Washington University in St. Louis

“ The stone, granite, and steel were both hunted up and tested by experts, and by machines specially devised in the bridge works, though not by Eads himself. For his assistants he chose men who were of real ability and well trained, and to them he invariably gave great credit for their part in the work. The plans, after being figured out in detail by them, were gone over by the mathematician Chauvenet, then chancellor of Washington University, who found not one single error in them. Most of the big work, such as the masonry and steel, was given out on contract ”

“ Charles D. Walcott, president of the Washington Academy of Sciences and director of the U. S. Geological Survey, as president of the board of trustees; and Professor Nicholas Murray Butler, of Columbia University, as secretary of the board. Under these auspices there will surely develop at Washington a great institution, which will in fact be a national university. It will not, however, be a rival to existing universities, but will coordinate their work; it will utilize the opportunities for study and research in the government departments, without interfering with their legitimate functions ”

“ Believing that the Republic would stand secure only upon a foundation of education, courage and conscience, he left money for a great American University. In this, he wanted the young people to be trained in the principles of true Americanism. He wanted the intelligence of the country to guide its politics. It is unfortunate that, to the present day, the university has not been founded, although there is now every likelihood that such a National University will be established in Washington and vast sums contributed to the fund Washington had left for this purpose. ”

“ It is not a matter of one million, or ten millions, or even of twenty millions, but of more, to fulfil worthily the wish of Washington, and I think no one would presume to use that almost sacred name except for a university of the very first rank, established by national authority, as he desired. Be it our part in our day and generation to do what we can to extend the boundaries of human knowledge by utilizing existing institutions. ”

“ He was, however, persuaded to accept in 1865 the presidency of Washington College, at Lexington, Va., an institution founded on gifts made by Washington, and at present known as Washington and Lee University. In this position the great man spent his remaining years, joining refinement and dignity to usefulness, and revered by all who came within the charmed circle of his influence. ”

“ The assembly cheerfully acceded to his proposition. As the encouragement of education was a subject in which he felt deeply interested, he made over the shares of the James River Company to an institution in Rockbridge county, called Liberty Hall Academy, and those of the Potomac Company he bequeathed in perpetuity for the endowment of a university in the District of Columbia, under the auspices of the general government. Liberty Hall afterward became the flourishing Washington College, but the national university has never been established. ”

“ When a national university is established at Washington, it would be well for its faculty to consist in part of men from other institutions who should spend one year in five or seven at the central university.
It is difficult to find the right man; and it is particularly unfortunate when the wrong man has been selected. Academic rights and academic freedom are troublesome problems. It seems that an opportunistic policy must be followed rather than definite rules. A university can not be conducted as a factory; and even a factory does not entirely ignore the human element. ”

“ Largest University in the Pacific Northwest, the University of Washington is situated in northern Seattle on 582 acres lying between 15th Avenue Northeast and Lake Washington, and East 45th Street and Lake Union. Wide rolling lawns, formal beds of flowers and shrubs, and a variety of native trees afford an unusually beautiful setting for the 66 college buildings. The blue waters on the rim of the campus have given activities there an amphibious character—along the shore are a canoe house, crew quarters, oceanographic laboratories, and a showboat theater. ”

“ The educational element, the high-toned culture which always marks the mental and moral atmosphere surrounding a university is to-day the marked lack of what is termed “society in Washington.” 66The United States Government is doing much for science. There is a greater number of persons actively devoted to scientific pursuits in the National Capital than in any other city of the Union. Washington is already the seat of more purely intellectual activity than any other American city. The scientific library of the Smithsonian Institute is one of the best in the world. ”

“ Three-fourths of a century have passed since Washington, Jefferson and Adams consulted together concerning the National University of the future. Alas! it is still of the future. The dream of its fulfillment was dearer to the father of his country, probably, than to any other mortal. The explicit provision made for it in his will proves this. That bequest went finally, I believe, to a college in Virginia. Columbia College, feeble, small and old, is the nearest approach to the National University of which the National Capital can boast to-day. ”

“ In the census year 1900, out of a total of 158,245 children of school age, 100,731, or about 63 per cent., were in attendance. Of the population over ten years of age, 3.1 per cent. were classed as illiterate. The school statistics for 1902 gave the number of children of school age as 167,902, and the number in actual attendance as 136,645, or 81 per cent., which is a notable increase over the 1900 figures. The principal institutions of learning in the State are the University of Washington (see Washington, University of) , at Seattle ”

“ Strange after the lapse of nearly a century, the other evening the friends of this feeble and stunted college, including the President of the United Stales, high officials, learned professors, foreign ministers, and gentlemen of the press, assembled in Wormley’s comfortable dining-room, and over an “epicurean banquet” discussed what Jefferson and Washington did in their letters—a National University for the National Capital. The desire of Washington although not yet fulfilled, must in time become a reality. ”

