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any real man, he is primarily concerned about the judgments of his colleagues. He seeks an outlet for his initiative and resourcefulness. So he organizes his student activities and gives to them his them his primary interests. He never questions the wisdom of this procedure. If you desire to know what a student really wants and what actually commands his attention, it is only necessary to watch the use he makes of his leisure time. College supposedly is a place where a man is set free from the usual demands of life in order that he may come into contact with the rarest spirits of all time. In reality it is four years of leisure, of unhurried association with scholars! It is a time when a man finds himself and his friends, develops his sense of values, and browses among the best books of all the centuries! If this suggests the way the student uses his leisure, than we know where he finds his deepest satisfaction and his real world! Frankly, he regards his university work as secondary, if not tertiary, and finds a satisfying outlet for his energy and genius in athletics, dramatics, journalism, and student government. Perhaps the highest test which American universities will ever be asked to meet lies just in this realm. Is there any method by which a student world can be developed in which the scholar, the thinker, and the writer will be just as highly honored as the man who achieves distinction in football? It will be noted that we have not ventured to hope that he might receive even greater plaudits. Legitimate sport deserves every encouragement. Youth must have an adequate outlet for its abounding energies. Physical education is essential to the public health. There is no reason, however, why the ostensible work of the university should be relegated to a secondary position. Other nations have succeeded in placing the emphasis properly. The Englishman owes his success in the great

war very largely to his genuine sense of sportsmanship. Nevertheless, the games and races at the English universities are not primary nor all-absorbing. Intellectual achievement carries off the first honors. The American students' world

of reality is the inevitable counterpart of

the academic mind.

But our visitor and critic, having sensed all of these things, if he possesses real discrimination, will not conclude his appraisal at this point. Beneath all of these tendencies he will detect a mighty undertone which can never be entirely silenced. Through the rattle and clamor of student activities, back of the endless ratiocinations of academic minds, there shine the abiding realities of true university ideals. Here men know the freedom of the truth. Ancient tyrannies may still oppress the multitudes. New monarchs may arise to enslave man. Others may enjoy great wealth. The university man possesses his mind and soul in selfrespect. He will brook no interference with his untrammeled search for truth in all fields. Regardless of the conse quences to preconceived notions, prejudices, or superstitions, he goes calmly on his way, patiently, painstakingly, seeking for knowledge. His joy is to banish ignorance. His only fear is error; his deepest satisfaction is truth. He kneels at the shrine of truth. If one desires to understand the depth of this spirit, let him venture to rob the academic man of his freedom. Let one suggest that investigation shall be limited and the professor shall be muzzled, if one desires to know how adamant is his devotion to science and how inviolate are his ideals. of freedom. No, the university, with all of its shortcomings, stands as the impregnable citadel of truth. It can never be shaken without irreparable injury to socięty. In this era of industrial turmoil and social unrest, when mankind must cut its way through the twisted mate

rials of a rudely shaken social order, the university, with its open and free search of truth, stands as the bulwark of civilization. The professor may not constantly affirm this solemn reality, but to him it is more inviolate than life itself.

Consequently, through experience, he knows the power of knowledge. He has a perfectly amazing confidence in the value of facts and the worth of the mind. He proceeds upon the Socratic doctrine that knowledge is virtue. He is certain that his mission in life is to help youth catch some glimpse of the value of intellectual ability. Just now his convictions are buttressed by the war experiences of millions of American men. They actually discovered in the war that mind is the master of mankind. They are hungry for information. They are crowding all of the schools of the nation because they want knowledge, which means life. Today, as never before, the critic who studies the American university will find in full operation these potent forces. University ideals are the sternest facts with which states and civilizations finally deal. The university says that man can recognize no master but the truth, and that mind is a mighty force making for rich and abundant life. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Our stranger and critic, if his stay has been sufficiently prolonged, will conclude his visit in a genuinely optimistic mood. Without glossing over the limitations of the university he will be conscious of its elements of strength, charmed by its enduring ideals and thrilled by its changing status. He will recognize a fine new spirit among the faculties, for large numbers of these men have been out in the vital world of action rendering invaluable war service. Two results have followed. The professor has learned in a most surprising and satisfying fashion that he possesses wares which command

