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Ølmeritan amb (ºrrmam
(ſimiutrøttp ſtraig
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS DELIVERED AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH
SEWANEE TENNESSEE JUNE 30, 1904
BY
H. E. BARON SPECK VON STERN BURG
AMBASSADOR.
SEWANEE TENNESSEE
&The laminergity, Łregg
MCMIIII

American and German
University Ideals
The First Publication of the New
University Press of Sewanee
Tennessee, U.S. A.
HE last Commencement at The
University of the South was the
most notable occasion of the
kind Sewanee has ever celebra-
ted. The most notable event in this notable
week was the giving of the Oration by His
Excellency Baron Speck von Sternburg. The
address, strong in its simplicity, was every-
where received with great satisfaction.
The announcement of the re-organization of
the University Press was made during the
same week. The first publication of the
Press is the address of the Ambassador. The
volume is royal octavo in form. It is printed
upon de luxe book paper of a beautiful tone.
C)
Aºf

The type used is a large Scotch Roman letter,
the lines opened, and the margins wide, giving
the page a very dignified appearance. The
title page is rubricated and the book is with-
out decorations. The type has been distrib-
uted.
The edition consists of 595 copies. The
first five have been sumptuously bound in
royal blue levant, hand-tooled in gold, with
silk end pieces. Number one was presented
to His Imperial Highness, the German Em-
peror; number two, to the President of the
United States; number three, to the German
Ambassador himself; number four, to the
Chancellor of the University; and number five,
to the Vice-Chancellor.
The remaining 590 copies are bound with
Japan paper wrappers over stiff board. Of
these, fifteen are numbered, from 6 to 20.
Only these fifteen copies are for sale. The
price is $3, and none of them will be avail-
able after Dec. 25, 1904.
3
ØImtritam amb (5trmam
(ſimiutrøttp ſtralg
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS DELIVERED AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH
SEWANEE TENNESSEE JUNE 30, 1904
º
&
BY
H.P. Banos SPECK von STERNBURG
AMBASSADOR
FROM GERMANY TO THE UNITED STATES
SEWANEE TENNESSEE
&Ibe (iniuergity ºregg
MCMIIII

AMERICAN AND GERMAN
UNIVERSITY IDEALS
Right Reverend Chancellor, Mr. Pice-
Chancellor, Gentlemen of the Board
of Trustees, Scholars and Students of
the University of the South :
M O N G the numerous honorable and
pleasant duties that devolve upon
me as the representative of the German
Emperor to the United States, certainly
none are more delightful and enjoyable
than those which bring me into relation-
ship with the universities of America.
This hardly could be otherwise, because
there the German feels the atmosphere of
his own Alma Mater, who, as universally
acknowledged, gave birth to the modern
American university.
A few months ago the University of
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AMERICAN AND GERMAN
Chicago celebrated the reciprocity of rela-
tions between the sciences of our two coun-
tries. This happy event remains of far-
reaching significance in the history of our
letters, especially as it was welcomed in
personal messages by President ROOSEVELT
and Emperor WILLIAM, America’s and
Germany’s foremost scholars and educators.
President ROOSEVELT, in dwelling on the
achievements of German scholarship, said:
‘‘ German ideals and German science have
given the inspiration in our universities for
the existing developments of research and
investigation.”
These ideals are the strong and harmonious
expression of the most noble virtues of the
German people. They are the same ideals
which have become so dear to America,
because much did they contribute to make
her great and strong among nations.
The first academic relationship between
the United States and Germany dates back
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UNIVERSITY IDEALS
to the eighteenth century, the time when
FRANKLIN was in close touch with two of
Germany’s leading centres of learning: Halle
and Goettingen. In the following century
the ties between America and the universities
of Germany were considerably strengthened
by some of the great minds of the new world
—men like GEORGE BANCROFT, the historian,
GEORGE TICKNOR and EDWARD EveRETT.
