U4 ioo: tid Clje Californw ^cljool of flpetljanttal ;arts FOUNDED BY JAMES LICK ADDRESS Vice-Prest. Andrew S. Hallidie Annual Observance of Founder's Day September 21, i 898 .5 S4CS5 iVERSITY FOUNDER'S DAY ADDRESS BY ANDREW S. HALLIDIE. Students of The California School of Mechan- ical Arts : — I want to talk with you in a familiar way about yourselves, about this school, and about the man who founded this school. This is Founder's Day, as you know, the twenty-third anniversary of the day on which Mr. James Lick executed the deed of foundation of this school, and the Trustees feel that they could not please the founder in any better way than in assembling you here in your working-clothes, and right out of the shops and the schoolroom; and they also want you to feel that on this day he is right here among you, happy in the knowledge that he is putting you in the way of growing up to manliness and independ- ence, so that you can make your way in the world with those habits of industry that make men and women happy and cheerful, and make those around them happy and cheer- ful, and bring about you that sunshine and brightness that helps us all along when we ''don't feel good," or we feel blue, or homesick, or maybe discouraged. Perhaps some of you think you are having a hard time, and maybe some of you do find it rather difficult to get along; but you will find out, if you do not know it already, that it is the difficult roads we remember, the easy roads we forget. 473248 2 ADDRESS. The proof of courage and bravery in a young man or woman is the conquering and overcoming of difficulties, and in being able to travel over those hard roads; and although you may have to sit down and rest once in a while, you are thinking while you rest, and rise up again invigorated and with a clear mind, and have found out what to do and do it. The great man whose memory we honor to-day, James Lick, had a hard struggle in his youth; and when he was a youth there was no such school as this, with its comforts and conveniences, its tools and machines and apparatus, and, above all, its teachers, who are able and willing to give the best of their mind and thought in teaching you to become good mechanics and respected citizens. James Lick had nothing of this. He had to work early and late, doing all kinds of drudgery and hard work in order to learn the trade of cabinet-making. And he learned his trade well, — so well that when he was seventy he could fit a mor- tice and tenon as well as the best mechanic. He was born in Pennsylvania, in the town of Freder- icksburg, Lebanon County, on August 25, 1796, a little over 102 years ago, and died in San Francisco on October I, 1876, within thirty-seven days of eighty years of age. His father and mother were poor; they did all they could for him, which was not very much. In those days they used to apprentice boys to a trade, and usually for seven years. The boy had to get up at 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning to do all kinds of chores, be- sides working around the shop, cleaning it up, scraping castings, waiting on the men, and doing all kinds of odd jobs, and getting occasional cuffs and kicks; and this would contmue for about two years, with little opportunity for learning the trade, and less for getting any instruction in the principles or the theory of the same. While I do not 7ERSITT ADDRESS. 5 think James Lick spent much of his time thus^ it is fair to assume that he had to take his chances with the others; but whatever his experience in the shop was, he came out a good workman, and began Hfe as an organ and piano - maker, evidently with some Hking for music. This was in Hanover, in the same State, where he remained a short time, and then moved to Baltimore. In 1820 he established himself in Philadelphia, and later he went to Chile, and came to California in 1847, before California became a State. It is said that in his native place he fell in love with the daughter of a miller, but on account of his poverty the mil- ler drove him away, and that in leaving he told the miller that he would before long build for himself a much better mill than he owned. This he afterward did in Santa Clara, where one of the finest pieces of mill-work was executed under his direction, and, in part, by his own hands. Mr. Lick made some money in Chile and brought it to California, and from his operations and investments made that fortune which, among other things, enabled him to found this school. The hard struggle in life which Mr. Lick experienced in early days doubtless set him thinking about how just such young men and women as you are would get along, and I know from his talks with me that he had had this very much at heart for many years. He himself was a careful and painstaking mechanic, and despised a slovenly way of doing work, — and I thoroughly agree with him that a careless and slovenly artisan is a dis- grace to his calling. In a trade-school near Philadelphia, the founder of that institution, Mr. Williamson, in his charge to the trustees, required that the students, above all things, should be truthful. Mr. Lick was equally as emphatic. You have all learned by this time what truth in work- 4 ADDRESS. manship means. Let me illustrate: You have a try-square, and in squaring up a block- you try that square on the sides. Let one side be out of square or not true, and each and every side of the block is thrown out of square and is untrue. Sometimes you are puzzled to get it exactly square, and bring in your calipers to aid you in getting two sides of the block parallel. Now, this is all right for the two sides; but you still have to depend upon the try -square for at least one of the other sides. Perhaps a very careful examination of your try-square may reveal the fact that it is not true — that it is a litde out of square; and as this lit- tle is increased by four, by the time you get around the block, the incorrectness becomes very visible and pro- nounced. Or, suppose in boring a high-speed fly-wheel, or a wheel of any kind, you permit the boring-tool to get a little out of true, or your wheel is not properly centered on the sur- face-plate because the jaws have got a little out of true; the fly-wheel, running at a high speed, being out of true, is badly balanced, and may, while running under the tension of centrifugal force, fly to pieces and do a great amount of injury. So you see truth and squareness are essential for correct work. Apply this to your life; and if truth is so essential under these conditions in a block or wheel of iron, how much more so must it be when applied to a young man or woman possessed of a mind of reasoning power and responsibility ! And bear in mind that the greatest danger is the absence of truth fundamentally^ the same as in the try-square. I believe that you who have been taught in * the shops of thsis school to make all things true, will be true in all things, and one of the greatest desires of Mr. Lick will be accomplished. Next to doing things well is to know how to do things ADDRESS. 