learning. They not only give teachers' certificates, but, under approved conditions, they award academic degrees. Indeed it was at one time seriously proposed by the president of Cornell University, Andrew D. White, to put the power of conferring degrees entirely into the hands of the board of regents of the University on the State of New York.

THE MERIT SYSTEM AT THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.

Throughout the entire country, from New York to the Gulf States, from Virginia to California, the principle of student representation or student election in our higher systems of education is already recognized to a greater or less degree. The idea has even passed beyond State limits, and is now in practical operation in at least one group of three southern States-Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. To undergraduate students from these three States the Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, gives twenty ordinary Hopkins scholarships, yielding free tuition ($100) and tenable for three years. This university also gives eighteen honorary Hopkins scholarships, yielding $250 per annum and free tuition, "to be awarded for uncommo i merit, among the matriculated undergraduate students from each of the States above named, the selection to be made by the board of collegiate advisers.” 1

1

The reason for discrimination in favor of meritorious undergraduate students from these three States is the expressed will of the founder of . the Johns Hopkins University, who desired his trustees to "establish from time to time such number of free scholarships in the said university as may be judicious, and to distribute the said scholarships among such candidates from the States of Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, as may be most deserving of choice, because of their character and intellectual promise, and to educate the young men so chosen free of charge." The founder's motive was not altogether unlike that which causes the University of Virginia to limit its free tuition to students from that State. To Johns Hopkins, the wholesale merchant, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina were simply a larger economic commonwealth, from which he had drawn his millions in the processes of trade and commercial intercourse. He wished to benefit that group of States which had benefited him. In no way could he have better quickened the highest life of that one group of American commonwealths than by thus providing for the higher education of their representative young men who were "most deserving of choice."

The merit system in the higher education has been extended by the Johns Hopkins University into the District of Columbia, where two undergraduate scholarships, yielding free tuition, are open to resident candidates. At the very outset the merit system, which is the life principle of the university, leaped the confines of the three States above named, and invited a wider competition and more than national student representation. From the very beginning of the university the twenty

The Johns Hopkins University Register, 1885-'86, p. 66; cf. p. 70.

fellowships, yielding $500 a year, with free tuition, have been open to graduates of any other institution in this country or in foreign lands, "for conspicuous merit." While very naturally the majority of the appointees are graduates of collegiate institutions in the United States, there are repeated instances of the award of fellowships to Canadians, Europeans, and Japanese. By the recent institution of twenty graduate scholarships, ten to Hopkins graduates and ten to graduates of other institutions now studying in Baltimore, each scholarship yielding $200 a year, the merit system in university education has been still further extended and at the same time practically centralized in its operation.

A fair proportion of these various university honors has been given to graduate students in history and political science, upon evidence of good work and in competition with other departments. While the attainment of honors is not the main motive of graduate study in a specific department, the merit system undoubtedly and deservedly acts as a powerful incentive. The success achieved by senior fellows attracts and stimulates their juniors. The original number of graduate students (three) in history and politics has increased tenfold. The orig inal number of undergraduate students (two) in the same subjects is now over one hundred. Aside from the original work produced and published in the four volumes of Studies in Historical and Political Science, and six independent volumes upon special subjects, the most conspicuous result of the merit system in historical and political education is the promotion of doctors of philosophy from this department to professorships or good positions in other colleges and universities. Of the six men who in June, 1886, were awarded the doctor's degree in history and political science, every one was almost immediately advanced to a still higher honor by some other institution, viz: By (1) the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; (2) the University of California; (3) Bryn Mawr College; (4) Swarthmore College; (5) Washington High School; (6) Imperial College of Sapporo, Japan. Altogether, in this department there have been graduated twelve doctors of philosophy, of whom nine have entered upon academic careers, one is au editor, and two have served in the Bureau of Labor Statistics at Washington, besides teaching boys. Altogether, the Johns Hopkins University has supplied 48 institutions with 82 instructors, who have won the doctor's degree.

A NATIONAL TENDENCY IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION.

Upon a map of the United States, recently issued by the Land Office, the writer has caused to be ticketed, and labelled with individual names, the various institutions of learning which have employed the services of graduate students from the Johns Hopkins University. The experiment was suggested by an account which the writer once saw in one of the published addresses of Andrew D. White,1 ex-president of Cornell

Agricultural and Mechanical Education. Address before the New York Agricultural Society, 1869, by Andrew D. White; reprinted in the Cornell University Register, 1871.

University-an account of a wall map in the French agricultural college at Guignon, which showed at a glance where all its graduates were stationed and how they were employed. The application of this novel idea to the graphical illustration of what the writer is inclined to call the colonial system of the Johns Hopkins University, shows to the eye that all along the Atlantic coast-line, from Bowdoin College in Maine to the Agricultural College of Florida, Baltimore instructors are as thick as sea-birds-thickest of all in the Middle States. From the Baltimore point of departure they stretch inland in two long lines, one bold and strong toward the Northwest, the other less conspicuous, but pushing into the great Southwest as surely as railway traffic. Three professorial names in California and three in Japan indicate that Baltimore influence in the higher education has passed beyond the limits of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway system, which is the economic background of the Johns Hopkins University.

