UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 



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work much at the hazard of changing fortunes. A better finan- 

 cial basis is wanted. It has, therefore, been proposed to attempt to 

 secure endowment, through personal benefactions, by the definite 

 assignment of university funds, or through state aid. 



Sooner or later the same problem must be met here in Ameri- 

 ca. Sufficient funds have been forthcoming to start the move- 

 ment and carry it through a highly successful season. That 

 was the main thing. The good gained is now to be secured and 

 extended. To do this it is very desirable that the revenues shall 

 not be precarious. The present source of income, by subscrip- 

 tions, will keep the movement alive, but it will not allow that 

 more comprehensive policy which seems so desirable. Private 

 endowment has already done something and will probably do 

 more, as the opportunities for good become known. 



The possibility of enlisting Government aid opens a larger 

 question. University extension is a national movement which is 

 intended to reach all classes and to promote the most vital inter- 

 ests of the nation. It has, then, as large a claim upon the national 

 pocket-book as any interest which the Government can recognize. 

 The States provide for primary and secondary education; the na- 

 tion might well provide for the higher culture. It seems to me a 

 possible and in many ways a highly desirable scheme that with 

 the unification of university extension into one national society, 

 and the division of the country into suitable districts, the work 

 should assume a truly national character and should be brought 

 into close relation with the Department of Education at Wash- 

 ington. The commissioner might have his representative in each 

 extension district, and the local office thus organized would not 

 only be the center of the extension work in the district, but it 

 could also render material service in the collection of educational 

 statistics, and in bringing the department into more vital touch 

 with the schools of the country. In this way we should have a 

 university coextensive with America, a truly national university, 

 since it would include the entire people, and one which would be 

 a much greater power for good than the elaborate institution 

 which is dreamed of for the capital city. 



It is a commonplace that the most vital interest of America 

 is the education of her citizens, and that her greatest danger lies 

 in the disintegrating force of ignorance within her own borders. 

 But this largest interest, both in point of power and of danger, is 

 given secondary place in the national councils. We have a Sec- 

 retary of War, of the Navy, of the Treasury, and of such material 

 interests, but we have no Secretary of Education. With the ele- 

 vation of the commissioner to the place of a cabinet ofiicer, the 

 new portfolio would be well charged with power if it had linked 

 to it the destiny of a work of such magnitude and promise as uni- 



