Omaha daily bee., 1908-09-20
OPENING OF The UNIVERSITY
Chancellor Andrews Delivers Address
on the Occasion.
FAvORs LIBERAL EDUCATION
No objection 90 Technical schools,
but Pleads for the Broader scboI-
arship which EnIarRes
Mental vision.

LINCOLN. Sept. 19.-(Special Telegram ,
Chancellor Andrews made the opening ad-
dress OF the State university this morning
during the course OF which he said the wear
would be the most prosperous in the his
tory Of the Institution. Next Saturday
night the Young Mems Christian associa-
ton viii give the glad hand to all the
students. Glasses will be started Monday.
Chancellor Andrews said:
A distressing fault in the educational
Mork OF our time is that 1t is too little clear
III ann Recent years have witnessed ample
canvass OF college affairs and interests,
lle discipline, the curriculum. athletic
sporlh' ana much else, but these discus
slons nave been, for the most part, little
decisive, owing to their lack Of appeal to
ilrst principles. Much as has been said on
these subjects, there is at this moment
gfeath need Of inquiry into the nature,
scope, and ends Of education.
There Is a great significance in the
interested in collective education, little
think. l suspect, how It exceeds in richness
and worth education pursued by isolated
students under the same masters and with
the same books. Young people derive much
that is best in their education from their
association one with another, their debates
formal and informal. their conmpanion-
ships, the attribution of one mind upon
another among those whose earlier expert
encC and environment have been very
diverse, and whose mental tastes are wide
apart. All this Is educative in a most pre-
cious way educative at points and In
phases of character which classroom in
fluences could never touch.
Collegiate education need not necessarily
be a liberal education in the technical
sense. Engineer schooling, or legal, or
theological, or medical. or agricultural
may be collegiate. What I have to say
this morning relates to collegiate schooling
of the so-called liberal type.
In singing out for special remark this
particular form OF educational endeayor, /
do not mean to cast the slightest umbrage
upon the other kind. / believe thoroughly
in every species Of Industrial education. l
am glad that so much OF It is doing in
this university, and stand pledged to help
increase the amount all I am ever able.
II Is no part of a universities business to
dictate to mems minds the precise paths
along which they are to develop. We are
to assist mental development as best We
can, whatever path 1t may choose. II
young people wish Industrial education they
are not to be scolded or ridiculed for not
electing the liberal arts, but furthered IN
their desire to the utmost which our re-
Nor have / the least sympathy with the
inclination to decry industrial training as
compared with what is called liberal. A
graduate of a first class college of engin-
eering or of agriculture. a man from Shei-
field. Lawrence of the "Techi can MS
outfit technical or what not, has an eX-
tremely good preuaration for the life work
OF an American citizfn.
Two Divergent Aims.
Technical study primarily regards the OBJ
iects OF knowledge, the mastery OF certain
facts, processes and methods, while Iberal
learning has first in view the subjects
Of knowledge, the choice and roundabout
building of human spirits.
How far this view Is correct / do not
now pronounce. Whether or not II Is pet
ter than the best industrial curriculum, a
liberal arts course Is still offered by us
as by all universities. 1t is desirable that
these groups and consecutions of studies
should be as good as they can be mace;
what, then, properly conceived, Is a I'D
Beginning early and changing by a pro-
cess which IT is now impossible to trace
the term liberal" as applied to educa"
ton, little by little assumed a secondary
sense more significant than the primary.
Studies adapted to a noble nina were
studies calculated to keep 1t noble ana
hence. still further, to make noble the
base spirit, or to eNalt still more the al
read elevated spirit, which applied ltseli
10 them. The thought Of liberal arts turned
into that of liberalizing arts, arts winch
could set the mind free from narrowness,
prejudice and superstition. An educalloh
was liberal in this rich sense, IN proper
ton as 1t rendered its possessor at nome
in the great world of mind. ,
Much nearer being the marrow or mnera.
cducatior as conceived of old, is breadth
and depth of mind, or, in the largest sense
Of the word, intellectual ana moral sym
pathy on the part of its posseSsor.
The stress of our modern days mas en-
forced some modification of this idea, even
i'm such as cherishes It the most. NOW
the scholar himself has 20 be pracucal
The man of letters must not NOPE OF
dream. No one. saint or Htterator, TO-DAY
finds the maxims of Philo Judaeus' de vita
commemorative adequate for the guidance
of his conduct. We have to heed the fact
that we are flesh. living in this world
The millionaire may perchance be a phll-
osopher, and violently as II contradlcts
ordinary sages' experience, a sage now
and then gets a fortune to manage. we
refuse to regard as literally educated MN
who can do nothing but think. so tar as
our educated man is a thinker at an we
insist, perhaps more than the anclents diu'
that he shail think strongly and clearly,
but at any rate his mental activity must
have some rational and visible end.
In this single item of recoil from the
antique standard of free or noble educa-
don, / think all will ~sympathize. In every
other respect, 1 am sure, we shall WISH
Inc old ideal to stand. Its insistence, Tor
example, upon a large moral element IN
education, we cannot be TOO ANXIOUS 10 re-
produce. II is one, of the most manitesl
and hopeful tendencies of our age to lay
emphasis on the ethical side OF culture.
Without asserting that knowledge spar
from moral excellence renders one a dan
gerous member of society, thoughttul peo-