Presidents Emeriti

Elder Guardians of Plato’s Republic, They Have Taken Time to Be Wise

It was discovered some years ago that the administration of universities was a profession quite distinct from the profession of teaching. College presidents in the main have been compared with Bar Associations, Medical Associations and Chambers of Commerce. They are more than a class. They are a guild. But it has not been so frequently observed that the ex-administration of a university is also a profession of marked and distinguishing characteristics. An ex-president is more than a retired educator. He is a philosopher. He has passed, not out, but up. Free from the limitations which restrain a man who can never speak publicly in his private capacity, but retaining the prestige which the representation of a great university gives, the President Emeritus acquires an influence which not even former Presidents of the Republic enjoy. Former Presidents are such because they have been supplanted. Presidents Emeriti occupy their position because they choose.

What former President of the United States could have reduced all culture to five feet of shelf room by the mere authority of his name. Mr. Roosevelt’s pigskin library has been forgotten for many years, and Mr. Wilson’s fourteen pocket pointers have never yet been sold.

Dr. Hadley of Yale, Dr. Eliot of Harvard, Dr. Wheeler of California, Dr. Judson of Chicago, Dr. Jordan of Stanford, occupy separately and as a body a position which even Senators might envy. They stand among the few men of public influence in America whose influence does not depend upon how they stand. They have nothing to fear and nothing to seek for themselves. And they are saved by years of exacerbating contact with youth from the danger of ever becoming old. They are the elder guardians of Plato’s Republic deprived of nothing but the authority which they deserve. They are the rarest phenomena of our age—men who have taken time to be wise.