Leidsch Dagblad
- 25 Years as Professor: Prof. Mr. C. van Vollenhoven
- 12½ Years as Salaried Official of the Christian Metalworkers' Union
- The Inauguration of the New Members of the L.S.C.
The Leidsch Dagblad of 1 October 1926 gave its front page a strongly Leiden flavour. A warm tribute marked Cornelis van Vollenhoven's 25 years as a professor, praising his lectures, his character and his authority on colonial questions, and recalling his career from his 1891 enrolment to his pioneering book on the law of the Netherlands Indies. A report from a jubilee of the Christian Metalworkers' Union described how Frans Elkerbout, its salaried official for 12½ years, received a gold watch and spoke of the faith that had sustained his work. A speech to newly inaugurated members of the Leiden Student Corps urged freshmen to build real solidarity without becoming a 'herd animal'.
Translation
25 Years as Professor: Prof. Mr. C. van Vollenhoven
professors may and must also be sought among the young. Thus it could come about that this professor, from the noonday height of life, can look back on an honourable 25-year career as professor. These 25 years have more than sufficiently proven that the Government, in appointing the young man of barely 26, had made an excellent choice. A single reputation at once went out from his lectures. He had complete command of his subject, the content was rich, the form elegant. A great force went out from him to his students, among whom were some as old as he. And so it has remained to this day. Prof. van Vollenhoven is an ornament of Leiden University and an ornament of scholarship, which possesses in him one of its finest practitioners. To this man's richness of mind are joined simplicity of heart and a tender disposition. Prof. van Vollenhoven is in every respect a harmoniously developed person, and, though democratic in feeling, an aristocrat in the best sense of the word. It is not only the students who profit from his great gifts; in his various works he also comes forward as a leader of public opinion, in particular on everything concerning our colonies. Our Government, too, has repeatedly called upon his insight and knowledge; his present stay in America provides [?] an example of this. University education, scholarship, and with them our country and people still have much to expect from this scholar. Cornelis van Vollenhoven was born at Dordrecht on 8 May 1874. After receiving a gymnasium education he enrolled as a law student on 22 September 1891. He took a broad view of his studies and already as a young student aroused high expectations. Scarcely had he taken his doctorate in 1898 when he made a name for himself in the field of the adat law of the Indonesians, but equally in that of international law. Among other works he wrote: Het recht van Nederlandsch Indie (I 1906-1918). For this important pioneering work the author was awarded the Thorbecke Medal. [?]
12½ Years as Salaried Official of the Christian Metalworkers' Union
[?] Had we not in these days trusted in our tried system, which expects all salvation first and foremost from God himself: where would we have been! said the speaker. By keeping our principles pure and through your initiative and driving force we have brought the movement up high once again. That was what the executive now wished to commemorate, and to thank Frans Elkerbout for it. It felt it should not leave it at words alone, and therefore the speaker, on behalf of the Union, presented the jubilarian with a handsome gold watch with a fitting inscription, with a chain, while finally he also addressed Mrs. Elkerbout, to whom it is given to assist and support her husband in his difficult work. (Warm applause.) Mr. Elkerbout, visibly moved by these tokens of appreciation, expressed his gratitude for them. He too, on taking up his post, had sometimes wondered how we would ever get our cause back on its feet, but he had drawn courage from his faith and acted according to the Word: "We will arise and build, and the Lord God will help us." In this trust he had carried out his work in weakness, and God's blessing had not been lacking. He gave thanks, also on behalf of his wife, for the tribute paid to him and for the fine material token of appreciation, and with God's help he hopes to go on being able to support and uphold the cause of the Christian trade union movement. (Applause.) [?]
The Inauguration of the New Members of the L.S.C.
[?] The truth about student life I shall not be able to give you; it can never be put entirely into words. But on many subjects there does exist a strong communis opinio. And in any case I want to try to make clear to you the great importance of what lies before you at this moment, namely that it is the dividing line between two periods of your life. The past is done with; the future is now what matters most to you. What that future will be lies chiefly in your own hands. An enormous amount depends on your first steps, and it is you yourselves who must take those steps! Their weight cannot be stressed enough: for they are difficult for you, often tremendously difficult. Leiden does not come to meet you. Your new position as yet offers you little to hold on to. Through your freshman period you know, to some extent, a number of older members of the Corps, some Corps customs and views. You know one another only very, very little. You are not homogeneous, you form no unity. In all sorts of respects you are birds of very diverse feather. Membership of the Corps will at first bind you by outward ties. But it is up to you yourselves to see to it that a more real unity and solidarity arises between you and those who became members of the Corps before you, and among you newcomers yourselves. And for that it is by no means asked of you that you should deny your own preferences and your own judgement and try to become a willing herd animal that conforms in everything to the will of the majority. On the contrary, it is your task here to show that you possess personality, and what kind of personality that is. It is the struggle for your position in the Corps, [?]
