The sun., 1919-08-24


w the School Of Experience,
War Is In high repute
among the members Of the faculty as
4 teacher because Of his ability to
rouse men from their Indifference and
sloth, and so provoke their interests
aud so stimulate their passions that
they think. Like all teachers he Is
not infallible and teaches much that
i, false along with much that is true,
but In spite of suppression of free
speech and the rigid censorship which
is popular in his classroom and quite
contrary to his repeated precept Of
unuuestioning obedience, he does
teach men to think for themselves,
and this in the eyes of democracy,
at least, Is n great virtue In a teacher.
The great war has taught the pub
liz much about schools and colleges.
II has also taught the colleges some
things about themselves. Education
never stood higher in the estimation
Of the American people than it stands
to-day. The war enabled England to
tut into law educational ideals with
which England has been playing for
forty years. The war gave America
the first great object lesson 1t has
had of the meaning and worth Of that
scientific method and slow moving OBJ
scure year in and year out devotion to
detail Of the modern investigator, of
which America had hitherto been only
vaguely and somewhat contemporary
aware.
The result Is widespread thirst
for knowledge and urgent desire that
new discoveries shall be made ap-
plicabble TO human welfare Us rapidly
aud universally as they were applied
30 human destruction in war.
Democracy, If it thinks at all, knows
that to protect itself In future wars
II needs not so much universal mill
tary training Of the common soldier
as some device which will insure it
officers who will combine high scien-
tlfic military training with conscience,
conscience that will hold them true to
duty and ever concerned for the sa-
credness of the life of the individual
soldier. The war demonstrated that
sixty days will make a pretty fair
private soldier; but that years of en-
perience will not make good officer
unless the officer has sound ideals Of
conduct and broad enough education
10 give him not only necessary tech
nlcal knowledge but proper sense of
proportion and sagacious judgment.
IT is far more important to-day that
Congress revise its conception of what
training school for officers should
be and devote a hundred millions to
creating adequate chronological schools
for the army at West Point, in the
middle West, and on the Pacific
coast, than that 1t should be wasting
time debating universal military
training under our present military
system as an adequate school for clti-
zenship.
The object of this article, however,
is not to discuss Wars broader les
sons, but to speak of two definite les
sons which the war has taught the
colleges about their own work.
First, the lesson of craftsmanship
or def1niteness Of aim. To fire a rife
ar a target, or to 5ab a bayonet into
dummy, Is quite as definite task
and calls for the same precision as
the use of the dative case instead Of
the accusative. or of the subjunctive
instead Of the indicative mood. It
has, however, this added advantage
that II Is more obviously related to a
lob in which we feel personal inter-
est at the moment The polishing OF
a shell in a munition plant calls for
ne much care and precision as the
washing and wiplng Of the breakfast
china, but while eating from a clean
plate is Of universal interest it's ap-
peal is somewhat stalled by its every
huy SlldEdClcIs
OF recent years the American col
lege has known definitenesS of aim,
precision and a nice discrimination in
reference to details. Once inside any
particular department of the college
the student has realized that there
are certain definite detectives set be-
fore him by the professor in that de-
rartment which the professor believes
important. 1t has, indeed, been a
fruitful subject for college Jokes that
the professor should regard these OBJ
jectives as so important, and in
face of a tolerant world, still insist
that there is a difference between n
shot which hits the target and one
which does not, between an accurate
translation and an inaccurate one, be-
tween an exact chemical compound
and one approximately exact
But along with this increasing def
likeness OF aim In the individual de-
pnrtment has come an increasing hail
ness in the general atmosphere of the
college, lack of coordination. an ab-
Sence Of any very definitely conceived
'tea of what all this niceness and ac-
'uracy Is for or to what end 1t leads.
As n prominent trustee of one of