The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1908-11-27
WISCONSIN
UNIVERSITY
RANKS FIRST
Noted Writer Says Badger Institution
Is Foremost Among State Uni.
versities in Service to the
Commonwealth.

A recent book entitled (Which Col
lege for the Boy" by Mr.. John Cor
bin, describes very fully the workings
of the five great universities of the
United States. Mr.. Corbin is a gradu-
ate of Harvard, and great admirer
of that institution, but he prefaces his
description of Wisconsin University
with the following
Eastern educators were surprised,
four years ago, when a member of the
British Parliament, who had come to
this country on the Moseley educa-
ti0nal commission, the Honorable Will
liam Henry Jones, placed the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin in a list of our five
leading institutions of learning, and
excluded from the list Yale, Princeton,
Columbia, Pennsylvania and Johns
Hopkins. Surprise changed to skepti-
cism when he proceeded to state his
opinion that Wisconsin stood above
even the four other institutions which
he named as of the first order, Har-
ward. Cornell, Michigan and California
being, in fact, the foremost univer-
Sity of the land He was
on firm ground when he said: The
University of Wisconsin is whole
some product of commonwealth of
three millions of people; sane, indus
trial, and progressive. 1t knits to-
gether the professions and labors; it
makes the fine arts and the anvil one.
This Judgment touches the bedrock OF
fact-highly characteristic fact"
Utility Is the Watchword.
1.-THE state universities of the West
lay chief stress upon immediate prac-
teal results-the technique of indus
try. Foremost in devotion to this
ideal is Wisconsin. It's watchword is
utility. AS President Van Hise has
frequently expressed it, it's aim is to
make the university the instrument
of the state. 1t is in this respect that
Wisconsin ranks first among Ameri-.
can institutions"
Mr.. Corbin is right The watchword
of the University of Wisconsin is
utility usefulness to all the people
Of the state. The new work done by
the University Extension Division last
year was unique in the educational
annals of the world 1t not only taught
4 IuOIc Ludu HUN StuuCuto WAldlA ilS
halls, but it gave instruction to more
than ZOO residents of Wisconsin by
correspondence-ci citizens who could not
afford the time and money to reside
in Madison. 1t also aided organiza-
tons which included more than 5000
members in the study and discussion
Of the great practical and economic
problems of the day This was in adj
dition to the number of people in
structed by the farmers institutes
which it conducted in every county of
the state, and by the instruction in
such subjects as the prevention and
cure Of tuberculosis by lectures given
in the cities of the state.
Such a tremendous expansion of the.
influence for good of university is
not only unexampled, but is the fore
runner of a tremendous development
i'm the educational work of the world.
How different from the work of the
universities and colleges of two CEN
turtles ago when the student member
ship was confined to the zone of the
wealthy and literary classes, and
when even the books were chained
to the walls of the library.