THE SMALL COLLEGE 455 



merely " activity." He has not yet discovered that much of this activity 

 is about as fruitful as the activity of a kitten chasing its tail. His ideal 

 — copied from that of his trustees — is commercial and material. Fruit- 

 ful or not, the activity must be outward and evident, lending itself read- 

 ily to advertising purposes ; and for quiet unremitting intellectual labor, 

 issuing in broader learning, deeper culture and better teaching, he has 

 scant appreciation. What wonder that more than one teacher has be- 

 come a mere promoter, letting his department deteriorate most woefully 

 while he assists in the " broader " task of " running the college." Such 

 is the sure road to presidential favor. Were our president himself a 

 college teacher, viewing matters from the teacher's angle, this condition 

 could not exist; but he is a promoter, employed by a group of promoters 

 to advertise this educational undertaking of ours, and he sees the col- 

 lege from the promoter's viewpoint. 



Yet even supposing the college headed by an experienced professor, 

 with breadth enough to appreciate the needs of all the various depart- 

 ments, financial ability enough to make a good business manager, and 

 courage enough to fight if necessary for the integrity of collegiate stand- 

 ards; could it under such conditions run smoothly and effectively? 

 Probably not ! Probably the man does not live who could fully satisfy 

 the conflicting demands of faculty, trustees, student body and general 

 public. It is time indeed that the student body and general public were 

 left out of account in the consideration of this problem. Current opin- 

 ion to the contrary notwithstanding, the college that will abandon the 

 policy of inflation will be content with a small student body strictly 

 selected from the available output of the high schools, and will make 

 no effort to harvest as large a crop of freshman as possible, will soon 

 have more students knocking at its doors than it can possibly accommo- 

 date. The annual scramble for students is a most undignified perform- 

 ance. It gives the public a false impression of the college, and leaves 

 in the mind of the freshman a most exaggerated idea of his own indis- 

 pensability in the educational scheme of things. Our college, like 

 others, has cheapened itself in this respect. It is time that it learned 

 its own worth, and realized that it is to be sought rather than to seek. 

 But, leaving student body and public out of account, it may be asked 

 whether our model college president could satisfy at the same time the 

 ideals of the faculty and the ambitions of the trustees. Probably not. 

 It was said at the outset that the disease from which our college suffers 

 is constitutional, and that what it needs is a rebirth, that is to say, a 

 reorganization along radically new lines. To vary the figure, let us say 

 that the old educational machinery was awkward and poorly constructed 

 in the first place, it never worked well, and with the changing demands 

 of the times it works more and more poorly. We in America, inventive 

 enough along mechanical lines, have been strangely uninventive in the 

 organization of our educational institutions. Early in our history there 



