734 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 986 



is one infallible test of whetlier or not edu- 

 cation in our Agricultural College or Uni- 

 versity is costing too much and that is a 

 comparison of our per capita cost with that 

 of other like institutions in other states, for 

 taking a long series of years together 

 there is no standard of the necessary cost 

 of education so accurate as the average cost 

 in institutions of practically the same 

 grade. Indeed it would be impossible for 

 any considerable duplication of effort to ex- 

 ist in Kansas without largely increasing 

 the cost per student. To show that the 

 cost per institution and per student in 

 Kansas is not large one has only to com- 

 pare the average cost of other institutions 

 and their cost per student with our own. 

 Such a comparison will show in practically 

 every case that without question the cost 

 of education in the Kansas Agricultural 

 College and the University of Kansas, both 

 as to the institutions themselves and as to 

 their cost per capita, is below the average 

 of other institutions of like rank. The 

 large cost of education in Kansas arises 

 rather from the unprecedented number of 

 young people that Kansas undertakes to 

 educate. There were students, 'residents 

 of Kansas, in the University and Agricul- 

 tural College in 1911-12, to the number of 

 4,594. If Iowa had educated as many ac- 

 cording to population as Kansas, instead 

 of 4,163 resident students in its University 

 and Agricultural College it would have 

 had 6,317; Wisconsin, instead of having 

 3,945 would have had 6,341; Indiana, in- 

 stead of 3,889 would have had 7,339; 

 Michigap instead of 4,509 would have had 

 7,636; Missouri instead of 2,740 would 

 have had 8,949, and Illinois instead of 

 3,504 would have had 15,322. The ques- 

 tion that arises, therefore, is not excessive 

 cost per student but shall Kansas continue 

 to educate its young people in unusual and 

 ever increasing numbers and pay the neces- 



sary cost ? I believe that most of us would 

 answer most emphatically in the affirma- 

 tive. 



The question of coordination of institu- 

 tions suggests another danger that might 

 arise through an attempt to standardize in- 

 stitutions within a given state and make 

 them uniform in their purpose, their spirit 

 and their outlook. I believe that nothing 

 worse could happen in Kansas education. 

 The value of our institutions lies largely 

 in their being different, in having different 

 problems to solve, in having a different 

 life, a different point of view. A college 

 or a university has a soul as has a man and 

 the personality of an institution and the 

 integrity of its life at all hazards must be 

 maintained. It must be held to its primary 

 purpose and acquit itself valiantly in its 

 own domain. It seems to me, therefore, 

 that the watchword in Kansas must be co- 

 operation ; that the teaching bodies of each 

 institution must have and exercise powers 

 of initiative and internal control in order 

 to visualize and develop their own prob- 

 lems and maintain their own integrity and 

 independence; that at the same time they 

 must cooperate most fully with the board 

 of administration and every other proper 

 agency of education in their every endeavor 

 to secure a true and fundamental coopera- 

 tion to the end that our education, while as 

 diverse as the different agencies connected 

 with it, shall after all have a true and 

 noble unity. 



Frank Strong, 



Chancellor 



Univeksitt of Kansas 



THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NATUBALISTS 



The American Society of Naturalists in 

 affiliation with the American Society of Zoolo- 

 gists, the American Association of Anatomists, 

 and the Federation of American Societies for 

 Experimental Biology, will hold its thirty-first 



