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heads of the great and new universities founded upon those munificient bequests of distinguished private citizens which have gained for them the admiration and gratitude of all friends of education throughout the world; also the earnest and systematic support of the proposition by duly-authorized committees of various national educational, scientific, and patriotic organizations; and, finally, its cordial approval by that great body of eminent men who constitute the managing and working force of scholars and scientists in the many divisions— educational, industrial, and scientific-of the Federal Government, notable examples from the distinguished class last named being found in the successive superintendents of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. of the Naval Observatory, of the Bureaus of Navigation, Hydrography, Medicine and Surgery, Anthropology, Ethnology, and Education; the National Museum, Museum of Hygiene, Government libraries, etc., together with those scientific and other organizations, having more or less connection with the Government, which are so honorably represented by the Smithsonian Institution.

As is shown in the memorial of John W. Hoyt, recently published by order of the Senate, and of which liberal use has been made in the preparation of this report, a very considerable number of the army of learned men and officials have at various times advocated the university measure in published papers, public addresses, and official reports so great a number, indeed, that the proper limits of this report will not justify more than the mention of the fact, unless we venture this final quotation from a very able report of Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar, Secretary of the Interior in 1835, wherein he said:

"Eighty years ago President Jefferson, then in the fullest tide of his authority as a party chief, told Congress that to complete the circle of Democratic policy a national university was a necessity and should be created. In this he followed the recommendations of his predecessors, Washington and Adams, the former of whom 10 years before declared that the desirableness of a national university had so constantly increased with every new view he had taken of the subject that he could not omit the opportunity of recalling the attention of Congress to its importance. Mr. Madison in 1810 renewed the recommendation, with the declaration that such an institution would contribute not less to strengthen the foundations than to adorn the structure of our free and happy system of government, and that it would be universal in its beneficial effects. "This national institution which Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison thought so necessary has never been established, and in these later years the idea of a national university constitutes no part of the plans of statesmen and seems to have been lost sight of by the people.

"In the meantime scientific bureaus have grown up one by one under the Government, with observatories, laboratories, museums, and libraries, until the whole range of physical science is represented by national institutions established by the Government for the purpose of prosecuting researches, embracing astronomy, meteorology, geography of land and sea, geology, chemistry, statistics, mechanical inventions, etc. If the various commissions, bureaus, and divisions of the executive departments at Washington, which have for their object the prosecution of scientific research, could be combined as integral parts of one scientific institution, such institution would be of greater proportions and more comprehensive than any in the world, and should a university be erected thereon, with a superstructure commensurate with the foundation, it would be without a rival in any country.

"The common-school system, designed to furnish every citizen with an education which ought to be a strict necessity for his daily work of life, constitutes the foundation for our democracy. But that is not enough to satisfy its instincts. In the history of nations democracies have been the cradles of pure thought and art. The same cause which operates in them exists in American society, and whether through a national university or in fragmentary institutions in the several States, sooner or later, a higher education, higher than the common school or the academy or the college can furnish, will alone realize and express the higher aspirations of American democracy."

As final citations of the views of other men upon this important subject, attention is called to the fact that bills similar to the one reported by this committee have been twice before unanimously commended to the National Legislature, once by the Committee on Education of the House of Representatives in 1872, and again in 1892 by the Senate's Select Committee to Establish the University of the United States; the first providing for the payment in perpetuity of 5 per cent interest on a registered certificate of twenty millions: the last mentioned for one-half the net proceeds of the sales of the public lands without limit of time.

The views of the House committee are concisely summed up in the following concluding passage of their unanimous report:

"If, then, it be true, as the committee have briefly endeavored to show, that our country is at present wanting in the facilities essential to the highest culture in many departments of learning; and if it be true that a central university, besides meeting this demand, would quicken, strengthen, and systematize the. schools of the country from the lowest to the highest; that it would increase the amount and the love of pure learning, now too little appreciated by our people, and so improve the intellectual status of the Nation; that it would tend to homogeneity of sentiment, and thus strengthen the unity and patriotism of the people; that, by gathering at its seat distinguished savants not only of our own but of other lands, it would eventually make of our National Capital the intellectual center of the world, and so help the United States of America to rank first and highest among the enlightened nations of the earth, then it is most manifestly the duty of Congress to establish and amply endow such a university at the earliest possible day.

