jeuoijp2npa WY —propycog Bs «3 is) a > Sh 2 Oo aah Oo LIBRARY — OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY : Ain Educational Policy for Ohio . = res “ e ies ¢ ° e bd ee ; 73 %e° +35 ot ’ ” ers. AOA *. Md ° bd Z 6 . ” 2 BY J. W. BASHFORD DELAWARE OHIO eve? ° eurxtv yeeuvs ey ae . e es509 Ain Educational Policy for Obio. BY J. W. BASHFORD. Gentlemen of the Legislature: I appeared before a Joint Committee of House and Senate, February 11th, at the request of members of your bodies on one side, and of representatives of x many of the colleges of Ohio founded by private beneficence on ee the other. It seemed to these representatives of the colleges _ that the second century of the history of Ohio, and the twentieth century A. D., is an opportune time to face the entire educational problem of the state. Hence we asked you. to appoint a Com- : _ mission, whose members should serve without salary, to consider the educational problems and possibilities of Ohio, and to submit to the legislature of 1904 a definite educational policy for the twentieth century. . I.—THE COMMON SCHOOLS. a The State Commissioner of Common Schools reports that the entire tax levied by the state and distributed to school dis- tricts for the education of the children of Ohio amounts to $1.44 . for each person of school age, or $2.12 for each pupil attending schoo! last year. We should add, however, that the taxes levied by the districts for the support of public schools vary accord- ‘ing to the local conceptions of the value of education. Adding the local levies to the state levy, the entire expenditure for pri- mary and secondary education amounts, according to the Inter- tational Year Book for 1900, to $20.66 for each pupil in the pub- lic schools in Ohio. Upon the other hand, the expenditures at ny el 423127 eae ae > 5 te, \ the State University, divided by the number of students in at- tendance last year from this state, make an average expenditure of $211.27 for each pupil from Ohio. The request in the H. B. No, 128 for an increase of some $182,000 to the tax duplicate, if granted, will make an expenditure of $343.85 for each student from Ohio reported in the last catalogue. Probably the increase of students would cut down the cost to $325 per student. It may be said that $80,087.50 of the total expenditures last year were devoted to the payments for buildings, and that it is unfair to count this amount as a part of the annual expenditure for the education of the young people at the Ohio State University. The total plant of the University is worth $1,500,000 or $2,000,000. It matters lit- tle whether the state counts the expenditure for buildings and equipments as a part of the current expenses whenever she spends money for them, or whether she puts all ther expenditures for buildings, grounds and equipments, repairs, &c., now amounting to about $1,500,000, into a permanent fund, the interest of which would forever need to be counted as a part of the current ex- penses of the University. If, therefore, we deduct the $80,037 spent for buildings last year, we must add interest to the amount of $60,000 or $90,000 to the annual appropriations of the state for the education of young people at the State University. We ought to bear in mind that education is necessarily more costly as we advance in the character of the instruction. The ay- érage cost of instruction per pupil in daily attendance is $13.60 in the elementary departments and $22.10 in the high schools. Hence if the State University becomes only the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th grades of the public school system of Ohio, we must ex- pect an increase above the cost of high school instruction. But an expenditure of $325 per student in the State University, as compared with $22.10 for each pupil in the high school, is a dispro- tionate expenditure. Besides, it must be remembered that the Leg- oe f S, ieee: esta ree ae ie ee, —. - ™ ced al a ei eh | o> 4 cs de re ee. ee - & ppg rss han page *. we agri, islature appropriates from the state levy only $2.12 for every cihld in the public schools, leaving the rest to be raised in the local dis- trict in which the child attends the school; whereas the Bill con- templates an average appropriation of $325 for each Ohio stu- dent in the University, leaving Franklin county, which furnishes -30 per cent of the students, free from a local levy. While we be- lieve in higher education, we are compelled to the conviction that the state’s appropriation of $2.12 for each student in the public schools, and $325 for each student in the State University, is an unfair and unwise distribution of the funds of the state devoted to popular education. _Every one doubtless understands that the expenditure of the State University does not cover the living expenses of the pupil. He purchases his own books, pays his traveling expenses and his board and room rent in a city. In addition each student paid rast year an average of $23.87 for laboratory and other fees charged by the University. If we add this amount to the cost of the student’s education, we have a total cost of $348 for each student from Ohio. Putting the matter in another form, the state now levies a tax of one mill on the dollar for the 829,106 children in the pub- lic schools. The proposal is to levy a tax of one-fifth of a mill on the dollar for the 1878 pupils from Ohio in the State Univer- sity. This divison of the state levy does not impress us as strengthening our educational system at the foundation, where added strength is most needed. Il.