On his arrival he was confronted by another great problem as to the institution. A combination had already been almost effected by the American Presbyterians and the English Baptists in Shantung for a union in the work of higher education in the province. The matter had already gone so far that, although he feared that the scheme would bring about such radical changes as to endanger the real usefulness of the institution, yet he made no serious opposition, and it went steadily forward to consummation. Under the plan adopted the Shantung Christian University was established; and provision was made for a joint maintenance of three distinct colleges in it, each at a different location, chosen because of mission and other conditions—a college of arts and science at Wei Hsien, a theological college at Tsingchow fu, and a medical college at Tsinan fu. The plan also provides for a university council, to which is committed the general control of the institution, subject, of course, to certain fundamental regulations; and of this body Dr. Mateer was one of the original members. The first meeting was held at Tsingchow fu near the end of 1903. Writing to one of the secretaries of the Board of Missions concerning this, he said: “All were present. Our meeting was quite harmonious. We elected professors and discussed and drew out some general principles relating to the curriculum and the general management. Theoretically things seem quite promising; the difficulty will come in practical administration. The buildings at Wei Hsien are all up to the first floor. There should be no difficulty in getting all ready by next autumn, at which time the college ought by all means to be moved.” Early the next summer he wrote: “I started to Wei Hsien about a month ago, overland. I spent over two weeks taking down and packing my goods, and so forth, including workshop, boiler, engine, dynamo, and so forth. I found it quite a serious undertaking to get all my miscellaneous goods packed up, ready for shipment on boats to Wei Hsien.... I remained in Wei Hsien twenty-four days, unpacking my effects, getting my workshop in order, and planning for the heating and lighting outfit.” In the same letter he expressed himself as follows concerning the theological college at Tsingchow fu: “It was certainly understood at the meeting of the directors last winter that it was to be much more than a theological seminary in the strict sense of the word. It was understood, in fact, that it would have two departments,—a training school and a theological seminary proper. In this way only can the full measure of our needs be supplied.... With this organization it is not unlikely that the school at Tsingchow fu will be larger than the college at Wei Hsien.”
This narrative as to Dr. Mateer and the Shantung College is now approaching its close, and most readers probably will prefer that, so far as practicable, the remainder of it shall be told in his own words. December 21, 1904, he wrote to a friend: “The college is now fully moved to Wei Hsien, and has in it about a hundred and twenty students. The new buildings are quite fine,—much superior to those we had in Tengchow. Mrs. Mateer and I have moved to Wei Hsien to live and will make this our home. We are living in the same house with my brother Robert, making all one family. This arrangement suits us very well. I am not teaching in the college, but I would not feel at home if I were away from it. I hope it has a great future.” In his report for himself and wife, for the year 1904-05, he says: “The greater part of the autumn was spent in overseeing the building and fitting up of a workshop, and in superintending the setting up of a new thirty-two horse-power steam boiler for heating and lighting the college, together with a system of steam piping for the same; also the setting up of engine and dynamo and wiring the college for electric lights. I also set up a windmill and pump and tank, with pipes for supplying the college and several dwelling houses with water. I also built for myself and Mrs. Mateer a seven-kien house in Chinese style, affording a study, bedroom, storeroom, box room, and coal room.” This little, narrow, one-story house constituted their home during the rest of his life in Wei Hsien, though they still look their meals with the other family. They sometimes called this house “the Borderland,” for only a narrow path separated them from the small foreign cemetery at the extreme corner of the compound. In November, 1905, he wrote to one of the secretaries of the Board: “The college is, of course, delighted at the prospect of a Science Hall. I take some credit for having prepared the way for this gift from Mr. Converse.” In his report for the year 1906 he said: “During the early part of the winter I spent considerable time, planning, estimating, and ordering supplies for the lighting, heating, and water supply of the new Science Hall at Wei Hsien.”
We are at length face to face with the last stage in the active connection of Dr. Mateer with the college. February 26, 1907, he wrote to one of the secretaries of the Board of Missions:
I returned three days ago from the meeting of the College Directors at Tsingchow fu. The meeting was prolonged and a very important one. A number of important and embarrassing questions were before us.... You will hear from others, of course, and from the minutes, that Dr. Bergen resigned the presidency of the college, and that in our inability to find a successor I was asked to take the position temporarily, until other arrangements could be made, and Dr. Bergen was asked to remain as a professor, which he agreed to do. This provided for the teaching, and makes it possible for me to take the presidency without doing much teaching, which I could not do under present conditions.
During the period of his service in this capacity the college not only did well in its regular work; it also made some important advances. The total attendance was one hundred and eighty-one, and a class of ten was graduated at commencement. At Tengchow he had always valued the literary societies very highly, and these now received a fresh impetus. Several rooms of the new Science Hall were brought into use; two additional rows of dormitories were built, one for college and personal teachers and workmen, and one for students; not to mention lesser matters.
