Gift o1 th« Pce*id«'»» A PLAN SUGGESTED FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES FOR NATIONAL SERVICE DURING THE WAR By JOHN L. PATTERSON. Litt. D.. LL. D. Printed January 25. 1919. University of Louisville January, 1918 A paper prepared originally for Ihe Higher Education Section of the Kentucky Educational Association, April 26. 1918. and submitted in advance to the Bureau of Education. Iht Council of National Defense, the Emergency Council on Education and others. On May 6, 1917, a conference was held in Continental Hull, Washington, D. C, by the National Association of State Universi- ties, the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experi- ment Stations, the Association of American Universities, the Asso- ciation of American Colleges, and the Institutional Committee of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education. The object of the meeting was the discussion of the work of American colleges and universities during the war. At the conference there were recom- mended the principles and resolutions which follow. (See Principles and Resolutions, p. 6. The writer is in full accord with the patriotic spirit of the prin- ciples and resolutions set forth by the distinguished representatives of the institutions in conference, and it is with the purpose of pre- senting a definite plan by which the general object in view in them may be effected that this paper is written. This general object, as I understand it, is that the country be best served for the present by college-trained men and women, and have college-trained men and women ready to serve it in the future. Any plan of change in curricula or anything else which involves disturbing more than is necessary the continuity of the supply is harmful. It seems to me that in the principles and resolutions adopted by the representatives of colleges and universities at the con- ference there has been too much of the emphasis, on account of their commendable enthusiasm and patriotism, placed upon the need of aiding the Government immediately with their resources in students and equipment, and that too little of the emphasis has been placed upon thus aiding the country in the future, preserving the useful- ness of the colleges and universities in their special services, and protecting as far as possible the highest interests of the college men who return from the war. It is generally acknowledged that "students pursuing technical courses, such as medicine, agriculture, and engineering, are render- ing or are going to render, through the continuance of their training, services more valuable and efficient than if they were to enroll in military or naval service at once." The exigencies of war, however, are showing day by day that specially trained men and women are needed in almost every field of usefulness and that what is true of medicine, agriculture, and engineering, is equally true of archi- tecture, chemistry, biology, geology, geography, hygiene, sanitation, home economics, telegraphy, stenography, accounting, economics, business administration, mathematics, English, and other modern languages, and so on through almost the entire category of college 1 studies. There is needed a plan for organizing the resources in students and equipment as well as the curricula of the colleges and universities of the United States so as (1) to supply from year to year the Government continuously with college graduates specially trained for the various fields in which their services are needed; (2) to preserve the integrity of the colleges and universities in their special fields of usefulness; (3) to conserve the interests of the youth of the country as furthered by a college education and its diploma. 1. It is suggested, therefore, that the Government prepare a list of the specific services — military, naval, and civil, including executive and administrative fields, for which it has need of college graduates especially trained for the work. That these lists be sent by the Commissioner of Education to the presidents and deans of technical schools and graduate schools, colleges of arts and sciences of universities, and colleges of arts and sciences in general, and that they be accompanied by questionnaires to the following effect: To technical schools and graduate schools: (a) In what branches printed in the accompanying list are you best equipped to graduate students in 1918 prepared to render use- ful and immediate service to the National Government? (6) How many members of your present senior class will volunteer for this service? (c) How many members of your present junior class will volunteer to be trained for such service in 1919? (In each case on the conditions which follow) : 1. That they may be exempted from possible draft until after graduation. 2. That on graduation, after being recommended by their col- lege and passing the usual physical examination, they receive com- missions or appointments on full pay with the Government. 3. That the indorsement of the president of the college and of the head of the department serve in lieu of further educational tests. To colleges of arts and sciences of universities: (a) In what branches printed in the accompanying list are you best equipped to graduate students in 1918 prepared to render use- ful and immediate service to the National Government? (6) How many members of your present senior class will vol- unteer for this service? (c) In what branches printed in the accompanying list are you best equipped to graduate students prepared after two years' technical or special training in the schools of the university to render useful and immediate service to the National Government? This 2 should involve in some instances accrediting these technical and special subjects towards the regular baccalaureate degrees, tem- porarily at least. (d) How many members of your present junior class will volunteer to be trained for such service? (In each case on the conditions which follow) : 1. That they be exempted from possible draft until after graduation. 