Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-06-13
COLLEGES IN
ENGLAND MUST
SERVE IN WAR
Undergraduates and Upper
Classmen have Left Uni
versities for Seat of War

London. June neutrality-suspicious.
OF The Associated Press)-The war
seems more intensely real at Eng
lands university centres than any
else In the country. This was
not so apparent in the early days OF
the conflict. The transformation Is
especially pronounced at Oxford and
Cambridge where there is a desolating
loneliness OF the college buildings, Of
the river and the playing fields.
Not only the undergraduate has
gone from these seats of learning, but
also the younger Don. Everyone Of
military age except the invalid and
the crippled, has vanished. What
ever OF life there is in the colleges
is alien to the place. .
Transformed to Hospital.
The examination schools at oxford
have been transformed into a hospi-
tai. Part of the other buildings have
been given up to training of cadets
for the army. Terms begin and end
unheeded: The only students left are
students Of war; the only arts culti-
waited are those of destruction.
A. c. Benson, the widely known
author and master at Cambridge, dis
cussing recently the gradual trans
formation at the English seats of
learning, said: ut was a question Of
instinct and feeling from the start.
The high-spirited and adventurous
went first, then the sedater sort; then
the men Of an altogether Quieter
type; and then those who were ma
turally averse from the fighting life"
Natural Population Gone.
All the natural population of the
universities and colleges have gone.
What stats are left are turning out
death-dealing weapons. The STATS of
nearly all the various departments at
Leeds university are now doing war
work of a most specialized kind. The
Coal. Gas and Fuel industries depart
ment Is letting high explosives pro-
duced in Yorkshire, and a%nalyizins
coal-tar for1 toluene and benzine. The
engineering department. besides other
more elaborate duties, is teaching
elementary machine work t intend
ing munttion workers. The textile in
dustries department. the Color Chem
istry department. the agricultural de-
partment. are engaged by the govern
dyes and with foodstufrs.
Outlining before parliament the
other day the work now being done
at the universities, Herbert A. l..
Fisher, head of the educational de-
partment of the country, said: 1.-The
professor and lecturer. the research
assistant. and the research student
have suddenly become powerful assets
to the nation. Whatever university
you may choose to visit, you will find
it to be the scene Of delicate and
reconcile investigation, resulting here
IN a more deadly explosive, there is a
stronger army boot, or. again, in
some improvement to the fast advanc-
Ing technique of aerial navigation"
Feament in America.
Commenting on the effect of the
wal upon American seats Of learning
the Daily Telegraph says: Those
who know anything of the colleges
and universities of America can well
Imagine what a ferment is going on
within them at the present time, and
with what fervid zeal their students
and professors alike will throw them
selves into the war.
1T is not" continues the paper,
the American fashion to do anything
by halves, and some Of the American
Internationally. we believe Har-
vard-already number their old schol.
ars who have been fighting and work
ing for the Allies in the Various the
aters of war not by the score, but ac-
tually by hundreds"