July 1G, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



73 



new and rapidly developing country rather than 

 to any superior ability on their part.' 



The president of another eastern uni- 

 versity has been quoted as saying: "Men 

 go to college now for association and senti- 

 ment. It is a four-years' playground." 

 There may be some reference here to the 

 obtrusive intercollegiate contests. On the 

 unpublished college calendar the usual 

 sequence is: football, basketball, dramatic 

 performances, glee-club exhibitions, spring 

 track-meets for athletics, "junior promen- 

 ade" and various festivities, baseball, 

 boat-racing and, lately, in the north, polo. 

 This "traveling show business," in the 

 name of institutions which stand for the 

 highest learning and culture, has the con- 

 comitants of notorious betting and the ex- 

 penditure of thousands of dollars in the 

 traveling expenses of the loyal college 

 "cheering squads." Thus the advantages 

 of sports, allowable in moderation, are lost 

 in wild extremes; thus these distractions 

 from the legitimate work are constant 

 throughout the year ; thus some seem to re- 

 gard this as their chief interest and make 

 a business of play. "We have the authentic 

 reminiscence of a graduate of a leading 

 New England university, who remarked at 

 a class reunion: "We would have had a 

 really glorious time here, if it hadn't been 

 for those studies." This is no joke. In 

 another college a professor found, on in- 

 vestigation, that the extraneous activities, 

 such as society matters, college papers, and 

 the various sports and recreations, most of 

 them quite proper and even helpful in 

 their place, might easily absorb all of the 

 time, so as to entirely exclude the real 

 work of the college. 



However, we recognize a minority of 

 students who hold aloof from this, in good 

 degree, attend to their proper business, 



' Proc. Soe. for Promotion of Eng. Education, 

 \ ol. VI.. p. 27. 



and save the scholarship of the institution. 

 Blessed is the man who has no money for 

 such dissipation; he is not as poor as he 

 thinks he is. It is noteworthy, also, that 

 students of technology are much less af- 

 fected by this evil; possibly from the ma- 

 jority of technical institutes it is entirely 

 absent; and the speaker may add that all 

 who come under his jurisdiction have to 

 renounce any connection with that sort of 

 thing. 



This looks like a strong case for the 

 critics of higher education. But their 

 view is so near sighted that they see only 

 the flaws; their method would be that of 

 the Turk; their cure the guillotine, their 

 doctor the executioner. They overlook the 

 fact that some of the most generous con- 

 tributors to the cause of higher education 

 have been and are of those who lacked its 

 advantages and know its value. More- 

 over they fail to notice that this regrettable 

 degeneration of college ideals is more espe- 

 cially among those who, if they have a 

 definite aim, will say it is "general cul- 

 ture," or the uplift of what they term 

 "college life." The representatives of 

 technical education, on their own behalf, 

 do not need to enter a plea of "not guilty," 

 for they can show that schools of technol- 

 ogy have saved and will save the situation, 

 in large measure. Do they not supply 

 definite aims and a vital interest in what 

 they are doing 1 The practise in laboratory 

 and shop brings both mental and manual 

 capabilities into harmonious cooperation. 

 When a man has been out all day or even 

 half a day in field practise, and has his 

 notes to put in shape and check, he has 

 little inclination to go out to blow horns or 

 make bonfires. 



The president of Cornell University, 

 only day before yesterday, practically took 

 the same ground in replying to the ad- 

 verse criticism. 