Context
How Van Vollenhoven became adat law's champion
The paper says Van Vollenhoven made his name in "the adat law of the Indonesians" and received the Thorbecke Medal for a pioneering work, which the scanned text gives as "Het recht van Nederlandsch Indie" (vol. I, 1906–1918). Adat is the traditional legal system of Indonesia, and in 1901 he became professor of the Adat Law of the Dutch East Indies at Leiden University. Counting from 1901 gives the 25 years the article celebrates. Among his many writings on the subject was Het adatrecht van Nederlandsch-Indië, which documented the adat traditions of 19 different regions. He campaigned for the preservation of adat law and dispelled claims that it was quackery and inefficient. That defence of indigenous law is the background to the paper's praise of him as a "leader of public opinion" on everything concerning the colonies. In his lifetime he was regarded as adat's greatest champion. Remarkably, all of this work was done in Leiden: he visited the East Indies only twice, in 1907 and 1923. When the Leiden paper hailed him as an "ornament" of its university, it was honouring a scholar whose authority on the colony had been built in the city itself.
How a 26-year-old came to hold a Leiden chair
The article presents the appointment of a man of "barely 26" as an excellent government choice that his 25 years had vindicated, and argues that professors may be sought among the young. His record helps explain how he reached a chair so early. He began his studies at Leiden at 17, which fits the paper's enrolment date of 22 September 1891, about four and a half months after his 17th birthday. He went on to earn many degrees and in 1898 took a doctorate in law and political science, receiving a cum laude for a thesis on the scope and content of international law, the second field the paper credits him with. After finishing his studies he became private secretary to J.Th. Cremer, a colonial captain of industry and minister of Colonial Affairs, before taking up the chair in 1901. That early link to colonial policy-making fits the paper's remark that the government had "repeatedly" called on his knowledge. The article cites his present stay in America as one example but does not say what took him there.
What kind of trade unionism Elkerbout represented
Elkerbout's union called itself Christian, and the speeches reported show that this was its guiding principle rather than a label. The speaker credited the movement's survival to a "tried system" that expects all salvation "first and foremost from God himself" and to keeping "our principles pure". Elkerbout himself quoted scripture about rising up to build. This was the language of the Christian labour movement in the Netherlands, whose umbrella body, the Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond (CNV), was founded in Arnhem on 13 May 1909 to bring a number of Christian unions together. Unlike the socialist Nederlands Verbond van Vakverenigingen (NVV), founded three years earlier, the CNV rejected class struggle and was oriented first and foremost toward consultation. In a movement of that kind, the speeches credited the union's recovery to faith, principle and one official's initiative and driving force rather than to conflict with employers, which is why the tribute to Elkerbout reads almost like a church service.
The difficult years behind Elkerbout's 12½ years
Counting back 12½ years from this October 1926 report places the start of Elkerbout's salaried post around spring 1914, shortly before the First World War. Both speeches look back on hard times: the speaker says the movement had been brought up high "once again", and Elkerbout recalls wondering, on taking up his post, how the cause would ever recover. For the Christian union movement as a whole, however, the war was not only a setback. It caused unemployment among Dutch workers, and the system of unemployment benefits paid through the unions was expanded; the war is named as one of the factors behind the CNV's growth. CNV membership rose from just over 6,400 in 1910 to 47,700 ten years later. The 1920s were years of building up, with collective labour agreements used more and more often to set working conditions. By 1929 the CNV had 58,500 members, a far slower rise than in the previous decade. These are figures for the whole federation, not for Elkerbout's union, so they describe the setting of his story of recovery rather than confirm it.
Original
Vijfentwintig-jarig professoraat van Prof. mr. C. van Vollenhoven.
professoren ook onder de jongeren mogen en moeten gezocht worden. Zoo kon het gebeuren dat deze hoogleeraar van de middaghoogte des levens af op een eervolle 25jarige loopbaan als professor kan terug zien. Deze 25 jaren hebben meer dan voldoende bewezen dat de Regeering met de benoeming van den even 26-jarigen jongen man een uitmuntende keuze had gedaan. Er ging van zijn college's al dadelijk ééne roep uit. Hij beheerschte de staf volkomen, de inhoud was rijk, de vorm sierlijk. Er ging van hem groote kracht uit op zijn leerlingen onder wie er waren even oud als hij. En zoo is het gebleven tot op dezen dag. Prof. van Vollenhoven is een sieraad van de Leidsche Universiteit en een sieraad van de wetenschap, die in hem een harer beste beoefenaars bezit. Aan den rijkdom van geest van dezen man paart zich eenvoud des harten en een teeder gemoed. Prof. van Vollenhoven is een in alle opzichten harmonisch ontwikkeld mensch, en hoewel democratisch voelend een aristocraat in den beste zin des woords. Van zijn groote gaven profiteeren niet alleen de studenten in zijn verschillende werken treedt hij ook als leider der publieke opinie op in het bijzonder tot alles wat onze koloniën betreft. Ook onze Regeering heeft meermalen van zijn doorzicht en kennis een beroep gedaan, zijn tegenwoordig verblijf in Amerika levert [?] daarvan een voorbeeld. Het universitair onderwijs de wetenschap en daarmede ons land en volk heeft van dezen geleerde nog veel te wachten. Cornelis van Vollenhoven werd geboren te Dordrecht den 8en Mei 1874. Na het gymnasiaal onderwijs te hebben genoten liet hij zich 22 September 1891 inschrijven als student in de rechten. Hij vatte de studie breed op en wekte als jong student reeds hooge verwachtingen. Nauwewelijks in 1898 gepromoveerd maakte hij zich naam op het gebied van het adatrecht der Indonesiers maar evenzeer op dat van het internationaal recht. Hij schreef o. a.: Het recht van Nederlandsch Indie (I 1906-1918). Voor dit belangrijk baanbrekend werk werd den schrijver de Thorbecke-medaille toegekend. [?]
