Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1905-10-25
JAMES INSTALLED
At CHAMP AIGN
NOW PRESIDENT OF UNIVERSITY
OF ILLINOIS.
FAITH IN STATE SCHOOLS
Compares Educational Institutions
Fostered by the Public With the
Great PrlvateIy-Endowed Establish
ments-Distinguished Representa-,
tives Present.

Champaign, H., Oct 19.-The exer-
cises incident to the installation of Ed
mund James as president of the state |
university were opened with prayer by |
Bishop Seymour of Springfield. Al
dresses were made by Governor De- /
neen, Samuel A. Billiard, Springfield, !
president of the board Of trustees; also !
DR.. A. S. Draper of Now York. Then
followed the address of President
James.
Letters of congratulations were re- 1
ceived from the university of Glasgow,
Scotland. Gonville and Gains college, !
Cambridge England, and Brasenose 4
college, oxford, England. Most of the
foreign speakers spoke in Latin. The
representative of the Hanover Tech
nische Hochschule read his letter in
German. A message of regret and good
wishes was received from President
Roosevelt.
The subject of the inaugural adj
dress of President Edmund j. James
Of the University of Illinois was The
Function of the State University. He
said in part:
| Endowed institutions, whether I'M
der private or church control. have
done a vast service, but, on the other
hand, they have the defects of their
virtues. Educational institutions,
whether private or state, are by ma
ture conservative. They resist changes
and improvements They fight prog
ress almost as a law of their being,
and, the greater their endowments,
the more completely they are re-
moved from the necessity of appeal
to the life of their own generation for
support, the more set do they become
in their conservatism, the more bull
warked in their opposition to all
progress. They may by their wealth
defy the currents Of progress. They
may oppose themselves to all forward
movements They not only may do
Sc, but in nearly every instance in his.
tory they nave done so. The history
of every European country demon
strates that these bodies, the univer-
stiles and colleges, have had to be re
formed by law Left to themselves
they have suffered Of dry rot in an
extreme form Oxford and Cam
bridge fought bitterly all attempts to
force them into line with modern
progress. 1t was the forcible subjec
ton of the German university to the
directing power of the government
which broke up the crust of conser-
4 ~ fo, "a ut
wonderful career Of progress which
put Germany at the head of scientific
progress. Even in our own country
our colleges and universities have the
same opposition to education and
progress to record If the people in
this country had handed over to col
lege anduni versity faculties the deci-
sion of the important educational
questions which they have had to set
tie in the last so years, we should
: have today practically no high school
system, or one Of comparatively little
value We should have no system Of
state universities. We should have,
to a large extent, no professional
schools of high quality at all. Fortu-
nately for us, however, our institu-
lions as a whole have been so poverty
! stricken that they have been com
PEELED TO appeal to the community CON
tnually for funds, and in so doing they
have been forced into lines or progress
which have become. more and more
evident in the past few years.
so | believe it Is necessary. by
the side of this system of private, en-
dowed, church institutions, 10 main
tain a system of state institutions.
By the side of these other great insti-
tutions of learning it is necessary in
this country to maintain the state
university, which, because of its en-
tirely different origin, because of the
different influences TO which it is sub
jected, can work out a supplemental
! scheme of education in many different
directions which would he neglected
in all probability by these other insti-
tutions, which viii, moreover, force
the other institutions which wish to
exist by its side into a larger and
more liberal view, into what is clear
ly the line Of progress.
The state university is therefore, to
my mind, necessary in order to help
maintain the democracy of educa
tion to help keep education progress
sive; and finally in order to keep
higher education close to the people
and make It the expression and out
growth of their needs.
ut is corrective rather than di
receive; II is cooperative rather than
monopolistic. 1t is adapted for lead
ership in certain departments and not
in others. 1t should be as universal
as the American democracy, as broad
as liberal. as sympathetic, as compre-
hensiye--ready to take up into itself
all the educational forces giving rec
ognition for good work wherever done,
and unifying, tying together all the
multiform strands of educational
activity into one great cable whose
strength no man may weaken or meas
ure."