28 



NATURE 



May 14, 1903 



pared, but it should be pointed out that the number 

 of students in our university colleges includes all above 

 the age of sixteen, which is probably much lower than 

 the age of the students included in the totals for other 

 countries. It is well to remember, too, that the number 

 of American university students is probably too high 

 for a fair comparison with those of Germany. Many 

 university students in the United States are really 

 students in the higher branches of technology, and 

 would in Germany study in technical high schools, the 

 students of which are not included in Germany's total 

 in the table. To make the comparisons as simple as 

 possible the number of university students per ten 

 thousand of population has been calculated. 



Table VIII. — Number of University Students per 10,000 of 

 Population (1900). 



The statistics provided above make it possible to 

 form a good estimate of the comparative amounts of 

 importance attached to higher education in this country 

 and in the United States. Table vi. shows that, 

 neglecting the income accruing from the State land 

 grants, the legislatures of individual States and the 

 U.S. Government together supplied about goo.oooL 

 for university education during 1899-1990, while the 

 article in Nature for March 12, 1903, shows that the 

 total State aid to universities and colleges in the United 

 Kingdom at present amounts only to 155, 6oo^ Table 

 vi. also brings out another important principle; it re- 

 veals the fact that during 1899-1900 private effort pro- 

 vided more than two and a quarter millions sterling 

 for the colleges of the United States, and thus leads 

 to the conclusion, which is strengthened by Table iii., 

 that interest on the part of the State in higher education 

 leads to a corresponding enthusiasm among men of 

 wealth. 



A comparative study of this kind is of vital national 

 Interest ; our very existence as a nation depends 

 directly upon success in that industrial warfare 

 between the great countries of the world from which 

 there can be no peace. The last article in this series 

 has shown the great importance attached by Ger- 

 man statesmen to the higher education of the directors 

 of German Industries, and how greatly superior Is the 

 provision made for this purpose in Germany to that In 

 this country. A similar conclusion Is reached by study- 

 ng the subject from the American point of view ; we 

 ire equally behind the United States. Unless our 

 Government, on one hand, and our men of wealth on 

 the other, take immediate steps, and make serious 

 efforts to remedy these deficiencies in our higher educa- 

 tion, British manufacturers cannot hope to hold their 

 own successfully with either German or American 

 competitors. The amount by which we fall short of 

 the United States, the deficiency which must be made 

 good simply to bring us level with America in the race 



1 Excluding Evening Students of University Colleges. 



NO. T75O. VOL 68] 



for industrial supremacy, will be seen from the follow- 

 ing deductions from the above statistics : — 



(i) The amount raised during 1871-1901 by private 

 munificence for higher education was, in the United 

 States, more than eight times that similarly provided 

 in the United Kingdom. 



(2) In addition to the large income from State land 

 grants, the amount provided by the State for higher 

 education Is, In the United States, six times as much 

 as the Government grant for the same purpose in the 

 United Kingdom, where there is nothing corresponding 

 to the land grants. 



(3) In the United States there are 170 colleges with 

 an endowment of more than 2o,oooi. ; forty-nine of 

 these have endowments of more than 100,000/., and 

 three of more than two millions sterling. In the United 

 Kingdom there are thirteen universities and twenty 

 other university colleges. Four of the universities do 

 little more than examine. 



(4) In the United States nearly thirteen of every ten 

 thousand inhabitants are studying during the day at 

 colleges of university status ; the number in the United 

 Kingdom is less than five. 



(5) The value of the endowments of institutions of 

 higher education in the single State of New York ex- 

 ceeds the total amount of benefactions for similar pur- 

 poses raised during thirty years in the whole of the 

 United Kingdom. The same is nearly true in the 

 States of Massachusetts and of California. 



(6) The number of professors and instructors at the 

 universities and colleges Included in the list of the U.S. 

 Commissioner of Education is 17,000. The number of 

 day students in our universities and university colleges 

 is only about 20,500, so that there are almost as many 

 university teachers in the United States as there are 

 university students in the United Kingdom ! 



In considering what should be the strength of the 

 British Navy, the first line of national defence as it is 

 called. It Is commonly said that we must aim at making 

 It equal to the combined fleets of any two first-class 

 powers. When rightly regarded, the development of 

 the brain-power of the nation is, in view of the fact that 

 the ability to keep up the Navy depends upon commer- 

 cial success, of even greater Importance. Our pro- 

 vision of higher education, far from being equal to that 

 of two of our chief competitors together, is by no means 

 equal to either of them singly. 



A careful study of the tables here brought together 

 will do more than anything else to explain the success 

 which has attended American manufactures and com- 

 merce in recent years. America has learnt that to 

 energy and enterprise must be added trained Intellect 

 and a familiarity with recent advances in science. 

 Other things being equal, that nation will be most 

 successful In the competition for the markets of the 

 world which makes the most generous provision for 

 the higher education of its people. 



We are glad that even If the Government is supine, 

 our captains of Industry are waking up, and we may 

 conclude by a reference to the Times report of the 

 speech delivered by Sir John Brunner at the remarkable 

 gathering In connection with the Liverpool School of 

 Tropical Medicine on Monday last. In which he re- 

 peated what he had already said to Sir Norman Lockyer 

 in private. 



"If we as a nation were now to borrow ten millions 

 of money in order to help science by putting up build- 

 ings and endowing professors we should get the money 

 back In the course o- a generation a hundredfold. 

 There was no better Investment for a business man 

 than the encouragement of science, and he said this 

 knowing that every penny he possessed had come from 

 the application of science to commerce." 



