VIII.

The tendency at present manifested by the institutions founded on the sale of public lands is one of separation from the literary institutions with which, in Eng. land at least, at the present day, it is thought advisable that they should be conjoined. We have seen how slowly in the past our large existing institutions absorbed the conception that the empirical laws of nature should have a footing on the platform occupied by the subjects occupied more particularly with the ideal conception of what a man ought to be as distinguished from what, under the given conditions of his age, he is, and it seems evident that as the German, Hecker, in establishing his realschulen, about the middle of the last century, was obliged to place them in opposition as it were against the classical colleges of his native land, and as Jefferson was obliged to found a new university, so the endowments given by Congress have endeavored to divorce themselves from a connection with institutions more particularly based on the pedagogical conceptions of the Renaissance or Reformation.

1

In no other countries of the world has education been left more to local initiative than in the United States and England. In neither is there a minister of public instruction, as in continental countries, and in neither is anything more obnoxious and irritating than a fussy interference by the General Government with local concerns. But in both the General Government has been appealed to for aid in establishing technical education. One country has given "public lands," the other its "whisky money," for the "practical and liberal education of the industrial classes.” But here the similitude ceases. In America the technical departments are 86 overshadowed by the literary departments of the institutions with which they are connected;" in England the universal complaint before the late secondary education commission was that by exacting fifteen hours a week for instruction in science literary instruction was being pushed to the wall. This difference is to be attributed to one of two things, or rather to both, more or less, in combination. The English grant is a capitation payment given on results obtained and witnessed to by the inspectors and passed on by the examiners of the science and art department at London; the original American grant was outright; the other cause is the difference in grade of the English and American literary instruction conjoined with technical instruction as here considered, the American literary instruction being higher.

At home we have the president of one of our most promising technological institutions observing in a report to this Bureau that if agricultural and mechanical colleges could receive like recognition from the State that the State classical institutions do it would be far better that such institutions as his own should be separated, but if the State classical college is permitted to do technical work, and thus compete with the technological college, it might be better to have them united. By an answer of this kind we are landed in the domain of educational economics. It is asserted by two of our correspondents that the answer to the question of separation depends upon the financial conditions in each State, and that the best interest of the technical school as a machine of instruction may be subserved by independence, but its existence would be precarious without affiliation with the treasury of the State university. But the conflicting claims are in general these:

Elevated atmosphere of the humanities.
Economy of staff.

Economy of general expenses.

Frigidity of that atmosphere.

Predilections of staff for literary work. Temptation to divert land-grant money to literary department necessities.

The direct solution of questions of this kind is not within the power of legislation or of any other form of exterior control. Our old colleges not only were not specifically for the educatiou of the "industrial classes" (whatever that may mean in

1 So called from its being the "excise revenue," £750,000 annually.

2 Meaning in England parents receiving from any source less than £400 annually ($2,000).

America), but were intended for all classes who were desirous of opening and enlarging their intellects, irrespective of the emoluments legitimately flowing from the capital of time and money spent in the effort, and when an institution having traditions of that kind has affiliated itself to one "for the industrial classes" it is but the exhibition of a familiar tendency of the human mind, unless carefully guarded against, that the newcomers en bloc should be regarded as something of an inferior order. At Cornell or California University (new universities), where both classes were familiarized with each other and placed upon an equal footing from the beginning, this difficulty may be supposed to be unfelt. It is probable that the term "industrial classes" used in the act of 1862 was borrowed from England, where a science and art department for the industrial classes had been established, just before the first attempt to pass the bill in 1858, which was vetoed by President Buchanan.1 The suggestion that the resources of the State have something to do with the question of keeping conjoined the two classes of institutions invites an inquiry as to the sum obtained by the institutions endowed by the acts of Congress.

In ten States there is no income from State endowment or from appropriation, and from three no reports. In twenty-three States there are received specifically for agricultural and mechanical departments 2 $338,282. In twelve States there were received all told by State universities having land-grant colleges connected with them $751,633.2 Nearly all of which was contributed by Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, and California.

Let us take the cases of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California. The three universities of those States received in 1894–95 collectively $706,726 from the State for the purpose of support and building. Of this, $152,050 were devoted to the purposes contemplated by the act of August, 1890-that is to say, over $21 in every $100 appropriated by the State, either originally as endowment or by annual law. In these same institutions, however, there were 27 students in land-grant departments in every 100 students in attendance at the three universities, including the preparatory department of one. At an Eastern institution, not aided by the State, but having land-grant departments among its colleges, in every $100 spent from all receipts except from the Federal Government subsidy, but for all purposes, $25 was spent for matters contemplated by the act of August 30, 1890 ("Morrill Act"), and that, too, upon a very narrow, not to say too rigorous, interpretation of the meaning of the words of that act. But in that institution, which has no preparatory department, 35 in every 100 students were in technical (including, of course, agricultural) departments. These grants by these States or universities just mentioned have been made in face of the fact that the land-grant endowed departments received $20,000 additional from the Federal Government to be wholly used for persons actually teaching, for actual instruction as specified by the law, and for actually necessary apparatus required by such instruction, and it can not be regarded as but liberal. It certainly can not be assumed that there is any general desire on the part of those charged with the administration of literary institutions at the present date to be niggardly to departments endowed with the national land grants.

