The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-04-13
NEEDED EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

NEEDED EDUCATIONAL. INSTITUTIONS.
one of the deficiencies of every stage OF civiliza
ton has been its inability TO act upon its own knowl-
edge. General information lags behind discovery;
general education lags behind knowledge.
Our period is a little better in this respect. as it is
in nearly all other respects. but there is a strange
blind spot in the intelligence which directs the proc
esses Of assimilating knowledge for practical applica-
ton to affairs. Schools and colleges. professions and
trades. government and commerce are all remarkably
slow in appropriating even the most thoroughly estab-
lished knowledge if it be Of recent date.
In the Judgment of wise observers we Americans
have carried quite far enough the increase of institu-
lions for general education. Colleges in number cN-
coed the capacity Of the population to utilize their
facilities. In the mere matter of number the hos
pitfalls and charitable institutions. especially in the
large cities. are abundant.
Yet private benefaction and public appropriation
go on in the same direction. Whenever a generous
impulse stirs a wealthy citizen or the public mind. a
new institution of the same kind is projected. APP
parently there is little or no recognition of a far more
pressing necessity-that of establishments for the pro-
motion of original research and for the distribution of
expert information.
Ii seems difficult in America TO ever forget the
traditional object of educating slightly the immature
mind. OF course. the chief end of public expenditure
for education should be the preparation of youth for
manhood and for citizenship. OF facilities for COM
mon-school education there are still far too few in
stead OF too many. But we extend the idea into I'M
reasonable one-sidedness. We forget that a single
well-tested and well-dis,ributed new fact of impor-
lance may be n most useful public education. One in
vention benefits the whole world when universally
applied. One great scientific discovery may increase
the health and energy of the whole world if universal
ly known.
In America 1t would be hard to find n wenlsup-
ported institution where trained investigators are
kept busy in lines Of original research. 1t would be
still harder to find a well-equipped bureau Of infor-
nation where experts collect, arrange and classify the
latest information on the larger subjects of human
interest.
Johns Hopkins wrought out a hesitating kind Of
theory in the required direction. But he did not go
far. The hospital and university which he founded
are still hospital and university on the old plan.
Carnegie injected something Of the research require
ment into his proposed national university at Wash
ington, but the collection of young men for a smatter-
ing of education remains the chief purpose, and the
of skilled experts in concentrated investi-
is a small incident.
Commerce is always ahead of either pedagogy o.
criminology in its adaptation of means to ends. In
every American city of 10000 people there is a more
or less organized commercial body for the collection
of information and the quick utilization of the latest
knowledge 1t is curious that business men. accus-
to this habit, fall back into old conceptions
they come to endow educational or charitable
or to act as managing directors.
Research is conducted for the most part by en-
men who snatch time from other duties or
add tolsome hours of labor to work which Is
already more than enough for healthy human exer-
ton, often buying out Of small means expensive ap-
paratus.
For collecting and distributing Information the
advancement must now depend on the press
nearly always conducted by private enterprise.
Daily, weekly and monthly publications, of general or
special circulation, hunt up the facts at the points of
and tell them in widening circles. But public
and private munifcence does not assist this daily aud
periodical press. except in occasional small ways. and
not realize what a tremendous educational force
Is thus neglected. The press is. after all, the chief
1t is the educator of matured minds and,
therefore, the greatest factor by far in the actual
of knowledge. 1t is ready to act gratis
as the distributing agent Of the latest information il
1 small proportion of the sums spent in supplying
,drcation could, I've set apart for the support and en-
enlargement OF men trained in research. and another
snail proportion could be devoted to the establish
merit OF reliable and impartial bureaus of scientific
Information.
ressimisls bew:ail the moral status of the world.
they are falsificrS. In any country there is not e.
ran in Il thousand who lives under Il rule of doing
wrong for the sake of wrong. Men do not lack
rcraiity< what they lack is information. Municipal
the favorite object Of pcssimistic croak-
ng. is bad not so much from the criminal instincts o:
my set Of men. but a,her from Il lack of well-attcsl- !
d. well-trrsted information on tile hundreds of in
ricate problems thai arise in these days of rapid
srcwth of municipal construction.
y small example of what could be done by .ensr-
'uS expenditure and accurately directed effort is seen
n the system of agricultural stations. wrati,c"
iur.ius and crop reports conducted by the Federal
This work is not half done. The .ip-
,ropriations are meagor. The apparatus and facilities
ire scanty and no great care is exercised in the trair- !
ng of the siaff: but. such as it is. the system is the
POST sensible and productive of the national Govrr;l-
nelt's activities.
America boasts of leing the leading nation of the
world. Ii is the leading nation. but not from any
wisdom in its conscious central efforts for The promo
ion of knowledge The nation is the greatest because
vast population of strong races is herceiy working /,
,nder free institutions for individual betterment. 1t
suffering severely from wasted energy in all dircc-
ions. 1t is u lindly repeating old mistakes every day
md in every locality, when knowledge of the truth
,xists and could be applied ut no great cost.
research: institutions which should be sup