Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/570

 WOODEOW WILSON 547 torn asunder with the ambitions of the members to insure election to some olub in the junior year. President Wilson proposed to substitute for this plan of living what was known as the ^^quad system." The college was to be divided into groups for living purposes, each to be a distinct social unit in which the members of all classes should mingle f reely, eat in a common dining hall and develop a spirit of fellowship that would include all the members of the ^^quad." The board of trustees approved the plan and it was well on the way to being put into operation when the storm of opposi- tion broke. The alumni scented the destruction of the prin- ciple of exdusiveness in social life. Aristocracy and priv- ilege would not die easily. So strong was the devotion to the old system that four months after it had been approved by the board, the same board asked the president to withdraw the proposal. But this was not the end. The controversy over the issue between democracy and aristocracy was too bitter to be stopped by the withdrawal The president, in speeches before alunmi clubs and in conversation, continued to cham- pion the cause of democracy. Some alumni, some faculty members, and some of the board championed the canse of ar- istocracy. The president was drawn on from a proposal that began as a purely educational one to defend it as the neces- sary step in redeeming the college from the blight of priv- ilege. The opposition made more clear to him that the power of wealth and social exdusiveness were hostile to the demo- cratic ideals that he held for college education. But before this storm had begun to diminish in force a new situation arose to complicate the problem. A movement for a graduate college had been initiated and had the support of the board and many friends of Princeton as well as that of the president. But a contributor to the fund had made as a condition of his contribution that the new building should be erected in conformity with a certain plan for the graduate school that Dean West had proposed. The president and board were not committed as yet to any plan, least of all to this one, and they asked for the removal of the condition to