PROBLEMS OF THE UNIVERSITY 165 



from one country to another to observe and report. Probably there 

 are few states of the civilized world that have not some lessons to 

 teach the others; the thoroughness of German scholarship, the 

 elegance and precision of the French and English, are reciprocally 

 needful. America, for generations viewed as merely a learner by the 

 nations of Europe, and still needing much light, has at last become 

 recognized as a possible teacher, and seems in a fair way to repay at 

 least a part of her educational debt to older countries. It has re- 

 cently been well said that while in America much time is wasted in 

 the schools, in Germany an equal amount is wasted in the universities. 

 We may still learn from Germany how to correct the one evil, even 

 though the conditions in the two countries differ so greatly; and 

 Germany may perhaps learn from our practice how to correct the 

 other. There are already encouraging beginnings of reciprocal 

 action in the interchange of students. The French Government 

 several years ago entered into relations with one or more American 

 universities for such an interchange, on fellowship stipends. Only 

 last spring some eminent professors of German universities, w r hile 

 on a visit to the United States, expressed the hope that it might soon 

 be made possible for Germans to spend a part of their time of study 

 at American universities, with full credit at home for the time thus 

 occupied, just as some of our universities allow time spent at a foreign 

 university to be counted toward their own degrees. A movement in 

 this direction has already been made by the Philosophical Faculty 

 of Berlin. As the other states of the Empire are apt to follow 

 Prussia's lead in educational matters, we may hope to see this 

 privilege extended to the Saxon, the Bavarian, and the Badensian 

 student as well. 



The Rhodes Scholarships, in some respects a curiously one-sided 

 benefaction, may yet serve indirectly a wider purpose than their 

 founder foresaw-; they may yet lead to reciprocal provision for 

 foreign study on the part of Englishmen, and so find their own 

 usefulness doubled. 



The university must be democratic. It must not serve directly or 

 indirectly the exclusive interests of one part or class of the com- 

 munity, whether that part be the social aristocracy, or the church, 

 or the technical practitioners, or the adherents of one or another 

 form of political theory or religious belief. This does not mean, 

 however, that it should admit to its work or lectures every person 

 that chooses to apply. On the contrary, admission to research and 

 professional training must be restricted, and closely; but the re- 

 striction must be merely one of qualification for work of the character 

 which the university is called upon to do. Restriction because of 

 lack of residential accommodation is, for the university as such, 



