The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-26

PRECEDENT SCHURMANhS MISTAKE.
President Schurman, Of Cornell univer-
sity, is reported to have said: cit is IN
! doubtedly true that in America there has
been no first-class creative production of
the human mind We are living on Eu-
rope for the best there is in poetry, art.
literature and science" Further on in
the reported interview. he says: 81 be-
lieve the hope of the country is in the
colleges and universities" This last re-
mark indicated the viewpoint of Mr..
Schurman. He is judging the intellectual
| achievements of America by the thumb
nail rule of the university professor Mr.
Schurman and majority of those whose
lives are spent within the walls of
| university are saturated with the impor-
lance of the intellectual work in which
| they are engaged A few break their
shells and get a peep of the great intel
lectual work that is being accomplished
outside of the stereotyped forms of litera-
ture. poetry, art and science, but the
majority, of which Mr.. Schurman seems
to be one fail to look beyond the con-
fines of the college or university campus.
The mistake is a common one 1t is
common to all men who ride a hobby
The world and its works are viewed from
that hobby The creative productions Of
the human mind are not all gathered
and hefyu he f1uO
of books. The greatest creative produc-
tions of the human mind-those of the
imagination-have not yet found express
sion in literature, poetry or art, but are
expressed in the mighty systems of
transportation that bind sea to sea and
continent to continent; in the marvels of
invention, in the gigantic manufacturing
plants that have made this nation
dustrial combinations that are about to
give into the hands of the American peo-
pie the key to the treasure box of the
world, Poetry, literature and art are but
feeble echo of the creative power of the
American mind. The best of Europe in
those lines cannot compare with the
great epics and ron1ances that are be-
ing produced and enacted on this Ameri-
can stage, by American minds.
The statement that the hope of the
country is in colleges and universities is
puerile in the extreme. 4 1t sounds more
like the self-laudatory exclamation of
ri
Election of a man of culture and supposed
wisdom.
The trouble with Mr.. Schurman is that
the standard of human effort has
changed and he does not appreciate the
fact. One of the surest evidences of the
superior intellectual greatness of the
American people is the fact that they are
rot producing anything startling in the
line of literature, fiction or art. They
are engaged in producing grander things.
They are making history and literature
rather than writing it, They are furnish
ing raw material for the poets, the
novelists and the historians of the future.
AS the court which decides the law is
greater than the clerk who records its
decisions, so the intellectual creations of
American genius are greater than that
which is wont to record it's deeds.
Mr. Schurman spoke for himself and
his class, but ne is rot capable of TAX
ing a comprehensive view of the intel
lectual creations of the world. BY this
we do not wish to belittle his mental
power; but from inis position his mental
horizon is circuuscribed-he sees but
one small portion OF the intellectual
world No man IS great enough to see
it all. The college and the university
conserve the worlds traditions, but the
men of action make the worlds history.