5io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



SCHOLAESHIP AND THE STATE 



By Professor F. C. BROWN 



THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 



FEOM time to time articles appear from the press and more fre- 

 quently still words are passed from person to person, which indi- 

 cate that a great many citizens of our American states believe that 

 scholarship exists only for the pleasure and profit of those who seek it. 

 It is believed that this attitude arises more from lack of information 

 and thought on the subject than it does from the general bad practises 

 of those who proclaim scholarship. Consequently this paper shall pur- 

 pose to set forth one simple, and it is believed irrefutable, argument for 

 state support to scholarship. 



The state may be regarded as an expression of the continuity of 

 human life, and we may therefore postulate that it is its first duty to 

 perpetuate itself. In spite of the fact that science shows that it is 

 highly improbable that any state can live forever, it is nevertheless gen- 

 erally agreed that if the state so conducts itself as though it intended 

 to live forever, it will live the longest and be the happiest while it does 

 live. 



Unfortunately there are many people who seem to think that the 

 only duty of a state is to look after the welfare of the present genera- 

 tion. They somewhat seriously ask, " What has posterity ever done for 

 us ? " Perhaps we may compromise with these, for the sake of our dis- 

 cussion, on the basis that neither the present nor the future welfare of 

 the community can exist independent of the other. In general there is 

 a lack of far-sightedness among American citizens. H. G. Wells calls 

 it, "state blindness." He says: "The typical American has no sense 

 of the state." President Vincent, however, believes that the state is 

 coming to stand for a common life which seeks to gain ever higher 

 levels of efficiency, justice, happiness and solidarity. Ambassador 

 Bryce, who seems to know us better than we know ourselves, declares: 



The state is not to them (Americans), as to Germans, or Frenchmen, and 

 even some English thinkers, an ideal moral power charged with the duty of 

 forming the characters and guiding the lives of its subjects. 



I wish to present in this paper an ideal for the permanent and in- 

 creasing betterment of the state and to suggest means for carrying out 

 the ideal, for, as Arnold Toynbee once said : 



Enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things, first an ideal which takes 

 the imagination by storm and second a definite intelligible plan for carrying 

 the ideal into practise. 



