August 18, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



215 



bias when it is considered that at least four- 

 teen out of the twenty-three members who 

 voted for the ' proposed agreement ' are alumni 

 of, or are otherwise closely affiliated with. 

 Harvard University, and that three out of the 

 four conferees who drew up the agreement 

 are officially connected with that university? 

 Is it maintained that devotion to the institute 

 blinds the faculty (nearly half made up of 

 men who are not technology graduates), while 

 zeal for Harvard does not blind members of the 

 corporation to the true interests of the insti- 

 tute and of education? 



The alumni vote was disregarded, it has been 

 stated, because it was not more complete. That 

 it was not larger is due, in great part, to the 

 fact that, pressed on the one hand by the need 

 of waiting for the opinion of the faculty, and, 

 on the other, by the request of the corporation 

 that the vote be in not later than June 1, the 

 executive committee could give the alumni 

 only ten days in which to receive and digest 

 the great mass of argument sent to them, and 

 to get their ballots into the hands of the com- 

 mittee. Most of the members of the corpora- 

 tion, however, have long been associated with 

 many large voting bodies and must be fully 

 aware, not only of the difficulty of securing a 

 full vote from a widely scattered body of three 

 thousand busy men, but also of the general ex- 

 perience that the ratio of voting, after the first 

 few hundred ballots come in, remains almost 

 constant, and that, therefore, had every alum- 

 nus registered his opinion, the final proportion 

 (three opposed to one in favor of the plan) 

 would have been almost exactly the same.^ 



Taking into consideration, therefore, the 

 three coordinate bodies which, in equity if not 

 in law, govern the Institute of Technology, the 



^ Significant in this connection are the votes of 

 the last two classes, who are most intimate with 

 the institute as it is, and Avho have been directly 

 under the infliience of the alliance discussion. 

 At the time of its graduation, a year ago, the 

 class of 1904 was overwhelmingly in favor of an 

 alliance. Their recent official votes against the 

 'proposed agreement,' however, was 116 to 22. 

 No vote was requested from the class of 1905, but 

 the poll which they took themselves stands in the 

 ratio of 95 to 5 against the proposed alliance. 



registered vote upon the ' proposed agreement ' 



stands, numerically, 1,422 against the plan to 



488 in its favor; and the vote by percentages 



is as follows : 



Against the For the 



Agreement. Agreement. 



Corporation 40 per cent. 60 per cent. 



Faculty 89 per cent. 11 per cent. 



Graduates 75 per cent. 25 per cent. 



If the plan is presented to Harvard, there- 

 fore, it goes with the indorsement of only one 

 fourth of the men in those three bodies which 

 have made the institute what it is and upon 

 which the school must depend for future 

 strength and usefulness. Is it likely, then, 

 that there can be a genuine and hearty ' combi- 

 nation of effort ' with Harvard University, 

 especially in view of the well-known opposition 

 to the alliance of practically all the Lawrence 

 Scientific School faculty and alumni, of many, 

 if not most of the academic faculty of Har- 

 vard, and of the close friends, including the 

 chairman of the trustees, of Mr. McKay? A 

 partnership between Harvard and the institute 

 to which substantially all the parties in inter- 

 est consented might be practicable; but one 

 like this, which is repugnant to most of those 

 whose good will and enthusiastic efforts are 

 essential, must inevitably result, if attempt is 

 made to force it through, not only in the wreck- 

 ing of the institute, but also in the controlling 

 of education by purely business standards. To 

 use the methods of industrial trusts in con- 

 ducting colleges and universities is to threaten 

 the present efficiency and ultimately the life 

 of all higher education. 



MATHEMATICS IN JAPAN. 

 At the celebration of the last birthday of 

 the emperor of Germany Professor Harzer 

 delivered a long address on the '' Exact Sci- 

 ences in Old Japan.' ^ Although Professor 

 Harzer is an astronomer, he devoted nearly 

 his entire address to the history of mathe- 

 matics, saying that ' the little that is known 

 of Japanese astronomy does not awaken any 

 hope of any achievements worth mentioning 



^ Jahreshericht der Deutschen MathematiJcer- 

 Yereinigung, Vol. 14, 1905, pp. 312-339. 



