442 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



upon the wasteful state of individualistic struggle in which the leader 

 is chosen through the survival of the fittest simply as the exceptional 

 man is able to fight his way up from the ranks and grasp leadership 

 as the perquisite of the ownership of property. None of these meth- 

 ods alone is adequate for the needs of modem industry ; most of them 

 are out of harmony with the traditions of American civilization. In 

 the search for a solution of the problem experience points us to no 

 other institution so promising as the school. It is the most mobile and 

 elastic of all our great institutions and is easily adapted to new pur- 

 poses, while it is at the same time incomparably the most economical 

 of our institutions in proportion to the work accomplished by it. We 

 have never as a people been disappointed in the accomplishment of any 

 educational task we have set the school to perform, and the school has 

 not been obliged to withdraw from any task that has once been assigned 

 to it. 



Such being the conditions of the problem, the third reason why 

 higher commercial education is making rapid headway at the present 

 time lies in the response which institutions of higher education have 

 made in this country to the demands upon them in this connection. 

 This in itself is one of the most encouraging manifestations of a new 

 and broader conception of the university as an institution whose func- 

 tions are to gather in to itself and conserve all knowledge, to represent 

 the interests of all classes of the community which supports it, and to 

 be as broadly useful as is possible, consistent with true learning in the 

 training of men for the various activities of life. This sentiment which 

 characterizes the thought of university circles to-day, in contrast to a 

 narrower and more exclusive ideal once dominant, was well expressed 

 by President Nicholas Murray Butler, in his inaugural address at 

 Columbia University. He said, "In these modern days the university 

 is not apart from the activities of the world, but in them and of them. 

 To fulfill its high calling the university must give, and give freely, to 

 its students ; to the world of learning and of scholarship ; to the devel- 

 opment of trade, commerce and industry; to the community in which 

 it has its home, and to the state and nation whose foster child it is." 



Not only will the community be benefited, but the universities will 

 be benefited by every new avenue of usefulness opened for the school. 

 Already our universities through their libraries and collections are 

 made the custodians of the community's knowledge. To these centers 

 should be gathered as much as possible of the data upon which may 

 be ultimately built an adequate science of wealth production. Much 

 of this knowledge now perishes unrecorded with the men whose life 

 energy has been expended in assembling it. This is a great loss to 

 the race. The world of business is, in a sense, a laboratory where are 

 discovered the principles of industry and commerce. These discoveries 



