January 17, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



101 



mention a single argument, valid for a state 

 university, that will not be at least equally 

 valid for a national institution of the " uni- 

 versity type " ? 



The state and privately endowed universi- 

 ties have done a noble educational work, and 

 are contributing much to the advancement of 

 American civilization. And it is no fault of 

 theirs that they can not perform a nation's 

 educational service. It is no disparagement 

 of them that a national institution of the 

 " university type " can do what they, either 

 individually or collectively, will never be able 

 to accomplish. It is the function of nation- 

 ality to effect more than what is possible to 

 lesser entities, and in no field of service can 

 the national power confer a more signal bene- 

 fit upon humanity than in the cultivation of 

 the highest and broadest learning. In so far 

 as a nation fails in this regard, it is espe- 

 cially recreant to its trust. And the educator 

 can do his country no finer service than in 

 persuading the nation to be true to itself by 

 providing, in its own great name, the fullest 

 instrumentalities for the pursuit of knowledge 

 universal. Nor can these agencies be fur- 

 nished in any form so well as by the establish- 

 ment at the national capital of an institution 

 of the time-tested " university type "—an in- 

 stitution analogous to the eloquent Charles 

 Sumner's " grand temple of universal peace, 

 whose dome shall be as lofty as the firmament 

 of heaven, as broad and comprehensive as the 

 earth itself " — such a university as was in the 

 prophetic vision of the writer's recently de- 

 ceased father, Ex-Governor John W. Hoyt, 

 for the last nineteen years of his life chair- 

 man of the National Committee of Four Hun- 

 dred to promote the establishment of the Uni- 

 versity of the United States, when he wrote: 

 a broad and noble institution, where the love of 

 all knowledge, and of knowledge as knowledge, 

 shall be fostered and developed; where all the 

 departments of learning shall be equally honored, 

 and the relations of each to every other shall be 

 understood and taught; where the students devoted 

 to each and all branches of learning, whether 

 science, language, literature or philosophy, or to 

 any combinations of these constituting the numer- 



ous professional courses of instruction, shall inter- 

 mingle and enjoy friendly relations as peers of 

 the same realm; where the professors, chosen as 

 in France and Germany, after trial, from among 

 the ablest and best scholars of the world, possessed 

 of absolute freedom of conscience and of speech, 

 and honored and rewarded more nearly in propor- 

 tion to merit, shall be, not teachers of the known 

 merely, but also earnest searchers after the un- 

 known, and capable, by their own genius, enthu- 

 siasm and moral power, of infusing their own 

 lofty ambition into the minds of all who may 

 wait upon their instruction; a university not 

 barely complying with the demands of the age, 

 but one that shall create, develop and satisfy new 

 and unheard of demands and aspirations; that 

 shall have power to fashion the nation and mold 

 the age unto its own grander ideal, and which, 

 through every change and every real advance of 

 the world, shall still be at the front, driving back 

 from their fastnesses the powers of darkness, 

 opening up new continents of truth to the grand 

 army of progress, and so leading the nation for- 

 ward and helping to elevate the whole human race. 



But President Van Hise apparently does 

 not wish any such institution as that. He 

 would have the state or privately endowed 

 universities — necessarily the less competent 

 agencies — attempt the broader educational 

 labors, and leave the narrower work to the 

 nation — inherently the more capable instru- 

 mentality. The greater field is too high and 

 " large " for the nation. Some of the organic 

 constituents of the nation, with other scattered 

 agencies, can perform the national educational 

 function better than can the nation itself. 

 With all respect to the distinguished gentle- 

 man, the writer is impelled to ask. Could 

 provincialism go further? His university at- 

 titude at Washington is what might be antici- 

 pated of a scientist, but is it what would be 

 expected of an educator? 



And so, why should not the nation estab- 

 lish, maintain and develop, in its name and 

 at its capital, an institution of the " univer- 

 sity type," calculated to become eventually the 

 leading university of the world? The essen- 

 tial reason for such an institution, as has been, 

 shown, is, not that it may be " larger " than 

 some other, but that, it being supported by the 

 nation, the cause of learning and of truth will 