"The committee, therefore, affirm their approval of the bill and recommend its passage by the House."

The general conclusion of the Senate committee of the last Congress is set forth in the following concluding passage, no less positive in its terms, to wit: "Your committee are of the opinion that the cause of American learning demands such an institution as this bill provides for; that the highest dignity and welfare of the Nation demand it; that it should be established at the capital of the country; and that, after a delay of 100 years since it was first proposed and sought to be established by the founders of the Government, it would be unworthy of so great a people to wait longer for a more favorable time in which to meet all these high demands.

"The committee therefore approve the bill and recommend its passage.” Should the question arise whether action was had upon these several bills, it remains to be said that each of them was, unfortunately, reported during the last week of the Congress that should have considered it and that time for action was therefore wholly wanting.

And so of the possible question whether, with the efforts of princely givers and of powerful religious denominational bodies aiming at universities, the wants of our people are not likely to be met without the help of the Nation, the answer is simple; if we should wholly ignore the insufficiency of their endowments, even the richest of them, and that denominational bias which they can not escape if they would--which, indeed, was and is and will remain the mainspring of their great endeavors the answer must still, and necessarily, be a most emphatic negative.

No institution, whatever its name or aim, that is local, or that rests on either a private or a denominational foundation; no institution with partial aims, however worthy, as viewed from a local or a partisan standpoint; no institution with aims less than national and universal, and, on this account, able to command the confidence, active sympathy, and moral as well as material support of the whole people; no institution not so related to the public-school system of the United States, with its primary, secondary, academic, and university gradations, as to furnish the crown and culmination of the whole series, and so become to them a mighty coordinating and uplifting force; no institution resting on a foundation less broad, ample, and unfailing than that which is furnished by the geographic empire and boundless resources of the American Union; no institution with less of dignity or less loftiness of purpose than with absolute impartiality to meet all the intellectual and ethical aims of a great people, and to secure for that people an acknowledged leadership among the nations in all things that make for the progress and highest welfare of the human race; no institution less than equal to all these exalted ends can satisfy the needs and demands of such a people as dwell under the flag of the American Republic. Progress in higher education has indeed been made in this country since the revival of efforts for the proposed national university; but the growth of science, the needs of the people, and the demands of the age have more than kept pace with the increase of instrumentalities, so that relatively we are no nearer the goal, the realization of the aims so long cherished by the patriots and scholars of the Nation, than before.

Indeed, as compared with the leading nations of Europe, we are at a yet greater disadvantage; for the development there has been more marked than here. France, Germany, Austria, and Italy appear to have gained of late a new realization of how incalculably great a factor is the higher education in the

struggle of a people for supremacy. Thus Germany, having wisely followed the guidance of her far-sighted statesmen, and so become during the last quarter of a century the world's leader in the whole field of higher culture, is now lavishing her resources upon her universities, strengthening them on every side, especially the scientific, and providing new accommodations for them at a cost of millions for a single department.

Austria, not to be outdone in the university rôle, has in one or two cases not only exceeded Germany, but has placed her central institution before all others in the world, in so far as material provision and ambitious plans are concerned, erecting buildings for its use at a cost exceeding the present available endowment of any university in America, and planning researches in the interest of science which are intended to place her in the van of the world's army of progress.

So of the Dutch, Scandinavian, and English Governments. all have received a new awakening and are moving with a degree of zeal and liberality hitherto unheard of.

Nor are the Latin nations content to rest on laurels already won. France, having advanced the educational budget beyond all precedent, is now revolutionizing and developing her École Pratique des Hautes Études with a view to highest possible standards; is making the École Libre des Sciences Politique the foremost institution of its kind in the world; is devoting over $3,000,000 to new buildings for the Sorbonne, and dealing hardly less liberally with the College de France and with some of the great professional institutions of Paris. Italy is building palatial structures for her universities at the great centers, fully resolved not to be left in the rear of this grand new movement. Everywhere concentration of means and forces, to the end of leadership and eventual supremacy in the university field, is the watchword.

