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or that recent period of the nation's experience. They are less disturbed by the dust whirls of fad. It is presumable that the two types, though not approximating, can never drift widely apart; they are naturally held together by the fact of their common service to American society; they are both engaged in educating young Americans. Should it, however, at any time grow to be the usage for the sons of the wealthy to attend prevailingly the privately endowed universities and to receive their preparation therefor prevailingly in expensive private schools, then the gap would widen rapidly and the privately endowed universities would render a great and very sad contribution to the development of a caste line within American society.

The conception of a state university was at no time entirely foreign to the thought of our people. From the very beginning Harvard, Yale, Princeton, King's (Columbia), William and Mary, were respectively in some sense the Colonial colleges of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. Harvard's board of overseers was made up of ex-officio officials and magistrates and "teaching elders" of the colony. Princeton was called the college of New Jersey, Pennsylvania the University of Pennsylvania. All of them were given their existence by act of their Colonial legislatures. Harvard and Yale received constant support from their legislatures. Enough at any rate of the idea of state relationship was carried over from Colonial days so that no shock of novelty was involved in 1819 when a University of Virginia proclaimed its far-reaching plan, and the states fashioned out of the Northwest Territory-Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois early provided themselves each with a state university as calmly as if the very notion of a state required it.

The old colleges of the Atlantic coast had, however, no real mind to the state university idea. They were ready enough to accept an appropriation or a building or to welcome the governor on Commencement Day, but being keenly suspicious of any control or exercise of the visitatorial function on the part of the state, they preferred to relinquish their birthright as state institutions rather than to tolerate the profane foot of popular inspection within their sacred precincts. Meanwhile, in the early nineteenth century the collegiate distrust of the public was coming to be reciprocated. The colleges grew little if at all; in their inner life they were stagnant. But there was a new democracy stirring in the air, and there were many who thought—and said it too—that an institution so important to the community as a university could not well be maintained as a close corporation, a public institution under private control. The crisis came when in 1819 the decision of the fateful Dartmouth case was proclaimed by the voice of Chief Justice Marshall. It was a matter of the legislature's assuming to amend the college charter. The Supreme Court of the United States decided that that charter was a contract within the meaning of the clause of the Constitution of the United States which declares that no state shall

make any law impairing the obligation of contracts-furthermore that under its charter Dartmouth College was a private and not a public corporation. This decision created a sharp frontier in the history of American higher education. As Dr. Elmer E. Brown, in his Origin of American State Universities, aptly says: "It put an end to efforts directed towards governmental regulation of education close corporations; but in so doing it turned the full force of this movement into that other possible course of governmental agency, namely, the establishment and maintenance of colleges and universities under full state control."

This had been indeed from the beginning the real significance and purpose involved in the foundation of the colleges. If, for instance, they seemed in their origins to be shaped mainly toward an ecclesiastical purpose, that was readily to be explained from the fact that religion and the church, particularly in the form of the state church, were pre-eminently public interests; Massachusetts maintained a state church until 1811 and Connecticut until 1818. It was only as the eastern colleges and universities availed themselves of such protection against the public as culminated in the Dartmouth decision that they shrank back and assumed the status of private institutions-institutions serving in the main the public and public purposes, but still legally private institutions.

From this time onward one after another the frank and outright state universities came into existence. From the beginning they had existed by the inner promptings of the public will as part and parcel of the public schools that were to be. All three, the elementary, the secondary, and the higher education were recognized together in that fundamental Massachusetts Act of 1647 which appointed its orders under the glowing caption: "That learning may not be buried in the graves of our fathers in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors-it is therefore ordered," etc.

The state university is no longer to be considered as a type of institution suited to pioneer conditions and establisht and supported by the state, as it were, temporarily and in the lack of privately supported institutions. It is rather to be recognized that the privately controlled universities represent the exceptional and the temporary-an indication of this may be found in the strong reaction of the public type from the West upon the East. The state university is no peculair form of institution existing for itself and for its own convenience and aggrandizement. It is simply and outright the public-school system in its extension to the higher learning and research. The act of 1647 making the first provision for a mechanism of schools and teachers to carry out the plan of compulsory education had its face set toward the university and actually named the university by name as the head. This act is the beginning and the charter of our public-school system. That system, therefore, was not brought into the world as a mass of ragged schools nor as a device for sidetracking the children of the poor.

On the contrary, it opens a straight path from the elementary school to the university for such as will, and its fundamental document blesses and consecrates it with that noble breath of prayer, "that learning may not be buried in the grave of our fathers."

B. THE PLACE OF THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION FOR

WOMEN

KATHRYN SISSON MCLEAN, DEAN OF WOMEN, OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, DELAWARE, OHIO

It is most commonplace to say that we are living in a day fraught with unusual possibilities and opportunities, and yet this very fact is borne in upon us from so many angles that we cannot but continually voice our joy that it has been vouchsafed to us to live our life during these terrible but history-making days. There is a touch of irony in the truth that war brings greatest suffering to the womanhood of a land, and yet, as if to atone for this unsought sorrow, the reverse of the shield is seen in the fact that it always carries in its wake great opportunities for progress and opens many doors of privilege social, economic, political, and intellectual. The Civil War proved to be woman's great emancipation, and to the womanhood of America this war is a mighty stimulus to heart, mind, and practical ability. It is woman's opportunity as well as man's heritage. The concentration of thousands of young men in the nation's training camps, the steady silent procession Europeward of the crowded transports and stately ships of war, the suffering of the worn-torn nations of Europe, these have awakened in us a greater love, a greater capacity for sacrifice, a greater intellectual activity, and a wider outreach toward efficient action than we have known since the dark days of the Civil War.

