Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1902 — NO PRECEDENT. [ARTICLE]

NO PRECEDENT.

Bright Story Satirizing the Indiscriminate Giving of College Degrees. When colleges are conferring degrees with a generosity verging on the prodigal, it is refreshing to read the comment made by the Rev. John Thompson, of Rockford, Ill., He declined to use the title “Doctor of Divinity” which was conferred upon him, and added, “In my judgment the degree of D. D. should be reserved for men who have displayed extraordinary scholarly attainments, or have accomplished great things in their work.” His attitude was discussed, says the Philadelphia Telegraph, at a certain alumni dinner, when some one told the following story: A German university suddenly developed the mania for conferring honorary degrees, and a Scottish doctor, named Macpherson, who had obtained his degree by diligent labor, became disgusted. He sent a polite letter to the faculty, asking them to bestow a degree upon his servant. The doctor was a great man, and the jocose nature of the request was not suspected, so the parchment was duly sent him. The doctor, after acknowledging its receipt, added that since they had been so kind as to give his servant A degree, it would add to his obligation if they would confer one upon his horse. But the faculty, the joke once fairly scented, rose to the occasion. “We are obliged,” they wrote, “respectfully to decline granting so distinguished a favor. We have searched the college records for a precedent, but the only one to be found lies in the fact that some years ago a degree was conferred upon an ass, named Macpherson.”

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