To the Board of Trustees of the Pennsylvania State College: Gentlemen: I have the honor to present herewith my report for the year 1898, accompanied by those of professors in the several departments of the College.

But one change has been made in the Faculty proper, and very few in the instruction force. April 6, Captain D. C. Pearson was relieved from duty at the College by the U. S. War Department, on account of the war with Spain, and no appointment to the vacancy has yet been made.

During the summer the following appointments were made: Nathaniel W. Shed, B. S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was appointed Assistant Professor of Mining Engineering and Metallurgy, in the place of Assistant Professor H. H. Stoek, resigned; Miss Elizabeth B. Meek, B. S., M. S., of the class of '89, was appointed instructor in Zoology to assist Dr. Fernald, on account of the increase of his duties on accepting the appointment as State Economic Zoologist; Mr. A. Howry Espenshade, B. A., Wesleyan University, Conn., M. A., Columbia University, New York, was appointed Instructor in Rhetoric and Elocution in the place of Assistant Professor Munroe, resigned; Mr. Frank F. Thompson, B. S., E. E., Princeton University, was appointed Instructor in Electrical Engineering, in the place of Mr. Budd Frankinfield, whose year of service had expired; Charles F. Sponsler, B. S., class of '98, Instructor in Practical Mechanics in the place of Mr. F. H. Greenwood, whose year of service had expired; and Frank T. Beers, B. S., class of '98, as Assistant in the Chemical Laboratories, in the place of Warren P.Smiley, resigned. Mr. John F. Shields, '92, lately Professor of Mathematics at Adelphi College, Brooklyn, N. Y., gave assistance in the Mathematical Department during the Fall Session just passed, without ranking as one of the regular force of the Department. He was allowing himself to recuperate from a period of illness and temporarily gave help in this department as an auxiliary matter. Mr. Shields' standing outside of the College is very well known and his short period of work here entirely justified his reputation as a teacher. Combined with his skill as an instructor he is so loyal and enthusiatic an alumnus, so alive to all the best interests of the College and so genuinely interested in the welfare of every man with whom he came in contact-the class room as well as elsewhere-that his

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departure at the close of the session was a matter of great general regret.

I desire to call attention to the reports of professors herewith presented, as indicating the range and quality of the work which is carried on in the several departments. I venture to believe that it would be difficult to find anywhere a more vigorous, intelligent and devoted work of instruction than is given in these several departments. So large a proportion of it is carried on in laboratories and shops that the instruction during such periods must needs be very largely personal, and, even in the case of class-room work and of lectures, the sections are made as small as practicable in order that each individual student may feel the stimulus and receive the assistance of personal contact with the instructor. These conditions necessarily require a greater number of instructors than are needed where a different method is pursued, but experience here and elsewhere has shown that it is the only means of securing sound results in technical studies. As it is, nearly every one connected with the teaching force is required to spend more hours in the class room than is consistent with keeping up the best degree of personal efficiency, and some of the departments are much in need of additional help. It is impossible for an instructor to do his best work, in any important department, unless he has enough leisure to enable him to devote considerable time to keeping abreast with the best results of research, investigation and discussion in his own field and is able to meet his class in full vigor of mind and body, thoroughly infused with whatever fresh knowledge can illuminate and enforce his instruction. To this end it is important also that members of the teaching force have as much opportunity as possible to mingle with others engaged in the same lines of work, by means of attendance on the meetings of associations or other bodies where they come together not merely to present and discuss formal papers, but to sharpen their faculties, and enlarge the boundaries of their vision by the vitalizing contact of mind with mind. It is obvious that all this requires not only the hearty co-operation which the Trustees have always manifested in such directions, but the payment of a salary which shall give something more than a bare living. There are many reasons why large salaries for teachers in Colleges are neither possible nor desirable, and the limitations are possibly more stringent in State institutions than in any others. But there is every reason, both on grounds of justice and expediency, for giving proper recognition to tested experience, fidelity and ability. It is certainly not conducive to the interests of an institution, in respect either to the strength and continuity of its work or to its orderly progress, that good and able men should find themselves underpaid or should be frequently tempted by the offer of better salaries elsewhere.

