OF

JOSEPH SWAIN

PRESIDENT INDIANA UNIVERSITY

Delivered June 14, 1893

AT THE

ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY

INDIANAPOLIS

CARLON & HOLLENBECK, PRINTERS AND BINDERS

ADDRESS.

I am sensible of the great honor bestowed upon me by our honorable Trustees in electing me to the presidency of Indiana University. I should never have sought the position to which I come to-day. I may well shrink from the responsibilities it imposes, but if it is right that I should be here, and if all the friends of the University give the institution their sympathetic co-operation, with divine guidance, I trust there will come that strength which the work demands.

To return to my native state in which I have a just pride; to my Alma Mater, an institution which I have loved with a filial devotion; to the faculty which I have known and honored; to the alumni which each year are increasing in number and influence; to the students for whom the University exists; to the city of Bloomington, for twelve years my home; to the people who have treated me with uniform kindness and whose friendship I cherish; and to all the friends of the University; this is indeed a pleasure. Nevertheless, I now accept the trust which you give into my keeping, with an even keener appreciation of the duties it imposes, than of the honor you bestow, or of the pleasures which I feel on my return. But with the determination and inspiration which come from a sense of this "high calling," be my stay long or short, I shall work as if I were to remain for a lifetime, and I ask you all to give me your hearty, undivided, and continued support.

A state university is indeed a public trust, and sooner or later the people of the state will see to it that this University is built "higher and broader and deeper" than any ideal which we may

now contemplate. It is well that Leland Stanford and John D. Rockefeller devote their millions to the building of great universities, but were there such an endowed institution in every state in the Union, it would only strengthen and not retard the growth of the State University. The efficiency of the University of California has increased more within the past two years than within any other period of the same length in its history. This is not only manifest in the increased number of its students, but in the improvement and breadth of its work. Thus, the establishment of Stanford University has not only given California a new institution, but it has at the same time been of great service to the State University. In turn the State University is necessary to the highest development of the newer institution, and the efficient work of the former has made the latter possible. Likewise in this state every seat of learning is strengthened by the growth of the State University. Besides, the dignity and self-respect of a state is lost when it depends wholly upon denominational institutions, or upon institutions endowed by private munificence, however excellent in character they may be. In time to come the people of the state will feel that this University is their own in a yet more special sense, and they will provide for it more abundantly. In contributing to the maintenance and growth of the State University we not only make better every high school in the state, and therefore the common schools, but every step of the University in advance compels like steps in the other colleges and private schools of the state. The good results of the changes in the curriculum in this University, which were made eight years ago, are evident not only in the higher institutions of learning in this state, and consequently in the lower schools, but these changes have had a beneficial effect on other institutions of learning outside the state, as well. In like manner every advance made in other universities or colleges is helpful to us. Let denominational and private seats of learning rise and flourish. Each has its purpose and results. In most states, however, we shall expect most from a