HEARINGS BEFORE THE SELECT COMMITTEE TO ESTABLISH

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE UNITED STATES.

LETTER OF EX-SENATOR GEORGE F. EDMUNDS, LL. D.

[Addressed to Hon. Galusha A. Grow, chairman of the House Committee on Education. It includes the chief points made by Senator Edmunds before said committee on January 23, 1896, and reported to Senate committee by request of its chairman.]

1505 LOCUST STREET, Philadelphia, February 8, 1896.

MY DEAR MR. GROW: I have been informed that your committee would like a condensed statement of the grounds upon which I, with others, believe the university of the United States ought to be established at Washington. I am about to depart for Florida for several weeks, for health and rest, and can, therefore, only state such considerations as presently occur to me.

First. The great extent of the United States, and consequently the great distance of the larger body of colleges, academies, and schools of the various States from each other, makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for them to work in common sympathy with and in support of each other. This university will, I believe, overcome this difficulty to a very large degree, and will make what, in commercial phrase, might be called a mutual exchange and clearing house of knowledge, administrative and proper, inasmuch as all the States and colleges will be continually from time to time represented in it, and the governors of it.

Second. Besides colleges, academies, and schools, there will always be scattered over the country a very considerable number of persons who will have developed by their private studies and their genius the capacity for great advances in every line of research and progress, not only in mere literature and physical science, but also in social science. These, as the bill provides, will have the opportunity of meeting others of a similar kind from every part of the country, and probably from abroad, and can, at Washington, compare notes and help each other in the great march of the long-time progress to come.

Third. The Congressional Library and the libraries and the collections of objects in almost every branch of human energy and research, already in Washington, make that city the most available place (besides its being the political capital) for the work of such an institution.

Fourth. The United States, with their infinite resources of every kind, ought to stand in the front rank, if not as the leader, of all advancement for the good of mankind, and with such an institution, which coordinates all local institutions of learning, from the bottom up, and which in the main begins where the others leave off, it will certainly do so.

Fifth. The bill has been framed so as to make the work of the university open to all sects, to all political and social ideas, and to exclude all discriminations resting either upon sectarian or political notions. All persons properly fitted and capable are to have an equal field as seekers after the great truths of moral and social theories and problems, and for the discovery of the secrets yet hidden in the vast storehouse of nature.

I need not, with you, refer to the strong desire of the founders of the Government for such an establishment, or to the fact that special provision for it was not inserted 21

in the Constitution for the reason that such a clause would be entirely unnecessary, and might be simply exclusive of the operations of the Government.

I do most earnestly hope that your committee and Congress will see their way clear at this auspicious time, and as a continual remembrancer of the wise hopes of the founders of the Republic, to make provision for now establishing this institution. Very sincerely yours,

Hon. GALUSHA A. GROW,

Chairman Committee on Education,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

GEO. F. EDMUNDS.

REMARKS OF WILLIAM PEPPER, M. D., LL. D.

[Made before the House Committee on Education, January 23, 1896, and reported, by request, to the Senate Committee to Establish the University of the United States.]

Dr. Pepper said, in effect:

The question might naturally be put why is there not already a national university at Washington, instead of what are the reasons for such a foundation? The leading countries of the world have seen to it with great care and liberality that at the capital of the nation there should be a university, so that the national treasures in the way of art galleries, libraries, scientific collections, and laboratories might be used for the purposes of higher education. The failure to develop such a teaching university in London may be quoted as the exception, whose unfortunate results prove the wisdom of the rule.

My interest in this question is not new. Although I have devoted my life to the service of the University of Pennsylvania to aid so far as my strength permitted in the work of building up that institution, I have long felt the importance of a national university in Washington. Even while I was the provost, and straining every nerve to aid the development of the University of Pennsylvania, I advocated the passage of a bill similar to the one before you. I acted then purely in a personal capacity; and of course what I express now is in no way official or representative, but simply my personal conviction of the need of a great university in this city. So far from interfering with the prosperity and growth of collegiate institutions in other places, it would strengthen them. It is understood that, as provided in this bill, the national university would be exclusively for advanced work of postgraduate grade. It would not compete with other institutions for undergraduate students. So far from interfering with postgraduate studies at other universities, it would secure a fuller recognition of the necessity for more ample provision for such studies at every institution prepared to conduct them.

