The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-05

friends ask for them or for faVors
 expected later or to call popular att
 tention to the waning power of the
 college I have had the honor to be
 for several years at the head of a
 theological college which from its
 foundation has had the chartered right
 to distribute diplomas of doctor of di-
 vinity as freely as 1t pleased and which,
 sensitive at the abuse of such power,
 has never used It's privilege. Its grad
 uates, many of them scholars and
 worthy pastors, are not dubbed D. D.,
 but they are no less scholarly or honor able or worthy.
 The title university, has historic as- sociations and suggests noble ideas; it should therefore, be redeemed by the
 recognizing of those institutions only as universities that are worthy of the
 name. And 1t Is being redeemed. | Within the last twenty-five years a few
 of the greatest colleges like Harvard
 Yale and Columbia and a very few
 newly founded institutions like Johns
 Hopkins have begun to take a univer-
 sity position and are being recognized as moving towards the characteristic
 American university. This movement
 has come about in a natural and there
 fore healthy way.
 | The higher education of large num-
 bers of our people, the increase of | wealth, the influence of Europe and her universities have reused in this coun- | try the spirit of scholarship, have stim-
 ulated the enthusiasm for research, developed scientific method and de- manded an American literature of high standard.
 To this has been added the demand of the various professions for more thorough preparation and mature schol- arship.
 Thus to the call of scholars and leaders in the profession, men of wealth have responded, foundations have been created for the higher branches of study and the young men of the country have moved towards the colleges which have demanded the highest culture.
 Besides these influences the power of centrallzation which exists in other lines has been at work in the higher education.
 The newer methods call for large lib- raries, expensive laboratories and such large foundations as cannot be multi piled without great waste.
 Moreover, as in the industries, con- centration creates power and developes skill; so a great body of scholars, col lected together with a common pur- pose, create an atmosphere which of itself is invigorating and which enables each man to do better work than in- comparative isolation.
 How natural, therefore, was it for a l few of the colleges which in history, | traditions, prestige and central locality | had the opportunity to develop in the | lines of a university system, One or two exceptional new institutions have | started as full-fedged universities. Il cannot but think, however, that the | large college growing into university life Is the more natural and American | method.
 Now, think that we are in position | to distinguish between the American college and the, American university.
 The college is a strongly centralized | institution for the education of young men who are just breaking from boy hood into manhood where a limited curriculum a careful disciplinary sys- tenn and strong personal influence of the officers upon the students lead them |. naturally and without great risks and the violent shocks of too sudden liberty of conduct and thought into fuller lib- erty and greater sense of responsi- bility
 Without attempting to do university work, with only enough original and deep scholarship to sustain an honora- ble tone, the college Is simply a prep S,,. f,,o | men how to work and looking forward to one, two or three years of university life
 This suggests that the college adjusts its work to young men from, say fifteen to twenty years of age; it may suggest a slight lowering of the present stand ard; very good Surely even then college is most dignihed. There are few more dignified positions in England than the head mastership of Eton, Rug-j by or Harrow, Why is not the teacher who is developing the early and most critical movements of young mans though and character doing as dignified a work as the teacher who four years later is leading that same young man in the investigation of some abstruse study? May it not be, if nobly conceived, 8 more dignified and useful work?
 So far from the great universities l down upon and patropizing the smaller colleges, the colleges can claim B unique dignity and history. With all our smiles at the hundreds of small col- Ieges, we are bound to recognize the fact that they have done untold work [ for the country and for letters.
 Without the graduates of the small from New England, through Ohio, where would this country have been in her legislation, law and com neree during the period of the War and 
 Why, then, should the presidents of small colleges be urging upon the coun- ny the great advantages of the small colleges in personal influence, individual : interest and closer social life, and at he same time be straining every nerve o make those colleges larger; raising to attract students, drum ming them up from the preparatory