62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ME. EOOSEVELT'S OrPOETUNITY AS PEESIDENT OF A 



UNIVEESITY 



By Tkofessoe DICKINSON S. MILLER 



COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 



AS one grows older one grows weary of mere generality and abstrac- 

 tion. It would be easy to expatiate at large in this article on the 

 ideal of American universities and the best work that could next be done 

 for them. That, or some of the elements of that, are my subject. But 

 one may well reach out, in this thin medium of idealism, and catch at 

 anything that has more body and more invstant meaning. The name 

 of Mr. Eoosevelt has come into mention in connection with the leader- 

 ship of four American universities. There is no evidence whatever, 

 so far as I am aM^are, that Mr. Eoosevelt himself would seriously enter- 

 tain such a project; and definite announcement has been made of 

 plans that appear to conflict with it. But there is time in store, and 

 universities not a few. In any case it happens that this particular 

 public character serves as no other illustration could to give point to 

 certain suggestions about university life. The human illustration is too 

 helpful to forego. 



These suggestions relate, first of all, to the nucleus of the American 

 university, the " college." As compared with all other depai-tments, 

 this part of the institution is in a plight all its own. It suffers from 

 a comparative lack of motive. We have most of us remarked the 

 difference in a student's work when he passes from the college to a pro- 

 fessional school. When that step is taken, and the need of a living, 

 the chance of gain and success come home to his daily work, the change 

 in many cases stirs for almost the first time a youth's profound intel- 

 lectual repose. Machiavelli is right in observing that fear is commonly 

 a more powerful motive than love. At all events the fear of poverty 

 is more powerful than the love of " general culture." To make the 

 balance even, the motives of interest and attraction on the latter side 

 need to be discerningly reinforced. The problem is psychological. 

 Can it be said that in the circumstances of undergraduate study at 

 present there is much to invest the things of the intellect with glow 

 and fascination for average minds? Any one who has talked with 

 students about their election of studies notices that after some experi- 

 ence they will often choose not from the comparative interest of the 



