Scranton Wochenblatt. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1865-1918, 1917-11-29
old AND new
AT COLUMBIA.
From N. Y. Eve. Mail.

selves: What is university
Some would describe it as a
group of buildings. with class
rooms, auditoriums, a library,
technical apparatus Of all sorts,
specimens and exhibits. All
these material thugs. added to
the land values upon which they
stand, make Columbia one of
the largest investments in the
country, one OF its foremost
business enterprises And yet
those buildings, that equipment,
are only small part OF the in
vestment in the university.
The largest stake in the uni
versity is held by 10000 of the
best homes in the land, who
have contributed their boys and
girls to it's student body. With
out them the land and buildings
would be a dead, inert mass.
These homes are contributing
to the university far more than
those who give land and build
ings. The land and building
contributions are less than what
is given by the devoted scholars
and teachers who have built up
Columbia's standards of learn
ing, research, scholarship, and
who now maintain those stand
ards as members of the teach
ing staff. A great stake in the
university is held by the spirits
of the past, the great minds
whose thoughts are crystaliized
into the hundreds of thousands
of books which fill the Colum-
bia library. The people of Ame-
rica as whole are large stock
holders in a university like
this. The labor of the people
has built it. They built the
railroads, the factories, the
mines, from whose profits flow
ed the great sums which private
individuals have given the uni
versities. In short, there are
interests in Columbia which in
fnitely trannscend the interest
of the moneyed individuals who
have been given the opportunity
of immortalizing themselves by
a connection with that institu-
,tion of learning.
Columbia to-day is managed
by the representatives of these
moneyed interests. 1t is man
aged by twenty-four trustees,
self-perpetuating. Like a board
of directors, they engage and
discharge professors as they
choose, according as the, views
of these professors meet their
approval. Over the policy and
management of the university
the professors, the faculty, have
no influence. And yet the facul-
ty is the only possible repres-
entative of the interests of the
ten thousand homes, the ten
thousand students, the teaching
force of the university, the
scholars of the past, the Amer
ican people as a whole. Only
the faculty can represent the
non-material investment in Co.
lumbia. And the faculty has
been taught to feel that it is
set of hirelings. 1t must no
longer aspire to be a collection
of master minds, but only minds
responsive to its masters. 1t is
the most offensive form of cap
italistic organization. Large ele-
ments of the teaching force at
Columbia are revolving from
membership in such an intellect
ual proletariat.
1t is instructive to see how
in all the world to-day the in
trenched forces of power and
privilege are making their last
stand against the forces of de-
mocracy and freedom. The czar
made his effort and failed. The
Kaiser has his back to the wall.
Corporate selhshness in the
United States fought a decent
system of war taxation tooth
and nail. Those selfish corpora
tions were not wholly defeated,
but they were exposed. Their
defeat is coming to chem. At
Columbia the forces of reaction
are trying to demonstrate their
power to crush any intellectual
divergence from their cherished
views.
The czar of Russia, remarks
The New York Evening Mail,
sat on the safety valve too long.
Perhaps the czar of Morning
side Heights will have the same
experience Old men with worm
out viewpoints, instinctively
strive to stifle what is Young