514 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 353. 



means be a serious matter. Among exist- 

 ing institutions competition even proves a 

 means of rapid growth. Neither Harvard 

 nor Columbia collapsed when the Johns 

 Hopkins and Chicago Universities were 

 established. Moreover, on the national 

 side there would be the least possible of 

 this element, for two important reasons, 

 namely : First, because the purpose to do a 

 work for the most part beyond existing 

 institutions — that is, to occupy a field es- 

 pecially its own — would be both controlling 

 and constant ; and, secondly, because, by 

 reason of its origin, aims and connection 

 with the Government, there would not only 

 be no room for a spirit of competition with 

 the other institutions of the country, but 

 rather, on account of direct relations with 

 them, a sincere and never-failing desire to 

 promote their advancement. 



15. If the existing institutions already 

 ' far more than supply the needed opportuni- 

 ties for higher study and research in the 

 United States,' why do the richest of them 

 strive for greater facilities ; why do thou- 

 sands go abroad annually for facilities which 

 cannot be obtained in this country; and what 

 is the need of the ' Memorial Institution ' ? 



16. If the national opportunities sought 

 to be utilized through the Memorial Insti- 

 tution are of a ' genuine university char- 

 acter,' why not have a genuine national 

 university to utilize them ? 



It thus appears that while, on the one 

 hand, the Memorial Institution contem- 

 plates no sort of advantage which in due 

 measure the friends of a national university 

 have not considered and set forth, on the 

 other it has agreed on and published cer- 

 tain definite and independent plans for 

 use of the Government Departments and 

 bureaus such as no private institution but 

 this would be likely to venture, and which 

 the National University Committee has not 

 felt warranted in planning for the Univer- 

 sity of the United States. 



OVER-ESTIMATES OF EXTENT OF OPPOSITION. 



Citizens here and there, with a supreme 

 interest in certain institutions, cannot im- 

 mediately subordinate all personal, local, 

 and denominational ambitions, so as to take 

 the national and world view of this matter. 

 Or, if seeing rightly, as it is believed some 

 of them do, they have not yet made up their 

 minds to suffer the temporary losses and re- 

 proaches liable to follow a patriotic declara- 

 tion of independence. If, therefore, I have 

 at any time spoken of the half-dozen insti- 

 tutions whose present executive heads do 

 not concur, as opposing the national uni- 

 versity idea, the remark was too sweeping, 

 for I am now satisfied that many of the 

 broadest of the men thus embraced are in 

 heart with us, that the opponents in these 

 institutions constitute a minority only, and 

 that of these many will be found on the 

 affirmative side when fully informed con- 

 cerning the national university proposed. 



SPECIAL OFFICES OP A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. 



Neither the above mentioned nor the un- 

 enlisted of whatever class or quarter have 

 yet realized that the efforts made for a na- 

 tional university are not so much because 

 we are still without a single exclusively 

 post-graduate university in America, and 

 are therefore properly regarded by the for- 

 eign world as in the second rank, with 

 thousands of our graduates annually going 

 abroad for the facilities we do not furnish, 

 but rather because the national university 

 we seek to have established at Washington 

 would fulfill special offices of national impor- 

 tance which none other, whether private, 

 denominational, or state, much less this 

 Memorial Institution, could by any possi- 

 bility fulfill — among them these : 



1. It would serve to supplement, co- 

 ordinate, guide, inspire and finally perfect 

 the whole series of public educational 

 agencies in the United States and thus en- 

 title us to speak of ' The American System 



