Report of the Commissioner of Education Made to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year ... with Accompanying Papers

Pennsylvania's

idly than the population; and Princeton College has passed by Rutgers. student population has increased from 1 in 3,100 to 1 in 1.745. Some of the colleges then flourishing have no longer an individual existence. Others have been founded, so that there are 20 more now than in 1830.

The college population of New England has increased from 1 in 1,281 to 1 in 1,034. That of Vermont is absolutely smaller than fifty years ago; and that of Rhode Island is relatively so. In Maine it has increased from 1 in 2,194 to 1 in 1,500; in New Hampshire, from 1 in 1,760 to 1 in 1,400; in Massachusetts, from 1 in 1,108 to 1 in 940; and in Connecticut, from 1 in 727 to 1 in 655. In none of the States is there so large a part of the entire number of persons in college from the State attending within the State as in 1830. This is emphatically true of New Hampshire and Vermont. Fifty years ago most of the young men of Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut were educated in their own States, as they are at present.

President Porter, of Yale College, says: "The liberal education which the colleges have uniformly proposed to give is none other than what Milton calls the 'complete and generous education' that 'fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war.'” This being done, the increased college attendance is a pleasing feature of educational progress. That the tendency of students to pass beyond State limits in seeking higher education is praiseworthy is the opinion of President Eliot, of Harvard. In a recent report he said:

The segregation, within State limits or any other narrow bounds, of the young men receiving university instruction would be a grave calamity for the United States; for the association and education in common of young men taken from all parts of the country is one of the strongest of national bonds. It is much to be wished that universities may grow up in the Western and Southern States, as well as in the Eastern, strong enough to attract students from all parts of the country, and that the German practice of migrating from one university to another may take root here.

SCHOOLS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE.

Political science should be taught in colleges because it directs the attention of the student to important truths and instructs him in principles of government viewed from the standpoint not of the politician, but of the scholar. Most colleges recognize its claims and give one or two terms of senior year to constitutional and international law and political economy. The introduction of elective and graduate courses has given students larger opportunities to pursue the study advantageously. A few leading universities have established courses in which the distinctive studies are history, social science, political economy, and law. Columbia College, New York City, and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, have recently added schools of political science to those already in operation. The objects of these new departments are best stated by quotations from the publications of the two institutions. The Columbia College Handbook of Information says:

The purpose of the school is to give a complete general view of all the subjects both of internal and external public polity, from the threefold standpoint of history, law, and philosophy. Its prime aim is therefore the development of all the branches of the political sciences. Its secondary aim is the preparation of young men for all the political branches of the public service.

Acting President Henry S. Frieze, of the University of Michigan, uses the following words in reporting the organization of a school of political science:

It aims to give its students a large and thorough preparation for the duties that will devolve upon them as citizens and members of society. It opens to them a wide range of history, wherein they may learn to estimate aright the conditions either of social good or social evil, the conditions of national prosperity or of national ruin. The courses offered to them in jurisprudence, in constitutional law and history, in legislative and parliamentary forms, and in administrative methods and usages are designed to fit them for those public duties to which every citizen is liable to be called. There are also studies in political economy and international law and studies in sanitary science, all combining with the rest to make up a course of advanced and practical education which can hardly fail to make of those who pursue it to the end intelligent and useful citizens and members of society.

The requirement for admission to the School of Political Science, Columbia College, is the successful completion of the regular course of undergraduate study in that college or in some other maintaining an equivalent curriculum of study to the end of the junior year. One year less of preparatory study is required at Michigan University, and those that have gone forward to graduation in a reputable college are credited with so much of the work of the school as they may have completed during their course.

The studies of the Columbia College School are arranged in a single course three years in length. Those of the first year are chiefly historical. The development of natural sciences, philosophy, national politics, and constitutions is considered with studies in geography and ethnography. Land tenure, taxation, and finance are the branches of political economy under discussion. The studies of the second year are in Roman and constitutional law; those of the third include diplomacy, international and administrative law, and social science. The studies of the Michigan University school are embraced under the four heads of history, political economy, sanitary science, and rights. English history has a prominent place in the historical department. Courses of instruction are also given in the general history of continental Europe, the political history of the American colonies, and the constitutional history of the United States. There are elementary and advanced courses in political economy. The former is theoretical; the latter concerned with practical questions, such as commercial crises, transportation, migration, free trade and protection, and social reforms. Sanitary science includes chemical biology, foods, water and air supply, heating and light, ferments and germs, health laws, &c.

The completion of one year of the course in the school at Columbia College entitles the student to the degree of bachelor of philosophy; of the entire course, to that of doctor of philosophy. The securing of a degree in the Michigan University depends on the satisfactory completion of a prescribed amount of study. An examination for bachelor's or master's degree may be undergone at the close of two years' special work. Those that obtain a master's degree with distinction may present themselves for a doctor's degree at the expiration of another year; others may do so any time after two years. The degrees are in philosophy, in science, or in letters.

The Wharton School of Finance and Economy in the University of Pennsylvania may be mentioned in this connection, although its aim is to prepare for business rather than public life. Its special studies commence with junior year and continue three years, as do the scientific courses of the university. Students who have passed through the freshman and sophomore classes of either the classical or scientific department of the university are admitted without examination; all others are examined in subjects similar to those pursued in one or the other of these departments during the first two years. The prominent studies of the school are French, German, natural sciences, social science, political economy, and general law. The principal work of junior year is on questions of money, taxation, commerce, transportation, and labor. The degree conferred at the end of the course is bachelor of science.

TABLE X.-SCHOOLS OF SCIENCE.

The following statement shows the number of institutions and departments of this class, with instructors and students, as reported to this Office each year from 1870 to 1881, inclusive. The numbers under 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880, and 1881 include the National Military and Naval Academies :

1870. 1871. 1872. 1873. 1874. 1875. 1876. 1877. 1878. 1879. 1880. 1881.

Number of institutions. 17 41 70 70 72 74 75 74 76 81 85 Number of instructors.. 144 303 724 749 609 758 793 781 809 884 953 1,019 Number of students..... 1, 413 3,303 5,395 8,950 7,244 7, 157 7,614 8,559 13,153 10,919 11,584 12,709