2. That on graduation, after being recommended by their col- lege and passing the usual physical examination, they receive com- missions or appointments on full pay with the Government. 3. That the indorsement of the president of the college and of the head of the department serve in lieu of further educational tests. To colleges of arts and sciences in general: (a) In what branches printed in the accompanying list are you best equipped to graduate students in 1918 prepared to render useful and immediate service to the National Government? (b) How many members of your present senior class will vol- unteer for this service? (c) If called on to alter the curricula of your junior and senior years by the substitution of technical and special courses for a cer- tain number of students, in what branches printed in the accompany- ing list will you be best equipped to graduate students in 1919 pre- pared to render useful and immediate service to the National Gov- ernment? This should involve in some instances accrediting these technical and special subjects towards the regular baccalaureate degrees, temporarily at least. (d) How many members of your present junior class will volunteer to be trained for such service? (In each case on the conditions which follow) : 1. That they be exempted from possible draft until after graduation. 2. That on graduation, after being recommended by their col- lege and passing the usual physical examination, they receive com- missions or appointments on full pay with the Government. 3. That the indorsement of the president of the college and of the head of the department serve in lieu of further educational tests. It is further suggested that the Commissioner of Education collate the material received in reply and revise it according to any further information that may be thought advisable, and prepare from it a list of the colleges ready to train students for special services to the Government, and a list of the number of graduates that will be avail- able for the Government service in 1918-1919. 3 Further, that the Government compare this list with the number of men needed for these special services and assign a definite num- ber of students to be specially trained in the institutions selected for this purpose. In case the supply in any particular instance does not meet the demand, that the Government call on the colleges and universities best prepared to train men for this particular need, and in certain cases perhaps to subsidize them. This plan, it seems to me, offers the advantages which follow- In the first place, it is definite, and even granting that it require modification and adjustment in the course of events, may be applied to the solution of a serious problem in the administration of the country that has apparently not yet been satisfactorily solved. In the second place, by this plan the Government will have within reach all the available college graduates specifically trained for specific purposes and needs. In the third place, the colleges and universities will be render- ing service to the National Government in the fields in which they are best equipped and will not, as has frequently happened, spend their energies in diffusive, ill-directed, and ineffective efforts, to the hindrance of their usefulness. In the fourth place, the continuance of the supply of college graduates will be unbroken, and the future college-trained service of the Government assured. In the fifth place, the college men who return from the war will have received the usual certificate of their education and will not be compelled either to abandon their college career or to continue it under less advantageous circumstances. Putting the plan into effect, in the co-ordination of different ele- ments, naturally involves a few mutual concessions (o) by the National Government; (b) by colleges and universities of America; (c) by the college students of America. In regard to the concessions of the National Government by means of which the plan suggested may become feasible as far as it is concerned, it will be necessary for the War Department to grant exemption from the draft in certain cases for a period extending from a few months to about one year to college students who are being specially trained for national service. This in most instances will be the maximum period of exemption, according to the draft regulations now in force, since the average age of young men on admission to college is eighteen years. The Government must also concede its prerogative of an educational test as far as concerns these students. Both concessions, however, are small. The brief exemption from the draft of a comparatively small number of men 4 in college will not seriously affect the condition of the national army, and the waiving by the Government of an educational examination of college graduates who have been thus examined and indorsed by its recognized institutions of learning is a matter of minor impor- tance. The advantage of securing expert service will outweigh the importance of the concessions. In regard to the concessions that must be made by colleges and universities for the successful accomplishment of the methods pro- posed in this paper, they must in some instances, for a time at least, set aside the required studies of their curricula, as well as credit technical and special subjects, vocational and industrial, towards their regular A. B. and S. B. degrees. Since the substitutions, how- ever, will be those of their own selection from their own specialized curricula, and only temporary, few institutions, in my judgment, will offer objections in the face of the emergency. It would of course be unjust to students candidates for the bac- calaureate degrees in arts and sciences who voluntarily alter their courses of studies in order to serve their country to confer on them other degrees than those they originally sought. The college students, also, must make concessions in order to meet the requirements of the plan, but since their concession consists in giving up certain studies of their own choice and pursuing others for the benefit of their country in a crisis, few will decline, for this reason only, to make a change, especially since their refusal may mean for them the loss of the opportunity of continuing in college and of securing a degree. Furthermore, that men of their character who return from the war will find the opportunity to complete their studies in their chosen fields may be confidently expected by both col- leges and students. 