198 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 110. 



tions that have been urged against the 

 establishment, by the government, of a 

 national university at Washington. These 

 may be reduced to three : the cost of main- 

 tenance, the risk of political intermeddling 

 and the alleged interference with existing 

 institutions. 



A national university should be sup- 

 ported by liberal appropriations, but the 

 cost is not as great as is sometimes sup- 

 posed. The annual salaries paid at Bei-lin 

 amount to less than $200,000. The United 

 States spends about $175,000,000 annually 

 on its common schools. No one grudges 

 this large sum, and yet it is spent chiefly 

 for the benefit of the individual, whereas 

 the higher education is chiefly for the bene- 

 fit of the state. All the money spent on 

 universities since the first beginnings at 

 Paris and Salerno has been paid back by 

 the results of the education of one man 

 such as Faraday or Pasteur. Higher edu- 

 cation in America has been liberally en- 

 dowed by rich men, but if it is desirable to 

 have these endowments it seems needless 

 to be dependent on individual initiative. 

 Whether the money come from endowments 

 or from taxation it must be taken from the 

 wealth of the country. It may represent 

 a part of the extra price paid for each gal- 

 lon of kerosene oil, or it might result from a 

 tax paid on the $10,000,000 worth of preci- 

 ous stones annually imported and used 

 chiefly for purposes of ostentation. We 

 might as well wait for rich men to give our 

 government ships of war as to be dependent 

 on them for our educational institutions. A 

 university supported directly by the people 

 would have peculiar influence and special 

 dignity. 



There is, perhaps, a more serious question 

 as to whether the representatives of the 

 people at Washington are competent to 

 manage a university. Might they not re- 

 gard it as part of the spoils of victory ? We 

 think the risk is slight and transient. The 

 Smithsonian Institution and the Military 

 Academy at West Point have not become 

 involved in practical politics, and the State 

 universities have in nearly all cases not 

 only remained non-partisan, but have set a 

 salutary example to other departments. A 

 national university should not offer patron- 

 age and high salaries, but permanency of 

 ofl&ce, the most perfect facilities for research 

 and publication, the ablest students to teach 

 and the best intellectual environment. It 

 would by its own nature be self-conserva- 

 tive. A national university would not only 

 be, in all probability, itself free from po- 

 litical influences, but would tend to preserve 

 the scientific bureaus from these and to 

 purify and elevate all oflices under the gov- 

 ernment. 



It may be said that our existing universi- 

 ties supply the need and that a new uni- 

 versity would interfere with these. This 

 was not the opinion of the heads of Cornell, 

 Pennsylvania and Stanford Universities, 

 who have been among the ablest and wisest 

 advocates of a national university. The 

 growth of the University of Berlin has not 

 weakened the other German universities. 

 A great national university would be the 

 head of our educational system. It would 

 not interfere with existing universities any 

 more than these interfere with our colleges 

 or our colleges with our schools. Our pres- 

 ent universities consist chiefly of profes- 

 sional schools, on the one hand, and of col- 