5 well. Some mechanics do some things well without know- ing why. While a lad I worked in a machine-shop, and there was a man there who could bore a hole and turn up a piece of shafting and always get them true and make a good driving fit. He was not good at anything else, and could not tell you why he was good at that. In this school you are told why and how it is done. If you are faithful and attentive, you soon know how and can tell why. Not long ago the safe' of a country bank could not be opened, and a locksmith, a man of experience and good reputation, living in an adjoining town was sent for. He came and tried the combination, which from some cause did not release the bolts of the lock. He carefully listened to the sounds made in turning the combination; and as he could not get his ear in position to satisfactorily get the sounds he wanted, he put one end of a piece of straight - grained wood between his teeth and rested the other end on the rim of the disc containing the combinations, and so conveyed the sounds to his intelligence, and changing slightly the position of rest of one of the letters of the com- bination, he opened the safe, the operation taking him about twenty minutes. He was asked the amount of his charge, and said, " Fifteen dollars." But the banker said, *'It took you only twenty minutes to do the work, and forty minutes will cover the time you will be away from your shop. I will require you to make me an itemized bill." He complied with the request, and this was his bill: Car-fare to and from shop $ lo Time absent ( i hour ) i oo Knowing how 13 90 Total |i5 00 The banker, a man of sense, saw the force of the last item and paid the bill. 6 ADDRESS. This banker was a capitalist. His capital consisted of cash, bonds, and securities of different kinds. Such men of capital, through misfortune of their own or the machina- tions of others, sometimes lose their capital and their for- tune. In teaching you a trade, and giving you a gainful occupation and vocation, this school, through Mr. Lick's generosity, gives to each of you a capital — a capital that no one can rob you of, that you need not lock up in a safe deposit or bank vault, or insure. It remains with you, all times at your command. The more you use it, the better it becomes. If circumstances place you where you do not have to work at your trade, the training you have received in it will be of immeasurable benefit in any business you may take up, and the consciousness that you have that in reserve will enable you to maintain your independence and integrity. I do not propose to refer to the mechanics who have become great men, or the great men who have learned trades as mechanics. You will, however, find this an inter- esting study. This school gives you an especial opportunity to get on in the world, and it appeals to your appreciation, in con- sidering Mr. Lick's kindly thoughtfulness and generosity; it appeals to your intelligence, in laying a broad foundation on which you may safely build any vocation you may select and that is taught here; it appeals to your pride, to become a thorough American mechanic; and it appeals to your moral nature, from the truth that is ever present in the work you are doing. The desire of the Trustees is that you shall carry out Mr. Lick's wishes in becoming first- class ^workmen, good citizens, and a credit to this city and State. Think what a record for good and honest work the Union Iron Works and their workmen over yonder have ADDRESS. 7 made in the building of the battle-ship Oregon! You all know the story of the Oregon, which is well told in the September number of the St. Nicholas. When Mr. Lick founded this school he proclaimed its object and purpose to be to educate young men and women in the practical arts of life, and in whatever industry intel- ligent mechanical skill now is or can hereafter be applied. I have addressed myself largely to the young men because I have had the benefit of a mechanical training, not, I can assure you, with the advantages you possess in this school, though my hands and face got just as dirty as yours, and I do not know that I ever felt ashamed of it. From that training I have derived great benefits in being able to understandingly control and direct men and carry out enterprises in an intelligent manner. These remarks apply with equal general force to the young men and women educated here; and for no one do I entertain more respect than for the woman who knows how to manage her establishment in whatever position she may be called on to occupy. If she "knows how," she pos- sesses an immense advantage over the woman who does not know how. I called on a family last June in New York City, and found that the daughter was attending the Pratt Institute and taking a two years' course in ' ' domestic economy," studying to be able to either manage her estab- lishment herself or see that it was properly managed. A friend of hers, a graduate of Vassar, had been teaching Latin and Greek at a pittance of a salary, and had later taken the course of domestic economy in the Pratt Insti- tute and graduated with distinction. Her services were in demand at a high Salary in teaching the "art of housekeep- ing" to the daughters of well-to-do parents. If young women knew how much they would alleviate human suffering, how much they would add to the comfort 8 ADDRESS. and duration of life, how much they would save in house- hold expenditures, how much respect they would enforce from their domestic help^ and how much love they would receive for good deeds done, they would earnestly study these things that are taught to them freely in this school. I have great respect for a true man and a true woman — a respect far above ''gentleman" or ''lady," and a con- tempt for such affected terms as "sales-lady" or "sales- gentleman." Let us here prove that you are doing your best to be- come men and women — true men and women; that under the guidance and example of the principal and the teachers who are here to help you and teach you, you cannot go astray, but will become, as Mr. Lick intended you should become, exponents of the better things of life suggested by habits of industry and honesty and by skill intelligently directed. The 2 1 St of September has been decreed by the Trustees as a day to be set aside by the school in commemoration of the execution of the deed of foundation by Mr. Lick, and the exercises will, I presume, in time be conducted prin- cipally by the graduates of this school, who having received directly the benefits of Mr. Lick's thoughtfulness and gener- osity can speak of their benefactor in more eloquent lan- guage than I have attempted to employ, and can do greater justice to the memory of that citizen of California who has done so much for this State, for this city, and for you, the children of his school. A. S. Hallidie. San Francisco, September 21, 1898. 3'HIS BOOK IS riTT^ OVERDUE. '^'•^O ON THE SE^enTh*"^^" OF THB TTI^IVERSITY 6AYLORD BROS. Ir Syracuse, N. Y. Stockton, Calif. I YC S 1 V73^^8 9h 03^