PROCEEDINGS OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES IN CONFERRING HONORARY MEMBERSHIP UPON THE RIGHT HONORABLE JAMES BRYCE

AT

Ta meeting held on January 8, 1913, the Board of Trustees of the Academy of Political Science, acting in accordance with the powers conferred by article IV of the constitution, created a class of honorary members and elected the Honorable James Bryce, British Ambassador to the United States, as the first honorary member.

A special meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Academy was held in the trustees' room of Columbia University on Friday, February 24, at four o'clock. To this meeting the life members of the Academy and a few special guests were invited. Upon the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Bryce, Professor Samuel McCune Lindsay, President of the Academy, called the meeting to order and explained its purpose. In behalf of the trustees, President Nicholas Murray Butler, a member of the advisory council of the Academy, presented to Mr. Bryce a certificate of membership, handsomely engrossed and bound in leather President Butler referred to Mr. Bryce's distinguished public services and his notable contributions to political science, expressing the hope that he might employ the leisure following his retirement in formulating an interpretation of the whole modern democratic movement.

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Mr. Bryce responded in a happy speech, expressing his interest in the Academy, his pleasure in becoming its first honorary member and his belief in the importance of the work of such institutions in America. In closing he referred to the possible services of the United States in forwarding the cause of arbitration and world peace.

Following this meeting the Academy tendered a reception to Mr. and Mrs. Bryce in Earl Hall. All the members and many guests were invited and several hundred persons attended.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS OF PROFESSOR SAMUEL MCCUNE LINDSAY, PRESIDENT OF THE ACADEMY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

This special meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Academy of Political Science has been called at a time when Mr. Bryce could be with us, for the purpose of giving added emphasis to the action already taken by the Board at its meeting on January 8, when Mr. Bryce was elected the first honorary member of the Academy.

Over thirty-two years ago this Academy was organized by a small group of men inspired by the greatest scholar and teacher in the field of political science that America has produced, our own Dean Burgess, who was then just beginning the great work he has now laid down here at Columbia, and in the fruits of whose labor most of us here to-day have peculiar reason to rejoice. For many years the Academy restricted its efforts to building up high standards of scientific work and to encouraging productive scholarship in political science.

An organization with such an aim was much needed at that time and the influence of the Academy was potent in the somewhat narrow circle of the teaching profession and of the few specialists, chiefly lawyers, who gave some scientific consideration to the problems of government.

With the passing of the years have come new problems in our public life. The relations of citizens to government have changed and educational institutions must undertake a new work in preparing citizens for ideal participation in democratic government. The Academy has proved sufficiently elastic in its organization to respond to these new needs, and within the last five years it has undergone almost a complete change in its activities. It aspires to be a real educational force in our American democracy, bringing the studies of the specialist and the highly educated professional man to the average man and the average woman who must needs participate in government and upon whose intelligence and efficiency the possibilities of

government depend. It aims to popularize the growing literature of political science, without loss of scientific value, to stimulate active discussion of the facts, conditions and problems of government as it affects the ordinary man.

In this work the Academy has enlisted the coöperation of over two thousand of our fellow-citizens. Its membership is open to men and women alike who are willing to share in its work. The Political Science Quarterly holds a foremost place in the scientific world, and as the organ of the Academy, so ably edited by the faculty of political science of this university, brings us into close affiliation with the scientific life of the university. The Academy does not propose as it grows in numbers and resources to weaken the influence of such publications as the Political Science Quarterly, but if possible to extend and strengthen such influence through the addition of other publications like our Proceedings, and, possibly, a still more popular periodical yet to be issued, adapted to the needs of a wider circle of intelligent men and women anxious to know more about government and to do their part to aid in the establishment of rational and sound public opinion.

In this work and in the creation of the ideals which it presupposes, we are already indebted to Mr. Bryce as to no other writer in the English-speaking world. No one has done more than he to give us a clear vision of the possibilities of democracy; no one has voiced more clearly the challenge of democracy to the forces of education. We shall miss him all the more when he leaves our shores, because he has been so vitally identified with the deeper currents of American life and American thought. In his home land or wherever he may be, however, we shall not lose him so long as he has voice or pen to contribute to the thought of his time and to the wisdom of all ages. We shall now count upon him, as our first honorary member, for counsel and guidance, and we shall ever look to him as an example of the ideal citizen who serves.

I now have the honor, by authority of this Board, to ask President Butler, a member of the advisory council of the Academy, to present to Mr. Bryce a certificate of honorary membership.

REMARKS OF NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, PRESIDENT OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, IN PRESENTING CERTIFICATE OF HONORARY MEMBERSHIP IN THE ACADEMY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE TO AMBASSADOR BRYCE

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Bryce:

My colleagues have given me the grateful privilege of transmitting to you, sir, this formal certificate to mark the honorary relation in which they are glad to know that you are hereafter to stand to this Academy.

In handing you this document, I find it difficult to withhold one or two personal words. My mind goes back, sir, nearly thirty years to the beginnings of a strong friendship and of that sort of admiration which a younger man is sometimes fortunately permitted to have for his elder, when in your library, first in Bryanston Square and afterwards in Portland Place, we used to spend delightful mornings in discussing public affairs, the movement of public opinion, and the literature of political science and of philosophy. It was then and there that, through your courtesy and kindly hospitality, I had the opportunity and the high privilege of meeting and of coming to know so many of the men who were at that time leading the opinion of the British people and formulating the issues of British politics.

At that time, sir, as you will easily recall, the first bills for the government of Ireland were being drafted and presented for formal consideration. It has taken all the intervening years for the political movements and the political tendencies in which we were then so keenly interested to move forward to the accomplishment of the result which, by the recent vote of the House of Commons, seems now to be substantially assured.

To this personal word, let me add something more. You have stood in a peculiar relation to those of us who are students of public affairs, and especially to those of us who have had some part in the shaping of international opinion and in the conduct of international relations. One of our colleagues at this university, who has the happy and inveterate habit of mix