title: The American colleges and universities in the great war, 1914-1919 : a history
text: . -.^^.- ,*^'% '''fW.'' /\ IW" *"'""- "°- V V <3l^ On o •■ •5 ,- V 'J -■ *"*■- -: THE AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1919 A HISTORY BY CHARLES FRANKLIN THWING, Litt.D., LL.D. President of Western Reserve University jBett) gotk THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1920 AXl right* reserved COPYEIGHT, 1920, bt the macmillan company Set up and electrotyped. Published, September, 1920 GOT 28 !220 ©CI,A601148 TO FRANCIS WENDELL BUTLER-THWING, ANDOVER, HARVARD, AND NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD CAPTAIN. COLDSTREAM GUARDS PKEFATORY NOTE The lack of adequate interpretation of the part which the American colleges, both Northern and Southern, played in the Civil War has long seemed to me a public and an academic misfortune. The possibility of filling this lack lessens with each pass- ing year. The share which the American college and university had in the World's War was at least as significant and impressive as that which the Civil War represents. Early, therefore, in the great strug- gle, I began to collect materials for its academic his- tory. These materials include evidences furnished directly by hundreds of institutions, as well as the more typical sources of books, pamphlets, and news- papers., To each college officer, who has thus gra- ciously and generously aided me, I am grateful. This history, concerned with a small social and educational group, has yet largest relations. For it helps to prove that the higher education, in the per- son of its teachers and students of successive genera- tions, trains men for the service of the nation. While higher education may in certain respects be justly charged with narrowness, it yet, be it affirmed, uses Prefatory Note its narrowness for an increase of all human forces and for a worthy bettering of all that makes for the welfare of men. I trust that, from the reading of these pages, one may come, as I come from their writing, with a lordlier hope for the race and for the races. c. r. T. Western Reserve University, Cleveland, 1st January, 1920. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Prefatory Note vii I Motives for Entering the Service ... 1 II Before the Entrance of the United States 14 III Financial Kelations of the Colleges ... 40 IV The Students' Army Training Corps ... 55 V The Enlisted 85 VI College Officers in War Service .... 92 VII The Spirit of the Student Soldier ... 99 VIII The Sciences and the Scientists .... 115 IX The Women's Colleges 140 X The Religion op the Student Soldier . . 151 XI Poetry as an Interpretation op the War . 167 XII International Relations 180 XIII The Fallen 210 XIV The Commencements op the War Period . 231 XV Some Enduring Effects of the War on the Colleges and the Universities .... 245 XVI Academic Memorials 261 Index 271 THE AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES IN THE GREAT WAR MOTIVES FOE ENTERING THE SEEVICE The conditions belonging to the college man create the motives inspiring him to enter his country's service in time of war. Of these conditions perhaps the most obvious is the college man's age. He is, on entering as a freshman, about eighteen years old. This age and the following four years form the close of the period of his emo- tional, and the beginning of his mature intellectual, growth. The feelings are strong, easily stirred, readily moving toward the gTeat, the sublime, the commanding. With emotionalism is associated the faculty of imagination. This youth thinks in pic- tures. If the developing and enriched intellect fur- nishes material and content of these pictures, the feelings move the hand of imagination to paint them in brightly glowing colors. The sense of adventure 2 Colleges and Universities in the Great War fascinates. The possibilities which the adventure holds forth stir the soul. The glory of the adventure, even if it be touched with the probability of death, beckons. The highest ambition of this manly youth — human liberation — gets hold of every part of his being. I can — I will — I must — he cries. Of course, to a certain extent, such feelings and imagina- tions belong to every young man. Enrollment in the army or navy by the student is only a part of the heroism of youth. But such feelings do at least seem to rise to a higher level, to a whiter crest, and to as- sume more brilliant coloring, on the brow and in the bosom of the college man. Another condition belonging to the student is his sense of democracy. He is a member of a little group in which equals moving with equals represent the common lot. These men are a part of the great third estate. They are as pebbles flung together on the same beach by the hand of destiny to be rounded and polished by the same forces. The differences which divide men outside academic walls have a certain value; but the value is much smaller than ordinary humanity assigns. Wealth, social