no sufficient part in creating it, what answer shall we make to
history for the relapse of the nations by consequence into the
state of elemental warfare? ^
Such is my response, too long and yet too brief, to the injunc-
tion that we keep the faith — the faith, that is, of the open, the
courageous, the undistorted, the unconfused mind in the pres-
ence of great issues as they arise. This is the power as I appre-
hend, perhaps the greatest gift of our inheritance as it is the
greatest discipline of our citizenship, through which we as the
sons of Dartmouth and as loyal citizens of the State are to strive
to fulfill the "unmanifest destiny" whether of the College or of
the Nation.
I am, in the fellowship of our faith
Most sincerely and heartily
William Jewett Tucker
I have recalled these expressions of opinion to mark the
impression which the moral issues involved in the course of
events made upon my own mind. Such studies as I was able
to make in the endeavor to interpret the meaning of the
new social order, or the meaning of the War, were for the
1 The portion of this letter referring to the national policy was taken note
of quite generally in the daily and weekly press.
THE NEW RESERVATION OF TIME 443
most part embodied in articles contributed to the "Atlan-
tic Monthly." I was much indebted to the generous hos-
pitahty of the "Atlantic" in this period of its renaissance
under the editorship of Mr. Ellery Sedgwick. It gave me
ready access to its wide constituency — a constituency
made up largely of those whom I wished to reach. When I
came to gather up these articles into a book to be issued by
Houghton Mifflin Company, I was somewhat at a loss for a
fit title. There was no unity of subject-matter. All that I
could say of the subject-matter was that the order in which
the articles appeared show^ed "the increasing seriousness
of the subjects which occupied the public mind." On the
whole, it seemed best to adopt the title of the first article in
the "Atlantic" series as at least introducing a fresh idea —
"The New Reservation of Time" — following with the
sub-title — " And other Articles contributed to the Atlan-
tic Monthly during the Personal Occupancy of the Period
described." The "Baltimore Sun," referring to the title,
said: "This is an example of a good book hidden under the
bushel of a bad title. No one w^ould know without reading
a part of the book what the 'new reservation of time*
meant, and the term would not arouse the most curious
book-buyer." Not so however the "Nation" and the "New
Republic," both of which journals caught at once the
underlying idea and proceeded to comment on it — the
"Nation" making the title a text for discussing "Our Ex-
Presidents of Universities," and the "New Repubhc" for
discoursing on "Thinking at Seventy-Six,"
The "Nation" (January 11, 1917), after touching with
neat irony upon the need of a new "leisure class," which
could not fit well into the present "leisure class which
plays polo and exhibits for the photographers of the
444 MY GENERATION
Sunday supplement,'* ofifers our ex-presidents of universi-
ties as among the candidates well worth considering for the
place, though distinctions must be made among them as
they "differ among themselves in goodness, greatness, and
glory," and then proceeds to a review of the motive and
of the contents of the book:
Dr. Tucker's book set out to be an essay towards the solution
of the problem : How to endure being a retired president. When
he relinquished active charge of Dartmouth, he fell to considering
whether the effect of society's creation by retirement of a quite
elderly leisure class would intensify or remove "the reproach of
old age." He answered the question in the new and inspiring
spirit of resistance to superannuation, which makes so many
men above seventy the admired companions of men in the twen-
ties. He swiftly concluded that so far as his own case was con-
cerned, membership in the leisure class was not a discharge from
responsibility for time, but an admission to larger and freer
opportunities to use it. His retirement permitted him at last to
consider a college presidency as an avocation, and to follow what
is perhaps the highest calling of a man of leisure — to think and
write disinterestedly for the Republic and the cause of mankind.
Following an appreciation of the contents of the book,
the writer reverts to this idea of a leisure class made up as
suggested, and generalizes upon it in this wise:
Dr. Tucker is not the only retired university president who
has in recent years been thinking and writing disinterestedly for
the Republic and the cause of mankind; but he is perhaps the
first to recognize his work as the fruit of a new and possibly im-
portant elderly leisure class. The precious aspects of membership
in this class are various. Its members need not speak nor WT-ite
except when moved by an inner call : they may therefore be ex-
pected to purge their utterances of the humdrum oflBcial plati-
tudes of the bad days of their presidencies. They are scholars as
well as administrators: they may therefore be expected to rise
THE NEW RESERVATION OF TIME 445
above the violence of an uncritical partisanship. They are too old
or too weary or too proud to enter into competition for such
political honors as might be considered an augmentation of their
sober academic glories ; they may therefore be expected to speak
weightily and to be heard gravely, as sage and unselfish coun-
sellors of the national conscience. The class which we have been
describing is really of quite distinguished morality and intelli-
gence — it would be a hard class for a vulgar parvenu to enter;
but it is a small class, and it ought to be enlarged by the acces-
sion of a few more men who have supped fairly full of honors —
say the ex-Presidents of the United States.
