42 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 915 



labor is to destroy alien growths, cut down 

 redundant trees, cut off redundant limbs, 

 and cull out redundant apples, so that the 

 total apple-producing energy at his com- 

 mand may through a few channels produce 

 the largest possible crop of the best pos- 

 sible apples. Wherever any first-rate re- 

 sult is to be secured, there must be these 

 two conditions — adequate wealth of re- 

 sources, but also severe selection. " To 

 know how to omit, ' ' says Stevenson, ' ' that 

 is the whole of art. ' ' 



The universities of the United States, 

 taken as a whole, have had decided success 

 within the past quarter century in meeting 

 the first of these two conditions of develop- 

 ment. The resources of the universities 

 still fall far below the demands which our 

 society makes upon them for service; but 

 the absolute increase in university funds 

 from private and public sources within 

 that time has been very great. It is the 

 belief of the writer that the universities 

 have not been equally successful in meet- 

 ing the second condition of development, 

 and that the paramount need in our uni- 

 versity administration is a severe selection 

 of the channels through which our re- 

 sources shall be expended. 



The pressure toward expansion, toward 

 the multiplication of colleges, schools, de- 

 partments, subdepartments and individual 

 courses, is constant. All those who help 

 determine what the university shall under- 

 take, trustees, president, heads of depart- 

 ments and individual members of the fac- 

 ulty, feel this pressure. Part of the pres- 

 sure is meretricious, proceeding from un- 

 worthy rivalry between universities, or 

 from unworthy rivalry between depart- 

 ments, or from other motives comparable 

 to those which appear in the lower forms 

 of commercial competition. Part of the 

 pressure toward expansion is fundamental, 

 proceeding from the deep social needs 



which have given rise to the university 

 itself. There had to be an enormous ex- 

 pansion of the university's activities in 

 comparison with what they were in 1875. 

 The university exists to solve the problems 

 which our complicated civilization must 

 solve, and to train up men able to take the 

 varied and difficult kinds of work required 

 by that civilization. The so-called univer- 

 sity of 1875 fell far short of doing either 

 of these necessary things. The universi- 

 ties, taken together, must do both these 

 things, must represent the whole of civili- 

 zation as it is, and must attack every prob- 

 lem around the whole sphere of possible 

 discoveries. 



In order to do this, it was necessary, for 

 one thing, that the universities should 

 supplement the liberal arts college as it was 

 in 1875 by the addition of new depart- 

 ments, schools and colleges, and for 

 another, that each of the fundamental de- 

 partments should undergo a corresponding 

 expansion. A university department of 

 chemistry, for example, does not exist in 

 order to teach a little primary chemistry 

 to sophomores. It exists to make the great 

 underlying science of chemistry render the 

 fullest possible service to mankind. A uni- 

 versity department of chemistry, if prop- 

 erly supported and manned, tends to be- 

 come a college in itself, with a budget and 

 faculty comparable to that of the entire in- 

 stitution of forty years ago; and, in the 

 best cases, everything done in the depart- 

 ment is worth more to society than it costs. 

 In many cases, the people have realized this 

 quickly, and have met daring expansions 

 made by the universities with means ade- 

 quate for their support. In some cases, 

 we have a university whose circle of activ- 

 ities approaches correspondence with the 

 whole circle of services which society re- 

 quires from learned men. 



Unhappily, however, there is no univer- 



