A Course in Contemporaneous History.

Ignorance of current events is a reproach often justly cast upon college students. The reason is indifference with some, lack of time with others. The average business men and the average high school boy are better posted upon every day happenings than the great majority of students. To remedy this defect in our education and to give men a clear understanding of those events which soon pass into history, it has been proposed by some that a course in contemporaneous history should be given. The great objection to this plan, which naturally arises, is the folly of attempting to do in this way just what the newspapers are every day doing. The lecturer must depend upon the paper for his knowledge, and his work would be little more than a culling of news from its columns, something, it might be argued, which every intelligent reader does for himself. But unfortunately, unless men are thoroughly read in history they are often unable to realize the true incidence of events. It is not sufficient to have read the newspapers for a number of years past, nor to have made a desultory study of history, in order that a man can read with intelligence the record of the present. There should be some one to point out the relation of what happens to-day to what has happened in the past; to amplify and explain this connection which newspapers either pass over entirely or speak of only in a misleading and blind way.

At present there is a crisis in England, in Greece, in the United States. England is now brought face to face with the ever-occurring problem of government for Ireland. A ministry of but a few months' life has fallen; the incoming ministry promises to last but little longer. It seems as if the question of Home Rule must now be settled. The Irish are resolute and under able leaders. The English are in a quandary. Plucky Greece is asserting some of her old time independence. She will resist the encroachments of Turkey, and has politely informed the powers of Europe that she will accept no arbitration from them. What will be the outcome? At home we are encountered by a crisis of a different nature. A derangement of our currency is threatened. The anti-silver men predict a financial revolution unless the coinage of the Bland silver dollar is discontinued; the silver men are likewise confident in predicting similar disasters if Congress should suspend the coinage of this eighty cent dollar. These are a few of the history-making events of the present year.

How many students fully appreciate the relative importance of these events? The newspapers do little to aid us. A polo match, a scandal, or a murder is honored with as prominent a place in their columns, and is as heavily leaded as the account of the downfall of a ministry. In their editorials party wranglings find play ad nauseam. In the maze of news, rumor, gossip and scandal, he is indeed clear sighted who can find his way. The need and usefulness of a course in contemporaneous history will hardly be questioned. Whether such a course is feasible and practicable, will be discussed later in these columns.