tion the number of instructors has been doubled, the number of students made larger by one-half, and the funds of the University greatly increased. Without

The work of the School of Political Science has been supplemented by the School of Philosophy, which covers the field of higher instruction in philosophy, phi

stopping for a day the regular routine of recitation and lecture and research, he has transferred the whole institution, with all its laboratories and libraries, from its old noisy and crowded quarters to the beautiful and comfortable buildings on Morningside Heights. He found us a college in name, and he has made us a university in name and in fact.

The changes made in this process of organization and development are as interesting as the steps in the development of a state or a constitution. The schools of Medicine and Law, which had first only a loose connection with the University, have become integral parts of its organization. The School of Mines, whose name seemed to imply that its instruction was confined to professional training in mining engineering and metallurgy, has been re-organized under the appropriate title of the School of Applied Sciences. The field of unpro

fessional scientific research has been covered by a new School of Pure Science.

lology, and belles-lettres. To these six schools have been added Teachers College, by an arrangement consummated only last year. We have then, as the central organization of the University, a group of four professional schools,-the Schools of Applied Science, Law, Medicine, and Teachers College, and of three post-graduate schools, the Schools of Philosophy, Political Science, and Pure Science. These seven schools are clustered around Columbia College proper, the old School of Art, which is supplemented by Barnard College. The College was the germ of the whole University, and in the new organization it still occupies the central place. The number of students receiving instruction this year (1899) in these nine schools is as follows:

The teaching force consists of 12 officers of administration, 98 professors and adjunct professors, 12 emeritus professors, and 240 instructors, tutors, and assistants; in all, 362. Comparison of these figures with rereturns from the other great Eastern universities shows that Columbia stands third in number of students. Harvard has an attendance of 3,879, not including Radcliffe College; the University of Pennsylvania has 2,719; Yale, 2,542; and Johns Hopkins, 580.

A careful analysis of these returns, as given in a recent number of the "Harvard Graduates' Magazine," reveals two interesting and important facts. First, the relatively small size of the College at Columbia tells greatly to our disadvantage in comparison with Harvard and Yale. Deducting the college item from each set of figures, it appears that the numbers in professional and post-graduate schools are: Harvard, 2,035; Columbia, 1,997; Pennsylvania, 1,856*; Yale, 1, 307. As a university we are in numbers as well as in standing side by side with the oldest and largest of Eastern institutions. Second, if the figures in the "Harvard Graduates' Magazine" are correct, and there is every reason to believe that they are substantially correct, it is evident that Columbia's rate of growth is a good one. Yale is larger only by twenty than it was last year, Harvard larger only by 101, and Columbia larger by 177,-a gain distributed over the whole field of undergraduate, graduate, and professional study.

The system of University government is exceedingly rational. The Board of Trustees, which is representative of many interests, is self-perpetuating, and is the sole source of authority. It administers the property of the University, which is valued at $20,000,000, and appoints the officers of instruction. Each school is governed, so far as educational matters go, by its own faculty, which is a small working body, consisting only of professors and adjunct professors. Educational matters relating to more than one school are decided by the University Council,

*Or, counting the School of Dentistry, 2,356.

which is composed of representatives from each faculty. Under this simple but effective system, business is transacted with despatch, and the time spent in administrative work by officers of instruction is reduced, as a rule, to a minimum.

The new buildings at Columbia have been described so often that it will not be necessary here to do more than hint at their character. The central position is occupied by the Library, President Low's recent gift to the University, which is not only a superb building architecturally, as the accompanying photograph shows, but one most broadly and minutely adapted to the uses of graduate and undergraduate students. There are six other buildings on the grounds, four of which are largely devoted to scientific work, and are fully equipped with laboratories and all the modern appliances for training and research. The buildings of Barnard College and Teachers College stand just outside the University grounds. The group of buildings occupied by the School of Medicine, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, is on 59th Street and Tenth Avenue.

So far as many undergraduates are concerned, however, the most important building on the ground is naturally thought to be the part of the still unfinished University Hall that contains the Gymnasium. And even the most pedantic scholar, a foe forever to the modern spirit that is inclined to place athletics before learning, and tricks of the body before training of the mind, must feel his heart softened as he visits it. It has light and air and sunshine, ample room for exercise and indoor sports of all kinds, baths in abundance and convenience, and a swimming pool that is really a little pond.

