The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-10-26
President Wilson'S Inaugural.

8reSluent wilson tnen 0el1Yered his In
augural address, in which he said:
President Wilson, in his address, said
the Nation needed efficient and enlightened
men and the universities must take their
part in supplying them. The task of the
universities was two-fold: The production
OF a great body of informed and thought
full men and a small body of trained
scholars and investigators. Though the
university may dispense with the profess
SIGNAL school, the professional schools may
not dipense with the university. The man
aging minds of the world, even the efficient
working minds Of the world, must be
equipped for a mastery whose chief char
acteristic Is adaptability, play. an initia-
tive which transcends the bounds of nero
technical training Technical schools whose
training Is not built up on the foundations
OF a broad and general discipline cannot
impart this. The stuff they work upon
must be prepared for them by the processes
which produce fiber and elasticity, and
their own methods must be shot through
with the impulses of the university.
Throughout long generations, he said,
the thought OF studious men has been
bent upon devising methods by which spe-
e1al aptitudes could be developed, detailed
investigation carried forward, inquiry at
once broadened and deepened to meet the
specific needs of the age, knowledge ex-
tended and made various and yet exact
by the minute and particular researches
of men who devoted all the energies of
their minds to a single task Thus we have
gained immensely in knowledge, but lost
esses OF instruction which fit large body
of young men TO serve their generation with
powers released and fit for great tasks
ought also TO serve as the initial processes
by which scholars and investigators are
made. They ought to be but the first
parts of the method by which the crude
force of unframed men is reduced to the
expert uses of civilization. There may
come day when general study will be no
part of the function of university. when
it shall have been handed over, as some
handing -
airy schools, after the German fashion,
but that day will not be ours. The age
has hurried us, but we must not lose sight
of that fine conception of general train
ing which led our fathers TO build great
colleges. The college is for the minority.
who plan, who conceive who superintend,
who mediate and must see the wide stage
a whole There are men of genius who
play these parts of captaincy and yet have
never been in the classroom of a college,
whose only school has been the world itself
The world Is an excellent school for those
who have vision and self-discipline enough
to use IL. 1t is this sweep of life that we
wish TO bring to the commissioners of
young men by the shorter processes OF the
college. for every man who plays a leading
or conceiving part in any affair must some
how get this schooling. In colleges we
must deal with the spirits of men, not with
their fortunes. In history, philosophy
science and literature the experiences of the
world are summed up, and IL we be not
pedants we extract from them the edifica-
ton and enlightenments OF those who
have gone the long journey of experience
with the race. one way of preparing a
him the skill and special knowledge which
shall make an excellent bread-winning tool
of him. But the college should seek to
make the men whom tit receives something
more than excellent servants of a trade
or skilled practitioners OF a profession
1t should give them elasticity of faculty
and breadth OF vision, so that they shall
have surplus OF mind TO expend. not
upon their profession only, for its liber-
alization and enlargement, but also upon
the broader interests which lie about them
I'm the spheres I'm which they are TO be-
not bread-winners merely. but citizens as
well. and in their own hearts. where they