What is the number of fellowships open to-day to students desiring advanced instruction? A few hundreds at the outside. How many thousands of earnest students, who have in many cases exhausted their resources in securing the ordinary collegiate education, would gladly pursue advanced studies to fit them for higher work as teachers, or writers, or investigators, if such opportunities existed in this country. Each great university, it is presumable, will always offer special advantages for such advanced work in some special lines. The establishment of a national university at Washington to utilize the vast educational resources of the capital would surely stimulate activity in the field of advanced study at each and every institution so situated as to properly conduct such studies. Each university finds itself forced to build up at large expense a great library; it seeks original manuscripts and documents; it must enter upon explorations and develop a museum; laboratories must be equipped and maintained, and great sums are needed for these purposes. After all is done it must remain impossible to compete with the resources of the National Government. Washington has already the material for the greatest

university in the land—the richest libraries, the most extensive collections, numerous well-equipped laboratories, departments which are practically organized for original research.

The bill now under consideration would secure the coordination of all these rich facilities and utilize them for the benefit of higher education. It calls for no great expenditure for lands or buildings. Endowment will be needed and buildings will be needed as the work develops, but to no extent commensurate with the great work done-for so large a part of this work will always be accomplished by utilizing the educational facilities which now exist here, and which must inevitably become more and more extensive, whether coordinated in one great national educational work or left to be the coveted prize of a dozen rival denominational colleges. In all religious questions I revere the sincerity of individual belief, and I admire the energy of denominational zeal. But in educational matters I would protest against the admission of the denominational spirit. Either the proposed bill will become law and give to the country a truly federal and national institution, free from political and sectarian influence, or the educational resources and prestige of the capital will become more and more the object of injurious rivalry among many competing denominational institutions.

This bill, it is believed, does secure for the proposed university a high degree of protection from political influence. While its finances are intrusted to a small body of regents, all educational questions-the courses to be established, the conditions of admission, the character of examination, the degrees to be conferred, and above all the appointment of all professors and instructors—are delegated to the university council, a large majority of whose members are to be practical educators, preeminently concerned in maintaining the highest standards and in preserving the greatest purity of educational methods.

It is no question of mere academic interest which is urged on your consideration. It is an affair of the highest practical importance. It concerns vitally the future of education in America. It aims to confer upon Washington, the capital of this people of marvelous destiny, the crowning glory of being the center and the source of highest inspiration of a system of higher education worthy of such a nation.

REMARKS OF PROF. SIMON NEWCOMB, LL. D., SUPERIntendent of THE NAUTICAL ALMANAC.

[Made January 24, 1896.]

MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE: I shall attempt but a brief summary of what seem to me the reasons why a university of the United States should be established in the city of Washington.

1. It would be an eminently appropriate keystone to our educational system. Our counties, aided and countenanced by State authorities, provide for that elementary education which is necessary to the prosperity and well-being of the masses. The wisdom of this policy is so universally admitted, and so fully sustained by experience, as to be open to no question.

Next in order, many of the States of our Union, notably the newer ones, provide for a higher grade of education, namely, the collegiate and the professional. Experience has justified the wisdom of this policy. I believe that every State which supports the advanced branches of education is proud of its work in that direction in proportion to the liberality of its allowances and the efficiency of its institutions. The great advancement of the nineteenth century in the arts of life bring before the people complex problems, requiring for their solution the ablest talent the country can produce and the best education it can afford. To provide for this education is clearly the function of the National Government.

2. A striking feature shown by our country-one which has frequently excited the comment of observers, and which has been discussed by Mr. Brice in his great work on the American Commonwealth—is the wide separation between the politics and the learning of our country. That this separation arises from any want of appreciation of learning on the part of the American public can not for a moment be believed. It obviously arises from the fact that our institutions of learning are too widely scattered over the country, and have too few facilities for close intercourse to make themselves felt in public affairs. While it is true that the Government of the United States has in its employ many able scientific investigators, the work of each of these investigators is necessarily confined to his own rather limited sphere, and the position of all as Government employees prevents their serving as a medium of communication between the learning of the country at large and the work of the Government.

3. It is impossible to specify in detail the different ways in which the increased influence of men of learning at the national capital would be useful. The spirit which animates scientific and historical investigation is precisely that of which we now stand most in need. The legislator and the head of a department is so completely engrossed with matters of detail that he finds it difficult, in many cases, to view things from the standpoint of the man of thought. By communication with the latter he would receive precisely the suggestions of which he stands in need. What greater boon can we offer to the official who is oppressed with details of foreign and domestic complications than the calm suggestions of the lifelong student of the special subject in hand, who, though neither a politician nor an administrator, can supply information and make suggestions which could not be obtained from any other source?