In closing, I must turn from these details of historical and statistical information to the statement, less of fact than of personal opinion, of what seems to me to be the essential characteristics of the University, those that together distinguish it, to a very great degree, from the other great universities of the East.

First, Columbia University has been organized on a sound administrative basis. The organization came late, and we could profit by the experience of others; it was carried out under the leadership of one whose training and whose genius fitted him preeminently for such a task. I have no doubt that improvements can and will be made in many details of the funda

mental scheme, but the plan is sound. The University is well constructed, and had it twice as many students, as it might easily have, or even ten times as many, as the remote future might possibly bring us, it is my opinion that the organization would meet the strain.

A second characteristic of the University has been its willingness to coöperate with other institutions and with all honorable bodies of unselfish men. The College of Physicians and Surgeons, Barnard College, and Teachers College have willingly associated themselves with us. We have relations, more or less close, with the Union Theological Seminary, with the American Museum of Natural History, with the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts, and with similar institutions. The trait is one essentially American, and it is easy to see the immense field of usefulness that lies before a university in a great city when it is willing to ally itself unselfishly with all kindred forces that make for civilization and righteousness. A third characteristic lies in a differ

ence of ideal. Each university, and particularly each college, has its chosen ideal, made sacred by tradition. To Harvard, as I have said in an earlier article,* belongs manifold scholarship and cosmopolitan culture; to Yale, well-earned success in physical, social, and commercial honors, an ideal so powerful, so human, so democratic, so American, that even the alien heart warms with it; to Princeton, the strength and self-control of men rigorously trained in seclusion, and strong for the battle of life; to Columbia, brilliant facility and tact, the art of planning. organizing, and administering all things, be they spiritual or temporal, scientific or literary, political or commercial. Each of these ideals has been, and will long continue to be, a force in the land, and that of Columbia is destined to be not the least American and least noble of them all. G. R. CARPENTER.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY,

NEW YORK.

The American College, in the "Atlantic Monthly," May, 1895.

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NOTICEABLE interest has arisen at times in regard to the practical means by which questions demanding impartial and expert judgment should be taken out of the political arena, and be handed over to a competent and judicial body for decision. That which has led to this suggestion has doubtless been the somewhat reluctant admission that a majority of inexperienced voters, swayed by political agitators, cannot reach an intelligent conclusion on technical questions; that a correct solution can be only a coincidence, or happy blunder; and that, although in the long run we may come out nearly right, we can reach the end only by a long and dangerous course of losses from which we ought to be saved. The growing demand for taking matters which affect trade and industry out of politics is not, I take it, the expression of any pessimism as to the ultimate value of our forms of government, but rather a desire to consider whether the general principles of republican government may not be more effectively carried out by better processes of practical administration. does not mean a confession of the failure of representative government, but it assumes the form of a demand for a purer method of administering the powers delegated by the sovereign people to its representatives. It is, in fact, an attempt to develop representative government in additional forms, shown to be necessary by experience, as a means of further protecting the general weal. Certainly, it is patent to all observers that conditions have arisen indicating the insufficiency of present representative forms to meet all the emergencies of just government. The high-seeing moralist may reply with admonitions to select a higher quality of representatives, expecting the consequent removal of most of the evils now complained of. That would be desirable, doubtless; but while human beings remain as they are, it is not likely that political campaigns will always bring to Congress all-round students of government and economics, nor, if they did, that complex questions of money and tariff would be disposed of without partisan bargains.

The present times are full of movement and expansion. Never before in our history have we had so much wealth; never

before have we had such large industrial operations undertaken under one management; never before has the power of great riches been so conspicuously borne in on the consciousness of the community; never before have we seen such attempts to use wealth for political influence; never before have municipal officers and State legislatures been so extensively controlled by Bosses who are the agents by whom wealth obtains its political ends; in brief, never has the highest legislative assembly in the nation had so little of public confidence and respect. To be a Senator of the United States is no longer a badge of honor. The demagoguery of wealth, its vulgarity, its indecent abuse of sacred political privileges, have never been more flagrant. Surely one cannot sit still and see this evolution going on without pause. It is portentous in its magnitude, and suggestive of future excesses and dangers.

