THE COLLEGE OF THE WEST. 33 



your sister university, the official child of the state. It is for you and 

 for her to work in unison, the same in final purpose, somewhat different 

 in the way of reaching it. The most wonderful thing in educational 

 development since Alfred founded Oxford and Charlemagne Paris, 

 has been the rise of the state universities of America. These are 

 schools established by the people, paid for by the people, built for their 

 own good, limited by no tradition, but rising in power and usefulness 

 with the rise of the common man's intelligence and wealth. Great 

 men have built them but these were not kings, nor millionaires, nor 

 politicians, nor priests. They were simply school teachers, with the 

 common man behind them. The material support of the University 

 of Colorado is the personal interest of the many. The support of 

 Colorado College is the intensive interest of the few. The word in- 

 tensive suggests the nature of her opportunities. The state university 

 must concern itself largely with the development of the professions 

 as a whole, the general intellectual welfare of the state. Every citizen 

 has a stake in it, each citizen has the right to make a demand. 



The independent college can make its own clientage; Colorado Col- 

 lege is not confined to Colorado. It may be cosmopolitan. Its mission 

 is not to raise the level of professional work or of intellectual life in 

 Colorado. It can aim at higher results, though they be less broad, to 

 give the exceptional man or woman an exceptional opportunity, through 

 the use of the finest agencies within a narrower field. Along this lies 

 the future of the privately endowed colleges and universities. We may 

 not do all things worth doing, but we can do some things better than 

 the state universities can, by virtue of an independent position. The 

 superiority of the independent college must be real so far as it goes. 

 It may lie in research, in excellence of teaching or in the loftiness of 

 personal influence; its range may not be so broad, but it may rise 

 higher, it may come nearer to the heart. 



I could not be a son of my own fair state, a 'native son' by adop- 

 tion, did I not say a word as to the glorious climate which Colorado 

 College may add to the roll of her advantages. Here in Colorado, as 

 in California, nature is kind to man, the weather never makes him its 

 slave, never shuts him up to stew in over-heated prisons. 



Colorado, like California, is a virile state, one of 'earth's male 

 lands,' to adopt Browning's classification. It has, like California, 

 the three splendid attributes of healthful air, magnificent scenery and 

 physical and mental standing room. It breeds independent, all-around 

 men. Colorado flows red blood. She has the out-of-doors atmosphere 

 — freed from the narrow cramped public opinion that is made in over- 

 heated houses, the public opinion of the village of white houses and 

 green blinds, where everybody knows everybody's business. It has the 

 public opinion of the man who stands on his own feet, cares for his 



VOL. LXV. — 3. 