4. In the way of illustrative details, I may mention a few of the subjects with which such an organization as that proposed might be expected to concern itself: A. International law, and the history of colonization and of treaties.-How useful to the United States would be a body of impartial experts on these subjects need not be pointed out.

B. The climatology of the United States.—In the observations and records of the Weather Bureau we have an inexhaustible mine bearing on this subject. But the working of this mine, so as to learn from it those general laws governing the change of climate and the course of storms, which would be invaluable to our Western settlers, requires a different kind of organization from that of the ordinary Government bureau. Organized the work of such an investigation must be, but the organizer should be the ablest scientific investigator of the subject that the country can produce, and who should be able to call upon the ablest of his fellows for assist

ance.

C. In the policy of such scientific organizations as the Coast and Geological Surveys and the National Observatory the advice of disinterested experts would be of the greatest value. They would occupy an intermediate position between the people at large, who contribute the money for the support of such institutions, and the administrators who are engaged in carrying them on.

5. I have heard no proposed objections to the new institution which are not founded either upon a misapprehension of principles or a misunderstanding of the purposes and objects of the university.

It is frequently supposed that the latter is intended to compete with the great universities of the country in the work of the higher education. The real effect of the supposed competition would be to increase the scope and usefulness of the colleges and universities of the country at large by offering to their best graduates yet more advanced courses, and by placing them in closer relations with the government of the country. The University of the United States would be in some sort the representative at Washington of all the colleges of the United States.

It is also said that the turmoil of political life is unfavorable to that calmness of mind necessary to the pursuit of study. This would undoubtedly be the case if the

students of the university were obliged to take an active and responsible part in political contests. But I speak from experience in saying that no student of any subject would ever experience anything but a wholesome stimulus from his nearness to the focus of political strife. I find it to be a fallacy to suppose that the quiet of a region far removed from the centers of activity is most favorable to the conduct of scientific investigation.

The great academies of sciences, the work of whose members have, during the past two hundred and fifty years, made the nineteenth century what it is, have had their seats at such centers as London, Paris, Berlin, and St. Petersburg. The greater number of their members have worked most effectively at the very center of such scenes as those of the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars. If any instances can be found of work done or discoveries made by isolated men, they will be hard to find and few in number.

I may be pardoned for mentioning a circumstance bearing on this question which is within my own experience. Fifteen years ago I was desirous of an opportunity to devote several months of uninterrupted thought to a very complex and difficult investigation requiring several months of close attention. I thought no place could be more favorable than a quiet nook in some European town, far removed from contact with daily duties. But a very short residence in such a situation convinced me that such was not the case, and that the best place to pursue the investigation was among the haunts of men.

Altogether, it seems clear to me that there is no way in which our Government can more effectually promote the intellectual and material advancement of the people than by the institution now proposed.

REMARKS OF GEN. JOHN EATON, LL. D., EX-UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION.

[Before the Committee, January 24, 1896.]

Mr. CHAIRMAN: I am very glad that Professor Newcomb has directed attention to the bearing of the power of knowledge upon human welfare, upon public affairs, in connection with the establishment of the University of the United States, and that he has so far pointed out how the increase of knowledge, of more thorough and deeper thinking, are needed in our legislation and administration; in our business industries—indeed, in all that concerns man; but I regret that the modesty of the Professor has not allowed him to give us some idea of the many ways in which his solution of complicated mathematical and astronomical problems in making the nautical almanac saves time, health, and money. We can not estimate the value of ideas in dollars. The Professor illustrated his point by referring to the Weather Bureau. The whole story is full of meaning. The late war has brought out the advantage of signaling to the eye and by the use of the telegraph. Professor Abbe, in the study of the heavens, has gained facts of advantage for men to know in the common pursuits of life. The nation now, through the Weather Bureau using the telegraph and signals, gathers the necessary data from all parts of the country and announces its warnings for the benefit of all the people of the land.

At first the whole thing shocked certain common ideas. What had the United States Government to do with the weather business? But patriotic common sense soon saw its wisdom. A little more thinking showed that winds and storms had to do with the floods of rivers, and so now lives and property are saved by foretelling the arrival of floods. The profoundest scientists engaged in that work feel that they are only on the threshold of its opportunities. The many relations of education to sanitation drew my attention to the efforts to preserve public health. When the most important investigations of recent years were begun, the nation had kept itself