16 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 262. 



become investigators could be properly 

 trained. The real question is as to the 

 amount of instruction. 



It has been the custom in comparing our 

 universities with those of Germany to 

 lament the absence of uniform standards of 

 admission requirements and of qualifica- 

 tions for higher degrees in this country. 

 If by that is meant that it is to be regretted 

 that our standards are not higher, the 

 lamentation is justified. But if, as some 

 think, what we need is a uniform standard 

 in these respects, to be enforced by agree- 

 ment of the difi'erent universities or initiated 

 by the establishmentof a national university, 

 I, for one, am thankful that we have no 

 such uniformity. The present uniformity 

 in Germany is the result of an old civiliza- 

 tion, and the prevalence of similar educa- 

 tional and intellectual conditions for many 

 years. In the course of time our educa- 

 tional conditions will become more and 

 more uniform and we may have, perhaps, 

 uniform standards of admission and gradua- 

 tion, but, if so, they will be the results of a 

 natural development, not of prescription. 

 So long as the social and political condi- 

 tions of the different parts of our country 

 differ as they do, real uniformity in univer- 

 sity standards is out of the question. Even 

 in sections of limited area the attempts at 

 enforcing uniformity among the different 

 colleges have at times shown the ease with 

 which rules can be kept in theory and yet 

 broken in practice. 



The possibility of establishing a genuine 

 national university superior to all others in 

 equipment and authority seems to most of 

 those interested in educational matters to 

 be remote, but, were it possible to have such 

 a university, one could hardly imagine a 

 greater misfortune to learning in America. 

 One need only glance at the condition of 

 things in Germany and France to recognize 

 the benumbing elfect of concentrating in one 

 place, especially if it be the political cap- 



ital, the greater portion of the scientific es- 

 tablishments. The wide-spread intellectual 

 activity of Germany is, I think, mainly due 

 to the existence in times past of many scat- 

 tered universities, some better than others, 

 no one, however, superior to all the rest, but 

 all centers of learning, generous rivals in 

 the promotion of knowledge. Whether 

 under imperial Germany the concentration 

 of resources on fewer universities, with a 

 tendency to still greater concentration here- 

 after, may not have an unfavorable effect on 

 the nation in the long run, is a question 

 which the future must answer. That the 

 concentration of scientific work and workers 

 in Paris has had an injurious effect on 

 France is evident to the French themselves, 

 and they have in recent years made efforts 

 to sti-engthen the universities in other parts 

 of France. Our country is so large and so 

 varied in population and occupation that 

 we need many independent centers of learn- 

 ing and numerous universities, zealous in 

 promoting knowledge, but not subordinated 

 to a national university, either directly or 

 indirectly, by the expenditure of national 

 funds on a single institution. "Whether 

 such universities should be privately en- 

 dowed or supported by the States is a ques- 

 tion to be settled in each case by the lo- 

 cality and tradition. 



If it is true that the promotion of science 

 and learning in a country like ours is best 

 accomplished by the existence of numerous 

 independent universities, there is still a 

 large field of research on which government 

 funds may be legitimately spent. The 

 principle that what can be well done by 

 privately endowed universities, or by those 

 supported by the States, had better be left 

 to them rather than be undertaken by the 

 national government, seems to me to be a 

 sound one and to be in accord with the 

 spirit in which our government was founded. 

 Centralization in science, as in government, 

 may be necessary at times, but is to be 



