The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1914-11-21
WASHINGTON NEWS.
Big Universities Under Criticism

Big Universities Under Criticism.
At one of the sessions of the con.
vention Of the National Association of
State Universities, which was held in
Washington last week, DR.. William
Oxley Thompson, president of the
Ohio State University, made an at.
tack upon some of the great UNIVERSE
ties of the United States, for what he
declared was their attitude in opposi'
ton to the project of a great national
university at Washington, founded and
maintained by the United States gov.
eminent.
DR.. Thompson said: what we pro.
pose is a graduate institution, to util.
lie the educational organizations and
opportunities here at the national
capital for purely research work.
What we want is limited university,
organized for scholars. Some of the
great universities that are in orposi-
ton to any national university, have
not appeared in public with their
arguments, and, therefore, their argu-
ments cannot be answered. What we
want is to have them come out in the
open and not privately inform senators
and representatives, as they have been
doing, of their disbelief in the utility
Of national university"
He said it is the duty of the Ma
tiOnal Association of State Universe
ties, as we'll as of the National Educa-
tional association, to convince men,
bers of congress, as we'll as educators,
that postgraduate school would not
require much money outlay at the
start; that it would organize the edu-
cational resources of the national
capital, and that it would be much
more useful monument to democracy
than an institution which would draw
to the national capital thousands of
youths who could better get their
elementary education at home.
At the time of the introduction OF
the bill in congress to establish this
university, leading journals of the
country published words of warning
relative to the establishing of this ma
tional university at Washington, and
America" in referring to the project
said: "The Foss measure is unwar-
ranted by our fundamental law. The
initial appropriation provided for in
the bill fathered by the representative
from Ohio is but an entering wedge
Say what its promoters will, the ulti-
mate purpose of the bill is federal con-
troll Of education, and this, our best
constitutionalists tell us, belongs ex-
clusively to the individual states.
1.-THE prestige sure to accrue to a
national school, together with the ad.
vantage which the nations financial
backing will afford to 1t, and the i'm
mense political influence it will
speedily acquire, will necessarily tend
to cripple or hopelessly to weaken
private educational influence.
Cali religious schools, of whatever
denomination they may be, will be ir-
retrievably hampered in their effici-
ency by the discrimination which the
proposed legislation will Individually
bring into play. A great national uni
versity, established in the capital city,
in the very nature of things would
prove powerful impulse to the faith
which the Carnegie Foundation has
for years been preaching-an educa-
ton free from even potential control
in favor of positive doctrinal teaching.
1t is needless to sketch the hardship
this would impose on the vast num-
Der of Americans who are not willing
to accept the iron masters views re-
garding the suitable elements of edu-
cational training. Catholics, let it be
remembered, are not alone in their
vigorous defense of the American
privilege to establish schools under
religious control.
Education in the fundamental law
of this land is not national function
save in an extremely limited sense. At
bottom it is question of state rights,
with strict safeguarding of individu.
al privilege, personal liberty and re.
ligious freedom.
Before all else, the promoters of
the new idea should make clear to us
how all these are to be ensured, If, as
one prominent among them wrote re-
Gently: 1t is inevitable that If the
work Of the national university be
well done it will eventually become
the foremost factor in determining the
standard and the standing of Ameri
can scholarship and American degrees
before the nations of the world, and
consequently before our own people
here at home If these words do moi
mean supremacy of the federal fea
ture in education which eliminates
heretofore existing state control, the,
mean nothing. And that spells mon
I opoly."
New Job for chaplains.
In addition to their religious dutie,
the army chaplains this winter will
assume the role If ponora1 antor<o IN