—NORMAL SCHOOLS. Another fact confronts us, if we face the whole educational problem. Ohio has over 26,000 teachers, and their average period uf service is only four years. This creates an annual demand for some 6,500 teachers for the public schools of our state. When we turn to the sources of supply we find that all the colleges of ts the state reported last year 1162 graduates, the academies and preparatory schools 542 graduates, and the eleven local or private normal schools 717 graduates. Out of these 2421 graduates of the higher institutions of learning, less than half of the college graduates care to teach, more than one-fourth of the normal graduates immediately enter other professions, while most of the graduates of the prepartatury schools go on to college. All of our higher institutions of learning combined, therefore, fur- nish only about 1,000 teachers a year to supply the demand for 0,500 teachers for the public schools: Looking at this question broadly, we are compelled to the conviction that one of the most serious questions confronting the Legislature is the problem of improving ‘the quality of the 6,500 young people who enter the profession of teaching each year, who help to lay the foundations of education in Ohio, and assist in molding our citizenship for ihe coming century. : The college men must admit that they have neglected this most sericus problem, and thus have weakened their sources of supply, by their greater willingness to establish professional schools of Jaw and medicine and theology than of pedagogy. Up- on the other hand, most educators recognize that nine-tenths of the work,of the existing normal schools in this country is not specific training in pedagogy, but consists of instruction in such branches as will enable young people to pass the required exam- inations and secure certificates for teaching. The scholastic in- struction is already furnished in part by 836 high schools in the state, in part by. 2) academies, preparatory and normal schools, and in its highest branches by the thirty-six colleges and uni- versities of the state. Dr. Thompson has said wisely that it is ueedless to duplicate this scholastic work at public expense. It has seemed to us that the best features of normal schools and colleges could be combined by offering instruction in the theory —4— and practice of teaching in connection with the existing colleges of the state. Ohio could make the experiment of combining collegi- ate and pedagogical training by voting several thousand dollars each to Athens and Miami, and to the State University if she is willing to accepi the trust, to establish chairs in the History of Education and in Pedagogy, and to maintain professors in charge of practice teaching. The practice work could. be se- cured in connection with the public schools located at the seat of such colleges. Such an experiment could be made with great economy, and it wouid result in the development of a new and of a higher type of normal instruction than is now offered by any state in the Union. On the one hand, the teacher’s profession would receive recognition along with the professions of law and medicine, and the work of the college students possibly would be made more practical, while on the other hand the normal stu- dents preparing to teach would be kept throughout ‘their prepara- tion face to face with higher and broader courses of ‘study ‘than they pursue in the ordinary normal schools cf our sister states, It is not too much to hope that many of them would seek this higher preparation for the noble prcefession they contemplate en- tering, while the rest would be saved from the self-sufficiency which comes from superficial culture. Inasmuch as the state and the local districts which you represent are spending some $15,- 900,000 a year for popular education, and are laying the founda- tions for the citizenship of the twentieth century, ‘the 26,000 school teachers of Ohio, and the 6,500 who enter the profession yearly, demand your earnest consideration. While the repre- sentatives of the private colleges are not unanimous as to the amount which should be voted to Athens and Miami, they are substantially agreed that the experiment of establishing depart- ments of pedagogy in connection with the colleges supported by the state should be undertaken. There can be no constitutional, fans objection to trying the experiment in state supported coileges.. Indeed, many of our educators think that the Governor of the state, with the President of the State University and the Com- missioner of Common Schools, could select and-employ at state- expense, suitable professors of pedagogy to organize and conduct summer institutes