Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1915-06-24

mental question, underlying this one
is what Is to become OF our UNIVERSE
ties? Are they to become private
property OF very wealthy men, who
know what they think and what they
wish the people to think, or shall they
belong. intellectually to the whole
people? This pertinent question is
raised by a thoughtful observer, who
has studied the conditions in the light
Of the present crisis. He asks, Shall
these great seminaries teach the pol
icies which produce financial mag
mates and machine bosses, allied rul-
ers OF our industrial and political
worlds, OF shall they become the
representatives Of the advancing dem
ocratic thought Of American
Pennsylvania's conflict draws at
tention, and owes its gravity, to the
kind Of men who are serving on the
board Of trustees, the supreme gov
erning body Of the university.
They represent the social group
which does not want change. In the
main they are representatives of
great business interests, chosen for
financial reasons only. The street
railways, the gas company, the Penn
s~ylvania railroad, the Philadelphia
& Reading railroad, the Baldwin To-
connective Works, the Girard Trust
company, all have their representa-
tives on this board. "These men,
the observer continues, who control
the university as they control the pol
itics Of Philadelphia and Pennsylva-
MIA, are the last in the world to un-
derstand the intellectual u~neasiness,
the economic skepticism, the desire
for, political reformation, which are
the moving forces of today. We do
not wish to impugn their honesty or
deny their technical capacity. Col
lectively, however, they are reaction
airy and socially u~nenlightened. We
should rather entrust the University
Of Pennsylvania to citizens less sue
c~essful, less philanthropic, even less
scrupulous, than permit the institu-
ton to be controlled by these more
reputable gentlemen, who regard the
expression of economic discomfort as
immoral"
The University of Pennsylvania has
made rapid strides in the last gen.
GRAFTON. Many buildings have been
built, it's equipment improve ID, and a
splendid corps of instructors have
been engaged to teach an ever!in-
creasing number of students. Its cur.
riculum has been improved, its teach.
ing liberapzed,. and a moral, tsas
weir A$.3a matefiall sense, it occupies
a place among the. leading ,universi,
ties ofo8MerftA.s But the university
should be Representatives not of a few,
but of all the people, Not the ruling
class" a +smail GROUP willing to give,
and able to(gaGSwith Industrial power,
political privilege and social prestige,
There is no representative of labor
on the Board. There are few if a4yS
Representatives. of radical thought, Of
small business, of the farmers" The
university is tun"by the people who
raise the money. and these men tryys
to make public opinion, Perhaps in
the long run public opinion will not
permit itself to be made.
In the meantime the immediate is.
u will be fought out. The fate OF
The professors concerned becomes SUI.
premely significant when it shows
within III universities a conflict be.
tween political reaction and proliti,
cal progress, between intellectual re.
preston and the right of free speech,
between a plutocracy strongly en-.
trenched and a democracy struggling
toward self consciousness.