248 ROSENGARTEN— A COUNSEL OF PERFECTION. [April 17, 



the commonwealth, give them a right to a part of the state revenue 

 thus set apart for education, elevate the standards and enhance their 

 efficiency, by allying them with the University of the State of Penn- 

 sylvania, and give their degrees a position recognized through the 

 state and beyond it. 



This may be a counsel of perfection, but none the less well worth 

 discussion and careful consideration by the American Philosophical 

 Society, true to its purpose of promoting useful knowledge. What 

 can be more useful than to know how best to bring to bear on edu- 

 cation the means and methods of securing that which is best fitted 

 to prepare men and women to be good citizens, to teach them all that 

 is necessary, to secure them the best schools for every profession 

 and occupation, and to reform existing institutions of learning, so 

 that they may do the greatest good to the largest number ? 



Make the state supply from its plethoric treasury, the money 

 required for higher education, as it does for secondary and elemen- 

 tary schools, and then the distribution may be safely put into the 

 hands of the state's college and university council, composed of 

 state officers and the representatives of the universities and col- 

 leges and technical schools. Among them will be found men who 

 will see that the state's money is well spent, with a proper distribu- 

 tion between buildings and maintenance, salaries and expenses inci- 

 dental to instruction. 



The state will supply through its ex-officio members and its 

 trained inspectors due protection against undue expenditure of any 

 kind. 



The state college and university council may properly insist that 

 wherever money is given for any special purpose, it shall be enough 

 to provide for future maintenance, and not be, as it too often is the 

 case today, a burden on income. There are plenty of reforms in- 

 cidental to a reorganization of our institutions of learning, that will 

 need the careful consideration of the state college and university 

 council. A few years will serve to show how unnecessary dupli- 

 cation of work can be prevented, how neighboring colleges can be 

 united into one strong college, how technical and professional schools 

 can be strengthened by reducing their number, and increasing their 



