Extension

A soldier, wounded in the War, was asked how he passed his three months of convalescence. Said he: "I took a complete university course."

"So?" said his questioner. "And how did you manage that?"

"Read the Encyclopedia Britannica from cover to cover," said the soldier.

Few non-college persons have such an opportunity. Few would think of undertaking such a voluminous body of reading. Yet the soldier's definition of his act was not inaccurate. A to And, And to Aus and their fellows contain virtually every fact and theory that the average college course would conceivably offer. And of late the faculty of this portable university opened an extension school. It published:

THESE EVENTFUL YEARS--The Encyclopedia Britannica (2 vols.)--$11.50. Two ponderous volumes, containing 1,351 pages of reading matter, attempt to relate the story of the present Century. From the four legendary corners of the earth--from the U. S. to Australia, from Russia to South America--the Encyclopedia Britannica has gathered the experts of the world and has persuaded them to write contemporary history.

History is, properly speaking, a chronicle of the deeds of men. The 84 chapters of the books read with the perfect rhythm of a connected story; yet all of them have a different tale to tell. J. L. Garvin, Britain's great Liberal journalist, contributes four chapters on world history since 1890, with emphasis,on the 20th Century. Major General Sir Frederick Maurice polishes off the War, tells how it was "fought and won." General Ludendorff informs the reader that Germany never was defeated; which contention, even if it be preposterous, at least gives a point of view that is widely held in Germany. Profs. Carlton J. H. Hayes of Columbia and Charles Seymour of Yale give their academic sidelights on Armageddon; and the War subject is rounded off by naval expositions from Admirals von Tirpitz, von Scheer, Jellicoe and Sims --two German, one 'British and one American.

The League of Nations finds its exponent in M. Leon Bourgeois, a venerable French statesman. Bernard M. Baruch adds a clear chapter on inter-allied debts; and many another financial or economic question is discussed by many another expert.

The social history of every important country is summarized by competent authorities. To mention a few: Prof. John H. Latane of Johns Hopkins on the U. S.; Rt. Hon Sir H. C. Plunkett on Ireland; Brand Whitlock on Belgium ; ex-Premier Francesco Nitti on Italy; ex-Ambassador Hanihara on Japan ; etc., etc., etc.

But History goes deeper. Read what Dr. Henry S. Canby, Editor of the Saturday Review of Literature, has to say about contemporary literature. About radium, consult Mme. Curie's chapter. On the past, viewed in the light of recent discoveries, Prof. James H. Breasted of the University of Chicago provides a masterly essay. Even the future is summed up by that well-known prophet, H. G. Wells. Whether it be Science, Religion, Law, Sport, Commerce, Industry, Poetry, Drama, Music or Art that be the subject of interest, to each is devoted a separate chapter. President Angell of Yale discourses on democracy in education; Sigmund Freud descends into the Stygian night of psychoanalysis and is followed closely by Sir Oliver J. Ledge, whose chapter concerns "psychical research and the invisible world."

Such is the broad outline of the scope of these books. Within them lies the story of this hectic quarter-Century, whose history has already been as active and spectacular as that of any other period in the written annals of man.

Debate

Six young men took turns speaking from the rostrum of Manhattan's Town Hall. They spoke earnestly, carefully, striving to sustain the academic detachment that well befits international debaters. Their subject was : "Resolved, that this House is opposed to the principle of Prohibition." When they had done, no board of judges handed down a decision; but a vote was taken among the audience. It was found that the three young men who had upheld the principle of Prohibition had the agreement of a majority of those voting.

These persuasive three were Columbia University students--A. D. Will, Edward Goodelman, H. F. Williamson. Their adversaries were two English-- men from Oxford--J. D. Woodruff of New College, M. C. Hollis of Balliol College--and a Scotchman, Malcolm MacDonald of Queen's College. Malcolm and his fellow Oxonians had come to the U. S. A. to take issue with the debaters of 17 colleges, of which Columbia was the first.

White of tooth, firm of jaw, high of forehead, Malcolm much resembles his famed father,. Ramsay. During his Manhattan sojourn, he stayed with Norman Thomas, Socialist nominee for Governor of New York, and was there surrounded by many a liberal thinker. This, and his open endorsement of Senator LaFollette's presidential candidacy, were proof that he is no traitor to the politics of his house. During the debate, however, he was at pains to dissociate his own expressions from any views the English Labor Party may hold on Prohibition. Said he: "I hope I will not be taken for what I am not."

At Troy

Night boats up the Hudson, express trains from Buffalo and Boston steamed into Troy, N. Y. Of the passengers, many were hurrying to the 100th birthday party of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute--"the only institution devoted to theoretical and practical science to exist continuously in an English-speaking country since 1824."

