NOVEMBEB 29, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



763 



invitation by President Angell, the next 

 meeting will be held at Michigan. 



The most prominent men at the confer- 

 ence were President Angell, of Michigan, 

 with his long record of forty-eight years 

 in educational work, including thirty-six 

 years in the presidency of Michigan ; and 

 President Northrop, of Minnesota, for 

 twenty-one years a Tale professor, and for 

 twenty-three years president of the Uni- 

 versity of Minnesota. The average age of 

 the men in the conference was 56 years; 

 the average length of their service in edu- 

 cational work, 29 years ; the average length 

 of their service in college presidencies, 14 

 years, while their average length of service 

 in their present positions has been 11 years. 

 It is of some interest to note also that seven 

 of these state university presidents of the 

 middle west were natives of New England, 

 and none of them were bom west of the 

 Mississippi.^ Though the majority were 

 graduates of small colleges, it was remarked 

 that with a single exception they also had 

 been students in other institutions, and 

 among the American and European uni- 

 versities represented Yale led with four 

 men. 



The conference was informal, taking up 

 in free discussion various problems which 

 are uppermost in university administration 

 in this section of the country. It was 

 noticeable that whereas the first conference 



' Those in attendance at the conference at Iowa 

 City were Chancellor E. Benjamin Andrews of 

 Nebraska, President James B. Angell of Mich- 

 igan, President James H. Baker of Colorado, 

 President David R. Boyd of Oklahoma, President 

 William L. Bryan of Indiana, President F. B. 

 Gault of South Dakota, President George E. Mac- 

 Lean of Iowa, President Webster Merrifield of 

 North Dakota, President Cyrus Northrop of Min- 

 nesota, President W. E. Stone of Purdue, Chan- 

 cellor Frank Strong of Kansas, President W. O. 

 Thompson of Ohio State, and President Charles 

 R. Van Hise of Wisconsin. President E. J. James 

 of Illinois and President R. H. Jesse of Missouri 

 were detained at the last moment. 



of this group of presidents was occasioned 

 largely by athletic and football questions, 

 these questions did not have to appear 

 upon the program of this last conference. 



One of the first questions considered was 

 the securing of retiring allowances for state 

 university professors by the inclusion of 

 the state universities in the benefits of the 

 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement 

 of Teaching. The presidents were unan- 

 imous and emphatic in their expression of 

 the belief that the state universities and 

 their professors were as justly entitled to 

 the benefits of the retiring allowances pro- 

 vided by the Carnegie Foundation as were 

 the professors in any other institutions; 

 and that any exclusion of the state uni- 

 versities from these benefits was an un 

 justifiable discrimination. In accordance 

 with this view, they will recommend to the 

 National Association of State Universities 

 that that association renew its request that 

 the state universities be admitted to the 

 full benefits of the pension fund. 



The presidents were of the further opin- 

 ion that if the trustees of the foundation 

 could not see their way clear at this time 

 to admit the state universities to the full 

 benefits of the foundation permanently, 

 they be urged to admit them for a period 

 of at least fifteen years, and to enlarge 

 their present gratifying policy of dealing 

 with individual meritorious eases in these 

 institutions. 



The function of the university in re 

 ligious education was another question that 

 elicited a great deal of interest and discus- 

 sion, which resulted in practical concur- 

 rence in the following statement of Presi- 

 dent Baker, of Colorado: 



I believe that the churches should not have the 

 exclusive right to discuss religious questions; 

 that the state universities should have the privi- 

 lege of teaching the Bible as literature, philos- 

 ophy, psychology and ethics; of teaching the his- 

 tory of religion and kindred subjects; that on 

 historical and scientific and psychological grounds 