The "New Republic" (August 25, 1917) recognized
equally the underlying idea of "the new reservation of
time," but found the real significance in the fact that as
applied to ex-presidents of colleges it gave them intellec-
tual freedom after their long imprisonment in institution-
alism. Making the application of this theory concrete, the
reviewer says that "the impression a young man will get
from this book is that to be institutionally responsible is to
be intellectually suppressed and benumbed. Dr. Tucker does
not say this, but he gives the effect of a mind that has been
a long time in prison, the implications of his philosophy are
so radical and yet his thoughts move so stiflBy in their har-
ness"; in proof of which he compares the views expressed
on educational subjects with those on 'current social topics.
"Here is a mind that has a driving radical force about it in
any direction where it works openly and freely. . . . The
marvel is to find in this thinker of seventy-six the dynamic
philosophy which is only just beginning to be felt by young
men of twenty-four." In proof of which latter statement,
the reviewer comments in terms of highest approval of the
view^s advanced in the chapters on social progress and on
the War, and then passes to this generalization :
446 MY GENERATION
What do we do in this country with minds hke this, pregnant,
radical, profound? Is it not a criminal waste of intellectuality to
deny freedom to such minds except at the price of superannu-
ation? Dr. Tucker has all the invaluable resources of the publicist.
He is the stuff out of which England makes its Morleys and its
Bryces. His style, though weighty, is distinctive, and could easily
have been made as porous as Professor Dewey's. But our civiliza-
tion could apparently find no other way of using such a mind
than to put it for the best years of its life into the routine of a
New England college, where the horrifying prestige of the higher
education kept it in a state of torpor. Somehow at Dartmouth
Dr. Tucker did not get himself tapped as a pubhc philosopher.
It is not until he is retired that he shows us in these essays what
he might have been doing all these years as a publicist free
lance. If President Tucker could not have had an earlier re-
lease, we are at least grateful for him now. May the years spare
him an ever newer reservation of time !
This criticism forms a part of a unique literary episode.
It is signed with the initials R. B. (Randolph Bourne),
whose recent untimely death is so great a loss to the litera-
ture of sincere and searching personal opinion. In 1912 Mr.
Bourne, while still a student at Columbia, appeared on the
pages of the "Atlantic" in a brilliant essay on "Youth,"
full of freedom and fire. Mr. Sedgwick asked me if I would
write a response to it — not in any way a reply — giving
the antithesis of age. As I had already embodied much of
my thought of age in my article on "The New Reservation
of Time," I felt that any further word from me on the sub-
ject would be superfluous, and declined. I noticed that the
antithesis soon appeared in the delightful article by John
Burroughs on "The Summit of the Years." Some three
years later, Mr. Bourne wrote an article ("Atlantic," Sep-
tember, 1915) on "This Older Generation," foreshadowed
in degree by his article on " Youth, " in which he charges
THE NEW RESERVATION OF TIME 447
that this generation of the elders has grown obstructive
through its compromises and conventions, that it had
failed to supply guides and leaders, and above all that it
had grown "weary of thinking." To this indictment. Dr.
Francis G. Peabody replied with admirable temper and
good-humor, showing the futility of discussing too seriously
the provinces of adjacent generations, but bringing out in
sharp relief some of the characteristics of "This Younger
Generation" ("Atlantic," December, 1915). At the close
of this article Dr. Peabody, in answering the despairing
question of Mr. Bourne — "Where are the leaders of the
elder generation who are rallying about them the disinte-
grated members of idealistic youth.^^" — made reference to
the fact that "Mr. Roosevelt was now several times a grand-
father," and added, "or if still further any reader of the
'Atlantic' would observe how completely without age
limit is the capacity to read the signs of the present times,
let him turn back from Mr. Bourne's essay to the first ar-
ticle in the same number (' The Progress of the Social Con-
science') and read the wise and far-sighted anticipations
of an invalided veteran of letters, with their background of
sound learning and their calm prophecy of a ' revival of civ-
ilization.' " I do not know that this paragraph caught the
eye of Mr. Bourne, or if so, suggested to him the opportu-
nity of making his amende honorable to the generation,
which he had accused of " having grown weary of thinking,"
through his very generous appreciation, in his review of
"The New Reservation of Time," of one of their number
as a "thinker of seventy-six whose dynamic philosophy is
just beginning to be felt by young men of twenty-four."
