JuLT 12, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



35 



ing of a new nation out of pretty nearly all 

 kinds of people in the world. The very 

 necessities of the situation have broken 

 down all general distinctions between 

 classes and brought forth a national polit- 

 ical philosophy with a universal freedom 

 of initiative and a popular efficiency in 

 consummation which the world has never 

 seen before. It is this which has made a 

 new manner of university. It has remod- 

 eled the earlier universities and it has 

 brought very quickly into vigorous life 

 many powerful institutions which stand 

 for the universal purpose to promote the 

 universal good. Some of them have re- 

 sulted from the benefactions of a man of 

 wealth, some from the leadership of a great 

 executive and the work and love of a multi- 

 tude of others who had little besides work 

 and love to give, and some through the 

 popular determination working through the 

 political machinery of the state. But all 

 have had to appeal to a constituency which 

 was wider than any class, or sect, or party, 

 and such as have been able to meet the 

 needs of such a constituency have found 

 overwhelming support and response to their 

 ability to do it. 



It is interesting to note that the univer- 

 sity development has been strongest where 

 our democracy has been the freest. As 

 new states were settled to the westward by 

 a people who lacked little in moral purpose 

 and nothing in initiative or in courage, 

 they not only took good care of an elemen- 

 tary school system but commonly provided 

 for a state university in their new consti- 

 tutions. The older states could not do that 

 when they were organized because neither 

 legal opportunitj', nor political philosophy, 

 nor ediicational theorj% nor the force of 

 popular initiative were up to the point of 

 doing it at that time. And the lead in 

 freedom and in force of popular initiative 

 which the newer states gained from the 



fulness of their opportunity, they seem 

 likely to hold. They are certainly diffusing 

 the higher learning more completely among 

 all the people without regard to heredity or 

 wealth than any other people in the world.. 

 They have established proprietorship in a. 

 universal school system of sixteen grades,, 

 beginning with the kindergarten and con- 

 tinuing along a smooth and unbroken road 

 up to and through the university, which- 

 is unique in the history of education. They 

 see, as most of us in the east do not see, 

 that the logical educational result of our 

 fundamental political theory, that everjr 

 child of the republic shall have equality of 

 opportunity, leads to a university so free 

 at least that none who is prepared for it 

 and aspires to it shall fail to get it only 

 because he lacks the money to pay the cost. 

 It is as inevitable as the natural outwork- 

 ing of our political philosophy is certain 

 that this ideal will obtain in the course of 

 time wherever the presence of the flag of 

 the union determines the educational policy 

 of a people. 



When it was settled that we were to 

 have a universal public high school system 

 all over this country, it was practically set- 

 tled that we should have a public univereity 

 system as well. One thing in intellectual 

 evolution and educational opportunity ac- 

 complished in America, another thing— and 

 a higher thing— will follow almost as a mat- 

 ter of course. If one asks where it is to 

 end, the answer must be "I do not know." 

 The hereafter ought to have some things to 

 settle, and that is one of them. 



The building of public high schools made 

 it certain that the colleges already estab- 

 lished would have to forego much of their 

 exclusiveness and that there would be new 

 colleges and groups of colleges in which the 

 control would not be with any class. 



The great difficulty with the systems of 

 education in other lands is not that they 



