STUDIES ON MUSEUMS AND KINDRED INSTITUTIONS. 375 



coiK'erning- the university" than the ch{inj»ing rector of the (ierman 

 universities who is subordinate to a government department, and their 

 })o\ver of initiative is ([uite different. That lepuhlican Americans 

 love monarchical powers is shown bv their railroad kinj^s, their direc- 

 tors of great rings and trusts, and also by the authority of their 

 Presidents, despotic for the time being. Scth Low,'' doctor of laws, 

 was mayor of Brooklyn and an authority on the su))ject of municipal 

 administration. In 1889 he was placed at the head of Columbia, and 

 since then a new epoch has been inaugurated in th(> development of 

 this university.^ He has- not only placed his vast energy and his far- 

 reaching influence at the service of the university, but he also sets an 

 example by his self-sacriflcing devotion. He erected the wonderful 

 library of the university, that ornament and model of its kind, by a 

 personal expenditure of $1,260,000, and he ranks in other respects 

 among the most active patronw of the great institution upon which he 

 has left the impress of his mind.'' 



THE PREDOMINANT INFLUENCE OF THE GERMAN OVER THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES. 



Upon the predominating influence of the German universities over 

 the American, and in consequence over the whole intellectual life 

 of the Union, all voices appear to be unanimous. Thus, among 

 others, David Starr Jordan, president of Leland Stanford Junior 



«The difficulties of these positions are excellently described in an anonymous 

 article in the Atlantic Motxthly (April, 1900, pp. 483-493), on The Perplexities of a 

 College President. 



ft Mr. Low retired in 1901 when he was elected mayor of .the city of New York. 

 Columbia then had 38.5 teachers, 4,500 students, 9 faculties, a library of 311,000 vol- 

 umes, and its property amounted to $18,000,000, of which Mr. Low had given 

 $1,500,000—1903. 



''The author of an article "What is a University?" in the Spectator, London, Feb- 

 ruary 12, 1898, p. 230, say?, among other things: "Columbia is one of the best 

 appointed institutions of learning in the world." A Riedler ("Amerikanische tech- 

 nische Lehranstalten," Verhandlungen zur Beforderung des Gcverhefleisses, 1893, p. 

 422) expressed the opinion seven years ago that Columbia would probably become the 

 foremost institution of learning in the United States. Columbia University and 

 Teachers College were each awarded a gold medal at the Pari? Exposition of the year 

 1900, the former for photograi)hs, publications, and psychology, the latter as a 

 higher normal school. 



''It might interest (Ierman readers to know that CoUmdiia University in 1889 

 bestowed the degree of doctor of laws upon Carl Schurz. The promoter said, among 

 other things, on that occasion: "We must congratnlate ourselves that in honoring 

 liim, we help to strengthen the bond which unites Germany and America; that we, 

 in honoring him, also honor the great land which is his i)arent country and the 

 original home of all those in whose veins flows English blood." 



At the same time a Carl Schurz donation to the amount of $20,000 was given to the 

 university by his friends on condition that the interest on one-half the amount 

 sliould l)e applied to I'stablishing a fellow.«hip in German and the other hah' be 

 devoted to purchases for tlie Germanic section of the library. A knowledge of Ger- 

 man is now one of the reiiuirements for admi-ssion to Columbia University, and in 

 mo.st of the universities tlie degree of doctor is bestowed only ujion the candidate 

 who is able to read printed German fluently and to translate it into English at sight. 



