Bridgeton pioneer., 1911-03-23
Crisis In Higher Education Of
Cars Empire.
THOUSAND STUDENTS IN JAIL.

A curious state of affairs has existed
In the educational world of Russia
since the new year. Lectures have
had to be abandoned in all the classes
Of the universities Of st. Petersburg,
Moscow, Kiev, Warsaw, Kharkov and
even IN faroff Tomsk, in Siberia Over
120 professional chairs are vacant
through designations or dismissals.
DR.. Mannelof, the rector of Moscow
university; DR.. Mensbier. the vice rec
tor and Professor Minakoff, dean of
the law faculty. who resigned their
posts. have been deprived of their
status as professors. Over 1000 stu
dents are in jail awaiting trial for
breaches of the peace OF varying de-
grees of seriousness.
1t announced officially that 39S stu
dents of st. Petersburg university have
been expelled. That precludes their
admission into any other university
and practically bars them from any
career IN any learned profession. The
whole situation is described as the
tragedy of higher education.
The area of dispute between stu
dents, professors and the government
covers very wide ground. Fundamen-
tally the issue is really a trial of
strength between the party of academ-
ic education as championed by the
government and the liberal professors.
backed by the bulk of the students
Political Subjects Forbidden.
Minister of Education Kasso says
that he will see to it that professors
and students alike confine themselves
when inside the universities strictly to
their scientific and classical studies
and that no time or accommodation
shall be given for meetings on pub
lie questions within the university
walls. The first sequel to this order
was that the students attempted to
hold meeting to protest against the
order itself
They were dispersed by armed po-
lice, and since then armed police have
been daily in attendance to protect
those lecturers who we're willing to
continue their classes and the minority
Of students who were willing to listen
to them. Teaching has been made i'm
possible not only by rowdyism and as
Saults on the professors. but by the
habitual use of ill smelling gases that
made the air in the lecture rooms I'M
breathable.
Kasso, who was born In France and
educated at Heidelberg, is a strong ad-
vocate of classical studies and main
tains that the first purpose of higher
university is the cultivation of the
mind and not the preparation of stu
dents for money making or varnish-
ing them with smattering of educa-
tion in what he calls quack studies.
He has threatened to establish insti-
tutions in Paris. Berlin and Heidel-
berg for training Russians to be pro-
fessors in Russian universities. He
believes that they would absorb the
true university tradition If in their
preparatory years they were removed
altogether from the atmosphere Of the
Russian universities.
Outside observers will understand
best what this really serious situation
means from recent utterance of the
prime minister when NJ. Stolypin was
rebuking the calculated. systematic
pessimism of many Russian newspa-
pers. He said that the first hope of
the parties that aimed at overthrowing
the existing system of government in
Russia was to create revolutionary
sentiment in the army. That had fall
ed utterly from the first
Universities Cradles of Unrest.
Then they tried to rouse the peasan-
try, but the Russian peasant had fas-
tened determinedly upon the agrarian
question and refused to be drawn into
general revolutionary politics.
Failing with them, says NJ. Stolypin,
the malcontents tried to keep agita-
tion alive among the factory workers
in st. Petersburg and in Moscow and
the other great cities. but in the last
two or three years employment has i'm
proved and wages are higher. and only
minority of extreme men hold to the
revolutionary spirit. There remained
the students whose institutions have
always been cradles of unrest This
brought him to the university problem
and to the conclusion that the pro
fessors as a class were mainly to
blame for the unsatisfactory situation.
The situation has been made more
acute by II declaration which the pro-
gressst league of students has posted
for signature in the university. Ii is
addressed TO Prime Minister Stolypin
and says that 1.-THE disorders in the
universities will cease when "a the
students. are allowed to hold a public
meeting without Interference and (2
the students now under arrest are sci
free" Near this document is a board
on which is written In red chalk
Greeting from 151 imprisoned com
rades in Derysbin Jail"
1t is foreseen that the elimination OF
political agitation from the university
life of the Russian students will be 8
long and difficult operation.