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students who might otherwise attend elsewhere, and thus acquire a relative importance. The attraction may be found in superior location, with better surroundings and conditions, better buildings and equipments, better instruction, or better established and wider reputation; but each of these things is desirable, and to prevent their being offered because some one or more institutions in the country can not supply them would surely be to wrong the great public. Indeed, a general practice upon such a principle would forever stop the progress of civilization. As a matter of fact, no one of the very few institutions which have opposed the establishment of a university of the United States was ever known to resist the incorporation of any of the great number of others, which have sprung up since the movement for a national university began, although in kind and purpose like themselves, and hence destined to become actual competitors.

It is plain enough, without discussion, that, in case of an institution that is to undertake a work in large part different, indeed in some important respects beyond the possibility of execution by any other, and hence would leave no room for competition, it is useless to even talk of "injury," in however slight a degree. And yet it is by suggestions of this sort that the few enemies of the national university measure have sought to prevent, and for the time have hindered, the incorporation of the proposed university of the United States, and prevented its endowment with insured millions by private citizens.

And right here is found the reason for our persistent contentions, since a very little inquiry will show beyond all question that such a university would not be a damaging competitor of any one of the five opposing institutions, even those at Washington, though having as good a right to rise as Johns Hopkins, the University of Chicago, or any other-indeed, as we have seen, a better reason for rising than they; and not only the reasons just referred to, but the very important one that the no less than $50,000,000 worth of facilities already here, in the forms of museums, libraries, observatories, and other establishments, are all of them the property, not of any particular city, or religious denomination, but of the whole Nation, having been provided at the common cost, and for the Nation's use; in view, also, of the important special national functions which it is to exercise.

The delay has not been due to any well-grounded fear that the proposed university would "get into politics," for provision has always been made against any sectarian or political discriminations whatsoever in the institution and for the free exposition and discussion of all sides of every subject related . to governmental policies. And this, too, is to be noted, that, in proportion as an institution of learning attains real dignity and importance, the politician. as distinguished from the statesman, is instinctively constrained to keep hands off. In addition to these considerations may be mentioned the indisputable fact that in the governmental institutions of learning already established, such as the State universities, the United States Military and Naval Academies, and the Smithsonian Institution, practically no difficulty has ever been found on this score. The principle of political noninterference in American governmental institutions of learning has been amply vindicated by experience, and may safely be relied upon for vindication in the future.

The delay has not been on account of recognized faults in the university measure. The bill may not be faultless, but it is the fruit of much correspondence and many conferences with leading Americans, as also of three protracted sessions of the entire executive council of the National University Committee, the Chief Justice of the United States presiding, and has long held its place in the Senate and before the country, without a solitary suggestion of material change from any quarter, although suggestions have been ofttimes invited. Moreover, it has been four times approved (three times unanimously) by the Senate's University Committee. It could not have been framed in a more liberal spirit, and there is to-day the utmost readiness in the National University Committee to warmly welcome and adopt any other plan or form of charter that can be made to appear better calculated to accomplish the desired ends.

What we want, and feel that we may reasonably expect without much further delay, is an act of Congress for the establishment at Washington of an exclusively graduate university of the highest possible type, one that shall be not national in name merely, but truly national in name, spirit, character, and relationships; a university that shall ever be not only in harmony with the best that is in the purposes of the Republic, but highly serviceable in the great work of insuring to it the most enduring prosperity and the most glorious

possible destiny. We even venture to hope for a university that shall also be competent to serve the lesser nations and in time become an acknowledged advance guard in the whole world's march of civilization.

As carefully planned, it will be unlike any other, and yet have distinctly in view the best interests of all others of every grade, and systematically work with all for the universal good. Let us demonstrate this by pointing out some of its distinctive features:

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF THE PROPOSED UNIVERSITY.

1. The University of the United States, when duly established, will fittingly complete the American system of public education-an office of very great importance, since, without such completion, they who have passed through its several grades from the primary school upward and have won the college degrees must suffer the incalculable loss of that still-needed constraining influence which leads to further attainments, and which can only be furnished in full measure by a concluding public institution whose high field is the whole vast realm of what lies beyond in every department of learning, and of what is yet possible to the genius of man through systematic inquiry. In a word, the proposed national university, by furnishing the requisite climax to the existing series of our public educational agencies, will increase the interest of the youth of the country in the highest learning, lead greater numbers into all our colleges and universities, and in time relieve our boastful Republic of the dishonor of holding a place but second in things which are vital, as compared with some of the other powers.

