Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1909-12-18
DR.. WILSON BRANDS
MODERN COLLEGES
AS UNDEMOCRAT|C
Declares Term Is -Four Years
of Miscellaneous Distraction
and Sandwiches Them.
Especial to the Newark start

ENGLEWOOD, Dec. 1S.@The address
Of DR.. Woodrow Wilson, president of
Princeton University, before the Uni
versity Alumni of Northern New Jer-
sey, at its annual dinner, is being widely
discussed today. DIR. Wilson branded
colleges as undemocratic and termed
college life four years of miscellaneous
distraction" He deplored the lack of
mental discipline, and declared that
there was absolutely nothing real or
vital in college life today. He said that
the new university, instead of individu-
ally developing its students, standard
lied them and made them conform to
false requirements.
"It Is a question: he said, - neither
a man can afford to let his SON, whom
he wants later TO devote all his en-
ergies to business, go to college for
-four years."
There was a day." he began, when
ordinary progress carried the college
forward, but we are in a day of tran
sition and we have got to find a way
to make our education fit our modern
age.
THE university is meant for the
present and the future, not for the
past. Our love for u university
should serve to MAKE the university of
service to those who are in it and those.
who will be in it. 1t is not h the
university will be for our pleasure, but
what it should be to the young men
there, that should occupy u thoughts.
You can't make a great university
by Kidding it of what is harmful to it.
I know that men in this country today
are asking whether the colleges of this
country are worth while. Fathers ask
me whether it is worth while for them
to send Their sons to college, and some
times | Say yes and sometimes 1 say
no. College life is now four years of
miscellaneous distraction.
undergraduate life today is better,
cleaner, and purer than it was when I
was an undergraduate. Drink is de-
clining, not because of discipline, but
college spirit is making it bad form
to drink.
"a college is not controlled by au-
thority, but rather by a cooperative
moral process. Again have to say
that the our years at college are four
years of miscellaneous distraction, a
social ferment in an unreal and mimic
world. The experiences in colleges are
not what they are in the real world.
There isn't anything real or vital
in college life"
DIR. Wilson closed with an appeal to
the association to use it's efforts to
make Princeton answer his require
ments Last nights dinner was the
first of Princeton men held in this part
of the state, and was largely attended.
Organization was recently effected.
The arrangements We're IN charge of
Nathan Schroeder, secretary of the as
sociation. William f. Tinlow. of Eli
glewood, president of the organization,
presided. william d. Moffat, of Hack
ensack. was POSTMASTER. Addresses
were made by William NJ. johnson,
head of the alumni association; for
mer Assistant Postmaster-General Job
Hedges, of New York; Wilson Farrand,
of Newark; Clark H. Davis, Easton,
former Princeton football player; An
drew S. Imbrie, a director of the uni
versity. Guests included Alexander r.
Gulick, New York; Kenneth c. Kirt-
land, head of the Princeton Club of the
Oranges; Joseph A. Dear, of Hudson;
James NJ. ~Shellaburger, of Plainfield;
George E.. Brewer, president of the
Long Island Princeton associations,