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OF CURRENT INTEREST

A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY.

The association of the presidents of state universities which has been in session in Baton Rouge has put itself on record as favoring the establishment at Washington of a national university. The object aimed at is the securing of opportunities for higher instruction which the state universities are not able to give. Such an institution would make the crown of the system of public education of the country, the free grammar and high schools, and the practically free state university making a thorough education for boy or girl a comparatively inexpensive thing.

The facilities which the government already affords through various establishments at Washington, if they were co-ordinated, would make a fair start with comparatively little outlay. The great congressional library, the archives of the various departments, the Smithsonian institution, the patent office, the naval observatory, the bureau of standards come to mind at once when Washington is considered as the seat of a real university in the strictest sense of that term. These contributing forces have already been taken into account by several religious denominations which have established educational institutions there. They probably had influence in connection with the location of the Carnegie institution, which already is carrying on much investigation along the lines of the higher university work in the thought of the college presidents mentioned.

George Washington had the idea in mind and left a sum of money for the inception of such an enterprise. The subject has been presented to the attention of congress at various times in the national history, several reports of committees to consider it being found in the government documents. Many of the most progressive of the public men have. favored it, and its réappearance from time to time as a theme of discussion probably reflects the feeling on the part

of many citizens that something in this direction should be undertaken. PROPOSED CHANGES IN HARVARD CHAPTER OF PHI BETA KAPPA.

The proposed changes in the membership of the Harvard Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, recently made public, are very significant as showing the tendency of the society, and of the university in general, no longer to regard grades as the sole indication of scholarship and intellectual ability. Heretofore

the basis of selection of new members of the society has been almost entirely the grades obtained in college and little account has been taken of the men of perhaps greater natural ability whose work in various lines of intellectual activity has prevented them from getting the highest marks in their college work. The proposed changes in the constitution of the society promise to remedy these defects by increasing the membership and also by increasing the list of men who would be eligible for election.

The plan is, in brief, to increase the number of undergraduate members from the senior class from thirty to thirtyfive, of whom the first eight are to be elected as at present, on the basis of the grades as recorded at the college office. Three of these eight are then to serve as a membership committee and report to the first eight on the qualifications of other candidates. At the next regular elections twenty-two men, instead of seventeen, as at present, are to be elected, and the choice is to be made from the forty-four men highest in rank not already elected, instead of the twenty-five highest. A committee of five is then to report on the qualifications of candidates not necessarily included in the fifty-two best scholars; and from these candidates, the five "honorary" members are to be chosen. The undergraduate members are to have entire freedom in choosing the five members at large, the ratification of the graduate society no longer being necessary.

The important changes from the present system are as follows: "The membership of the society is enlarged, a change demanded by the increased size of the university. Since the present system of choosing twenty-five members and five members at large was instituted, the college has at least doubled in size. The proposed increase seems, therefore, to be none too great to accord with the increased size of the college. A more important change, however, is the increase in the number of eligible candidates from whom the members are chosen. This will allow the election of men of true scholarly ability, such men as Bryant, Hale, Emerson and Lowell, who in years past belonged to the society. Too often in recent years the society has represented rather the "grinds" of the college than the scholars, and has thereby fallen in the estimation of the undergraduate body. By these changes, and by permitting the undergraduate members to choose the five honoraries without the ratification of the graduate body, it is hoped that an improvement may be effected in the standards of the society. In its true position, the Phi Beta Kappa Society should represent the best intellectual activity of the college, as the football and baseball teams represent its best in athletics.

IGNORANCE OF THE BIBLE.

Professor William Lyon Phelps, of the English Department of Yale, calls renewed attention to a fact which is brought out by some college instructor about once a year. The average student knows little about the Bible. If the application had been made more sweeping it would have been just as true a statement. The average man or woman in the country has a limited knowledge of the venerable book. Many read it for the sake of religious comfort who have no appreciation whatever of its worth from the literary point of view.

Because of this lamentable ignorance the Yale man suggests that the entire list of books required in preparation for college entrance requirements in English be set aside and the Bible used instead. Such action, adds the Chicago Tribune,

would stop the wrangling of committees over editions and texts. It would simplify the work of examining the papers submitted by the incoming students. And, far more important, it would provide the best foundation for more advanced work in college English.

Those who have paid much attention to the literary study of the Bible in recent years, have shown the wealth which is contained in it, as poems, essays, sermons, dramas, songs, laws, have been pointed out within its covers. There is hardly a form of expression which is not illustrated in simplest diction. For clear cut, luminous language it stands preeminent among the writings of the world. As a text book in English it is unsurpassed.

But the most important consideration adduced is that it has been used by every master of literature as a storehouse from

which apt illustrations and striking figure have been taken. The greatest poems in our language are filled with references to it. The orators have delighted to use its stories as the most forceful and effective illustrations. Tennyson is full of such suggestions, many a poem of his being unintelligible without the previous knowledge assumed of the reader. If Daniel Webster characterized Alexander Hamilton as one who smote the rock of the national resources or touched the dead corpse of the public credit, he appealed to a knowledge of the Bible.