5 PRINCIPLES AND RESOLUTIONS Adopted by the conference held in Continental Hall on May 6, 1917. "It is our judgment that our colleges and universities should so organize their work that in all directions they may be of the greatest possible usefulness to the country in its present crisis. "We therefore believe, first, that all young men below the age of liability to the selective draft and those not recommended for special service, who can avail themselves of the opportunity offered by our colleges, should be urged so to do in order that they may be able to render the most effective service, both during the full period of the war and in the trying times which will follow its close. "We believe, second, that all colleges and universities should so modify their calendars and curricula as will most fully sub- serve the present needs of the nation and utilize most profitably the time of the students and the institutional plant, force, and equipment. With this end in view, we suggest that, as an emer- gency measure, the colleges consider the advisability of dividing the college year into four quarters of approximately twelve weeks each, and that, where necessary, courses be repeated at least once a year so that the college course may be best adapted to the needs of food production. "We believe, third, that in view of the supreme importance of applied science in the present war, students pursuing tech- nical courses, such as medicine, agriculture, and engineering, are rendering, or are to render, through the continuance of their training, services more valuable and efficient than if they were to enroll in military or naval service at once. "We believe, fourth, that the Government should provide or encourage military training for all young men in college by retired officers of the Army and National Guard or by other persons competent to give military instruction, and that the colleges should include as a part of their course of study, teach- ing in military science, in accordance with the provisions of the national defense act of June, 1916. "We believe, fifth, that the Bureau of Education of the Department of the Interior and the States Relation Service of the Department of Agriculture, with the co-operation of the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Education of the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defense, should be the medium of communication between the Federal depart- ments and the higher educational institutions of the country. "Finally, we believe that an educational responsibility rests on the institutions of higher learning to disseminate correct information concerning the issues involved in the war and to interpret its meaning." RESOLUTIONS RECOMMENDED FOR ADOPTION. I. "Resolved, That we request the Advisory Commission to recommend to the Council of National Defense that it approve the plan of developing and issuing at once through the Bureau of Education of the Department of the Interior and the States 6 Relations Service of the Department of Agriculture, with the advice of the education section of the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Education of the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defense, a statement of a comprehensive policy of co-operation between the Government and the universi- ties, colleges and other schools which will make for the most effective use of these institutions throughout the duration of the war. The statement should be accompanied by suggestions to be as explicit as possible in regard to — 1. "The plans of the Government in all its departments for the prosecution of the war, so far as they concern the colleges and universities. 2. "The best methods developed by the educational institu- tions of the allied countries to meet war conditions. 3. "The ways in which the educational institutions of the country can best organize to fulfill the needs of the Government. II. "Resolved, That we request the Advisory Commission to recommend to the Council of National Defense that it approve a plan whereby the Bureau of Education of the Department of the Interior shall, after consultation with Federal departments and educational officers throughout the country, keep the edu- cational institutions informed of the needs for technical, mili- tary, and general training which the schools and colleges may wisely undertake to fulfill and that the States Relations Service of the Department of Agriculture take similar action as regards agricultural needs. Both these actions to be taken in consulta- tion with the education section of the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Education. III. "Resolved, That we request the Advisory Commission to recommend to the Council of National Defense that it request the Bureau of Education of the Department of the Interior and the States Relations Service of the Department of Agriculture to bring together from time to time, as may seem expedient, groups of educational officers with the Committee on Education of the Advisory Commission for the consideration of the best methods of maintaining, adjusting, and strengthening the edu- cational system of the country in order to meet the emergencies of the war and to plan for the period following the war. IV. "Resolved, That nothing in these resolutions shall be construed as advising any change in the legal or administra- tive relations existing between the Department of Agriculture and the agricultural colleges." Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/plansuggestedforOOpatt Letters of inquiry were sent to the presidents of Ken- tucky colleges asking them in what branches their colleges would be ready to give useful and immediate service to the National Government. The replies follow: BEREA COLLEGE. Berea, Ky. February 4, 1918. In reference to your letter of January 30th, inquiring for infor- mation with reference to graduate students in 1919, who would be fit and prepared to render useful service to the Government, permit me to say that we should have students fit for this work in agricul- ture, canning and allied work, stenography and typewriting, and con- servation promotion. I am interested in the paper which you are preparing and expect to hear it at the Educational Association. Very sincerely yours, (Signed) C. F. RUMOLD, Vice President. UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY. Lexington, Ky. February 6, 1918. In reply to your circular letter I am saying that the University is preparing to graduate students in 1919 along the following useful lines: (1) Military service, associated principally with the radio buzzer instruction. (2) Men in chemistry. (3) Engineers in mechanical and electrical engineering. (4) Men in agriculture. Students graduated in these fields now are being taken into vari- ous governmental capacities. Very truly yours, (Signed) FRANK L. McVEY, President. THE CENTRE COLLEGE. Danville, Ky. February 9, 1918. Replying to your letter of January 30, will say that the gradu- ates of Centre College upon date of graduation may be very well prepared to render service as teachers in the high schools in the subjects which they have made their major in college, and that students who have selected proper courses are well prepared to accept positions and render valuable service in industrial chemistry. We are developing some courses along lines of commerce and diplomacy, and in future, graduates of this college will have quite thorough preparation for service in this field. Of course, our students pursue the usual college work in other departments where they have very thorough preparation for the advanced graduate or professional courses to be studied in other schools. Trusting this information may be of service, I am very sincerely yours, (Signed) W. A. GANFIELD, President. 10 KENTUCKY WESLEY AN COLLEGE. Winchester, Ky. February 19, 1918. Kentucky Wesleyan College can furnish chemists, biologists and men and women to translate and speak French and German. In this way Wesleyan graduates may serve the Government. Respectfully, (Signed) J. L. CLARK, President. GEORGETOWN COLLEGE. Georgetown, Ky. February 20, 1918. This is my first opportunity to fully answer your inquiry of January 30th. Georgetown College does not attempt a3 a primary aim to graduate men and women immediately into specific employ- ment, though many of them do enter such employment at once after graduation. We endeavor to graduate our students and prepare them thoroughly for graduate work in the various professions and callings. We strongly urge them to enter graduate schools. We do not send out physicians, but do send students to graduate schools of medicine. We are always represented at Johns Hopkins by several men. I mention this to indicate our position in the educational system. We do not promote the plan to bring professional studies within the range of a four-year course leading to such degrees as the various vocational and specialized B. S. degrees. We offer a major in the various departments in the junior and senior years, but this is prepar- atory to specialized work. We can graduate in 1919 students who can speak and translate German and French and students who could do fairly good work in the translation of Spanish. We have special courses in conversational French for drafted men. Students who have had three or four years of physics at once enter Government employment, though most of them would be sent to short-term finishing schools for special training in radio, wireless and other electrical work. We have several men now being prepared for war service. We are giving courses in teleg- raphy, which will equip men for signal work in the army. We can also give training in wireless, if the Government will let us use our wireless outfit. We are teaching photography as one of the higher branches of physics and men who can finish this course can enter the photo course of military aeronautics. We give four undergraduate years of chemistry and we have sent several chemists into profitable employment. We have three years of biology, and students with these courses secure positions in hospital work with a short period of Government training. We have a number of home economics gradu- ates who can teach this subject. Many of our graduates are now officers in the army with appropriate pay. Others entered the army as privates and are now non-commissioned officers. We are giving stenography and typewriting from which students can go to appro- 11 priate occupations. We can furnish men with general training in mechanical drawing, men with ability as dramatic entertainers, teach- ers, and chaplains. I do not know whether I have given you the information you want or not. If this is not put in the right shape, write me and I will try it again. One of our graduates is receiving a good salary in the meteorological work of the army. He majored in physics. Yours sincerely, (Signed) M. B. ADAMS, President. TRANSYLVANIA COLLEGE. Lexington, Ky. April 16, 1918. In reply to your inquiry shall say that Transylvania College is not offering technical and professional courses except in the fields of education and religion. However, we are offering pre-vocational courses looking toward law, medicine, engineering, and agriculture. We are doing a definite piece of work in education which has proved helpful to our