46
SA: AIURSNE WE wie
the new Treasurer is forceful, fluent
and gifted with not a little rhetorical
grace; and it is a token of his rare blend-
ing of the mental gifts with executive
capacity that many of the Yale grad-
uates who knew him best favored him
for the Yale Presidency itself. Soon
after assuming the position of Yale
Treasurer next January, Mr. Tyler will
retire from the professorship of General
Jurisprudence in the Yale Law School,
which he now holds. He will retain the
supervisory duties of President of the
Southern New England Telephone Com-
pany, shifting most of the executive
work of the place to his son, Victor M.
Tyler, Yale ’o8.
Mr. Tyler married in 1873, Delia
Talman Audubon, a granddaughter of
J. J. Audubon, and in his New Haven
home are preserved many mementoes of
the great ornithologist. In politics Mr.
Tyler is an independent, in creed a Con-
gregationalist. He is a member of the
Church of the Redeemer in this city,
and in his ecclesiastical society has held
a number of important posts.
The office to which Mr. Tyler will
soon succeed has its customs, its policy
past and present, and its suggestions of
new. policy in this period of almost
dramatic academic change. It has also
its history. The latter takes us back to
a long roster of dignified names to which
Mr. Tyler’s is added as the twelfth. In
Yale’s high seat of custom have sat ©
Nathaniel Lynde, donor of Yale’s first
house; John Prout, Treasurer for forty-
eight years, who kept the College ac-
counts in ounces of silver which in the
two years, ending with July, 1761, nuim-
bered only two thousand and ninety-
three on the income side; Roger Sher-
man, Judge, Senator and Signer of the
Great. Declaration; John Trumbull,
writer of the historic political satire,
“McFingal”; and James Hillhouse
whose name certifies itself in New Ha-
ven and Connecticut annals and is still
writ large in our elms. Those were
days of the res angusta domi in the
treasury accounts. The annual reports
do not even appear in type until 1830,
on a little faded leaflet that in these days
would hardly belittle the fiscal returns of
the Yale “Codp.” The leaflets wax in
size with the years, growing, however,
not by any change of form in the state-
ment so mttch as by mere tv»ographical
expansion of numerals; and it is not un-
til 1876, that the antique and inflexible
system reaches the dimensions of the thin
pamphlet of to-day, which supplies no
general balance sheet, no summaries ex-
cept by departments, no comparison by
years, no verbal review or suggestions.
Conservatism and tradition have had
their fastness in the College Treasury
and its report in form has been prac-
tically changeless for well nigh three
quarters of a century. To expand, vita-
lize and clarify it, to make its figures rel-
ative and expressive, rather than abso-
lute and bald, and to substitute publicity
for obscurity, will be one of the earliest
and most imperative tasks of the new
Treasurer. Difficulties, undoubtedly,
there will be owing to the unique forms
of college assets—for an example Van-
derbilt Hall, a gift of unknown cost
standing on ancient college land of un-
known value. But not many of those
difficulties are insurperable and the foot-
note can explain flaws of exactitude.
*Nicer and more prudential questions
may arise in regard to the treatment
in the annual report of some University
assets—such, for instance, as the large
Sheffield fund, held as a separate trust
and not appearing in the treasurer's
statement—but they do not impair seri-
ously the general theory of publicity, of
full information for the ten thousand
Yale graduates and, so far as may be, of
coordination and fullness of University
accounts.
As preface and text for the larger
problems ahead of the new Treasurer
may be cited the various Yale funds and
their increase as they appear approxi-
mately in the table annexed, covering,
save one year, the period of President
Dwight’s administration:
1887. 1808.
University .........$ 502,705 $1,635,550
PReACRNG 5. ccs 5. s 1,030,420 1,607,890
Theological School. 416,123 649,122
Scientific School ... 160,989 406.312.