for teachers, and to furnish through the re- mainder of the year instruction in the theory and practice of teaching in the existing private colleges, such instruction always to ‘be under the control of the state, just as the general govern- ment details officers to give military instruction in private col- Jeges without the slightest union of church and _ state. The plan named above seems the best available means of solving one of the problems which confront you in laying the foundations of education in Ohio for another century. A radical transformation ot normal schoois, in part upon the line of combining normal and collegiate instruction, was suggested by Dr. Harris, Commission- er of Education for the United States, in 1899. Surely this whole subject is worthy the consideration of a Commission. IlIl.—THE COLLEGE AND THE UNIVERSITY. A brief statement of the functions of Colleges and Universi-— iies will make clearer the discussion which follows. The prima- ry aim of a college course or a liberal art’s course, is education— the development and discipline of all the student’s powers, phys- ical,“ mental, moral. In a word, the college aims to develop char- acter. to make young people strong and capable. The graduate ofa college receives a Bachelor’s degree. On the other hand, schools of technology, professional schools, and schools for post-graduate study, aim primarily to impart knowledge, to give the student the information he will need in his calling or profes- sion. In a word the University aims to turn the trained young people sent to her into lawyers, physicians, captains of industry, &c, Ideally the student should have the discipline of a college 6 “ > . 1 he ai j s ‘ nA Higstivel ate ho ‘ ws ay hi AY Ke sbgttig sic va pe a 5 = ‘ ee Al. GOS A, ry PT ee ome ba Me ES ew eat er as eT before entering upon his technical or his professional training. Technological and professional training would then constitute University work in the proper sense of that term. But the Uni- versity aims not only to furnish technological and professional training, but also advanced work in the subjects taught at the col- iege. Hence the German Universities offer a doctor’s degree for advanced work taken under the faculty in philosophy, as well as for work taken in the faculties in medicine and theology. Such postgraduate work consists in part of research work, and is in- tended to advance the boundaries of knowledge as well as to im- part -information. The distinction between the College and. the University is not clearly drawn. For instance, many students are found in pharmacy, agriculture, domestic science and even law, who can- not pass the examinations and enter a good college. Besides the courses in these subjects may be only two or three years. in length. Hence, although such courses belong properly to a Uni- versity, nevertheless the graduate plainly Jacks the culture which the college graduate possesses. On the other hand, post- graduate work in philosophy, history, economics, &c., sometimes is offered to students even in non-residence by a college whose faculties are wholly unfitted to do postgraduate work. President Thompson, in 1896, made a strong plea for the reorganization of the work of the private colleges and of the State University in the interests of unity and of scholarship. With the ‘honesty which characterizes him, he has never given the doctor’s degree or the master’s degree for the usual work done in technology or applied sciences; and the State University gives the bachelor’s degree only where the student in agriculture or domestic science takes a four year’s course. We thus have in Ohio to-day prac- tically two types of colleges, one type at the State University, represented by the College of Agriculture and Domestic Science, alia. the College of Pharmacy, and practically by a College of Lew, aiming primarily at knowledge, and giving degrees for four years’ work ; and another type at the private colleges, striving prima- rily for the development of young people. Both types offer sey- eral different courses, with corresponding degrees. The © first type may be called the College of Applied Sciences, and the sec- ond type the College of Liberal Arts. Despite our frequent use of the name, educators. are agreed that Ohio thus far has no Uni- versity in the highest sense of that word. The practical confusion which exists reinforces our request for a Commission to do the work which Dr. Thompson advocated in 1896. We understood him on the evening of the recent hearing to join heartily in this request for a Commission. IV.