JANUAEY 17, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



103 



may be given some other name, since as a matter 

 of fact the institution proposed would be different 

 from any existing university in that it would not 

 profess to give a complete system of courses re- 

 garding any subject, but would give such special- 

 ized courses as the facilities at Washington made 

 advantageous ; and also it differs from a university 

 in the respect that it would not grant degrees. 



Tlie university title for such an institution 

 would indeed be a misnomer and lience mis- 

 leading and indefensible. The present writer, 

 as is evident, has in view for his country a 

 true national university. By the term " uni- 

 versity," undergraduate as well as graduate 

 work is generally understood, inasmuch as 

 most of the work done in institutions bearing 

 that title always has been, is, and ever will 

 be undergTaduate. As a matter of fact, how- 

 ever, the national university advocacy, almost 

 from Washington's day to this, has been for 

 an institution that would not be a rival to any 

 others — for an exclusively graduate university 

 - — an institution that shall stimulate, elevate, 

 standardize, coordinate and supplement Amer- 

 ican public education, utilize the government 

 facilities, conduct government researches and 

 investigate the unknown; inspire ambition for 

 the highest learning, maintain cooperative re- 

 lations with other institutions and increase 

 their patronage by making its honors the goal 

 of their graduates; foster nationalism, provide 

 the educational facilities which Americans 

 seek abroad, and, by attracting foreign stu- 

 dents, diffuse democratic ideas — an institution 

 that will, to an extent possible to none other, 

 whether one or all, advance the cause of learn- 

 ing and give the United States a new and 

 supreme dignity and influence. 



The people of the District of Columbia are, 

 indeed, entitled to an undergraduate as well 

 as graduate institution of learning, and one 

 of the former grade could be affiliated with the 

 latter. But the District is a very small frac- 

 tion of the United States. The supreme need 

 is for learning and for the nation, for the 

 highest and broadest institution possible of 

 the " university type " at Washington — a need 

 to be measured both by what the institution 

 can do for learning and for the nation, and 



by what the nation can do for the institution 

 — a need which, so far from decreasing with 

 the growth of other institutions, increases 

 with the years, as the nation becomes greater 

 and as the infinity of truth is ever more fully 

 realized. 



There are offences of omission as well as of 

 commission. It is bad enough to offend at all 

 against one's country. But the paper under 

 consideration, in presuming to set bounds to 

 educational opportunities under the national 

 name and auspices, and in the fullest and 

 most fruitful form yet evolved — an institution 

 of the " university type " — commits a yet 

 graver offence — an offence against learning. 

 No man and no set of men can afford even 

 half-disloyalty to that sacred cause. The in- 

 strumentalities for the pursuit of knowledge 

 may be circumscribed only to the ultimate 

 disappointment of those audacious enough to 

 attempt the curtailment of its beneficence. 

 The temple of universal learning has no for- 

 bidden shrines or prohibited forms of worship, 

 whether for an individual, a state, or a nation, 

 and they who would pronounce any interdict 

 there must reckon with the everlasting law of 

 progress. 



(Since the above was written, the writer has 

 received a letter from President Van Hise, in 

 answer to one remonstrating against the ap- 

 parent lacks in the Science paper. President 

 Van Hise says : 



In response to your letter regarding a national 

 university, I have to say that I advocated the ideas 

 presented in my paper with the belief that the 

 steps there suggested should be the first ones. As 

 a matter of practical expediency, it seems to me 

 to be wise at the present time only to push for 

 those ideas regarding a national university of 

 which there is some chance of acceptance. If the 

 steps I advocate were made at first, it is my con- 

 viction that the future would talie care of itself. 

 "With a national university once founded, its 

 growth would take place wherever sooner or later 

 it appeared such growth would be advantageous 

 to the nation. 



If President Van Hise intends the institu- 

 tion he advocates as the beginning of a real 

 national university, the author is gratified, but 

 the paper gives no hint of such intention, with 



