The influence ofthis association on Mr. Crerar's life was very great. The way in which102 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDthey came together was as follows. Mr. Jesup had started in businessin 1853 with a Mr. Clark who had been a bookkeeper in a bank andhad some capital. Mr. Jesup had no capital, but he knew the railwaysupplies business from the bottom up. The partnership continuedthree years, during which time Mr. Clark was bookkeeper and officeman, while Mr. Jesup attended to all the outside business. The firmprospered, but for some reason a dissolution was resolved on in 1856.Mr. Jesup would need a competent bookkeeper and office man and turnedto his new acquaintance and friend, John Crerar. But let him tell thestory:I became acquainted with Mr. Crerar in 1856, then bookkeeper in the largeiron house of Raymond and Fullerton in New York. I was then in business in NewYork under the firm name of M. K. Jesup and Co. One day, in the year 1856, seeingMr. Crerar writing at his desk, I put this question to him, "John, would you like tobetter your position?" His instant reply was "Yes!" I said, "Come and see meat my office. " All this resulted in my taking him into my employ as clerk, and withina very short time making him my partner in business In the year 1859 Iestablished a house in Chicago under the firm name of Jesup, Kennedy and Adams,J. McGregor Adams who was then a clerk for me in New York being sent to Chicagoto take the management of this business. In the fall of 1862 Mr. Crerar was sent toChicago and the firm was changed to Jesup, Kennedy & Co. Some time in the earlypart of 1863, Messrs. Crerar and Adams succeeded to the business and establishedthe firm of Crerar, Adams & Co.My long and intimate acquaintance with Mr. Crerar gave me the rare opportunity of knowing of what stuff he was made. He was a man of sterling integrity, ofstrong religious convictions, a kindly heart and a true friend. He loved all men andall loved him. I never knew a man who had so many real friends. He was social,though at the same time retiring, modest and humble, and in life counting his chiefpleasure the being in the society of, and intimate relations with, his friends.Mr. Crerar was a frugal man, lived without display or ostentation, and I oftenused to tell him that he was too much so, and that he ought to be more among men,giving his money while he lived and having the enjoyment of seeing it well administered. His uniform reply was, "I am satisfied and content." .... I could saymuch more about this good man; there lived none better.It is evident that young Crerar possessed such an unusual combination of qualities for success in a business which he had been studyingfor eleven years that his early entrance into the new firm of M. K. Jesup& Company was inevitable. The other member of the new house wasJohn S. Kennedy. It must be remembered that the railroad-suppliesbusiness was then in its infancy in this country. The iron age and therailroad age had just begun. The firm of M. K. Jesup & Companywas just beginning to get on its feet and its members were poor men.It had the advantage of starting at the outset of that period of un-JOHN CRERAR 103precedented development which has covered the continent with railroads and made the last seventy years the Railway Age. Being men ofgreat business ability they availed themselves to the utmost of theextraordinary opportunities of the new era, and the firm entered on acareer of great and increasing prosperity.Mr. Crerar did not long remain in New York after becoming a partner in the company. While he did remain, however, he manifestedthat enlightened interest in organized efforts for the good of the community which characterized his later life. He was a deeply religiousman and constantly engaged in the activities of the Scotch Presbyterianchurch in which he had been brought up by his devout mother. He wasmuch interested in the Mercantile Library Association and becamepresident of that body. He was a member of the Union Club, theUnion League, and the Century Club, and continued his membershipin these organizations after leaving New York.The first railroads from the East, the Michigan Southern and theMichigan Central, entered Chicago in 1852. Immediately that periodof railway development began which within a little more than fifteenyears gave Illinois a greater railroad mileage than any other state inthe Union and made Chicago the great railway center of the country.It was inevitable that the city should become the chief distributingpoint of railroad supplies. Mr. Crerar and his partners were not slowin recognizing what this meant for a business like theirs. It meant, notmerely that such a business was likely to be successful in Chicago, butthat it was imperatively demanded there. Chicago became the onelocation on the continent for a business in railroad supplies. In 1859,therefore, as quoted above from Mr. Jesup, J. McGregor Adams wassent to Chicago to inaugurate the business, and became a partner in theChicago branch, which was known as Jesup, Kennedy & Adams.It was so successful from the start that two and a half or three years laterMr. Crerar, then a member of the parent house, found it necessary togo to Chicago to care for the expanding business and the firm namebecame Jesup, Kennedy & Co. Messrs. Crerar and Adams were thejunior partners. It will be recalled that Mr. Jesup says that "sometimein the early part of 1863 Messrs. Crerar and Adams succeeded to thebusiness and established the firm of Crerar, Adams and Co." Mr.Jesup is undoubtedly correct in this statement, but, on account of thebusiness value of the old title, the new firm continued to do businessunder the name Jesup, Kennedy & Company for five years. Thecity directory of 1868 was the first to contain the name of "Crerar,104 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDAdams & Co., manufacturers and dealers in railroad supplies and contractors' materials, n and 13 Wells St."Twenty-one years later, in 1889, the Commercial Club, an organization of the leading business men of Chicago, paid the following tributeto Mr. Crerar, who had just died:The Commercial Club has met a peculiar and irreparable loss in the death ofJohn Crerar. The death of a man who is both strong and good must always seemirreparable and probably always is irreparable. But Mr. Crerar was, besides, themost devoted and faithful member of the organization .... and we who are hisfellow-members have experienced a personal affliction such as can rarely come out ofthe intercourse and friendships of social life. He was not a recent friend nor one whocould make a light impression upon his neighbors. We knew him intimately formany years; he was a part of ourselves, and he was such a man as must fill, by theimportance of his qualities, a large place in the lives of his friends. He was remarkable for the way in which his character combined force with geniality. His strengthand incisiveness seemed to find no contrast or opposition in his exceeding geniality,but these several qualities combined and mingled in him to the producing of a mostdelightful and unique man His conspicuous personal attractiveness, hisfine and wholesome example as a gentleman, his constant, varied, most generous andyet most discriminated charities, his conspicuous business conservatism and judgment, so justified by success, and his steadfastness in his religious life, made him aman of rare value and usefulness to all circles with whom he closely associated, and tothe large circle of the great city.Because we knew him so well and valued him so highly, and because we borehim so warm an affection we wish to make some expression like this which may be atleast a slight evidence of the impression his life made upon us and the sorrow wefeel at his death. And to make this expression as permanent as we can, we, themembers of the Commercial Club, now resolve that, although any words we can usemust seem inadequate and inexpressive, these be made a part of the permanent recordsof our Club.What then was the life that John Crerar lived in Chicago for twenty-seven years that won for him such a tribute of admiration and affectionfrom these hard-headed men of business who knew him so intimately ?From the first he had thrown himself into his business with greatenergy. He had partners, but none of them ever questioned his dominance. They were able men but they recognized his leadership.The terms of partnership were determined by him and accepted bythem without any written contract, as just and even liberal to theother members of the firm. In his last partnership, to which the otherparties were Mr. Adams and Mr. Shepherd, he wrote out a partnershipagreement, though the other partners never examined it till after hisdeath. They were then surprised to find that no figures indicated theextent of their interest in the business. No difficulty, however, aroseon this account. The matter had been understood between them andJOHN CRERAR 105the estate was settled without trouble. Moreover he had left $50,000to each of them as a token of friendship and confidence.The business grew with the, amazing growth of the western railroads. It soon became known as one of the most important businessconcerns in Chicago. The business had been originally started by Mr.Adams in a small place on Dearborn Street. In 1865 it was moved tomuch larger quarters at n and 13 Wells Street at the corner of SouthWater Street. The building was noted as being one of the only twoiron-front structures in Chicago, but it was entirely destroyed in thefire of 1 87 1. Immediately after the fire business was resumed in a"mere shanty" that had been put up for temporary use at the cornerof Adams Street and Michigan Avenue, and in these makeshift quartersit remained for a year. At the end of that time the Robbins Buildinghad been completed on the old site and the business was transferred toit and in it continued to be conducted during Mr. Crerar's life. Thehouse soon came to be the largest concern of its kind in the MiddleWest. Edward S. Shepherd became a partner, and after the death ofMr. Crerar he became the sole owner of the business. In a great building at 239 E. Erie Street, on the north side of Chicago, overlookingLake Michigan, Mr. Shepherd still carries on the business under the oldname, Crerar, Adams & Company.The business expanded so rapidly that a manufacturing departmentwas soon found to be necessary. Such a department was thereforesecured by the purchase of a business already existing, which wasreorganized as the Adams & Westlake Company, manufacturers ofrailroad-car trimmings, lamps, lanterns, and sheet-metal specialties. Itcame to include brass and bronze foundries of the most modern type.Though founded earlier the company was incorporated under the lawsof Illinois in 1869. Since 1872 the main factory and offices of the company have been on the north side and now cover the entire block boundedby Orleans, Ontario, Franklin, and Ohio streets. Before the death ofMr. Crerar, he and Mr. Adams had, to a considerable extent, dividedtheir interests, Mr. Crerar and Mr. Shepherd retaining Crerar, Adams &Company, and Mr. Adams taking over the Adams & Westlake Company.Cook's By-gone Days in Chicago, referring to the year 1862, the yearof Mr. Crerar's coming to the city, makes the following interestingstatement:Reference should be made to a group whose names are familiar to nearly everyChicagoan today, but who, for the most part, were wholly unknown in 1862; or justrising into recognition within the lines of their specialties, yet in a few years were toio6 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDdominate almost every branch of commercial activity Marshall Field andL. Z. Leiter were merely rising junior partners. Wm. F. Coolbaugh and John Crerarwere new arrivals. Lyman J. Gage had just been promoted to the cashiership of theMerchant's Savings Loan and Trust Company, and beginners with them were GeorgeM. Pullman, S. W. Allerton, A. M. BiUings, John W. Doane, N. K. Fairbank, JohnC. Gault, H. N. Higginbotham, Marvin Hughitt, B. P. Hutchinson, General A. C.McClurg, Franklin MacVeagh .... while Chief Justice M. W. Fuller was a risingyoung lawyer.Mr. Crerar, modest and retiring as he always was, soon came to berecognized as one of the leading business men of the city. When theCommercial Club of Chicago was in contemplation he was invited tobecome one of the thirty-nine constituent members. Though notparticularly addicted to clubs he was a devoted member of this onewhich was made up of the leaders of Chicago business. I have alreadyindicated the admiration and affection in which he was held by hisfellow-members. In John J. Glessner's history of the CommercialClub he says:The Club was especially fortunate in the rare quality of its original membership^composed of men who easily stood out above their fellows in the community; menwho not only made themselves and their own businesses, but made the town they livedin, and loved it. Pullman and Fairbank and Field and Doane and Stager and Crerarand Leiter and Farwell and the two Keiths and Armour, and men like these, wouldhave made their mark anywhere and in any time.And again he says:Several of the most prominent of the early members never held office, though thechief executive position was at different times urged upon them — Field .and Pullmanand Crerar, among those who have gone, and others who still are here. They felthonored in the choice, but distrustful of ability to give time and attention to thework.It was inevitable that, with Mr. Crerar's business ability and increasing prosperity, he should extend his interests beyond his immediate business. He did not make any considerable dealings in realestate. Other forms of investment made a stronger appeal to him.He was no speculator, but very conservative in his views and methods.Yet he had a business instinct and an open and farseeing mind thatled him to consider and enter into new and large projects, that, in hisjudgment, promised great development. When, therefore, Mr. Pullman laid before him his revolutionary palace-car plans, he listened,weighed, and, finally approving, engaged in the organization andfinancing of the Pullman Palace Car Company. It seems incrediblenow, but fifty-five years ago Mr. Pullman's projects were so new andstrange and revolutionary that few believed them practicable, least ofJOHN CRERAR 107all perhaps railroad men. He had little capital himself and he foundit very difficult to enlist capitalists in his scheme. He was a youngman, only thirty-four years old in 1865. Mr. Crerar was also a youngman of thirty-eight, just beginning to be a man of substance. Perhapsthe nature of his business — railway supplies — enabled him to grasp thepossibilities of the new sleeping-car and he entered so fully into Mr.Pullman's plans that when the Pullman Palace Car Company wasfinally organized in 1867 he became one of the incorporators anda member of the board of directors. He was one of the men wholaid the foundations of that great industry which has had such anextraordinary development. He continued on the board of directorsfrom the formation of the company to the end of his life, a period oftwenty-two years and did his full share in promoting the success of thecompany.Soon after beginning business in Chicago, Mr. Crerar became adirector of the Chicago & Alton Railroad. His connection with thiscompany had one very interesting result quite unrelated to business.It brought him, of course, into close business relations with the ablepresident of the road, T. B. Blackstone, and their relations resulted inan intimate and delightful friendship, which was characterized by awarm affection. So strong was his attachment to Mr. Blackstone that,when he made his will in 1887, though his friend was a man of largewealth he left to him a bequest of $5,000 "to purchase some mementowhich will remind him of my appreciation of his uniform and life-longkindness to me."Mr. Crerar was long the Chicago director in the Liverpool, Londonand Globe Insurance Company. He was one of the original stockholdersand a director of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank. He was a directorin the Chicago & Joliet Railroad and for a time president of the road.He had large interests in the Joliet Steel Company. These are onlyindications of the wideness of his business interests which continuallyreached out in new directions as his prosperity increased.Mr. Crerar's independent business career was not a long one. Itwas restricted to less than thirty years. After becoming the head ofthe house of Crerar, Adams & Company it continued only twenty-six years, when death brought it to an end. He lived to be only sixty-two years old. He had been very successful. He was a conservativebut astute business man, and, had his life been prolonged, his successeswould have kept pace, doubtless, with those of his most successfulassociates who carried their large activities on into the new century.io8 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDIn closing the introductory paragraphs of his will Mr. Crerar said,"I am a bachelor and was born in New York City, but have been acitizen of Chicago since 1862." Why he never married does not appear.He would seem to have been eminently fitted to give and receive happiness as the head of a family. He did not escape the raillery to whichall bachelors are subject. He received it good naturedly, insisting thathe was not insensible to feminine charms. When rallied on the subjecthis usual answer was: "I am in love with all." Being a bachelor helived in hotels, the last ten years of his life at the Grand Pacific.We may be certain that one of the first things he did after reachingChicago was to identify himself actively with the church. He wasdeeply religious. He had been so from his youth, and in Chicagoentered the Second Presbyterian Church. He was soon made an elderand a trustee, and for more than twenty years was one of the pillars ofthat church. His religious interest did not diminish as his wealthincreased. He regularly attended the church prayer meeting. He wasa constant reader of the Bible. His favorite chapter was the eighthchapter of Romans, which he knew by heart. When the new buildingof the church was erected at Michigan Avenue and Twentieth Street, hecontributed $10,000 toward the extinguishment of the debt. All hisfriends knew him as a Christian man. He was outspoken in his faith andnever hesitated to defend Christianity when it was attacked in hispresence. "He has been known to exclaim, in a tone of impatientdisgust, at hearing some one ask if he really believed that Jonah wasswallowed by a whale, 'Oh! bosh! What has that to do with religion?' "This is an illustration of what was said of him that though he was verymuch of a gentleman " he was a singularly candid man and when occasiondemanded could be abrupt." During the later years of his life thepastor of the Second Presbyterian Church was Dr. S. J. McPherson,between whom and Mr. Crerar a most affectionate friendship developed.Dr. McPherson was a lovable man, and Mr. Crerar indicated his strongattachment to him by leaving him a bequest of $20,000. His will alsorevealed his love for the church and the depth of his doctrinal convictions. He left to the Second Presbyterian Church $100,000 "solong as said church preserves and maintains the principles of the Presbyterian faith." But he also left the church without reservation$100,000 for its mission schools. He did not forget the church in whichhe had been brought up and to which all his family had belonged, theScotch Presbyterian Church of New York City, to which he left $25,000.He also left the Presbyterian League of Chicago $50,000. He was aloyal Presbyterian.JOHN CRERAR 109But his religious interest was not confined within denominationallines. He was greatly interested in the Chicago Young Men's ChristianAssociation and was one of its devoted adherents throughout his lifein Chicago. He was vice-president of the Association and left it$50,000 in his will.He was for many years actively interested in the work of theAmerican Sunday School Union.Each year he gave cheerfully and liberally to the support of the work throughouthis long and successful career. When he was disposing of his property by bequest heput these words in his will: "I give and bequeath to the American Sunday SchoolUnion, established in the City of Philadelphia, hereby requesting that said sum beemployed in promoting the cause of said Sunday School Union in the Western Statesand Territories, the sum of $50,000 I should prefer that the legacies or bequests be used so that the interest would keep missionaries in the field, or wouldenable good to be done as opportunities present themselves.,,This suggestion as to the general policy of the Sunday School Union ofthe use to be made of legacies has been followed in the use made of Mr.Crerar's bequest with remarkable results. Every year since 1893 areport has been published showing the work done by the missionariessupported by the income of the fund. At the end of twenty-five yearsit appeared that three missionaries had been employed each year. About1,600 Sunday schools had been organized in remote districts of theNorth and West, with nearly 60,000 scholars. These missionaries hadaided in various ways 10,000 Sunday schools in which there were 160,000pupils. They had distributed 12,000 Bibles or portions of Scripture.Nearly 90 churches had been organized and about 7,000 converts hadbeen led into anew life. These reports are documents of real humaninterest. They may truthfully be termed live stuff. They make thesedry figures live and throb with tragic interest in the incidents theydetail of the new hope and joy and life ciarried into many remote wilderness places. John Crerar still lives and goes about our world in theguise of these earnest missionaries doing good.And this reminds jne of what one of his partners has told me. Ashe sat at his desk in his office he kept in the upper right-hand drawer,where 4t was nearest his hand, a check book. When people came inasking his help for any cause he would hear them considerately and ifthey made a case that appealed to him he would reach for the book andwrite them a check, entering on the stub what it was for. When hiseffects were examined after his death these check books were found andproved to be interesting reading. For example on the stub of one checkwas found the following: "A woman going about doing good." It wasno THE UNIVERSITY RECORDsaid of him: "His philanthropy knew no bounds or limits, but wasconstantly active and progressive, without ostentation."Religion and religious causes did not exhaust his sympathies. Hewas a director of the Presbyterian Hospital and bequeathed to it $25,000.All the philanthropies that interested him in life he remembered withgreat munificence when he came to make his will.The great relief organization for ministering to the destitute inhis day was the Chicago Relief and Aid Society. He was one of itsofficers and took an active interest in its work, leaving it $50,000.He was particularly interested in the Chicago Orphan Asylum.When writing his will and leaving the asylum $50,000, he added, "Ofwhich I am now vice-president," as though that personal relation gavehim satisfaction. In his early days in Chicago he was secretary of theboard of the Hospital for Women and Children which then existed.It was only Mr. Crerar's modesty and distaste for public position thatkept him from official connection with a score or more of the charitableand other institutions of the city. He was a liberal contributor totheir treasuries. To some of them he belonged, as the Chicago Literary Club and the Chicago Historical Society. He aided the latterin securing its first building after the great fire and left it $25,000 inhis will, and to the Literary Club he left $10,000.To organizations with which he had no official connection themunificence shown in his will was only the carrying on of the interesthe had manifested in repeated benefactions during his life. Here isthe list, excluding those already mentioned and others to be mentionedlater: the Nursery and Half Orphan Asylum, $50,000; St. Luke's FreeHospital, $25,000; Chicago Bible Society, $25,000; St. Andrew's Societyof New York, $10,000; St. Andrew's Society of Chicago, $10,000;Illinois Training School for Nurses, $50,000; Old Peoples' Home of Chicago, $50,000; Chicago Home of the Friendless, $50,000.Among the many services the Commercial Club has rendered to thecommunity not the least was the founding in 1882 of the Chicago ManualTraining School, now a part of the high school of the University ofChicago. Mr. Crerar was much interested in the project. He wasone of the subscribers to the fund of $100,000, raised by the Club toinaugurate the work of the school. He was made a member of thecommittee to determine the plan of organization and was one of itsboard of directors to the end of his life. His belief in the work of theschool was so great that in making his will he provided a bequest to itof $50,000. He did not indicate in the will how this sum was to beJOHN CRERAR IIIused. His fellow-trustees, however, doubtless followed what theyknew to be his preference when they established a John Crerar Prizeto be given to the best student of each graduating class, and distributedthe larger part of the income in free scholarships for poor boys needingsuch assistance.Soon after the University of Chicago began its work the trustees ofthe Manual Training School opened negotiations with its representativeslooking to the incorporation of the school into the University system.This was finally consummated in 1902 when the Manual TrainingSchool became a part of the University High School, bringing to theUniversity funds and equipment amounting to about a quarter of amillion dollars. A part of this was the Crerar Fund of $50,000. Inthe Articles of Agreement it was provided that an annual prize of $20should be given to one member of each class in the Manual TrainingDepartment to be known as the John Crerar Prize; that a scholarshipshould be given to one member of the graduating class in the Department which should entitle the holder to free tuition through a completecourse in any department of the University, to be known as the JohnCrerar Scholarship, and that the remainder of the income should beused in paying, either in whole, or, in part, the tuition in the ManualTraining Department of poor and deserving boys who would otherwisebe unable to avail themselves of its privileges, to be known as the CrerarAid. It was also provided that the principal of the John Crerar Fundshould never be impaired or diminished, or the income in any waydiverted from the foregoing objects or purposes.Thus for nearly thirty years in the School and the University betweentwenty and twenty-five boys have been helped every year to an education in which the hand and the mind have both been trained. Already,six hundred boys have been helped by Mr. Crerar to enter into life withthe advantages of this sort of training. And he will, through thisendowment, continue to do this as long as the University endures. Alittle while ago we saw him as a missionary carrying light and life tothose dwelling in wilderness places. We here see him as an educatortraining every year classes of boys for useful and successful lives.Mr. Crerar was at one time a trustee of the first University ofChicago, but distrustful of its prospects withdrew from the board.Three years later the institution closed its doors. He did not live tosee the present University established. The public movement for itsfounding was inaugurated in Chicago only four months before his death.He was one of the men before whom the plans for the new institution112 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDwould have been laid, and who would have given them sympathetic consideration. The University may well feel honored in having the nameof such a man as John Crerar enrolled among those who have establishedspecial funds for the benefit of those it is preparing for the business oflife. For his life and character place him in the front rank among theforemost men of Chicago.Mr. Crerar's life was not an eventful one, except in the rapid accumulation of wealth. He became Mr. Jesup's partner when aboutthirty-three years old and continued in the same line of business to theend of his life. He was in business for himself only about twenty-nineyears. He was just beginning to make himself known in New Yorkwhen he made the new departure in his business which took him toChicago. His life in that city was restricted to twenty-seven years.Beginning at the bottom of the business ladder he climbed steadily andrapidly, but it necessarily took half these twenty-seven years to gain aposition of any considerable prominence. He was therefore a well-knownand leading man of business for only a few years. He had no likingfor prominence or desire for position; he would not accept the presidency of the Commercial Club. He was a strenuous Republican inpolitics, but once only took any public place. In 1888 he accepted anomination and was elected a presidential elector in the Harrisoncampaign. A bachelor with no family life he might have been expectedto seek society in the many clubs that were open to such men. Butamong social clubs he joined but one — the Calumet. He wasTenamoredof a quiet life. He was not a great traveler, going abroad but once.He preferred the city to the country, almost never accepting invitationsto visit his friends in their country homes. He was very regular in hishabits. Summer and winter he retired and rose at the same hour. Hewas fond of reading, and read both books and newspapers. In hisnewspaper reading he was always on the lookout for good stories andjokes. These he cut out and preserved. He had a keen sense of humorand would often inclose a humorous clipping in an envelope and send itanonymously to some friend who would enjoy it. He enjoyed this allthe more if it had some personal application his friend would appreciate.After his death a box of these newspaper clippings was found among hiseffects. He always had scholarly tastes, which he did not permit theexacting demands of a constantly expanding business to suppress. Inhis young manhood his interest in the Mercantile Library Associationof New York made him its president. It was this Association thatbrought Thackeray to this country on his lecturing visits and it is saidJOHN CRERAR H3that Mr. Crerar was largely instrumental in these invitations beingsent to the great novelist. It was this interest in books and literaturethat made this iron merchant a member of the Chicago Literary Club,who so appreciated its work that he made it a bequest of $10,000, asalready told.To one who knew him we are indebted for the following personalglimpse of Mr. Crerar:His demeanor to his fellowmen was the very type and example of equable, dignified gaiety, good humor, kindliness and charity toward all the world Hisfavorite attitude was standing firm and erect, the lapel of his coat thrown back andhis thumb caught in his vest [pocket]. To see him in this position was a signal forgay welcoming and recognition for friends.And another says of him: "His dignified yet gentle bearing attractedthe eye no less than his kindliness and sympathy warmed the heart."I am told there was an air of distinction in his appearance that attractedattention in any company.Mr. Crerar's mother did not live to see her son's larger successes.She died in 1873, nine years after he established himself in Chicago.He was always very tenderly attached to her. As he never married hecontinued to regard New York, where she remained, as home, as long asshe lived. But after her death Chicago became home to him, and hisattachment to the church, his interest in the things that made for abetter city, and his friendships among the best and biggest Chicagoansof his day were such that he became devotedly attached to the city andoften declared that he could not be happy permanently in any otherplace.Few men have had a higher compliment paid them than came toMr. Crerar after the great Chicago fire of 1871. He immediatelyentered with his characteristic energy into the relief work of the Reliefand Aid Society, and the New York Chamber of Commerce and otherlarge donors sent their great contributions for the stricken city to himfor distribution. He made on men the impression of unimpeachableintegrity, of executive ability, and of sincere and wise philanthropy.He had a peculiar genius for friendship. He formed intimate friendships with some of the foremost men in Chicago. His partners werehis friends. Throughout his business career in Chicago he continuedin the partnership which was formed at the outset. J. McGregorAdams said of him:He was a high-souled generous man, liberal in all things, and one whose friendship was a thing to be prized and to be proud of. He was a philanthropist of the noblesttype and did a wonderful amount of good in a quiet way; For twenty-five years heii4 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDand I have been business partners and during that long period we never had a quarrelor dispute in any way. To his employ6s he was always the same, pleasant, genial,approachable. Frank and outspoken and decided in his views he never hesitated toexpress them, though it was always done in an affable manner. He had a vein ofquiet humor that made him a very companionable man. Full of fun and anecdotes,he dearly loved a good story.Mr. Crerar retained his health till he had passed his sixty-secondyear. It began to fail in the spring of 1889. In August of that yearDr. Frank Billings went with him to Atlantic City, it being hoped thatthe sea air would do him good. But on September 9 he suffered a partialstroke of paralysis in his right side. As soon as it seemed safe he returned to Chicago and to the home of perhaps his dearest friend, NormanWilliams, and there died on October 19, 1889, in the sixty-third year ofhis age.He had said in his will: "I ask that I may be buried by the side ofmy honored mother in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, N.Y., in thefamily lot I desire a plain headstone, similar to that whichmarks my mother's grave to be raised over my head." These requestswere faithfully carried out by his friends. The "plain headstone ....raised over his head" bears the following inscription: "A just man andone that feared God."On December 22, 1889, a great memorial meeting was held inCentral Music Hall, which was then the great auditorium of the city.Rarely has such a tribute been paid to the memory of a private citizen.The great hall did not begin to accommodate the multitude who soughtadmission. It was found necessary to close the doors before the hourset for opening the exercises.In one of the addresses it was said of Mr. Crerar that the use hemade of his wealth caused him to rise from " a private citizen to the ranksof creative men." And this brings us again to that remarkable document with which this sketch began, his last will and testament. Twointroductory words should be said of it.In the first place, it was not made in any immediate expectation ofdeath. It was not the hurried work of the sick bed, but the well-considered, fully matured work of a man little past middle age, in thefull vigor of health, with the possibility of many years of active life stillbefore him. It was made in 1887, two years before Mr. Crerar's death,and was evidently the result of long reflection and final, deliberatepurpose.In the second place, it was not devised for the purpose of makingamends, in the final disposition of his wealth when he could no longerJOHN CRERAR "5hold on to it for the shortcomings of his life. It was the final andnatural expression of his character and the life he had always lived.His father, who died when he was an infant, he had never known andapparently knew nothing of any relatives on his father's side. He hadbeen devoted to his mother, and anyone related to her, or who had beenkind to her, was not without claims on him. The giving of money toreligious and charitable causes had been the habit of his life. He hadbeen a reader of books. He loved good literature. The Literary Clubwhere books were the themes of discussion, he had particularly delightedin. Having no family his evenings had been devoted to books. Theyhad formed a large element in his life. One can imagine him in theselong evenings of reading and reflection, thinking of the many thousandsin the great city who would enjoy books as much as he did if they hadaccess to them, and of the unspeakable benefit great collections of bookswould be to them. And one can easily conceive the glow of satisfactionthat filled his whole being when the purpose to establish a great freelibrary was formed in his heart.But, however just these remarks are, it remains true that thegreatest and most significant act of Mr. Crerar's life was the making ofhis will. He himself must have felt this to be true. He approached thetask very seriously. After the prefatory remarks quoted at the beginning of this sketch he continues. "It remains with me to make a disposition of my estate."He bequeathed, to begin with, something over $500,000 to cousinson his mother's side, to friends who had been kind to his mother, to hispartners, and to other personal friends.Then followed bequests of nearly $900,000 to religious, educational,and charitable causes as has been related in preceding pages.He left "$100,000 for a colossal statue- of Abraham Lincoln." Ofthis bequest, Judge B. D. Magruder, speaking before the ChicagoLiterary Club, said:With a modesty that bespeaks the greatness of his soul, he orders a simple headstone to be placed at his own grave, but that a colossal statue be raised to the man whoabolished slavery in the United States. The millionaire is content to lie low, but heinsists that the great emancipator shall rise high This contrast between theheadstone and the statue indicates, as plainly as though it had been expressed in words,Mr. Crerar's estimate of true heroism. Doing good to others was his conception ofgreatness.The heroic statue of Lincoln was practically the final creative workof the genius of Augustus Saint Gaudens. It was placed in the handsof the South Park Commission of Chicago, which proposes to place itn6 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDin Grant Park. It was loaned by the Commissioners to the PanamaExposition and was seen and admired by the millions of visitors toSan Francisco in 191 5.Grant Park is being constructed on the downtown lake front ofChicago which will extend from Randolph Street to Twelfth Street, orthe new Roosevelt Road. It is being built up out of the waters ofLake Michigan. It is a part of the Chicago Plan which will transformthe entire lake front from the river to Jackson Park into a dream ofbeauty, giving Chicago the most wonderful water front of any city inthe world. The great statue of Lincoln is to be located a little northof the center of the Park, southeast of the Art Institute. In the centerof the Park there will be a garden, and the statue will be placed justnorth of the garden. The funds have finally been provided, by thevoters' approval of a bond issue, for the completion of Grant Park, andthere can be no long delay in the placing of the statue of the greatAmerican in its permanent resting-place.The final provision of Mr. Crerar's will reads as follows:Recognizing the fact that I have been a resident of Chicago since 1862, andthat the greater part of my fortune has been accumulatd here .... I give, devise,and bequeath all the rest, remainder and residue of my estate both real and personalfor the erection, creation, maintenance and endowment of a Free Public Library to becalled The John Crerar Library and to be located in the city of Chicago, Illinois, apreference being given to the South Division of the city inasmuch as the NewberryLibrary will be located in the North Division I desire the building to betasteful, substantial and fire-proof and that sufficient be reserved over and above thecost of its construction to provide, maintain and support a library for all time. I desirethat the books and periodicals be selected with a view to create and sustain a healthymoral and Christian sentiment in the community and that all nastiness and immoralitybe excluded. I do not mean by this that there shall be nothing but hymn books andsermons, but I mean that dirty French novels and all sceptical trash and works ofquestionable moral tone shall never be found in this library. I want its atmospherethat of Christian refinement, and its aim and object the building up of character, andI rest content that the friends I have named will