Jesse R. Harris, A. B., 1902; Assistant Surgeon with the rank of First Lieutenant in the United States Army (1902).

Louis H. Kilbourne, LL. B., 1895, LL. M., 1897; Sergeant, Company K, in the Fifth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (1898), Second Lieutenant in the Eighth Cavalry (1901).

Stephen H. Mould, B. L., 1890; First Lieutenant in the Two Hundred and Third Regiment of New York Volunteer Infantry (1898), First Lieutenant in the Forty-fourth Regiment of the United States Volunteer Infantry (1899), First Lieutenant in the United States Artillery Corps (1901).

Frederick W. Phisterer, M. E., 1895, M. M. E., 1896, D. Sc., 1897; Second Lieutenant in the First Artillery (1898), First Lieutenant in the Artillery Corps (1901), Captain in the Artillery Corps (1902).

Ervin Louis Phillips, A. B., 1891; Second Lieutenant in the Sixth Cavalry (1891), First Lieutenant in the Third Cavalry (1898), Captain in the Thirteenth Cavalry (1901).

CHAPTER XVI

Ο

MANUAL LABOR

NE favorite theory of Mr. Cornell, which was prominent in the early history of the university, was that of manual labor, by which students during their studies could support themselves by working from three to four hours per day. He believed that the activity which is usually devoted to recreation and athletic pursuits might be directed to some systematic employment, that students who possessed skill in some trade would be able to find occupation as mechanics and laborers upon the farm, and that the agricultural and mechanical departments would furnish opportunity for unskilled students to acquire a proficiency in some craft. Mr. Cornell's views were stated very clearly in a letter of August 10, 1868, to the New York Tribune:

"The numerous appeals which I am receiving from young men for assistance to enable them to pay their way while obtaining an education at the Cornell University impel me to reply through the Tribune. I would inform all who may desire the information that, in organizing the university, the trustees aimed to arrange a system of manual labor which, while it would be compulsory upon none, would furnish all the students of the university with the opportunity to develop their physical strength and vigor by labor, the fair compensation for which would pay the expenses of their education. Students will be employed in cultivating and raising, on a farm of three hundred acres, the various productions best suited to furnish the col

lege tables. These will include live stock for producing milk, butter, and cheese, and to be killed for meat; grain for bread, and vegetables and fruits of all kinds suited to the climate and soil.

"Mechanical employment will be given to all in the machine shop of the university. This will be equipped with an engine of twenty-five horse-power, lathes, planing-machines for iron and wood, and all the most improved implements and tools for working in iron and wood. Here they will manufacture tools, machinery, models, patterns, etc. The erection of the additional buildings required for the university will furnish employment for years to students in need of it. There will also be employment in laying out, grading, roadmaking, and improving and beautifying the farm and grounds of the university. The work done by students will be paid for at the current rates paid elsewhere for like services. The work will be done under the supervision of the professors and competent superintendents and foremen. It will be the constant aim of the trustees and faculty of the university to render it as attractive and instructive as possible, and especially to make it conducive to the health, growth, and physical vigor of the students, besides affording them the means of self-support and independence, while receiving all the advantages of the university.

"With such combined facilities for instruction and maintenance, all the expenses of a first-class faculty and of tuition being paid by the endowment, I trust that no person who earnestly desires to be thoroughly educated will find difficulty in becoming so by his own exertions at the Cornell University.

"We already have students who entered three months in advance of the opening of the university, to avail themselves of the opportunity to earn two dollars per day through haying and harvest, and thus make

a sure thing of it. Such boys will get an education, and will make their mark in the world in the use of it. "In conclusion, I will assure the boys that if they will perform one-fourth as much labor as I did at their ages, or as I do now at sixty years of age, they will find no difficulty in paying their expenses while prosecuting their studies at Ithaca.'

When Mr. Cornell visited Yale, and saw the students perform in the gymnasium, he expressed himself very decidedly on this matter. Here, he said, were healthy young men driven to resort to the artificial exercise of the muscles for their health, and as a relief from study. He would provide means to turn that muscular exercise to better advantage. Instead of "climbing ropes like monkeys in a cage," he would furnish the young men with means and incentives to exercise their muscles in useful work. They would rest their brains from study of books by turning their minds toward something else.

A circular of those early days states:

"Possible Earnings of Students in the Voluntary Labor Corps, etc.

"At the beginning of instruction on the last Wednesday in September there will be enrolled Voluntary Labor Corps' for different kinds of work, to be done under the direction of the professors of agriculture, mechanic arts, civil engineering, etc.

"A large force of students can thus be employed upon the farm, machine shop, and in work upon the grounds, and the university will pay students the same prices which it would have to pay to others for the same work.

"The time given each day by each member of the Voluntary Labor Corps will probably average from two to six hours.