AGAINST A STATE UNIVERSITY.

The question of a state university has been gaining steadily in importance during the last few months. In its last session, the State Legislature authorized the Board of Education to investigate the subject of founding such a university. The Alumni Bulletin immediately took up the subject in an editorial. Recently the question has figured prominently in the discussions by Phi Beta Kappa on the raise in the tuition fee. Now the Illustrated announces a series of articles on the subject, the first of which appears in the current issue.

This article, by a Harvard graduate, urges with vehemence the founding of a state university. His main argument, and indeed the argument of those who favor such a step is that Harvard and the various other colleges in the state are inadequate in their treatment of the educational problem.

It is safe to grant that this criticism is correct; yet the founding of a state university is sure to prove a clumsy and extravagant solution of the problem. The present provisions for higher education in the state do not fall short in one large requirement, but in many small ones. The fifteen or sixteen colleges in Massachusetts provide a regular course of study well above the average. The duplication of such equipment occasioned by a new University would be a total loss to the state. The same is true of such institutions as medical, divinity, and law schools. The place for additions to the system is in the creation of various industrial schools, easily accessible, to all parts of the state.

For the rest, by far the most effective method of improvement would be the founding of a large number of state scholarships. This could be accomplished with much less expense than the founding of a new university.