large returns in the open market. The world has discovered that the professor's training, knowledge, and capacity for solving new problems are qualities indispensable to the nation. The public has put a higher mark on the theoretical professor. He, in turn, has reassumed his university relationships with new ideas, broader outlooks, and is more confident of the eternal truth of his convictions. These facts, combined with the lessons our boys learned in the Army, have given our country an almost pathetic confidence. in the universities. Consequently, men of affairs everywhere understand that these institutions of higher learning must be reckoned with. There was a time when the practical man of the world and the successful business man silently ignored a university. That day is gone for our generation, if not forever. On the one hand, we find abounding confidence in education, and, on the other, a tendency to scrutinize carefully, if not to criticize severely, the whole system of public instruction. That the status of the university has been changed remarkably by the war is indisputable. Its position was

never so secure, its opportunities never so challenging, and its obligations never so heavy as at this very hour.

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we mean when we say that the university must serve the state. Not until we had attempted some statement of the needs of the state and had ventured upon some appraisal of the university as the instrument to be used, could we with any clarity or cogency indicate just the forms of service which we are convinced should be rendered.

If we remind ourselves why the American people established the public school, we shall understand the logic and sanity of our thesis that the state university exists to serve the state. We may with advantage go back into the eighteenth century when this whole region was a part of the Northwest Territory. In the Ordinance of 1787, with great foresight, it was affirmed that "religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." Even a superficial study of the history of Michigan reveals from the very beginning a firm purpose to organize a university. Even before we became a state, provisions were made for an institution of higher learning. On August 26, 1817, the governor and judges of the territory passed an act looking to the establishment of the University of Michigan. On April 30, 1821, this act was superseded by provisions for a corporate body to be known as "The Trustees of the University of Michigan." In 1837, the State Legislature authorized the organization of this institution. In 1838, the Revised Statutes provided for the establishment of the university and stated its purpose in the following terms: "The object of the university shall be to provide the inhabitants of the State with the means of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the various branches of literature, science, and the arts." These plans of the State of Michigan are typical of the convictions held by the American

people as a whole. Daniel Webster once solemnly avowed that "on the diffusion of education among the people rests the preservation and perpetuation of our free institutions." Speaking historically, then, Americans have expected their schools to serve the state. The great war has made this truth a part of our popular convictions. No arguments upon this subject are needed today. We now appreciate both intellectually and emotionally the fact that the future of our American democracy depends upon a high level of intelligence among all the people.

I therefore venture to affirm that a new day must dawn in American higher education. All of us have been feeling our way gradually toward this conclusion. Anyone who has been close to the people during the years of the war realizes that educators are expected to understand America and to interpret her. I am convinced that in serving the state we must aim consciously and deliberately to assume our share of responsibility for the new American civilization which inevitably must develop in this period of readjustment. Our universities have failed to focus. We have discussed and advocated all kinds of educational aims, but none has gripped the imagination of all of us and none today emerges as predominant and comprehensive. That education must serve the state is a doctrine that has been proclaimed many times and in many places. The years of the war, however, have burned it into our souls. Education simply must serve America. This university cannot escape from its primary responsibilities to the people as a whole. Professor Jay William Hudson of the University of Missouri has given us recently one of the most stimulating formulations of this educational aim. In his book entitled "The College and New America," he defends logically and with. real passion this thesis: "The aim of American education is to produce a defi

nite American social order, in relation to a definite world order." I believe we can say to ourselves, to our students, and to the public that our institutions of higher learning exist in a very definite and compelling fashion to help in the establishment of the new American civilization. And we must say it, not only at inaugural exercises and annual gatherings, but in Regents' meetings, classrooms, public assemblies, and even in faculty meetings. We must actually do the thing rather than formulate it in nebulous and vanishing flourishes of rhetoric.

Precisely, then, what does this aim, involve? In one sense it will be merely the rebirth of original American intentions. It will bring us back to the principles upon which our educational system was established. Translated into the terms of our day, it will mean that this versatile, complex, growing, pulsating entity which we call "America" must be welded into a unified whole. It means that we must deliberately attack the problem arising out of our lack of national unity. We are sprawling and amorphous. The latest reports upon immigration show that the state of Michigan next to California is receiving the largest numbers of new immigrants. Here is a part of our university problem if we are consciously and deliberately aiming to assume our share of responsibility for the new American order. We must weld all these divergent elements into a coherent, consistent, harmonious whole. tire problem of Americanization confronts us at this point..

