At Johns Hopkins

Last week Johns Hopkins University celebrated the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the late Daniel Coit Gilman as its first President. Educators took interest because that inauguration is commonly taken as marking the starting point of postgraduate education in the U. S. Dr. Gilman was "the father of the graduate school, the great apostle of university research."

Three days later Johns Hopkins bestowed a Ph.D. diploma upon the wife of Dr. Oilman's biographer, Mrs. Christine Ladd Franklin, wife of Fabian Franklin, onetime editor of the Independent. Educators took interest because that bestowal indicated the great change that has come over U. S. education in less than half a century.

It was 44 years ago that Christine Ladd, a Vassar graduate of '69, was permitted, as being of exceptional ability, to attend the courses required by Johns Hopkins for the philosophical doctorate. She completed her studies with distinction, demonstrating a form of rebuttal in argument called antilogism, which has been described as "the crowning achievement in a field [logic] worked over since the days of Aristotle." But Johns Hopkins gave her no diploma. In that day Johns Hopkins gave no women their diplomas. It welcomed her back in 1904 as Mrs. Franklin, lecturer in logic and psychology, subjects that she has administered since 1910 at Columbia University. It saw her reputation grow at home and abroad. Last week, when the diploma was bestowed, the exchange of honors was easily even: for Mrs. Franklin, a Johns Hopkins diploma; for Johns Hopkins, a most distinguished "graduate."