New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-06-18
ADCLBERT COLLEGE ALUMNI.

ADDRESS BY W. I. CHAMBERLAIN on THE COLLEGE
COURSE NEEDED IN THIS DAY AND LAND
CLEVELAND, june 1.-THE annual address before
the Alumni of Adelbert College of the Western Reserve
University was delivered to-day by the Hon. w. l.
Chamberlain, member Of the class of 1889 taking
for his theme, The College Course Demanded by Our
Country and Our Age" and urging that instruction
should be more thorough and practical in physical
science shorter and logical in the studies OF the
odirne curriculum and more thorough and practical in
social and political science. and ethical science
IAN through our college course' said the speaker
1--WE dug Greek roots, instead Of living plants or fossils
in the rocks. We watched the quarrels of the gods
over the growth of ancient States and not the struggles
now of freedom and the throes of the great State Of
which we all are vital parts We studied augments
and ncremcnts and the growth of language but not
the geologic growth Of this great globe on which we
dwell or of the plants and animals and human beings
that dwell upon it. We learning how to think,
not what to think and know and do The points OF
contact for the student with the actual and practical
in the great OngOing outside world seemed to be made
ns few AS possible Nv first point them is that the age
demands that the in regular colleges should
be more full, thorough and practical in physical
science. The should be more chronological IN
its methods, democratic in its whole spirit ana
tendency. The points of contact between the student
and the actual in after life should be made as many
not as few, possible. -
" oar country and orr age demand that we lOp Off
nonessentias and make ratl nal the instruction
in the studies of the old curriculum. We must not
sacrifice the valuable; cannot retain all Hence
we must shorten the old curriculum TO admit new and
necessary studies. Shall we throw out the classics
oItnoethGr az some urge It seems to the benefits
of classical study too many, too great aud too well
approved to Justify this. But all that Is Of real
necessity in the classics, and in mathematics too can
be acquired well now, and IN half the tune, ny
oppne oil non-e.-cntis. 1t isn't necessary to dump
the entire grammar, lexicon and classca dictionary
upon each individual line OF Homer Minute dissection
and microscopic examination OF the Greek text De,
cvc to be destructive % the life Of real linguistic and
cspcciay literary scholarship. Tho peach plucked
ripe from the bough is luscious food bat analyzed by
The chemist into it, elements or frozen IN the ice chest
aud sliced into my sections for the slide Of the micro
scope it q, neither food nor reresGment. speak as
lifelong lover of the Greek language amt literature
and fun believer IN IT. value IN the curriculum ahG
speak thus because believe that unless we strip the
quinbng non-cseutias from the classics the spirit OF
the age viii strip the classics from the college course
MY third point Is that our country ana our own age
demand better instruction IN social and political
science This implies careful. phllosopblc study OF
history 20 learn customs, beliefs a,hieyomeuts facts
with their causes. results and lessons studied IN any
other way history is utter, barren. II il notorious
that the college and me practical men of business
differ wholly many points The reason seem, to be
tat the college men have built up speculative prlori
systems while the of affairs have studied facts in
their relations For example. the college men maintain
that free trade is the only pbi0SOphc basis OF nerna
tioEal commerce The practical business men point To
the apparent fact that only under restrictive tariff
has our country prospercd. They assert that the
conditions of labor aud the status of the labOTer
totally different aud vastly higher in republic than
in the missionaries and monachies of the Old World
that we haze right and the same right to exclude
the products of European tabor from the East and the
Asatic abOrer from the West if they threaten free
institutions that this country large enough 10 make
II score OF Old-WOrld naOnalities, and that among
our many States and varied soils and climates have
all the benefits of free trade far competition goes
without the evils that must result from bringing labor
from low social and civil plane into competition with
that on a high plane Thus TO the practical men the
bOOlinen TO leave out important facts and fac
tors. Social and sanitary science should be taught and
studied in the way, and Is part of political
science And the Importance of political science Is ap
parent when notice thar such books those Of
an cconOmist-One who minges striking truth with
most pcrnicous error-that such writings have pro
toundly swayed the middle and even the upper and
lower classes on both sides of the Atlantic.
" think country aud our age demand better
study of ethical science III our colleges. The newer
scientific and tcchuolo neal schools most III fault
here In their revolt against schOastci,m they have
gone 10 the other extreme The fact that thi, is
moral world III its sanctions and environments; that
there is tremendous tide and trend toward righteous
ness that sensual ndulgcnces, political corruption,
contempt for moral Obligation and oppression of the
poor ali tend to National destruction that the rich
cannot afford to Cypress the poor that in the body
polite, too, when one member suffers all the mem
bcFs suffer with il and the final fact that the only
rational hypothesis thus far found to account Tor these
and such Ike facts and phenomena well n for the
very existence of the physical universe /, The theory
that there IL personal God eternal. just all wise all
powerful bcnctccnt; q Power not ourselves that
makes for righteousness these are facts that should
be impressed upon every students mind Ia this Re-
public and this age believe every student that gTatu-
ates from higher Institutions of learning should
have his feet planted this rock the scientific basis
of moral obligation, the strong scientific probability of
Cod