Nevertheless he found his official position in certain ways very uncomfortable. Some of the reasons of this were casual to the internal administration, and cannot now be appreciated by outsiders, and are not worth airing here. Others were of a more permanent nature, and had to do with the future conduct and character of the institution. The question of English had been for a while hushed to sleep; but it was now awake again, and asserted itself with new vigor. In a letter dated December 19, 1907, he said: “I am strongly in favor of an English School, preferably at Tsinan fu, but I am opposed to English in the college. It would very soon destroy the high grade of scholarship hitherto maintained, and direct the whole output of the college into secular lines.” His fear was that if English were introduced the graduates of the institution would be diverted from the ministry and from the great work of evangelizing the people to commercial pursuits, and that it would become a training school of compradors and clerks. Later the intensity of his opposition to the introduction of English was considerably modified, because of the advantage which he perceived to be enjoyed in the large union meetings, by such of the Chinese as knew this language in addition to their own. He saw, too, that with the change of times a knowledge of English had come to be recognized as an essential in the new learning, as a bond of unity between different parts of China, and as a means of contact with the outside world. Looking at the chief danger as past, he expressly desired that the theologues should be taught English. At any rate he had been contending for a cause that was evidently lost. At this writing the curriculum of the college offers five hours in English as an optional study for every term of the four required years; and also of the fifth year. Dr. Mateer, besides, was not fully in sympathy with a movement that was then making to secure a large gift from the “General Education Fund” for the endowment of the institution. In the letter just quoted he says: “The college should be so administered by its president and faculty as to send some men into the ministry, or it fails of its chief object. I am in favor of stimulating a natural growth, but not such a rapid and abnormal growth as will dechristianize it. I do not believe in the sudden and rapid enlargement of the plant beyond the need at the time. It would rapidly secularize the college and divert it entirely from its proper ideal and work.” These questions were too practical, and touched the vitals of the institution too deeply, to be ignored by earnest friends on either side. Some things as to the situation are so transparent that they can be recognized by any person who looks at it from not too close a point of view. The entire merits of the argument were in no case wholly on one side; and as a consequence it is not surprising that wise and good men differed as they did; and the only decisive test is actual trial of the changes advocated by the younger men. It is also perfectly plain that in this affair we have only another instance of a state of things so often recurring; that is, of a man who has done a great work, putting into it a long life of toil and self-sacrifice, and bringing it at length to a point where he must decrease and it must increase; and where in the very nature of the case it must be turned over to younger hands, to be guided as they see its needs in the light of the dawning day. He can scarcely any longer be the best judge of what ought to be done; but even if he were, the management must be left for good or ill to them. That evidently is the fight in which Dr. Mateer came ultimately to see this matter. He courageously faced the inevitable. In this, as in all other cases, no personal animosity was harbored by him toward anyone who differed from him.
October 27, 1907, he wrote to an associate on the Mandarin Revision Committee: “I have now dissolved myself from the management of the college, and shall have very little to do with it in the future. It has cost me a great deal to do it, but it is best it should be so. I am now free from any cares or responsibility in educational matters.” In a letter to Secretary Brown, dated December 21, 1907, he said: “In view of the circumstances I thought it best to resign at once, and unconditionally, both the presidency and my office as director. I have no ambition to be president, and in fact was only there temporarily until another man should be chosen. I did not wish to be a director when I could not conscientiously carry out the ideas and policy of a majority of the mission. It was no small trial, I assure you, to resign all connection with the college, after spending the major part of my missionary life working for it. It did, in fact, seriously affect my health for several weeks. I cannot stand such strains as I once did.”
One of the striking incidents of his funeral service at Tsingtao was the reading of the statistics of the graduates of the Tengchow College, including the students who came with the college to Wei Hsien. These have since been carefully revised and are as follows: Total receiving diplomas, 205; teachers in government schools, 38; teachers in church schools, 68; pastors, 17; evangelists, 16; literary work, 10; in business, 9; physicians, 7; post-office service, 4; railroad service, 2; Y. M. C. A. service, 2; customs service, 1; business clerks, 2; secretaries, 1; at their homes, 6; deceased, 22. These graduates are scattered among thirteen denominations, and one hundred schools, and in sixteen provinces of China. About two hundred more who were students at Tengchow did not complete the course of studies.
The institution since its removal has continued steadily to go forward. The large endowment that was both sought and feared has not yet been realized, and consequently the effect of such a gift has not been tested by experience; but other proposed changes have been made. A pamphlet published in 1910 reports for the college of arts and sciences an enrollment of three hundred and six students, and in the academy, eighty. The class which graduates numbers seventeen, all of whom are Christians. Down to that year there had been at Wei Hsien among the graduates no candidates for the ministry, but during 1910, under the ministration of a Chinese pastor, a quiet but mighty religious awakening pervaded the institution, and one outcome has been a vast increase in the number of candidates for the ministry or other evangelistic work. The pamphlet already quoted speaks of more than one hundred of the college students who have decided to offer themselves for this work. It is appropriately added that “such a movement as this amongst our students inspires us with almost a feeling of awe.... Our faith had never reached the conception of such a number as the above simultaneously making a decision.” It has recently been decided to bring all the departments of the university to Tsinan fu, the provincial capital.