distinction, herit- age of a noble name, militate quite as much against as for the student's timely advantage. The group as seen in a fraternity house represents the par inter pares. The floor of the classroom is built on one Motives for Entering the Service 3 level, and that floor has only a few square feet. The college chapel, the table in the reading room, the benches in the chemical, and the physical, laboratory represent a community and an equality of interest. The gridiron and diamond stand for brotherhood and cooperation. These forces, outwardly and materially visible, are only the sign of the inward forces which unite. College men think together, even if not alike. They are moved by similar ambitions and stirred by like motives and ideals, even if the con- summate achievement be not alike. A thousand or a hundred hearts beat as one. Therefore, a wave of patriotism touches segregated and separated indi- vidualities, and combines them into unities. One bugle call is heard by a thousand ears; one flag is seen by a thousand eyes. As Oliver Wendell Holmes said at a commencement of his Alma Mater, in the midst of the Civil War in 1863,—" The hero in his laurels sits next to the divine rustling in the dry gar- land of his Doctorate. The poet in his crown of bays, the critic, in his wreath of ivy, clasp each other's hands, members of the same happy family. This is the birthday feast for every one of us whose fore- head has been sprinkled from the font inscribed Christo et Ecclesiae. We have no badges but our diplomas, no distinctions but our years of gradua- tion. This is the Kepublic carried into the Univer- 4 Colleges and Universities in the Great War sity; all of us are bom equal into this great fra- ternity." ^ The response, the reaction, the patriotic stimulus, work on the feeling of each and of every other man, reenforcing, increasing, magnifying, de- veloping it. Excitement begets excitement. Thrill stirs thrill. Each man goes where others go, and the others go where each goes. The democracy of the group promotes the martial enrollment. This essential quality of democracy seems not to have suffered under the conditions of the modern college. The college of the early and middle dec- ades of the Nineteenth Century was a college of pe- culiarly united interests. Students of the same class studied the same subjects. Year by year, the prog- ress was regular and general. The two ancient lan- guages, mathematics, with certain excursions, more or less brief, into English, philosophy, the modem languages, science, and history, formed the founda- tion of the orderly academic structure. With a few minor exceptions, each student did what the other did. Of the modern college, however, diversity, sepa- rateness, individualism, is the distinctive mark. Students of the same class are divided by many and diverse interests. Members of different classes are usually joined together in the same subjects of 1 Address before the Association of the Alumni of Harvard College, 16th July, 1863, Motives for Entering the Service 5 study. The elective system stands for individuality of choice. Each man pursues his own will under the general supervision of college officers. Yet, despite these individualisms, the college spirit is still one, the college atmosphere one, and the general aim one. The democratic movement and condition of equality is still regnant. The democracy of war and the democracy of edu- cation are impressively alike. For war makes equals. War promotes equality between men of the same grade or kind. If it create differences and distinctions between different grades of service, it yet makes men of the same order equal. All pri- vates in the ranks are alike. Exterior distinctions are lost. The titled are as obscure as the obscure; the obscure as distinguished as the titled. The poor are as rich as the rich and the rich are as poor as the poor. A boy of distinguished ancestry and education, brought up in peculiarly exclusive sur- roundings, was serving at the front as a private. In a letter to his mother he told about two of his special chums. One of them was Erine O' Callahan and the other Billie Sweeny. He wrote to his mother — " You can't beat those boys on the face of the earth. I want you to call upon their mothers." Education is likewise democratic — a common obedience for all men, themselves personally equal or unequal, and 6 Colleges and Universities in the Or eat War a common opportunity. It lias been said tliat in Germany there were no equals — only superiors or inferiors. In America one might, with equal truth, say, there are only equals. America holds open one educational gateway. It paves one road to learning, and that not royal. It points out one goal which it inspires each to reach. Autocracy in education is narrow and narrowing, inclined to accept social stratification. Democracy in education is broad, as broad as human nature. Autocracy in education is prone to being materialistic. Democracy is