On these men German university life made
a profound and lasting impression. EveRETT
openly proclaimed that America, in the de-
velopment of her universities, should closely
follow the lines taken by the German univer-
sities. I recall with much delight the many
chats I had in the early days of my career
with GEORGE BANCROFT, during our rides
about Washington and in his Newport rose
garden. The venerable gentleman loved
nothing more than to wander back to his
college days in Germany. He would dwell
on the profound conscientiousness which the
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AMERICAN AND GERMAN
German student displays in his literary pur-
suits and in the fulfillment of his duties, on
his keen sense of independence in the solu-
tion of scientific and spiritual problems, on
the fearless way he upholds his convictions,
and on his untiring energy. He especially
loved to dwell on the sunny side of the Ger-
man student life, and on the happy way in
which a sincere and truly literary view of life
in the German Alma Mater is blended with
an innocent and almost childlike delight in
the most simple pleasures. The influence of
GEORGE BANCROFT and his contemporaries
soon increased the numbers of American
students at the German universities. It
is owing to these men, and not to German
men of letters who visited America, that
the main efforts to transplant the German
university ideal on American soil came from
the Americans themselves.
I should like to say a word here about those
characteristics of German university life which
4.
UNIVERSITY IDEALS
have most forcibly influenced the American
universities, and which still are the most im-
portant factors in their future development.
The older college of the United States, as we
all know, held as its exclusive ideal general
education. The result was that its main
efforts were concentrated towards handing
down existing knowledge and science from
generation to generation. This naturally gave
the college a most conservative character as
regards the introduction of new subjects of
study. But gradually the leading university
men of America, the majority of which were
closely connected with the universities of Ger-
many, became firmly convinced that the time
had come to expand. It was clear to them
that if the American university continued to
abide by its old ideals alone, the American
student could never become a potent factor
among those who were engaged in widening
the world’s intellectual and spiritual horizon.
This could be accomplished only by inde-
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AMERICAN AND GERMAN
pendence in scientific research. Hence the
general demand arose to give the new German
university ideal the same advantages. It was
the German spirit which stepped in at this
period with its vitalizing influence.
During the last decades the tendency in
America towards the German university ideal
has bc.cn strongly marked, and it has become
especially noticeable in the selection of the men
in whose hands has been laid the education of
the student. Not only have these men proved
themselves expositors of existing knowledge,
but they must also be recognized as indepen-
dent workers in the field of scientific research.
For the education of the student both ideals
are distinctly essential; the question is how to
blend them in the most satisfactory manner
so as to prevent the one from being curtailed
by the other.
Like every institution, the university, above
all, is forced to adapt itself to the demands
of the time. Hence, in both our countries,
6
UNIVERSITY IDEALS
it has undergone and is undergoing a con-
stant evolution—a process of taking what
is of perennial strength in the old and com-
bining it with adaptations to the new, thus
creating a structure both modern and strong.
Let me here repeat the words of President
BUTLER:
“In order to become great—indeed, in
order to exist at all
a university must repre-
sent the national life, and minister to it.
When the universities of any country cease
to be in close touch with the social life and
institutions of the people, and fail to yield to
the efforts of those who would re-adjust them,
their days of influence are numbered.”
Great have been the changes in social life
during the last decades, especially in the
United States and in Germany. The loco-
motive and the steel bridge have taken the
place of the cannon and the rifle in expanding
the spheres of nations. Our industrial forces
are felt all over the world. They emanate
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AMERICAN AND GERMAN
from our towns and cities, which have been
turned into vast machine shops, and gigantic
combinations have been formed of individuals
and of capital. The salient question of the
day has become: how to give men the best
form of education so as to enable them to
manage these combinations to the greatest
benefit of their people. What is the relation
of the university to these new conditions?
What can the university do to render these
interests more worthy of humanity and more
helpful to the noblest and fullest life? On
the other hand, what can the university do
to make these business interests themselves
more efficient, so as to assure their victory
in the field of ever-increasing international
competition?
The efficiency of the American educational
system, which I have been able to follow
closely during the last twenty years, must
strike any student interested in the problems
of education and of national economy most
8
UNIVERSITY IDEALS
forcibly. One of Germany’s leading scientists
and university professors, greatly interested in
the scientific development of the United States,
recently pointed out the marked progress of her
universities. In some fields the Americans, he
stated, were leading Germany—for instance,
in chemistry, physics, and astronomy, for
which they possess excellent institutes and
teachers; also, in the theological and philo-
sophical sciences they are showing marked
progress. In announcing his intention to
visit America, the professor stated that he
did not come to teach the American people,
but to learn from them.
