suspicion of being one of the reformatory institutions of the State. Hon. Milton W. Mathews was, in 1888, elected the successor of Mr. Thompson, where for four years he likewise was a faithful and efficient friend of the University, securing the appropriation which constructed the armory. Following Mr. Mathews as a member of the Senate came Hon. Henry M. Dunlap, who, now serving his fourth term, has, by his long service and loyalty to his Alma Mater, been able to accomplish much for the University in the way of larger appropriations for current expenses and for new buildings.

These gentlemen, all local representatives, have at all times been well supported by their colleagues from the local district as well as by other friends of the institution and of the work it has accomplished in the General Assembly.

ADDRESS

SAMUEL W. SHATTUCK, C.E.

Comptroller and Professor in the University of Illinois

I thank the gentlemen for their very kind words for me I trust the recording angel has taken note of them and that when my balance sheet is written up I shall have full credit for the same.

My first connection with the business operations of the University was in the summer of 1871 when I was appointed superintendent of construction for this building and the military and mechanical one. then being erected. This position I held until class instruction began in the fall.

In March, 1873, Dr. Gregory, Regent of the University, was given a leave of absence of six months for a much needed rest. Upon his recommendation I was appointed Acting-Regent for the time of his

absence.

Under the original organization of the University the Regent was president of the Board of Trustees and the business of the University was conducted by him. These duties I performed in addition to teaching three hours each day. Those were strenuous times for me.

In July of that year a new organization of the University went into effect. This relieved the Regent from the business operations and from acting as president of the Board of Trustees. Mr. Emory Cobb was elected to that position, which he held for many years with honor to himself and great benefit to the University.

Professor Edward Snyder was recording secretary of the Board at this time, which position he held till 1888 when William L. Pillsbury was appointed recording and corresponding secretary.

Professor Snyder came to the University in 1868 and was for twenty-eight years a beloved and respected member of its faculty. In September, 1873, when Dr. Gregory again took up his duties as

Regent, I was put in charge of the business of the University; this position I have held since. I have also been the head of the department of mathematics for thirty-seven years. In this connection I cannot refrain from speaking of an incident that happened in 1869.

In that year when the ground on which this building stands was part of a corn field, I was surveying the field for the purpose of tile drainage, when one of the iron pins used was lost. I told a young man to get a wooden one by cutting a sprout from a clump which I had noticed, but to leave such as were not needed as they would be trees some day. At least two were left, and form today the large double hackberry tree on the north side of the walk in front of the Library Building.

I have looked at this tree many times, and thought that it represented my duties in the University, those of a professor and those as business manager. I have often spoken of it as my tree. Dr. Burrill has his avenue; I am satisfied with a tree. But it is the only one on our grounds not planted by man. It is not as symmetrical as many, but I trust it will be allowed to remain a long time yet.

In 1893, as one of its members expressed it, a new element appeared in the Board of Trustees. This element called for the resignation of the treasurer, John W. Bunn, who had well served the University for twenty-six years.

A new treasurer, Charles W. Spalding, was elected who served for four years and was defaulter for all the current funds, and the greater part of the endowment of the University. The business office for four months was under a severe strain to meet the current obligations, but through the wise guidance of President Draper and the powerful help of Senator Dunlap the University was put upon a better financial basis than it had ever been before.

The business operations and resources of the University have increased in as great a degree as has the number of its students.

At the meeting of the Board of Trustees in March, 1873, Mr. Emory Cobb, chairman of the committee on finance, made a report in which the estimated resources available for the year 1873-74 amounted to $43,825.87 and the estimated expenditure for the same time as $42,

560.

The estimated resources for the year 1905-06 amount to over one million dollars. One million dollars may be expended, leaving a balance July 1, 1906, larger than the entire income in 1873-74.

DEVELOPMENT OF THIS UNIVERSITY

NATHAN C. RICKER, DR. ARCH.

Professor in the University of Illinois

Professor Morrow sometimes jocosely said to his intimate friends, “Tell me all that you know in five minutes." Similar would be any attempt to adequately discuss the development of this great University within the limits of the time assigned me. There is merely opportunity for some brief notes on its origin, with a glance at its present and its future.

The origin of this institution was primarily due to strongly felt doubts of the real worth and utility of the educational training formerly imparted in the colleges of the olden time. This was usually restricted to the ancient languages and literatures, almost ignoring the pure and applied sciences, then in a crude condition and not reduced to a systematic discipline. College equipment rarely existed, excepting the indispensable buildings, library, and a very limited chemical and physical apparatus for class room demonstrations. Graduates were almost compelled to enter one of the three professions, then recognized as learned. The public schools were believed to supply all the knowledge required by the farmer, gardener, mechanic, and even the surveyor.