2. While maintaining all possible cooperative relations with other institutions, e. g., by exchange of student privileges and of favors among professors, investigators, curators, and other officials-in a word, such relations of whatever sort as may be found both feasible and advantageous-it will in general terms supplement others by supplying graduate instruction only in every department of study, notably in matters which concern the national welfare; furthermore, will tend to increase the patronage of other institutions by making them necessary gateways to the opportunities and honors it is to offer. 3. While access to the instruction will be accorded to all persons competent to receive it, full membership and its degrees, strictly limited to the doctorate, will be accorded to such only as shall have already received a college or university title from some institution recognized for this purpose by the university authorities—a condition at present imposed by no institution in America, and yet one that will stimulate all others to do their best work.

4. By this exercise of the right to determine what institutions are deserving of recognition, it will insure, as no other institution can, the needed adopton of high and uniform standards in all the collegiate institutions of the country, establish a common measure for degrees, and afford the most healthful stimulation to every class of educational agencies.

5. By the dignity of its high rank and the facilities offered by its great schools of letters, science, philosophy, the practical arts, the fine arts, medicine, law, diplomacy, statesmanship, and yet others, it will become, as no other institution can, a means of educating at home the thousands of our graduates who at some risk now seek in other lands the facilities we fail to furnish.

6. For the same reason it will become to all the other institutions a very important source of increasing numbers and superior teachers.

7. Because of its national character it will draw to a common center, as none other can, great numbers of the graduate students of all sections, promote unity of feeling among them, and thus become in a high degree a nationalizing influence upon the country at large.

8. Because national and of highest rank, it will bring to this world center many thousands of foreign graduates for a completion of their studies under the influence of American ideas and institutions-students, whose return, after years of contact with free institutions (should they not remain to our own advantage), would promote the cause of liberal government everywhere.

9. For like reasons and because of the high place this country holds among the nations, the University of the United States would very strongly attract men of genius from every quarter of the globe to its professorships, fellowships, and laboratories, thus increasing the intellectual forces of both university and country,

10. By its graduate standards of admission in all its departments, thus insuring to the professional as well as nonprofessional pursuits that general informa

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tion and that mental discipline which are requisite to the highest success, it will greatly advance the various professions in rank and real value.

11. With the collections, laboratories, and workers here present, it will greatly encourage all other institutions engaged in the work of original research and investigation, and thus become a very great force in the upbuilding of new arts and professions by the applications of science.

12. By its central faculties and grand cluster of technical and professional schools it will early represent the sum of what is known and become to the whole world a great new fountain of knowledge and inspiration.

13. In turn, its scientific workers will be ever ready to meet the demands of the Government in whatsoever field of inquiry, and will feel in duty bound to qualify gifted students for any and every branch of the public service.

14. Being not in name only, but in fact, free from the narrowing influence of sectarianism in religion and of partisanship in politics, it will be an elevating power within its own domain and in the Nation.

15. It will, in the nature of the case, exert, as no private or sectarian institution can, a most salutary influence upon the several branches and departments of the Government and upon civil affairs generally, elevating their standards and increasing their efficiency.

16. It will dignify the National Capital and make it yet more attractive to all Americans and to the foreign world.

17. Because of its comprehensiveness, highest possible standards, exalted aims, and distinguished service to the cause of human learning, it will command the admiration of the people and greatly strengthen the patriotic sentiment of the country.

18. Because national, it will be to the whole American people a potent means of intellectual advancement, give new dignity and honor to the Republic, and contribute in a high degree to its supremacy among the nations.

19. Because, when once rightly established and duly recognized everywhere, it will have become a mighty means of promoting the world's progress in civilization.

And so the reasons multiply, while the worn-out objections vanish, and we find ourselves more than justified in declaring with emphasis there is nowhere discoverable a single valid excuse for delay in the establishment of the proposed university; while the important and very decided demands for it are many, have been long continued, and inhere in the characteristics of the Ameri'can people, in the nature of the government they have established and would * perpetuate, and in the important relation our country sustains to all the other powers.

SOME ACTUAL CAUSES. OF THE DELAY.