carry out my wishes in those particulars.The friends referred to were Norman Williams, Huntington W.Jackson, who were the executors of the will and trustees of the estate,and Marshall Field, E. W. Blatchford, T. B. Blackstone, Robert T.Lincoln, Henry W. Bishop, Albert Keep, Edson Keith, S. J. McPherson(then his pastor), John M. Clark, and George A. Armour. These twelvemen he requested to act as the first board of directors of the library.They formed a distinguished body of men. They were all personalfriends of Mr. Crerar and assumed the responsibilities laid upon themas a labor of love.JOHN CRERAR 117It will be noted that the will makes no mention of relatives on hisfather's side and bearing the Crerar name. His father had died whenhe was a few months old. His mother does not appear to have had anyacquaintance with his father's family and the boy grew to manhoodwithout any knowledge of Crerars related to him. There were suchCrerars, however, though they remained apparently ignorant of hisexistence until the press carried the news of his large bequests throughout the world. They were then heard from and in contesting thevalidity of the will their contentions confirm the view here advanced.The attack on the will was made by Donald Crerar and others who saidthat in his will, Mr. Crerer made no mention of his next of kin on his father's sideand seemed to be ignorant of the fact that there were such next of kin; that he gavedivers large bequests and legacies to his cousins on his mother's side; that he leftno kin of nearer degree than first cousins and that complainants are his first cousinson his father's side and constitute all of his first cousins and next of kin, except thefirst cousins on his mother's side, who were named in and given certain legacies by thewill; that all of the cousins to whom such legacies were given have accepted the sameand have released all claims against the estate, and that complainants are entitled,as next of kin and heirs at law, to share in all property owned by Mr. Crerar at thetime of his death and not legally devised by him.The paragraphs of the will particularly attacked were the bequests tothe Second Presbyterian Church, the Chicago Bible Society, the LiteraryClub, the Lincoln statue, and the John Crerar Library. A great legalbattled ensued. A considerable array of able lawyers was employedon both sides, the will being defended by Williams, Holt and Wheeler,and Lyman and Jackson, the law firms of the two executors, assisted byJames L. High and John H. Mulkey. After failing in the lower courtsthe contestants carried the case to the Supreme Court of the state.It was not till 1893 that the contest came to an end and then the will wassustained in every particular.It was characteristic of the careful business man that Mr. Crerarembodied in that part of the will leaving bequests to his cousins thefollowing wise directions to his executors:I fancy that my cousins have but little acquaintance with business matters, andI wish my executors and trustees to give them advice in regard to the legacies andbequests. For example, if a farm is mortgaged, suggest that the mortgage be paidoff. If their farm is not mortgaged suggest that their respective legacies should bewell invested.It was supposed that the bequest for the free public library wouldamount to about two and a half million dollars. But the board ofdirectors was a body of business experts, with the highest skill in theri8 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDcare of funds. They applied their financial genius to the care of thepublic trust committed to them. They started the library withoutundue haste and instead of expending a large part of the capital fundin a costly building, they rented commodious quarters and when theyopened the library to readers April i, 1897, began to create a buildingfund from the annual income, and in 19 18, at the end of twenty-fouryears, had secured a valuable site and paid for it and had accumulateda building fund of $1,300,943.39. Meantime the endowment fund hadincreased under the management of these financial experts and faithfulstewards to $3,500,000. The total assets, instead of being $2,500,000as first estimated, amounted at the end of twenty-four years, in 1918,to $5,557,544- The books in the library now number about 430,000and there are nearly or quite 175,000 pamphlets. In 191 8 more than14,000 volumes were added to the collection, which thus increases everyyear.Before the opening of the library in 1897 the directors decided tomake it "a free public reference library of scientific and technicalliterature." The librarian, Clement W. Andrews, says:The special field of the John Crerar Library may be defined as that of the natural,physical, and social sciences and their applications. It is the purpose of the directorsto develop the library as symmetrically as possible within these limits, and to make itexceptionally rich in files of scientific and technical periodicals, both American andforeign.The reading-rooms are daily filled with readers, the numbers increasing every year, already aggregating much more than 100,000annually.In 191 2 the directors purchased a site for the library building onthe northwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Randolph Street, 128 by135 feet, the longer front being on Michigan Avenue. That part ofthe building now being erected will cover something more than one-third, possibly about one-half the entire site. This part is now goingup and will be completed and occupied by the library within the comingyear. The other sections will be added as the growing demands of thelibrary require.The funds managed thus far with consummate wisdom are sufficient to develop and sustain one of the great libraries of the world.As Mr. Andrews says, the decision of the directorsto establish a free public reference library of scientific and technical literature, seemedto them to accord with the particular busness activities by which the greater part ofMr. Crerar's fortune had been accumulated, to exclude naturally certain questionableclasses of books which his will distinctly prohibits and to favor the aim and objectJOHN CRERAR 119which it expressly points out. As personal friends who had been acquainted withhis wise and generous purposes, and with his civic patriotism and gratitude, theybelieved that he would surely have wished his gift to supplement, in the most effectiveway, the existing and prospective library collections of Chicago, and to be of thegreatest possible value to the whole city.That wish has been gratified, and he has established in the heart of thecity a great institution of education and enlightenment that will radiateever-increasing light down through the ages.It was Franklin MacVeagh who said of Mr. Crerar at the greatmemorial meeting in the Central Music Hall: "He has set us an exampleof the right use of wealth, the great uses of wealth, the permanent usesof wealth, and the final uses of wealth."His will was the natural outcome and expression of his entire life.He was one of those men whose life and death glorify humanity andhelp us to understand something of the meaning of that word: "Godcreated man in his own image."MRS. MARY H. WILMARTH1By MARION TALBOTSoon after the University of Chicago was opened in October, 1892,Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer, with that breadth of sympathy and keenness of vision which many remember with admiration, recognized theneed of an agency for giving financial aid to capable and promisingstudents. In organizing the Students' Fund Society she found readyand generous support from citizens of Chicago who were interested inthe new University. First and foremost was Mrs. Wilmarth who wasthe moving spirit from the beginning. I cannot tell the whole story.Under her direction sums varying from twenty-five dollars to severalhundred dollars were loaned without interest. In every case recommended by the Faculty committee she had a personal interview with thecandidate, and you can readily believe that the experience for the studentwas one of intellectual and spiritual enrichment even more than ofmaterial help. Her sagacity and penetration were marvelous. Therecords of the Society show how seldom her judgment was at fault. Thefunds loaned came back in a steady stream as life brought its successesto these young people.Professor J. Laurence Laughlin, who, as the representative of theFaculty, gave generous and devoted service for a long term of years,writes as follows:She was the mainstay of the Student Loan Fund, always generous, sympathetic,but in all her giving never unwise or undiscriminating. How many times I have gonedown to the meetings at the end of a quarter with demands of five hundred to onethousand dollars beyond our cash on hand; and silently, unknown to others, shetook care of every appealing case. She and Mrs. Judah were tireless in those earlydays, but she longest of all. In all emergencies she had a fine poise and businesssense. Nothing was done without care and deliberation. Yet her tact and gracious-ness were pre-eminent.In my Latter-Day Problems at the end of the chapter on " Women and Wealth"I had her in my mind when I said: "On the other hand, we also know the type — ararer one — of the woman to whom a husband had left large wealth, whose pleasureis not in self-indulgence, but whose wisdom and sympathy in giving is such that thepower of her riches is multiplied an hundredfold and whose unselfish life is a benediction to every one who is privileged to know her."1 Remarks by Dean Talbot at the memorial meeting held under the auspicesof the philosophy and science department of the Chicago Woman's Club, November 21, 1919.120MRS. MARY H. WILMARTH 121The greatness of a university cannot be measured by the number ofits students or its faculty, its endowments, or its material resources. Itsfriends are its greatest possessions, and the University of Chicago hasbeen fortunate indeed in counting Mrs. Wilmarth among these. Her service to the Students' Fund Society was one of her many rich gifts. Wordsfail wholly to describe what she gave constantly, generously, sympathetically. Her presence, a written word of cheer or counsel, intelligentunderstanding of the University's problems, made an atmosphere ofintellectual and spiritual values which was priceless. We miss it daily,but the effect of her influence in those early and formative years willlast as long and as far as the University — I think even longer and farther.THE JOHN BILLINGS FISKE PRIZEIN POETRYThe wide and growing interest now being taken in poetry in thiscountry has suggested that universities might be a great influence in theproduction of that form of literature and so contribute something ofpleasure and stimulus and beauty to our national life. With thatthought in mind Mr. Horace Spencer Fiske, of the University of ChicagoPress, has established at the University, in memory of his father, JohnBillings Fiske, an annual poetry prize of approximately fifty dollars,which shall be given in a competition open to all graduate and undergraduate students alike, the judges to be the Head of the Department ofEnglish, a leading American poet, and a leading American critic.JOHN BILLINGS FISKEJohn Billings Fiske, in whose memory this poetry prize has beengiven, was born at Waterford on the Hudson, the son of Horace andMary Adams Fiske. The beauty of this region, at the junction of theHudson and the Mohawk, seems to have had a deep influence on theheart and imagination of the boy and he remained through life an intenseand unaffected lover of nature in all her moods and changes. At twentyyears of age he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts fromUnion College, Schenectady, New York, under the presidency of thefamous Dr. Eliphalet Nott. He was among the first seven in his classin scholarship, receiving the Phi Beta Kappa key, and among his classmates was President Chester A. Arthur.Soon after graduation Mr. Fiske came under such religious influencesthat he determined to make the ministry his life-wprk. As his father hadbeen a Presbyterian elder for thirty years, the son naturally took someof his theological training at Princeton, and his first pastorate was atAmherst, Massachusetts. But the West called with a voice not to bedenied, and he later took up long pastorates in Michigan, Iowa, andMissouri. His sermons, carefully thought out, written down, and revised,contained frequent poetic allusions and illustrations, and not uncommonlya humorous phrase or incident that started a smile. In fact, his greatliberality of view in the treatment of religious themes proved to some ofhis more orthodox listeners a stumbling-block and a rock of offense, andhe voluntarily retired from one or two of his pastorates, against the122JOUX BILLIXGS FISKKAt Time of GraduationJOHN BILLINGS FISKE PRIZE IN POETRY 123wishes of most of his church members, on the ground that another mancould better meet the desires and creeds of the minority.His greatest passion, next to reading and preaching, was that ofangling, and no vacation went by that did not find him on some northernlake or river speculating on the outcome of a day's fishing or luxuriatingin the beauty of nature all about him. Not long before Mr. Fiske'sdeath, after forty years in the Congregational ministry, his son, who wascommonly his fishing companion, published the following sonnet in hisfirst book as a tribute to the sportsman's spirit and the generous life-purposes of his father and comrade:A FISHERMAN"And I will make you fishers of men17A lover of the woods and streams and