So firmly entrenched are the evils of the present situation that evidently they are not of recent origin. And worst of all, we have acquired the habit of regarding some of them as inevitable, largely because they have become familiar to us. In a way, we must be willing to break with some of our fixed habits of thinking and doing. The difficulties in the situation are great; indeed, unless the conditions which have given rise to the existing evils are eradicated, sporadic attempts at reform are likely to result in little of permanent value. If, for instance, our water supply is polluted, we ought not to go on forever filtering and boiling; sooner or later we must set to work to purify our sources of supply. And, in the case in hand, we must go far up the stream.

There can be little doubt that the magnitude of our present difficulties could not have been foreseen by those earlier Americans who began the system of establishing industries which owed their existence and their continuance to the protecting power of legislation. As things now stand, the enormous growth of industrial operations and the spread of great wealth has given an unprecedented power to the interests that go to legislatures for needed enactments. So long as the gains of capital can be affected favorably or unfavorably by legislation, just so long

will there exist a reason why unscrupulous persons will try to bring all kinds of pressure, corrupt or criminal though it may be, upon members of those bodies which are empowered to grant such legislation. This is a situation which we ought to examine critically. Could there be an arrangement more calculated to produce a low character of men in public life - a degradation on which we hear lamentations on every side - than one that places the public servant in a position where he is certain to be bribed, corrupted, and bought for the advancement of private schemes for gain?

It is not intimated, of course, that all men are venal, or that all public men are venal; but it is certain that, wittingly or unwittingly, we have entered upon a system of political management of industry which tends increasingly to bring venal persons into public office. If the selling price of wool or woollens depends not upon the natural conditions of production, not upon natural resources, not upon the character of our laborers and the efficiency of machinery or the organization of industry, but upon legislation which may raise or lower a customs tax, then it is inevitable- wholly irrespective of the economic justification of the protective policy that business men, selling or producing these goods, should give effort and money to influencing the legislation which will obtain favorable conditions. Manufacturers come to regard Washington, during a session of Congress, quite as much the centre of interest to them as the busy rooms of their own factories. change of the law may mean more to their profits than a great invention in woollen machinery or the cheapening of running expenses. The change in law which brings to them their raw materials at one-half the former price, may revolutionize the whole industry. Hence enormous pecuniary interests will be at stake, so long as we continue the political management of industries; and, as a consequence, we are breeding the kind of man who fits into these conditions. His latest name is "The Boss.» He is not an accident, but an evolution.

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The naïve theory of representative government supposes that the elected legislator will represent the interests of all his constituents. In practice that is not what usually takes place. Inasmuch as enormous pecuniary results are at stake in

legislative assemblies, the men who manage large industries necessarily take an interest in politics as a part of their counting-house methods. How much to subscribe to the campaign funds of the politicians who will pass, or who will maintain, legislation, is determined on the same general basis as the expenses for advertizing or for the pay-roll. For a time the pecuniary inducements went directly to the individual legislator, but it is now more convenient and effective to give it all to the Boss who elected, and consequently owns, the legislators. The Boss who controls the party machinery dictates who shall have legislative nominations; he provides funds for their election, and then can demand votes for his special projects. In this form it is not a bribery of legislators which can be reached by law, since the manufacturer turns in funds to a Boss who is often not a public official. The Boss and the degradation of the legislative character are purely the results of a system which makes enormous business gains dependent upon legislation. It is, therefore, useless to defeat one party and put in the opposition; for so long as the system remains, we shall have the kind of man evolved by that system in both parties. There is no use foaming at the mouth, or getting red in the face with rage at the scoundrels in office, so long as we obediently vote for the system, and continue the power of the purchasing-andpurchased Boss. If we like the system, and perpetuate it, then we must take the consequences bravely and stop whining.

If legislation can make and unmake fortunes in industry, then, of course, in the making of that legislation the longest purse wins. You may call this cynicism, but it is only the cynicism of the facts. When did an industry get special privileges until it grew to such power that it could command what it required? When has a single small producer been able to appeal to economic laws, or to right and justice, to obtain favors, when large operators wished something else? The legislator's frequent question is: How will that vote affect my reëlection? And the influence that can in the largest measure aid in his reëlection is, in many cases, sure of a friendly vote on its own schemes. Legislative corruption lies not necessarily in bribing members already elected, but in securing the election of only those men who represent private interests instead of