The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-09-17
COLLEGES BACK TO PEACE BASIS


eral opening of the American college
and university. the eyes of the coun-
try are turned to one of the most sig
nificant phases in the history of the
country's higher education; the tran
sition of colleges and college men
from war to peace. For two years the
halls OF learning have opened to the
khaki and the blue, and with the re-
turn of cap and gown far-seeing edu-
Gators see not only a reversion to the
past, but the development of a new
university, the birth OF a new spirit
in the thousands OF colleges which are
to take up the training of the national
youth within these next few days
] The war has made changes in both
the student and the institution, and
with thousands of young men return
ing to their books after long months
in national service, and with hundreds
of instructors and professors coming
back to their desks with the grim
realities of war fresh in their minds,
it is a natural psychological develop
ment that there is to be new note in
the clustered classroom. while with
the colleges themselves just thru the
new experience of housing the Stu
dent Officers Training corps, and all
the other military organizations fos-
tered for the student by the govern
ment. there is bound to be, in the
opinion and prominent educators. a
definite legacy OF thought and ideals
to stay with the colleges as a fruit of
the Great War.
Teaching the young idea to shoot
and teaching the young idea to think
are dissimilar only in their objects"
says one prominent professor, for
henceforth the trend of thought will
be the same. The country needs its
best youth as never before, and the
great problems of the immediate fu-
ture demand that our young men must
think as straight as they have learned
to shoot. The answering loyalty to
an ideal. and the universal serious
ness of purpose, so marked a feature
of the students efforts during the war,
must continue If the economic. politi-
cal and social needs Of the nation are
to be met with the same success as
that with which our young men met
the German"
It Is generally predicted that the
statistics which will follow next weeks
registrations will show. for one thing,
that the average student will be older
than the average of the fall of 1915,
for the reason that thousands are ex-
pected to return to complete the
courses which the war cut short
while on all hand are indications that
the wars lessons on physical training
are TO be met with an unparalleled in
crease in athletics for the whole stu
dent body. az opposed to the old sys-
tenn of concentrating on a chosen
squad of the few. Harvard's recent
decision TO give physical training to
tho entire freshman class is an in
stance showing the trend along this
direction. while it is expected that coll
! leEe authorities in general will hence
forth exercise a closer supervision of
the health and physical condition of
all students.
| One OF the most noteworthy fea-
lures OF the new attitude OF the uni
verSlties. It has been pointed out, is
the way in which the long-sacred cur
ricuium has been opened wide for re-
vision to meet the public needs; a new
freedom from precedent due for the
most part to the changes all colleges
made In their courses TO adapt their
educational machinery to the wants of
the war department. Statements and
reports from presidents and faculties
everywhere reveal the fact that the
college is preparing to train its new
est sons for all the big work which
has developed as a result of the war,
particularly in International trade and
finance, and in the newly opened field
OF Industrial chemistry, where the war
| with Germany must continue long after
peace Is an accomplished fact. So
many college professors having served
as advisers TO the American peace
commission, and so many more hav-
ing served the government In statisti-
cal ana research work revealing d.
reetly what the country Is facing in its
problems OF reconstruction. It natur-
ally follows that the college OF today
is alive to the present as never before.
new openness OF attitude, the colleges
OF today are coming straight to the
public, with free expressions of their
plans and objects, and in some cases
with frank appeal for endowment suf-
ficient TO carry on their work. The
alumni of Harvard university. in their
projected campaign among the friends
and sons of Harvard for an endow-
ment fund Of s1l.ooo.ooo. have been
the first to lay the problems of their
alma mater before the public, claim
ing that even this sum. which a few
years ago would have seemed unusual
~ large. is little enough for the proper
compensation OF the professors and
instructors. and for the development
and maintenance OF new fields of in
struCtiOn SO sOrelv -Uaedad nv the