As I see it, the present generation among us is exaggerating the part which Government should play in the civilization of the Republic, and is heedlessly oblivious of the fact that no clearer evidence of retrogression in the ability and character of a people is possible than the demand that the Government shall undertake what has, heretofore, been accomplished through the free impulse and action of individuals and associations of individuals. Even though Government should enter only as a competitor in the sphere reserved to free development, its presence is depressing and discouraging, since it operates through forces of a cruder and more overbearing nature. The tendency is always manifest, under such conditions, of a withdrawal of free effort and contribution from the field, to the universal deterioration of the national character.

In the second place, a Government university is not the ideal place for free research, especially in the moral and political sciences. Government is the institution which commands, and enforces obedience to its commands by the infliction of physical punishment. The influences emanating from it are not encouraging to untrammeled thought, free research, and fearless expression of opinion. Even though the members of the controlling legislature, and the officials generally, should, when taken individually, appear to favor complete autonomy of the faculties in a Government university, and the complete intellectual freedom of the individual professors, still the spirit of government would inevitably predominate, while it is the spirit of liberty which ought always to prevail. University professors and investigators are pioneers upon the frontiers of truth. The greatest possible freedom of thought and movement is necessary to the success of their incursions into the domain of the unknown. The prescribed precision and uniformity of governmental action would impose impediments upon their efforts and activities which would shackle them hand and foot in the pursuit of new truth. In that part of the educational system where discipline is the prime purpose, Government may with advantage take control, but beyond this it should never be allowed to reach, especially in a republican system, with its changing administration. In a monarchical system-that is, in a system where the head of the administration holds by hereditary right-it is more possible to avoid political control or party control and to build up advantageous traditions and customs in the administration of the higher educational institutions; but even there governmental restraint upon individual research and the announcement of new results is frequent and harmful. A university is a product of history, par excellence, and it grows best when left freest, subject to the subtle play of influence, but not driven by majority rule or executive order. Finally, it is financial recklessness to create a Government university at Washington when we already have scattered throughout the country a sufficient number of universities of the first rank to satisfy all of the real needs of the country. In fact, I think we have already too many universities and too many students attending them. We are not suffering from lack of quantity, but far more from lack of quality, in university professors or university students. The whole world is sufficiently stocked with them, if not overstocked with them, such as they are. It now takes a very large part of the time and energy of those who are capable and valuable to correct the errors and the injuries committed and inflicted by those who are not. We

ought not to multiply them, if it did not cost us a cent. We ought not to create any more opportunities for attracting the natural hewers of wood and drawers of water into lines for which they are utterly without genius or aptitude; and at least one-half the students now attending our universities are of this class. Nor can it be said that we need a Government university to provide, at the cost of the taxpayers the already overburdened taxpayers-opportunities for those who, on account of lack of means, can not attend the already existing universities, since all these universities now offer more free tuition by way of scholarships, and also additional stipends in the way of fellowships, than can be taken up by properly qualified applicants. There is no man of talent, however poor in this world's goods, who may not now secure university education in our best universities. And if it should be argued that Washington should, on account of certain advantages which it possesses, have a university, the answer is that it has several already, among them the first university for research in the land, the Carnegie Institution, with an almost unlimited endowment.

There is, thus, from no point of view any need whatsoever for a Government university at Washington, or for another university of any kind, and it would be a most reckless expenditure of the taxpayers' money for Congress to provide for its establishment, so reckless and useless as to be almost criminal.

It is a pity and a great danger to our own civilization, and the civilization of the whole world, that the men of the present generation in these United States understand so little of how the maintenance of genuine American liberty is related to our system of higher education. They seem to see no difference between provision for and control over primary and secondary education-namely, education for the purpose of discipline-by government, and provision for and control over the higher education, education whose purpose is research and the discovery of new truth, by government, and seem to fail altogether to appreciate that, while the one is a proper function of government, the other can best flourish only in the sunshine of liberty and through the free efforts of individuals and voluntary associations of individuals.

HEARINGS

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SIXTY-THIRD CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

ON

H. R. 11749

A BILL TO CREATE A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY AT THE SEAT OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

No. 11

LETTERS OF MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION
ASSOCIATION SUBMITTED BY

HON. S. D. FESS

A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF OHIO

APRIL 14, 1914

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE