The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-02-24

THE CATHOLIC WORLD.
= NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST
CATHOLIC COLLEGES.

VA 1AS14S IO4LLAOGo.
What looks like a deliberate attempt
to cast a slur upon Catholic colleges
has been laid at the door of President
Eliot of Harvard That gentleman has
declared that he has not been actuated
. by any motives of sectarianism, but it
must be admitted that the facts in the
, case seem to indicate that prejudice
/ has had not a little to Go with the
matter.
1t appears the Harvard Law School
some time ago decided to admit as can
dldates for a degree only college gradu
ates. Strange to say. none of the Cath
I Ole colleges Of this country were con-
shdered fit to be put on the list of insti-
/ tutlons whose graduates We're free to
enter the Harvard Law School without
! passing a special examination. This
rule is a hardship to quite a number of
/ Catholic young men who have com
pleted their studies in Catholic colleges
/ and desire to attend the Harvard Law
School. The Jesuit Fathers, who con-
duct the leading Catholic colleges of
the country. sought the reasons for
this action against their educational in
stitutionS. President Eliot, however,
( has not as yet enlightened them. He
has. however written an article for the
Atlantic Monthly, in which he airily
utNldItS lIldl the JGSullS are d lew CEN
/ turtles behind the times in their educa-
tional work. 1t is not our purpose here
to pay attention to that article. An
able Jesuit. Father Brosnahan, has. in
brochure recently issued, demon
strated that President Eliot is sadly ig-
nOrant of the work of the JeSuits as
educators
Graduates Of Boston College, one of
the best of the Jesuit colleges in this
wv nnT n ,i,l
secure a reason for the unjust diScrim-
ination of President Eliot in excluding
their college from the list of privileged
colleges published by the Harvard Law
School. Last July, at a meeting of the
Boston College Alumni Association. a
committee of five was appointed to in
Vestigate the merits of the question,
and to urge upon the president of Bos-
ton College the necessity of taking i'm
mediate measures to secure. if possible,
reversal of the decision of the Har-
ward authorities. detailed account
Of the work done by this committee,
together with a report of the action
taken by Father Mullan, president of
Boston College, was read by the chair
man, DR.. Francis ]. Barnes of Cam
bridge, at a meeting of the Alumni
last week in Boston. After having
presented this report. DR.. Barnes said:
After a thorough investigation of
the whole question, it is perfectly evil
dent that Boston College is excluded
from the privileged list of the Harvard
Law School for reasons which Presi-
dent Eliot is either afraid or ashamed
to divulge. The Dean of the Law
School stated that our graduates were
excluded because a committee, known
as the committee on admission from
other colleges, had rated Boston Col
lege as an inferior institution. The
chairman of that committee fatty de-
MED, in my presence, that his commit |
tee had ever rated or graded colleges
from which students applied for adj !
mission to Harvard. Each case he !
said. is treated on its own merit And !
he refused to discuss the Law School |
list because his committee was not only !
not responsible for it, but absolutely |
opposed to it. These facts were laid |
before President Eliot. and he admit !
ted that this committee did not grade !
but when asked to give the !
true reasons for excluding Boston Col !
lege he artfully lodged the question. (
and he has continued to dodge the /
question every time it has been put to .
him. This lodging ill-becomes a man
who is at the head Of the largest uni
versity in this country, and whose cru
ditiOn extends even to the educational |
of the Koran.
Now. if we examine this list of over
one hundred privileged institutions we
find that it includes colleges of very
high grade and colleges of very low
grade. besides establishments which
cannot properly lay claim to the title
Of college in any modern acceptation of
the term. so that evidently the grade of
an educational institution is not al
ways of prime importance in the esti-
nation of those gentlemen who
are charged with the RESPONSE
oility of preparing the Law
School List. Nor is any great OBJ
lection raised against an institution
because it has not adopted President
Eliot's pet scheme of unlimited elective
SIN. for we find on that list colleges
which have stubbornly resisted electiv-
SIN as advocated by Harvards great
president We do find, however that !
III save one or two of these institutions
N the Law School list have one com
non misunderstanding are non-Cath-
,lic.
THE doors of the Harvard Law !
school are generously thrown open to
III students; but in order to enter they
must present degrees from nom Catholic
Institutions. We are gathered here to-
light, gentlemen, as graduates of Bos-
on College, not to discuss the title of
ther institutions to a place on the LIST
f the Harvard Law School, but to pro-
est against the unjust, unreasonable
discrimination of the Harvard authori-
les. Today our graduates are shut out
rom that school, without the ordinary
privilege of an examination, simply he
ause President Eliot wills it so. He
efuses to give reason for his action.
nd he denies us the right of proving
ur claim. And yet this man pretendS
D stand out for tolerance and LIBERAL
y. If he does not intend to discrimi I
ate against us, why does he not re-
uire all candidates for admission to
ne Law School TO stand the tesy of an