idealis- tic. Aristocracy in education is liable to forget hu- manity's hard, complex problems. Democracy in education is sympathizing and inspiring of every worthy endeavor. A further motive for enrollment, and also its origin, is the fundamental element of patriotism, both historical and personal. The college man loves his country for the reason which leads the mature civilian to love it, the reason found in his birth within its borders and in its beneficence to him and to his. But also the college man loves it because of a peculiar sense of possession. It is his country. He belongs to it, and it belongs to him. With this sense is often joined the sense of her peril and also the sense that she may have suffered or be in danger of suffering an insult. It is his place to retaliate or Motives for Entering the Service 7 to defend. His patriotism is rather a love of her than a movement of the will, although the heart's love proves itself in overt acts. The patriotism does show itself in the college songs and the commemora- tion odes of all countries. Is there any poem of the war in which this spirit is more fully voiced than in Winifred M. Letts' " The Spires of Oxford " ? I saw the spires of Oxford As I was passing by, The gray spires of Oxford Against a pearl gray sky. My heart was with the Oxford men Who went abroad to die. The years go fast in Oxford, The golden years and gay. The hoary Colleges look down On careless boys at play. But when the bugles sounded war They put their games away. They left the peaceful river. The cricket field, the quad. The shaven lawns of Oxford To seek a bloody sod — They gave their merry youth away For country and for God. God rest you, happy gentlemen. Who laid your good lives down. 8 Colleges and Universities in the Great War Who took the khaki and the gun Instead of cap and gown. God bring you to a fairer place Than even Oxford town. These lines are a confirmation of Lowell's Com- memoration Ode of fifty years ago. The motive of the college man is also manifest in what might be called interpatriotism. The student loves his owm country and his fellow citizens much. He loves all countries and his human brothers more. In the Great War French students fought for France and British students too fought for France. They also fought for liberty and fraternity, for all. Ox- ford, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh men died for Eng- land and Scotland, but they also died for ravaged Belgium and for damaged humanity. American college students enrolled and served in danger-zones long before America entered the war. They made the great sacrifice for other people than their own. As President Eliot, speaking to the Harvard men at the time of the Spanish War, said : " What are the fundamental and legitimate motives . . . which lead one to enlist? There are two which seem to me very weighty ; and these two really make but one, but that one how strong ! The first is the sense that every member of human society is mainly indebted for his own character, resources and happiness to the slowly Motives for Entering the Service 9 developed qualities and slowly accumulated resources of the particular society into which he was born. Society gives the individual everything which makes his life valuable to him ; he, in return, owes his life and his all to society whenever its interests are im- perilled. This principle applies in a tribe of sav- ages, but with greatest force in the most civilized so- ciety." ^ The first members of the Harvard broth- erhood who were laid in their gTaves in Erance were saluted in these words : " Ce sera une date his- torique, cette journee d'automne ou nous avons en- seveli en terre de France nos amis, conduits au petit cimetiere avec un piquet de soldats frangais et americains, les corps converts du Star Spangled Ban- ner et du Tricolore. Sur leur tombe, notre colonel prononga ces simples mots : ' je vous salue, enfants d'une noble race ; reposez dans cette terre de France oil vous etes tombes pour la plus belle cause ! ' " There is a still more fundamental motive dwelling in the bosom of the student. It is hard to interpret this motive. It should not be called the longing for adventure. Such a motive is more or less unworthy. It may be called the sense of duty. It is rather more than an imperative. It may be called spiritual un- rest, but it is more than an emotion. It is rather a yearning for life, — for life fuller, richer, more com- 1 Boston Herald, May 21st, 1898. 