sky,The quiet lake 'neath evening's level lightAnd all of Nature's summer sound and sight,Thou look'st upon her with a poet's eye.And when from drifting boat thou'st cast a fly,To wait with eager heart for sudden biteWhere all the depths of mystery excite,Thou still hast joy though all the fish go by.And when red summer suns have sunk to restAnd thy true preacher's work has come again,With tender care thou'rt happy in the questOf human souls; and with thy golden penThou searchest for the good in every breast,Still largely loving all that's best in men.Horace Spencer Fiske, who established this prize in memory of hisfather, came to the University of Chicago as a lecturer on English Literature in the Extension Division in the year 1894. In 1903 he becameAssistant Recorder of the University and so served until 191 2, when heentered the Publication Department of the University of Chicago Press.He was editor of the University Record from 1903 until 1914, and associate editor of the University of Chicago Magazine from 1908 to 19 14.Mr. Fiske's interest in art and literature is well known to all members ofthe University. He is a trustee of the Eagle's Nest Camp Associationat Oregon, Illinois, an association of artists and authors. He is theauthor of The Ballad of Manila Bay and Other Verses, Provincial Typesin American Fiction, Chicago in Picture and Poetry, Poems on the University of Chicago, In Stratford and the Plays, and Ballads of Peace andWar, as well as a contributor to numerous anthologies.The establishment of the John Billings Fiske Prize in Poetry wasannounced in the April, 1919, number of the University Record. The124 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDconditions of the contest are generous. The donor desires that contributions be received from a member of any school or college of the University. There is no limitation as to length, subject, or form. Eachcontestant is required to submit a typewritten contribution signedwith a pseudonym. Sealed within an accompanying [envelope is acard bearing the pseudonym, the name of the contribution, and the nameand address of the contributor. These envelopes are not opened untilafter the judges have reached their decision. In the future it is proposedthat the poems submitted in the contest shall not have been publishedand the prize poem shall be first printed in the Report of the Committee of Award in the official publication of the University of Chicago,the University Record.The Report of the Committee of Award, submitted through thechairman, Professor John M. Manly, Head of the Department of English,is as follows:As chairman ex officio of the Committee for awarding the John Billings FiskePrize for the best poem submitted by a member of the University, I have the honor toreport as follows:First of all, the committee wishes to express its pleasure in finding that the contesthas produced so large a number of poems of fine quality. Not more than seven of thefifty submitted were found seriously lacking in technical competence or genuine poeticthought. On the other hand, there were at least half a dozen, to any one of which thecommittee would gladly have awarded even so important a prize as this; and therewere as many more which barely failed to reach the high quality of the first half-dozen.Approximately fifty poems or groups of poems were submitted for the competition.The poems were read separately by the members of the committee — Mr. Henry B.Fuller, Mr. Edgar Lee Masters, and myself — and a meeting was then held to compareconclusions and award the prize.On the suggestion of Mr. Masters, each member of the committee, withoutconsultation with the others, wrote on a slip of paper the title of the poem which inhis opinion best deserved the prize. When these slips were read, it was found that allcontained the same title.The poem chosen is entitled "Li Sien," submitted with the pseudonym "AnneMary Lyman."Today, March 10, I have for the first time opened the envelope accompanyingthe poem to ascertain the true name of the writer. It is both amusing and a trifleembarrassing to find that this is Marian E. Manly.Had I known that any person named Manly was among the contestants, I shouldhave requested to be relieved from serving on the committee, but until the presentmoment, when I opened the envelope, I was not aware that such a person existed hereor elsewhere in the world as Marian E. Manly.Although only one prize can be awarded, the committee feels that the followingpoems are of so high a quality as to deserve especial mention:i. A poem entitled "A Man Walks in the Wind," by Maurice Leseman.2. A group of poems entitled "Of Certain Days," by Janet Loxley Lewis.JOHN BILLINGS FISKE PRIZE IN POETRY 1253. Four poems entitled "The Cripple," "Defiance," "Captivity," and "HungerInn, "by Jessica North.4. A poem entitled "The Mute Singer," by Carroll Y. Belknap.5. Three poems entitled "My Fellow-Student," "Commencement," and "ToJames Frank Burke," by Ruth R. Pearson.6. A group of poems entitled "The Little Country, " by Elizabeth Eleanor MadoxRoberts.-7. A poem entitled "Ambition," by Karl Kroeck.8. A poem entitled "April," by Mary E. Quayle.Respectfully submitted on behalf of the committee,John M. ManlyChairman ex officioAnne Mary Lyman is the pen name of the winner of the prize in 1920 —Miss Marian Esther Manly, of Delaware, Ohio. Miss Manly was bornin Chung King, Western China, where her father and mother, Mr. andMrs. W. E. Manly, were and still are missionaries of the MethodistEpiscopal Board. Miss Manly lived in Chung King until she wasthirteen years of age, when her parents returned to the United States onfurlough and placed their daughter in the schools of Delaware, Ohio.After graduation from high school she remained in that city as a studentof the Ohio Wesleyan University. In college she majored in biology butactually took more courses in English than in any other field. Twiceshe won the annual poetry prize of the Ohio Wesleyan University andonce received the first award in the short-story contest. She receivedher degree of B.A. in 1919. In October of the same year she came tothe University of Chicago as a graduate student, pursuing the regularcourse leading to the degree of M.D. She is a member of the PoetryClub of the University of Chicago. The prize poem Miss Manly beganto write the day after Christmas and finished on the train when she wasreturning to the University for the Winter Quarter, 1920, the date for thereceipt of poems in the competition.LI SIENTHE JOHN BILLINGS FISKE PRIZE POEMBy ANNE MARY LYMANThe story of Li Sien, a legend from the classics of China, I have tried to tell in rhythmapproaching or suggesting the cadence of Chinese speech, when the old men recountmany tales, bai-lung-mun-dzen, in the sleepy afternoons; a rhythm not so much madeup of accent as of rise and fall of tone. A rather free blank verse is our nearestapproach to its measure. — A. M. L.Li Sien, the courtesan (she whom men had named"The Dweller at the Crossroads," and by othersCalled "The Spider"), sat in the dust-flecked sunlightBy the window. All those days of darknessThus she had waited, silent, scarcely moving,Feeling the warm sun creep across her shoulders,Hearing the rasping summer-dry bamboosWhispering serely by the roadside — listening —Until, the darkness growing intolerable,She clenched her hands, and unassuaging tearsGathered and burned beneath her heavy eyelids.And Ching Yuen-ho a fortnight's journey gone!Northward, where the Temple of the SunStands upon seven terraces, upliftingIts gilded tower; and where the Imperial CityGlows with its roofs of malachite and scarlet Gone with the sound of bells — her heart missed timeWhen bells upon a bridle jingled past.Even in such wise he had come — and thenThe old reiterated tale unwoundPitilessly.His bridle rang with bells,With bells of silver. Out of the South he rode.In deep plum-purple satin, and brocadeOf saffron. And as he came that way, men spoke126LI SIEN 127And told him tales of one Li Sien, the womanCalled "The Spider," she who made her dwellingBeside the Crossroads, in a high-walled garden.As all roads met at the Crossroads, so all menReached at the last the center of the web,Came at last to the ginkgo tree that stoodBeside her door, with saffron-colored leavesIn autumn; came to the whispering bamboo grove,And saw, perhaps, a shadow at a window,A hand against the lattice, white as jadeThat has no vein or tint of palest green,The priceless crystal jade — a scarlet sleeve,Perhaps, or heard low laughter in the twilight.The cherry tree that grew in Li Sien's gardenWas cloudy white with blossom when he came.The petals drifted down along the eaves,And blew across the highroad. Ching Yuen-ho,Riding into the Crossroads Inn at dusk,Felt something lightly touch his lips, as softAs perfumed feathers of the Celestial Phoenix.And after, when the night hung low and heavyWith great amazing stars, and Ching Yuen-hoSmoked in the dark outside the gate, and dreamedAgain the dream that drew him out of the South —The spirit kiss, the gust of cherry petals,Dimmed with a sweet white mist his reverie;The idle tales along the road obscuredHis lofty contemplation, and a nameMade all of melody — "Li Sien, Li Sien!" —Sang in the dark.Between the slender stemsOf tall bamboos, a lighted window burned,A yellow light behind thin paper shining,Where dwelt Li Sien. And as he stared, unheeding,A shadow moved across the square of light —Returned and stood The watcher in the darknessChecked his breath for awe!THE UNIVERSITY RECORDOh slenderness!Feathery slim bamboos, all curve and joyOf exquisite line! The upward sweep of throat —A song-bird soaring with a single note!And marvel held the soul of Ching Yuen-ho,And strong desire, so that he crossed and stoodBefore her gate, and pleaded thus, all-humble:'Not that a price of gold or emeraldMight buy such beauty, nevertheless I comeOf no mean ancestry, and in the South,My home, am counted rich. These things I speak,Not to extol my insignificance,But that you may unbar your gates, perceivingThat I am noble born."A stillness followed,Wherein he heard the tumult of his heart,And then a woman's voice, like running water:1 Traveler out of the South, I do perceiveThat you are versed in all the lore pertainingTo your inestimable prestige." (A liltOf laughter underran her words, he thought.)' But women, being by nature light of mind,Love other proof of worthiness."At thisHis words were loosed. "Li Sien! O-mi-to-fu,But you shall open to me! I have traveledSeven days, hearing your name so oftenIt seemed to compass me about with wings,As in the South our gray-winged sea-gulls followOur coastwise sailing-junks. And even nowI have seen shadow brighter than a flame,Gray more beautiful than gold. .... Unbar!For I am all hot anguish of desire."And straining in the dark, his fingers pressedAgainst the smoothness of the gates, untilThe bolts were softly drawn, and stumblinglyHe crossed the door-sill; and the lacquered gatesSwung to, behind him.LI SIENAfter many hoursA moon rose, almost at the full, and wroughtEmbroidery of myriad slender leavesUpon the high white wall of Li Sien's garden.And after that a long time came the windAnd dawn together, and the eaves were whiteWith winnowed cherry petals. Last, the sunBurned goldenly above a drift of cloud,Stripping his glory of its clinging purple.The secret high- walled garden at the CrossroadsSeemed something made by magic, quite unflawed.The goldfish pool, the tiny lichened bridges,The latticed tea-pavilion, mimic hills,And rockeries for moss and ferns, the treesTwisted and clipped to curious fancies, thisA crouching leopard, that a tall pagoda,Dragons and gods and birds of leafy plumage —All perfection formed in miniature!Wistaria drooped upon the latticed tindzeWith pendent sprays of palest violet,And on the toy lagoon the lotus layStarlike; but all the garden's flowering seemedTo come to culmination and fulfilmentIn very beauty made in flesh — Li Sien!Clothed in an iridescent cloud of wings,A thousand butterflies in shining silksOf jewel colors, gold ghost-butterfliesBetween, embroidered on the satin, blackAnd smooth and shining, even as her hair —Her hair with little lights of amethystUnder the sun, a hoop of mai-wha blossoms,Ivory white and heavy scented, spanningIts glossiness, and over either earA silken rose upon a silver pin —So sat Li Sien upon the gray stone benchBeneath her cherry tree; and Ching Yuen-hoRegarding her, had need to touch her, elseSuch utter beauty were beyond belief.130 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDHer small hands lay together in her lap,Till sudden she flung them up to him, her braceletsOf jade and silver tinkling. " Make me a poem,Scholar out of the South," she said. "The othersGave silks and sandalwood and gold, but you —You shall make me. a poem."Ching Yuen-ho,Catching her hands, spoke tense and low. "Li Sien,Even in jest we must not speak of others.The others are not, since I crossed your threshold!Oh, I have hurt your hands — forgive, beloved.Touching the poem, it is that I have lived it,Since aeons past I saw your slender shadowUpon the window. This pale song I bring youIs to the poem in my soul as dimAn image as your shadow to yourself.But if you will, in this wise goes the song:Who shall look into the sun at noon ?And who shall look into the splendorOf Li Sien's eyes ?Therefore Li Sien has veiled her eyes;Her lashes are like the branches of a willow tree,Drooping above a stream.Her eyelids are petals of the white azalea,White and smooth.In Fu-kien by the sea I have not foundOne like to Li Sien.I