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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 942 



be more fully served than will otherwise be 

 possible. And this reason is not only legiti- 

 mate. It is controlling. The claims of these 

 high interests are paramount, and no lesser 

 institutions or interests can properly be al- 

 lowed intervention at the bar of American 

 education. 



A word on a subsidiary matter — degrees. 

 The paper would deny to the national institu- 

 tion it advocates the power to confer them. 

 Now, the writer assumes that President Van 

 Hise desires for his proposed institution every 

 agency that will contribute to its attractive 

 force and its standing in the learned world. 

 But will he say that degrees will not con- 

 tribute powerfully to these important ends? 

 Have not degrees in all ages been proven 

 stimulants to study, certificates of attain- 

 ments, and passports to practical opportunities 

 in after life? Would not an institution lack- 

 ing authorization to confer them be neces- 

 sarily handicapped and lowered in the estima- 

 tion of other institutions and hence its use- 

 fulness and honor be diminished? He of 

 course appreciates the value of degrees both 

 to students and to institutions, but he would 

 confine them to the state and privately en- 

 dowed universities. He says : 



After a student has continued his work at 

 Washington to the point where he would have a 

 doctorate, he may take his examination and qualify 

 himself for his doctorate at the institution at 

 which he previously studied, and thus add to the 

 prestige of that institution. Naturally, a part of 

 such qualification would be a thesis prepared by 

 using the material in the bureaus and departments. 



A remarkable proposal — quite as surprising 

 an anomaly as the paper's " guiding prin- 

 ciple"! "What would President Van Hise say 

 if a student, after completing an undergradu- 

 ate course at the University of Michigan, for 

 instance, should take a graduate course at the 

 University of Wisconsin, and then return to 

 the University of Michigan for his examina- 

 tion, thesis and doctorate? Is it too much to 

 say that the president of the University of 

 Wisconsin would make a vigorous protest? 

 And rightly. The laborer is worthy of his 

 hire. Honor to whom honor is due. Fortu- 



nately, the spirit of equity among American 

 universities would not permit such an in- 

 fringement of university rights. But what he 

 would resent for his state he proposes for the 

 nation. He would give his state her dues, but 

 in the case of the nation he would add insult 

 to injury and put it off with a defrauded as 

 well as a fragmentary institution. How will 

 the spirit of equity among our institutions of 

 learning meet such a real proposal as this? 



Would a degree lose its value because con- 

 ferred by a national institution? Indeed, 

 would not its value be thereby indefinitely 

 enhanced? And at the same time, would not 

 the very fact that other institutions of the 

 country were made the necessary gateways to 

 the national institution operate to augment 

 and strengthen those other institutions? If 

 degrees are desirable for the University of 

 Wisconsin or for Harvard, by what process of 

 reasoning are they found undesirable for the 

 national institution proposed in the paper? 

 Is there more concern for the prestige of the 

 state and privately endowed universities than 

 for the prestige of the national institution? 



Had the paper not laid stress on the " pres- 

 tige " of the state and privately endowed 

 universities of the country, the writer would 

 say no more on that subject, for the word, as 

 used, involves more than one unacquainted 

 with the history of the national university 

 movement would imagine. " Prestige," and 

 its offspring, pride ! There is pride, and there 

 is pride, and they differ as darkness from light. 

 There is pride which concerns individuals, as 

 such, and which is loath to see any " larger " 

 excellence than that rendered possible by its 

 own circumstances. And there is pride with 

 an eye single to the content of that which 

 another is better circumstanced to accomplish, 

 and individuals, as such, are forgotten in the 

 greater good. Which form of pride shall 

 characterize American education? 



The paper is candid enough to admit that 

 such an institution as it advocates would not 

 properly be called a " university " at all. It 

 says: 



If there be prejudice against calling the insti- 

 tution above described a national university, it 