—THE PRIVATE COLLEGES. Ohio at least owes the private colleges of the state a clear definition and a candid statement of her educational policy for the twentieth century. You will remember that 24 such col- leges had been founded by private beneficence, and they were doing a noble work, when the State University was established at Columbus in i870. No state in the Union has a greater num- ber of small colleges than Ohio. In no state have they rendered a nobler service to the public. Professor Bryce, in The Amert- can Commonwealth, attributes a large measure of our leader- ship to the small colleges of the United States, with their lofty moral aims and their strenuous mental activity. Surely the leadership of Ohio in our national life, from the outbreak of the civil war down to the present time, may be credited in part to the heroic services of our fathers in founding more than thirty religious colleges in the state. But noble as has been the service of the existing colleges to the commonwealth, we trust that we are broad enough to recognize their limitations, and pa- triotic enough to desire the very highest education possible for pal Wee our citizens, even though we ourselves are unable to provide it.. Hence the existing colleges, so far from looking with hostility on the State University, welcomed its establishement in 1870, and continued to speak words of praise of it so long as it was kept measurably true to the purpose of Senator Morrill, viz., to provide courses in agriculture and mechanical arts complementary to the courses of liberal arts offered by private colleges. It was not until 1895, that the aim of crowding out existing colleges and making the University at Columbus the 18th, 14th, 15th and 16th grades of the public schocis was eltertained. At that time the public school teachers of the state were assured that the natural destination of their graduates was the State University. Certifi- cates were printed by the thousand at state expense and senit to the graduates of these schools, admitting them to the State Uni- versity. Even excursions were organized, at the president’s initia- tive, to bring students to Columbus to see the University they were expected to enter. When Dr. Canfield retired, we welcomed one of the presidents of the smaller colleges to the headship of the State University. But when he maintains in increasing full- ness every department and subject of study embraced in liberal arts courses, we feel compelled to call your attention to the in- evitable outcome of such a policy. Out of 122 collegiate degrees conferred at the State University last June, some 54, or about half, were conferred for work which is offered by the private colleges of the state. Out of 1378 students enrolled from Ohio, - 408, or substantially 30 per cent, were from Franklin county, just as the college work offered at Cincinnati or Delaware is tak- en largely by students in these localities. Thirty per cent of the students enrolled in the University last year were in the Liberal Arts courses. We are not blaming President Thompson. for these facts. It is a condition and not a theory which confronts us all. If Dr. ‘Thompson, on his own initiative, were to Jae Grop out all the College of Liberal Arts work at the State University, on the ground that such work is now offered by 32 private colleges in the state, and by at least two other in- stitutions supported by the state, and were he to devote the - funds thus saved either to courses in applied sciences or to grad- uate work, he would undoubtedly awaken the opposition of the teachers whose departments were affected, and of students in Columbus desiring to take college work. If, upon the contrary, an able commission appointed wy the Governor, decided that the State University, instead of duplicating work done at Athens and Miami at state expense, and at 32 private colleges at no expense to the state, directed the authorities of the State Universiay to furnish additional facilities for instruction in technological sub- jects, no man could use the funds for such a purpose more wise- 1y than can Dr. Thompson. New York and Ohio many years ago built canals to secure transportation of their products and to aid in their industrial de- velopment. To-day when thirty or forty railroads are eager to furnish swifter transportation without any aid from the state, you are discussing the best means of selling your canals, and New York is perplexed by demands for more. money for the Brie canal. No leaders in Ohio, and only a few representatives of the localities benefited in New York urge the Legislatures to subsidize canal transportation, and thus tax the people of the state to carry the goods of a few at the expense of the many. Possibly the state will not care to abandon all liberal arts work. It does not seem logical for the state to do the work of the ele- mentary and secondary schools, refuse to do the work of the col- lege of liberal arts, 4nd then take up post graduate work. This makes a break in the state system of education, leaving the state to furnish the education at the bottom and at the top. But it is a practical problem which confronts us, and not a question of 10 logical consistency. Private benelicence is providing for the col- lege, but not for elementary or technological or post graduat in- struction. Lesides, it would probably be wise for the state to maintain ihe three or four leading courses offered by a college of liberal arts at one place, possibly at Athens. which is the old- est college in the state, and is located in a small town where liv- ing is cheap, and the environment safer than in a large city, so that those who. are opposed to