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THE FATVHERLAND
THE REAL CHARLES ELIOT
By Dr. Edmund von Mach,’ Author of “iVhat Germany ‘Vents’: and “Germany's Point of View”
THE FATHERLAND of July 28th devoted a page to President
Emeritus Charles VV. Eliot, and by printing, without comment.
what Mr.. Eliot said of Germany in 1913, side by side, with what
he said of her in 1914-15, administered to him the most scathing
criticism possible. Lest people imagine that the intervening year had
brought Mr. Eliot further information, on the strength of which
he had felt obliged to‘ alter his views, it may be stated that this is
not the case. Mr. Eliot knew exactly as little of Germany, from
first-hand observation, in 1913, when he praised her, as he knew in
1914-15 when he blamed her. Even to-day his knowledge of the
actual Germany of the twentieth century is so meagre and hazy that
a Harvard professor, who sat next to him at dinner some weeks ago,
characterized it as laughable-and this professor, by the way, is a
dyed-in-the-wool Yankee.
For people who are neither hypnotized Anglomaniacs nor ac-
quainted with Mr. Eliot, this would seem to dispose of him and to
relegate his war utterances to the discard heap. Those who know
him, however, instinctively feel that this is impossible. Say what
one will, Charles VV. Eliot remains one of the grandest Americans
of the nineteenth century. Nor is it possible to claim that he is
growing old. Five minutes’ talk with him will convince anybody
that his faculties are as keen as ever. A man of eighty, he carries
himself straight as an arrow. His step is springy. His eye is bright,
and about his lips there still hovers, when ‘he is gracious, that haunt-
ingly alluring smile of years ago. The writer sat at the inaugura-
tion exercises of President Hazard, of VVellesley College, in 1901,
exactly behind Miss Hazard when President Eliot turned to her
with his message of welcome. He had delivered the chief address,
in which he had pointed out the many hardships of a college presi-
dent, andisuddenly facing Miss Hazard, continued: “But, Miss
Hazard, I bid you be of good cheer,” and he smiled his half-imper-
sonal smile, and told her of the great joy in doing the things that
are hard and worth while.
The doing of things that are hard-this was Mr. Eliot's forte. He
was a deer all his life until recently, and neither Harvard Univer-
sity, nor America, nor for that matter colleges in any English-spealo
ing country, will ever be able to repay in full the debt they owe to
him. His achievements are enormous. They are much greater than
people appreciate. Just at present many colleges are busy trying
to tear down what he has builded. But his foundations are too
strong, and like the pyramids of Egypt they will withstand the
attacks of the Vandals. He found a poor, English College, and left
a great university, not perfect by any‘ means, but imbued with the
ideals of scholarship.
To the Americans at large, however, Mr. Eliot became best known
not as the great doer, but as the great talker and writer. He is one
of the illustrious masters of the English speech. The simplicity of
his diction is marvelous. Seemingly never at a loss for a word he
places his ideas before the reader or hearer so succinctly that his
utterances convey the impression of finality. This case of speech is
Mr. Eliot's fatal gift. It prevents him, and has always prevented
him, from recognizing the complexity of ideas really worth while.
Hypnotized as it were by the simplicity of his own style he has even
refused to see those evanescing subtleties which no written or spoken
word can catch. Refused to see them, when he wrote or spokel
But when he was in his proper element of doing the things that are
hard, then he felt them, and acted by them, and that is why he is
a great man.
A few instances may illustrate this point. Nobody perhaps wrote
on the Harvard faculty was a daily proof of the essential value of
the Classics.
In writing on the subject, Mr. Eliot started with a popular notion
and reduced it to a simple doctrine. In grappling with a complex
idea in his capacity of an active executive he steered clear of shallow
reasoning and did right. i
It was the same with athletics. Nobody, for instance, was mon-
unsparing with his criticism of football than he. But, although he
had the power to stop the game, he permitted it to thrive. The
major sports grew the stronger in Harvard under the fostering care
of committees appointed by him, the more vehemently ‘he criticized
them in his annual reports. 1
.And anybody who takes the pains to read again ltlr. Eliot's in-
augural address of fifty years ago will find the same curious incon-
gruity there between what he stated in beautiful simplicity the re-
lations between an under-graduate college and a graduate school
should be, and what he in the field of practical endeavor actually
made them.
Strange as it may seem, in view of everything that President
Eliot has recently said against Germany, the writer would neverthe-
less be perfectly willing to have President Eliot sit.in a commission
to suggest terms of peace, if such a commission could be brought
about. Mr. Eliot would then again be in his proper element of do-'
ing the things that are hard.
The men who have valiantly espoused the cause of Germany in
this country are convinced that the welfare of America depends on
a just appreciation of things as they are. It is, therefore, desirable
that they also should see things and men in their proper light. Mr.
Eliot has offended their sensibilities and, as even hisadmirers must
confess, the dictates of truth and justice by his intemperate judg-
ment of Germany, which is based on second-hand knowledge as no-
body knows better than he. To deny him, however, the claim of
greatness in his own proper sphere would be treating him as un-
justly as he has treated Germany.
One final observation forces itself upon those desirous of solving
the Eliot enigma. How is it possible for a man who is great in
one field to show himself so exceedingly weak in another without
apparently being conscious of it? Everybody knows that this is not
inffcquent with the great men of action in America. They are great,
thanks to their moral strength. And they are weak because they arc
lacking general first-hand information and an all-roundeducation.
The higher education in America is too much specialized, and even
our best authorities reason almost exclusively from premises sup-
Dlied to them by others. The number of Americans who do their
Own “linking without crutches, as it were, is exceedingly small. One
of our most successful museum executives would no more dare to
PYOHOUHCG 3 picture or a statue genuine without the authority of
some great European scholar than he would attempt to cross the
room with a broken leg. ‘
Wm“ ll“? EUI'0Dean war broke out the vast majority of American
scholars felt the ideas involved to be too complex to permit them-
5e1V95 3" independent judgment. They did what they had always
done, that is to say, they leaned on the authority of some great
E1H'0Dean. Unfortunately for them they selected the man whom
Pr: Conybeare, of Oxford University, has characterized -as “that
sinister liar," Sir Edward Grey. Nobody can change the habits of
a life time. Men who are not accustomed to reason from first-hand
knowledge. and whose over-specialized education makes it impossible
for them to check the accuracy of news in other departments than
so scathingly of the Classics, and made the study of Greek and,Latin . ‘Pei’ own’ Wm go 0“- bielng Tight 01' WFOHS. atcofdlng t0 the 51”‘
appear so unnecessary as President Eliot. And yet. so long as he;"-c55.3..l‘l"3y.l”““.“"3 ”‘ Plckmg Out their 3“tl10l‘lfY-
was at the helm, Harvard had the strongest classical deparnnent in‘
the country, if not in the world. Greenough, Go'odwi13,,A‘lle'n, War-
ren, lVright, VVhite and Morgan were men who’ bad.n'o equals any-
where. The real scholars had to come to H;im;mi if they wished
to learn Greek and Latin; and the very prpsenice of those .big man
u.. o
' ‘Th-0'Sl'C:3‘lcst need of America in the troublous times ahead of her
is of lead'i'J'S' givho can do their own thinking from finrt-hand infor-
mation. The er‘:-.o'rs of even so great a man as Charles VV. Eliot
DFOVC the dangei; o,f>'.rccond-hand information presented on the au-
'.lh??'3t,? 0f.ZS0me “Hlustiious" foreigner.
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o..o.