were adopted by the meeting. They indicate very clearly both the exalted spirit of service which animated the universities and colleges and the accuracy of their forecast of the educational needs of the country during the war. PREAMBLE. In the supreme crisis that confronts the Nation the colleges and universities of America have the single-minded thought and desire to summon to the country's service every resource at their command, to offer to the Nation their full strength without reservation, and to consecrate their every power to the high task of securing for all mankind those ideas and ideals that gave them birth and out of which have grown their most precious traditions. In order that such service may be most intelligently developed and applied, the following declaration of principles is respectfully suggested. STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES. It is our judgment that our colleges and universities should so organize their work that in all directions they may be of the greatest possible usefulness to the country in its present crisis. We therefore believe, first, that all young men below the age of liability to the selective draft and those not recommended for special service, who can avail themselves of the opportunities offered by our colleges, should be urged so to do in order that they may be able to render the most effective service, both during the full period of the war and in the trying times which will follow its close. We believe, second, that all colleges and universities should so modify their calendars and curricula as will most fully subserve the present needs of the Nation and utilize most profitably the time of the students and the institutional plant, force, and equipment. With this end in view, we suggest that, as an emergency measure, the colleges consider the advisability of dividing the college year into four quarters of approximately 12 weeks each, and that, where necessary, courses be repeated at least once a year so that the college course may be best adapted to the needs of food production. We believe, third, that in view of the supreme importance of applied science in the present war, students pursuing technical courses, such as medicine, agriculture, and engineering are rendering, or are to render, through the continuance of their training, services more valuable and efficient than if they were to enroll in military or naval service at once. We believe, fourth, that the Government should provide or encourage military training for all young men in college by retired officers of the Army and National Guard or by other persons competent to give military instruction, and that the colleges should include as a part of their course of study teaching in military science, in accordance with the provisions of the national defense act of June, 1916. We believe, fifth, that the Bureau of Education of the Department of the Interior and the States Relations Service of the Department of Agriculture, with the cooperation of the committee on science, engineering, and education of the advisory commission of the Council of National Defense, should be the medium of communication between the Federal departments and the higher educational institutions of the country. It will be recalled that the Selective Service Act was passed almost simultaneously with this meeting of May 5. Finally, we believe that an educational responsibility rests on the institutions of higher learning to disseminate correct information concerning the issues involved in the war and to interpret its meaning. The meeting was addressed by the Secretary of War., In the course of his remarks he made the following significant statements: I think this, though, is more or less clear to those of us who look at it from the outside: First, that the country needs officers. There is no preference of college men for officers, but because a man has had academic opportunities he has to start with, presumptively at least, a better foundation upon which to build the learning which an officer must have; and therefore to a very substantial extent the country desires its college graduates and its college-bred ren of suitable age in the training camps in order that they may be rapidly matured into officers and used in the training of the new forces. To the extent that the men in college are physically disqualified, or to the extent that they are too young to meet the requirements of the department, it seems quite clear that in the present state of the emergency their major usefulness lies in remaining in the college, going forward with their academic work; and the colleges can, I think, lend some color of patriotic endeavor to their so doing by such simple modifications of their courses and curricula as will show the boys who stay that they are being directly equipped for subsequent usefulness if the emergency lasts until their call comes. The meeting left behind it a permanent committee attached to the advisory commission of the Council of National Defense. The personnel of this committee follows: Hollis Godfrey, Sc. D., member of the advisory commission of the Council of National Defense, president, Drexel Institute, chairman. Henry E. Crampton, Ph. D., professor, Columbia University, vice chairman. Frederick C. Ferry, Ph. D., dean, Williams College, secretary. Samuel P. Capen, Ph. D., specialist in higher education in the United States Bureau of Education, executive secretary. Edwin A. Alderman, LL. D., president, University of Virginia. Guy Potter Benton, LL. D., president, University of Vermont. Kenyon L. Butterfield, LL. D., president, Massachusetts Agricultural College. Augustus S. Downing, LL. D., assistant commissioner for higher education, University of the State of New York. Wilson Farrand, M. A., headmaster, Newark Academy. Guy S. Ford, Ph. D., director of the division on Civic and educational cooperation of the Committee on Public Information. Frank J. Goodnow, LL. D., president, Johns Hopkins University. A. Lawrence Lowell, LL. D., president, Harvard University. Frank L. McVey, LL. D., president, State University of North Dakota. Joseph A. Mulry, Ph. D., president, Fordham University. John S. Nollen, LL. D., president, Lake Forest College. Raymond A. Pearson, LL. D., president, Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Winthrop E. Stone, LL. D., president, Purdue University. Henry Suzzallo, Ph. D., president, University of Washington. William O. Thompson, LL. D., president, Ohio State University. Robert E. Vinson, LL. D., president, University of Texas. With recognition of education by the Council of National Defense and the establishment of this committee, higher institutions believed that they had at last located the Government agency which was prepared to give them competent and authoritative direction. Their expectations were only in part fulfilled. The Council of National Defense is not an executive, but purely an advisory body. During the war, moreover, it was equipped with such small financial resources that its facilities even for educational investigation were limited. However, through the agency of the university committee and the committee on the relation of engineering schools to the Government, mentioned below, it was able to bring to the attention