The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-08-09

lean at Oxford and who has been
dramatic critic of two New York morn
ing newspapers, has recently published
IN Boston book under the above title
which at this season should be of in
terest TO many parents. Mr.. Corbin
does not aim so much to answer the
question definitely as to furnish his
READERS with specific information
about several colleges from which to
form their own conclusions. Nor does
ne write Of all the prominent Amer
lean colleges and universities. but rath-
er OF certain typical ores.
Princeton, which is described a. "a
co,.sgiate university is declared not
to De in any real sense of the word q
university at all, nor likely 70 become
one While it has departments deal
ing with special techmca1 courses. thew
togetner do not include more than two
hundred Of the students. If is the DIN,
or Princeton to cultivate not science
but the man, each pupil being dealt
with as an individuaf from the out
OF prominent leader in the faculty
that Princeton takes boys out of the
world, dominates them -or rour wears.
and returns them to the world grown
men, formed, as well as nourfshed. bv
their alma mater" princeton lies in
a town which never would have ex-
listed except for it, secluded among
green meadows and beneath blue skies
nature having ''predestined it to the
purity and heaIthiness of college life
The ideal OF student life there is cor
ganized democracy" Even social life
is one vast democratic organization
where each person haze an equal chance
for all desirable distinctions A boy
OF humble parentage may go to Prince
ton and by mere virtue of character
and ability do everything and be every
thing" All in all Mr. Corbin finds
no institution of learning which has
excelled Princeton ''in inspiring its I'M
dergraduates with manly simplicity
and earnestness."
Harvard. Of which Mr.. Corbin is a
graduate, is called "a Germanized uni
versity,'' where the dominant spirit is
AN austere. even sacrificial, devotion
to pure science" 1t teaches all the
recognized arts, sciences, and profess
sions, many OF the departments being
of the first rank, and all of them
strong. But this was not always true
OF Harvard. 1t was Charles w. Eliot
who transformed it from "a typical
English college" into an institution
which Yin spirit and scope compares
not unfayorably with the foremost
universities of Germany" It was in
1869 that Eliot became president,-'a
splendid, if portentous, figure; this
young chemist of thirty-f1ve took our
oldest and largest university in his
palm and has held 1t there with mas
terry unimpaired for almost forty
years. Out, of a total Of 1924 students
at Harvard in the college proper, less
than 800. .1or about one in eight, are
pursuing either Greek or Latin, and
many of these only select a single
course or two Mr. Corbin states this
fact as if with regret. pointing out the
great need in America "for an inn
pulse away from InarerlaIism and to-
ward higher standards Of living-mora1
intellectual. and spiritual" At Har-
ward he finds tendency toward a new
goal, the union of the spirit of pure
science with that of the ripest human
ity."
Michigan is .'the Middle Eastern uni
versity,'' but draws its students from
the same number of States and Terri
tories as Yale, and is now pressing
Harvard close for first Place, having in
all departments 4571 students. or about
one thousand more than Yale. From
the outset Michigan has striven to-
ward the German ideal of pure science
although in practise lit has been
obliged to give most of its instruction
in technology and in the liberal arts
and professions" Among State insti-
tutions it is remarl1a bic for being $50
broadly representative and so LIBERAL"
and yet it is among the most chaotic
of our universities; it has no dom
inant progressive policy Two fac
tons prevail in almost every depart
ment-"a group of older men remain
ing in control, and body of younger
men. filled with creative energy, who
feel themselves hampered.' Mr., Cor
bin writes in detail of the results
which have followed the abolishing of
dormitories, in placing upon the towns
people of Ann Arbor 1.-The response
bilitv for the manners and morals of
the undergraduates" Thirtytwo fra
ternities and eleven sororities have in
year sees the addition OF a new chap
ter. The result is the want of a So
eial center and the presence of flour
Ishing saloons, of which there are thir-
ty-nine. all popular with students, be-
cause nowhere else do they find places
where they +can enlarge their acquain-
lance beyond the fraternity world
There is crying need at Michigan 'for
a better ordered residential life
Cornell is treated as "a technical uni
versity." although Mr.. Corbin found
This Characterization resented by one
of the deans. When Cornell was found
ed the older colleges of the East had
already preempted the field of liberal
education, and hence there lay open
70 it 1.-The great unoccupied field Of
technical training" It is not wholly
technical in It's purposes, the present
aim being the arts, pure science. and
the liberal professions" Along with
utility go efforts to broaden character
and deepen culture. In its technical
departments Cornell IS rivalled by only