Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-30
HAS BEEN ORGANIZED
AIM OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
PORTO RICO.
Views Of Commissioner Lindsay, Who
Will Be the First Chan
cellor.

/ San JUAN, r. June <~'' Aooo'
| The formal organization of the new uni.
! versity Of Porto Rico has been completed
| with the exception Of naming one trustee
who will be appointed when Governor Hunt
| returns from the United States. The board
| Of trustees as now constituted is composed
Of Governor William H. Hunt. honorary
president; Samuel M. Lindsay. commission
er of education, president and chancellor;
Secretary Charles Hartzell, Treasurer w.
F. Willoughby and Attorney General Willis
Sweet. Manuel F. Rosy, Fidel Guillermety.
francisco Verges. Carlos Armstrong and
Bernardo Huicy. The five last named are
prominent Porto Ricans.
The university is launched on its career
with one department, the insular normal
school. and this department only will be
opened for the academic year 10000. 1t
has now 100 students and four buildings.
with an agricultural school and fifty acres
Of ground. several acres being cultivated by
the best modern methods. An appeal will
soon be made to philanthropists of the
United States for funds to enlarge the
works. The contemplated scope of the uni
versity is the following. the colleges being
established in the order named, as necessity
for them exists: Normal department. agrt-
cultural and manual training department,
department of natural sciences and engi-
neering, department of liberal arts, depart
ment of medicine, department of law, de-
partment of pharmacy, department Of
architecture, university hospital, and such
other departments germane to a we'll
equipped university as the board of trus-
tees may from time to time be able to
establish.
Chancellor Lindsay's Views.
Chancellor Lindsay advances some enter
tanning views and facts as to the univer-
sity's future, and they are worthy of con-
sideration by every American who is in
terested in the educational future of Porto
Rico. He says:
while it is important that the govern
ment's first efforts should be to train teach
ers for the public schools of the island it
is even more necessary to train professional
men. under conditions that will make them
sympathetic with American ideals of life
and government. The professional class
at present SO influential in country where
the majority of the people cannot read or
write where the American element is fire.
quently misunderstood by reason of the sep
arat1on of language, as constituted at pres
ent. has been educated for the most part
in Spain or in other parts of Europe. For
its most rapid development it is absolutely
necessary that this class receive it's tech
meal training on its native soil. The stand
ard of professional work must also be
raised. Many of those who now practice
medicine have already had only mere ele-
mentary courses and some that have gone
to the states have been able to spend only
short time there and have had difficulty
In making rapid progress by reason of the
differences in language. The greatest need
is for a good mechanical school with we'll
equipped hospital where instruction could
be given in both the Spanish and English
languages and where opportunities for lab
oratory work may be furnished. The need
for higher educational facilities for training
lawyers and public men and for interesting.
holding and inspiring the growing number
of native young men who are predisposed
to American ideals and the preparing of
them for public usefulness is an important
duty the performance Of which the people
of the United States owe to the people Of
Porto Rico. The great wealth of the United
States in educational institutions is some
thing which must be shared with the ex-
IRENE poverty of the island in this direc-
ton. Porto Rico has been kept too long in
darkness and ignorance. in order that the
few controlling it's destinies might exploit
it more easily.
Porto Rico's Great Need.
"There are needed today in every depart
ment of governmental work, the services of
well trained, patriotic Porto Ricans, who
know something Of American life and Amer
lean ideals. These can be raised up only
as they are brought under the influence Of
American educational institutions able to
provide higher education and professional
training These young men by reason OF
poverty in some cases, and in others by
reason of climatic conditions and difficult
ties Of the language, cannot go and live
long enough in the United States for this
purpose. Public opinion and the press of
Porto Rico today are drag rather than
help in the Americanization Of the island
by reason of the fact that those persons
who are best able to control and guide 1t
have been educated under foreign condi-
10 10 nukn 80 fH,< f~,,A osy
and purposes of the American government.
Worse than that. there Is no other means
of removing this ignorance and allying the
distrust that is inevitable under the cir
cumStances The university of Porto Rico
will do this as nothing else the government
can create will do. 1t will provide meet
ing place where American and Porto Rican
scholars may confer with each other and
learn to understand each other; there the
best in Porto Rican life can be welded with
the best in American life and the charac-
ter of the leaders of the next generation
can be nodded and shaped.
Porto Rico's Strategic Position.
1.-THE university is worthy of considera-
ton as a source Of international influence.
Porto Rico occupies a geographically stra-
tegic position with respect to the interna-
tional relations of North and South Ameri-
ca and when the isthmian canal is con-
structed it will be one of the outposts of
that international highway for much Of the
commerce between western Europe and the
Far East. With respect to language, eli
mate and other conditions 1t is so typical
Of life in the West Indies and in many parts
of South America that good university at
this point would draw hundreds Of students
from other parts of the West Indies and
from Central and South America; students
who now, by reason of the expense, cli-
matte conditions or language difficulties do
not go to American colleges and UNIVERSE
ties, but rather to those Of Europe From
this center may go out an influence that
will affect profoundly the current of
in Central and South America,
where the interests Of the United States are
every year greater and where the
for a mutual and friendly under
is Of more importance in the main
of the basic principles Of the Mon
roe doctrine than any merely military and
naval preparations for the possible conflict
between the interests of Europe and the
United States with respect to South
America.
Financial Support.
1.-THE financial support of the university
must come from the United States, either
through private philanthropy or by direct
gift Of Congress. The return would certain