10 Colleges and Universities in the Great War manding, more consuming. It is a feeling that one must have experience — an experience that touches all life, even the universal and the eternal. It is the cosmic sense, urging and moving in the young soul. To this motive Alan Seeger gave voice: " Suddenly the world is up in arms. All mankind takes sides. The same faith that made him sur- render himself to the impulses of normal living and of love, force him now to make himself the instru- ment through which a greater force works out its in- scrutable ends through the impulses of terror and repulsion. And with no less a sense of moving in harmony with a universe where masses are in con- tinual conflict and new combinations are engendered out of eternal collisions, he shoulders arms and marches forth with haste." -"^ Akin to this cosmic sense is shown the spirit of supreme sacrifice and of moral passion, which be- longs to all youth, but belongs especially to the stu- dent. This sense of sacrifice and of passion has been peculiarly significant in this war. The break- ing and crushing of the morals and the morale of life by Germany awakened the keenest indignation in the soldier student. He did not count the cost. He felt somewhat as Pascal says of Jesus Christ on the cross : " I must add my wounds to his." The 1 Letter: The New Republic, 22nd May, 1915. Motives for Entering the Service 11 crusader is the youth, and he rejoices to venture all. " For my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the Western Stars, until I die." In deep contrast to such a worthy motive, two more and very personal conditions emerge. The student is free from domestic responsibility and from vocational engagements. JSTeither wife nor child looks to him for daily bread. JSTeither professional duty nor industrial nor commercial service com- mands him. He is foot-free. Indeed, he is in- clined to believe that a military training may prove to be a very acceptable preparation for the business which he finally may choose. In all these motives and conditions, too, one fur- ther great movement is evident. It may be called — the instinct of the spiritual in man. It is the im- pulse to rescue, to help, to serve. It is a fundamen- tal feeling. It is found in every worthy bosom. It constitutes the gentleman. It is not a matter of or for argument, not a balancing of advantages and dis- advantages. It may not be even a part of that great Anglo-Saxon service, which we denominate duty. Why did you enlist ? — Why shouldn't I enlist ? — is the questioning answer — One cannot do other. Such feelings are instinctive in all good men, but 12 Colleges and Universities in the Great War are especially instinctive in the bosom of tlie college man. For as an Oxford don says : " The beauty of life lies not in living, nor in health and vigor of body, nor in the flash and speed of the mind, but in living with a noble energy, which enlists and mobilizes the noble nature for the doing of noble things. To rise to the measure of a man and to attain to the just beauty of a full humanity consists in gaining con- version of the soul and in entering the service of mankind. He who has turned his eyes to an ideal good which is more worth while than life itself has found life; for he has become a living soul, con- verted to the light. He who has entered the service of mankind in order to realize among men and for men the ideal good which he has seen has entered into the only perfect joy of living; for he has hid his life with that of his fellows in the common life which is the only true life of man." ^ In all these lifting and moving sentiments there were present two other feelings deserving recogni- tion. Students were inclined to depreciate their own place and function. They did not wish to be " made much of." They despised eulogy. They couldn't bear laudation, as if their acts were unusual. They 1 " Mothers and Sons in War Time," by Ernest Barker, pages 4, 5. Motives for Entering the Service 13 had wit and humor to realize their conditions. In serious hours too they thought of being afraid of death as death. They did have a questioning whether when the crisis of a great command might be heard, they would prove true. It was the quick- ening question that belongs to a gentleman. It was inevitable. The answer, too, was equally inevitable. They met their supreme ordeal without flinching. They died with a cheer. American college men, students and graduates, moreover, have entered every war which their coun- try has fought. Such enrollment belongs to every nation. Tablets are placed on the walls of the uni- versities of Germany, giving the names of their sons who fell in the War of 1870. Tablets are also set up in the universities of Italy, commemorating the students who fought two generations ago for their once sadly divided, now nobly united, land. The spirit which is felt and the words which are heard in American colleges in the World War, were also manifest in the Civil War of the United, and the Confederate, States. The passion of all college youth for native land and for man seems to be one — lasting as life, broad as the world, deep as the deepest human instincts and emotions, indivisible as human- ity itself. II BEFOEE THEl ENTEANCE: OF THE TNITED STATES Under the spell of such motives, college men, both graduate and undergraduate, entered and served in the war. Their service began at the very beginning. The kind of service, offered from August and Sep- tember of 1914 up