Ye that have faith to look with fearless eyes

Beyond the tragedy of a world at strife,

And know that out of death and night shall rise
The dawn of ampler life,

Rejoice, whatever anguish rend the heart,

That God has given you a priceless dower,
To live in these great times and have your part
In Freedom's crowning hour;

That ye may tell your sons who see the light

High in the Heavens-their heritage to take-
"I saw the powers of Darkness put to flight
I saw the Morning break."

The Civil War brought home to a country hitherto indifferent to the idea of higher education for women the realization that intellectual training must be given its women if they were to be prepared for the many doors then opening to them. Every great movement reflects the character of those who first champion its cause, and to a large degree

these pioneers make or mar its advance. The great success of the educational project for women has been largely due to the nobleness of purpose, broad, far-reaching vision, and sane, sober judgment of the men and women who founded our great colleges for women and advocated their admittance to state universities. All honor to the memory of Mary Lyon, Mathew Vassar, Emma Willard, Alice Freeman Palmer, and others who gave their impress to women's education. They sowed the seed, we are today reaping the increase.

As we look at the subject of education for women in the light of the present, we know instinctively that the great opportunity lies in the opening of the many doors to women. This is the first hour in history for the women of the world. This is the woman's age! At last, after centuries of disabilities and discriminations, women are coming into the labor and festival of life on equal terms with men. To meet this challenge of opportunity, to train women to go up and possess the land, is the great heritage of our colleges. When history, now being made, is written, one fact which the historians will dwell upon, if we mistake not, will be this emancipation, this seemingly sudden coming of women into their own. Men are today, not only turning to women for advice along practically every line, but saying, "This is your work, do it." Are women to meet this opportunity haphazardly with loss of effort and a personal loss to themselves of those things which are a woman's greatest possession, or are they to bring to the task trained intellects, calm, tolerant spirits, and a broad outlook upon life with its privileges and opportunities? We always find that every far-reaching event or epoch imposes a great responsibility upon our educational forces. Obviously, if this vision is to be even glimpst, our colleges must stamp upon those who enter her doors a personal character and power which will set into action currents of influence as boundless as life itself.

The call today is for women who are accurate and sincere thinkers. Is it not about time that we strike down that arch-enemy called inaccuracy? Colleges can demand and insist upon an accuracy of preparation in the classroom, and an accuracy of speech and thinking. Intuitions, conclusions quickly reacht and not substantiated, emotions uncontrolled, are not our only birthright! Sincere thinking will strike a blow to the theory that a college education for women is measured by ability to make a living. Not long ago we heard a well-known educator give this as the desired aim. What a sordid aspect to give a thing as enobling as work! But rather will not the question be askt and insisted upon, What is my own individual contribution, what can I bring to life which is my own, what is my method of approach and the line of attack where my personality, my ambitions, can be best exprest? These questions answered satisfactorily, it is evident that the many avenues of service needing women's attention in and out of the home will not go unanswered. Community and civic problems will be undertaken willingly, suffrage will be assumed as a matter of high

privilege, and social standards, now woefully undefined, will be given a

status.

Another demand which the present open door intensifies is that incentives be moral as well as intellectual. The moral situation of this country is not assuring. There seems to be an increase of irreligion, skepticism, tainted social status, and disorganization quite enough to distract the nation from the achievement of its high purpose. What will avert it? What will establish the faith of the people on solid ground? What will withstand this mass of irresponsibility that is gathering to thwart the high purpose of the Republic? The answer is, the adoption of a constructive, not a destructive, policy. What is the strongest constructive force today? Education. Well and good. Therefore we should improve our education, giving to it a strain of spirituality that will change the habits and uplift the thought of the coming generation. Knowledge, science, mathematics, skill, will not answer. We shall have to do something vital and urgent to enoble the ideals and aspirations of men and women, and the burden-nay, privilege of this development is placed at the door of our colleges. Are we looking well to our spiritual defenses?

This war, terrible and costly as it is, spells opportunity to our educational institutions for women. As a result of this holocaust a great restlessness is upon our college women. One may say that this restlessness is not felt by the women as by the men. I beg to differ. Our men have, to a great degree, their course mapt out for them. They have either volunteered or are waiting to be called, while our women are facing the disappointment of all inherited and traditional longings and plans: What do they do? Sit down, fold their hands, and cry out aganist an autocracy that makes this condition possible? No! Do they not rather accept the conditions and rise to the occasion by finding an expression of their individuality as efficient contributors to the work of the world? The spirit of high privilege with which our young women are meeting this issue shows their innate worth, intensifies our respect for them, and augers much for the future.

The war has given all students a new attitude toward college life. Their seriousness of purpose we have toucht upon. They are sensing the utter inconsistency of extravagance and easeful living, hence a wave of economy and adopting of mottoes such as "No frills and fripperies." Dances are being given up and simple entertainments, calling for initiative and an expenditure of time and thought, are supplemented.

College Red Cross auxiliaries and chapters with their knitting and surgical-dressing departments have greatly swelled the total output of articles sent across to our armies. Now that the call has come to stop knitting and aid in tilling and harvesting the fruit and grain, college agricultural units will be quite generally organized. This changed and broadened attitude toward work will do much to remove the stigma of smugness and self-sufficiency which has been brought—and perhaps justly-against

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