Anniversary Section A6V A6F 4Utc UI1II Anniversary Section r a VOL. XXXVII. No. 111 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1927 ALUMNI CLUBTO' OSERVE IN ET ETH ANN mVE PRICE FIVE CENTS SARY UNIVERSITY ATTINS TOP HANK AMONG EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF NATIONi AS SIX PRESIDENTS GUIDE ITS DESTINY MANY SIGNIFICANT FORWARD STRIDES MARK HISTORY OF SCHOOL FROM RATHER INAUSPICIOUS BEGINMNG BY PAUL J. KERN Practically everything that exists at all has a history, and the Uni- versity of Michigan is no exception. In order to have this history itj was necessary for the University to be founded, also, and this is whereI the story begins. Recently a few idle alumni with nothing else to do have discovered that the University of Michigan was actually founded in 1817 instead, of 1837. The cause for this momentous change is found in the fact that the "Per itorial Legislature made plans for such an institution at the earlier date. This is a very useful point for alumni to argue about, if they must argue, but if the inimitable logic of this viewpoint ke carried to the extreme we could easily prove that the University was foutnded in 1804, which is worse yet. At this date a preliminary grant of land was made. Carrying it down to the ultimate establishment, HISTORICAL VIEWS OF CAMPUS IN EARLY PERIOD FORRAI STATIONS TO. BROADCAST SPECIL.ICHIGAN PROGRAMS TONIGHT FOR MEETINGS THROUGHOUT COUNlT LARGE NUMBER OF F ACULTY WILL SPEAK AT COMMEMORATION GATHERINGS OF VARIOUS STATE CLUBS In celebration of the Moth anniversary of the University, and as part of the general observance of the occasion being conducted icy alumni groups throughout the country, a special Michigan Night Radio program, comprising a number of brief talks by representatives of the University and musical periods by the Varsity band and Glee club, has been ar- ranged for tonight, it has been announced. The program will be broad- cast at 7 o'clock from University hall through station WWJ, the Detroit News, and in order that the alumni bodies over the whole of the United States, assembled in banquets and meetings, may tune in on the program, it will be picked*up and rebroadcast by station WGY, the General Elec- tric company of Schenectady, N. Y., and by station KWOM of Pase- dena, Calif. The speeches will be further used, according to Waldo Abbot, '13L, of the rhetoric department, an- nouncer and program manager, when some of them delivered earlier in the evening will be sent out over the air again at midnight by station WABC, the 4t- . 1lantic broadcastng company of New York. This .t~k' ~station will also include on their program talks and .musical numbers by alumni located in New York. however, we can safely assign 1492 as the date of foundation, for in that year Columbus discovered America and certainly we should have no university if the IDalian navigator had failed to perform this rather vital function. Accepting 1492 as the date of founding has also the added advantage of giving us some 150 year start on Harvard, and makes us easily the oldest educational institution on the con- tinent., In 1837, however, the newly elected board of 19 that was to establish the University met in Ann Arbor. Michigan had been admitted to the Union only about two months before, and the June meeting of the board was for the purpose of properly dis- posing of the funds available from the grant from state lands for the benefit of the University. A short history of the city of Ann Arbor to this date is perhaps proper here. Pine forests, which abounded in the state early gained it the title of the "Pine Tree State," however, and these pines, which extended from about Saginaw throughout the northern part of the southern peninsula and across the Straits of Mackinac, were supplemented in the southern portion of the region with hardwood forests. To the early settlers, coming as they did from New England, the rich and stoneless soil of Michi- gan must have seemed like a paradise. The settle- ment of the land went on rapidly, and in 1824 two families, the Allen and the Rumseys, established a village on the site of Ann Arbor. The original homes built here were approximately on the location of the court house and the town received its name from the arbor that connected them in which the two wives, both Ann, used to gossip. By 1837 the town had grown to 2,000 inhabitants, and there were three competing sites for the location of the University. Detroit was one, Marshall was the second, and Ann Arbor was the third. No one seems to know exactly why the new school was not located in Detroit, for even then the inhabitants of the "motor" city candidly remarked that "Detroit is Michigan." The forty acres of grbund which Ann Arbor was willing to furnish was a real bargain, however, and this factor probably turned the tide. Perhaps some far-ighted legislator saw even then the promise of the great industrial development o Detroit, 'and its consequent unsuitability for a Uni- versity. This was the situation when the classes started. The railroad connecting Ann Arbor with Detroit had not yet been complet d, although Ann Arbor was approximately the center of population of the state. Early students rode into town on horseback, studied with tallow candles, and the lone University building was surrounded by a fence to keep the cows away. A turnstile was constructed in order that the stu- dents might enter. At that time the campus itself was merely a 40 acre piece from the old Rumsey farm east of town There was another site available, overlooking the Huron river valley, and the reason for the selection of the present campus, probably much more unin- viting then than after the B. and G. boys finished with it, is another one of the mysterious things that happened in connection with the founding. Now, we are practically ready to begin with the sto'y. It might be mentioniw_ just parenthetically, in erder to' do more complete justice to this 1817 idea, that the scheme actually was proposed by Judge Augustus B. Woodward, who came to Michi. gan on federal appointment and who proposed an institution to be named "Catholepistemiad" at the earlier date. This rather imposing name means something to the effect of universal science, but the' understanding of the term itself was farther than most residents of the state reached in their primitive la of nation 0 0 ., e I Top, the campus in 1863, showing the old law building, Mason hall, and Souh Wing, front the site of Cal- ,kins-Pleteher's. Upper left, the first Law building, located cere the present on4' stands. Upper ;fight, l*oary zwtlks on the dia.gonal, in the '6os. Center, before it the old library, taken just was ra::ed in 1918. Lower left, same view as at the top, showing University construction between Mason South wing, 1772. Lower right, view of the sity in the '50s. hall in hall and Univer- A large number of faculty men are listed on the programs of various University of "Michigan alumni clubs throughout the state. Included among them are Prof. Arthur E. R. Boak of the history depart- ment who will address the alumni group of Sagi- naw; Prof. William A. Frayer of the history de- partment who will give a talk before the alumni 'in Bay City; Shirley W. Smith, secretary of the 'Uni- versity who is booked for a speech in Hastings; Joseph A. Bursley, dean of students, who will talk before the Battle Creek group. Prof. Thomas H. Reed, of the politiscal science department who will address the University alumni in Owasso, and Dean Wilbur H. Humphreys of the literary college, who will speak in Kalamazoo. Randolph G. Adams, custodian of Clement's library will go to Pittsburgh to address the alumni group there. The program broadcast direct from the University will be prefaced by a five minute prologue from the banquet hall of the Detroit Alumni association in the ball room of the Hotel Statler. At 7 o'clock, when the Detroit News station will be connected by long distance telephone with the microphones in the old Adelphi rooms in University hall, the Varsity I band, under the direction of Norman Larson, will open with the "Victors", and the second chorus 1ll be sung by the glee club. The welcome to the Michigan alumni will be given by James E. Ottaway, of Port Huron, president of the Alumni association, and his two minute talk will be followed by two songs by the Glee club: "Laudes Atque Carmina" and "College Days", taken from the Michigan Union opera "Koanzaland". The Glee club is under the direction of Theodore Har- rison. The second of the talks is to be given by Dean Mortimer E. Cooley, of the Colleges of Engineering and Architecture. The musical period following will be given over to three more selections by the Glee club: "Goddess of the Inland Sea", "'Tis of Michi- gan We Sing", and "I Want to go Back to Michigan." Former dean of women, Mrs. Myra B. Jordan, will speak to the alumni for the next of the numbers on . the program. The fourth musical interim is to be supplied by the band playing "Varsity", the last verse of which will be sung by the Glee club. In the absence of President Clarence Cook Lit- tle, Dr. Frank E. Robbins, assistant to the President, will read the welcome to the alumni prepared by President Little. The glee elv! will follow this talk with "Men of the Maize and lue", "Drink, Drink", and "Joy Rules the Day". Prof. Victor H. Lane, of the Law- school and former president of the Alumni association, serving in that capacity for 21 years, will give the fifth of the series of two minute talks. "Old Friars Song", and "The Bum Army" will be the songs given by the Glee club following the talk. The last of the talks will be given by Prof. Ralph W. Aigler of the Law school, a faculty representa- tive on the Board in Control of Athletics, wlfo will summarize the athletic situation at the University. The program will close with the playing of "The Yellow and Blue" by the band, and sung by the Glee club. Telegraphic greetings from the various alumni as- sociations wil be received and read during the pro- gram, it is planned. In case the whole hour is not - taken by the regular program, both the band and the Glee club will give encores. The wave length of the Detroit News station is 452 meters. I A further opportunity will be given the alumni to i"':}::J"; ::{;: ?::"'%'.:i::'1':''% :;f. ' : PV^;,1 .: drx'y4"_ ::tL?':}:"S':}'}:{' "L}{"":" %{' .::5: yL}. . ' '} . tii. ' 1+:l:ti"J}'.: :}: :.%'::...S....... ..........."'.t}:::i :1":...RS i"{%:%%.%}"}i {}: ;; ..}..:::}":. ...:}:i:v:":}' :L" r.} "}: . .r. ": h :}4 ..,"... ;::. ?"S: t %:t : :% : v . v . . ".: :{1 ."i :,;:: ,;. .::}":v:: . . ..:. ... :: {;r ..., . "4 "'" :,: . ::;,:. THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Today your Alma Mater celebrates her ninetieth birthday. wounds, strentthened their resolve, advised them in their doubting moments and then has sent theiout to bear her standard. luxuriant whiskers which characterised the seventies or the high wheeled bicycles and the brown-derbied' dandies of the nineties.