The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-07-02

highest learning. 1t always has been
tacitly understood that this institu-
ton. if ever it got beyond the prov
ince of talk, should be located at
WASHINGTON. In recent years no 9TH
er place has beer considered.
Even talk will make some ideas
Expand and the national university
has been enlarged. if not inflated. In
the form in which it was urged upon
congress it was to be strictly a grad
uate university, ope only to those
who had taken degrees in other rec
ognized institutions of learning. Fur
thermore, the vast collections of his
torical documents. the great libraries
and the scientific equipment of re-
search. which the government has at
present n in the maintenance and
operation of which it spends in excess
of S~5,0Oo.000 each year, are urged
as the proper field for systematized
study such as only a great university
could supply. The wealth of mate
rial these departments hold has lain
fallow many a year.
The only real work in behalf of the
university dates from the wear 1905.
AT that time il was reported to COW
sress that $4,000 persons had pledged
a gross sum of 100000 to be paid in
as the beginning of an endowment as
o'oi as NFtiSitSS SIdilteu Il CT1dTleT.
Blu congress- never did. 1t only talk
ed. There would have been another
S25,ooo,oo0 working day and night in
behalf of the highest education if
only some ones foresight had been
as good as present day h%indsight.
Adams. Jefferson, Madison. Mon
roe, John Quincy Adams. and Jack
son urged the national university on
congress- and all in vain. In a later
day Hayes, Garfield. and Harrison did
likewise. For many wears the senate
had a special committee on national
university. SOMETIMES this ,,emn,i.-
tee reported. and sometimes it dido't.
Talking was the most that ever han
pened.
Opposition Weak hut Busy.
Finally there the question
which has come in every government
report issued in recent years. WHY
this delay of more than a century
upcn a subject. on which all the great
E}lnds of all walks of life in ali the
history of the country are so sineu-
larly asreed-judging by their talk ?
The diplomatic worded reports in
congress did not state things plainly,
but reading between the lines one
may see h a opponents to the idea,
few and unimportant. did somethins
more than talk. They worked. These
We're the educational institutions d.
rectly located at Washington and
some other institutions that seemed
to fear the rivalry of q nationally en-
dowed university. These interests
by quiet. we'll directed influence, saw
to it that. once the question was re-
ferred to a committee it went to sleer
there.
Now. after 125 years of talking
those who are for the project are no,
discouraged. 1t may be significant
that DIR. Thompson. who speaks las,
of the quartet at Chicago. has for his
subject: Ways and Means; the Mex,
Steps" Dr. Thompson is on the leg
lslatlNe committee of the committee
OF four hundred. Among his educa.
tional brethren not the least of DR.
Thompson's abilities is considered tc
lie in his faculty for getting what he
wants.
May Memorabilia Congress.
Whether or not the next
is to be memorialized for recognition
and an appropriation cannot be stat
ed at this time. DR.. Thompson's pa
per would indicate as much. Over
and over again it has been pointed
out that congress is in honor bound
to make good the disappearance OF
the sum hequeathed by George Wash.
ington. This has been the basis OF
several previous appeals.
N three other papers to be read
at Chicago are more directly in line
with the policy Of the last 1875 wears
They are The National Association
If State Universities and the Nation
al University" by President James:
"a National University: an 1nstru.
mentality for Advanced Research"
by President Van Hise. and "A Ma
tional University as Related to Dem
ocracy." by Prof. Baker.