students who have gone into the service. Also the instruction in the department of psychology has been quite useful to students who have entered that branch of the service. In science we have trained some men who have taken positions in the chemical and physical departments of hospitals. One of our men is doing quite satisfactory work in X-ray photography. The military instruction we give has been of great value, insomuch as a large group of our students have gone to the officers' reserve training camps, and have received commissions. Hoping that the higher education section of the K. E. A. will prove of great value, and thanking you for your participation in this program, I am cordially yours, (Signed) It. H. CROSSFIELD, President. The University of Louisville is prepared to graduate men ready for immediate service to the Government in the following branches: (1) Medicine; (2) law; (3) chemistry; (4) biology; (5) various branches of physics; (6) bacteriology and sanitation; (7) mechanical and architectural drawing; (8) stenography and typewriting; (9) testing of materials and supplies; (10) applied mathematics; (11) modern languages. 12 CORRESPONDENCE, EDITORIALS, AND COMMENTS ADVISORY COMMISSION OF THE COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE. 327 Munsey Building, Washington, D. C. February 6, 1918. Please accept my thanks and appreciation for your letter of February 1st, submitting plan for the organization of colleges and universities which I have read with interest. I have turned your letter and plan over to Dr. Samuel P. Capen, specialist in higher edu- cation, Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C, who is also a mem- ber of my committee and you will no doubt hear from him further concerning this matter. Yours very truly, (Signed) HOLLIS GODFREY. EN ROUTE WEST "20th Century" February 8, 1918. I beg to acknowledge receipt of yours of January 29th, with a specific plan for inducing the Government to co-operate with the colleges and universities in preparing students for specific, technical service. Nothing will be accomplished in this field without some such definite plan, and yours is certainly ingenious and surmounts many difficulties. In order to make it work, however, it must encounter some rocks and jolts, which I will here mention. 1. Is there evidence that any department of the Government or any combination of parallel committees have definitely faced the problems of the fields and number of technical jobs and the methods of reaching into the ramifications of the service? 2. Can the Government be brought to recognize preparation for technical service as on a par with medical service as a reason for exemption for draft? 3. Will the Government pledge itself to assign commissions or appointments on full pay upon the certificates of the colleges without interposing tests of their own? This seems to me the least unlikely of your propositions. It is practically certain that they will, in all cases, insist on their own physical examination, even in cases where the examiner may be a Government official, assigned to college work. One of the good things about your plan is that it is a plan of a definite method of breaking the deadlock and bringing about a state' of preparation highly important to the Government and reassuring higher education. I am sending this plan on to Prof. McElroy with the other document. Cordially yours, (Signed) A. B. HART. 14 TWENTIETH CENTURY LIMITED. February 8, 1918. Beg to acknowledge yours of February 1st, including a plan of organization for the colleges in this time of patriotic need. Tho problem is one to which the authorities of the National Security League are now applying themselves with diligence, and your sug- gestions will be very helpful in its zeal to utilize the man power of the nation. The American people are forgetting that unless that man power is kept up we shall [face] defeat in war and deteriora- tion in peace. I am forwarding your communication to Prof. McElroy, who is the Educational Director of the League, and asking him whether these suggestions can not be discussed at the coming Congress of Patriotism which the league has called at Chicago, two weeks hence. Our experience is that the Government organizations are slow in handling specific recommendations, and particularly in developing and using lists of the available men. I think, therefore, that there is more chance of putting a plan like yours into operation through one of the unofficial organizations. You may expect to hear from Prof. McElroy shortly. Sincerely yours, (Signed) ALBERT BUSHNELL HART. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Bureau of Education, Washington. February 14, 1918. Dr. Godfrey, of the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defense has referred to me for comment and reply to your letter of February 1st, with the accompanying memorandum. I am greatly interested in the plan that you outline. Some of the ends which you seek have been prominent in the minds of various boards and committees which have been considering this problem for some time. Two very recently created bodies which may concern themselves with the matters that you mention may be of interest to you. In the latter part of January an emergency council on education, representing the principal higher educational associations met for several days in Washington and voted to estab- lish a permanent council representing these same associations as soon as the ratification of their action by these associations could be had. This council proposes to urge upon the War Department the value of college trained men in various lines and to suggest feasible means for allowing them to pursue their training until graduation. It also hopes to place all the resources of the higher institutions more directly at the service of the Government. The other body to which I refer is the Committee on Education and Special Training in the War Department. This is a board appointed