The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
Facts and Conclusions
 Concerning C Co-Educatiph

Chapter 2s of the report of Hon. w. T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education. is headed "Coeducation of the Sexes in the United States"
 Chapter 35 of the same report is de- voted to the statistics of higher educa- ton among both men and women. Chap ter 35 gives the number and grade of de- grees conferred during the collegiate year 190o-o1. The report in chapter 35 includes 6F universities colleges and technological schools in the Union Of these 132 admit women only, 137 men only, while a ma jority admit both sexes.
 The double report, chapter 35, containing the statistics of coeducation and woman s higher education, and chapter 2s, con- taining the literature of the subect, can be had by any one who will write for it to Hon. w. T. Harris. commissioner, United States Bureau of Education.
 The commissioner himself is to be thanked for the publication of these chap ters. full of information given in an i'm partial. dispassionate way, yet somehow they are also full of hope and inspira- tion for woman. They reflect exactly the mind of Commissioner Harris. From the time he was superintendent of the public schools of St. Louis he has been the con- sistent friend not only of higher educa- ton for women, but likewise of coedu- cation, and he himself is largely respon- sible for the fact that in St. Louis, on the southern border-therefore with much conservatism among its citizens-the pres ent report says: There has been no ex- tensive discussion of coeducation, nor has there been any observable adverse inter- est manifested in this phase of educa- tion.'
 An impression prevails that there is at present reaction against coeducation That impression the report shows to be erroneous by cold documentary evidence as follows:
 Tt should be observed with respect to coeducation in the higher, institutions that rumors of reaction in sentiment which from time to time arise have al- ways proved on investigation to be gross- ly exaggerated or absolutely groundless. D
 Immediately underneath this paragraph is note from President David Starr Jordan of Leland Stanford, Jr., Univer- sity explaining how it Is that the number of women students in that institution has been limited to 800 by order of Mrs. Stan ford herself. This has been taken to mean antagonism to women students From President Jordan's note one Is glad to learn that this is not so It arises from promise to and a compromise made with Senator Stanford himself by his wife. the lady who now controls the school. Before Senator Stanford founded the in- stitution he talked all his plans over with his wife. He desired to have the uni versity largely a school of technical sci entific training. To the carrying out of this plan he thought the admission of women students would be detrimental be- cause he feared 1t would tend to detract from the specialized and technical aims of the institution, as the demands of wo. men students are more dlstinetively in the line of general culture"
 Mrs. Stanford, however, stood up man. fully for her own sex. It was an idea beloved of her soul that girls should drink of the waters of learning as freely as boys In the school a mother was helpinr to establish to the memory of her only son. She argued and urged the matter Finally she promised her husband tha, in the new university if women students should ever increase so that they threat. ened to drown out the distinctive techni. cal and scientific reputation of Leland Stanford, Jr.. University, their number should be restricted When there were bOC women students, therefore, Mrs. Stanford felt it was time to keep the promise 1 she had made to her husband, and SC | fixed the limit at that figure, about one third of the whole number of students
 It applies, however, to the entering class so does not prevent girls from engagins l in any of the higher research and tech | nical work of the institution. Presiden | Jordan concludes: '"The whole matter