The New York herald., 1921-06-19

eonalities. The principals and supern-
tendents Of schools had at that period
small chance to discover and engage
such personalities. and indeed they are
rot much better of to-day.
Scholars of the '7Os.
I recall with a shiver the very inn
perfect means i possessed in the '70s
for discovering the kind of man that I
knew ought to be found for any pro-
fessorship In Harvard University.
had to depend on my own acquaintance
with scholarly men, on casual contacts
with such persons in travel and at meet
ings Of learned socisties and on advice
sought by letter from eminent scholars.
OF course there had been leading Amer
lean scholars and specialists In other
earlier generations, like Nathaniel Bow
ditch of the Navigator" Joseph Story In
law. George B. Emerson In trees and
shrubs. David Humphreys Storer on
fishes, George Ticknor In Spanish litera-
ture and William H. Prescott and
George Bancroft in history. In the mid
die OF that century there was a small
group of men Of high merit as investi-
gators and authors from whom advice
could be obtained. such as Asa Gray. the
botanist: Jeffries Wyrlan. the anatomist
and physiologist. and Louis Agassiz. the
zoologist. at Harvard Benjamin Si9i-
man and James d. Dana at Yale, Maury
and the three brothers Rogers Of Vir-
ginia and Joseph Henry. the physicist.
of Princeton and the Smithsonian. But
those great men were isolated as teach
ers; so that their influence was felt not
by large groups OF Students but mainly
by disciples whose previous training had
often been unsystematic and peculiar. In
those days. too. the numerous associa-
tions or societies Of men learned ii, a
single branch Of knowledge, such as the
classics law. history. chemistry, physics,
engineering. architecture and physiog-
raphy. had not come into existence
Since 1899 these societies have furnished
university presidents and heads of de-
partments with much valuable informa-
ton about their leading members and
have revealed to intelligent inquirers the
young men of promise.
1t took decades to develop even in
the strongest universities what are now
called departments. as of Latin, mathe-
matics. or physics. and more decades
still to develop what are now called
divisions in which several departments
are united, az. for instance. the divisjo.,
Of ancient languages or OF the modern
languages, or Of history, government and
economics. So long as 1t was the prac-
tice to have only one professor for eacn
subject-which was the common way
1t was Of course Impossible to create
department When, therefore. one looks
at the existing organization Of any con-
siderable American college or university
to-day he cannot fail to observe that a
wonderful improvement has taken place
in the American university as an instru-
rnent Of teaching, research and social
progress since the close of the civil war
During the period under consideration
(1S65-1890) American education made
great gains in respect to training men for
the professions. old and new.
No Bar Examinati tions.
Prior to 1870 there were no exam
nations for admission to professional
schools in the United States. and, what
Is worse. there were no effective ex-
aminations for graduation. The teaching
Of law and medicine in those was proba-
bly, as good at Harvard University as at
any other American university. and the
quality Of law and medicical students
at Harvard was at good as anywhere
but the law faculty gave the degree OF
bachelor Of laws to any man who had
paid through term bills Covering eigh-
teen months) and had not been very ir-
regular in attending lectures. When !
asked in the medical faculty of 1870 II
1t would be possible to substitute an hour
written examination for the five minutes
oral examination "a five minute inter-
view with the professor Of each Of the
nine principal subjects then taught In the
schooD at the examination for gradua-
ton, the answer came promptly from
the head Of the faculty: Written ex-
aminations are impossible in the medi-
cal school. A majority of the students
cannot write well enough" Any one who
contrasts that state OF things with the
conditions OF admission and graduation
in schools Of law and medicine to-day
in all parts Of the United States will
be satisfied that improvements in Amer.
lean training for the professions have
taken place which are already OF Inn
measurable value. and which promise In
the future great gains in all sorts Of pro-
fessional practice. and therefore of pro-
fessional influence and service. The i'm
provements are quite as striking in the
newer professions like engineering. ar
chitecture, landscape architecture and
dentistry as they ere in the older, like
divinity. law, medicine and teaching.
Another great advance in American
education since the civil war is the de-
velopment Of separate colleges for wom-
en- and the increased resort of young
w
OF higher education. At first the col
leges for women were restricted or ham,
pered in their development because the
object OF faculties and students alike
seemed to be to prove that young women
could study advantageously all the SUBJ
jects which had made the staple of in
struction In colleges for men and that
young women could In those subjects at
tain success quite equal to that which
young men had previously exhibited. Just
teaching and a new kind of teacher had
been restricted in colleges and universi-
ties for men by lack OF money. so in the
separate colleges for women their devei-
opment was greatly hindcred by lack of
income. Indeed. this restriction is not
yet overcome, although considerable en-
several mems colleges. As results of the
en- in the United States searchers FOR
women teachers can find better trained
women for higher places in American
colleges and schools, and women have
rained access in small numbers to all
the older professions called learned and
to several Of the new ones.
Much Gain stu 20 Come.
They have also won positions--gener-
ally secondary ones-in various sorts of
scientific research. including biological,
physical, chemical, medical and astro-
nomical. Any one who can recall how
limited and Inaccessible the education of
girls was in the United States. as also
In Europe, before the civil war will ap-
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