I am sure it will not be understood that these suggestions are made in the tone or spirit of criticism, nor are they called for by any immediate exigency in our own situation. But my purpose is to emphasize the fact that the conspicuously good work which all our leading departments are doing would not be possible unless the Faculty were individually strong and well equipped, and any lowering of the standards of the College in this respect would inevitably result in irremedial impairment of its whole work. The State of Pennsylvania should have the service of the best obtaniable men in its State College, and the Trustees ought to be provided with means to make their positions so secure and desirable as to outweigh any calls in other directions.

While the number of counties represented in the College is larger than ever before (being 57 out of the 67) the number of students in attendance, beginning with the Fall Session, is slightly less than during the previous two or three years. The percentage of loss at the close of the Fall Session was, however, probably smaller than ever before, certainly smaller than for many years past. For this sight decrease in number there are, in my judgment, several very good reasons: The first of these reasons is a very general one. It results from the depressed condition of industry for the last two or three years, and has shown itself very widely throughout the country in a considerable falling off in the number of college students. It has long been observed that periods of industrial depression affect colleges more in the two or three years immediately following them than during the period of depression itself-and that, for the simple reason that during such periods fewer students feel able to prepare for college, while those who are already in college make every sacrifice in order to complete their course. This is especially true in a country like ours, where the great body of college students are drawn not from a wealthy or leisurely class, but from the great working body of. the people. It is doubtless true too that the recent contest with Spain deranged the plans and changed the course of life of many young men. I am also constrained to believe that there may be an additional cause peculiar to our situation which requires the very serious consideration of the Board of Trustees. More than four-fifths of our students enter the College to pursue some one of the technical courses, and a very large proportion of that number enter one or the other of the engineering courses. The remaining one-fifth desire to pursue a more general course of study which will fit them for any line of business, teaching or other profession to which they find themselves most strongly attracted or for which they discover themselves to be best fitted. For this section of our students, the College has not yet found itself able to provide so liberal facilities as for those in the technical

courses.

A beginning of enlargement in this direction was made.

four or five years ago, and has been continued as far as means permitted, but the number of students seeking such courses is very large and many of them find the inducements offered by the State College sufficient to attract them. Many more would be drawn here if the prevailing technological character of our work did not obscure the extent of the facilities offered in language, literature, mathematics, history, philosophy and other subjects of general education. It is not unnatural, however, that the majority of those who desire a general education only, should incline to enter institutions in which that is the principal or sole object. It is greatly to be desired that this side of the institution be developed as fully and efficiently as the technological side already is. I am confident that the results of such a policy would be in the highest degree beneficial, not merely by increasing the number of such students, but through their reflex infiuence upon the spirit of scholarship and the standards of work in the technical departments themselves. For a single illustration of this latter point I may refer to the statements and suggestions made in the accompanying report of the Professor of English and Rhetoric.

There has never been a period in the history of the College when there was among the entire body of students a more genuine spirit of manliness and loyalty than during the past year. A most significant and unsual manifestation of this spirit during the fall session was their unanimous action for the abolition of hazing. That practice has lingered along in many colleges, sometimes taking the form of a series of harmless pranks, but sometimes, on the impulse of the moment, carried to such excess as to result in real pain or terror or both to a timid boy, overcome with a sense of helplessness in the midst of a crowd of fellow-students who ought to be his friends, but have become for the time being his tormentors. The practice has very rarely, if ever, been carried to excess among our students, but it has several times happened that persons interested in making a sensational paragraph have sent over the State such exaggerated reports as to cause real apprehension among parents, and create the impression of a more serious evil than has in fact existed. Nevertheless, the practice even in its mildest form is an inexcusable and barbarous violation of the sacredness of one's own personality, and is utterly at variance with that spirit of comradeship and mutual helpfulness which, with this exception, prevails among students everywhere, and nowhere more actively than among our own men. These and similar considerations have been gradually gathering weight with the judgment of the student body and, when occasion arose in the early part of the present year, they adopted a written declaration, which received the personal signature of every man in every class in College, pledging themselvs not only to have no part in hazing but to use their influence to suppress it. I cannot but believe that this action