980 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 861 



of truth, standards of technical efficiency, 

 standards of cultural attainment, stand- 

 ards of personal character and of civic 

 duty. It is only through the creation, the 

 guarding, the elevation of these standards 

 that material and spiritual progress is pos- 

 sible. The university becomes a trustee of 

 ideas and ideals, a custodian of standards. 

 In the administration of these standards 

 the university can not sacrifice the com- 

 mon welfare to individual need or desire. 

 It must exclude those who fail to meet the 

 standards of attainment and character 

 which the university administers. Favor- 

 itism, faltering, compromise, cowardice 

 mean betrayal of a social trust. Nor may 

 the standards of the university be provin- 

 cial and temporary. In the words of 

 President Hadley, "the university must be 

 judged by the standards which have held 

 for all time rather than those of a single 

 generation, or of a single profession." 

 The imagination kindles at this thought of 

 a university exalting the tests of truth and 

 character by which society slowly gropes 

 toward higher levels. 



When the mind is possessed by this 

 vision of the university, all the careers for 

 which it provides training take on the 

 dignity of social worth. Vocations which 

 have been thought of as individual widen 

 into literal calls to be servants of the com- 

 mon life. The office of the teacher, the 

 function of the physician, the work of the 

 engineer, get their higher meaning from 

 their value to the community. The pro- 

 fession of the law, so often thought of as 

 a field for personal exploitation, is in its 

 true significance a social service. "We 

 lawyers," declares Woodrow Wilson, "are 

 servants of society, officers of the courts 

 of justice . . . guardians of the public 

 peace, . . . bond servants of the people." 

 The scientific farmer is in one view seeking 

 personal gain, but in a much deeper sense 



he is diffusing knowledge and skill and is 

 raising into higher esteem fundamental in- 

 dustry which makes modern society pos- 

 sible. The college graduate who has re- 

 ceived the training men are fond of calling 

 liberal, may no longer regard himself 

 merely as a member of a privileged class. 

 In the new spirit of noblesse oblige he 

 must recognize his obligation to his fellows 

 and to the community; must remember 

 that "life is not a cup to be drained, but 

 a measure to be filled." Such is the ideal 

 purpose which summons the modern uni- 

 versity to unity and comradeship in the 

 service of the common life. When this 

 vision fills the minds of all, when it con- 

 trols their conduct, when it stirs their emo- 

 tions and carries them steadily forward to 

 loyal achievement, then the university 

 gains an irresistible power and becomes a 

 true expression of the higher purposes of 

 the state, the nation and mankind. 



As a general purpose, a settled charac- 

 ter, a dominant spirit control the thoughts 

 and impulses of the person, so the per- 

 sistent aim and the enduring ideals of an 

 institution influence and guide the indi- 

 viduals who compose it. The trustees of 

 a university that is unified by the purpose 

 of service must think of themselves as pub- 

 lic officers entrusted with grave duties and 

 heavy responsibilities. No personal ambi- 

 tion or interest can enter where the spirit 

 of trusteeship for the common welfare is 

 the controlling ideal. Strong, resourceful 

 men may well sacrifice their personal in- 

 terests in responding to so high a summons. 

 To administer a university wisely, with 

 open mind to the public welfare, with sym- 

 pathetic insight into the needs and inspira- 

 tions of all classes of citizens, to safeguard 

 academic freedom, to guarantee positions 

 of dignity and satisfying activity to com- 

 petent scholars — these are the duties and 



