New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-11-19

GREAT AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES. By
Edwin f. Slosson. NJ: s., Pm. d. Illus
trated Svo, PIP. xvi, 52S. The Macmillan
Company.
| DR.. Slosson lightens serious. inform
| ing and useful study of a most important
subject with the leaven of humor- He Is
a laughing educational philosopher VINO
set out to see for himself the changes
which the new educational ideals and
| aims have brought about and are bring
| ing about in our universities since ne
| himself left alma mater behind him.
! After full consideration of the fads and
| fashions and experiments of the hour, he
reaches the conclusion, even truer no"
! than when it was drawn by Mr.. James
Bryce in his American Commonwealth
! that our higher institutions of learning
are one of our most valuable assets,
whose value is constantly and rapidly
increasing:
! from many quarters, but more often be-
! cause they are IN advance OF the age IloiI
| behind it They are more efficient IN their
methods and more ready to meet and even
| enticipate the needs of the community tnah
! ever before. On the whole. they fuliy Jus
! tify the liberal support they are Iece4Niho
| in all parts of this country
DR.. Slosson spent a week in residence
or in some club or boarding mousse DIT
| each of the fourteen universities at the
head of the list prepared by the Gar
negie Foundation, which arrangeS our
higher educational institutions according
to the amounts spent by them ahnualS
for instruction. The fourteen include
nine endowed universities, Harvard.
Columbia. Chicago, Yale, Cornell, Prince
ton PENNSYLVANIA, Stanford and Johns
Houkins; and five state institutions,
those of Michigan. Minnesota, Wisconsin
California and Illinois. Johns Hopkins,
though at present insufficiently financed.
is included on account of its fine record
in American education. The book, while
OF grea test interest to educators ana
those interested in education. not for
getting it's munificent patrons. present
and 10 come, will be found to be also
practical guide for parents and guar
dams beginning with that great ques-
ton What college for the boy?" which.
according to DR.. Slosson, is not nearly
so serious and important as it is held to
be. and including that other burning ed
vocational problem, intercollegiate ath-
letics
Serious. comprehensive and thorough,
Dr. Slossou includes the student body
as well as the faculties in his survey.
Part of his work was to discover if pos
sible what the students Of to-day are
reading and thinking. AS for the first
the results of his investigation were neg |
alive. The librarians and professors of !
English informed him that the college |
boys read nothing but the required books |
and talk nothing ut athletics The
newsstand men told him that "The |
Saturday Evening Post" and The |
Ladies' Home Journal We're the most |
popular periodicals. He succeeded In !
tracking to their lairs lotteries of book |
lovers in all the institutions visited. |
Their favorite authors are Kipling |
Stevenson, o. Henry, Il. G. Wells, Jack |
London, Shaw. Chesterton, Churchill, |
George AIDE, Richard Harding Davis.
W. j. Locke. T. Hopkinson Smith and
Frank Norris. From this one would
judge that the college students of to-
day keep TO the list of the best sellers.
and do not go nosing for truff1es. as we
used to do They might have their
esoterlc literary cults and take a prig-
gish delight in them as formerly, but I
was not able to discover them"
More serious are the conclusions
reached by DR.. Slosson as to what the
American students Of to-day, the edu-
Gated men of tomorrow, are thinking:
In my time and environment Ito be specf-
nc, lo5I-lS90. University of Kansas, theo-
iiogiCai speculation. pure and simple, had
ton. but the controversy over evolution had
not quite died down, and the rise of
sociology and experimental psychology was
starting new questions in religion, ethics
and politics. Spencer, Mill, Huxley, Hart
mann and Bellamy were our heroes and
antipathies to be fought over with that
icterisuc of college students-or used to
he. Has hero worship gone out Of fashion?
boys OF To-Day grow red-faced and choked
up over: Which OF the worlds riddles do
sia do they discern or what fase ne pTo Mes
Is ieaGing them astray? 1 could not find
ont mentioned the name OF Nietzsche
NO reaction; at which 1 breathed sigh
OF relet. tried pragmatism. mystic
ISM, spiFltualsm. anarchism. new thought
d anYe6si Euchen, Maeterlinck. anything.
iancy OF the rising generation. but could
NOT strike live wire. Eugenics? They
had had not heard of it, inquired about social
Ism. A bored look came into their faces
we had that last term" they replied
fefnapS here lies the explanation of their |
maintenance. The instructors nowadays |
may De so quick to seize upon every new
llilhS that the students cannot get ahead
OF them. and when subject goes into the
curriculum it ceases to have an emotional |
interest. All the questions the students
might ASK are answered authoritatively In |
advance. ..Fh, wonders of sciencais
IL a meaningless term to this generation
BioloSy Is 10 more OF revelation to them |