to the month of April, 19 lY, was, of course, in many respects unlike that given after the entrance of the United States. The earlier serv- ice was manifestly far less important and far less general. It was, however, of diverse sorts, and also it took on many elements of the picturesque as well as of the heroic. The kinds of particular service were no less than five in number. These five were the American Vol- unteer Motor Ambulance Corps, the American Ambu- lance Hospital in Paris, Hospital Units outside of Paris like that of or for Servia, the American Dis- tributing Service, and, most picturesque of all, the Foreign Legion. There were, in addition, not a few services of miscellaneous, and even individualistic, character. The United States embassies, aiding 14 Before the Entrance of the United States 15 American citizens' relief committees, serving in can- teens, giving help in relief work in Belgium and Prance, represent the more important of such miscel- laneous and individual work. The American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps was formed and directed by Richard ISTorton, son of Charles Eliot ISTorton of Harvard. The work of this Corps, as described by Norton himself, in February, 1916, was of three sorts. One was what he calls the risky and very hard work done during a battle, in rescuing the wounded and bearing them back to sta- tions where surgical attention could be given. There was, also, what l^orton calls, " Our regular job " : " the post duty, the daily going and coming from certain stations just back of the line to the hospitals with the occasional casualties. During the winter months one carries more sick and sorry than one does wounded, but there is a never-ending trickle of these latter. . . . We sat down for the winter, and posts were arranged to which the wounded are brought. Just who picks out these posts I have never discovered, but the general rule is that they should be as near the actual fighting line as the con- dition of the Toads and general safety permit the cars to go. "We have served two such posts. One was all right, though, owing to the mud which pre- vented the close approach of our cars, the stretcher 16 Colleges and Universities in the Great War bearers had a weary long walk with their painful burden. The other, however, was to my mind most quaintly placed, as it was on the crest of a ridge and in plain view of the enemy. Though the doctors' tents and dug-outs were sheltered by a cluster of pines, the coming and going of the cars were per- fectly obvious and daily drew the fire of one of the enemy batteries. ... At both posts the men did duty for twenty-four hours at a stretch, and had tents pitched under the trees in which they cooked their picnic meals and took what rest they could. Most of the time it rained, and it was always cold. To my way of thinking a tent is a beastly thing. A considerable portion of my life has been passed in them, and no one can convince me they are anything but disgusting. . . . However, they are better than sitting in the mud, so at the posts we sit and get damp till the relief comes, and then hustle back to the base camp, where there are no satisfactory means of get- ting dry, but where you mop yourself up and steam over any form of fire you or your friends can pro- duce. You see, there is not much in that kind of life but plain, hard, uncomfortable work. So any one who thinks he is coming out here to wander over the stricken field doing the Sir Philip Sidney act to friend and foe alike, protected from harm by the mys- tical light of heroism playing about his hyacinthine Before the Entrance of the United States 17 locks, had better stay home. This hero business will only win him the Order of the Wooden Cross. What one really does is to look like a tramp who has passed the night in a ditch and feels as though he were doing ten days ' hard ' for it. That is what the ordinary work is." ^ There is a third kind of work of the Motor Am- bulance Corps which Mjr. JSTorton calls " en repos." " 'No corps can go on indefinitely at the front. The men get worn out and the cars get out of order. During the early part of this winter our cars stood in the open where the mud was so bad that we often had to pull them out in the morning with the lorry before we could start. There was so little water that sometimes there was insufficient for the radiators. Under such circumstances cleaning the cars was en- tirely out of the question, and any but absolutely es- sential repairs had to wait till we could move some- where else. When, finally, we were relieved by a French convoy, only one-third of our cars could go, and several of the men were working on their nerve." -^ The second general form of service lay in what was known as the American Ambulance, or Amer- 1 " The Harvard Volunteers in Europe," by Howe, pages 193-196. 2 Ibid., pages 196-197. 