Medical School .... 27,051 105,325
Peet ACHOOL 5... is. 98,166 108,775
aw SOCUOOL....... CW geo te UES & trie eg
Musical Department ..... 5,000
$2,273,092 $4,635,321
The regular funds, not counting cer-
tain outside properties, thus showing an
increase for the period of $2,362,229, or
more than 100 per cent. The showing is
a splendid one both in absolute magni-
tude and gains. But on closer analysis
of the treasurer’s report there are some
minor but pathetic interludes. There
are, for example, the growing Medical
School often aided by funds transferred
or specially donated; the Art School
needing so much its professorship of
Architecture; the Divinity School, well
endowed, yet stagnant in numbers, with
its charity system planted only a few feet
away from the platform where Presi-
dent Hadley uttered last week his plea
for academic self-help; and, finally, the
Scientific School, next to the Academic
Department in numerical and physical
rank, yet with only a paltry $9,008 for
scholarship funds in a branch where
practical scientific education appeals
specially to the student who is poor.
But the great problem before the new
Treasurer will be that of the re-invest-
ment of funds. The outgoing Treasurer
by his skill and financial judgment has
succeeded in keeping the average interest
return at five per cent. Such a return
cannot possibly continue. The period
when long high rate railroad bonds are
falling in is reaching its climax, the old
six and seven per cents. are refunding.
into the fours, ‘three and a half and
even threes, bedrock loans on mortgage
and note have dropped from: seven and
six per cent. to five, four and a half and
to four. Conservative incomes have
been halved and the Yale treasury faces
the same grave financial enigmas as the
savings banks without their legal re-
strictions on investments. There are,
roughly stated, three lines of future re-
investment: The radical and specula-
tive, which is not to be thought of; at
the other extreme the ultra-conservative
high grade investment, yielding now but
little more than three per cent.—easy,
almost alphabetical financiering, which,
as the price of absolute security, would
reduce present income of Yale funds by
some $80,000 a year; and, finally, the
securities yielding net when averaged
say four and a half per cent., in choosing
which financial experience and sagacity,
along with a little courage, in the long
run far more than compensate for the
occasional slight loss. To these may be
added the senior securities of new enter-
prises taken at just the point where they
pass in public estimate from the limbo of
speculation into that of conservatism.
‘These may or may not be forecasts of
the future treasury policy. Incidentally
it may be noticed that the difference
reckoned on existing Yale funds _ be-
tween timidity and courage tipped with
intelligence is some $50,000 a year. Un-
der any reasonable possibility, however,
the University treasury must prepare
for some reduction of funded income
unless made good from interest returns
on new gifts.
There is a suggestive outlook in yet
another direction. In the whole Uni-
versity there are now some 2,600 stu-
dent. Of these, about 800 are housed
in the dormitories of the Academic De-
partment and some 300 more in the
Divinity Halls, the society dormitories
of the Scientific School and in other
College buildings. Fifteen hundred stu-
dents room outside, of whom probably
twelve hundred would lodge in dormi-
tories if they could. The demand for
the dormitory life is indexed by the suc-
cess of the large private lodging houses
near the Campus, which in their fixed
charges must include taxes on both
structure and land and correspondingly
raise their price to the student tenant.
The dormitory, as a treasury investment,
has. distitict “vantages.” it stands “in “a
-in'the rooms on the first floor.
favorable relation to Yale democracy
and the educative rubs of academic social
life; it is closely localized and super-
vised; it is sure of its tenants for years
to come; and with construction that is
utilitarian rather than ornate it will
represent a positive economy to the
student while: returning to the Univer-
sity treasury a net income of five per
cent. Over and against the plan stands
the spectre of taxation not exorcised by
the recent decision of the Connecticut
Supreme Court so long as the legislative
“alter or repeal” clause stands in the
Yale charter of 1745. It 4s in: this
branch of potential Yale investment that
Mr. Tyler’s local nersonality, his tact,
his knowledge of law, of men and of
affairs in city and State, ought to be
peculiarly effective. There will be no
more tax suits by the City of New Ha
ven, no more threats of appeal to the
General Assembly and we may expect
confidently that friction of town and
gown will be reduced to its lowest terms
if not extinguished. If in the future
amities of the. inter-dependent Uni-
versity and city some concessions are
made by Yale in the two-sided matter
of taxation, they will not be untimely
or unwise.
No reference to the Yale treasury is
complete without its final tribute to Mr.
