Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/457

SOME IMPORTANT EVENTS 403 therefore, deferred action. The President and Senate, however, had been so wise in their selection of the first candidate, that at the next meeting the Trustees gave way, and President McKinley became the recipient of the first honorary degree conferred by the University of Chicago. A special Convocation (the twenty-sixth) was held in Kent Theater on October 17, 1898. President McKinley was welcomed by a great concourse. Addresses were made by Dr. A. K. Parker and Dean Small. Dean Judson presented Mr. McKinley and President Harper conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. No candidates were thereafter recommended to the Trustees for honorary degrees until the approach of the Decennial Celebration. When on May 15, 1901, the President reported informally the purpose of the Senate to recommend the conferring of honorary degrees on fifteen candidates as a part of that celebration, the Trustees again drew back. The record reads: After an extended discussion the following motion was made: That the Trustees consider it inexpedient to confer more than five honorary degrees at the present time. The following motion was offered as a substitute: That the President be requested to return the list of fifteen names under consideration to the Senate to the end that the number may be reduced. The Board of Trustees was a singularly united body and almost invariably acted with unanimity. On this question, however, although the substitute was adopted, it was by a divided vote, three Trustees voting against it. The next meeting held six days later, May 21, brought the following communication from the Senate. The Senate of the University herewith recommends for your consideration the accompanying list of names for the highest degrees to be conferred on the Decennial celebration. The number of candidates presented is not incon- sistent with the wise policy of making the degree a distinction because of its rarity, because the rule of the Senate to recommend not more than four names in any one year has been so carefully observed that only one such degree has been given since the organization of the University. To the Senate it has seemed best to wait and concentrate upon a larger number on the occasion of a great event, such as the celebration of our Decennial, in view of the fact that a similar observance cannot, in the nature of things, recur for ten or fifteen years. Attention is also called to the evident necessity of a list on such an