One other fact is very noticeable upon this university map. The one place outside of Baltimore where Johns Hopkins men most do congre. gate is the City of Washington. These men are in governmental or educational service. Graphical statistics demonstrate the fact, which the writer has long been inclined to believe, that the greatest vantage ground of this Baltimore university is its proximity to the nation's capital. Baltimore, whether consciously or unconsciously, is reproducing the old Williamsburg ideal of a college "with the conveniences of a town," upon a somewhat enlarged scale. As the old College of William and Mary faced the old capitol of Virginia, with the Duke of Glouces ter Street between, so the new Baltimore university faces the new Capitol of the nation, only forty-five minutes distant on the Baltimore and Ohio express. One could not traverse so quickly in the horse cars the length of Pennsylvania Avenue, from the neighborhood of Georgetown College to the grounds of the Capitol.

From geographical and railway contiguity, the relations between Baltimore and Washington are drawing closer every year. More and more are Hopkins men employed in Washington; more and more does Washington send her students and the Government its specialists to Balti. more. Every year there is a better understanding of Washington and of its institutions on the part of university students, through the prac tical teachings of public men who are invited to Baltimore to address the Seminary of History and Politics. It is no small privilege for students to hear the subject of civil service reform expounded by a government commissioner, or current questions of American politics elucidated in familiar, friendly language by a Senator of the United States. These are simply accomplished facts. A national university, without any of the dangers and impediments arising from political control, stands midway between the North and the South, in the closest connection with the West, near enough to Washington to profit by its object lessons in politics and administration, by its libraries and

museums; and yet far enough away to escape that familiarity with political methods which sometimes breeds contempt or precocious imitation on the part of unripe youth.

THE PROMOTION OF HIGHER POLITICAL EDUCATION.

The time for a national university in Washington is either past or not yet come. Such an institution is not desirable in the present state of national politics and civic administration, nor is it needed by the country with its present supply of universities, already pervaded not only by a State spirit, but by a growing national, if not a truly cosmopol itan idea. What is needed, however, in all our States and in the nation's capital is the promotion of the higher political education in practical ways.

The representative or merit system in academic training should be made to connect not only, on the one hand, with the people, but, on the other, with practical politics and the civil service. Universities which recognize meritorious sons of the people or the principle of student elec tion from legislative districts, should themselves be recognized by representatives of the people as at least one influential factor in shaping civil service examinations, and also as a proper source of supply whenever special scientific service is required. Such service has been frequently sought from the Johns Hopkins University by the city of Baltimore, by the State of Maryland, and by the United States Government; but the principle should be fostered throughout the whole country in connection with the State universities, and it should be extended to the improvement of the civil service, methods of taxation, schools, boards of education, State examinations, etc.

Universities should encourage their own graduates to enter the civil service examinations of the higher grades in their respective States. Practical experience in a government office for two or three years would afford the best kind of post-graduate course, especially if the State capitol and the State university should happen to be in the same city, so that further academic study might go hand in hand with practical work in an official bureau. Such an experience, as a subordinate under strict discipline, would prove a far better training for good and useful citizenship than does autocratic teaching in a country high school. The writer knows of several Baltimore students who have entered the Patent Office at Washington, one a Hopkins Ph. D., who received from the civil service board the highest mark on competitive examination. He is now pursuing law studies in connection with his government work, with a view to becoming a patent lawyer. If one can understand how such practical training will prove helpful professionally to this young man, it will be readily seen that similar experience in other branches of the public service may not be without a wholesome influence upon sensible students.

There are to-day scores of young men employed in government offices

in Washington, many of them college graduates, who are also pursuing law studies in evening classes in some one of the three flourishing law schools in that city, viz, (1) Columbian University (Baptist);' (2) Georgetown College (Roman Catholic); and (3) the so-called National University. Soon there will be a richly endowed Roman Catholic university in the nation's capital, and doubtless that institution will also take an important share in the legal or special training of some of the nation's public servants. Men of sound sense in government employ will seek such opportunities more and more, on the one hand as a means of preparing for higher professional work, and, on the other, in the hope of improving their chances for promotion or influence in the public service.

The Government is compelled to patronize institutions of learning from self-interest, for the reputation of its departments and its scientific bureaus, some of which are constantly turning to colleges and universities for special work. The War and Navy Departments have detailed no less than ten men for further scientific training or for the conduct of necessary government investigations at the Johns Hopkins University. Various members of the university staff have beeen employed upon special commissions in the interest of the Geological and Coast Surveys, Bureau of Education, etc. This comity between science and the Government ought not only to continue, but to be promoted, especially with reference to political science.

IDEA OF A CIVIL ACADEMY IN WASHINGTON.

While the national Government will continue to seek special service wherever it can best be found, and while its public servants will continue to seek special training wherever they prefer, it is not inexpedient to suggest that the Government might easily secure for the civil service what West Point and Annapolis have so long provided for the Army and Navy, viz, well-trained men for administrative positions requiring expert service. There is in these times as great need of special knowledge in civil science as in military or naval science. A civil academy for the training of representative American youth would be as great a boon to the American people as the Military and Naval Academies have already proved.

The West Point and Annapolis idea of educating representative young men from political districts is already abroad in nearly every State in the American Union. A combination of this idea with the

The writer is informed by President James C. Welling, of the Columbian University, that of the 190 students in the law school of that institution about 40 per cent. are in government service; of the 100 medical students, 45 per cent.; of the 80 scientific students, 50 per cent. From Georgetown College and the "National University" the writer has not succeeded in obtaining returns, but in the opinion of good judges of the Washington situation, from 40 to 50 per cent. of the student class in these three professional schools are government employés. There is a decided demand for special education on the part of our existing civil service. The tendency should be encouraged in every legitimate way.