New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-06-22
COLLEGES IN TOXIN AND COUNTRY.

The .July number of The Chautauquan" con-
tainS a timely symposium on the suDJect Oh
college location, contributed by several eminent
educators. Professor Julius II. Seelye, of Am
herst President Rogers, of Northwestern Pres
ident Angel. of Ann Arbor, and Professor ii. H..
Bovesen. of Columbia, agree that the advan-
taoes Of a rural site are incontestable Presl-
dent w. r. Harper, of the new University OF
Chicago. and Professor Herbert Is. Adams OF
Johns Hopkins, form dissenting but vigorous
minority. and their trenchant exposition OF the
superior merits of an urban environment is as
impressive as it is characteristic.
The point of such discussion naturally de-
nends on clear separation of the terms col
leae, and university" The design Of the
new Leland Stanford, Junior, University at Palo
Alto comprehends elementary as well as adj
yanced instruction, and places agriculture and
practical mechanics side by side with the hui
manities. Opportunities are also offered for
academic investigation and the enlargement OF
learning. so that the institution will combine
the functions of both college and university In
the East Professor Eliot aspires to raise llar-
ward from its time honored position of an inter-
mediate seminary of discipline and culture.
DroSl0CDI
procivitieS is also paving the way for an in
PRODUCTION of university aims and methods but
he does so by keeping the college work care
fully separate and with its true relation well in
mind. The tendency, we believe. is toward a
general recognition of a similar distinction All
the contributors agree that genuine university
ends are best achieved amid the stimulating
surroundings of great city. Large resources
in the way Of museums Libraries and laboratories
are indispensable to original research, and with
out facilities Of access to such working material
a true institution of the higher learning would
be imperfectly endowed.
As to colleges for the instruction of young
men. with which our concern is more intimate,
there is much to be said in favor of rustic Sc
ouestration According to Professor Seelye. Am
herst statistics show that the average health OF
students having the freedom of the fields and
woods is likely to increase with each year of
college life. 1t is trte argument that in
centives to vice are necessarily restricted amid
the Arcadian shades of country college, that
there are fewer distractions for pupils and pro-
fessors, that the scholastic atmosphere is not
vitiated by contamination with the hurry -burly
| of city life, and that living is cheaper. 1t is
observed that the University of Michigan, the
largest in the United States, is in a town of
| 10 900 people, while Princeton, Cornell, North
western and Oberln are all in small country
places Even Yale and Harvard are in COM
paratvely unimportant cities. Bonn Got
tingen. Jena Oxford and Cambridge are all
similarly situated in this respect and the varia-
ton in their spirit and achievements does not
| injure the illustration
| Statistical precedents are, however, mislead-
ing, As the intrepid minority shoN. DR.. Harper
who assuredly speaks with knowledge drawn
from abundant observation, bluntly asserts that
while city temptations are perhaps more numer-
Gus, " in the country town the quality and power
of the seduction TO vice are greater and the
results more destructive 1t is easy to see how
this may be the case. President Angel adj
vances the curious dogma that a city constt-
uency involves narrowness and provincialism.
! Dr. Adams's contention that on the contrary.