What has especially impressed me during
my visits to the American centres of learning
is the large amount of money devoted to edu-
cational purposes. Some of their buildings are
truly magnificent; all are equipped with the
most approved lighting, ventilating, and sani-
tary arrangements. The professors and teach-
ers are inspired with the keenest enthusiasm,
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AMERICAN AND GERMAN
and among the students I noticed everywhere
a deep and sincere longing for knowledge.
The men whom your educational methods
have developed show two distinct sides. They
are men of profound learning and high aca-
demic attainments; but, at the same time,
they possess the extraordinary initiative and
Organizing capacity of the qualified business
man. They are ever ready to step into the
arena of public affairs and give the people the
advantage of their learning and experience in
a most unselfish way.
Every American university, it seems to me,
is built upon the motto: Mens sana in corpore
sano. The spacious, airy lecture rooms, the
palatial, well-equipped gymnasiums, the per-
fect playgrounds, the marble swimming pools,
and the clubrooms and dining halls with their
air of refinement—all this is inducive to culti-
vating the best physical health, without which
the perfect mental equilibrium is impossible.
Your keen interest in sports has produced and
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UNIVERSITY IDEALS
is producing a virile race, self-reliant, with its
best individual qualities developed.
As to the training and education the young
man should receive, to bring out what is best
in him to grapple with the new social condi-
tions, there are, both in the United States
and in Germany, certain doubts. Some men
of fame and experience are pointing out that
the university does not equip its graduates
to be workers in the world’s hard work; but
these men, I am happy to say, seem to be in
the minority. If we count the number of
men of university training in the United States
and in Germany during the last three decades,
we clearly see that our people have made up
their minds that higher education has come
to stay. The proportion of persons of uni-
versity training in these two countries, which
are the most energetic in educational work,
is ever increasing. We are now almost sur-
prised to behold how slow we have been in
casting off habits which now seem to us little
;
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AMERICAN AND GERMAN
less than mediaeval. If we hold fast to the
sacred university traditions of the Fatherland
which you have chosen as yours, we need not
fear that this modernization of higher educa-
tion will mean the loss of these traditions.
There is no reason why scholarship should fall
because industry and science are rising.
The best answer to the pessimist who warns
his young friend to beware of the college—
which retards and even cripples his career—is
to look up the rolls of our leading universities
and the account of the lives of their graduates.
Neither here nor in my own country have I
met a graduate who regretted his university
education or the time spent in acquiring it.
On the contrary, I have heard only expressions
of regret by men who are members of the still
amazingly large army of the untrained. Of
course, boys who dislike study or who are
indolent should never be selected for a higher
education, which is apt to make them pessi-
mists or social rebels. Whether a boy should
12
UNIVERSITY IDEALS
be prepared for a higher education or not is a
personal question altogether.
Keep in mind that the accumulation of
knowledge alone is of but secondary value as
regards the advantages of a university educa-
tion. Its primary value is in the acquisition of
the power of thought, without which the full
enjoyment of life is not possible. A trained
mind teaches you to discern and appreciate
better all that is noble and beautiful in life.
It makes you more reasonable; above all, it
teaches you self-control, wherein lie the suc-
cess of the individual and the true greatness
of the nation.
No man can have a more beautiful life
before him than the young man of the
South. As proverbial as are the splendid
qualities of the Southern man displayed in
war, just as proverbial is the beauty of the
Southern landscape. The era of the pros-
perity of the South has arrived, and its latent
treasures are being developed. Its finished
I 3
AMERICAN AND GERMAN
products of iron, steel, coal, coke, and cotton,
are already reaching practically every market
of the world. New capital is constantly being
invested, new companies are being organized,
and the older ones are increasing their capi-
tal stock. “Go South '' is becoming the
password among the able-bodied men land-
ing on the shores of the new world and
looking for work in the factory or on the
farm.
It requires no prophetic eye to see the
position the South will occupy after the
Panama Canal has drawn the markets of the
world closer to her factories and seaports and
more intimately connected her with your great
trade emporium in the Philippines, lavishly
endowed with limitless raw materials. What
you behold to-day seems to my eyes a mere
shadow of what the future has in store for
you. But you, my younger friends, have a
vast field of work and great responsibilities
before you. I am glad to be able on this
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UNIVERSITY IDEALS
occasion to wish you well with all my heart,
and to say one parting word to those among
you who are preparing to face the life of
strife: Follow the leadership which stands
for the highest integrity, thc most eſſective
energy, and the most earliesl palriotism in
your country.
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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 9015 O7638 999.1