THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



99 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDENT 

 At this commencement season uni- 

 versity presidents and others are likely 

 to make addresses to academic audi- 

 ences and the problems of the college 

 and of the college student are likely 

 to be subjects for comment in the daily 

 papers and the monthly magazines. 

 This year two addresses have attracted 

 special attention. Some rather inci- 

 dental remarks of President Wilson, 

 of Princeton University, are of in- 

 trinsic interest, and the Phi Beta 

 Kappa address of President Lowell, of 

 Harvard University, preceding his in- 

 augural address, gives the first indi- 

 cation of his attitude toward questions 

 concerning which his influence and re- 

 sponsibility are very great. 



It ' is somewhat curious that the 

 president of Princeton appears to be 

 more modern in his point of view than 

 the president of Harvard. President 

 Wilson is reported as saying: 



I believe in athletics. I believe in 

 all those things which relax energy 

 that the faculties may be at their best 

 when the energies are not relaxed, but 

 only so far do I believe in these diver- 

 sions. When the lad leaves school he 

 should cease to be an athlete. The 

 modern world is an exacting one, and 

 the things it exacts are mostly intel- 

 lectual. 



A danger surrounding our modern 

 education is the danger of wealth. I 

 am sorry for the lad who is going to 

 inherit money. I fear that the kind of 

 men who are to share in shaping the 

 future are not largely exemplified in 

 schools and colleges. 



So far as the colleges go, the side- 

 shows have swallowed up the circus, 

 and we in the main tent do not know 

 what is going on. And I do not know 

 that I want to continue under those 

 conditions as ringmaster. There are 

 more honest occupations than teaching 

 if vou can not teach. 



This is characteristically Avell put, 



but the point of view is unexpected. 



It was supposed that the officers of 

 Princeton were comparatively well sat- 

 isfied with their rich boys, their pro- 

 fessional athletics and their precep- 

 torial system. It seems that on this 

 occasion the president of Princeton is 

 too iconoclastic and too pessimistic. 

 The rich boys and the college boys will 

 surely do more than the average in 

 " shaping the future," even though this 

 may be accomplished by a kind of 

 monopoly control. The boy need not 

 cease to be an athlete when he leaves 

 the preparatory school; the trouble in 

 our colleges is not that there are too 

 many athletes, but too few, and those 

 few over-trained and over-exploited. 

 The college boy can do athletic stunts 

 better than any one else can and better 

 than he can do anything else; so there 

 is much to be said for letting him do 

 them. Satan can find worse mischief 

 for idle hands. 



When Mr. Wilson says that the 

 things which the modern world exacts 

 are mostly intellectual, he presumably 

 refers to the kinds of things the Prince- 

 ton preceptors try to teach. But what 

 the world wants is men who will do the 

 right thing at the right time. The boy 

 who is to be a scholar in after life 

 should be a scholar in college. But 

 the average boy gains more from run- 

 ning the college paper or fraternity 

 house than by writing Latin verses or 

 even reading the innocuous literature 

 prescribed by the College Entrance Ex- 

 amination Board. Certainly both col- 

 lege students and college teachers could 

 be more usefully employed than they 

 are at present; but it is odd that the 

 president of Princeton should rub 

 this in. 



Mr. Lowell had undertaken to give 

 the Phi Beta Kappa at Columbia before 

 he was elected to the presidency of 