The value placed by the land-grant colleges upon their instruction, as compared with the literary degree of A. B. on one hand and the scientific degree on the other, is capable of being illustrated by replies they have made to special inquiries from this office. The opinion is about equally divided for and against the proposition that the training furnished by the land-grant college making the answer is equal în value to the degree of A. B., and in two or three instances it is thought that such training is not equal to the degree of B. S. given in our larger colleges. For instance, on one side President Francis A. Walker says, in regard to the value of the training furnished by the technical courses of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as

The ideas of the English on this question are given in the extracts from the testimony of the Bishop of London and the Rev. Mr. MacCarthy, pp. 619, 615.

2 Excluding colored schools.

compared with the mental-developing power of the ordinary A. B. or B. S. course: "Yes; without any qualification. But this is only so (1) because in all our courses a modicum of philosophical theory (political economy, history, etc.) and of language studies is required, and (2) because in every course the mastery of principles is held to be more important than the acquisition of technical knowledge or skill, the technical applications of science being chiefly valued (1) because they serve to interest the student in the principles made use of and (2) because by such applications the student acquires the principles, not only in a higher degree, but in a different way than where he studies them in the lecture and recitation room only." President Schurman, of Cornell, replies: "Yes; but I think the comparison should be made, not between the technical courses and the A. B. or B. S. course, but between A. B. and B. S. or the technical courses, i. e., that humanistic studies (which appeal to something more than the intellect) should be contrasted with rationalistic or scientific (including pure science and applied science courses). I regard the technical courses as the equivalent of the conrses for B. S." A somewhat different way of saying the same thing is the response of President Cyrus Northrop, of the University of Minnesota, to this effect: "No; technical knowledge is valuable, but it is gained at the sacrifice of culture and mental training if it occupies a large part of the undergraduate course. It may be more important to the student, however, than culture and training (along literary lines) would be; I mean more important to some students." Probably one or other of these answers would be acceptable to all other presidents who have favored the Bureau with replies. In several cases the educational value of laboratory work is considered as fully equal to literary training, and in several others it is intimated that were the students more thoroughly grounded in secondary studies before entering the college an affirmative answer might be given, though it is testified by a president of a transmississippi college that most students can not be made to believe they ought to take a general course of literary and scientific study before entering upon technical studies.

As admission requirements now are, there is a heavy preponderence of opinion that technical degrees (bachelor of engineering, agriculture, etc.) should follow a postgraduate course; in other words, should be preceded by the degree of B. S. or A. B. President Alston Ellis, of the Colorado Agricultural College, remarks upon this point, "Both plans have advantages. If the scientific and literary course did not beget a distaste for any work outside of the so-called learned professions, its train ing would form a good foundation upon which to build special technical work. Were proper conditions in existence I would favor technical work by post-graduates; as things exist, I believe that the degrees named can be best given for undergraduate work that unites some degree of general culture with special technical training." President Charles S. Murkland, of the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts: "My reason for preferring a general A. B. degree of four years as preliminary for all post-graduate work is that the technical degree should mean something in addition to the general degree. It commonly means something less than the general degree." On the other hand, the opposite opinion is succinctly stated by President J. S. Smart, of Purdue University, as follows: "I think the training in our technical schools can be and should be upon a plane comparable with that of the classical institutions; therefore engineering degrees should be given for undergraduate work. But very few technical degrees would be given, if given only for post-graduate work." General Walker, in advocating "an ordinary college course of four years, to be followed by three years, or, in cases of excep. tional ability, by two years, in a technological school," favors us with the following judgment: "I do not think that the degree mechanical engineer, civil engineer, etc., should ever be given for academic work, whether undergraduate or post-graduate. The engineer becomes such only by practice. It is his characteristic work to make choice between different methods of accomplishing a certain result, and the judgment required for this can not be taught in schools. So much for the word 'engineer' in a college degree."

The foregoing almost answers the question, "At what age shall specialization be begun?" because it is quite apparent that the question is, in a large measure, dependent upon the mental condition rather than upon the completion of a year of life usually varying from the fourteenth to the nineteenth year. In general, it may be said that a synopsis of the definite replies to the question as to the age at which technical specialization should be begun is well represented in the reply of President Patterson, of the State College of Kentucky: "I would prefer to receive students in the mechanical engineering course of about the age of 18, and would expect them to be well grounded in algebra, geometry, English, chemistry, and physics." Another president observes: "Chemistry, physics, and mathematics can not be begun too early for the purpose of mental development and training. Their special applications to scientific-economic problems should not be entered upon before 17 or 18, but a year later will not find the pupil at a disadvantage."

The number of students pursuing courses of a technical nature in the institutions endowed by the national land grant are given below. It necessarily follows that there should be some duplication not only from there being practically related subjects such as agriculture and veterinary science, but also from the combinations in study offered by the institutions as leading to a degree. All due allowance being made for this difficulty, however, attention may be called to the close equality of the totals given for students in the mechanic arts and those in agriculture. On the other hand, however, the students in agriculture and veterinary science are together only little more than 50 per cent of the whole body of engineering students. Students pursuing courses in

IX.