In the light of this possible "amende" it seems almost un-
generous to call attention to the inconsistency of accounting
448 MY GENERATION
for this storage of power during a long period of imprison-
ment in academic institutionalism, or to revert to another
figure employed by the reviewer, to show how the "prison
chill" could produce a "second blooming." However, Mr.
Robert A. Woods, Head of the South End House, Boston,
whose knowledge of previous facts was both intimate and
critical, writing in the columns of the Social Settler ("Bos-
ton Evening Transcript, " August 30, 1917), deftly relieved
Mr. Bourne of the necessity of explaining the inconsist-
ency by exploding the myth of "institutionalism." And
so this interesting episode was happily concluded.
In defining at the outset the nature of this Autobio-
graphical Interpretation, I remarked that its value would
depend upon the relation of my personal career to the for-
tune of my generation. If the movements with which I
was identified were born out of the spirit of the generation,
and if in my connection with these movements I also was
imbued with its spirit, then I might hope to write as an
interpreter rather than as a mere observer. The amount
of ground covered by any or all personal activities would
be relatively of less importance than a just appreciation
of the spirit which alone could give them meaning and
effect. But the spirit as well as the work of my gener-
ation has now passed into the secondary stage of interpre-
tation. It is no longer to be studied and interpreted pri-
marily with a view to service. The generation has said its
word and accomplished or failed to accomplish its task.
The War, while it lasted, was so inclusive and so insistent
in its demands that it reached back among the men of my
time to take account of their accumulated experiences as
well as of their material possessions. What is now needed
is not some past experience of the world, but a new spirit.
IN RETIREMENT
I THE NEW YORK
Public library
i' ASTOR, LENOX .
I ' ILDEN FOUNDA ;T0NS ^
THE NEW RESERVATION OF TIME 449
a new mind to be created out of its own aspirations,
enthusiasms, responsibilities, hopes, fears, determinations,
even out of the very chaos with which the War has seemed
to phmge the mind of the nations.
Let me draw the contrast. The ruhng idea, the domi-
nating purpose, the passionate aim of my generation from
first to last was progress. That one word explains its ener-
gies physical and moral, and its achievements, its mis-
takes also and its failures. The ruling idea, the dominat-
ing purpose, the passionate aim of the incoming generation
must of necessity be peace — not peace as rest from the
weariness of war, or even as recuperation from its awful
losses; nor yet a peace satisfied with the dethronement of
militarism or with the punishment and restraint of un-
humbled and unrepentant peoples, but with peace as the
commanding problem before the mind and conscience of
all peoples, a problem having its only possible solution in
the establishment and maintenance of the moral equilib-
rium of the world, the only balance of power which can be
registered on the scales of justice. Evidently this object
must be as far-reaching in time as in extent. Peace must
be the world's business, its great business, for at least a
generation. Any computation of the elements of a lasting,
or really durable peace, must include vastly more of civil-
ization, an adequate advance in the sense of justice, and
the deepening of the process of hmnanizing the world.
Any international court of justice must be supported and
made practicable by continuous international legislation.
Law, that is, must be superseded by better law and applied
by better methods. So much our wiser men are beginning
to foresee and to declare. But is this all? What shall
prevent the spirit of war, once exorcised from the nations,
450 MY GENERATION
from returning through the open door of class conscious-
ness, enmity, and strife? Must the war of the nations be
followed by the more terrible war of the classes? Who
shall insure peace in the workshop and the market-place?
How shall democracy be restated and reenacted in terms
of economic justice? Surely the problems of peace can be
no less absorbing, no less perplexing, than were the incite-
ments and demands of progress.
Is there any word which the nineteenth century, as the
century of progress, may utter in the ear of the twentieth
century, as the century committed to the task of peace?
There is one word which I believe it may utter without
impertinence — patience. Soon or late, patience is seen
to be the indispensable quality in the adjustment of hu-
man effort to the time element in the work of God in
human affairs. "Forget not this one thing," said the
Apostle Peter to the men of his generation, "one day with
the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as
one day." How singularly applicable to the slow years
of the War and to its swift conclusion! Wliat if the War
had ended before the Russian autocracy had fallen out of
alliance with the liberty-loving peoples of the Entente;
what if the War had ended while Turkey might have been
saved by skillful diplomacy from permanent banishment
from Europe : what if the War had ended before America
had quickened her step to reach the battle-field at the
critical hour? These are pertinent questions to ask our-
selves as we turn from the issues of the War to the prob-
lems of peace. The problems of peace are already in evi-
dence. They are growing more complicated and more
serious. We cannot evade them, and we may not mini-
mize them. Neither may we make light of the dissensions
THE NEW RESERVATION OF TIME 451
that have arisen or that may arise out of them. "Never-
theless," shall we not say in like patient faith with that
of the Apostle, as in his time he faced the obstacles to the
incoming of the New Order of the World, "Nevertheless,
according to His promise we look for a new earth wherein
dwelleth righteousness."
