1905
The first Rotary Club was founded in Chicago. The number of registered autos in the United
States reached 77,988. Albert Einstein formulated his theory of relativity. Sears Roebuck
catalogue devoted most of one page to some 75 versions of ostrich feathers for women’s
headgear, and 60 pages to musical instruments- twice the space allotted to kitchen stoves. An
estimated 100,000 saloons in the country were supplied by 3,000 breweries and distilleries.
High school and college football had become so ferocious that 19 players were killed during
the seasons. As a result, President Roosevelt persuaded a group of college presidents to
develop a humane set of rules that resulted in a more open type of game. The world’s largest
horse race tract, Belmont Park, began its first racing season. In New York, Shaw’s
Mrs.
Warren’s Profession
was declared “obscene and indecent”. The first drive-in gasoline station
opened in St. Louis.
Michel Joined Faculty
Clarkson Expenses
Founder’s Day Exercises
Michel Joined Faculty.
Dr. Carl Michel, AB, PhD, joined the faculty as professor of social
sciences and modern languages on February 6, 1905. His background was diverse: after
receiving his AB from The Gymnasium, Darmstadt, in 1879, and his PhD from the University
of Wurzburg in 1883, he travelled through France, Switzerland, and the United States. In 1885,
he enrolled as a student at the Ohio Normal University to learn English more fluently. Shortly
afterward, he was hired there as a professor of languages and assistant in mathematics, history,
social science, and pedagogy, and taught from 1885 to 1900. For the next two years, 1900 to
1902, he served as professor of social science and pedagogy at Bluffton College before
becoming a private tutor, Ithaca, N.Y., while he waited to begin his appointment as a professor
of ancient languages at Villa Nova College, Penn., in 1903; in 1905 he came to Clarkson.
By 1910, he was teaching the following courses: English I and II; English literature;
Modern History and Current Topics; History of Philosophy; History of Civilization; Logic;
Psychology; and Ethics; French 1, 2, 3; and German 1, 2, 3, including German and French
technical reading (but not all these at the same time or in the same semester!). This remarkable
man enrolled in the elementary German course at Potsdam Normal, but he turned the course
inside out by using his native tongue of German to learn command of the English idioms of his
English-speaking fellow students.
He died in 1931, but his memory still lives on campus through the Michel Freshman
Humanities prizes awarded yearly at University Recognition Day, formerly known as Moving-
Up Day, and then as Phalanx Day.
Clarkson Expenses.
The
Clarkson Bulletin
for 1905 listed the following expenses for
Clarkson.