by the Secretary of War, consisting of officers of the 15 General Staff, Adjutant General's office, and Provost Marshal Gen- eral's office. It has associated with it an advisory board of three civilians and two ex-officio representatives of Government offices. The purpose of the board is to organize and direct all the education and technical training especially needed for the military service. Kventually, no doubt, it will also direct its attention to the effect of the draft on collegiate establishments which are called upon to furnish certain types of highly trained men. I happen to be a member of the advisory board of this committee and I shall try, when occasion presents itself, to call to the attention of the board some of the principles which you emphasize. Sincerely yours, (Signed) S. P. CAPEN. Specialist in Higher Education. EMERGENCY COUNCIL ON EDUCATION. Washington, D. C. April 12, 1918. In the absence of President Campbell, your letter of April 4th has come to me. I have glanced over with interest the proposals you submit in regard to the matter of training men for various branches of Government service. I shall be very glad in due time to study the document carefully, and will write you later concerning any points I may have in mind. Very sincerely yours, (Signed) DONALD J. COWLING. Dictated by President Cowling and signed by his direction in his absence. EMERGENCY COUNCIL ON EDUCATION. Washington, D. C. May 9, 1918. Before leaving the city Dr. Cowling called my attention to your letters of recent date with the request that I bring them to the attention of Dr. Capen and others, and also present them at the meet- ing of the Emergency Council, to be held in Philadelphia, on Friday, May 17th. Permit me to say that the plan which you have outlined in your paper looking toward immediate and efficient action by the War Department in handling the college situation seems to be an excellent one. I am not sure but that the recent action of the Committee on Edu- cation and Special Training of the War Department in authorizing cadet corps in the colleges and universities, with provision for fur- loughing the men up to the time of graduation, takes care of the basic part of your plan in assuring a sufficient number of students in the educational institutions to provide for the future needs of the department. I am told by Dr. Capen, a member of the Committee on Education and Special Training, that it is at present the plan of the committee to take the additional step of trying to ascertain just 16 how many men may be needed in each department of the service and how they may be best distributed among the colleges. If this is done, then I think the essential features of your plan will probably have been put into actual effect. If there are any additional suggestions which you would desire to make to the meeting of the Emergency Council at Philadelphia, on May 17th, I should be glad to hear from you. Very sincerely yours, (Signed) P. L. CAMPBELL, Secretary-Treasurer. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. Bureau of Education, Washington. May 21, 1918. Mr. Tumulty has referred to the Bureau of Education your letter of May 9th enclosing an editorial concerning your plan for the organization of colleges and universities. You will, I am sure, be interested in the order recently authorized by the Secretary of War for the establishment of military training units in all colleges that can muster a hundred men, and the arrange- ments which are now being worked out for the administration of this system by the Committee on Education and Special Training of the War Department. We will try to see that you are posted as soon as the regulations are completed. Sincerely yours, (Signed) S. P. CAPEN, Specialist in Higher Education. EMERGENCY COUNCIL ON EDUCATION. Washington, D. C. May 27, 1918. Replying to your inquiry of May 22d, permit me to say that attention was called at the meeting of the Emergency Council on Education at Philadelphia to your communications containing the plans which you had suggested and which in the main were embodied in the plans outlined and announced by the Committee on Education and Special Training of the War Department. I called to the attention of Dr. Capen, a member of the Commit- tee on Education and Special Training, the fact that you had specifi- cally suggested that steps be taken to ascertain in advance the number of men which might be needed in various lines of war service, so that provision could be made in full time for their being available. He told me that one phase of the committee's plans looked to making just such an inquiry and subsequent selection. I hope very much that the matter will now proceed satisfactorily along the lines which have been indicated, and that as a result both the colleges and the Govern- ment will have their interests fully served. Thanking you again for your interest in this whole matter and for your valuable contribution to the formulation of plans, I remain yours very truly, (Signed) P. L. CAMPBELL. 17 A PLAN FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICE. (The Nation, May 4, 1918.) To the Editor of the Nation: Sir — Educators are deeply interested in discovering how the country may be best served during the war by college-trained men and women and at the same time may have college graduates ready to serve it in the future. Any plan that involves disturbing more than is necessary the continuity of the supply is harmful. The plan to be adopted for colleges and universities should include: (1) aiding the Government immediately and in the future with resources in students and equipment; (2) preserving the usefulness of colleges in their special fields; (3) protecting as far as possible the highest inter- ests of the college men who return from the war. It is suggested that the Government ascertain by means of a questionnaire how many men from the junior and senior classes of each college will volunteer to be trained for