have come out of Fu-kienI have come out of Fu-kien.I have possessed the five celestial happinessesIn the pavilion of ever-renewed delight.All the birds of Li Sien's gardenAre azure-winged Chin-niao,Rejoicing in lovers' secrets.I have told them a tale that is new;I have told them of Li Sien's eyes.I have told them of Li Sien's eyes,And even the heaven-born Phoenix,With cinnabar-colored crest,Shall envy the blue Chin-niao.LI SIEN 131Blossom and fruit the cherry tree had borne;The lotus-lilies on the goldfish poolBecame green pods of seeds ; and summer cameWith white, oppressive skies; and time was pastFor roses. After that the ginkgo treeBeside the gate was kindled as a flame,And stood in pride of brave imperial yellow,Until the fan-shaped satiny little leaves,Freed by the wirld, went gaily venturing —A thousand thousand sulphur butterflies.Alone of the fading year's largesse remainedThe turbulent-headed tall chrysanthemums,Crimson and rose and white and gold — and gold!The last defiant flare of magnificenceFlung in the face of winter's gray advance."Have I grown older with the year?" Li SienAsked wistfully. " For though it is acknowledgedA very honorable estate, and manyDesire a plenitude of years fulfilled,I have so loved unblemished, shining youth!To feel the little creeping net of linesGrowing into my face! To see my hairWhiten as rice in harvest, and the lightDie in my eyes!"But Ching Yuen-ho made answer," Your hair is as a river of utter darkness ;Your brows are curved like slender willow leaves;Your hands are crystal jade and ivory;Your mouth a scarlet pomegranate blossom,A scarlet blossom of desire! Beloved,Such youth and love as ours, how shall it end,Except by death ? For after days so manyI have not counted them, desire fails not,And love knows no surcease. .... But now give heed;Here is a poem I have made for you:As the moon is to the stars,So is Li Sien among all women of the earth.Having Li Sien, what shall I desire ? .132 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDThe time of falling leaves,And the flying of wild geese,And winnowing of grain is come;But Li Sien is a black butterflyUpon a yellow chrysanthemum;And we shall not be afraid for the passing of the year."Poet-lover of mine," she cried, "what were youIn the world, before the current bore youInto the sluggish backflow ? ""I was a nothing,Uncreated, formless, roused into beingUnder you eyes.""But tell me truly — notIn flattery (for I am well awareFu-kien knows not my name) — why came you hitherOut of the South ? What journey did you follow ? ""Oh, Li Sien, a hundred years ago,Before I found the center of desire,My heart was troubled with an aspirationEmpty and vain. I sought the Phoenix City,Pekin, thinking to make myself a name,To win the imperial degree — a dreamFor fools to cherish. I have long forgotten."Then lowly knelt Li Sien among the leaves,And bowed her shining head upon the earth;uO-mi-to-fu, forgive the sin I sinned,That I have hindered from his destinyA scholar who had else inscribed his nameAmong the Eight Immortals! Oh unworthy!That I should circumvent the gods, who plannedMy lord for wisdom's crown of wisdom!"ThusLi Sien abased herself, and wept, then pleaded,"Leave me now, and let it not be saidMy lord took pleasure iiLa harlot's lips,Crimsoned by artifice, when from the mouthOf sages treasure seven fold is gathered."LI SIENThen spoke Ching Yuen-ho, "The early morningOf our eternity of love is yetA redness in the east; why waste our dayIn threshing chaff ? " And when she would not rise,But still entreated, "Go! It is not yetToo late," he answered, "They do well, indeed,Who name you 'Spider of the Crossroads.' -Nay,I am so bound with fetters of your weaving,Albeit by mine own desire and will,I cannot leave you. Ah, Li Sien, your eyes —Your eyes are starlit water under the spanOf heaven-aspiring bridges I shall findNo glory in the world beyond your eyes!"At this her face grew gray and pitifulBeneath the blossom-white and gay vermilion;Nevertheless her voice was lightly scornful:'A wanton's eyes! A precious bargain surely,When you have paid for it with all your dreams!But it shall not be said Li Sien had partIn such unrighteousness; my lord shall winThe heritage the fates apportioned to him."Then she fled from him, for all her soulWas shaken with the knowledge of the thingShe had to do* And Ching Yuen-ho pursued,And came upon her, bowed beside her window,Hiding her face upon her arms, her hairUncoiled, the amber pin that held it clenchedLike a dagger in her hand .... and some presageOf dire disaster grew upon his mind,So that he stood within the door, and saidNo word.At last from a great way off she spoke,Her voice as thin and gray as though she wereAlready dead: " So you shall leave me now,For that which held you thrall I have destroyed. . ,It was not meet a follower of ConfuciusShould be diverted from his destined courseFor a woman's eyes — and she a courtesan!"134 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDShe hid her face, that he might have remembranceOf that Li Sien whose eyes were starlit waterUnder the span of heaven-aspiring bridges;And listening, heard him draw a sudden breathSharply between his teeth; and heard him go -With stumbling, hasty step, the door behind himSwinging and clattering in the wind; thereafterA little space, the empty clink of bells Who would believe the dark could be so vividWith beauty clamoring at the gates, with lifeResurgent, laying hold upon the soul,When all one asked was sleep and soothing silence,So that one might forget ? Withdrawn, aloof,Li Sien craved only death in life — that peace—That utter loss of self— Nirvana — sleep But life insistent beat upon her blindnessWith light and movement, vivid as a playUpon a stage. The highroad's pageantryEntered her window with a thousand sounds —The creak of chair-poles, cry of an orange-vendor,The oddly-cadenced rhythm of the songChanted by coffin-bearers, or the clashOf brazen marriage music.So for moonsUncounted (moons unseen are very long)Li Sien wore coarse and common blue, nor choseTo make her body beautiful with silks,Nor would she heed her handmaid when she said,"Lady, the seller of flowers was here but nowWith garlands wrought in many quaint devices,Meet to adorn your hair. Oh, give me leaveTo make you fair with powder and vermilionAnd butterfly-embroidered robes again.Bells on the highroad! When would passing bellsLose poignancy and cruel significance ?Bells on the highroad, stopping at the Inn—Surely the bells were silver — then a voiceAt the door — and all her blood stood still!LI SIEN"Li Sien!Oh, my beloved, do not hide your face.I am returned — the Imperial degree,Appointment as a magistrate, the sealOf office (I had it from the Emperor's hand —But feel it here!)— I have them all— all!Forgive my over-buoyancy, believeIt is not pride, but gladness in achievementOf that which you had prized and purchased dearly.For I was cleansed of pride and lustfulnessAll in a moment, when your spirit roseAnd stood up strong and shining, like a swordCleaving our lesser love of flesh. Li Sien,Humble at heart, I take you in my arms,And ask if you will come with me, and kneelBefore the tablets of my fathers' fathers,In Fu-kien by the sea; and drink with meFrom wine-cups linked together, so observingAll rites whereby the blessing of High HeavenShall shine on lawful love. . . . . "When night was come,The smell of spring a promise in the air,This song he made her:Her spirit is as the long waves of the sea.Her spirit is as a night with stars,Infinite.Who shall understandThe magnitude thereof ?THE QUADRANGLE CLUBIn 1914 overtures to buy the land under the present QuadrangleClubhouse were made to the Club by the Trustees of the University.The University desired to own the entire block upon which the buildingstands, that it might be cleared for the chapel. Furthermore it wantedto own the fee of the entire block and thereby the more easily securethe vacation of the alleys which" twice bisect it. The negotiationseventuated in the contract executed in May, 1916. The Universityhas obtained the desired vacation of the alleys.The University's Committee on Buildings and Grounds and theClub's Building Committee after many joint and separate conferencesreceived from the architect, Mr. Howard Shaw, the drawings for theproposed clubhouse. These were formally approved by both committees. When the work of drafting these plans began it was believedthat the clubhouse could be built for the $100,000 provided for its costby the University's offer. The proposed clubhouse by no means exceedsin size, materials, conveniences, or necessities the requirements demandedfor such a club as this, in such a neighborhood as this, representing suchan institution as the University of Chicago. The cost of building it,however, once estimated at $100,000, according to bids received inthe autumn of 1919, will be $186,733, exclusive of architect's fees.In this emergency the Trustees of the University offered undercertain conditions to increase by 50 per cent the amount of money to beprovided for a new building. The exact language of this offer is asfollows:The University is ready to proceed with the erection of the clubhouse providedfor in the agreement between the University and the Club; that the University willincrease its contribution for building the clubhouse from the $100,000 agreed upon to$150,000 whenever, before April 1, 1920, the Quadrangle Club shall formally satisfythe University that it has secured in cash, or that satisfactory arrangements have beenmade to secure, an amount sufficient to cover the cost of the building over and abovethe $150,000 to be contributed by the University, exclusive of furnishings; or, shouldthe foregoing arrangement not be effected, that the Club be requested to extend forfive years the time for building the clubhouse by the University, and that the University extend for five years the period of occupancy of the present building by theClub; it being understood that at the expiration of the said period the University willcontribute toward the erection of the new building over and above the $100,000stipulated in the contract a sum equal to that contributed by the Club, the University's contribution in no event to exceed $50,000.136THE QUADRANGLE CLUB 137Confident of the moraland financial backing of the membershipthe Council recommended to the Club:1. That it accept the new offer of the University, and notify its Trustees that theClub will co-operate in erecting the new building and in raising an amount sufficient,together with the $100,000 heretofore contracted by the University of Chicago to bepaid by it, and the further sum of $50,000 offered by the University of Chicago throughthe proposal of its Board of Trustees in their letter dated December 11, 1919, tocomplete the new house on the plans approved by the University and the Club.2. That it authorize the Council to appoint (a) a finance committee to secure theneeded funds, and (b) sl building committee to co-operate with the University andthe architect as the new building progresses.These recommendations of the Council when presented at themeeting of members of the Club held January 29, 1920, were unanimouslyaccepted. Subsequently a Campaign Committee was appointed underthe general direction of Mr. Lucius Teter, with Professor J. H. Tufts,who later was succeeded by Professor H. G. Gale, as chairman of theFaculty group and Mr. Warren Gorrell as chairman of the neighborhoodmembers. The Faculty group undertook to raise $12,500, and theneighborhood group made the same sum its objective, the balance to beraised by Mr. Lucius Teter among other friends of trie club. Apparentlythe sum necessary to satisfy the conditions laid down by the Trusteeswill be met by April 1 and the way will be open for the immediate construction of the new clubhouse free of debt.The new Quadrangle Clubhouse will be erected on the southeastcorner of Fifty-seventh Street and University Avenue, the structurebeing erected east of the University Avenue building fine and close tothe north end of the lot. South of the building the land will be gradedand four tennis courts provided. The building and grounds will occupythe entire space at present vacant.Because of the established architectural norm of the University asrepresented so beautifully on the southwest corner in the Tower Groupand on the northwest corner in Bartlett Gymnasium, and because ofthe intention of the Trustees of the Disciples' Divinity House ultimatelyto build a structure which will conform to the University architecturalplan, the Building Committee of the Quadrangle Club determined onmodified Tudor-Gothic for the clubhouse. Mindful of the beautifuleffects attained at Hampton Court and in many English manor housesthrough the .use of brick, mindful also of the desirability of at onceconforming to the University norm and of securing some variety incolor the Committee and the architect, Mr. Howard Shaw, agreed ona structure of colonial red brick, stone trimmings, and a graduated slate20-3«• -» s «43PSo -g.J es142 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDroof of variegated color. The Gothic feeling will be attained less throughexpensive stone carving than through the masses and lines of the building, although there will be some ornamental work on the structure.The building is one hundred and forty-five feet, nine inches long,and from forty-eight feet to seventy-three feet, six inches wide. Theclubhouse will contain 354,000 cubic feet — twice as large as the presentbuilding. The construction is fireproof throughout.The main