“ Washington came into national prominence by a remarkable speech at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, and after that he interested educators and thinking people generally in the working out of his ideas of practical education. He was the author of several books along lines of industrial education and character-building, and in his later years only one or two other men in America could rival his power to attract and hold great audiences. Harvard University conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts in 1896, and Dartmouth that of Doctor of Laws in 1901. ”

“ The entire Carnegie bequest would be exhausted before Harvard or Columbia could be reached, and the University of Pennsylvania would be barely passed. It is thus apparent that even when supplemented by the opportunities for study which Washington affords, the advantages in a material way would not exceed existing institutions by an amount sufficient to overcome sentimental or other reasons that attract students elsewhere. ”

“ Washington is the first of his race to receive an honorary degree from a New England university. This, in itself, is a distinction. But the degree was not conferred because Mr. Washington is a coloured man, or because he was born in slavery, but because he has shown, by his work for the elevation of the people of the Black Belt of the South, a genius and a broad humanity which count for greatness in any man, whether his skin be white or black. ”

“ And though the nations of the world will never be brought under a single government, the desirability of removing national prejudices is as great now as was a century ago the elimination of state jealousies. The logical conclusion therefore would be that the 'spirit of Washington' moved forward a hundred years, would call for an international or world university. ”

“ There should be a free exchange of professors and students between all parts of the country. Then there should be a great national university at Washington or elsewhere frequented by advanced students and professors from all parts of the country and all parts of the world—men who would gladly learn and gladly teach. Harvard, Columbia and Chicago, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois may be secondary centers, but they should cooperate to establish a super-university, which would have the same relation to existing universities that these should hold to the colleges. ”

“ In conferring the honorary degree of Master of Arts upon the Principal of Tuskegee Institute, Harvard University has honoured itself as well as the object of this distinction. The work which Professor Booker T. Washington has accomplished for the education, good citizenship, and popular enlightenment in his chosen field of labour in the South entitles him to rank with our national benefactors. ”

“ Butler's analogy; political economy; chemistry; natural philosophy. By comparing even the latest and most advanced of these courses of study, one will see that the best high schools of the present day are nearly the equivalent of the institutions from which Washington could have drawn his ideals, and that a university that now begins where the best colleges of his time left off, would surely be the equal of all that he could have hoped to see in his national university. Such institutions we now have in every state and in almost every city. ”

“ It is certainly a hopeful indication of the ambition and lofty purpose of Methodist youth that one-eighth of the whole number of students of the Johns Hopkins University are Methodists, seeking the broadest educational facilities. A church with such a record will not lose her hold upon the intellect and scholarship of the age.
Methodism has wisely undertaken to establish the American University in Washington City. The founding of such a university was the dream of Washington and other great statesmen. This is the most strategic educational center in America. ”

“ Washington shared neither the least nor the most of the educational advantages of his colony. The elder brothers, Lawrence and Augustine, had realized their father's hopes, and had been sent to England for their schooling as he had been for his, but the early death of the father defeated that plan for George, so he obtained the early preparation for his life work from the "home university," over which Mary Washington presided, a loving and wise head. At times George was with his brother Augustine at Bridges Creek, to be near the best parish school, and then he was at home ”

“ It has its own more modest field and is intended to cooperate with all kindred institutions, including the Washington University, if ever built, and it may be built if we continue to increase in population as heretofore for a generation. ”

“ With good men at the start, this works well, but one may have misgivings as to the ultimate outcome of widely scattered research work and scientific men directed by a president from an administration building in Washington. The Carnegie Institution would probably have done better either to have established a research university at Washington or else to have used its revenue to endow independent research institutions for special lines of work in different places. ”

“ The universities for higher education are the University of Washington at Seattle, University of Puget Sound at Tacoma, State College at Pullman, Gonzaga College at Spokane, and Whitman College at Walla Walla. ”

“ Of the two plans of his mature years and ripened experience, one has been realized, the West Point idea, which brings together, from every State and Territory of the Union, young men to be trained for military service; that other plan of a National University, with schools of administration and statesmanship, is yet being considered. ”

“ Washington is, in this respect, like a German university, in which all the citizens make their living by the students and the professors, and on that account must do what the latter like, instead of holding out inducements for them to desert the path of duty. ”

“ Leading educational programs at present are sponsored by the University of Washington, Seattle, with lectures on science, home economics, current events, and general topics; and by the State College of Washington, Pullman, which serves eastern Washington with advice on new agricultural methods, farm management, and home economics.
Among nationally known radio artists from Washington are Bing Crosby, Lanny Ross, Mary Livingston, Helen Jepson, and Hugh B. Dobbs ("Captain Dobsie") . "Major" Edward Bowes, famous as a discoverer of amateur talent, was long a resident of Tacoma. ”

“ The Catholic University in Washington has been created by the pope, and in its government the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church is made dominant. Already the Roman Catholics had established, especially under the charge of the Jesuit fathers and of the Sulpicians, excellent colleges for liberal education, as well as schools of theology; but the newer metropolitan university was distinctly organized on a broader plan, in closer accordance with the universities of continental Europe, and with a pronounced recognition of the importance of science. ”