of the operating departments some of the major problems of the colleges and to assist in the development of an effective national policy for the utilization of these training facilities. INDEPENDENT ACTION BY COLLEGES IN PREPARATION FOR WAR SERVICE. MILITARY TRAINING. The statement of principles just quoted received wide circulation among colleges and exercised a steadying effect. A large percentage of the institutions acted upon the advice contained in this statement. The one activity of foremost importance, as it seemed, in which college students could engage at once was military training. Almost without exception the colleges provided military training. In many cases a large amount of time was devoted to it each week, and academic credit given. Under the national-defense act of June 2, 1916, the establishment of units of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps in all colleges mustering 100 able-bodied male students for the purpose was authorized. Up to the outbreak of hostilities something less than a hundred units of the corps had been established. The great pressure upon the War Department for officers, rifles, and other equipment prevented the extension of the corps (except to the institutions that had already been promised units) during the war. As this was the only form of military training under Government supervision and receiving Government recognition, colleges which did not have the Reserve Officers' Training Corps were obliged to provide such training on their own responsibility. Retired officers of the Regular Army and National Guard were hired as instructors, as far as they were available. Some institutions secured invalided officers of the allied armies. Military training thus made great. progress in the spring of 1917. By the opening of the fall term the provision of military training was recognized as the sine qua non of a college's existence. The opinion of American college officers with respect to the desirability of the general introduction of military training was reinforced by the testimony of representatives of Canadian universities. The university committee of the Council of National Defense held a conference with representatives of Canadian universities on July 3 and 4, 1917. The following gentlemen represented the Canadian universities: Sir Robert A. Falconer, president of the University of Toronto. Dr. H. M. Tory, president of the University of Alberta. Dr. Frank D. Adams, dean of the faculty of applied science, Magill University. Capt. William H. Alexander, University of Alberta. These gentlemen reported the establisment in Canada early in the war of officers' training corps in the universities, the training constituting a part of the regular university work for a period of two years. The training was limited to two years because few physically fit upper classmen remained in Canadian universities. Students in arts courses proved excellent candidates for commissions in the Army after having received this training. Officers' training corps units were parts of the militia of the Dominion of Canada. The instruction was regularly given by members of the teaching force of the universities, because it had been found in general that university teachers proved more effective instructors for university men than Army officers. The results of this conference were reported both to the colleges and to the War Department. The War Department expressed its conviction of the soundness of the contention of college officers that students should be given regular military instruction under the auspices of the department, but regretted that the shortage of men and material prevented the adoption of this policy at once. SPECIAL COURSES FOR REGULAR STUDENTS INTRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THE WAR. Before the end of the academic year 1916-17 the majority of institutions had introduced a variety of special emergency courses. The great problem of conservation, especially the conservation of food, received attention not only in agricultural colleges but in colleges of arts and sciences, and especially in colleges for women. Nearly every college with women students offered Red Cross work or home nursing, or both. Engineering schools inaugurated courses in such military applications of engineering subjects as map making, military surveying, bridge building, telegraphy, radio operation, etc. Courses in spoken French and courses in economics, government, and history, designed to illuminate the background and causes of the war, were introduced in a number of institutions. NEW SCHOOLS AND COURSES. As early as the spring of 1917 the various branches of the military departments began to recognize the contributions to training for special service which could be made by the organized civilian institutions. The Signal Corps established eight aviation schools in connection with universities. The Quartermaster's and Ordnance Departments contracted with colleges for the provision of storekeepers' courses. The Navy trained ensigns and technical specialists at several large universities lying near the coast. Each of these types of training was managed by the branch of the service in which the candidates were to serve. As yet neither the Army nor the Navy was prepared to develop a comprehensive policy of cooperation with the colleges in the work of training. CHANGES IN COLLEGE CALENDARS. A considerable number of institutions adopted the suggestion made in the statement of principles quoted above and reiterated by the Secretary of War regarding the modification of college calendars. The four-quarter year had been debated in educational meetings for a long time. Few institutions had found themselves able to adopt it. The principal obstacle was a financial one, although there were others also. In the enthusiasm of the first months of the war a considerable number of institutions made this change and accepted the financial loss which it entailed as a part of their contribution to the national service. STUDENTS AND THE DRAFT. Reference has already been made to the serious military consequences involved in the withdrawal of a large percentage of students undergoing general and technical training before the completion of their courses. The experience of the allied countries in this regard pointed an unmistakable lesson. In the beginning of the war Great Britain and Canada allowed hundreds of scientific experts to go to the trenches as privates or officers of the line. Their higher institutions were decimated. Later, when imperative demand for the peculiar services of these technically trained men came, the men were no longer available. The supply ordinarily furnished by the higher institutions had also been temporarily cut off. Both Great Britain and Canada realized that their failure to use technical men in technical service and to keep a constant flow of scientifically trained students and men of advanced general education issuing from their institutions was a mistake. Military and industrial advisers from both countries warned the United States in the early days of our participation in the war not to repeat this error. The activities of the medical section of the Council of National Defense were responsible for the protection of medical and dental |