The weekly examiner., 1901-07-06
EDUCATION FOR ALL.
National Capital City of Colleges
 and Universities.
Tftans of Every Age Were Men of Humble Parentage Who Secured Their Education by AppIi-
 cation and Self-Denial.
Especial Washington Letter.l

TT HE close of the college year is
 called "commencement," be-
 cause the young people who are given degrees are supposed to have completed educations, and be ready in every sense for the ''com- mencement" of their careers in con- tact with the world.
 The national capital is becoming more and more an educational cen ter. Colleges have been here from the early days of the past century, and now we have prosperous univer- sites. There are many busy people who do not understand the differ ence between a college and univer- sity, but we1l-informed people know that each university is composed of number of colleges. The college bears the same relation to a univer- sity that king bears to an emperor. An empire comprises kingdoms, and 8 university comprises colleges.
 It is we'll known that George Wash ington advocated the esta bHshment of a national university in the na- tional capital; and his desire is grad ually being developed. But the na-. tional university is yet only in em- bryo. It will not be perfected until the congress definitely acts upon the proposition which number of good men have been projecting for more than quarter of a century, out of their own individual means.
 The secretary of agriculture says that the ideal national university would be a term of service in the executive departments for young men who have been graduated from secular or religious colleges and uni versailles; term of service in which they would learn all about the fed era1 government, as government clerks, with opportunities for attend ing the congressional debates, the use of the congressional library and contact with the statesmen from all of the states.
 The idea of the secretary, as that poor young men may thus have opportunity to earn their bread and butter by working in the government departments, while they also earn their educations by devoting their extra time in taking advantage of their environments. To the writer this seems impracticable, because a national university of that character could furnish no diploma, no insignia to demonstrate the course of study. It would be a good thing for the poor young men who constitute the majority of students, and would greatly enhance their worth to them selves, to the republic and to the world; but it would be difficult to systematize such 8 comprehensive course of studies.
 In this city, as in all educational centers, it is safe to say that the number of students who support themselves in part, or in fact wholly. is constantly increasing. Although not possessed of exact statistics as to the number of men who support themselves wholly or in part when going through college, it is known to be much larger than the outsider who gets only superficial view ot matters would believe.
 Not only this, but the percentage of poor young men increases as well as does the number. Perhaps our colleges have a certain extent more of the poor young ~men than other colleges. Of course, there is a large number of very wealthy ones, more of them in every entering class, but that is accounted for merely by the