The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1909-06-04
The Dream OF a College President

Writing in the Atomic Monthly on
Competition in College, President
LOWELL Of Harvard regrets the notori-
GUS fact that athletic achievements and
glory have taken the place Of intellectual
in the American colleges. COMPETE
ton in scholarship has ceased to be
important, has been almost banished, y
Mr.. LOWELL says, and he makes the
elective system which has spread with
more or less virulence from Cambridge
the foremost cause of the decayAin COM
petitive scholarship. This W. may doubt,
observing that the mania of intercol-
legiate athletics is and has been the
most frantic in institutions that have
deviated the least or the most gradually
from the old rigid path Of prescribed
studies. Respectful praisen of past
time as we are, and ready to admit that
most Of the college men who have
amounted to much were bred under the
ancient system. still we cannot forget
how ~lifeless and barren most Of that
ancient teaching must have been, how
distastefulto professor and student, how
bereft Of intellectual charm. What
ever be the faults OF the elective system,
it is not in nature that it can be duller
in the imparting or more trivial in effect
than its predecessor.
1t is true, as Mr.. LOWELL tells US. that
in the English universities there is none
of the American contempt for scholar
ship. There there seems to be a visible,
tangible relation between the prizes Of
scholarship and those of life:
The oxford and Cambridge men are nrmly
persuaded that success at the bar. In public life
and In other helds is closely connected With high
honos at graduation: aud the contest for them
Is correspondingiy keen. The prizes and honors
are made widely known; they are remembered
throughout a mans life. referred 10 even In bri,
notices OF him-much IS his athletic fcats are
h.re-snd they certainly do help him powerfully
to get a start In his career. The result |. tina, BY
the Isis and the Cam there Is probably more hard
study done In subjects not OF a professional char.
acter than 10 any other universities In the world. "
There is no such relation in this coun-
Wy. "o tbuN up OH ttc VpOthlS
professors and assistant professors and
miscellaneous obscurities in Who's
Who" to celebrate the superiority of
the college graduate, but his value is
necessarily diminished by his common
ness. If Harvard and Yale were the
only two universities in the United
States, their majesty, power and pres
tige and that OF their graduates would
be something fine, provided an unfeel-
ing proletariat had a proper respect for
dons, bigwigs, seals and sheepskins.
But universities are almost as numerous
in the United States as university men
are in England. We all go to college,
many because their fathers did and
more because their fathers didn't.
Doting mothers tell us with a proud
smile that JOHN has decided to go to
old Dumbellia or old Sprinton because
it's a good athletic college.
How those sour faced old seven
teenth century cranks who had to read
the Hebrew Testament and the Greek at
ungodly hours, swab their faces under
the pump in the yard in those beautiful
temperatures when the presidents ink
would freeze in front Of the tire-how
they would wonder at u elegant youth
playing with everything from automo-
biles to wireless telegraphy! Clergy
men, to keep up the breed Of whom our
wise and pious ancestors founded col
leges, are practically extinct in them.
Lawyers, doctors, teachers-and then
miscellaneous business men. For on
business our undergraduate, willing to
work as Don as he goes out of col
lege, more and more turns his eyes.
Let those who know well any one COL
lege-and in spite Of their eternal anus
ing ~jealousies and college spirit" they
are substantially alike-let those who