1916
Wilson was reelected president by only 41.9 percent of the votes. The US signed a treaty to
purchase the Danish West Indies (Virgin Islands) for $25 million. The National Park Service
was established. The National Academy of Sciences established the National Research Council.
John Dewey published Democracy and Education. Carl Sandburg published Chicago Poems.
More than a million cars and trucks were built. Irish nationalists staged a rebellion in Dublin's
General Post Office. British and German naval forces each suffered severe losses in the Battle
of Jutland. Public nurse Margaret Sanger was jailed for offering birth control information. The
Episcopal Church convention announced that brides still had to promise to obey their husbands
in marriage ceremonies. Jeanette Rankin became the first US Congresswoman. The US census
surpassed 100 million. Standard Oil shares topped $2,000 each to make John D. Rockefeller a
billionaire.
• Master's Degrees • College Calendar
• Enrollment • Trustee Merritt Died
• Tug-of-War • Student Prank
Master's Degrees.
Clarkson awarded its first Master of Science degrees when it graduated a
large class of 35 with bachelor's degrees. Baccalaureate services were held in Trinity Episcopal
Church for the first time. Among the graduates this year were three who later served the
College well as Trustees: William B. Gero, Luther Olson, and Blythe Reynolds.
Enrollment.
The fall enrollment totaled 111 undergraduates and three graduate students.
Tug-of-War.
Sophomores won the annual inter-class tug-of-war on September 29, two out of
three. Held at the rear of the Trinity Church grounds on Fall Island, this contest had its rope
stretched across a narrow channel to a small marshy island a short distance upstream in the river
made shallow by low water. Eleven men of each class made up the teams. The sophs won the
first pull in short order, and the teams changed locations. Freshmen won the second which took
longer, but the sophs won the third. A muddy spongy shore, on which the sophs had stood for
two out of the three pulls, probably aided their victory.
College Calendar.
The College year was divided into two semesters of 18 weeks each,
including the time for final examinations, but not including vacations, occasional holidays, or
two weeks of summer practice. The daily periods or "hours" for lectures, recitations, and
classroom instruction were of 55-minute intervals, and each was to require some two hours of
home preparation. The practice periods for instruction in laboratories, drafting rooms, shops,
and field work, consisted of three actual hours.
Trustee Merritt Died.
On December 26, Trustee Edwin Merritt died. He had served also as
chairman on both Potsdam Normal and St. Lawrence boards of trustees. He had been
particularly influential in 1868 in getting New York State to designate Potsdam as a location for