It is for America to say whether she will be content to lag forever in the rear of nations so greatly her inferior in resources, or whether she will at last take the one remaining step requisite to fairly meet the demands of learning and of those free institutions for which she assumes to be the supreme representative. It would seem, therefore, that it but remains to mature and adopt such a measure as shall in the best manner meet these high demands.

The bill before the Senate, as reported by your committee, provides: That a university of postgraduate rank, with facilities for scientific and literary research and investigation, shall be established in the District of Columbia; that the government of the institution shall be vested in a board of 15 regents, 8 to be appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and 7 to be ex officio members, consisting of the President of the United States, the Vice President, the Chief Justice, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Commissioner of Education, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and the president of the university, and a council of faculties; that the council of faculties shall consist of the president of the university and the deans of faculties, and shall be charged with the planning and direction of instruction and discipline in the several departments and with such other duties as are prescribed in the statutes or designated by the regents; that the immediate government of each faculty shall be intrusted to its own members; that no chair for instruction sectarian in religion or partisan in politics shall be permitted in any form, and no partisan test shall be required or allowed in the appointment of professors or in the selection of any officer of the university; that existing institutions which are free from controlling obligations of a sectarian or partisan nature and have endowments sufficient to support a faculty may become faculties or departments of the university; that the facilities afforded by the university shall be open to all who are competent to use them, on conditions prescribed by the executive committee, with the advice of the faculties directly concerned; that degrees shall be conferred upon such persons only as have previously received the degree of bachelor of arts or some equivalent degree or who have received certificates of graduation from some State educational institution; that each State and Territory, in the ratio of population, shall be entitled to free scholarships of such number-not less than one for each Representative and Delegate in Congress and two for each Senator-as the board of regents shall determine; that for the advancement of science and learning by means of researches and investigations there shall be established fellowships in the university of such character and number as the interests to be represented and the resources at command shall warrant, which fellowships shall yield a partial or a full support, as the regents shall determine; that in the admission and appointment of persons to places or privileges in the university character and

competency shall be the sole test of qualifications; that as a means of partially providing building sites for the several departments of the university “University Square," selected and set apart by President George Washington for the use of a national university and heretofore occupied by the National Observatory, shall be set apart for the use and benefit of the University of the United States; that for the practical establishment, support, and maintenance of the university there shall be used one-third of the net proceeds of the sales of the public lands for the period of 10 years from the passage of this act; that the regents shall have power to receive and administer all such gifts, devises, and bequests as are made for the benefit of the university; that after the formal opening of the university for instruction the members thereof, under rules approved by the officers, subject to any regulations prescribed by Congress, shall have access to all institutions, collections, and opportunities for study and research under control of the Government so far as the same can be accorded without detriment to the public service, and that, to the end that the largest possible benefit may come of such access, the heads of all bureaus, institutions, and other organizations of the Government shall be brought into such advisory and cooperative relations with the heads of corresponding departments of the university as the executive committee, with the advice of the heads of faculties and the said officers of the Government, shall agree upon as being advantageous. Attaching great importance to the many facilities and opportunities for the higher instruction as well as for original research afforded here at the National Capital in the form of legislative bodies, the several courts of every class, the nearly 50 scientific bureaus, museums, laboratories, libraries, art collections, hospitals, and other important organizations, and the numerous scientific, literary, and philosophical societies, as well as collegiate institutions, the whole vast array standing for and representing a body of scholarship and scientific attainments without parallel in this country. Realizing also in how important a sense all these are at present but opportunities lost, that the elements of a grand university are in fact already here waiting for an opportunity to marshal themselves in its service, and further realizing how great are the means and forces requisite to secure to the United States their appropriate rank in the aducational world, your committee would, under other conditions, have increased rather than diminished the amount of the appropriation for the establishment of the university.

The bill as amended makes as moderate a demand as can be considered. The amount would hardly be felt by the Treasury, and yet it would suffice to launch an institution the deep and ever-increasing interest in which would insure to it accessions from many sources, with a commanding rank among the great universities of the world ere the lapse of many years. And accordingly, firmly believing that the proposed University of the United States is essential to the completeness and highest efficiency of the American system of educational instrumentalities, and that its early establishment is demanded by the honor of the Republic as a great and rapidly growing and highly responsible power among the nations of the earth, the committee unanimously affirm their approval of the bill as amended, and recommend its passage by the Senate.

