El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-02-25
INTERESTING COMPARISON.
Catalogues of two Great Universities
Compared by an Art Critic.

compared ny oil al SIltlC.
Col. Charles Whiting of the Spring
field, Mass republican. one OF the
ablest writer's on the New England
press, thus reviews in his paper, the
last annual catalogues of America S
two greatest universities, Yale and
Harvard catalogues OF Harvard
and Yale which have just come to hand,
show almost as impress vely as an actual
sight of the buildings and work, what
tremendous institutions these are get
ting to be. luis true that with the dlf-
fusion of educ atiOnal opportunities and
he increase 10 the endowmen MT OF other
institutions, these two are no longer so
conspicuously in the advance of other
American colleges, and even IN
athletics their pre-eminence is by no
means uDqueStiOned alter the foot Dali
season of 1896. But in age. in fame, in
the dist nctlon of their Instructors and
al umni, and in their popular reputation
moth at home and abroad, Yale ard
Harvard are still undoubtedly the two
typical American univers.t es. and il
lustrate at their best the two principal
types on which American universities
have been moulded.
The catalogues show the fundament
differences between the two schools
very clearly. Harvard is rapidly be-
coming huge and complicated uni
ng labyrinth. There Is not so much
difference in size as one would suppose
from hasty comparison of the two
books. These are the actual figures:
Teachers, Harvard 1894, Ya'e 239; stu
dents in Harvard college, l, 1914: IN Yale
college. ], 237; graduate students, Har-
ward 295. Yale 227; scientific school,
Yale (She field SOB, Harvard LAW
rence) 36S; whole number of students
- IA 20. y 4
vinity school, Yale 104, Harvard 81:
law school. Harvard AS, Yale 213: total
lumber of students, Harvard 3.644,
Yale 2495. 1t will be seen that taking
the university as who e, Harvard IS
about half as large again as Yale,
while between the departments of arts
there is only slight difference of 211
students. Thus the two institutions
are more fairly matched for the ath-
letic conte SITS which are nowadays the
chief field for com parsons b-tween
colleges, than might be supposed from
the total number of students, for the
professional schools are excluded.
The greater complexity which the
Harvard system entails is shown by
comparing the number of courses
offered in the two colleges in almost
any line of study. Take English, for
example, as subject of popular as
ward AZ optional courses in English
are offered, and % teachers are men
Toned in connection with them. At
Yale there are but Is courses in Eng
lish, and seven teachers seem to do
the work, so far as the catalogue in
oicateS. This shows in concrete form
the marked tendency of Harvard to-
ward specialization and increasing
richness in the quality and variety of
Electives. To carry out this ideal
successfully requires very large
force of instructors. and the claim has
been made that Harvard has more
teachers in proportion to the number
of students than any other college in
the country.
Yale has chung much more faithfully
20 the old traditions OF the American
college, but she, too, is becoming a
university in the full significance of
the word, and is broadening her work
in many lines. The announcement of
he courses in music is case in point.
Under the recently elected professor,
H. w. Parker, this department has
oeen developed to encouraging pro-
nortious, and there is no lack Of oppor-
unity for instruction in either the
practical or the theoretical phases of
Lne art. Only it is pity that Yale did
not follow her Traditions of unity in in-
-truction as opposed to the extreme
development of electives, to arrange
he students in the arts in the 18th Geo
Jury. By the present arrangement
the musical department seems to be in
danger OF becoming a sort of outside
professional schOul-in short. a musical
conservatory. This is not quite the
pl see which it should hold in great
university.