740 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXrV. No. 883 



national capital; that juvenile delinquency 

 comes less from depravity than from de- 

 privation ; that industrial accidents are not 

 la^vyers' perquisites, but costs of produc- 

 tion ; that all idleness is not due to indolence ; 

 that social legislation is not an amiable 

 avocation, biit an exacting profession; 

 that municipal government should not be 

 so skilfully designed to prevent bad men 

 from doing harm, that it keeps honest and 

 efficient men from doing good; that the 

 United States must trust less to a "mani- 

 fest destiny" and more to a constructive 

 purpose. In these changes of theory and 

 method there is need of accurate knowl- 

 edge, carefully interpreted experiment 

 and authoritative advice. If the univer- 

 sity is true to its mission it will put all of 

 its resources and its trained experts at the 

 service of the community. Amid the con- 

 flicts and rivalries of many interests, 

 parties, sects, sections, professions, social 

 groups, the iiniversity must never waver 

 from the position of an unimpassioned, 

 unprejudiced seeker for the truth, all of it 

 and that alone. This responsibility is not 

 to be assumed lightly. Mistakes are costly 

 in public confidence. Eternal vigilance is 

 the price of prestige. The discomfiture of 

 the expert gives joy to the average citizen. 

 The ideal university must, therefore, be true 

 to the most rigoi'ous laws of scientific 

 method if the institution is to gain and 

 hold its place as the "expert adviser of 

 the state." 



By virtue of its role as a public servant 

 the university is under peculiar obligation 

 to cooperate with all the other agencies of 

 the state, its commissions, boards and 

 institutions. These should turn naturally 

 to the university for expert advice and for 

 trained functionaries. So, too, the many 

 private associations, charity organization 

 societies, playground associations, social 

 settlements, juvenile protective leagiies. 



public art societies, study clubs, and other 

 similar groups should find the university 

 ready to meet them more than half way. 

 With the educational forces of the state 

 the university should be in close terms of 

 sympathy and effective team-play. The 

 elementary schools are not to be deemed 

 beneath the notice of higher education. 

 On the contrary, the university should be 

 a leader in studying painstakingly the 

 problems of the common schools. It can 

 not afford to be indifferent to the broad 

 base of the educational pyramid. That the 

 university is vitally interested in the high 

 schools says itself. Yet this interest must 

 not take the form of either patronage or 

 dictation. The days for these things have 

 passed. "With the high schools in charge of 

 college-bred men and women condescension 

 is intolerable. Since the high school, in 

 the west at least, is recognized as the 

 "people's college," to assign it to the role 

 of an obedient preparatory school is out of 

 the question. Nevertheless, the high 

 school needs the university as a friend and 

 counsellor. The relations between the 

 high schools and the university should be- 

 come closer through the association of all 

 that are interested in the same subjects of 

 instruction, by periodic conferences at the 

 university, by visits not only of college 

 teachers to high schools, but of high school 

 instructors to college class-rooms, by joint 

 committees which shall study the educa- 

 tional system as a whole. To the normal 

 schools the university has held an anoma- 

 lous relation. These institutions were 

 founded to prepare teachers for the com- 

 mon schools. Of late college training has 

 become virtually a prerequisite for high 

 school appointments. The normal schools 

 have been attended by growing numbers 

 who expect to go on to college. At the 

 same time the demand for training in the 

 natural sciences, modern psychology, in- 