colleges sup- ported by private beneficence could secure a college course at the expense of the state. But with thirty two col- - veges in the state welcoming students of all faiths and no faith, providing coilege work without aid from the state, and at no greater cost to your children than they must incur at a state institution in a large city, it does not seem wise for the state to maintain three colleges of liberal arts with constantly increasing appropriations, and thus parallel and paralyze the work of pri- vate beneficence. It is certainly due both the private institutions ‘and the state institutions that you define your policy for the fu- ture. If you deem it wise and necessary in the interests of higher education to parallel and destroy existing private institu- tions, you certainly owe it to the philanthropists who are build- ing up such institutions to inform them of your policy. The presidenis of the state institutions will assure you that they do not regard the coiiege work of the three, or, if we include Wil- berforce University, of the four, institutions receiving state aid as superior to the work of the best private colleges in Ohio. I believe Dr. Thompson will assure you that a few years ago. the private colleges and Miami and Athens were in serious danger of being compelled to lower the accepted standards of admission to American colleges to meet the competition of the State Universi- ty. Besides, if the state parallels and paralyzes private benefi- cence, she must prepare herself not only to maintain the exist- rely fy ee ing colleges receiving state aid; she must prepare herself to eare for 11,859 students now in the 32 private college of Ohio. In ieaching the cost of education at the State University to Ohio, we divided the actual and the proposed levy by the number of studenis from Ohio. We assumed that while you are entirely willing students from other states should share’ your bounty, you ‘gade the appropriations for the benefit of your own children. but the State University has 1500 students in all, and asks sub- stantially $400,000 a vear from the state to enable her to care for ibem. This is an annual expense of $266.00 cath year per stu- dent. If the policy is carried out of duplicating the work and destroying the private colleges, it will cost the state, at this rate, $3,082,674 a year to educate the 11,859 students in private col- leges, in addition to the annual levy of $400,000 asked for by the State University, and $100,000 by Athens and Miami. Thoughtful legislators will pause before launching Ohio upon a policy, the logical outcome of which is to destroy the private colleges of the state. and to compel the commonwealth to assume an annual burden of $3,500,000 in taxes for higher education, or else lose her proud position of leadership in education and in national life. V.—OHIO’S UNUSUAL POSITION. The Eastern States, under the leadership of such men as Presidents Eliot, Lowe, Pepper, Warren, Butler, Schurman and Gil- man, favor the advancement of higher education through pri- vate beneficence. A considerable number of states in the Middle West and West, under the guidance of such educators as Presi- dents Angell, Northrop, Wheeler and others, favor higher educa- tion under the control of the state. Had Ohio, at the founding of the State University in 1870 been in the condition of Michigan cr Wisconsin when they established their Universities, the prob- jem would have been comparatively simple. But when our State University was established, Ohio already ‘had more private col- —l2— leges than had New York or Pennsylvania, or any of the ten ° states north and east of us: But the New England and the Mid- dle States have steadily refused to found colleges of liberal arts at state expense to compete with their Harvards and Yales, Co- lumbia and Boston Universities. It was in view of the condi- tions prevailing in the Eastern States that Senator Morrill fram- ed with such care his bill making a national grant of land to the states of the Union for the founding of Colleges of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. Neither in letter nor spirit did Senator Morrill’s bill provide for the destruction of private colleges and the absorption of the higher education of the country into state and national institutions, Had any one told the sturdy New En- gland Senator that his bill was ordained to check the growth of the Harvards and Yales and Bowdoins and Browns and Colum- bias of the West ,and eventually to invade New England and compete at state expense with the colleges which had made her great, ne would have burned his bill rather than have helped to frame it into a law. No where east of Ohio, unless West Vir- ginia be the exception, certainly no where in New England, where Senator Morrill continued to live for a third of a century after his bill was adopted, was the national grant to higher education ever used to cripple existing colleges. The East, which has thus far led in higher education, is definitely committed against founding and maintaining colleges of liberal arts by state taxes. Some cf the Western states appear to