mouth from 1771 to 1890 the classes averaged forty-one.

I detail these figures out of a great array of statistics simply to enforce my statement that the history of higher education in this country prior to 1870 was the history of the small college, a fact often apparently lost sight of. Since 1870 there has been a rapid development in higher education and the country now has a considerable number of schools where great congregations of students are found and where catalogues are so bulky that a college faculty of fifty years ago would have been hopelessly lost in an effort to explain their contents.

It is within this period that the state universities have made their wonderful growth. In the same time have arisen such wonderful institutions as Cornell, Chicago and Stanford. The older institutions of the East, like Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania have in this same period made a phenomenal development both in resources and students.

Out of this condition of things. has arisen a considerable debate about the college of the future. Many have thought that the great institutions were to be the only ones and that the small institutions would soon have no place in the educational economy. It were a hopeless task to undertake to settle the question but it is a very

pleasant privilege to bring before you a few truths concerning the past of the small college.

First of all I desire to emphasize the fact that the criticism often made of the small college by inference, if not by direct statement, is both unfair and untrue. It is not quite fair for us to cast a reflection upon the only institution that fostered higher education prior to the past thirty years. That institution as we have seen was the small college. Furthermore the test of greatness is the ability to meet, or the actual meeting of, the emergencies of the hour. The questions at issue therefore are whether the small college met the issues of its time and whether present small colleges are actually meeting an existing need. Presently I shall state the evidence in support of an affirmative reply to these questions. I remark in passing that the inference against the small college is not drawn from any facts that prove that the large college or modern university would have done the work then needed in any superior way. Indeed there is a lack of evidence that the modern idea would have been at all suitable to conditions fifty years ago, and we are not at all sure but the close of the twentieth century may see present universities so changed and modified as to be practically new. The business of an educational institution is to meet the needs of the times. The fact that in our at

tempt to meet present needs we have developed a considerable number of great institutions does not at all prove that the small college has not had a place or that it is not now meeting a real need. The fact is the large college and modern university are rather new institutions. They are so young that their real value and efficiency are still problematical. The alumni of the modern large university have yet to win a distinction that will eclipse the glory of their fathers. It may yet develop into an eclipse of the son. However we hope for better things.

Let us now turn to a brief statement of the ideals of the small college. These will tell us something of its character and work.

First I remark that the small college was set for the development of manhood. In 1854 President William A. Stearns in his inaugural address at Amherst said: "The idea of education is the formation of men, men capable of high scholarship, of professional eminence and honorable achievement, but first of all, men."

This was neither new doctrine nor unfamiliar statement. It was the common and popular sentiment. The college of those days was set for the upbuilding of character in men. Often it was declared to be a Christian character and manhood. The college recognized that character and manhood were the supreme needs of society.

The college curriculum was an instrument that men of lofty ideals used to these great ends.

The measure of success that has attended these efforts is but little appreciated. To read the alumni role of Yale, Harvard and Princeton when they were small colleges, or the rolls of Amherst, Bowdoin and Williams in New England, of Hamilton in New York, or of Washington and Jefferson in Pennsylvania, Centre College in Kentucky and Miami in Ohio is an inspiration to any young man struggling for place and usefulness in his generation. I freely confess that three hours with these rolls gave me a new appreciation of the splendid possibilities of American manhood. These men have been the embodiment of the best things in civilization. They have stood for the best things in religion, in scholarship, in politics, in society and the state. What the world would have been without them I know not, but for what it has been with them we are indebted to the small college. That debt will forever remain unpaid but is is here. most gratefully acknowledged.

Second, I remark that the small college put an important emphasis upon the personal contact between the professor and the student as a powerful influence in determining character.

The professor in the small college has always been a man of character who recognized his opportu

nity. The heroic service that many of these men have rendered is sufficient testimony to their excellence. Senator Hoar has recently said in speaking of the Harvard of fifty years ago, that men were then called to professorships because they had attained eminence in their professions. The result was that young men were brought under the instruction of men whose lives

were

an inspiration and whose characters were a most wholesome influence. These men recognized the possibilities in their service. Without offering any criticism upon the modern professor I may say that eminent men are not now called to professorships. The conditions have so changed that they prefer another life. The modern. Longfellow or Holmes is not a professor. The college of these days must train its professors up to eminence. They attain it as a part of their reward to patch out a meager salary. Moreover the modern professor with his specialty often looks upon his work as merely teaching and makes a rather narrow business of it. A broad education is looked upon as impossible or undesirable and broad and deep sympathy for the student as unnecessary. Just here the small college has always put its emphasis. It has always insisted that teaching is personal; where inspiration and leadership are quite as important as instruction. To lead out into the larger world with a proper per

spective requires a master workman. This leadership, I grant you, may be found in the larger colleges. If not, then something vital is wanting. That such work has been done and is still done in the small college is beyond any question.