There is a great difference sometimes, as in this case, between a reason and a cause; for, while a reason is always entitled to attention and more or less consideration, a cause may be ignored, or promptly arraigned, condemned, and brought to judgment.

Earlier we spoke of the delay of the coming university for more than a cen› tury as a fact next to incomprehensible, yet we have had in mind several very important causes which have been quite manifest, namely:

First. At the end of barely half a century we had hardly attained, as a whole I people, to such a realization of its possible value as to make the establishment of a university like the one proposed seem so imperative as to lead to the requisite efforts and sacrifices.

Second. It was plain that the cost would be great, while the country was yet poor and multimillionaires were scarcely known. Some delay was then natural and may be generously pardoned.

Third. There was the interruption of the Civil War, with the political conflicts leading up to and growing out of it--conflicts all engrossing and of long 'continuance.

Fourth. The very unfortunate misconceptions of the few opposing institutions referred to each of them so circumstanced and so represented at the seat of government as to facilitate the working of adverse plans.

Again, with the wonderful growth of the Republic in area, wealth, and power, too many have ceased to be controlled by the lofty ideals which the fathers cherished-have been to a serious degree materialized, and even made vainglorious, on the grounds that we are not only possessed of a genius and enterprise unparalleled, but have, through these gifts of Heaven, already made such achievements in the productive industries, in the means of intercommunication,

and in commercial enterprises, as well as such increase of possessions, far and near, with yet greater armies and navies in the coming, as make us look imperial and seem to leave almost nothing else to be desired.

In a rude general sense, these astonishing claims have been so far justified that it should hardly be surprising that the multitude of those directly concerned in producing so great results should, for a time, have lost themselves in self-satisfaction, forgetting that, all put together and important as they are, these things constitute but the beginnings of our civilization, and that in laying so substantial a foundation they have only made the United States of America supremely competent to achievements yet greater, because higher and more enduring, and which are, therefore, imperatively demanded.

But we have a right to expect that the chosen men of the whole Nation, who have been empowered to shape and direct the destinies of the Republic, will be found possessed not only of more than ordinary breadth and foresight, as well as of practical wisdom, but also of so pure a patriotism that it will make them superior not only to partiality and prejudice, which, in matters of this sort, have their root in merely personal, local, or denominational ambitions, but superior also to even the most insidious approaches of a spirit of selfishness and injustice in whatsoever form or guise. For it is such men and such only who will understand the conditions of real greatness, and will hold their observance to be a most solemn and sacred obligation.

Such men will readily comprehend that the source of Grecian greatness is to be sought not in the victories which so quickly made her mistress of southern Europe and northern Africa and for a time the supreme physical force among the nations, but rather in the things so gloriously accomplished by her illustrious philosophers, poets, orators, men of science, artists, and historians— that but for these galaxies of her men of superlative genius and exalted aims, who gave themselves to the elevation and happiness of their people, and who, to the honor of those ruled, were always encouraged and fostered by the state, there would have been no “glorious Greece" in human history; that while her physical conquests were but fleeting and have left her a mite only in the geographic world, her marvelous achievements in the intellectual and spiritual realms still fill the whole earth and will continue to shine as white lights through all time.

Such men as we have a right to count on at the Capitol of the Nation will likewise realize that the glories of Rome are to be sought, not in the conquests made both east and west by her legions, but rather in the peaceful spread of her language, literature, art, science, ethics, philosophy, and law; that these, the fruits of her beneficent genius, at once various and splendid, have been and will ever remain her own chief glories and a priceless legacy to the human

race.

Such men will understand that the enduring greatness of this, our own Republic, greatest of all, is to be made sure, not so much by a reckless increase of her population, a stupendous growth of her many productive industries, and the spread of her commerce, or by such increase of her widely scattered possessions as will seem to demand an immense standing army and numberless ships of war; not so much by mere material gains of any and every sort, as by the increasing intelligence of her people of every class and a faithful cultivation of all the virtues upon philosophie as well as religious grounds; by such mastery of economic science as is essential to an unfailing material prosperity; by an increase of zeal in the use of means for the highest possible intellectual culture of those who aspire; by such encouragement as can be given to those who are especially competent to the advancement of knowledge by means of researches and investigations, and by such inculcation of the principles of morality, individual, municipal, State, and national as will insure to us the respect, confidence, and hearty good will of other governments and peoples, and so make this, our Republic, already great, at once secure in peace and a guiding star for all the groping nations of the world.

