57 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the existence of state and private insti- 

 tutions with no machinery for corre- 

 lation, and some question has already 

 arisen in one or two of the western 

 states as to the part to be taken by 

 the board of education, the state uni- 

 versity and the private institutions. 

 In several conferences that have been 

 held in the East the question has 

 arisen as to whether the boy should go 

 to Oxford to begin his college work or 

 after he has taken his A.B. degree 

 here. 



We see no reason why the intentions 

 of Mr. Rhodes should not be followed. 

 These were certainly that the scholars 

 should spend the three years in resi- 

 dence at one of the Oxford colleges pre- 

 paring for the B.A. degree, and that 

 they should be selected by the schools, 

 not by the universities. Mr. Rhodes 

 proposed that the qualifications should 

 be rated on a scale of ten, one point 

 for leadership in manly outdoor sports 

 and three for qualities of manhood, 

 these to be determined by fellow stu- 

 dents, then two points for force of 

 character to be assigned by teachers, 

 and lastly four points for scholarship 

 to be determined by examination. Mr. 

 Rhodes does not seem to have con- 

 sidered the difficulty of comparing the 

 claims of students from different 

 schools, but if a candidate is nomi- 

 nated by each school wishing to do so, 

 the central state authority could give 

 the competitive examination and select 

 the scholar as the result of this and 

 of his school record. It seems proper 

 that Mr. Rhodes's intention should 

 at least be given a trial, even though 

 the presidents of American universities 

 think it better that B.A.'s should be 

 sent to Oxford for research work. 

 There is indeed much to be said for Mr. 

 Rhodes's plan of selecting the scholars 

 and for his intention that they be un- 

 dergraduates. Oxford is not a partic- 

 ularly good place for graduate work, 

 but its college life has certain admir- 

 able aspects not to be found in Ameri- 

 can or continental institutions. It 



would not do to educate all American 

 boys by the Oxford method, but much 

 gain will accrue to the educational, 

 political and social life of the country 

 by sending thirty each year thither. 



There appears to be some opposition 

 to the Rhodes scholarships. The stu- 

 dents of Gottingen are said to have 

 voted not to accept them, and some 

 American newspapers print editorial 

 criticisms not always well informed. 

 The New York Sun, for example, says 

 ' The Rhodes bequest was based upon 

 a flagrant misconception of facts, and 

 inspired by an ill-considered purpose.' 

 This opposition seems to be based on 

 the assumption that Harvard and Ber- 

 lin are better universities than Oxford, 

 and that the student will be anglicized 

 to the advantage of Great Britain. 

 Harvard and Berlin are of course 

 better universities than Oxford, but 

 the Oxford College is sui generis, 

 and its influence on the students is 

 great and on the whole beneficial. It 

 would doubtless be an excellent eco- 

 nomic investment for Great Britain to 

 send one hundred students to study at 

 Berlin and Harvard, and it certainly 

 seems to be an advantage for the 

 United States to send one hundred stu- 

 dents to Oxford to be educated at the 

 cost of Great Britain. 



CENSORSHIP OF THE PRESS IN 

 RUSSIA. 



The issue of The Popular Science 

 Monthly for October, which contained 

 an article by Dr. F. A. Woods review- 

 ing heredity in the Romanofs prior to 

 1762, was censured by the Russian gov- 

 ernment in a curious manner. The 

 leaves containing the article were cut 

 out from the number and the title on 

 the table of contents was so inked that 

 it could not be read. This seems to 

 show a considerable degree of con- 

 scientiousness on the part of the censor, 

 as it would have been easier and less 

 exciting to the curiosity of subscribers 

 to have simply destroyed the numbers. 

 The incident recalls, however, the in- 



