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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 568. 



state universities, whatever we may think 

 of the future, must certainly acknowledge 

 that we owe everything that we have been, 

 and almost everything that we are, to 

 these non-state institutions. If the his- 

 tory of American education were to he 

 closed to-day, certainly the chapter devoted 

 to the work of the state university would 

 be very short and unimportant, indeed, as 

 compared with that which should relate 

 the history and services of the non-state 

 institutions — Harvard, Yale, Brown, Co- 

 lumbia, Princeton, Leland Stanford, Dart- 

 mouth, Oberlin, Johns Hopkins and the 

 hundred others — what a galaxy ! and how 

 proud we all are of them and their work ! 

 No thoughtful man, it seems to me, how- 

 ever much he may desire that our state 

 university should wax, would like to see 

 these non-state institutions wane, and I 

 believe we should all feel that anything 

 which would injure the efficiency or the 

 work of any one of these institutions would 

 be a calamity pure and simple. 



In my own view, Northwestern, the 

 Armour Institute of Technology, the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago, Milliken University, 

 and the score and more of other non-state 

 institutions engaged in the educational 

 worJs of this state, are a vital, fundamental 

 and essential part of the life of this com- 

 munity. I can not, of course, foresee how 

 many of the numerous small colleges in 

 this state are destined to survive. Some of 

 them, perhaps, may disappear. Others, I 

 believe, will be newly founded. All of 

 them, and more too, will be needed when 

 the population of this state shall be ten 

 millions, as it will be before many years. 

 But even for the present I can not help 

 feeling that any means by which such insti- 

 tutions as Lake Forest, Knox College and 

 the Wesleyan and McKendree and Illinois 

 and Shurtleff and St. Ignatius and a dozen 

 others can be enabled to do their work in a 



thorough and efficient manner, will be a 

 cause for congratulation to every lover of 

 education. We are all part of the same 

 enterprise, engaged in working 'out the 

 educational problems of this great common- 

 wealth, and that enterprise is going to be 

 the greater and the more glorious in pro- 

 portion as each of us is enabled to do fully 

 and faithfully his part and portion in the 

 work. 



I am a great believer in the desirability, 

 nay, from certain points of view, the neces- 

 sity, of a complete scheme of state educa- 

 tion from the kindergarten through the 

 professional school. I believe the state 

 owes it to itself, to its own people, to the 

 nation, to provide such a scheme of educa- 

 tion. 



But I have never felt that the system of 

 state education should be monopolistic in 

 character, should be exclusive, i. e., should 

 try to cover the entire territory and the 

 entire field to the exclusion of church or 

 private agencies. The extent to which the 

 private institution has been driven out of 

 the field in Germany and France has been 

 and is a serious intellectual, material and 

 spiritual loss to both these countries. On 

 the other hand, the extent to which higher 

 education has been left entirely to private 

 hands in England has been equally serious 

 and damaging to the interests of that 

 country. The extent to which we have 

 brought about a cooperation between the 

 principle of public and private initiative 

 in the field of higher education is a striking 

 illustration of our good fortune, if not 

 of our insight — for after all it has been 

 largely accidental. It is desirable that the 

 state of Illinois should have a state univer- 

 sity, no matter what the church or private 

 individuals may do, no matter how many 

 institutions these may build up by its side. 

 It would be equally wudesirable if the state 

 of Illinois should attempt by either direct 



