The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-06-28
COLLEGIANS To
STUDY POLITICS
Truxtun Beale Gets Option on
Site for Amphitheater for
college Congress. "
STRUCTURE COST $40. 900
University Teachers and Students win
Gather to Discuss Present
dya Questions.

Plans for a college congress. al
which university teachers and students
viii discuss political questions at annual
conventions. were materially advanced
yesterday. when Truxton Beale, former
Minister to Persia. who originated the
idea OF the congress, announced that
he had obtained an option on a site for
the Institution at Eighteenth and
Streets Northwest.
Sixty-six thousand dollars Will be PAID
for the property. according TO the OPP
ton, before November Is next. An am
phitheater. to cost about $4o,OOc, Is to be
erected for the congress. Plans for the
building are being drawn by J. II. de
Sibour.
The proposal Of Mr.. Beale has caused
nationwide comment. Former President
Roosevelt, Mr.. Beale said. had invited
discussion OF the plans at oyster Bay.
Leaders Of the Progressive party have
shown much interest In the institution,
as have many colleges. chiefly George
Washington University. officers of which
invited ahiliation with their school Mr..
Beale has been invited to attend the
convention Of the Progressive party. but
he said yesterday that he planned not
to make the institution political par
tisan.
Mr.. Beale has conferred with Henry
White, former ambassador to France.
and Archibald Hopkins. Lord Eustace
Percy. third secretary of the British
Embassy. has advocated a similar con-
gress for England. It is thought that
an International congress may result
from a conference to be held with
friends Of the movement in England.
Deale to Give Part.
In speaking of his plans for the con-
gress, Mr.. Beale said:
II propose to furnish a substantial part
of the endowment which will be neces-
sary to carry out my plans. and I have
not the slightest doubt Of my ability to
raise all the funds needed among my
friends.
Its fiexibility is one of the virtues of
the scheme propose. After the purchase
of the land We expect to turn 1t and the
amphitheater to be erected on II over to a
corporation made up Of college and uni
versity presidents as a holding and oper-
ating company. The institution is to be
what may be called a confederation of
colleges, and / think that such an insti-
tuition will have advantages over a ma
tional university. In that II viii have a
tendency to be less conservative and more
progressive.
Primarily such an institution will give
to the brilliant young students of all the
universities an opportunity TO study poll
tics at first hand. just as the young artist
Is taken from the drawing-room, after
lessons in perspective. into the fields to
draw nature, and as the young civil en-
gineer Is taken from the section room to
view great engineering works like the
Brooklyn Bridge.
my scheme is that every year young
students of government. politics. finance.
and economics shall come to Washington
and debate in this open-air theater. side
by side with the Congress of the United
States, the most important questions on
these subjects being debated at the mo-
ment by the Congress of the United
States.
For instance, IL the college congress
had been in session through the month
of May / should have expected II to
discuss the tariff and currency while
Congress was doing 30.
No Instruction Planned.