, 1902-06-21
DEFENSE OF OXFORD
FEPLY OF W. ALISON PHILLIPS TO
CRITICISM BY PROF.
SLOSSON.
Merton Man Stands Up for the Cecil
Rhodes Scholarship Requests and
Gives Some Ideas Concerning the
Great English University-Plea
for Universal Peace.
Douglas. Wyo.. June 10. 1902.

Douglas. Wyo.. June 10. 1902.
To the Editor OF The Republican.
Will you allow me. as an M. A. OK
on" who also happens to be greatly in
terested in the future of Wyoming. to
make a few remarks on Prof. Slossou's
article on the Rhodes Scholarship, of
which you gave an abstract in the last
number of your valuable paper?
| read the professors comments with
some amusement. but also. | confess.
with some pain. AS a smart CariCature
of certain long past aspects of oxford
life they are entertaining; as tending.
without reason. to lower in the eyes of
the citizens OF his state the value OF
one OF the most generous requests the
world has ever seen, they are. | feel,
hardly worthy of the honorable place
Prof. Slosson occupies in the world of
science. True. oxford has a past: but
it has also a present. In the city there
still stands the old fortress built. nine
hundred years ago. by one of the Con
queror's barons. In m old college of
Merton there is a book still in use in
which the first entry was made in the
year 1874. and the old gate tower yet
stands from which. in the middle ages.
the English undergraduates used from
time to time to bold their Scotch fell
lCw-students t'here were no Ameri-
cans in those iays,) at bay with bows
n row These INT many other
old-time relics are left to lis. the COM
mon inheritance of the human race.
British or American.
But side by side with these are the
monuments of the present and the fu-
ture: magnifcently equipped chemical
sc%rupulously up to date a splendid
museum, and the great Bodleian H.
brary. into which pours day by day the
whole worlds tribute OF books. Will
it be no advantage for a young fellow,
amid such surroundings, to mingle on
equal terms with his peers from all
parts Of the world? Will he learn
nothing? Garry nothing away? d.
Aye. but the professor fears the cost
may be too great. He breads lest the
young American should cease to rev
erence these principles for which his
fathers fought in 1776. I do not think
SO meanly Of American youth. I be-
lieve he can hold his own anywhere:
besides-so do men and manners
change-were the circumstances Of
1916 reversed, | believe that young Ok
ford would be on the side of George
Washington.
Certainly American democratic SEN
we're shocks. There are usually a few
young noblemen there Cthey do not
bite), but the day is long past when
"noblemen" at the university wore a
distinctive dress or enjoyed any spe
cial privileges. For the rest. the Amer
lean scholars, with their income of 81
500 a year, will be well able to hold
their own in undergraduate society;
they will be made very welcome; and
they will have a very good time. One
hardship they will have to nerve them
selves to bear: they will not be allowed
to lie in bed. Chapel-or roll cali for
tender consciences-is at s every
morning.
It seems to me a little conf
cal to have to defend Oxford against
disparaging criticism and also a little
difficult. because the line of defence is
so asst that it is hard to know which
poiIt to occupy. But. after all, for
practical men perhaps the best answer
to the accusation that Oxford is a
back number" is Cecil Rhodes him
self. Rhodes went straight from Ok
ford to a country as new" as Wyo-
before he died he had built up a vast
fortune for himself and a new empire
for his country. His tribute to the uni
~versity in which he was bred was the
foundation OF these scholarships, n
more step, as he hoped. in the direc-
ton of a universal peace. founded upon
mutual good-will-the necessary out,
growth of a better mutual understand
ing.
A~pologizing for troubling you. be-
lieve me. dear sir. your obedient ser
want. w. ALISON PHILLIPS,
Late Scholar of Merton College. and
Senior Scholar of ST. Johns Col
lege. Oxford: Lecturer for the
Delagacy for the Extension of
University Teaching" Etc.