The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-11-28
HIGHER EDUCATION.

The recent gift of Mrs. Alexander of New
York NEE Harriet Croker Of this city TO
Princeton University, of building for COM
meneement exercises and various assem-
blages common TO university lie, is the
latest indication of purpose on the part Of
some of our rich people to see to 1t that our
institutions of learning shall not fail in their
object through want of means. Not many
years ago there were grave fears that they
might do so. In the States west OF the
Mississippi, the reservation Of the sixteenth
and thirty-siXth sections for school purposes
afforded ample means for primary educa-
ton; but the low price commanded by the
land left scant margin for the purposes OF
university development. In the Eastern
States, it has been Tor many years customary
for rich men to donate large sums OF money
or properties 10 universities; thus Harvard,
which was in actual straits some years ago,
has now 100000 invested, Yale and
Princeton have each over Sc, COO Cornell
receives income from investments amount
ing to over SS,000,o00, and the wealth OF
Columbia exceeds even that large figure.
Our own university at Berkeley, though not
so wealthy as these Institutions, is still able
to command the services of able professors,
and has an admirable college edifce with
suitable grounds; but it could use more
money than it has with advantage to the
State and to the cause OF education.
Our plan in this country is different from
the one which Europeans follow. There
the tendency is to concentrate Institutions
OF higher education; here, our idea is to
dispense them. In Great Britain and Ire
land there are seven great universities: Ok
ford, Cambridge, London, Edinburgh, Glas-
cow, Aberdeen and Dublin. In France
almost every leading city las college; but
the University of France at Paris, which
counts some SC00 students on its rolls, is
practically tile one focus of higher eduea-
ton. So in Germany, there are universities
of note at Gottingen. Bonn, ffeiburg,
Leipsic, and elsewhere; but parents who
propose to give their sons the highest posi-
Bile education send them to Berlin, where
there are eco students enrolled. As the
best-educated Englishmen of the day grad
uate at Oxford, so the Frenchman seeking
the same advantages goes to Paris, and the
German goes to Berlin.
We have in this country Sol Institutions
called indifferently colleges and universities.
OF these the great bulk are merely good
schools, where little or no pretense is made
to impart higher education. Only half a
dozen or so can compare as institutions of
learning with the great universities OF
Europe. A very fair education can be got at
Berkeley; but young man who proposes to
probe 10 the bottom branch Of letters or
science, and to add something to the sum of
common knowledge. generally feels it neeeS-
sary to complete his training on the other
side of the mountains. Under Charles Eliot,
Harvard has so enlarged lis sphere that it is
unsurpassed anywhere, and ale and
Columbia are not far behind. Their means
can command the very highest ability in the
educational line, and they are conducted in
a large. enlightened spirit. which justifes
the hope that they will continue to turn out
as they are now doing, young men who will
be really scholars and leaders OF human
thought.
1t is not uncomm on among those who have
not enjoyed the advantage of university
training TO deride it as an accomplishment
only fit for dudes. Persons who hold those
views must be classed with those who run to
the other extreme, and maintain that no
man is Fl t for tie battle of life unless he has
graduated at a university. In Toint of fact,
the progress which this country has made
las been largely due to the enlightened
counses Of tn ose who laid the foundations
of their knowledge at university; but it is
also true that some of our greatest men
never went to college at all. There is room
in this country for both classes. Lincoln
was none the less pre-emnent among men
because he had received no schooling. But
the weight which Massachusetts has always
commanded in public affairs has been large
ly due to the fact that the leaders of thought
in the grand old commonwealth were gradu-
ates of Harvard.