The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-25
THE UNIVERSITY
OF A STATE
By J. t. Kingsbury. President of the

be Informed that his or her education
as provided by the state is not COM
pleted until a collegiate course in the
university has been completed. 1t is.
fortunate that in our own state the.
University OF Utah is by law a part of
the public school system, and that it
stands at the head of that system.
The, university of state should be an
institution in which all the different
branches of higher education should be
provided for. 1t should embrace coll
leges of letters. arts, sciences, medicine,
law, fine arts, and such technical
courses as civil mining, electrical me-
chanical, hydraulic and and hygenic
engineering, with we'll supplied libra
ries and well equipped laboratori and
machine shops. The professors at the
heads of departments should be special
ISIS, energetic and wide awake; men
with some time for original research
work besides that necessarily consumed
in class work.
In such institutions the most adj
vanced ideas on all educational matters
should be presented, and every profess
SCR and instructor should feel perfectly
free to present theories and facts as he,
through his careful Investigations and
earnest work, evolves and discovers.
The professor should not feel hampered
or restricted in the least, in order that
his greatest efforts might be fully ex-
erted. The university of a state should
be both practical and theoretical and
these two features should go hand in
hand. Besides this, every student, from
the time he enters school until his
course is complete, should have physi-
cal work to do along with his mental
work, thus in every way better fitting
him for life. Where manual labor is
constantly done by the student he be-
comes accustomed to such labor and
can better appreciate its value. He can
better understand the 'Iaboring man
and better comprehend also the intel
lectual side of the work pursued in col
lege; and, indeed he is developed into
a more manly human being.
The state university should be owned
wholly by the state and under it's COM
plete control. No endowment or con-
tribution made to it should in any way
limit the authority exercised over it by
the state; otherwise it cannot be
shaped and directed in accordance with
the ideas of the people of the. state.
Every chair, whether established by
private endowment or by the state,
should be under the absolute control of
the state, for if it is not, unity of pur-
pose may be impossible, and the prog
ress of such an institution may be
greatly fmpeded. Two or more con-
trolling powers of a university, wheth-
er. state or private, may be destructive
of the ends in view, and, therefore, OF
its greatest usefulness. Every endow-
ment or contribution to the state uni
yersity should, therefore, be placed un-
der the complete control of the state.
The state university should be made
as nearly free as is possible, that its
benefits may be realized directly by
many. if not all, of the sons and daugh-
tiers of the state. In the state uniyer-
sity. where all are made to work with
their hands as well as to study and to
think Systematically, there is no doubt
that the greater the number of young
men and young women of the state who
attend such an institution and get the
training, education, and development IT
can give, the greater, the wiser, the
stronger and the more prosperous the
state will become. The power of the
state and the nation can be seid to be
measured by the thought-power its
citizens are able to exercise in various
directions Civilization is measured by
it; for this thought-power it is that
plans. that invents, that calculates, that
predicts the future from the forces ait
work in the past and present, that sees
mans relation to other objects. in ma
ture, that overturns nations, causes adj
vancement in governments, advance
IlGIlI anu Dclt0IIlltllI VI liz fNO.iSi,
delves into. the uncovered forces of ma
ture and prepares the way for their
utilization for the benefit of man.
Commons schools and the high school
are not the places for the development
of thought-power to any great extent;
for in those schools the pupils are not
ready for it; they are not old enough
in many cases and their minds are not
sufficiently matured for work SUCH as
tends to develop especially the thinking
power in man. The memory is brought
into play more in the earlier days OF
life than in the'riper and more fnatured
minds The university work is. what
develops the thinking powers of the
young man or woman, for 1t IS more
advanced work, and the student, by the
time he is ready to enter upon a col
lege course. is prepared to think and to
have the power of thought more rapidly
developed through his previous educa-
ton and on account of his age The
person who has a general education
such as he gets in the common Schooi,
the high school and the university, has
his mind, through systematic training,
made better able to comprehend the
true relations among natures objects,
and usually escapes eccentricities and
fine one-sidedness sometimes met with
in the so-called self-made men who
have had little advantages and nave
acquired what education they are IN
possession of through their own Ell
| forts. without the assistance which can
be given them by trained schooimen
1t is true, the man who. OBTAINS the
! education offered in an ordinary colleee
/ course may know when he gets through
| with the course only a little as COM
pared with what he will know by ex-
Derience acquired in life, but his col
| lege. course will have given him mos'
! excellent foundation by means OF Wnlcf
/ he can accomplish much more IN l1t
| and comprehend much better his rela-
tion to surrounding nature. Wllllam
| Harris United States Commissioners "
I education when asked to give ms rea'
son for a college course, gave the loi
| lowing statement: "a college course
gives a. survey of human. knowledge
presented in the light of the unity O.
| ali knowledge. Secondary education II
high schools and academies does not d'
! This Elementary education in th'
| common schools still less does this. INT
secondary and elementary education
give fragmentary knowledge, as com
pared with the college, and the youns
man of average intellect IS maze pdi
! anced mind as compared with one WI
has only the elementary course OF IN
| strI1ction. The latter is prone to be car
,-ied away by hobbies. Some partlcula
branch gets between him and the SUI
| of ali knowledge. Taking the youth a
the epoch when he begins to inquire 10
a first principle as q grade TO MS pIac
tical decisions, the college gives nan
a compound of human experience l
shows him the verdict of the earlies
and latest great thinkers upon tn
r1aaning of the world. 1t gives him tn
net result of human opinion as to tn
trend sf history. 1t gathers INTO on