Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-15
Need of Such an Institution of
!" Learning.
DEVOTED 20 HIGHER EDUCATION
Intended Only for Advanced Stu
dents.
VIEWS OF ASHINGTON

pose will be enacted before the close Of the
present Congress
In speaking to a Star reporter of the pros
poets Of the university, Senator Kyle of
South Dakota said today:
The sentiment in favor of the university
is constantly growing, and I am sure a bill
TO establish it will be passed. 1t is meas
ure upon which all parties will unite
Senator Kyle, as chairman of the COM
mittee to establish the University of the
United States, took very active interest
in 1t, and his advocacy of the measure will
not be lessened from the fact that Senator
Wellington has been made chairman of that
committee. which position will place him in
charge OF the ILL on the floor of the Senate
MIR. Kyle is new chairman Of the Senate
commi tee on education and labor, which
place he took in exchange for the chair
manshfp of the committee to establish the
University of the United States.
Necessity for the Institution.
During the last Congress an elaborate
report was made by Mr.. Kyle from his
committee regarding the necessity for the
establishment OF this great institution of
learning. That report contains the basis
of the arguments that will be used In favor
of tine project
TO those giving a thought to the I'M
Of the nineteenth century," the report says,
there would seem to be no question as to
the iced Of such institution in the
United States as Is contemplated in this
DILL The spirit of the age calls for deeper
penetration into the sciences and arts and
demands better equipped men. Why should
not the United States, the cradle of liberty
ard the leader of enlightened Christendom,
contribute her share to the advancement Of
mankind? Why should we borrow modern
educational methods from Europe, and pat
ronize foreign institutions? Why should
we not build here an Institution which
would stir the pride and patriotism of
American students, and furnish facilities
unequaled IN the world for the extension
of knowledge?
WnShfngton's Conception.
The more we know of Washington the
broader appears to have been his concep-
ton OF a great nation and great institu-
lions Besides giving a wise Constitu-
ton and laws, he planned beautiful city,
with wide streets and avenues, with parks
and boulevards. rivaling the finest cities of
Europe. He saw here the seat of govern
ment of mighty nation, equipped with DO
ht1cal and scientific departments, and to
learning. he conceived the proposed na-
tional university He talked and wrote
about 1t for years, and at his death be-
queatheu $25,O00 as a first endowment plac-
g.
tering care Of Congress. Opponents have
sought to belittle Washington's idea of
university contendng that he thought of
nothing but an institution for political sci
ence, or at most but an ordinary under
graduate college. His thoughts were higher
than this. His published words are clear
and unmistakable. Harvard College, found
ca almost hundred years before he was
century, and other colleges, south and
north. were doing splendid work when this
university was proposed
washington spoke of them as semina-
RES or learning, and to this end endowed the
University of Virginia. But in discussing
the question of national university lie
stated In the address to Congress, 1870, in
letter to the Commissioners of the Dis
trict of Columbia, 1891, and in his letters
to Thomas Jefferson, Gov. Brooke and
Alexander Hamilton, that his proposed uni
versity should be for the higher branches
of learning, that the youth of all parts of
the United States might receive the polish
or crudftion in the arts, sciences and bellies
lettres,' and should be open for those who
had already passed beyond the seminary
training His fellow statesmen. who had
labored side by side with him in the forma-
ton of the Constitution, were possessed of
the same ideas. Presidents John Adams
and Thomas Jefferson and others united
with such distinguished scholars as DR..
Benjamin Rush in declaring for a federal
university, into which the youth of the
United States shall be received after they
degrees in their respective states At no
time was it contemplated to establish a
rival of the undergraduate colleges. The
vision Of these men is worthy the most ad-
vanced thinkers of today.
For Advanced Students.
There can be no need for an undergradu-
ate university at Washington Supported al
national expense. Sectarian colleges have
already covered this field. This bill con-
templates an institution for men, not for
boys subject to class room drill and con-
troll; for men seeking wide fields for scien-
tific and philosophic research and with the
worlds best equipments at hand: AN in
stitution broader in its scope, more COM
plete In Its organization, more philosophic
and practical in Its internal regulations,
with the highest possible educational stand
ards and aims an institution above and be-
yond the best of the colleges with their
loosely attached professional schools and
on Its own higher plane existing for the
extension and diffusion of all branches of
useful knowledge; an Institution where the
love of knowledge shall be fostered
and developed; where advanced students.
devoted to any branch of knowledge,
whether science, language literature or
philosophy, or to any of the combinations
of these constituting the numerous profess
sional courses of instruction. shall inter-
mingle and enjoy friendly intercourse as
peers of the same realm; where the pro-
fessors. chosen from among the ablest and
best scholars of the world, with absolute
freedom of conscience and of speech shall
be not teachers of the known merely. but
also earnest searchers after the unknown.
and capable, by their genius, enthusiasm
and moral power, of infusing their own
lofty ambition into the minds of all who
wait upon their instruction: a university
not barely complying with the demands Of
the age, but oBe that shall create. deyeIop
and satisfy new demands and aspirations.
that shall have power to fashion and mold
the age unto nits own ideal, and which
through every change and every real ad-
vance of the syorid shall still be at the
front. driving dbachE from their Businesses
the powers of darkness, opening up new
continents Of truthIto the grand army Of
progress, SO leading the nation forward and
helping to elevate the whole human race
I'VE have no such institution in the
United States or on khe western hemisphere
today. Between 21Q0 and 5000 American
students are abroad each year for posf-
graduate work in European universities;
confession that American institutions do
not fully equip men for special lines of
work. 1t is understood that many prom
inent American educators, representing our
best universities, are at the present time
petitionirg the universities Of France to
open their doors to American students for
snacsal unrk-a c0nfes siOu tbot Es,,ro1aon