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To share in this gigantic task demands unusual insight and, if you please, philosophical power. Someone must ascertain what are America's flaming desires and intense yearnings, and direct them into proper channels. Someone must drag out into the full light of day the most serious national and international obligations that rest upon our people, and focus pub

lic attention upon them. American thought needs clear direction to its opportunities in establishing the standards of its new day. There is no advantage in chiding Americans for their crudities and vulgarities. New types of culture are being developed in this forward-looking nation. She is attached to tomorrow. Our function is to select the permanent values and idealize them. America must have interpretation. If we may judge the interests and spirit of our people by the things they do most, we must begin to understand moving pictures, dancing, motor cars, and machinery. There is no need of railing against these things. Mighty elements of truth are written in capital letters all over these factors of American life. The academic mind may not see it, but the college professor of today discerns it. The university must interpret American life. Its universal

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tendencies must be reckoned with. It is possible to give the people at one and the same time what they want and what they ought to have. To accept literally and spiritually this aim of American education which assumes obligations to the civilization of tomorrow requires the most human, scientific, philosophical approach to the whole problem of culture as it is to be solved in America. Dewey was quite right when he wrote that "there is perhaps no better definition of culture than that it is the capacity for constantly expanding in range and accuracy one's perception of meanings." The university must expand to the breaking point the range of its understanding of American life as it is today. The usually accepted standards of accuracy applied at this point would produce at remarkable forward movement. America must have unification, direction, interpretation. Herein lies the specific duty of the university.

But what will such leadership require? Back of any successful effort in this field

there must be first of all a real under

standing, or, if you prefer, some clear definition of America. But America cannot be defined. The only permanent thing about her is that she is in a constant state of flux. Even so, today we have more sources to which we may turn with confidence than ever before. Information is actually available. Not only do our histories, our constitutions, state and national, and our official records contain first-hand and authoritative statements, but during the war America came nearer to finding herself than ever before. Confronted with the exigencies of war, we knew what America meant. The morale of our armies was based upon an actual appreciation of American ideals. They were no hazy, unreal, vague generalities. They were incisive, clear-cut and compelling facts. They were the personification of definiteness. They were gripping enough to make red-blooded, clear-headed American boys willing to die for them. We know what America is today or we never shall know. When we set up our "War Aims Course" as a part of the Students Army Training Corps, no one seemed to fear that we had nothing to say. The best professors in all subjects in all American universities knew what America stood for and what she was. It is for America now in times of peace that we must assume consciously our share of responsibility.

Now someone will say that this is a curious point of view. It will be objected that we defeated Germany just because she brought up a generation in accordance with this very theory. Such an objection is born of the failure to see that America and Germany were grounded in totally different philosophies of life. There is no conflict between wholehearted Americanism and a proper interpretation of the individual and mankind. In fact, America is established upon the universal and eternal truth that every

person is of supreme worth. The citizen does not exist for the state. To aim at the enrichment of the new American order is to seek the best interests of all men and all nations.

If the university, however, is to render this service, it will require something more than a definition of America. Certain new qualities must enter into our very life and atmosphere. The detachment and aloofness of the academic mind must give way to a new sympathy with all groups. More imagination is

needed. We must have faith in American deeds, American spirit, and American hopes. A new type of morale must arise. Without sacrificing our scholarly aims or our cautious intellectualism, we must rise. to meet America today as we did in the days of war. We did not lose our selfrespect then. In fact, many of us found life infinitely more worth while. In reality, our quality of sportsmanship must be called into full action. We must be able to see the future through all of the disconcerting and even disgusting tricks of the American game as played today. George A. Gordon caught the right vision when he said: "Out of this composite land this nation gathered from every people under heaven, rags and tatters and dirt and all-I believe that the Eternal Spirit will evolve and establish the most gifted, the most far-shining, and the mightiest people in the world."

Now with this as the aim of our service to be rendered to the state, let us ask precisely what concrete things should be done, what changes are necessary, and just what methods must be adopted. Purely by way of illustration, and with no thought of offering either a complete or adequate program, I suggest four things:

1. The work and teaching of the university should be unified with our primary aim in full view. If we are to serve the American order and to keep

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