The Peace-President; A Brief Appreciation (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill PRINCETON It was as President of Princeton that Mr. Wilson was first enabled to give proof of that force of character and executive ability which, ten years later, made him President of the United States. An American University offers far more opportunity than an English University, composed of separate and practically autonomous colleges, for an individual will to impress itself upon the educational and social policy of the whole institution. His twelve years of work as a professor had enabled Mr. Wilson to form very decided views as to the defects of the existing system. He approached his new task in the spirit of a genial but resolute reformer, both on the educational and on the social side. The educational part of his programme he carried out with brilliant success; on the social side he encountered difficulties which he very nearly overcame, but which ultimately proved insuperable. There had for some time been a tendency in American Universities to allow their undergraduates undue latitude in the choice of their subjects of study. They were too readily permitted to follow the line of least resistance, and either to obey the dictates of immature taste (more rightly to be termed fancy), or to specialize too soon on " bread-studies," as distinct from the less obviously remunerative branches of study which are essential to mental discipline and general culture. To this abuse of the " elective " system Mr. Wilson offered a determined opposition, which produced excellent results at Princeton, and has had great influence in other universities. He insisted on the necessity of a certain amount of " drill" as the basis of all sound education. In an address to Princeton alumni, delivered in New York soon after he entered upon office, he said: There are different sorts of...