New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-04-12
OXFORD AND CRAFTSMANSHIP

DR.. George r. Parkin the representative OF
the Rhodes trustees. in an interview the other
day was reported as saying that as America
is now world power she needs men with the
training Oxford can give them. For the last
three centuries Dr. Parkin was quoted as
saying oxford has been turning out with the
regularity OF clockwork the literary states
'mcn Of Europe"
Without feeling called upon TO dispute this
claim so far as Europe is concerned by citing
what may be called the literary statesmen or
the Continent, or even noting the non sequitur
hidden in the statement and its inference, but
taking DIR. Parkin as he probably meant to he
taken, we may ungrudgingly acknowledge that
in the long roll of British statesmen the sons
Of Oxford, both in numbers and ability, hold
a conspicuous place. To go back only hun
dred years and applying the test only to
those officially at least OF the first rank
namely the Prime Ministers OF Great Britain
let as see how the case stands. Since 1900
there have been thirty-one Ministries and
nineteen Prime Ministers In Great Britain. or
these Premiers nearly half or nine in all
Lord G-enville, the Duke OF Portland, the Earl
OF Liverpool George Canning, Sir Robert Peel,
the Earl Of Derby, William Ewart Gladstone,
the Marquis OF Salisbury and the Earl Of Rose
bery-were all oxford men. OF the others
Cambridge may claim six-Spencer Perceval,
Viscount GodeTich, Earl Grey. Lord Melbourne,
the Earl OF Aberdeen and the present Premier.
Mr.. Balfour.
or the remaining four Premiers who were
neither oxford nor Cambridge men, Lord John
Russell perhaps the most literary as he Ger
tainly was the most voluminOus author among
British Premiers Of the last century, received
his training at Sunbury and Westminster
schools and the University of Edinburgh, where
he had as fellow student Lord Palmerston, like
himself to become twice Prime Minister of
Great Britain. The other twO-the Duke or
Wellington and Benjamin Dsraeli-enjoy not
alone the distinction Of greatness each in two
separate fields, the first in war and statesman
ship and the second in literature and the states
mans art. but each also attained his dstinc-
| ton without the aid Of university education.
! In respect TO representative statesmen in gen.
ernl detailed examination probably would dis
| close the fact that the two great universities
| the one on the Cam and the other on the Isis
/ share honors in about the proportion they do
/ rs respects Prime Ministers or the statesmen
who may be said 10 represent the non-univer
sity element in English political life the great
names Of Disraeli. Bright and Golden are the
most eminent.
In other fields OF thought and intellectual in-
/ terest aside from craftsmanship. Oxford boasts
/ a galaxy OF great names, and OF men who left
"a fair good copie for posteritie." In one re-
spect, however even Oxford must yield to Cam
bridge. 1t was Emmanuel College, Cambridge
/ that gave TO America John Harvard founder OF
/ Harvard College, and 10y that fact may be said
70 have established the claim OF Cambridge 10
be the mother of American education
In any discussion Of the relative merits of