658 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. Xn. No. 305. 



of the educated man to the government, 

 whether as an employe or as a citizen, has 

 been a matter of immediate practical con- 

 sideration. 



In such a position one studies the output, 

 if one may use that term, of our universities 

 and of our colleges from a different point of 

 view from that which the teacher occupies. 

 He is measuring the college man in com- 

 parison with other men, from the standpoint 

 of his ability to do things and not from 

 the standpoint of the knowing how to do 

 things. 



The two points of view are very different, 

 and it is for this reason, as well as for the 

 strong interest which I have in the subject, 

 that I have deemed it not entirely without 

 interest to say a word to you at this time 

 concerning higher education in relation to 

 the government, and more particularly to 

 consider the part which educated men are 

 to-day taking, and ought to take, in gov- 

 ernment, the obligations of the higher in- 

 stitutions of learning to the State, and fin- 

 ally to discuss briefly the question whether 

 these obligations are being fairly and hon- 

 estly and intelligently met. 



There is a saying which is current in the 

 student talk of German universities to the 

 effect that of those who enter the university 

 doors one-third breaks down, and one-third 

 goes to the devil, but that the remaining 

 third governs Europe. Such expressions 

 are oftentimes more apt than true ; yet, on 

 the other hand, they sometimes represent 

 popular conviction more correctly than 

 formal tables of statistics, just as a bit of 

 floating straw shows the direction of the 

 current more truthfully than the powerful 

 cruiser. 



Unfortunately, it is not easy to subject 

 such a statement to accurate examination. 

 The statistics of the unsuccessful are neces- 

 sarily far more incomplete than the statis- 

 tics of those who attain prominence. The 

 devil keeps no books, so far as I know; or 



if he does, they are not open to examina- 

 tion of the student. But it requires only a 

 limited study to show that the last part of 

 the statement is certainly true, at least so 

 far as Germany is concerned. The edu- 

 cated man, trained in either the university 

 or polytechnicum, governs Europe to-day. 



No one connected with the government 

 of the United States in any executive ca- 

 pacity can fail to see that the government 

 of this country is also passing rapidly into 

 the hands of educated men. The population 

 of the country at this time is approximately 

 76,000,000 of people. The number of col- 

 lege trained men is perhaps less than one per 

 cent, of the population. From this small 

 percentage, however, are filled a majority 

 of the legislative, executive and judicial 

 places of the general government which have 

 to do in any large way with shaping the 

 policy and determining the character of the 

 government. 



Not only in the ordinary positions of the 

 government service is this true, but the 

 government is calling more and more fre- 

 quently upon the educated man for the 

 expert service for which his training is sup- 

 posed to fit him, and this not only in the 

 relation of scientific experts, but in all other 

 directions in which the government seeks 

 the advice and the assistance of trained men. 



On the other side of the Pacific a com- 

 mission of five American citizens has under- 

 taken the most delicate, the most diflBcult, 

 doubtless the most thankless task in the 

 establishment of civil government to which 

 any group of our citizens has ever devoted 

 its unselfish efforts. It is a significant fact 

 that a majority of that commission are col- 

 lege professors. 



In the service of the government, as in 

 all other fields where intelligence and skill 

 are factors, the educated man is displacing 

 from the higher places the one who has 

 no training or who has a poor training. 

 Whether wisely or unwisely, whether for 