the specific services, military, naval and civil, for which the Government states its need for college-trained men. These volunteers are to be exempted from possible draft until after graduation, and are then to receive, on recommendation by the college authorities and after passing the usual physical examination, appointments on full pay with the Government. The Commissioner of Education should (1) collate the material re- ceived in reply, and (2) apportion the number of students needed in various fields among the colleges according to their provisions for giving specific training. The advantages of such a plan are: (1) it is definite, with suf- ficient allowance for modification; (2) it makes available to the Government now and in the future all specifically trained college men; (3) it offers an opportunity for colleges to serve the Government in the fields in which they are best equipped; (4) it makes it possible for college students to receive the usual certificate of education rather than to abandon college work nearly completed. Putting such a plan into effect naturally involves a few conces- sions by the Government, the colleges, and the students, which are not, however, noteworthy in comparison with the advantages offered. The Government would grant exemption, for a period usually not exceeding a year, to certain students being trained for special national service, and would employ these men without further educational tests. The advantage of securing expert service and the opportunity of previously testing and endorsing the work of the institutions recommending the student would outweigh the importance of these concessions. The colleges must in some instances set aside for a time some required studies of their curricula and credit technical and industrial subjects toward the A. B. and S. B. degrees originally sought by the IS volunteer students. These temporary substitutions from their own curricula would cause few institutions to refuse the benefits offered. The students must, in turn, give up certain studies of their choice and pursue others for the benefit of their country in a crisis. Few would decline for that reason alone to make the change that will enable them to secure a degree, and it may be confidently expected that men of their character will on returning from the war find the opportunity to complete their studies in their chosen fields. (Signed) JOHN L. PATTERSON. University of Louisville, April 4. COLLEGE WAR SERVICE. (Editorial from the Nation, May 4, 1918.) The colleges throughout the country are giving special courses to meet war needs. In our correspondence columns Dean Patterson, of the University of Louisville, outlines a plan, submitted by him in full to the Kentucky Educational Association at its meeting last week, for integrating the work of the colleges with the war needs of the Government. Professor Patterson would have the Commis- sioner of Education, by means of a questionnaire, determine just what the colleges can do during the next two years in graduating students prepared to render immediate service to the Government. He would have the Government exempt from draft during the period of training students taking such approved courses, and would have the colleges give credit towards their degrees for such special work as may be needed to meet Government requirements. The Govern- ment might then make special demands on the colleges to furnish this training, possibly subsidizing the institutions. Such a plan would render immediately available to the Govern- ment the whole new supply of college-trained men and women, and would make for better utilization of the special capacities of the col- leges. They could direct their work more intelligently to meet Gov- ernment needs, at a time when they are all anxious to help to the limit of their power. Moreover, a somewhat better organization of intercollegiate relations might result, and a promotion of that dis- tinctiveness so much to be desired in our college development. The plan is not without its immediate and obvious dangers, but its advan- tages are such as to entitle it to prompt and careful consideration. Whatever is done ought to be done without delay. In carrying out this or any other related plan, the colleges must not allow themselves to be swept off their feet by the present exigency. The demand for immediate service is strongly and prop- erly felt everywhere— nowhere more strongly than in the colleges. It is creditable to the patriotism of college faculties that they are striving earnestly to meet this demand. But it is no less important for them to remember that this is by no means their whole duty. 19 Indeed, if the colleges come to think of themselves as mere training schools for Government work, they will lose their largest opportunity to serve the nation. Whatever the immediate needs of the Government in its war- making activity, and whatever the possible service of the college in meeting those needs, we can never afford to lose sight of the stupen- dous tasks that will confront us when the war is done — and that responsibility rests peculiarly on the college. For the present, under stress of war, we may shut our eyes and do as we are told — which is indeed the theory on which many of us would perform our tasks now. But when the war is over, we must shape national policy by the old process of discussion. Food production and distribution, farm labor, tenancy, extension of public functions in the field of manu- factures, trade, and transportation, railroad regulation or owner- ship, trust control, unionism, socialism, syndicalism — these and a hundred other domestic problems are going to press insistently for solution. Superadd the infinitely complex questions of our exigent foreign relations, and we shall confront an array of difficulties that may well make the stoutest heart quail. For the solution of these problems no amount of mere good will is going to suffice. They must be met with