Notwithstanding this fundamental literary character of the Bible, the ignorance of the average citizen of Biblical material is rightly characterized as "universal, profound and complete." It is

safe to assert that thousands who repeated

the expression, "crown of thorns," or the accompanying "cross of gold," in a heated presidential campaign had no definite appreciation of the source of such illustrations. The confusion of Adam and Abel or of Golgotha and Goliath might be matched by countless illustrations of equal ignorance. It is strange that a source book of such literary importance should be so much neglected.

TRAVELING AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS.

Traveling university extension teaching for farmers has proven a pronounced success. It is altogether impossible for most farmers to attend college for instruction in modern agricultural methods, were they so inclined and consequently the agricultural development of any section can only be insured by interesting the farmers by bringing the instruction to their doors. Where this is done the farmer invariably proves an enthusiastic and willing student.

The first attempts of this kind were the "Corn Specials" and "Wheat Specials," which toured several of the Western States, bringing to the out-of-theway farmer illustrative exhibits and instruction. More recently the movement has reached the East and it is hoped that many of the abandoned New England farms, which have been in that condition for years, showing the decadence of the rural communities in those sections, will once more be fertile.

The traveling school consists of a train of cars, equipped with apparatus and exhibits illustrative of farm crops, fertilizers, animal industry, dairying, horticulture, entomology and forestry. A portion of each car is given up to the exhibits and the rest is an audience chamber, or lecture room. Stops are made ranging from an hour upwards at all stations along the line of travel. The lectures are followed by an inspection of exhibits and the answering of any questions pertaining to the lectures or other problems which may be puzzling to the farmer.

While the length of time the farmer is in touch with the lecturer is small, the number of farmers reached on such a trip is much greater than the combined registration of the agricultural colleges in such a section, or probably in the whole country. The lectures, however, awaken interest and impress upon the farmer the significance of the experiment station work and the absolute necessity of keeping in touch with it if they expect to gain a livelihood by farming in these competitive days.

FRENCH CLUB AT AMERICAN COLLEGE,

CONSTANTINOPLE.

At the request of the students of the American College for Girls at Constantinople, a French club has recently been organized, its object being the propagation of the French language among the students. The membership is voluntary, but is confined to the students of the college, the preparatory students and the teachers being ineligible, with the exception of the two French teachers. The members number about fifty at the present writing. The society holds two meetings a month, the first being literary in its nature, consisting of lectures, readings and discussions of literary subjects; the second being social and including games and charades. The motto of the club indicates its dual nature: "Travail et Gaite," and the colors are the French tri-color. The officers are the followingnamed: President, Mlle. Roberjot, the head of the French department of the American College; vice-presidents, Mlle. Zwierzohowska, assistant teacher of French, and Miss Emmanuel, a Greek graduate student; secretary, Miss Logios; treasurers, the Misses Kirova and Klonaridou. The first meeting was to be held this week Wednesday, but was postponed on account of the illness of Mlle. Roberjot.

The French department of the college consists of six classes. The students

coming from the preparatory school enter the freshman or third-year French, the first two years' work being for students coming into the sub-freshman or freshman class from other schools with little or no previous French. These classes are, however, small, for French is still the second language of most Orientals, many Greek and Armenian families speaking it habitually among themselves. English and German are both gaining adherents fast in this country, but for some time to come French will continue to be the language of courts. and polite society. A strong French department in an Eastern college is, therefore, very important. In the American College for Girls, each student is required to study English, either French

or German, her vernacular, and the ancient form of her language if it has one. Thus a Greek girl studies English, generally French, and modern and ancient Greek, and often begs to be allowed to take German or Latin. A Bulgarian student, by the same plan, studies English, French or German, Bulgarian and Slavic. The languages taught in the college are Greek, ancient and modern, Bulgarian and Slavic, Turkish and Arabic, Armenian, ancient and modern, Latin, English, French and German.

Three Hebrew girls once formed a Hebrew class. The nationalities that are represented by only one to four students at one time are not taught their vernacular. The language of the school is English, all classes except the language classes being conducted in that tongue, American text-books being in general use. Chapel exercises and all public exercises, except an occasional lecture in French, are also in English. The students are required to speak English among themselves three times a week, and French three times, while on Sunday the vernaculars are permitted. At meals German is spoken at one table, French at two, and English at the others. Although the language departments are made as strong as possible, that the students may not lose touch with their own people, the fact is never disregarded that the school was founded by Americans, is governed by Americans, has a charter from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is an American college.

THE HONOR SYSTEM IN COLLEGES.

