SPEECH OF FRANK S. STREETER, ESQUIRE, PRESIDING AT THE ALUMNI DINNER, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26

In the absence of the president and vice presidents of this association, I am instructed by the Trustees to welcome you back to the College and to connect you with the real orators of the day.

This is said to be the largest gathering that ever attended an ordinary Commencement. By your presence you show your approval of what has here been done during the last fourteen years. The material improvement we see; the educational advance we know and feel ; but through all our pleasure, our congratulations, and our wonderment, at the tremendous strides which the College has made towards the highest educational efficiency, there sounds a mournful note which becomes more and more insistent and dominates the hour as we see and feel the absence of the man whose name is on every lip, whose loving memory is in every heart, the creator of this transformed and regenerated College,-our President.

This is not the place to review the work of this man, but let me briefly sketch some of the things done:

Elected in February, 1893, he began to lay the foundation for future growth. That the growth would come he never had a doubt.

The revolution which gave the alumni a large voice in the administration,, both business and educational, had just been completed. He had strongly advocated the change. Five of the twelve trustees were practically elected by direct votes of the alumni. The value of this new force was fully understood by him. Its development was largely through his personal efforts. He made us see, feel, and know that this College was our College. The size of the student body began to increase rapidly.

In fourteen years the enrolled students of the College have increased from a little more than 300 to above 1000. Rebuilding and enlargement of the physical plant has been demanded. Enlargement of the teaching force by 300 per cent has been necessary. The raising of funds to meet the cost has been imperative. Let me sketch in merest outline some of the things which have been accomplished, even though I be obliged to omit much.

A water supply has been provided for the College and the village. Butterfield, Wilder, Tuck, a remodeled Chandler and a remodeled Culver have been added to the recitation halls of the College. A student club building and a great dining hall have been built. Webster Hall, a capacious and impressive auditorium, is practically finished. The policy has been declared and adhered to of providing for a large proportion of the membership of the College through college dormitories. To this end there have been erected Richardson, three Fayerweathers, Wheeler and Hubbard No. 2. Still another, Massachusetts Hall, is under process of construction. Sanborn House and Crosby House have been enlarged. Among houses remodeled and adapted to dormitory uses are Elm, Hubbard, Shurtleff, Proctor, and Noyes. A central, heating plant of most efficient type has been installed. An electric plant capable of all the varied service required has been added. The social needs of the students having been met in College Hall, the College assumed the responsibility for the needs of the alumni, parents, and guests by taking over the hotel, remodeling it and putting it under college management as the Hanover Inn. The irreparable loss of Old Dartmouth having occurred, the generosity of the alumni has given us New Dartmouth as well as Webster. The trust funds of the College have been increased by over one million dollars. The current annual income has been five times increased. The establishment of the Tuck School through the generosity of the Honorable Edward Tuck, a son of New Hampshire, is proving a strong educational force and is already shown to be of infinite possibilities.

But the progress is not alone in the outward and visible,—the bricks, the mortar, and the wood which have been fashioned into an educational equipment. Nine new departments have been added with a more than proportionate increase in the instruction corps. The work of the other departments has been strengthened. For example, formerly two men did all the work in French and German besides doing some work in English, and one of these men was the librarian of the College and the other the head of the Chandler School. Now eleven men are required in the teaching of the modern languages alone.

The incorporation of the Chandler School into the College in 1893 marked a step in educational policy much to the advantage of the College. The incorporation of the Lawrence Scientific School course into the college curriculum at Harvard last year signifies the tendency, the advantage of which Dartmouth first recognized.

But there is something more. The personal influence of the President, growing out of his relations with the students, with men of affairs and the world, have been an enormous factor in developing the higher influence of the College.

Under the work now being here done a Dartmouth degree has come to stand with those degrees which represent the highest and most efficient preparation for the world's work.

All this has been accomplished under the initiative of the President, pursuing a well-defined policy adopted at the outset, and adhered to with firmness and courage. He has originated the plans and has led in carrying them into effect. To him the credit is due. Through him the College has kept pace with the progress of the times, and now stands in the front rank of historic colleges.

What of the future?

The active, rugged work of the great builder is approaching completion." With careful conservation of his strength we believe he will be with us many years to aid us with his wise counsels. The. active duties of the presidency must before long fall upon other shoulders.

But the onward sweep of this great educational movement initiated and carried on by him will not thereby be arrested.

The leader may step aside, but his great influence and example remain as an incentive to further progress. You will not forget that this is your College; that the Trustees are loyal sons of the same mother as you; that their sole purpose is to cooperate with you in carrying this historic college to a still higher usefulness and efficiency. The fortunes of no institution on earth can rest upon a single man.

I may use Doctor Tucker's own words from the closing part of his inaugural address fourteen years ago:

''The life of an individual cannot attain to the dignity of history. The approach to that dignity marks the lessening of one's future. It is not so with the life of a great institution. The historic college moves on from generation to generation into its illimitable future. Each generation waits to pour into its life the warmth and richness of its own, and departing bequeaths to it the earnings of its strength. The college lives because nourished and fed from the unfailing sources of personal devotion.''

I offer this sentiment as a toast,to be adopted if you wish, as the message of the alumni to their absent leader:

"President Tucker, the eminent scholar and preacher, the ideal college president, the patriotic citizen, the Christian gentleman; Dartmouth and her sons are grateful for his filial and unselfish devotion to the College, the inestimable value of the service he has rendered her, and for the inspiration to high, faithful endeavor that his character and daily life have caused. They send to him their hearty sympathy on account of his disability, and their earnest prayer for the recovery of his health."