Third, I remark that the small college has done a great work in cultivating a respect for scholarship. It may as well be conceded no very great scholarship is possible within the limits of a college course. One of the silliest fallacies in modern times is the frequent assumption that because a boy has graduated from a large college he is both a gentleman and a scholar. As a matter of fact he is often neither the one nor the other. The honest college has never made any pretensions in this regard. Scholarship is the ripe fruit of years of patient toil. It is to be kept in mind however, that the college. bred man has been usually a man of broad sympathies, of a reasonably liberal culture and of sufficient intelligence to appreciate the scholarship of men who have been the pathfinders in the world's research. The considerable body of such men in the country has made it possible for the scholar to hope for a reward in his labor. The college has been the bulwark of scholarship. In this field the college man has done a great service. The fact that his studies in the small college have widened his horizon and given him a bird's eye view of the

William B. Shaw, in the Review of Reviews draws attention to the well known fact that many communities do not enjoy local library privileges. He supplements his observation by suggesting an expedient:

"The problem thus becomes, not merely how many towns can be induced to start free libraries, but how can the people, particularly the growing children and youth, in town and county districts where no public libraries exist, be helped to a share of library privileges at once, without waiting for communities themselves to take the initiative. In some states much has already been done in this direction through traveling libraries."

In speaking on the same topic J. I. Wyer, Jr., of the University of Nebraska says:

"The traveling library should be encouraged. One of the chief reasons for its existence is the work it does in blazing the way for the permanent local library."

That the traveling library system is popular and destined to grow more and more into public favor is attested by the steadily increasing demand for these libraries where the system has been introduced. The record for Ohio is presented

on the accompanying map. It will be noted that for the six and onehalf months ending June 1, 392 of these libraries have been sent out. Present indications are that by the end of the year, Nov. 15, not less than 550 of these will have been sent out and the number may reach 600. Other states that have adopted the system are having similar experiences, and the prospects are that for years to come the means available will be taxed to the utmost to meet the demands for books through this new agency. And this is true even if we accept as final the statement that the traveling library is a temporary expedient to be supeseded in time by the permanent local library. In our own state, the free public libraries are practically confined to a few large cities. At best it will be years before their privileges are extended to the village and rural communities of the state. While this condition exists there will be room for a system of traveling libraries supported by the state for the benefit of the people of the state.

We must not lose sight, however, of the fact that one of the objects of the traveling library system is to stimulate local library interest and enterprise.

leges there is no room to doubt that the presence of such colleges has done a great deal to give tone and character to the communities. They have been an object of pride to the citizens and something of an inspiration to the people. Of the four hundred and fifty colleges in the country a large proportion of them must be classed as small colleges. They are however, centers of life and light to hosts of people whom the greater schools do not and can not reach. They are constantly seeking out boys many of whom rise to eminence. These men more than justify the reason for existence. In the poorer grade of the small college there may be found much to criticise. No doubt the standards are often too low. Some harmful results do follow but it is a mistake to be too sweeping in our condemnation. The small college is winning to-day more than its proper share of the honors in our great universities. These facts persist and are very stubborn things. The self-denial, the hardship, the heroism still found in many of these colleges with the

lack of some modern fancies are pretty useful ingredients in the coming man. The small college has usually been the poor man's college. It cultivated the habits of economy and has usually been free from the vices that accompany the liberal use of money. Its own poverty and economy have usually been an object lesson to the student. The democratic sentiment usually prevailing has bound the students in a close friendship. Here have been trained many of the recruits who have saved the interests of the people. Some of them have risen to eminence but more of them have quietly but efficiently served the community which supported the college. The unwritten history of the small college is liable to be overlooked and forgotten in the annals of the great but there are a thousand hillsides and as many fruitful valleys in our country where the service is gratefully recognized. What Webster said of Dartmouth many a man will say of others "She is small but there are those who love her."