[Senate Document No. 15, Fifty-fourth Congress, second session,]

A bill has been framed and reported in the Senate of the United States for the establishment of a national university at Washington. Reasons have been urged for and against this measure. Many good men who ought to appreciate the advantages to the country of the high educational work which such an institution could do better than any other that we are likely to have for several generations oppose it because it would interfere with some of their own cherished plans.

The principal objectors of this class are men who are interested in denominational schools, and who maintain that such an institution would be godless and unsafe for the youth of America. They forget that nearly all our boys and girls are educated exclusively in schools that are supported by public money and uncontrolled by any religious denomination. They forget also that the public schools are the only ones that would be acceptable to the American people, and that to them alone we must look for an education above the supersititions of the past and a bigotry which are certainly godless and anti-Christian. The man who would propose to substitute several demoni

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national schools for the public school of any town would be considered a fit subject for an insane asylum. In many of our most intelligent Christian communities such schools, established to run in opposition to the public - schools, would scarcely be tolerated.

We would not derogate the importance of the work done by our denominational colleges in affording our youth the culture and training given by the old-time egular college course. Especially valuable are the thorough training given in the smaller classes to students pursuing the classical course and the close contact between student and professor. But the State and the Nation must furnish the facilities for higher postgraduate work and for original -investigation, which will be of value to all our industries and professions. Although the schools controlled by a denomination still have their advocates, provided they are not intensely sectarian in character, yet the higher institutions of learning supported by the State and enriched by private munificence are more and more gaining in popular favor.

These objectors also forget that original investigation and discoveries in the physical sciences have not been received with favor in general by those who 'control church institutions; that scores of teachers who have made such investigations or advocated the latest developments of science have been harassed and removed from their positions. This statement may not apply to all church schools, but it is nevertheless true that the man who announces new facts or theories must be careful to state them in such a way as not to seem to conflict with popular preconceived ideas. To be efficient and to hold the confidence of all the people, the policy of an institution whose primary · object is to widen the boundaries of knowledge must be marked by the broadest toleration.

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A second class of men oppose the establishment of a national university, as is proposed, on the ground that a majority of our most useful practical men have not had nor do they need the advantages of such an institution. This may be true. It is not necessary for a farmer to be a specialist in organic and inorganic chemistry to be able to analyze his soils, fertilizers, water, and foods. He need not be a skilled horticulturist, botanist, nor entomologist; he need not have made an exhaustive study of animal industry, comparative anatomy, physiology, hygiene, veterinary, surgery, and medicine. But every intelligent farmer does profit from the study of specialists in all these departments of knowledge. Years of patient experiment and investigation by Lavis and Gilbert in England and the important work done by Liebig and Möhler in Germany and Boussingault in France have resulted in discoveries of inestimable value to the farmer. We may use many of these results, but agriculture in the United States presents many peculiar problems which we alone can solve. Some of the most obvious laws of nature are already the property of mankind, but the greater part of them, on which depend our progress in the arts, sciences, and practical industries of life, are hidden mysteries which can be discovered only by years of long, patient study and experiment under the most favorable circumstances and with all the appliances which the best equipped institution can furnish.

Thirty years ago I spent three years at the universities of Berlin and Heidelberg, because our own country did not furnish equal facilities for a higher education. The discoveries made at the latter university during that decade by three men-Kirchoff, Bunsen, and Helmholz-have been of vast practical importance to the world. I need mention but one which has enabled us with equal ease to detect the presence of an element in a distant star and in a body which we can handle in the laboratory. It is almost essential in the process of producing Bessemer steel, which has revolutionized the iron industry of the world. The recent discoveries of Pasteur, Koch, and Röentgen have been the results of such aid given by their respective Governments as we are now asking for our own people. We have done much for the dissemination of knowledge-we have done little compared with the vast resources of the country for original investigation which is imperatively demanded by every department of industry. To the formula of the student, placed in the hands of practical men, is due the progress of the world during the past 50 years.

The superior advantages of European universities, with their immense laboratories and public collections accumulated under the fostering care of governments, attract each year about 3,000 American students. The cost of this foreign education to our country is not less than $3.000,000 per annum. A small part of this expense would afford facilities for the education of our

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