It was Americans of this high type who laid the foundations of the Republic, and, happily, there have been such men to grace the records of our National Legislature, as well as the annals of our general history, from the beginning until now. But they have not always had their way, for it seems that by the rules and usages under which our legislation is conducted a few unfriendly or unwisely committed Members of either House may embarrass and delay a very great measure for a lifetime or longer.

A fifth, and one of the saddest causes of delay since the modern, more systematic, and persistent agitation of the subject began, is found in such lack of

attention, and hence want of appreciation and active interest on the part of some in authority who are usually accounted patriotic in sentiment, as have made it possible for the unwisely ambitious managers and supporters of four or five institutions to work their adverse schemes.

Nevertheless, the interest of the Senate, as a body, is put beyond question by a succession of friendly acts, which, though in part already referred to, are here consecutively mentioned, namely:

1. The formation of a 66

Select Committee to Establish the University of the

United States," on June 4, 1890.

2. The action of the Senate, on December 17, 1890, upon motion of Senator Cullom, in continuing said committee during the Fifty-second Congress.

3. The unanimous action of the Senate, on March 2, 1891, in further continuing the said committee.

4. The unanimous order of the Senate, on motion of Senator Proctor, on August 3, 1892, for the printing of the "Memorial in regard to a National University," and again, on August 5, 1892, in unanimously ordering, on motion of Senator Sherman, the printing of 5,000 extra copies of said memorial for the use of the Senate.

5. The unanimous agreement of the Senate's select committee on the able report submitted on March 3, 1893, by Senator Proctor, chairman, which, however, was submitted at the very close of the Fifty-Second Congress and could not be acted upon at that time.

6. The Fifty-third Congress placed Senator Hunton, of Virginia, at the head of the University Committee, who likewise, in the course of time, submitted a unanimous report, and finally succeeded in getting it before the Senate, and in having it affirmatively discussed by himself and Senators Vilas and Kyle, though at so late a day that the coming in of bills having the right of way again prevented final action.

7. Next, there was the very liberal action of the Senate in placing the "Select Committee to Establish the University of the United States" among the standing committees.

8. The report submitted by Senator Kyle, chairman, on March 10, 1896, which included important hearings from a number of citizens of first distinction in the several fields of education, science, letters, and statesmanship, carefully prepared communications in advocacy of the measure from others, and no less than 400 briefer indorsements of it, by letter, from the most competent of advocates in all the States.

9. True, the university cause came to a dead halt through the neglect, most unpardonable, of a Senator from Maryland, by whom four full years were worse than wasted. And yet the abiding interest of the Senate again became manifest in a Congress of earnest effort on the part of its committee's chairman, Mr. Deboe, of Kentucky, who, on April 1, 1902, submitted a very full and convincing report, consisting of a brief statement of what had been done to secure action, a showing of the character of the opposition made, and of the status of the enterprise at that time, together with numerous hearings, papers, addresses, 300 additional letters of approval from eminent men in all parts of the country, and a list of members of the National University Committee of Four Hundred; the whole making a volume of 192 pages, which was printed in a large èdition, and, if we have been correctly informed, with but one objection in the Senate. Chairman Deboe tried in vain, however, to get the pending bill taken up by the Senate. Other measures in number crowded to the front and kept it back to the end of the Fifty-seventh Congress.

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That was in 1902, since which time until now, though often and earnestly petitioned for, no meeting of the Senate's University Committee has been called. It can not be doubted that the honorable Senate will pardon the freedom with which we have spoken, in view of the very serious nature of the factsrecited; in view also of the important favors so promptly granted by it upon simple request of existing private and denominational university organizations meanwhile, and of the difficulty we have, therefore, in understanding why it has not yet been pleased to put upon this our national measure, to which it so stands committed before the world, the seal of its approval after 17 years of effort and anxious waiting on the part of a whole nation of educators and a multitude of other friends of the highest learning in all the States. Nor can it be questioned, after this quite full statement of the case, that a reasonable efficiency will hereafter characterize the discharge of duty by those who, under the rules of the Senate, are able either to forward or hinder a cause so important, and which, considering the efforts and sacrifices made in

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