Clarum et . . .

High on a platform from left to right sat these men in the front semicircular row: the President of the Board of Overseers of Harvard (Dr. Wigglesworth), the President of Yale (Dr. Angell), the Governor of Massachusetts (Dr. Cox), the Chief Justice of the U. S. (Dr. Taft), the President of the Associated Harvard Clubs (Dr. Greve), the President Emeritus of Harvard (Dr. Eliot), a Justice of the Supreme Court of the U. S. who is President of the Harvard Alumni Association (Dr. Sanford), the President of Harvard (Dr. Lowell), a Harvard Dean (Dr. Briggs), an undergraduate (Mr. MacVeagh), a Unitarian divine (Dr. Peabody.)

They made speeches in the following order, saying in part:

Dr. Sanford: "We have met to celebrate the 90th birthday of Dr. Charles William Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard University,-- clarum et venerabile nomen . . . All these assembled here salute you. . . . We rejoice that you are still clad in your shining armour. . . . Your voice is calm in a hurried and restless age. ... It is my privilege to present to you ... a copy of the new Alumni Directory, bound in crimson leather, containing the names of all living Harvard men, numbering more than 43,000. . . . We trust that it may . . . breathe to you their prayer that your years may be long in the house of your fathers, and that your paths may be those of pleasantness and peace."

Dr. Lowell: ". . . from first to last, Dr. Eliot has been an educational warrior. . . ."

Dr. Wigglesworth: "Dumas was once asked by a lady how he managed to grow old so gracefully. . . . He replied: 'Madam, I devote my whole time to it.' You, Mr. President, have never devoted any part of your time to growing old; you have devoted the whole of it to useful service and continuous development . . .

The heights by great men reached and kept

Were not attained by sudden flight,

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night. . . .

Of you too, sir, it may be said: 'In disaster, calm; in success, moderate; in all, himself.' "

Dr. Briggs: ". . . of your personal kindness I might say much. . . ."

Dr. Angell: "For threescore years and ten you [Dr. Eliot] have played a part in the development of our national education, and for 45 of these years, from the moment when you assumed the Presidency of Harvard, men have recognized in you a leader without peer. You have been the apostle of responsible freedom."

At this point, the Bishop of Massachusetts (Dr. Lawrence) stepped forward from the back row to say that anonymous friends had given $1,250,000 to Harvard.

Dr. Cox: ". . . One who believes that the welfare of mankind is the first concern of men. . . ."

Mr. MacVeagh: "Their [Harvard undergraduates'] one regret is that they can not greet you in this building. Yet there is no building that could withstand the shock of their greeting. And so they are now gathering outside ... to give you a fitting reception in their own barbaric way."

Dr. Taft: "The President of the United States has asked me to bear his cordial felicitations to Dr. Eliot. . . . The President feels great regret that he can not be here." . . . [Political parties are indispensable and the fewer the better, but independent non-partisan leadership, such as Dr. Eliot gave, is vital in a democracy.] . . . "It is not fulsome to say that he has wielded greater power with the intelligent democracy of this country than any other unofficial citizen of his time. ... To him, as the most distinguished and most honored of our elder statesmen may there come many more years of happy life in the consciousness of arduous duty done."

Dr. Eliot: "Dear Friends: The affectionate note of this tribute goes straight to my heart. It fills me in fact with wonder. . . . Look forward and not backward--look out and not in." He mentioned Lowell, Emerson Holmes, Asa Gray, Benjamin Pierce. "You must, therefore, attribute the successes which I have been privileged to win, to the very fortunate circumstances of my life, to the extraordinary leadership of philosophers and scientists of my time."

Charles J. Hubbard, Jr., football captain, led the undergraduate tribute outdoors. In response, Dr. Eliot said: "Do not put off marriage too much. Do not wait till you think you can offer the girl you want to marry all the luxuries and privileges to which, in her father's home, she was accustomed. When you have made up your mind, give the girl a chance to tell you hers. One other exhortation: If you find on the whole you do not like the profession on which you have ventured, do not stay in it. Persevere until you have found the right place for yourself."

Biographical material assembled in honor of his 90th birthday, shows that Dr. Charles W. Eliot:

P: Selected crimson to be Harvard's color. As an undergraduate, Eliot was an oarsman. Just before the big race, he was delegated to get from Boston some insignia by which the Harvard crew might be clearly distinguished from the Yale. He bought nine red bandanas including one for the coxswain.

P: Opposed football on the grounds that physical contact caused unsportsmanlike animosity between opponents.

P: Is the only man on whom an American University has ever conferred an honorary degree of doctor of medicine.

P: Graduated from Harvard at the age of 15, before anyone had ever heard of Lincoln. He became President at 35, when his well-known future pupil, Theodore Roosevelt, was in the cradle.

P: Of him Roosevelt later said: "He is the only man in the world I envy."

P: Shed tears over the passage in Paradise Lost (Milton) where Adam and Eve are turned out of the garden.

P: Abolished compulsory chapel.

P: Rebuked the great Benjamin F. Butler, Governor of Massachusetts (who had set forth a materialistic view of education), saying: "You must learn the eternal worth of character." There was a roar of applause. The shot hit.

P: Was presented with a purse of $150,000, on his retirement in 1909.

P: Was offered the ambassadorship to Great Britain by President Taft.