be definitely com- mitted to the carrying forward of collegiate work proper by the use of the Morrill land grant, supplemented by taxes levied on the state. Ohio gave only small encouragement to Athens and Miami until more than a score of private colleges were founded, and not until they had already given the state a position of leadership in the nation. The State University was thtended by President BBE: Hayes and others who helped to launch it to advance our agri- cultural, industrial and commercial interests along the lines of the Morrill bill. The change of policy; and the attempt to make the State University duplicate the work of the 32 private colleges in the state was not distinctly inaugurated until 1895; and the pian has never been placed distinctly before the state for public endorsement. ‘To-day the citizens of Ohio are in the peculiar po- sition of being asked to make generous free-will offerings to maintain a larger number of private colleges than’ any eastern state possesses, upon the one hand, while upon the other hand they are asked to tax themselves for. larger appropriations than most Western States are making to maintain colleges of liberal arts, and paralyze the work of their private colleges. Personally i represent one of the three largest colleges in Ohio; and this school might secure an added increase of students during the next twenty years by the gradual destruction of small colleges through state competition. But no friend of higher education can wish to see the smaller colleges in Ohio destroyed. As Pres- ident Harper said recently, they contribute an element to our higher education and to our citizenship which no other agency ean supply. In deciding whether she shall attempt to absorb the col- lege ork of the state, Ohio may well be guided by the light of experience. Michigan is usually cited as the best example of a state system of higher education to be found in the country.. The founding of the University of Michigan in 1840, only three years after the organization of the state, her early and continuous devo- tion te the work of a college of liberal arts, the state’s appropri- ations of more than $10,000,000 to the University since 1870, and the present grant of some $600,000 a year, have enabled the Uni- versity of Michigan to absorb, to a large extent, the college work of the state. As a consequence, only five private colleges exist se Vo in that state, and these in a crippled condition. As a result, de- . spite the large appropriation from the state, and the largest State University in the country, Michigan has one student in col- lege to 423 of her population, while Ohio has one student in: col- jege to 297 of her population. In other words, Michigan must in- crease her already large expenditures, and—what is much more difficult—increase the attendance at her university and her pri- yate colleges 30 per cent in order to reach the position now oc- cupied by Ohio in the field of higher education. Minnesota, with a State University enrolling 3550 students, has less than half as many college graduates in proportion to her population as has Connecticut without any State University. In addition to being guided by the light of experience, Ohio may wisely weigh the decision of one of the most far-sighted business men this country has thus far developed. Mr. Carnegie, with Gia tares generosity which characterizes him, thought a few months ago of carrying out Washington’s plan for a Na- tional University. This is the plan which the advocates of State Universities desired to see carried out—only at the expense of the nation, rather than through the generosity of an ‘individual. | But on looking into the details of Washington’s plan, Mr. Carne- gie became convinced that to carry out at this day Washington's original design of a National University with college courses might cripple noble colleges and universities of long and honora-: blé record, and that at best it would simply duplicate much of the existing work done by at least two score institutions on the eastern side of the Alleghenies. Hence Mr. Carnegie wisely de- cided. not to parallel the existing college work of Harvard and Yale and Bowdoin and-Prown and Dartmouth, but to supplement, and crown this work by that of his magnificent institution. It is al least significant that the latest bill introduced into Oongress for the founding of a National University makes no provision moe whatever for the work of a College of Liberal Aris, but distinctly specifies that all candidates for admission must have received bachelors’ degrees from accredited colleges. VI.