knowledge, intelligence, and capacity for thought. The United States will turn to its trained men and women with demands a hundredfold more difficult than it has ever made before. And it is these demands that the college must meet in the days ahead. It cannot meet them simply by turning out boys and girls capable of becoming at short notice department clerks or laboratory assistants or expert calculators. No mere technical training will suffice. The college must produce men and women capable of thinking, capable of assembling and arranging facts, of looking them squarely and fearlessly in the face and understanding what they mean, of thinking out policies and methods based on the principles of freedom in which we believe, but capable of fitting con- ditions in a world sadly distant from our ideals, a world of which we are now an integral part, a world from the solution of whose prob- lems we can by no withdrawal escape. While the colleges train their students for immediate Government service, then, they must keep constantly before themselves this larger and more difficult task. They must train their students to think in world terms, to be inde- pendent, self-reliant, critical, yet co-operative and constructive mem- bers of the great commonwealth that remains to build. Notwith- standing all the clamor about other ends, a clamor now strongly rein- forced by the unavoidable demand for immediate service, the supreme duty of the college remains what it always has been — to teach students to think. For despite the breakdown of the world's intel- lectual leadership under stress of war, it is still true that the world 20 must be saved, not by mysticism, not by sentiment, but by intelligent and unselfish thinking. In war as in peace, the college must never forget its chief task. (Editorial from the Louisville Herald, May 8, 1918.) It is characteristic of the Nation, the very last work in sobriety and respectability, that commending anything it should deem it necessary to warn those concerned against the danger of permitting the present exigency — this little accident of the war, you know — from sweeping them off their feet. This concession to tradition made, we are justified in saying that it lends a discriminating approval to a plan submitted to it by way of correspondence by Dean Patterson, of the University of Louisville, a plan for "integrating the work of the colleges with the war needs of the Government." This is in effect the same scheme presented more at length to the Educational Association of the Commonwealth in the course of the session recently held in this city; a scheme the purpose of which was to prepare students — who meantime should be exempt from draft — for such special work as would best jump with the declared requirements of the Government service, the training to be only such as Washington might demand. Of this idea the Nation speaks commendingly : "Such a plan would render immediately available to the Govern- ment the whole new supply of college-trained men and women, and would make for better utilization of the special capacities of the col- leges. They could direct their work more intelligently to meet Gov- ernment needs at a time when they are all anxious to help to tho limit of their power. Moreover, a somewhat better organization of intercollegiate relations might result, and a promotion of that dis- tinctiveness so much to be desired in our college development. The plan is not without its immediate and obvious dangers, but its advan- tages are such as to entitle it to prompt and careful consideration. Whatever is done ought to be done without delay." There is no need for discussion here. The idea is one which, as it seems to us, needs only to be known and understood to be accepted in principle, if not in detail ; and as to details, these must necessarily be left in a somewhat fluid state, or at least in such shape as to per- mit of their natural modification by location, conditions, and circum- stances. War work is of two kinds, destructive and constructive. The first quite frankly busies itself with the task of killing Germans, and as many Germans as possible in the most business-like manner pro- curable, with a minimum of expenditure, that is, of life and treasure. As an example of what we mean, we may mention that we have been told on excellent authority that gassing a German is by a great deal the least expensive method of putting him out of action. 21 That is one kind of war work, the destructive kind. But there is another kind, and that, as we have said, is constructive. It builds for tomorrow as well as for today. It looks beyond the war to the future of reconstruction, forgetting not at all the urgent duties of the day. For the time being the colleges, like all other activities, must be ready to take their orders from the Government, and if we may put it that way, to do as they are told. Nor do we anticipate holding back or repining in any quarter, the rather a generous subordination to the call of the hour, the call that makes no excep- tions, that includes churches as it does colleges, the call to win the war. But if they are to do that, is it not well that the means and plan of doing it be charted? It is that Dean Patterson has in mind. He suggests a questionnaire to determine not only how many will volun- teer for special activities, but in what fields they are most sought, and that those called shall not lose the credits they have gained and the work they have done, he proposed that the special studies they must take for their country's sake go toward the degrees originally ambitioned. This seems to be a happy thought. It may lack the Prussian rigidity and devotion to the national idea and nothing else; it may leave a loophole for individuality and deny that subserviency is the mark of a good citizen, but then those are heights not only far away but un-American. The young man and young woman of America are still to be per- mitted to think. That is a comforting reflection. 22