The sun., 1908-06-28
University Discipline at Harvard and
Oxford.

o~AoA
While two Harvard students were be-
ing suspended for year for violating q
library rule with some aggravating cir
cumstances 1t was reported from Eng
land that the maintenance of law and
order at the older universities was being
seriously threatened by the growing use
OF automobiles among the undergradu-
ates. At Harvard automobiles are with
}out offence; at Oxford or Cambridge
the library affair, even taking it at it's
worst, could not have had 30 tragic an
issue. The contrast between these cases
is significant of general difference be-
tween the Harvard and English systems
of discipline.
Two Of our Rhodes scholars remark in
a little book about Oxford that the stu
dent there may dispose Of his time
practically at his own sweet will" They
admire the freedom Of lie where
every man is expected to act and think
for himself 4In these respects" they
say, the Oxford student enjoys an inde-
pendence almost unknown elsewhere. I"
Yet the Oxonian suffers from many re-
strietions which a Harvard student would
consider more suitable for a child of ten
than youth Of twenty Without special
leave he may not 90 to London even for
the inside Of day; and hence the dons'
objection to automobiles. The railroad
stations can be guarded, but an under
graduate starting out for an automobile
ride in the morning may easily spend
five or six hours in tho metropolis with
out being detected and get back to his
college before closing time. After dark
he ID forbidden to 60 out on the Oxford
streets without cap and gown. The
university police--the proctor with his
bufldogs-patrol the town nightly to
arrest delinquents in multi. The gates
Of all the twenty colleges are looked at
sP. NJ After that hour an inmate can
not 60 out, though he may come in up
to Il on payment Of small fine. For
staying out after midnight he is seriously
punished. For staying out all night he
Ia more than likely to be expelled. The
windows Of all the college buildings are
heavily barred, and any otherwise nego-
table wall is armed with spikes and
broken bottles. From P. NJ. to o A. M.
each college is prison.
There are many other interferences
with the liberty Of the subject He may
not drive tandem or play billiards in
public resort or enter saloon. Lord
Rosemary was sent down. for entering
a horse in the Derby. The university
statutes TO this day prohibit hawking,
the use Of crosshows and catapults and
the carrying of arms except bow and
arrows for honest purposes OF amuse-
ment.' Also, "any game that may
cause injury to others which perhaps
explains the mildness of the English
Rugby. President ELIOT, indeed, would
find much to his taste in these statutes,
which have nothing TO say against row.
ing. Still gentler was an older code
which ordered students to sit in the
schools quiet as girl" and held up
decentralization in the college grove as
the ideal diversion. ,nt
"A detailed list OF fines for various
offences still exists. though it is not 80
long now as It once was, when 1t stated,
for instance, the amount to be paid for
throwing q missile at master and
missing him, and the larger amount for
q successful aim. Harvard, too, had it's
list OF fines once upon time, and In the
eighteenth century, by the way, the
punishment for lying was 80 fine not