New-York tribune., 1901-01-26

state Of New-York. BY Sidney Sherwood. Pub
Printing ffiit 6ffice 49,
This is a valuable addition to the excellent
series Of ''Contri' utions to American Educa-
tionaI History" edited by Professor Herbert g.
Adams and published by the United states
Bureau of Education. AS an educational lnstl-
tuition the University of the State of New ork
is unique, and it is interesting to tn student
both from the historical and from the admins
trative point of view. , The consideration of it.
also involves the discussion of practically the
entire system of education in the State above
the primary. for the University is virtually the
aggregate of the teaching institutions OF second
ary and higher grade 1t is, in effect, "a State
bureau of education All these aspects of the
matter are fully treated in Professor Sherwood's
volume. He himself contributes an admirable
monograph on the University as an organiZa-
tion which treats Of its history its functions.
its distinctive features its relation to the State
and its work. while other writers furnish chap
ters on the various institutions of which it is
composed. OF the latter, that Columbia Uni
Nersity by Mr.. Frank R. Hathaway. and that
on Cornell University. by Professor Ernest w.
HufTcut, are particularly noteworthy. AS a
whole the volume is the best account that has
been written on this part Of the educational
machinery Of the Empire State.
An interesting section Of Professor Sherwoods
introduction deals with the ERA of educational
revolution" marked by the act Of 1877, which
established the system of education in New
York The old college" he says, had been
in its form and in its activity English edu-
cational corporation, serving private interests.
controlled by private parties, distinctly under
ecclesiastical influence, looking to the State only
as a means of obtaining occasional pecuniary
aid or extension Of privilege, with no conscious
ness of Identification with the political life Of the
State or Of duties toward the State" BY the
legislation Of 17S4'S7-in which the idea Of the
university took definite shape-all this was
changed.
Not only in the special practical matters had
the new idea Of popular political rights ard
duties in education become strong and aggres-
sve, but an idea had impressed itself upon the
Imagination of the people. OF a great educauonal
system, coeXtensive with the political organl-
Zation of the State, energiZed and controlled by
the State, be used for the good of the State
And this idea had taken form In an organlZa-
tion, which, while il nOminally private cor
poration, had yet no private interest TO serve
which was so constituted that Its controlling
members must always be among the foremost
men in the State, and whose franchises. i'm
munites, and privileges" were simply the most
! education and these il was Obliged to perform
by being made accountable TO the Legislature
which created II.
In tracing the origin of this revolutionary con-
ception Professor Sherwood points out that the
system thus founded differs radically from that
which governed the English universities. There
are resemblances between the two in the corpo-
rate form and in many details Of government
but the differences are radical. THE adapta-
ton of the machinery TO its un-English uses
the new motive power and directive energy and
above ALL the idea of a symmetrical State sys-
tenn, free from ecclesiastical iniuence-these
were all foreign to the English character" The
connection with French ideas and methods IS
he thinks, much closer. France, he says, was
the nursery Of the educational revolution" in
the United States in which the founding of the
University was the most conspicuous event.