Febbuaet 13, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



245 



be a slow one; but it is a building for the 

 centuries, and the movement toward a com- 

 prehensible end is the principal thing at 

 the present time. 



Among the offices and institutions to 

 be brought together in this unique univer- 

 sity would naturally be the Library of 

 Congress, the permanent organization of 

 the Census Office, the Geological Survey, 

 the Bureau of Standards, the Naval Obser- 

 vatory, and possibly the more strictly sci- 

 entific offices of the Department of Agri- 

 culture. The Bureau of Education should 

 be included, so far as its typical activities 

 are concerned, provision being made else- 

 where for the discharge of its administra- 

 tive functions. It does not appear that the 

 special form of organization of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution would prevent it from 

 being made a member of this central group, 

 in which its membership, with that of the 

 National Museum, would be of the utmost 

 importance. If not incorporated in the 

 new organization, it should at least be re- 

 lated to it through some close affiliation. 



A very fair beginning might be made 

 with such a group. It should be reason- 

 ably clear that a university so constituted 

 at the outset would be different from any 

 that the world has hitherto seen. It would 

 indeed be an institution of national dimen- 

 sions, as well as of national functions. 



It is not to be supposed that the mere 

 putting together on paper of these great 

 government offices would make such a na- 

 tional university as is here proposed. The 

 federal legislation which should bring them 

 into one interlocking group would be but 

 the bare beginning. The adjustment of 

 their mutual relationships, the rounding 

 out of the organization by the addition of 

 needed departments and activities, the 

 settlement of the relations of the university 

 to other branches of the federal government 

 and to educational systems and institu- 



tions throughout the country — all of these 

 things will call for imagination and fore- 

 sight and administrative ability of the 

 highest order. Under the authority and 

 with the support of the Congress of the 

 United States, the offices and governing 

 boards of the new institution will have the 

 responsibility of shaping a real organ of 

 enlightenment, which shall not only be for 

 all of the sciences and for all of the people, 

 but shall be an effective working instru- 

 ment as a whole and in its several divisions. 



The relations of such a national univer- 

 sity to other scientific foundations and in- 

 stitutions of learning, at home and abroad, 

 will be of the utmost consequence. So far 

 as American universities are concerned, its 

 relations with them may have something 

 of the "federal" character. It will not 

 supplant them; it will not merely supple- 

 ment them ; to some extent, I think, it will 

 have its existence in them, and they will be 

 participants in its life. 



As I conceive it, the national university 

 will be a teaching body as well as an in- 

 vestigating body, but it will not confer any 

 academic degrees. As a teaching body, it 

 will escape the reproach of abstractness 

 and lack of system which lies against some 

 laboratories and bureaus of pure research. 

 Its teaching courses, which must necessar- 

 ily be of an advanced grade only, may be 

 brought into very fruitful relations with a 

 reorganized office for the federal civil ser- 

 vice. On the other hand, to withhold from 

 it the power to confer the traditional de- 

 grees, will be to emphasize its unique char- 

 acter, and in the end will add to its strength 

 and influence. Let universities such as we 

 now have, continue to celebrate their com- 

 mencement occasions and bestow their 

 beribboned diplomas, undisturbed by any 

 federal competition. These things are not 

 unimportant, but the institution that is 

 here proposed will have other and rather 