THE END
INDEX
Abbot, Samuel, 103.
Abbott, Dr. Lyman, his conception of
the divinity of Christ, 131, 13i; at
Plymouth Church celebration, 370.
Academies before the Civnl War, 30, 31.
Adams, Professor C. D., 317.
Adams, Melvin O., 321.
Adams, Dr. William, 73-75.
Agnosticism, 6, 94.
Alabama, the. See Kearsarge.
Alderman, Dr., 19.
Allen, Archdeacon, 54.
Allen, Ethan, 375.
Allen, Justice, 207, 208.
"Alumni Movement," the, at Dart-
mouth, 234-36.
Alumni Oval, the, 321.
American Board of Missions, 144, 145,
152-58.
American Home Missionary Society,
the, 63.
Americanization, work in, 436-38.
Amos Tuck School of Administration
and Finance, 321, 354-58.
Andover Controversy, the, out of place,
101 ; due in large measure to personal
influence, 101, 102; the Board of
Trustees and the Board of Visitors
at the time of, 104, 105; election of
Dr. Smyth, 105, 106; letter from mem-
ber of staff of " Congregationahst "
opposing Dr. Smyth's appointment,
107; effort of the " Congregational-
ist" to establish the theory of con-
structive heresy, 108-10; letter of the
Faculty, 110, 111; conversation of
Tucker with Smyth, 111, 112; letters
concerning Smyth, 112-14; Smyth
rejected by the Visitors, 114-16;
effect of the decision on the public
mind, 117-20; the Faculty of the
Academy during, 124; distinction
between "Andover Disturbance"
and "Andover Controversy," 125;
the early period a period of restraint,
126.
Andover Creed, the, 121, 122, 185-
221; Professor Smyth's defense of,
200, 216. See Andover Trial.
Andover House (South End House),
131, 181-83, 231, 367, 426.
Andover Movement, the, 128; ex-
pounded in the pulpit, 129; its rela-
tion to Unitarianism, 131-35; and
the churches, 151.
"Andover Review," institution of, 136;
contributors to, 137, 138; members
of the Andover Review Company,
Inc., 138; indebtedness to publishers
of, 138, 139; press notices of, 139 n.;
importance of editorials of, 139-46;
the purpose of, 140-42; personal re-
lations of the editors of, 146; the
editors, 146-50; courses offered
through, 174-77.
Andover Theological Seminary, a the-
ological school with a missionary
spirit, 55; Professors in, 55-57; in-
tellectual and moral passion lacking
in, 58; Tucker accepts call to, 86-89;
its attempt to Christianize the doc-
trine of human destiny, 99; the con-
stitution of, 102-04; new chair in,
offered to Newman Smyth, 118, 119;
Dr. Harris appointed to chair in,
120, 121; resignation of Professors
Thayer and Mead from, 121, 122;
creed subscription, 121-23; the Fac-
ulty of, during the Controversy,
124; two new chairs established in,
124; status of, at the close of the pre-
liminary stage in the controversy,
124, 125; the Faculty a preaching
Faculty, 129; spirit of work within,
during the controversy, 159, 184,
185; controversy without effect on
students, 160; exceptional interest of
the work of, 160; the Lectureship on
Pastoral Theology, 161; the chair of
Preaching in, 162; preaching by
students at, 163, 164; lectures on
the technique of teaching at, 163-65;
scheme of lectures given at, 170-72;
Social Economics in, 172-74; ex-
tension courses in, 174-77; Tucker
resigns from, 240; period of institu-
tional development of, delayed, 244,
245; decliDe in numbers, 245; re-
454
INDEX
moval to Cambridge, 245-47; cre-
ation of separate Board for, 246.
"Andover Townsman," editorial in,
on Professor Tucker's removal to
Dartmouth, 239 n.
