Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1909-05-07
Empiricism in the Universities.

The universities of the United States
cannot secure the benefits of two contra
dictOry policies at the same time. II
they bid for the shallow popularity
which which comes from admira ton Of
the intellectual antics of sensational
professors, they cannot retain the i'm
plicit confidence of serious people. They
must ahjure charlatanry or take the
consequences. Possibly this fact is he,
ginning to dawn upon some of those
upon whom the responsibility for univer-
sity policy devolves. If it has not
dawned already it will soon.
That is startling article which Har-
old Bolce contributes to the Cosmopoli-
tan Magazine for May. Its object is TO
be startling, for few of the magazines
at the present time are exempt from the
faint of SenSationalism, and certainly the
Compolitan is not one of the few. But
many of the specific statements it CON
tains, and also the general conclusions
it presents, are certain to attract atten-
ton. Having made n tour of the unive7-
sites from Massachusetts to California,
Mr.. Bolce claims to be able to describe
their characteristics from the student
standpoint Summing up contempora.
neous university teaching, he AYERS;
There is scholarly reputation of all
solemn authority. The decalogue is no
litbIt Sdtttl llldh Il SN
Mr.. Bolce does not look for help from
the institutions for higher learning in
the fight which society and the church
are waging against the divorce evil. He
remarks: The professors even suggest
and outline Il substitute for the modern
home. They teach young men and wom-
en-, plainly, that an immoral act is mere
ly one contrary to the prevailing con.
ceptionS of society; and that the daring
Il Aff bn
Deity, but simply arouse the venom of
the majority
First among the peculiar teachings of
American colleges Mr. Bolce thinks, are
to be noted 'the remarkable doctrines
regarding morality, marriage, divorce,
plural marriages, the home, aud religion.
This includes the teaching that marriage
Is a transitOry standard and that the
home as an institution is doomed" Next
he calls attention to 1.-THE scholastic con
ception of politics and political economy
the citation of democracy us n failure
and the academic labelling of the Dec
laration of Independence as a work in
spectacular rhetoric
Mr.. Bolce is not obivious to the fact
that sensational professors have some
times been flung out of colleges when
they have gone so far as to arouse pub
lie indignation, but he asserts that "the
few, beginning with Prof George ID,
Heron who have been forced from the
classroom charged with poisoning the
minds of youth, were banished, not for
their teachings alone, for the doctrines
ultimately condemned had been gwen to
tho classes for an indefinite period; but
because the outside world protested
against their life or creed"
When the Westinghouse scandal was
hroached by Upton Sinclair, the criticism
was made that he gave an erroneous
impression by grouping under one roof
all the evils which existed under many,
and by representing as contemporaries
Gus Incidents which had been far apart
in time The probability is that Mr..
Bolce's article has the same effect Yet
it is worthy Of attentive perusal by par
ents who are thinking of sending their
young people to college