November 29, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



725 



ninety per cent, who are our productive 

 classes and home makers. 



Its functions can not rightfully be to 

 merely produce men and women with so- 

 caUed higher education, as too many of our 

 higher schools of learning have too much 

 contented themselves with doing. Recog- 

 nizing that an educated aristocracy is little 

 better than a money aristocracy, it must 

 train people for such specific forms of serv- 

 ice as the times require. It must train in- 

 dividuals, not primarily for their own 

 interest, but that through research, inven- 

 tion, teaching and other forms of leader- 

 ship the whole people may be made more 

 efficient and successful. It must traia 

 workers in lines especially needed for the 

 public good. It must not merely duplicate 

 the state universities and colleges, but must 

 supplement them by taking up lines they 

 can not or will not undertake. "While hold- 

 ing to the grade of master's degree for en- 

 trance requirement may seem a technical 

 necessity from the mere viewpoint of the 

 interest of the state university, yet why 

 deny the fostering direction of such an or- 

 ganization to a woman, who as mother and 

 public worker, though not a graduate, has 

 become highly qualified to do advanced 

 work in relation to woman's work or to 

 children? Would it be wise to bar a man 

 who through greatly beneficent labors for 

 the farmers, even including a state and na- 

 tional legislative experience, from coming 

 here to further equip himself for his chosen 

 form of science or other public service? 

 Why debar the labor leader, who has grad- 

 uated in valiant and successful campaigns 

 for the working people, because his master's 

 degree did not come from a university? I 

 am sure that Presidents Van Hise and 

 James will be the last of all university 

 presidents to run around in a circle on this 

 matter of the breadth and depth of a na- 

 tional university when the whole subject is 



"before the house." Surely some way can 

 be found, broader than mere graduation in 

 a college or university, for determining 

 who can use the facilities of the university 

 to advantage. Achievement, not mere 

 study, native adaptability and need, prac- 

 tical experience, self cultivation, along with 

 school preparation, and promise of un- 

 usual power for public service, should be 

 considered in selecting those eligible to use 

 the offered opportunities for the common 

 good. 



The passing of the era of confining edu- 

 cational propaganda mainly to the discus- 

 sion of higher education, so-called, and the 

 entrance of the discussion of vocational 

 education for the masses, places the discus- 

 sion of any proposed university upon an 

 entirely new plane. The educational sun 

 has begun to shine down where most of the 

 folks live. Their clouds are clearing away, 

 and the light of modem science and benefits 

 are not confined to the higher regions, edu- 

 cationally. The farmer, the man at the 

 machine, the shop foreman and the mother 

 in the home, are to have technical training, 

 as well as the lawyer, the doctor, the 

 preacher, the teacher and the technician. 

 It will be different, to be sure ; a larger part 

 will be practical, but it will be substantial 

 and effective in increasing the production 

 and the remuneration, as well as the en- 

 joyment, of the ninety per cent. Inciden- 

 tally it will benefit also the professional 

 classes; just as their education enables 

 them to be of service to those who labor in 

 the major industries and in home making, 

 the technically educated masses will be of 

 greater service to the professional classes. 



A national university devoted simply to 

 the interests of higher education might 

 proceed to become a joke among folks who 

 work for the masses. To place the possi- 

 bilities of such an institution in the hands 

 of administrators and teachers who see only 