entrance in Fifty-seventh Street is marked by a porch,flagged with New York bluestone. Through a vestibule one enters alobby sixteen by thirty-four feet paved like the vestibule in bluestone.The walls of the lobby are Bedford stone, the ceilings sand-finish plasterwith oak beams. The ladies' reception room, fourteen feet by eighteenfeet, contains a stone fireplace. The walls of this room are paneled,the floor black terrazzo. Adjacent are the other rooms of the women'ssuite. In the lobby, south of the entrance to the ladies' rooms, is thelobby leading to the men's coatroom, lockers, and shower-rooms. Therest of this floor is given over to service-rooms including three maids'rooms and two janitors' rooms, a restaurant storeroom and a buildingstoreroom. Returning to the lobby one finds directly opposite theentrance the counter of the office, and behind this outer office an innerone with a vault. From the center of the south wall of the lobby anentrance leads past the office and telephone booths to the south door,which opens on the tennis courts. To the right of this corridor is thecardroom, fourteen feet, six inches, by twenty-three feet. Througha door in the west wall of the lobby one enters the billiard-room, thirty-five feet by forty-six feet, large enough for eight tables) with a splitbrick fireplace in the alcove at the north end of the room and a raised oakplatform in the bay window at the south. This room has a concretefloor; the walls are brick and stone, and the ceiling has heavy beamswith ornamental plaster. Returning to the lobby we find to the left,just outside of the billiard-room, the stone stair with wrought-iron railleading to the second floor. Just at the head of the stair a door leadsto the left to a private dining-room eighteen feet by twenty-two feet,six inches. To the south directly opposite the stair and south of thegallery connecting the dining-room and the lounge is the inclosed porch,in which there is a large stone fireplace. This porch overlooking thetennis courts and protected from sun and storm is likely to become afavorite room. The lounge is at the west end of the building on thissame floor. It is a room twenty-two by forty-nine feet, with a largefireplace at the north end and a bay window at the south and two largeTHE QUADRANGLE CLUB 143mullioned windows in the west wall. The walls are paneled in oak tothe ceiling; the ceiling is plaster, between oak beams. A door from thelounge and a door from the gallery lead into the writing-room, twelvefeet by twenty-one feet, with vaulted ceiling and terrazzo floor. Thecardroom occupies the space between the lounge and the closed porchto the south of the gallery. The rest of this floor is given over to thekitchen and dining-room. In the northeast corner is the kitchen withadjacent pantries, cold storage, elevator, service stairs, pastry-room,and maids' dining-room. The main dining-room was planned not onlyin relation to the kitchen but in connection with possible entertainmentsto be given in the Club. The dining-room itself is thirty-six feet byfifty-five feet. The floor is black terrazzo. The dining-room is wainscoted with oak to a height of seven feet, and the walls above the wainscot are of stone to the ceiling. The south wall has a large stone baywindow flanked by large mullioned windows. The north wall has init a large fireplace. In front of the doors to the kitchens and pantriesis a screen concealing the passageway between the private dining-roomand kitchen but revealing a large mullioned window to the north. Tothe east of the dining-hall, really a part of it, is the so-called breakfast-room, which has an oak floor raised above the floor of the dining-room.For breakfast or during the holidays the large dining-room will be shutoff, and the few patrons of the dining-room will be put in the breakfast-room, which will have the south and east sun. For entertainmentsthe breakfast-room will serve as a stage fifteen feet by twenty-sevenfeet with a proscenium eighteen feet wide. The audience can be seatednot only in the dining-hall but in the inclosed porch, the gallery, and theprivate dining-room. In this way provision can be made for over fourhundred and fifty seats with a good view of the stage.The third floor is given over to living quarters, twenty-one roomsbeing provided, all with baths, including a suite to be used as a University guestroom.EVENTS: PAST AND FUTURETHE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEENTH CONVOCATIONThe One Hundred and FifteenthConvocation was held in Leon MandelAssembly Hall, Tuesday, March 16,at 4:00 P.M. The Convocation Address,"The Political Progress of the EnglishWorking Man," was delivered by ConyersRead, Ph.D., Professor of History,University of Chicago.The award of honors was: HaroldLasswell and Max Wester, Civil Government Prize; Marian Esther Manly, TheJohn Billings Fiske Prize in Poetry.The election of the following students asassociate members to Sigma Xi wasannounced: Dorothy Marian Ashland,Ira Sprague Bowen, James Milton Elgin,Vestus Twiggs Jackson, Alfred EdwardJurist, Arthur Preston Locke, HenryCastle Albert Mead, Ray Will Metcalf,Avery Adrian Morton, Eloise Parsons,Harold John Stockman, Imogene DoloresWillard. The election of the followingstudents as members of Sigma Xi wasannounced: Ira Garnett Barber, ClarenceEhnie Broeker, Ying Chang Cheng, MarieDye, Warren Walter Ewing, DanielJerome Fisher, Margaret Bradley Fuller,Forrest Alva Kingsbury, Katharine LucilleMcCluskey, Arthur Crane McFarlan,Motonori Matsuyama, Edison Pettit,Lillian Grace Reynolds, Garvin DennisShallenberger, Herman Bernhard Siems,Williams Ralph Smythe. The electionof the following students to the Beta ofIllinois Chapter of Phi Beta Kappawas announced: Samuel King Allison,Blanche Beatrice Boyer, David MandelHalfant, Samuel Jacob Jacobsohn (June,1918), Carl Gilbert Johnson (December,19 19), Donald Henry King, Harold LeoKlawans, Vera Bena Leibovitz, LuellaEsther Nadelhoffer, Edgar Burke Reading, Emil Durbin Ries (June, 19 19),Esther Sabel (December, 1919), RuthEmily Worthington.Honorable mention for excellence inthe work of the Junior Colleges: GeorgeWilliam Adams, Isaac Bencowitz, CarrollLane Fenton, John Gifford, JuliusGordon, William Drumm Johnston, Jr.,Carolyn Nicholas Macdonald, Victor Carl Milliken, Herman Theodore Mossberg, Henry Albert Rabe, Milton Steinberg, Emma Elizabeth Straub, ZokTsung Wang, Ruth Elvira Westlund,Edward DeWitt Wines, William Augustine Zeiler. Honorable mention forexcellence in the work leading to thecertificate of the College of Education:M. Ethel Brown. The Bachelor's degreewas conferred with honors on the following students: Simon Harry Alster,Edgar Bernhard, Blanche Beatrice Boyer,Stanley Maxwell Crowe, Irma EstevanCushing, Kathleen Knox Foster, DavidMandel Halfant, Samuel Jacob Jacobsohn, Carl Gilbert Johnson, ErnestOliver Larson, Vera Bena Leibovitz,Ivy Isabel Lidman, Mary VirginiaMilligan, Dewey Self Patton, JosephJerry Pelc, Emil Durbin Ries, EstherSabel, Ida Douges Staudt, WinfredMarcus Wagner, Edith Carrie Wilson.Honors for excellence in particulardepartments of the Senior Colleges wereawarded to the following students:Simon Harry Alster, Political Science;Edgar Bernhard, Law; Blanche BeatriceBoyer, Latin and Greek; Clara AdalineChamberlain, English and General Literature; Irma Estevan Cushing, English;David Mandel Halfant, History andPolitical Economy; Samuel Jacob Jacobsohn, Mathematics; Samuel Jacob Jacobsohn, Physics; Carl Gilbert Johnson,Anatomy and Physiology; Ernest OliverLarson, Anatomy; Vera Bena Leibovitz,Political Economy; Ivy Isabel Lidman,English; Ivy Isabel Lidman, Romance;Joseph Jerry Pelc, Chemistry; EmilDurbin Ries, Chemistry; Esther Sabel,English; Edith Carrie Wilson, History.Degrees and titles were conferred asfollows: The Colleges: the certificateof the College of Education, 6; the degreeof Bachelor of Arts, 2 ; the degree ofBachelor of Philosophy, 41; the degreeof Bachelor of Science, 20; the degree ofBachelor of Philosophy in Education, 9;the degree of Bachelor of Science in Education, 1; the degree of Bachelor ofPhilosophy in Commerce and Administration, 7; The Divinity School: thedegree of Master of Arts, 1 ; the degreeof Bachelor of Divinity, 2; the degree144EVENTS: PAST AND FUTURE HSof Doctor of Philosophy, 2; The LawSchool: the degree of Bachelor of Laws,1; the degree of Doctor of Law, 6; TheGraduate Schools of Arts, Literature, andScience: the degree of Master of Arts, 6;the degree of Master of Science, 3; thedegree of Doctor of Philosophy, 5. Thetotal number of degrees conferred was 1 1 1 .The Convocation Prayer Service washeld at 10:30 a.m., Sunday, March 14,in the Reynolds Club. At n : 00 a.m., inLeon Mandel Assembly Hall, the Convocation Religious Service was held.The preacher was the Reverend FrankWakeley Gunsaulus, D.D., LL.D., President of Armour Institute of Technology. rTHE ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEENTH CONVOCATIONThe address at the One Hundred Sixteenth Convocation will be deliveredby President David Prescott Barrows,Ph.D., 1897, LL.D., of the Universityof California. Dr. Barrows was born inChicago, June 27, 1873. He receivedhis A.B. at Pomona College in Californiain 1894 an(i m the following year receivedfrom the University of California thedegree of M.A. In 1897 he was madea doctor of philosophy of the University of Chicago, his department beinganthropology. In 1900 he went to Manila as superintendent of the schools ofManila. Subsequently he became director of education of the Philippine Islands,resigning in 1909 to become professor ofeducation and dean of the graduate schoolof the University of California. In 191 1he became professor of political scienceand in 1913 dean of the faculties. In191 7 he was a major in the Americanarmy and was on active duty as intelligence officer in the Philippine Islands.Later he served in Siberia, especially atVladivostok.The Phi Beta Kappa address will bedelivered by another doctor of the University of Chicago, Edwin Emery Slosson,Ph.D., 1902, Chemistry. Dr. Slossonwas born in Albany, Kansas, June 7, 1865.He received the degree of B.S. from theUniversity of Kansas in 1890 and in 1892the degree of M.S. From the Universityof Chicago he received the- degree ofPh.D. in Chemistry in 1902. He becamea member of Phi Beta Kappa at theUniversity of Kansas. After serving asprofessor of chemistry in the University of Wyoming and chemist of the WyomingAgricultural Experiment Station from1 89 1 to 1903, he gave up his universitywork and devoted himself to literature,especially the popular exposition of scientific subjects. In 1903 he becameliterary editor of the Independent, ofwhich for many years he has been managing editor. In 1912 he was appointedone of the staff of the School of Journalism of Columbia University. He isthe author of Great American Universities,1910; Major Prophets of Today, 1914;Six Major Prophets, 191 7. Dr. Slosson'ssubject at the annual meeting of theBeta of Illinois Chapter of Phi BetaKappa will be "Americanization — Unit-^-ing the United States."GENERAL ITEMSThe famous poet and playwright,William Butler Yeats, delivered aWilliam Vaughn Moody Lecture at the, University of Chicago on the evening ofMarch 2. The subject of his address; was "The Friends of My Youth." Mr.[ Yeats was a guest of the University many; years ago when his play The Land ofI Heart's Desire was presented in the\ Reynolds Club Theater.* Announcement is made from Parisc that Professor Albert A. Michelson, Headof the Department of Physics, has beenmade a^ foreign associate member of theJ French Academy of Sciences, to succeed[ the late Lord Rayleigh.E Announcement is made that among the< new members of the Divinity School1 Faculty for the coming Summer Quarter1 will be Professor T. R. Glover, of St.