The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-26
VALUABLE GIFTS TO YALE.
President HadIey Opposes the View
That bachelors Degree should
Re Required of Candidates for the
Professions.

Ihat BachelOr's Degree should
Re Required of Candidates for the
Professions.
New Haven, Conn, June 25.-The an
nual report of President Hadley of
Yale University was made public to-
day. The report describes the present
condition and prospective uses of the
bicentennial buildings, of Byers Hall,
of the clinical building and the pro-
posed Lampson Lyceum, among which
the largest, amounting to several hun
dred thousand dollars, came by the will
of the late Senator Mcpherson, but will
not be in actual possession of the uni
versity until the lapse of a number of
years. Other large gifts were the fund
left the library by the will of Edward
Wells Southworth; the new building
for instruction in mfneralogy, to be
known as Wirtland Hail. and the
Isaac Smith fund of $780, 900 for the
academic department, given by the
wife and sons of the late Edward A.
Smith of the class of 1855.
Allusion is made to an important
movement which, though not officially
connected with the University, has
been planned by Yale man and has the
sympathy of the University authorities
the proposed Yale mission In China
modelled on the general plan of the OK
ford and Cambridge Universities Mis-
sions, and intended to be a center OF
educational influences of every kind in
the heart of the Chinese empire.
That part of the report which has
the widest general interest is the one
which deals with the relations between
the professional schools, the colleges
and the secondary schools. 1t is well
known that there is a strong move
ment in favor of requiring a bache-
lor's degree as a condition of admission
to the schools of law AMI medicine.
With this view President Haley takes
issue. He says:
Would BE Too Onerous
the requirement that every man
who begins professional study in law or
medicine should have had already a
college course of secondary study is
good SO far as it secures maturity of
mind. 1t is bad so far as it makes
him late in entering upon his career
of active service in the world Whether
the evil outweighs the good will de-
pend upon the Individual To the
man who has plenty of money for his
support curing his education and pro-
fessional career the advantage of in
creased maturity probably outweighs
the disadvantage of enforced delay.
For the poor man the balance is likely
to turn in the other direction. Many
years must now intervene before the
man who begins the study OF law or
medicine can hope to reach a mod
crate competence. This we cannot help.
The public demands technical training,
and has right to demand it. Each
increase of human knowledge makes
it harder for the young professional
man to prove to the satisfaction of the
public that he possesses the necessary
share Of this knowledge But we have
our choice whether we shall increase
this difficulty by requiring a long
course of secondary education prior to
the beginning of professional study, or
shall try to minimize it by putting the
opportunity for such study within
reach of the graduates of our high
schools as soon as they are qualified
to enter thereon. If we adopt the
former system, as so many of our
universities are now tending to do, we
enhance the artificial difficulties. which
are already great enough at best, and
tend to make the professions of law
and medicine places for the sons of
rich men only"
The report shows that the logical Sc
quence would be to reintroduce the old
distinction now abolished in America
between learned and unlearned pro-
LESSONS; to shut out from the law men
like Abraham Lincoln and John Mar
shall: and to degrade the college
course by shaping IT to suit the needs
of those who do not want IT, but who
take 1t as a compulsory stepping stone
to something else