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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 



prototype established by Abelard in Paris. 

 By its very nature a university is the most 

 conservative of organizations and its dom- 

 inance over the thought of a people and all 

 minor forms of education has been always 

 acknowledged. The challenge to this right 

 has always arisen outside its walls and in- 

 fluence, and such challenge has taken the 

 form of many kinds of technical institu- 

 tions to meet specific needs of the com- 

 munity forming their organization. 



Neither is it necessary for me to point 

 out to this audience how the idea of a spe- 

 cially favored educated class has always 

 prevailed, and probably must always con- 

 tinue to a great extent. It was not, how- 

 ever, till our people grew up to independ- 

 ence on the basis that all men are created 

 equal that the free public school became 

 the corner-stone of our national life. Our 

 material success as a nation is largely at- 

 tributed to the splendid system of common 

 schools and we congratulate ourselves that 

 they are the best in the world. This na- 

 tional pride is flattered by the supposed 

 acknowledgment of their superiority as 

 evidenced by the visiting boards of inspec- 

 tion that come here occasionally from for- 

 eign countries. There seems, however, to 

 be no fear that self-complacency will lull 

 us into inaction, for we are a progressive 

 people, and are well aware that institu- 

 tions which are too tightly bound by fixed 

 methods inevitably begin to die. Every- 

 where we are alive to our shortcomings, 

 and great as our educational system is, 

 nevertheless we are ever aware that some- 

 where, somehow, things are not altogether 

 right. 



It is safe to say that education is both 

 an economic and a social question. Let us 

 now consider them both. So long as the 

 laws limit citizenship to those who have 

 attained twenty-one years of age, is it wise 

 economy to allow the youth of our land to 



leave school at the age of fourteen or fif- 

 teen? Physically, mentally, morally and 

 spiritually they are only partly developed, 

 and yet our boasted system of education 

 loses its hold on 80 to 90 per cent, or 

 from eight to ten millions of our youth- 

 ful population. The recent exhibition in 

 Washington of the International Congress 

 of Hygiene and Demography showed one 

 phase of the result of such neglect of our 

 youth, and as we have printed a bulletin 

 on its relations to the university, copies of 

 which are here for distribution, I will not 

 now dwell on these arguments, but simply 

 state that the sum total of the scientific 

 research into vital statistics goes to show 

 that crime and disease and degeneration 

 are increasing more rapidly than the in- 

 crease of the population; that genetically 

 we are not breeding most from the best 

 types of humanity but from the weaker 

 ones. I ventured to point out that, as the 

 school system fails to hold the children 

 between the ages of fourteen and twenty- 

 one, we are losing the most potent years 

 for tlie development of character; that 

 the real salvation of man is through work, 

 self-respecting, self-sustaining toil and the 

 opportunity to obtain happiness through 

 intellectual and spiritual growth. Now let 

 us return to the thread of our argument. 

 Inasmuch as over 80 per cent, of the 

 youth leave the halls of learning so young, 

 the conclusion is inevitable that the reason 

 is because the education furnished, after 

 that age, is not sufficiently in accord with 

 the needs of the people. Either there is 

 lack of appreciation of the value of addi- 

 tional academic education or else the mere 

 cost of maintaining the child is too much 

 of a burden on the family purse. Since by 

 far the larger majority of the children are 

 forced by circumstance or voluntarily leave 

 school to earn a living, is it not self-evident 

 that 80 per cent, of all public funds ex- 