Under the leadership of the late Professor Turner of this State, agitation arose for the proper education of young men not intending to become physicians, lawyers, or clergymen, to better fit them for life's vocations and for good service to their fellow men. This eventually led to a munificent grant of public lands by the national government and the establishment of the Land Grant universities in each state. These were then designed to train men, and later women, for the practical pursuits, to which much the larger part of mankind must always be devoted. It was intended to make their labors in the fields and shops more efficient and productive, both as workmen and as leaders of the industrial masses. For this idea was later substituted the production of teachers of applied science, chemists, architects, and engineers of all kinds, leaving the training of artizans to special schools and to apprenticeships in shops and manufactories.

President Gregory was a graduate of a small classical college, with later experience as clergyman, state superintendent of schools, and president of a very small college. He seems to have had no previous opportunity to acquire any deep interest in any one of the sciences or in their application. But the outline scheme of organization of the future university was drawn up by him, and it may be found in the first volume of the Trustees' reports. He had no precedent in any similar existing institution, little acquaintance with the details of

education in the sciences, or practice in their application, in architecture or in engineering. Nor had he any prescience of the marvelous material growth of this State, or of its future interests and resources, to be most intimately connected with this institution. Yet he produced a wonderful work in the plan of the University, an outburst of genius guided by common sense.

The main lines then laid down by him have scarcely been changed in later years, excepting in case of a profession based upon scientific discoveries then unknown, as in the case of electrical engineering.

One would naturally suppose that a new university of such a practical character would at once be thronged by students preparing to become scientific farmers, chemists, and practicing engineers. But it was strongly opposed by conservatives and by industrial leaders, who believed that university graduates were a kind of "horned cattle," dangerous until their collegiate training had been forgotten. Engineers continued to assert that the only sure foundation for the training of future engineers was to wield the axe and carry the surveyor's chain. Farmers were scornful, while land was cheap and careless farming was profitable, asserting that scientific agriculture could only be learned in the fields by personal toil. They long opposed the institution, claiming that the instructors were mere theorists. But when the value of land had so risen that a better system of culture became imperative, they found increased profits in following the advice of the formerly despised scientists. For years the farmers and gardeners of this State have been most loyal and appreciative supporters of this institution. Indeed, the present danger seems to be that they may eventually expect impossibilities to be made possible by the University.

The institution was opened thirty-seven years since, with a president, a few professors, and seventy-five students. A single large building on the north end of Illinois Field contained the entire educational plant, and it at the same time served as a dormitory for most of the students. There were then no shops or laboratories, no gymnasium or armory, no fraternities or athletic sports, nothing that now makes university life attractive or endurable for the average student. The equipment consisted mainly of a small library and a very limited outfit of chemical and physical apparatus. The student was required to contribute two hours of daily unpaid toil for the improvement of the grounds in order that he might learn something of agriculture and gardening.

The entrance examinations were very easy, for forty-two high school credits would at that time have been thought an impossible requirement, only to be realized in a different century. Moreover, four years of military drill were demanded, even from men who had served as soldiers during the Civil War, then just closed.

But the students worked diligently, perhaps because there was

nothing else to do on a prairie a mile from either city. No distinctions then existed between them, for all were alike freshmen, and class organizations were only formed much later with difficulty and little enthusiasm. Class hazing and the color rush are recent innovations.

From this primitive period not a single building now remains, only two of its original possessions being retained by the University, its endowment lands, and Dr. Burrill, its honored Vice-President. Most of the noble trees which grace the campus were planted by students during its first years, but they left no other memorial, save the fame won by their later work.

My own personal experiences as a student in the institution commenced with 1870, when I found one hundred and forty students in attendance, with some additional instructors. Professor Shattuck still taught mechanics, materials, and surveying, in addition to his chief work in mathematics. Professor Snyder taught all German, French, bookkeeping, and military science; was also commandant of the regiment, secretary and bookkeeper of the University.

Professor Robinson commenced his labors here at the same time as professor of mechanical engineering and physics. He was the first regular instructor in the College of Engineering, and also its first dean. He was a tireless worker, day and night, and apparently had deeply studied every subject pertaining to any branch of engineering, was an expert mathematician, and he earned well deserved fame by opening the first shop in this country connected with an educational institution for the practical instruction of mechanical engineers. During his leisure moments he also taught civil engineering, materials, and made numerous inventions.

Few textbooks then existed in engineering, except those of ancient date, instruction by lecturers was a slow process, practicing engineers were too busy to write, blue-print and mimeographic copying processes were still unknown.

Some of the older students still cherish the memories of the Chicago campaign in 1871, of three companies of students, which then formed the sixth regiment of Illinois state troops. When ordered to load with ball cartridges and stationed as sentries, they certainly met with real service.

Professor Webb came later to open the department of civil engineering, devoting his entire time to its specialties and establishing a reputation as a mathematician, with some eccentricities. Civil engineers of that time still remember him as the author of the "Bagdad" lectures on geodesy. He had the first blue-print copies of lecture notes made, an idea which was largely developed later, and which soon greatly enriched the courses of instruction in the College of Engineering, extending its reputation among engineers.

The department of architecture came next, practically established