The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-10-26

Princeton, N. j., Oct. 25.-Ex-P President
Cleveland delivered the principal address
today at the Inauguration of Woodrow
| Wilson as president of Princeton Uni
| versty.
He suggested the great Importance and
STABILITY of influencing in every pos
sible way the plain people of our land
in favor of higher education. 1T is
| largely from the ranks that recruits are
to be enlisted for studentship in our uni
| versities and colleges he said, ''and
| surely neither attenuated refinement in
| educated circles nor a self-satisfied aris-
| tocracy among educated men, should mis-
interpret to the unlearned the mission of
these institutions. Manifestly they can
not and even II they could, they should
not live for themselves, nor for their pro-
fessors and teachers, nor for their
graduates nor yet for the educated who
ever land wherever they may be. On
the contrary, 1t should never be forgotten
| that our colleges and universities cannot,
| without loss of their most useful oppor-
tunities, disregard any means of COM
mending the substantial advantages they
are able to offer TO those less fortunate
in educational condition. This concep-
ton of class interest and reciprocal
benefit which should exist between the
agencies of higher education and the UNI
learned masses of our people Is not new
at Princeton University.
The New idea Of Education.
There seems to be an inclination
| abroad to adjust the methods of uni
| versity and college instruction to the ap-
| parent needs of advanced conditions and
| new exigencies We hear much said In
favor of but slight restriction upon the
election by students of the branches of
| study they will pursue: 1t Is often assert
ed that the old course Of college study
is too long. and that students are thus
| belated in their entrance upon life's acti-
vities, and considerable discussion pre-
walls in university and college circles con-
corning the extent and quality of in
struction that should be afforded in pre-
paratory schools.
"Princeton's conservatism is one of her
chief virtues, but II Is not of the stub
born sort that refuses consideration of
changes which promise through their in
herent and independent merit better edu-
cational results and better prospects in
life for those entrusted to her care. 1t
should not however, be expected that she
will so far disregard the law of her origin
and become so unmndful of her revered
traditions and achievements as to depart
from her habitual course for the sake of
acting in sympathy with importunate
reslessness and doubtful innovation.
Faculty Will Determine.
eve, of Princeton ARE still willing to
declare our belief that we are better quail
fed to deretmine than those coming to us
for education which Is their most advan-
tageous course of instruction. and surely
every phase of our history Justihes this
belief We are, however, by no means
unwilling to SO shape our curriculum
| without surrender of clear conviction, as
| to expedite our graduates subsequent
preparation for professional life. We
| are not yet convinced that the time
required for our ordinary term OF under
graduate study Is too long, or that 1t
unnecessarily and unproAtably retards
the useful service expected Of genuine
| ly educated man.
| princeton will remember that men
educated long ago in accordance with
her methods are still teachers of the Pre-
sent generation; and that the lives they
led the students they fitted for instruc-
tors, and the records they left of their
wisdom, are to this day dutifully ac-
knowledged as undiminished forces in
higher education, wherever 1t has
standing place. We will not be convinc-
| ed IndI tne human Illlllu HIS III lhSoC AoN
ter days become so fundamentally enlarg-
ed that a broad and useful education can
by some pleasant process be easily gained,
nor that the acuteness of the human in
tellect has so kept pace with the time that
with no toll or patient wootng an educa-
ton worth having can be bought or seized
and forced to do service in vainglorious
and trifiing pretense of erudiion.
while Princcton's trustees concede
| 80 40 4 q
be allowed and that athletics to a rea-
sonable degree should be encouraged, they
believe these things should be kept in
| strict subordination to the business OF
education, which both teachers and
| students have in hand. and that when
extensive demerit or a large percentage of
a resolute failure in examinations prevail
| among those devoting much time and at
tention TO athletics, a suspicion should be
| aroused that the business or studies De
thus interrupted"
Wilson's Address.
President Wilson in his address said
the nation needed efficient and enlight-
ened 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 thoughtful men and a small body of
| trained scholars and Investigators
Though the university may dispense WIN
the professional school, the prolesslolai
schools may not dispense with the uni
versity. The managing minds of the
worId-even the efficient working minds
of the worId-must be equipped for a
mastery whose chief characteristic Is
adaptability. play, an initiative which
transcends the bounds of mere technical
training Technical schools whose train
ing is not built up on the foundations OF
| a broad and general discipline cannot i'm
mart this The stuff they work upon must
he prepared for them by processes which
produce fibre and elasticity, and their
own methods must be shot through with
the impulses of the university.
Throughout long generations the
thought of studious men has been bent
upon devising methods by which special
ATTITUDES could be developed, detailed In
yestigations 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 system, which must be regained.
The processes of instruction which mt a
large body of young men to serve their
generation with powers released and mt
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 fthe method
nv which the crude force of unframed
men is reduced to the expert uses Of
civilization. There may come a day when
general study will be no part of the func-
ton of a university, when 1t shall have
been handed over, as some now talk of
handing it over. TO the secondary schools;