—OHIO’S UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY. We desire Ohio to do for this commonwealth what Mr. Car- negie propuses for tne nation. The United States has a large number of colleges whose work Mr. Carnegie proposes to crown. But Okio has a larger number of colleges in proportion to her population than has the nation at large. President Gilman an- ticipates an income of approximately $500,000 a year for the Car- negie institution. You are asked for grants of substantially the same amount to provide for Athens, Miami and the State Uni- versity. The 1100 or 1200 graduates coming from the existing colleges in Ohio will furnish 200 or 300 candidates for postgrad- uate work at once. Commissioner Harris shows by statistics that post-graduate students in the United States have increased iwenty-five fold in ‘the last thirty years, and he anticipates an equally rapid increase during the next generation. There is a reasonable prospect of students for a real university doing postgraduate work jn Ohio, With an income almost equal to that of the Carnegie fund, surely such a university could do for a single state more than Mr. Carnegie can hope to do for the en- tire nation. If we desired you to abandon the noble plant of the State University as you are abandoning the state canals, you might well hesitate. If we desired you to degrade the work of the State Universiay in the interest of denominational schools, you might well rebuke our bigotry. But we desire nothing of the kind. We stand rather as sincere friends, not only of the high- er, but of the highest education, as loyal subjects of the state, asking the Legislature to help one institution in this state to ov- cupy the vacant throne of true university training. Whatever bit- terness may be engendered, and whatever abuse may be heaped —16~— _upon the representatives of the private colleges to-day, and whatever disposition may be made of our plea, we venture the prediction that inside of a quarter of a century our plea will be recognized as an unselfish effort to inaugurate in Ohio, not only a system of higher education, but the highest system of educa- tion thus far established in any state in the Union. We object to state levies to duplicate work which is done in every state north and east of us, and in our own state iby pri- vate beneficence. The fact that there are few private colleges in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota may make it necessary for these universities to continue the work of a college of liberal arts for many years to come. But with our 32 private institu- tions it is surely net necessary for Ohio to continue to maintain more than one such college at state expense. But so far from ob- jecting to a state levy for higher education, we plead for a Com- mission to map out the educational work of the state, and then for an increased levy to create a great College of Applied Sciences with departments of agriculture, forestry, architecture, ceramics, engineering, domestic science, &e. We do not object to state ex- penditure for higher education per se. Indeed we should plead for state expenditure for colleges cf liberal arts if such education could be.secured for our children in no other way. But it is a condition and not an abstract theory which confronts us. When private beneficence has built 32 colleges in Ohio, and when these colleges have gathered and are training 11,859 young people each year, why tax the state to the extent of hundreds of thousands of dollars to duplicate their work and drive them out of exis:- ence. But the work in the applied sciences is almost wholly neglected by private beneficence. The Case School of Applied Science is rendering the young people committed to her care, and the state great service. But she has only 350 out of 11,859 young people in private colleges. The Slate University is rendering —]7— splendid service to the 779 students enrolled in her last cata- es ‘logue in the Colleges of Agriculture, Engineering, Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine. But little more than half her students are. in these courses. Besides, the short courses in several depart- — ments need to be lengthened, the cclleges enlarged and enriched in equipment and instruction. Surely here are serious problems for a Commission to consider. | It may be said that courses in the Applied Sciences cost more per siudent than courses in Liberal Arts. But they bring more immediate and material returns. The researches and experiments of the agricultural department of the Universtiy” of Wisconsin created a cheese industry for that state, which won the first, second and fourth prizes at the World’s Fair in Chicago, and which is adding $800,000 a year-to the profits of the farmers of that state. A single discovery of this nature is worth the en- tire cost of a university to a state. If the University of Michi-- gan during the last twenty-five years could have been relieved — from her great responsibility of furnishing a liberal ants’ educa- tion to the yourg people of her state, and could she have devoted herself in some measure to the study of agriculture and forestry, she could have saved Michigan the loss of millions in the unwise ~ destruction of her pine lands. To-day she is reduced to the hu- miliation of witnessing the extinction of one of the great indus- tries of Michigan, until a private citizen has offered to pay the expense of ‘a commission te go to Germany and bring back to the people that knowledge of forestry which the University ~ of Michigan should bave taught her citizens a quarter of a century ago. . The Cniversity of Wisconsin has just opened a School cf