W. W. Farnam, who for eleven years
has been the fiscal head of the Univer-
sity. Mr. Farnam has done much and
in a broad way to harmonize the treas-
ury work and methods with the needs
of expanding Yale. He _ substituted
early the payment of salaries by mailed
check for the undignified payment by
hand; he has shifted to the bursar the
clerical routine of small contracts, re-
pairs and the collection of student fees;
and, of much vaster import, he has in-
vested the funds with such wisdom that
the present annual income still remains
at a five per cent. rate. As a crowning
token of his fidelity and zeal it should
be stated here, on authoritv. that his
eleven years of toil, no small span of
a human life, have been given without
pay and even with personal expense.
On that long roll of self-sacrificing Yale
workers of the type of Timothy Dwight
and Othniel C. Marsh, surely Mr. Far-
nam is not the last. In this period of
transition so historic and picturesque
yet so solemn, we ought to reflect thank-
fully how well Mr. Farnam has laid the
foundations for that new administra-
tion by young men which, as the Scots
say, “lifts” us and in which old tradition
and drift are to yield to far foresight
and design.
CLARENCE DEMING.
Inaugural Dinner.
The inaugural dinner given on Tues-
day night, Oct. 17,. at the University
Club was the first event of the cele-
bration. Ninety-three undergraduates
and guests sat down to tables arranged
Har-
vard was represented by J. L. Higgin-
son and —}: . Saltonstall. captam and
manager of the Harvard Crew, and the
other guests of the evening were: Endi-
cott Peabody, headmaster of Groton
Seheol; «Prot... Henry. Ai Beersand
Frank S. Butterworth, Yale ’95. Presi-
dent Hadley was unable to attend.
J. Medill McCormick, 1900, Presi-
dent of the Chub, was toastmaster. The
speakers were: Prof. Beers; Matthew
Mills, 1900; J. M. Hopkins, 1900, and
Frank S. Butterworth.
A PERFECT INAUGURATION.
Details of an Unprecedented Day in
Yale’s History—The Speech
of Induction.
All went well and more than well.
The inauguration of President Hadley
was carried out with wonderful com-
pleteness and perfection of system. It
was on a plan whose scope few had be-
fore thoroughly appreciated, and was
full of a spirit which it was impossible
to quite anticipate. |
The ceremonies were impressive, the
address met with the most enthusiastic
response, the attendance showed every-
thing that one could ask for in the way
of cooperation and good-will from all
the educational interests of America, as
well as carried a tribute to Yale, with
which the most exacting of her sons
must have been well satisfied. The
hardly less important participation of
the undergraduates, although on a scale
never before attempted here, and with
numberless unexpected details, not only
went through on time, but in a spirit
which quite carried all with it, both
spectators and participators. No one
could complain that Yale was not to-
gether in the most literal and best mean-
ing of the term. And New Haven and
Yale were shown to be together. There
could have been no more zealous par-
ticipation in the celebration than that
shown by the people of New Haven
from the Mayor to the humblest citizens.
There was everything that was ex-
pected and a good deal that was not ex-
pected. The weather, which, if unfavor-
able, would have most seriously thrown
out the program, and which threatened
the worst of Fall storms in the early
morning, began to give promise of better
things by the middle of the morning.
Through the afternoon and evening it
was very pleasant. The air was close
in the afternoon and the rain of the
night before had left those streets in
New Haven which are still treated on
the old plan, in as bad a condition as
they well could be.
But heat and mud could not affect
such a celebration as was the inaugura-
tion of President Hadley. From that
first break of sunlight in the middle of
the morning until the last glow of the
gym-lot bonfire well toward the next
morning, events moved along on sched-
ule time or better. The only regret
was, that the speakers along the line of
the torchlight parade could not have
been equipped with some multiple mega-
phone arrangement which would have
enabled them to address the whole pro-
cession at once. The demands of section
after section to hear from Mayor Dris-
coll, the Yale executive of New Haven,
and from President Hadley. and the
others, held the long procession of the
evening back from time to time, with de-
lays that were somewhat irksome to the
spectators and more so to those in the
procession. But the celebrators would
not have been content without the
speeches from the Mavor, and could cer-
tainly not pass by the President, and
only the impossible was yielded to in
any inconvenience that resulted there-
from.
A FEATURE ,OF THE TORCHLIGHT PARADE.
Photo by Corbin & Konold.
