CLASSICISTS TO MEET JUNE 2

A conference to discuss the place and purpose of a classical education will be held in Princeton on Saturday, June 2. This conference, which was planned by the Princeton University Classical Department, will be one of the most comprehensive gatherings which have met for many years in favor of a liberal education. The meeting will in no sense be a conference of professors in classical work, but it will represent the views of prominent men in every walk of life, which will lend added value to the conclusions which the conference may reach.

The purpose of the meeting as explained by Dean West, of Princeton, is to answer the recent attacks on classical studies and the whole theory of training and discipline in school and college education.

Americans, according to Dean West, have hitherto believed that the fundamental purpose of education is not only to furnish useful information, but also to train and discipline the mind to its highest power. Consequently, those studies which experience has shown to be the most serviceable for this end have been, and should be, the fundamental subjects in any course of study. This may be an erroneous belief, and if it should prove to be the case, such a course of study ought to be discarded. If not, the best manner of teaching them must be found, and instruction maintained to its full extent.

Many Business Men to Speak.

The unique feature of the conference will be the variety of fields from which representatives will be drawn. Men in business, law, medicines, engineering, science, journalism, and public life will be present, and will state their views on the higher knowledge, which includes the classics as of incalculable value to a broad viewpoint. This, it will be shown, is particularly applicable at the present critical period in the life of the nation and of democracy.

The arguments of those opposed to a liberal education are at times so plausible, and backed by the material worth of commercialism, are so forceful, as to warrant the utmost care in refutation. The dislike for hard work, and the love of an easy course of life are frequently the real forces which back the arguments of those who stand for merely practical instruction.

The committee of arrangements has decided to require no invitation to the conference, which will therefore be open to the public. This attitude was taken in view of the general interest and extreme importance which the conference should play in future educational methods.

In addition to those who are interested merely in the broader aspects of education, and who are in no sense professional teachers, many learned societies will be represented at the conference.

Dean Pound Will be Present.

Two separate sessions will be held, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. At the former, the speakers will be distinguished scholars and educators in fields outside the classics, among whom will be President Hibben, of Princeton; Dr. Alfred Stearns, principal of Phillips Andover Academy; Dean Pound, of the Law School; Dr. L. J. Barker, president of the American Neurological Association; Dean Victor C. Vaughn, former president of the American Medical Association; Professor H. H. Donaldson, president of the Association of American Anatomists; Mr. Charles H. Herty, former president of the American Chemical Society; Mr. Lewis Buckley Stillwell, former president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers; and Professor William B. Scott, 1877, and Dean William F. Magic, 1879, of Princeton.

In the afternoon, leaders in American business will state their views concerning the value of classical training to men in the various walks of life. Mr. Alba B. Johnson, president of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, will be the first speaker and will be followed by Mr. Fairfax Harrison, president of the Southern Railway. Mr. Henry W. Farnam, former president of the American Economic Association; Mr. Thomas Hastings, the New York architect; Mr. Edward P. Mitchell, editor of the New York Sun; Mr. Charles R. Miller, editor of the New York Times; and Henry Cabot Lodge '71 will also speak.