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Now, in "the most responsible public office," Dr. Splawn can work more effectively than ever for his dream. This is his dream: "Some day the vast stretch of country along the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico may develop a civilization surpassing that of the countries along the Mediterranean when they were at their peak of splendor and grandeur. Texas and Texans should lead in the development of this greater civilization; and the most potent influence should be that which comes from the University of Texas."
And whom did Dr. Splawn succeed? Dr. Robert Ernest Vinson, President of Texas University these seven years. And what of Dr. Vinson? Well—
At Cleveland, Western Reserve University had a busy day. It dedicated a new School of Medicine, Dr. Harvey W. Cushing, Professor of Surgery at Harvard, delivering the speech. And it inaugurated the seventh President the University has had since its foundation in 1826. Dr. Livingston Farrand, President of Cornell University, spoke at a dinner celebrative of both the dedication and the inauguration.
But this seventh President—he was none other than Dr. Robert Ernest Vinson, erst of Texas. President Emeritus Charles F. Thwing saluted him; and Dr. Vinson replied: ". . . We already have more facts than we have assimilated. Our knowledge has already outrun our moral and spiritual development. Our chief duty now is to bring the ethical and spiritual character of the Nation up to the point where its intellectual development will be in safe hands. . . ."
A Southerner (South Carolina), a scholar (Hebrew, Philosophy), a clergyman, Dr. Vinson was warmly welcomed in Mr. Thwing's salutation. Dr. Splawn, down in Texas, may well have noted these phrases about his former chief: "In Austin, he fought with political beasts from almost the beginning to the close of his illustrious career. He overcame them by wisdom, persistence, high idealism and personal charm. The qualities which won in the Southern give great promise of a like wining in the Northern field."
* First made July 4, 1783.
* Say Splawn's friends,"He's never lost a case."