Andover Trial, the, the charges, 185-
90; the reply of the Professors to the
charges, 191-93; Professor Smyth's
answer to the request to meet the
charges in writing, 193; the Amended
Complaint, 194, 195; the issue, 195-
97; the counsel, 197; the scene of,
198; the interest excited by, 198;
absence of students and Trustees
from, 198; the arguments, 198-202;
result of, 203, 204; appeal to Supreme
Court of Massachusetts made by
Professor Smyth, 205; bill of com-
plaint made by the Trustees, 205-07;
verdict of Visitors set aside by Su-
preme Court, 208; changes in the
Board of Visitors, 209, 210; com-
plaint against Professor Smyth re-
newed, 211; case dismissed, 212, 213,
233, 234; summary of the case, 213;
result a personal triumph for Pro-
fessor Smyth, 214, 215; folly of over-
use of theological safeguards shown
by, 216, 217; theological freedom
assured by, 217, 218; contributed
toward the freedom of Christianity,
219-21.
Arnold, Matthew, 81.
Asakawa, Professor, 346, 347.
Associated Charities, 172.
Athletics, college, 39, 332-35; at Dart-
mouth, 335, 336.
Avocation, value of, 392.
Baldwin, Professor Simeon E., 197, 199.
Balfour, Arthur, quoted on the change
in the point of view of the nineteenth
century, 3.
Bancroft, Cecil F. P., 55, 104, 301.
Barker, Justice, 208.
Bartlett, Ichabod, 288.
Bartlett, Samuel C, 66 n., 310; Presi-
dent of Dartmouth, 65; resignation,
222; sympathies and activities of,
351.
Beecher, Henry Ward, 73, 332, 370.
Bell, Mrs., 396.
Bellows, Dr. Henry W., 73.
Berkeley Street Church, Boston, 154-
56.
Berkeley Temple, 169.
Berry, Rev. Dr. Charles A., 370.
Bevan, Dr. Llewelyn D., 73.
Bible, historical criticism of, 6, 94-96;
experiment in the constructive study
of, 67-69.
Biology as a study, 337.
Bishop, Robert R., 104.
Bishop, Judge, 207, 238, 239.
Blair, Ex-Senator, 25.
Boards of control of colleges, 261.
Boards of trust and colleges, 265.
Bolshevism, 17.
Boston and New York, the religious
atmosphere of, in 1875, compared,
72.
Boston Latin School, 31.
Bourne, Randolph, 446-48.
Boyhood in a New England village,
26-30.
Bradford, Dr., 370.
Bray ton. Miss, 401.
Brooke, Stopford A., his "Life and
Letters of Frederick W. Robertson,"
58.
Brown, Charlotte Rogers, 415 n.
Brown, Eleanor, 415 n.
Brown, Rev. Francis, President of
Dartmouth, 287, 292-95.
Brown, Professor Francis, grandson of
the Rev. Francis, 236, 237, 399.
Brown, John Crosby, 74.
Brown, Judge Nelson Pierce, 415 n.
Brown, Mrs. N. P. (Margaret Tucker),
230, 415.
Brown, Nelson Pierce, Jr., 415 n.
Brown, Professor Samuel G., 236, 237,
366.
Brown, Stanton, 415 n.
Burroughs, John, 446.
Bushnell, Horace, on work and play,
394.
Butterfield, Dr. Ralph, fund given to
Dartmouth by, 304.
Cable, the Atlantic, 78, 79.
Cabot, Dr. Richard C, letter of, 366,
367.
Capital and labor, changes in, after the
Civil War, 14, 15.
Carnegie, Andrew, 178-80.
Carnegie Pension Fund, 265, 266.
Carter, President Franklin, 105.
Cass, Mr., 27.
Caverno, Rev. Dr. Charles C, incident
regarding "Origin of Species" told
by, 3.
Chalmers, Rev. Thomas, 385.
Chapel, College, 345.
INDEX
455
Charity, 172, 173.
Chase, Charles P., 311.
Chase, his "History of Dartmouth"
quoted, 275, 376.
Cheever, Charlotte, wife of Professor
Tucker, 230.
Cheever, Dr. Henry T., 230.
Cheever, Miss, 396.
Cheney, Governor, 86.
Chi Alpha, New York club, 81-83.
Chicago, University of, endowment,
263.
"Chicago Times," the, suspension of,
unwise, 45.
Choate, Rufus, 294, 396.
Christ, the new orthodox'and the Uni-
tarian views of, 131-35.
Christian faith, 220, 221.
Christianity, freedom of, 219.
Church, the, 17; and charity, 172;
and social economy, 173.
Churches, New York, 84-86.
Churchill, Professor John Wesley, 124;
personal sketch of, 149, 150.
Citizenship, Tucker's views on, 391.
Civil War, the, 8, 9, 11; moral relapse
following, 12, 13; commemorative
tablet at Dartmouth to students and
graduates who fell in, 41; not un-