Some of the hurrying passengers: Herbert Hoover, U. S. Secretary of Commerce; Sir Charles L. Morgan, President of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain; Arthur Surveyer, president of the Engineering Institute of Canada; Henri Abraham, onetime president of the Society of Electrical Engineers of France; Luigi Luiggi, President of the Society of Civil Engineers of Italy.

These men saw tablets unveiled, listened to speeches, spoke themselves. Senor Luiggi invested Palmer Chamberlain Ricketts, President and Director of Rensselaer Institute since 1901, with a splendid decoration from King Vittorio Emanuele of Italy. At a dinner, Herbert Hoover discharged his duty as spokesman for "the leading citizen of our country," thanking Rensselaer for all it had "given to our people."

Amos Eaton and Stephen Van Rensselaer are two outstanding names in the history of the Institute. The latter was Patroon of Rensselaerwick and a member of Congress. A generous and loyal patron of progress, he | laid the cornerstone for civil engineering in the U. S. by founding what was nominally a school for "the sons and daughters* of farmers and mechanics."

Amos Eaton introduced to the school Van Rensselaer had founded new methods of study and new purposes. It was he who in 1835 grasped the importance of the industrial revolution the U. S. was then undergoing, took upon himself the title of Professor of Civil Engineering and presented four young men for the C. E. degree.

Another notable figure in Rensselaer Institute's history was Benjamin Franklin Greene, who became director in 1847 and reorganized the Institute into a general polytechnic. As such, it thereafter became a pattern for U. S. technical schools.

As early as Professor Eaton's day, Rensselaer graduates went pioneering in the field of scientific agriculture. California and Wisconsin were the first two states benefited. Later, Rensselaer men started the departments of Botany, Zoology, Physics, Chemistry, Geology, Mineralogy and Astronomy at such universities as Iowa, Michigan, Harvard, Cornell, Johns Hopkins. Their greatest names, however, are in engineering annals. Rensselaer-trained were:

Edwin Thacher, '63, slide rule inventor, designer of the five-span Kansas River Bridge at Topeka.

William, '39, and Lewis E. Gurley, '45, famed manufacturers of engineering instruments.

A. J. Cassatt, '59, onetime President of the Pennsylvania R. R.

W. A., '57, and C. G. Roebling, '71. W. A. was chief engineer for the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Their firm supplied the cables for the Williamsburg Bridge, "longest suspension structure ever erected."

Theodore Cooper, '58, consulting engineer for the Quebec Bridge and for the Washington Bridge (over the Harlem River, Manhattan).

Dollars and Brains

The direct ratio between brains and dollars is more or less established for the individual. The ratio between a father's dollars and his offspring's brains is another question. Last week, the Federal Bureau of Education announced that, according to the researches of one Andrew H. MacPhail and the late Professor Stephen S. Colvin of Brown University, this latter ratio is also direct.

MacPhail and Colvin, by means of psychological and other tests, surveyed the mentality of 3,333 boys and girls in senior classes of Massachusetts high schools. They found that a curve representing their subjects' intelligence followed closely the downward trend of another curve representing the incomes pf their subjects' parents. Professional men stood at the top of the income graph; their children at the top of the mentality index. Farmers and their children footed both indices.

Comparing the Massachusetts results with the results of similar research made in Indiana, marked similarities appeared, though the financial well-being of the Indiana parents was found to diverge considerably from those tabulated in Massachusetts.

The examinees were also asked to state their chosen life careers. Five-sixths of them had so chosen. In the new classification, it was found that boys headed for professions were far superior in mental equipment to all the others. Prospective farmers were second, salesmen and clerks third, clerical workers fourth, skilled artisans fifth, foremen and business executives last. Among the girls, prospective foremen and business heads led the rest, artisans were second, professional workers third, homemakers fourth, clerical workers last.

Incentive

The blue-ribbon incentive is often talked about in plans for stimulating scholarship. Phi Beta Kappa and other honor societies, prizes, fellowships, positions of honor as offered for high standing--all promote a competitive spirit in student bodies. For these guerdons, however, the competition is an individual affair--each man for himself.

Last week, a new vehicle for the blue-ribbon incentive was brought forward by one Robert S. Hale, Chairman of a committee of Harvard Phi Beta Kappa which has been investigating scholarship in secondary schools. Mr. Hale reported and his society adopted a plan for the establishment of an Interscholastic Scholarship Cup, to be contested by teams of students from every high school and academy in the U. S." The award--a bronze plaque--will go to that school whose team passes the seven highest college board examinations each June. The school winning most often in the next seven years will place the plaque permanently in its "trophy room."

Urging his plan, Mr. Hale pictured school study-teams going into training, employing coaches, receiving their schoolmates' support (vocal and otherwise), "fighting" for the national scholastic championship as they would for a football title.

His plan adopted, Mr. Hale proceeded to write to 2,500 headmasters and principals, suggesting that they call their boys together, tell them to hold the Scholastic Trophy on a par with the football championship.

*Actually women were never admitted.