764 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 75a 



The profound demand of this army of 

 nearly three hundred thousand students 

 in our country to-day is for an education 

 which will enable them to live most worth- 

 ily and effectively the life of to-day and 

 to-morrow. The demand, which will not 

 be denied, is for breadth of culture coupled 

 with an effective bearing upon the needs 

 and problems of life— a culture whose 

 key-note shall be efficiency in action and 

 service. 



Charts 3-7 show the trend of growth of 

 student body. It is interesting to remark 

 that each one of these institutions which 

 was established before 1885 shows the 

 same general trend of increase, as is shown 

 by Curve B of Chart 2, the curve of com- 

 bined attendance at all higher American 

 institutions of learning. Slight irregu- 

 larities, due to local conditions, such as 

 change of entrance requirements, etc., are, 

 to be sure, to be observed. In common, 



Passing from the general aspect of our 

 problem to certain effects brought in its 

 train, it is significant to note the results 

 wrought upon the individual institutions. 

 For the purposes of this investigation five 

 typical American universities have been 

 selected. Geographically they form a 

 chain across our country and in type they 

 represent institutions resting upon private 

 foundations, public foundations and com- 

 bined public and private foundations. 

 They are Harvard, Cornell, Wisconsin, 

 California and Stanford. 



with Curve B they show the effect of the 

 hard times following 1873 and 1893 in the 

 form of a decided offset or sag. A similar 

 effect may be expected in the years fol- 

 lowing 1907. It will be noted that the 

 effect is a delayed rather than immediate 

 one. Each chart shows a practically uni- 

 form attendance until about 1885 and then 

 a sharp upward bend maintained with es- 

 sential uniformity. Is it not strange that 

 institutions differing widely in their na^ 

 ture and separated by thousands of miles 

 geographically should experience simul- 



