The Courier-Review.
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honestly developed from construction and was sophisticated by no feature of affectation, it possessed within itself the energy for a long career. But this process of evolution was interrupted by a political event. When in the 12th century the power of the bishops and the municipalities outgrew and supplanted that of the monastic orders a new expression of art was needed and gothic style came into existence. Eight hundred years afterwards a young American, my friend and brother in art, the lamented Henry Hobson Richardson, wandering through the untrodden ways of the old province of Auvergue, found this broken promise, this uncompleted art of a forgotten civilization, in the round-arched monastic monuments of Orles and Poictiers, and discovered its applicability to the uses of a civilization entirely modern. When, in the course of his brilliant career, he adapted the style to a memorable series of town halls, municipal palaces and libraries, it was not long before, in the light of the new world, by a perfectly logical process, it developed into forms far beyond the dreams of the innocent and unlettered builders of Auvergue. The decorative character of the Spooner Library is less an expression of loyalty to the genius of this really great American than an attempt, under the impulse of new conditions, to carry this interesting and, I think, patriotic experiment a little farther on towards a possible fulfillment.
If this new building seems to you to enter into the collegiate group of this University in the garb of a stranger, and seems to speak to you with a foreign accent, I trust that presently, when it is more familiar to you, it may at least become a welcomed guest, not without some touch of sweetness and light and with perhaps a dim prophecy of the new civilization. But if in this new form of art should come, more accurately adjusted to modern conditions, speaking in a clearer vernacular, and this building should seem in this new light like an exile indeed, never quite acclimated, even then, humble as it is, it may claim respectful consideration as the representative of an episode in the history of our civilization. Even it may
deserve recognition in saving from oblivion the strenuous efferts of the architects of the last two decades of the century to give to their country a genuine style of architecture belonging to modern life and to a certain extent capable of expressing its aspirations.
Pres. Shafer, of Iowa: "Libraries of other State Universities."
I am not one of those presidents who can talk by the hour, and I am sorry I cannot; at least as far as I am concerned I am sorry, although I feel sure you will agree with me that it is a very fortunate thing for you. It afforded me much pleasure to receive the cordial invitation from Chancellor Snow to be with you on this occasion, and I wrote him that I would be here if I possibly could do it. Chancellor Snow's invitation contained a little remark about an after-dinner talk. Now this is not one of my strong points. I am all right as far as the dinner goes, but when it comes to the after dinner part, it is something I have never been successful in. I noticed that the invitation did not contain any reference to the topic on which I was to speak, so I considered I would be perfectly safe in any choice I might make, until I received notice that I was to speak on a particular point. About the eleventh hour, nay almost the eleventh and a half hour, I got a card served upon me just in time to spoil my appetite.
Well I do not know that I can say very much about other State Universities. There were several very good points suggested by President Northrup this morning, and among them one that recalled to my mind my own college days. It was that the college student saw so very little of the library. I remember in my college days that there was a great difference between the college library then and the library now. It was not only very little used, but almost exclusively by the faculty. The library of today is for the benefit of the student, and this is the key to the advance along the whole line. And on this account, as President Northrup said, we have so many more centers of activity, and can expect so much more in the shape of re-