July 1, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



like a mean and petty exaction for these 

 parents to impose upon a saint who has 

 blessed their children unto the third and 

 fourth generation by his presence among 

 them. But let us not judge hastily. This 

 strange exaction does not result so much 

 from the meanness of the parents as from 

 their intellectual limitations. To these 

 parents the hours passed in school are 

 schooling; the rest does not count. The 

 rest may be pleasant and valuable, but it is 

 not education. 



In the same way, the professional and 

 business classes in America do not see any 

 point in paying salaries to professors who 

 are to make researches or write books, or 

 think beautiful thoughts. The influence 

 which an eminent man sheds about him by 

 his very existence, the change in tone that 

 comes over a rude person through his once 

 seeing the face of a scholar, the illumina- 

 tion of a young character through contact 

 with its own ideals— such things are be- 

 yond the ken of the average American 

 citizen to-day. To him, they are fables, to 

 him they are foolishness. The parent of 

 our college lad is a farmer compared to the 

 parent of the European lad. 



The parent regards himself as an en- 

 lightened being — yet he has not, in these 

 matters, an inkling of what enlightenment 

 is. Now, the intelligence of that parent 

 must be reached; and the learned classes 

 must dO' the work of reaching it. The 

 fathers of the christian church made war 

 with book and speech on paganism. The 

 leaders of the reformation went out among 

 the people and made converts. The pa- 

 triots of the American revolution— nay, the 

 fathers of modern science, Tyndall, Hux- 

 ley, Louis Agassiz, Helmholtz— wrote pop- 

 ular books and sought to interest and edu- 

 cate the public by direct contact. Then 

 let the later-coming followers in learning 

 imitate this popular activity of the old 



leaders; we need a host of battlers for the 

 cause. 



For whom do these universities exist, 

 after all? Is it not for the people at 

 large? Are not the people the ultimate 

 beneficiaries ? Then why should the people 

 not be immediately instructed in such man- 

 ner as will lead to their supporting true 

 universities? It is hard to say why our 

 professors are so timid. Perhaps too great 

 a specialization in their own education has 

 left them helpless as all-around fighters. 

 But the deeper reason seems to be a moral 

 one; they think such activity is beneath 

 them. It is not beneath them. Whatever 

 be a man's calling, it is not beneath him to 

 make a fight for the truth. As for a pro- 

 fessor's belonging to a mystic guild, no 

 man's spiritual force is either increased or 

 diminished by the name he calls his pro- 

 fession. Learning is their cause, and every 

 honest means to promote learning should 

 be within their duty. Nor does duty alone 

 make this call to publicity. Ambition 

 joins in it; the legitimate personal ambi- 

 tion of making one's mind and character 

 felt in the world. This blow once struck 

 means honor, and security of tenure in 

 office, and public power. 



In fine, the scholars should take the pub- 

 lic into their confidence and dominate the 

 business men on our college boards. This 

 will be found more easy than at first ap- 

 pears, because the money element, the mil- 

 lionaire element, is very sensitive to public 

 feeling, and once the millionaire succumbs, 

 the college president will succumb also. 

 The step beyond this would consist in the 

 scholars taking charge of the college them- 

 selves, merely making use of certain busi- 

 ness men on their boards for purposes of 

 financial administration. 



John Jay Chapman 



Baebytown, N. Y. 



