202 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 920 



TEE NATIONAL UNIVEBSITX^ 



I HAVE been asked to make an address 

 upon the relation of the National Associa- 

 tion of State University Presidents to the 

 movement for the establishment of a na- 

 tional university. 



I desire to say in the first place that, 

 apart from the facts which I shall give 

 concerning the action of the association, I 

 shall be presenting my own ideas. I be- 

 lieve they represent fairly well those of 

 my colleagues in the association, and yet 

 as they have not been presented to them 

 for their criticism or endorsement, I wish 

 it to be distinctly understood that I am 

 speaking for nobody but myself in the 

 argument which I shall present on this 

 subject. 



After the fullest and most careful dis- 

 cussion of all phases of the subject the Na- 

 tional Association of State University 

 Presidents has repeatedly endorsed the 

 project for the establishment of a national 

 university. 



This means a university established by 

 the federal government of the United 

 States, deriving its support primarily from 

 the federal treasury, subject to the ordi- 

 nary control which a free government ex- 

 ercises over its organizations and their 

 work. 



I desire to lay down two or three propo- 

 sitions which seem to me fundamental in 

 securing a proper position from which to 

 judge this whole question. My first propo- 

 sition is, that in a free state education is 

 fundamentally a national function. I do 

 not mean by this that it is necessary for 

 the federal government of such a free state 

 to regulate, control or support education; 

 though it may be desirable that it should 

 do so. If the locality or the state, or the 



^ Abstract of an address delivered before the 

 National Education Association at Chicago, July 

 8, 1912. 



two together, in a country like ours, will 

 provide adequately for this national func- 

 tion, it may be properly enough left to 

 them; but if they either do not or will not 

 provide for it, then the federal govern- 

 ment itself should undertake to see that 

 provision is made. I mean, therefore, that 

 education is a national function in the 

 sense that it is of fundamental importance 

 to the nation as a whole ; that it should be 

 properly performed, and if there is no 

 other way to secure its proper perform- 

 ance except through the cooperation of the 

 federal government, then we should have 

 this cooperation. 



I maintain that in a state like ours, edu- 

 cation is a national function; because to 

 the permanent endurance of a republic, 

 popular education is an absolute necessity, 

 and if it can not be obtained by one form 

 of governmental organization, then it must 

 be obtained by another, or the nation will 

 suffer the consequences. No free govern- 

 ment can long exist which is based upon 

 an illiterate people — nay, I believe we may 

 properly paraphrase Lincoln's great ex- 

 pression on another subject, that this gov- 

 ernment can not remain permanently free 

 if it is based upon a population half literate 

 and half illiterate. All the people must 

 become educated to the necessary extent to 

 secure the basis for democratic govern- 

 ment, or in a certain sense, all will become 

 uneducated, i. e., the value of the educated 

 half will be largely lost, i. e., will fail to se- 

 cure that degree of education necessary for 

 the preservation of a free state. Now that 

 is a national function, to my mind, in its 

 nature, the adeqiiate performance of which 

 is essential to the existence of a nation. 

 From this point of view, education, after 

 the national defense, is the most distinctly 

 national function of all the functions 

 which our society has to perform. 



But education is national in its nature 



