The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-07
AN OXFORD FOR INDIANA
EDWARD DANIELS SUGGESTS FED
GRATING THE COLLEGES.
Favoritism and Injustice shown by
State i'm Fostering Bloomington
and Purdue schools.

diana on the educational methods now pre-
vailng could hardly have received a more
forcible exhibition than that shown Satur-
day in an address delivered by Edward
Daniels before the Woman's University
Club, at the Propylaeum building, and the
reception it met. The club is composed
wholly of women who are graduates of
some reputable college or university. Its
chief aim is the cultivation Of acquaintance
and sociability among it's members, with
such literary exercises as may be agreed
upon from time to time. Hence, after
listening to the address, they addressed
themselves to the discussion of light re-
freshments and light conversation. About
seventy members were present, out of APP
proximateiy two hundred who are entitled
to membership. 1t was the first meeting
since the organization, and, as might be
expected, there was no little shy Boosting
in womanly way, of cSurse-over the sue
cess of their short attempt to organize such
a club, in contrast with the failure of the
men of the city to do the like after two or
three years, more or less, of effort.
Mr.. Daniels spoke, in part, as follows:
1T seems to me that the English oxford
and the English Cambridge. from an An
,glo-Saxon point of view, represent in the
educational world all that the Roman Cath
olic Church represents in the religious
world. Each of these universities is not
simply an alma mater to its own students,
but for centuries it has been kind mother
to multitudes of men who have been
cheered and nerved by the benign influence
of polite learning. AS model and incentive
their lives are a lesson at this time TO the
schools and educational system of Indiana
Oxford says Goodwin Smith, is a fedora
ton of colleges. The university is the fed
government. college admin
listers its domestic discipline. oxford to-
day has twenty-one colleges; Indiana has
fifteen. IA
FEDERATE THE COLLEGES.
"The Indiana Oxford L have in mind is
the federation of these fifteen colleges and
all the secondary and primary schools in
the English oxford plan into an Indiana
State University. There should be a cor
porate scholastic guild, made up of all the
schools of every grade and order, modelled
after the English oxford, so that every
school, low or high might be part of the
system, whose head and center should not
be teaching college, or school, but SUI
pervising university. This means more
elaborate machinery, but 1t also means CEN
tralization and more efficiency. The Indi-
ana system, as 1T now is, seems to the tax
payer and impartial citizen either amor
phOuS or doubIe-headed, and it will be all
the worse when two or three county super
perlntendentS are put on the State Board
or Education. Our present system is the
yerlest piece of patchwork. While our In
dianapolis and some other schools are
among the very best in the Nation that
does not warrant the conclusion that the
1ndfana system approximates perfection.
Confessedly our rural schools are defective,
and our system is not working as it was
designed to work, under the Constitution,
and as outlined by Professor Mills who
framed the first law under the present Con-
sLitutlon. IL was no part of the system as
the cor 1tutional convention intended it,
ana as ne provided in the school law of
lSo2 that The State should provide for any
tmng more than common school education,
and 1t was nearly two decades before any
tnlng else was undertaken. 1t was conten-
plated that patriotism and public spirit
would would provide for all beyond that,
rFhe. Departure from this plan was at
nrst slight and apparently inconsequential
put III reality fundamental and far-reach-
ing 1t was first in the form of bounties
TO Bloomington and Purdue Universities
private corporations, and the recognition of
IN cir presidents as members of the State
Board of Education. The constitutional
questions involved in this departure. which
apparently are quite serious, can be settled
only by the courts. The Supreme Court has
already decided that the Indiana University
Is not a public corporation; and certainly
PURDUE University is no part of general
ana uniform system of common schools. 1t
IS submitted, therefore, that any bounties
given and any advantages allowed by the
State to the so-called state colleges cannot
be defended upon; the ground that these
institutions are the apex or any other part
OF the States constitutional common school
system 1t Is certain that for many years
the General Assembly in dealing with edu-
cduonal affairs acted upon the assumption
that its only powers in that behalf were the
express powers, and it acted accordingly.
Whether their departure from that course
would be sustained by the courts I do not
DISCUSS here: The point l wish tn make IS
tnat their departure was illogical, erron-
eous and prejudicial to the best interest of
the State, because the changes which they
introduced We're either TOO radical or not
We're pronounced deviations from fixed lines
and not radical enough because they did
not substitute definitely and once for all
new base lines. 1t was a departure from
the New England idea of state support of
common schools only, which the Constitu-
ton so alphabetically provided for without
adopting the Southern idea of state support
of higher education. Either of these sys-
TENS is complete in itself, but they are as
bine.
INDIANA SHOWS FAVORITISM.
FIFTY years ago and earlier, Indiana said
schools: look upon all with equal
favor. l shall do nothing in my conduct of
the common schools . will attach,
single student to 81. particular college
or ALLEVIATE one froLZ any particular
college. l recognize you all as my coadju-
tors in the work of education Then
she began to pay more attention to one
than to the Others, and from time to time
the evidences of favoritism increased, until
at last the other colleges have made bold
TO charge her with inconsistency. Aside
from any question of right or wrong, is this
system happy one? Is it conducive to the
highest efficiency of our schools? The fact
is that a graduate of our nonstate schools,
who is u teacher in our public schools, does
not dare to say that his professional soul
is his own, lest he may lose his standing as
a teacher through some real or fancied
If
ton. But for the lavish expenditure of
public money on these favored schools our
township libraries, which were intended to
be a part of our common school system, and
Kindergarten and normal training schools,
might have been fostered.
Neither Bloomington University nor Pur-
due is in truth a university, and if these two
taken together, and the Terre Haute Nor
NAL be added. the combined three win not
make university. Indiana has no univer-
sity in the field, and the people do not seem
TO be worrying over the fact. They are
proud of their common schools. They have
been content with the Indiana colleges,
willing to let them take care of them
selves
About the time Indiana deliberately de-
termined to devote its public funds wholly
to system of common schools, Michigan
began to build her extravagant State Uni
versity. During the two decades in which
we were building the best common school
system in America, that institution was
drawing upon our State for students in col
legiate and professional education, as were
Eastern colleges and universities. And now
comes the Chicago University, on the very
borders of our State, and invites patronage
from Indiana So heavily endowed is it
that the estimated budget for the year be-