There has of late been considerable discussion of the so-called honor system in colleges. The phrase generally applies merely to the conduct of written examinations, during which the students, being on honor to accept no aid, are released from supervision of any kind. Ordinarily, a signed statement that no aid has been given or received is appended to the examination-book. Princeton and Williams are colleges that early introduced this practice. President Hyde of Bowdoin College, in a letter recently published in these columns, has expressed skepticism as to its value. He

points out that honor is too sensitive a sprite to be invoked on slight or routine occasion. He questions if we do not actually cheapen the sense of honor when we too frequently bid students make solemn asseveration. President Eliot, we believe, is of similar opinion, holding that the plan is sentimental and unbusinesslike, impairs the seriousness of examinations, and thus the worth of a degree.

Championship of the system, it is to be noted, comes largely from the South. Many Southern professors write that not only in examinations, but deportment generally, Southern students are bound by the honor of a gentleman. There is, it is maintained, so scrupulous a respect for the collective honor that a student cheating in examination is incontinently sent to Coventry, having made himself an impossible companion for gentlemen and men of their word. We are assured that a similar sentiment frowns upon and keeps down horse-play in the class-room, ragging professors, and other demonstrations that in the North are regarded as lawful recreations. lawful recreations. It is plain that the South is exceptionally blessed. Where a clear-cut student sentiment exists, faculties would be foolish, or worse, to run counter to it. We understand that no pledge or formal statement is required of any Southern college student, that faculties practically wash their hands of this branch of discipline, the students remaining keepers and arbiters of their own honor.

It is evident that the existence of such a sentiment as a fixed tradition, is very different from the deliberate attempt to create it. President Hyde's remarks, for instance, apply not to the Southern institution, but to the honor system as consciously introduced in the North. He is right, we feel, in doubting if the results of the propaganda have quite fulfilled its promise. The honor system in the North is weak precisely where the liberal regime in the South is strong-namely, in an aggressive student sentiment to enforce it. President Hyde recalls that in a college in which evidence of cheating is referred to a student tribunal, no evidence except that of the blue-books has

ever been presented. This means either that for several years no student has ever seen a college mate cheating, or that the express agreement to report and discipline offenders has been persistently disregarded. So certain is it that a certain amount of cheating has gone on that advocates of the "system" often rest merely on the assertion that there is less cheating, after all, than there was when proctoring made it a kind of sport.

If this be the case, it is clear that student sentiment remains pretty much what it was, and that the adoption of a system has not inculcated an effective sense of honor. It seems probable that, as from time immemorial, it is regarded as permissible for a man to cheat to save his academic neck, but as bad form to "crib" for prizes or honors. The new system may have sacrificed a certain number of scrupulous, intellectual weaklings, and may have shamed a few mediocre student into honesty; it has nowhere evoked a public feeling so tonic and formidable as that which is said to prevail south of Mason and Dixon's line.

It is easy to see that there may be practical conveniences in what is a makeshift order of things. To leave examinations unsupervised relieves a professor of an invidious duty, and one that perhaps should never be put upon him— that of suddenly becoming inspector of the men he has been serving as guide, counsellor and friend. The happy-golucky way also frees the younger lights of the academic hierarchy from the tedious duty of pacing the aisles of examination rooms. It allows the overwrought student discretionary recesses for pipe or social conversation in the open air. All these things may be considered, and possibly are, bona in se, but it is hardly necessary to invoke the high name of honor in such a connection.

To us it seems idle to hope to introduce by statute anything like a clear-cut sense of honor facultywards among a student community habituated to the conventional ethics held by most Northern college men. A man or a class is honorable altogether, or the word means rather little. A college class that is honorable only so far as it does not diminish

the chances of survival of its weaker members, is indulging in a shuffling sort of casuistry. Indeed, it might be fairly asked if the old rude rule of "all's fair aginst the faculty" is not actually more ingenuous.

It is possibly more important for student communities to clear their minds of cant than to write themselves down honorable men many times a year, meaning thereby merely that all but a small and pardonable fraction are, according to the specifications, honorable. Professors, too, in taking a stand on this matter may profitably inquire whether what seems an aspiration for a more ideal atmosphere is not a disguised longing for lines of least resistance. Practically, one will find that, under any system, "cribbing" is likely to be common in badly conducted courses, and rare in those in which the instruction and discipline are of a high order. At one point the evidence is incomplete where it might be most instructive: Has a student body in the South ever lost its sense of honor? If so, what has the faculty done about it? A Southern professor who will answer these questions will do a real service to Northern colleagues a little dismayed at the task of creating a sense of student honor to order.

EDUCATION OF JAPANESE GIRLS. There are 10,000 girls in Tokio who have come from the provinces to complete their education, writes Mary Crawford Fraser in The World's Work. These girls are living in cheap boardinghouses, where no one takes any interest in them, and the results can only be called deplorable.

Suddenly emancipated from home supervision, their heads filled with wild dreams of independence and of equality. with men, their leisure hours occupied with a low class of romantic literature, what wonder that scandal follows scandal and that the reputation of the Japanese girl for modesty and purity is being destroyed? The girls are really as yet quite unfitted to take care of themselves and are thrown into situations where Western mothers would not allow their well-taught, self-reliant daughters to remain for a single day.

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