The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-09-15
fore us the question, what shall we
with the Harvard graduate ?''
a NATIONAL UNIVERSITY


Columbian university of washington,
d. c., into the George Washington uni
versity realizes a cherished plan of the
first presidents and promises to give to
the country an educational Institution
that is national in the conpletest sense
of the word. For although the Column
bian university, founded twenty-five
years after the death of Washington,
has been regarded by its patrons as the
partial embodiment of Washingtonls
plan, its comparatively limited scope
and its denonlinationa1ism has pre-
vented it from attaining a full national
growth. The new university, however,
will enjoy this commanding stature.
Congress has enacted that no denomi-
national or religious test shall be ap-
piled in the election of trustees and
officers or in the admission of profess
sers of the university. And if the plans
of those who have the interests of the
new institution most closely at heart
do not miscarry it will be as broad in
its scope as a national university of the
United States should be.
To the George Washington Memorial
association the new university will all
ways owe much, for this body of pa
triotic women has kept alive interest in
the long neglected plan of Washington
when that interest would otherwise
have tagged. Principally because of
the efforts of the ST. Paul branch of
the association, this city has taken a
keen interest in the effort that has
been made to realize George Washing
tons dream, and the recent visit here
of President Needham, of Columbian
university, on his tour of the West, has
made the interest more general.
The merging of the Columbian uni
versity into the George Washington
university makes the history of the in
stitution nationally important. The first
named university was Incorporated as
a college in 1921 by a special act of
congress. From time to time congress
has appropriated money for it's increase
and maintenance, and Washington
philanthropists, chief among them Will
liam w. Corcoran, have made substan-
tial contributions to it. In it's early
history nhr ny1iY, Al
special friend and patron. The George
Washington Memorial association was
organized in 1897, with the avowed OBJ
ject of advancing and securing the es-
Enlistment in the city of Washington
of university for the purposes and
with the objects set forth in the. last
will of George Washington Fer many
reasons it has seemed desirable to Sc
lect Columbian university, already
largely national in character, to be the
nucleus of this new institution 1t is
to the enlargement of this that the as
sociation-will now direct its efforts
Washingtons ambition to become the
national center of learning bids fair to
be realized in this new institution. No
other city in the country is SO Ameri-
can, in an insular sense, as. the ma
tions capital, and for this very reason
it is we'll fitted to be the national seat
of learning. For while no national
limitations can be set for knowledge, it
is the national spirit that gives char
acter and individuality to a national
university. Because Washington is less
cosmopolitan than most capitals it, bet
ter than any other large city in this
country, will be able to preserve in the
national university the national spirit.