Gommerce, and the University of Chicago is reported to haye received $1,000,000 for the founding of a similar School. The United States is now ostablishing a Department of Commerce and Labor; and Senator Hanna is rendering the nation conspic- 4 - \ = 1a Sle i uous service as_a member of the Civic Federation aiming to se- cure arbitration. If a School of Commerce at our State Universi- ty had inculeated the newer methods of business, and had thus enabled Cleveland to avoid her recent strike, it might have saved a single city the loss of a million dollars. jWith the large natural wealth of Ohio in clays, the department of Ceramics, if properly supported may ibe worth the whole cost of the University. A few fruit growers of Ohio have made profits as iarge as the aver- age fruit growers in California; and they affirm that ‘their achievements are possible to thousands of farmers whose lands are not among the most fertile in the state. Our possibilities of advance in beet sugar production, stock raising, in many forms of manufacturing, and in our coal and iron industries are simply incal- culable, In order to realize the necessity for the complementary work of a College of Applied Sciences we need only study the move- nents of the leading nations of the world. Germany used the ; enormous fine which she collected from France in 1870 largely in establishing Schools of Technology or Applied Sciences. As a. consequence she has made great gains over England during the last. twenty-five years in industries, commerce and wealth, The -late Commission appointed by the British Parliament to inquire into the causes of the relative growth of industries and commerce in Great Britain and in other countries, reported in 1898 that Germany’s gain was due almost wholly to ithe technological training which she had been furnishing her young men for a generation. The Commission concluded with the recommenda- tion that schools of Technology, of Arts and Industries, of Bank- ing and Commerce be established in England to enable her to re- gain and maintain her Supremacy throughout the twentieth cen- tury. lt is apparent to all that the leading nations of the world are entering upon a gigantic struggle for the trade of the world. bt : It is idle to hold that the United States has already won the bat- tle. We have only witnessed the preliminary skirmish thus far. If the United States is to become the commercial and industrial leader of the world, we must by no means neglect the preparation which England and Germany are making for- the ‘struggle. If Ohio is to continue to hold the fourth position in industries, com- merce and wealth, and much more if she hopes to pass Tllinois, Pennsylvania and New York, she must by no means neglect the high and strenuous training essential to industrial supremacy. Tf Ohio can supplement the present scholastic training of her common schools py Kindergarten culture in ‘the primary schools, and domestic and industrial science in the high schools ; if she can increase the number of her 846 high schools, and quadruple the 51,000 young people now attending them; if she can furnish professors of Pedagogy for summer institutes in every county in the state, and demand a certificate in the theory of teaching from each of the 6500 young people who becomes a teacher each year; if she can discover or devise a legal method of furnishing a professor of Pedagogy to each private college in the state with an enrollment of 300 pupils; if she can supplement cr complement the scholastic training of the liberal arts courses in the private colleges by Colleges of Agriculture, of Engineering, of Commerce and of the Applied Sciences as a part of the State University; and if she can equip the State University so that she can crown the educational work of the state by a real University combining the best features of a Pasteur Institute of the Royal Institution and of a German University, Ohio can lead her own people and help lead the nation for another century in commerce and industries, in arts and sciences and civilization. Ohio has a common school system second only to Massachusetts. She has a system of private colleges furnishing instruction in liberal arts un- surpassed by any State in the Union.» But Ohio is not making pro- vision for such post-graduate instruction as is offered by Columbia, Hopkins and Harvard in the east or by Chicago University, Leland ¥ Stanford and the State University of California in the west. Ohio ¢ must either move forward in her educational policy immediately, or else consent to lose the position of leadership in the nation which — i she has held since 1865, and be compelled, like Virginia, to content herself with the glories of past achievements. Westand at the parting of the ways. The colleges of Ohio ask for a Commission to elabor- ate an educational policy which shall enable our commonwealth” realize her possibilities. : —-20—~ ae $s ty st SF i at ape eee ree | | | : | . | TTT tr eee / “ * Te RG Fe SP Spy Se sora \QADIRC EDUCATION LIBRARY The Ohio St te Univer iM —— LB2529037p An @ducationa| Pol 001 Icy for Ohio, i me Sea rm 16 Lowe Ty ie {: v « Te