12½ jaar bezoldigd bestuurder van den Chr. Metaalbewerkersbond.
[?] Hadden wij in deze dagen niet vertrouwd op ons beproefd systeem, dat alle heil in de eerste plaats van God zelf verwacht: waar waren wij gebleven! zeide spr. Met onze beginselen zuiver te houden en door uw initiatief en stuwkracht hebben wij de beweging wederom hoog gebracht. Dat wilde het bestuur thans herdenken en Frans Elkerbout er voor danken. Het meende het niet bij woorden alleen te moeten laten en daarom bood spr. den jubilaris namens den Bond een fraai gouden horloge met toepasselijke inscriptie aan, met een ketting, terwijl hij eindelijk zich ook nog richtte tot mevrouw Elkerbout aan wie het gegeven is haar echtgenoot in zijn moeilijk werk bij te staan en te steunen. (warm applaus). De heer Elkerbout, zichtbaar getroffen door deze blijken van waardeering betuigde daarvoor zijn dankbaarheid. Ook hij had bij de aanvaarding van zijn betrekking wel eens gedacht hoe zullen wij er bovenop komen met onze zaak, maar hij had moed geput uit zijn geloof en gedaan naar het Woord: " Wij zullen ons opmaken en bouwen en de Heere God zal ons helpen ". In dit vertrouwen heeft hij zijn werk in zwakheid volbracht en het heeft niet aan Gods zegen ontbroken. Hij dankte, mede namens zijn vrouw, voor de hulde, hem gebracht en voor het schoone stoffelijke blijk van waardeering, en met Gods hulp hoopt hij voort te gaan de zaak van de Chr. vakbeweging te kunnen steunen en schragen. (Applaus). [?]
De inauguratie der nieuwe leden van het L.S.C.
[?] De waarheid omtrent het studentenleven zal ik u niet kunnen geven; zij laat zich nooit geheel onder woorden brengen. Maar wèl bestaat er over veel onderwerpen een sterke communis opinie. En in elk geval wil ik trachten u duidelijk te maken het groot belang, dat in dit oogenblik voor u ligt te weten dat het is de scheidin tusschen twee tijdperken in uw leven. Het verleden heeft afgedaan, de toekomst is thans u het voornaamste. Hoe die toekomst zijn zal, het ligt hoofdzakelijk in uw eigen hand. Er hangt ontzaglijk veel af van uw eerste schreden, en gij zelf zijt het, die deze schreden zetten moet! Op het gewicht daarvan kan niet genoeg worden gewezen: wan zij zijn moeilijk voor U, dikwijls geweldig moeilijk. Leiden komt U niet tegemoet. Uw nieuwe positie biedt U vooralsnog weinig houvast. Ge kent door Uw groentijd, eenigermate een aantal oudere Corpsleden, sommige Corpsgebruiken en opvattingen. Ge kent elkaar maar zeer, zeer weinig. Ge zijt niet homogeen, vormt geen eenheid. In allerlei opzichten zijt ge van zeer diverse pluimage. Het lidmaatschap van het Corps nu zal u aanvankelijk door uiterlijke banden verbinden. Maar het is aan u zelf, te zorgen, dat er een meer wezenlijke eenheid en saamhoorigheid ontstaan tusschen U en hen die vóór u corpslid werden, en tusschen U, nieuwelingen, onderling. En daartoe wordt geenszins van U gevraagd, dat ge eigen voorkeur en eigen inzicht zult verloochenen, en trachten, een gewillige kuddedier te worden, dat zich in alles schikt naar den wil van de meerderheid. Integendeel, het is Uw taak hier te toonen dat ge persoonlijkheid bezit, en wat voor persoonlijkheid dat is. Het is de strijd om uw positie in het Corps, [?]
Source: Source: Erfgoed Leiden en Omstreken (leiden.courant.nu)