Hopkins, Donham Speak at 25th Anniversary of Business School

The opening meeting of the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Harvard Business School was held last night in the Memorial Church. Some 1400 people crowded into the church for the exercises, which opened with a colorful academic procession of the faculty of the University, followed by the students.

President Lowell presided, and the invocation was given by William Lawrence '71, bishop of Massachusetts. The opening address was delivered by Dr. Ernest M. Hopkins, president of Dartmouth College, whose subject was "Unity as an Educational Ideal." He was followed by W. B. Donham '98, dean of the Business School, discussing "The Failure of Business Leadership and the Responsibility of the Universities."

Discussing briefly the crowded action and rapidity of change of the past 25 years, covering the existence of the Business School, Dr. Hopkins called attention to the lack of foresight in the present-day hurried world and the antipathy to repose and contemplation on the part of youth today.

Aims of Universities

"Education," said Dr. Hopkins, "does not deal with disembodied minds but with men of flesh and blood, possessed in varying degrees of mental capacities, of obscure neuroses, of emotional sensitiveness, and of spiritual aspiration. The influence of educational foundations, such as are our colleges and universities, should be in behalf of that wholeness of man which is healthfulness and which is holiness.

"Assuming that social and political democracy continues to be held desirable, education must be judged upon the nature of the contact it given a man immediately or eventually with his fellows. Granted the all-pervasive importance of cultivating intellectual refinement and of developing intellectual power, means must be found for making these available primarily to those possessed of potential strength of character, of latent, if not active, attributes which make for personality, and of group consciousness which can dominate instinct for individual acquisitiveness at the expense, of the public weal. Likewise, credentials from our houses of learning ought to be withheld from those without evidence of interest in developing these qualities."

Dean Donham's Speech

Dean Donham discussed particularly the failure of business and political leadership to assume the new responsibilities created by this unprecedented calamity. He found the reason for this mainly in the overspecialized organization of our society.

"We build great industrial corporations that introduce amazing novelties into life. Their executives think first, last, and nearly all the time of their concerns as isolated. They have no fine understanding of their own companies, too little grasp of their industries as a whole, almost none of the relation between their particular interests and our general social and economic structure, and far too little grip on the social consequences of their activities. We create great banks. Their leaders too often know little beyond finance. When thousands of banks fail, mainly through the intrusion of new social and economic forces, they and the community think in terms of improving the management of banks rather than of restoring social equilibrium, the loss of which accounts for most bank failures. When the farm problem becomes a major catastrophe, business either ignores the plight of one-third of our nation, or actively opposes efforts to regain balance. It makes little effort to design better plans. Political leaders bent on making good laws receive specialized advice related to individual problems of the adviser."

He insisted on our need of a new type of administrator in both business and politics who can see things in wide relation and do their part in maintaining society's stability and equilibrium. Asserting that the universities are as specialized as the lost of society he placed the primary responsibility for changing conditions and developing the new type of administrator-leader we need on the universities and their schools of business.