- John's College, Cambridge University,England. Professor Glover, who hast been university lecturer in ancient history at Cambridge and Wilde LecturerB in comparative religion at Oxford, willgive courses in the Department of> Church History during the School Term1 of the Summer Quarter. ProfessorGlover rendered conspicuous service ine the war in connection with the Y.M.C.A.2. organization.Vi Professor Anton J. Carlson, Chairmane of the Department of Physiology, hase recently been made an honorary M.D.s by the —University of Lund, Sweden.y Professor Carlson has also been made a146 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDcorresponding member of the FrenchBiological Society.Assistant Professor Rudolph Altrocchi,of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, has recently beenmade an officer d'Acad6mie by the Frenchgovernment in recognition of his warservices as an American liaison officer atLyons and as commandant of the schooldetachment. Before going to FranceProfessor Altrocchi was associated withCaptain Charles E. Merriam in Italy inconnection with the Bureau of AmericanPropaganda, and later was awarded adiploma of merit by the Italian government.The sculpture exhibit of Albin Polasek, the Chicago sculptor, which wasrecently opened under the auspices ofthe Renaissance Society in the ClassicsBuilding at the University of Chicago,continued until March 5. Mr. Polasek,who gave the opening address on "TheArt of the Sculptor," is head of the department of sculpture at the Art Institute, Chicago, and has had many honors,among them the award of the Prix deRome at the American Academy inRome, the Widener Gold Medal at thePennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, andthe Logan Medal at the Art Institute ofChicago.Assistant Professor Gerald L. Wendt,of the Department of Chemistry, has beenappointed Associate Editor of the Journalof the Radiological Society of NorthAmerica. Dr. Wendt, who for a yearwas junior chemist in radioactivity,United States Bureau of Mines, andlater Instructor in Quantitative Analysisand Radioactivity, University of Chicago,was appointed to his present position in1918.Students of literature will be especiallyinterested in the announcement of thecoming of George Edward Woodberry,the American poet, to the University ofChicago for a lecture, May 4, on theWilliam Vaughn Moody Foundation. Hissubject will be "Longfellow."Mr. Woodberry, who for many yearswas professor of comparative literature atColumbia, is the author of The NorthShore Watch, The Life of Edgar Allan Poein two volumes, and The Inspiration ofPoetry as well as the editor of Shelley's and Poe's complete works and the collected poems of Rupert Brooke.In response to an invitation to beguests of the Japanese universities, theUniversity of Chicago baseball team willvisit Japan in the Spring Quarter, leaving Chicago at the close of the quarterlyexaminations at the end of March. Theteam will play practice games in California for two weeks, probably with theteams of Leland Stanford Junior University and the University of California.The squad, including six Seniors, three-Juniors, and three Sophomores, will beled by Clarence Vollmer, captain, andwill sail on the "Tenyo Maru" from SanFrancisco on April 17.Games will be played with WasedaUniversity in Tokyo and with other universities in Japan, and the players willreturn to Chicago in time for work in theSummer Quarter. In 19 10 and again in191 5 University of Chicago teams visitedJapan, and were highly successful,winning ten and twelve games respectively.At the recent annual meeting of theAmerican Society of Zoologists, Professor Frank R. Lillie, Chairman of the Department of Zoology at the University ofChicago, was elected member of theDivision of Biology and Agriculture,National Research Council, to servethree years. He was also made a member of the advisory board of the AmericanSociety of Zoologists. Professor CharlesManning Child, retiring president of thesociety, has been made a member of theexecutive committee for five years.The Learned Lady in England; 1650-1760 is the title of a new volume by Professor Myra Reynolds, of the Department of English at the University ofChicago, which is to be issued this springas one of the Vassar semi-centennial series.Dr. Reynolds, who is a graduate andtrustee of Vassar College, has alsoWritten The Treatment of Nature inEnglish Poetry published by the University of Chicago Press. She received herDoctor's degree from the University ofChicago in 1895.Among the new and forthcomingvolumes announced by the University ofChicago Press are an Introduction to thePeace Treaties, by Arthur Pearson Scott;EVENTS: PAST AND FUTURE 147Impressions of Italy in War Time, byCharles Edward Merriam; "The Problemof Democracy," Vol. XIV, Papers andProceedings of the American SociologicalSociety; The Great Awakening in theMiddle Colonies, by Charles H. Maxson;The Geography of the Ozark Highland ofMissouri, by Carl O. Sauer; A Field andLaboratory Guide in Physical Nature-Study, by Elliot R. Downing; TheRelation between Religion and Science:A Biological Approach, by Angus S.Woodburne; Pronunciation of the Namesof Italian Painters, by Ernest H. Wilkins;and Giacosa, Tristi Amori, edited byRudolph Altrocchi and B. N. Wood-bridge ("University of Chicago ItalianSeries").New editions and impressions announced include A Short History ofBelgium, with a new chapter on Belgiumin the War, by Leon Van der Essen, ofthe University of Lou vain; A ShortHistory of Japan, by Ernest W. Clement;Outlines of Chinese Art, by John C. Ferguson; Everyday Greek: Greek Words inEnglish, by Horace A. Hoffman; AShort History of Christianity in theApostolic Age, by George H. Gilbert;and Current Economic Problems, byWalton H. Hamilton.Joseph Pennell, the famous etcher andauthor, was announced to speak under theauspices of the Renaissance Society atthe University of Chicago on the eveningof April 21. Mr. PennelPs subject was"Billboards: A National Menace, aNational Curse." The lecture whichMr. Pennell gave under this title hasalready made a striking impressionamong publicists and leaders of thoughtin the art world.Margaret Deland, the widely knownAmerican novelist, author of Old ChesterTales and The Awakening of HelenaRitchie, gave a William Vaughn MoodyLecture on April 8. Mrs. Deland's subject was "The Opportunity of the DullJob." . '¦•The first University Preacher in Aprilat the University of Chicago was DeanWilliam Wallace Fenn, of the HarvardDivinity School, who spoke on April 4 and 11. Professor Harry Emerson Fos-dick, of Union Theological Seminary,New York, spoke on April 18, and Professor George A. Johnston Ross, of thesame institution, on April 25.President Lynn Harold Hough, ofNorthwestern University, will be thefirst preacher in May, and" will be followedin that month by Dean Charles R. Brown,of the Yale School of Religion, Rev.Cornelius Woelfkin, of the Fifth AvenueBaptist Church, New York City, andProfessor Allan Hoben, of CarletonCollege, Minnesota.Under the auspices of the RenaissanceSociety of the University of Chicago anillustrated lecture on "Rembrandt" wasgiven April 14 by Dr. A. J. Barnouw,Queen Wilhelmina Lecturer at ColumbiaUniversity.Mr. Jan Garrigue Masaryk, Czechoslovak charge d'affaires at Washington,gave a public lecture, March 30, on thesubject of " Czecho-Slovakia." He is theson of the president of that republic, whoonce was a lecturer at the University ofChicago.Professor Edwin Oakes Jordan, Chairman of the Department of Hygieneand Bacteriology at the University ofChicago, has been elected a member ofthe International Health Board of theRockefeller Foundation.The tenth annual meeting of the Association of Business Officers of Universitiesand Colleges of the Middle West will beheld at the University of Chicago onMay 7 and 8. The president of theassociation, Mr. Trevor Arnett, who isauditor of the University and a secretaryof the General Education Board, willpresent a paper on "The Present Trendof Financing Endowed Institutions."Insurance and Annuities" will be discussed by Mr. Nathan C. Plimpton,assistant auditor, and "University MailService," by Mr. John F. Moulds, University cashier. The universities ofWisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan,Minnesota, Missouri, Iowa, Chicago, andCincinnati will be represented at themeeting.AWARD OF FELLOWSHIPS 1920-1921Roy Hidemichi Akagi HistoryA.B., University of California, 191 8Edward Stone Akeley PhysicsA.B., University of South Dakota, 191 5Mary Bernard Allen HistoryPh.B., 1918Christian Emil Bale EnglishA.B., 1904A.M., 1906Harold Bennett LatinA.B., University of Toronto, 191 5Viola Blackburn EnglishA.B., Wellesley College, 1918Helen Bourquin PhysiologyA.B., Colorado College, 191 5M.S., 1916Clarence Ehnie Broeker ChemistryS.B., University of Illinois, 1919Elizabeth Cable Brook HistoryA.B., University of Kansas, 191 2A.M., ibid., 1913Thomas D. Brooks EducationA.B., Baylor University, 1903Blanche Elizabeth Mae Brotherton LatinA.B., Smith College, 191 5A.M., 1919Adolf August Brux Old TestamentGrad., Concordia College, 1913Grad., Concordia Seminary, 191 7William Pierce Carson EnglishA.B., Furman University, 1913Ph.B., 1915A.M., ibid., 19 16Earl Clark Case GeographyB. of Education, Illinois State Normal, 191 5Ernest John Chave Practical TheologyA.B., McMaster University, 1906B.Th., ibid., 1910Carl Addington Dawson Practical TheologyA.B., Acadia University, 191 2William Diamond GermanA.B., University of Manitoba, 1915Alfred Paul Dorjahn GreekA.B., 1917Mary Redington Ely New TestamentA.B., Mt. Holyoke College, 1911B.Th., Union Theological Seminary, 19 19Daniel Jerome Fisher GeologyS.B., 1917148AWARD OF FELLOWSHIPS 1920-1921 149James Byron Friauf PhysicsA.B., University of Montana, 191 8Adelbert Anton Friedrich Political EconomyA.B., Beloit College, 191 7Mont Robertson Gabbert PhilosophyA.B., Transylvania College, 191 5A.M., ibid., 1916Evelyn Garfiel PsychologyA.B., Barnard College, 1920Phillip Goddard RomanceA.B., 191 7Harold Clifford Goldthorpe Physiological ChemistryS.B., Utah Agricultural College, 191 7Carter Lyman Goodrich Political EconomyA.B., Amherst College, 191 8Harold Foote Gosnell Political ScienceA.B., University of Rochester, 19 18Aubrey Chester Grubb ChemistryA.B., 1917A.M., 1919Katharine Lucile Hageman PhilosophyA.B., Oberlin College, 191 9Frank Russell Hamblin LatinA.B., Bucknell University, 1914A.M., ibid., 19 15Martin Charles Edward Hanke ChemistryS.B., 1918Carolyn Victoria Hargan GreekA.B., 1918Joseph Anthony Humphreys EducationA.B., Oberlin College, 1916William Polk Jesse PhysicsA.B., University of Missouri, 1913M.E., ibid., 1913Edward Theodore Johnson PhysicsS.B., 1917Claribel Kendall MathematicsA.B., University of Colorado, 191 2A.M., ibid., 1914ISADORE KEYFITZ Old TestamentB.A., University of Toronto, 1919James Noel Keys EducationA.B., Emporia College, 1916A.B., University of Oxford, 1918A.M., ibid., 1920Helen Lois Koch PsychologyPh.B., 1918Darwin Ashley Leavitt Old TestamentB.A., Beloit College, 1904M.A., Yale University, 1907D.B., ibid., 1907Katherine Eva Ludgate PsychologyA.B., University of Washington, 191 7S.M., ibid., 1918ISO THE UNIVERSITY RECORDFrederick Dean McClusky EducationA.B., Park College, 191 7Katharine Lucille McClusky ChemistryS.B., 191 7Cyrus Colton MacDuffee MathematicsS.B., Colgate University, 191 7Arthur Crane McFarlane Geology and PaleontologyA.B., University of Cincinnati, 1919Andrew Merritt McMahon PhysicsA.B., State University of Iowa, 1916S.M., ibid., 191 7Daniel Allan MacPherson Hygiene and BacteriologyPh.B., Brown University, 1920M.S., ibid., 1920Frank Paden McWhorter BotanyS.B., Vanderbilt University, 1918S.M., 1919Elizabeth Wilhelmina Miller Household AdministrationPh.B., 1914A.M., 1915John Preston Minton PhysicsS.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1912Clarence John Monroe ChemistryS.B., 1917Paul Grady Moorhead LatinA.B., University of South Carolina, 1913A.M., ibid., 1914Robert Sanderson Mulliken ChemistryS.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 191 7Ralph W. Nelson SociologyA.B., Phillips University, 1915A.M., University of Kansas, 19 16B.D., Yale University, 1918Albert Watts Newcombe Church HistoryA.B., Bowdoin College, 19 14D.B., Newton Theological Institute, 19 17Alois Richard Nykl RomancePh.B., 1918Ruth O'Brien ChemistryS.B., University of Nebraska, 1914A.M., 1915Harriet McWilliams Parsons AstronomyA.B., Vassar College, 1915S.M., 1916Arthur Frederick Peine HistoryA.B., Illinois Wesleyan College, 191 1A.M., University of Illinois, 1913Donald Ayres Piatt PhilosophyPh.B., 1919George Rawltngs Poage HistoryPh.B., 1916A.M., 1918Lillian Grace Reynolds Botany/S.B.,1919AWARD OF FELLOWSHIPS 1920-1921 151William V. Roosa New TestamentA.B., Drake University, 1915A.M., 1916George Stefanus Hauptfleisch Rossouw SociologyA.B., University of Good Hope, 1915A.M., 1918Wtlliam Henry Sassaman Old TestamentA.B., Franklin and Marshall College, 191 7Kenoske Sato SociologyAB., University of Illinois, 1918Albert James Saunders Religious EducationA.B., Texas Christan University, 1906D.B., 1909A.M., 1913Francis Parker Shepard GeologyA.B., Harvard University, 1919Pranis Baltras Stvickis ZoologyA.B., University of Missouri, 191 7Thomas Vernor Smith PhilosophyA.B., University of Texas, 191 5A.M., ibid., 1916Louise Marte Spaeth SociologyA.B., University of Texas, 1908Stewart Duffield Swan ChemistryA.B., Monmouth College, 191 2Lewis Francis Thomas GeographyS.B., Denison University, 1910A.M . , University of Missouri, 1 9 1 7Alfred Tonness Systematic TheologyPh.B., 1917Ralph Edmond Wager Education ^A.B., Syracuse University, 1902Ped.B., State Normal College, New York, 1904A.M., Syracuse University, 1905H. B. Wahlln PhysicsAB., Bethany College, 191 5A.M., University of Kansas, 1916Lois Whitney EnglishS.B., 1914A.M., 1915Constance Wiener MathematicsA.B., Radcliffe College, 1918Margaret Fitch Willcox ChemistryA.B., Mount Holyoke College, 1919Harold Rddeout Willoughby New TestamentA.B., Wesleyan University, 191 5A.M., ibid., 1916John Frank Wright GeologyA.B., Acadia University, 191 7WINTER QUARTER 1920End of Quarter.. 1920 1917GainMen Women Total Men Women Total Loss jI. Arts, Literature, andScience:i. Graduate Schools —Arts, Literature 204252 17583 379335 191244 17861 369305 IO30Science Total 45653880462 25843253051 7i49701,334H3 43543°63135 23936144962 6747911,08097 40179254162. The Colleges —Senior Junior Unclassified Total 1,404I,86o96(S dup.)15 1,0131,27114(4 dup.)9 2,4173,i3ino24 1,096i,53i13415 S721,111126 1,9682,64214621 449489Total Arts, Literature,and Science. ......II. Professional Schools:i. Divinity School —Graduate Unclassified English Theological Chicago Theological 25 6 3i 39 39Total 136749823 2923101 1659710824 1888010582 18117 2069i11282*2. Courses in Medicine —Graduate 41*Senior Junior Unclassified Total. . . 17714368902 3483 21115168932 195137622 18812 213145646423. Law School —Graduate *Senior Candidates for LL.B Unclassified Total 30321434 n193125 314214559 26438154 n32056 275358210 393494. College of Education 5. College of Commerce andAdministration 144Total Professional . . .Total University ....*Deduct for Duplication. . 1,0712,93i250 3921,66338 1,4634,594288 8392,37o262 423i,53419 1,2623,904281 201690Net totals in Quadrangles 2,681 1,625 4,3o6 2,108 i,5i5 3,626 683University College 292 9^5 i,257 276 1,047 1,323Totals in the University 2,973 2,590 5,563 2,384 2,562 4,946 617**»JOSEPH BOXD