18 Colleges and Universities in the Great War lean Hospital, in Paris. The opportunity for med- ical service in Paris was opened in the spring of 1915. The first medical unit to be represented was that of Western Reserve University and of its affil- iated hospital, Lakeside, which served from January to April. The Harvard Medical School provided a surgical unit, also, for three months of this year. Outside and beyond the most outstanding surgical service of Paris was the service rendered in Servia in the first year of the war. This contribution, given under the American Bed Cross Sanitary Commis- sion, and under the leadership of Doctor Richard P. Strong, Professor of Tropical Medicine in the Har- vard Medical School, was of the utmost significance. Soon after his arrival, in April, Doctor Strong or- ganized an International Health Commission in or- der to promote the enforcement of medical and surgi- cal orders in all parts of Servia, and also to coordi- nate the work of the British, the French, the Rus- sians, the Americans, as well as of the Servians, in promoting the health of the people. In this work were engaged public health physicians, sanitary engi- neers, sanitary inspectors, and laboratory experts of various types. To stamp out contagious diseases, and especially typhus fever, was the great purpose of the Commission, and this purpose was fulfilled with extraordinary efficiency. Before the Entrance of the United States 19 Another form of work in whicli the college men had a primary part, and which has received little mention, is the American Distributing Service. Un- der this general union, many sorts of work were done and under different organizations. Perhaps the chief part of its work was in giving instant relief to the most obvious necessities of French hospitals. Supplies were gathered up, some coming from Amer- ica, and delivered at the hospitals according to their need. Sorting out and delivering hospital socks and slippers, bales of underclothes, bolts of cloth, surgical instruments, represent types of the diversity of the work. In the month of August of the year 1915, more than forty-four thousand articles were given out, which included material for operating rooms, as surgical instruments, sterilizing apparatus, bandages and linen. The hospitals thus helped numbered more than seven hundred. But perhaps the most picturesque, as certainly the best known of all these forms of service, lay in the Foreign Legion of the French Army. It was a most democratic organization. A member has written of it, saying: — " Many of the men are educated, and the very low- est is of the high-class workman type. In my room, for instance, there are ' Le Petit Pere U ,' an old Alsatian, who has already served fourteen years 20 Colleges and Universities in the Great War in the Legion in China and Morocco; the Corporal L , a Socialist well-known in his own district; E , a Swiss cotton broker from Havre; D C , a newspaper man, and short-story writer, who will not serve in the English Army because his family left England in 1Y45, with the exception of his father, who was captain in the Eoyal Irish Fusi- liers ; S , a Fijian student at Oxford, ' the blond beast' (Vide Zarathustra) ; von somebody, another Dane, very small and young; B , a Swiss car- penter, born and bred in the Alps, who sings, when given a half liter of canteen wine, far better than most comic-opera stars and who at times does the ranz-des-vaclies so that even Petit Pere U claps ; the brigadier M , a little Russian, two or three Polish Jews, nondescript Belgians, Greeks, Rouma- nians, etc." -^ In the Foreign Legion were found not a few col- lege men among whom Victor Chapman, Harvard '13, and Alan Seeger, Harvard '10, stand forth in moving worthiness, — both of whom made the great sacrifice. The number of college graduates and undergrad- uates who entered this quintette of services was not large. But the spirit, the enthusiasm, the devotion of those who thus enrolled themselves was of the ilbid., pages 145-146. Before the Entrance of the United States 21 highest and deepest character. It was a service both individual and human. It was not supported by love of America in the degree which the later service inspired. It was a service rendered out of a love for humanity and in the desire to be of individual worth. The element of camaraderie was not present as it was in the college halls of the years '17 and '18. But the sense of individual duty, privilege, devotion, rose to its highest red-crested level. The college men of America never showed themselves more heroic than in services thus rendered in the months and years previous to the first week of April of the year 191Y. As moving and inspiring a spectacle as was fur- nished by any set of college men is found in the Rhodes scholars who gave themselves to the service in Belgium. About four hundred Americans have availed themselves of Cecil Rhodes' foundation, since its establishment in 1902, in becoming students at Oxford. About three hundred of the^m entered the service. The beneficence of their presence and work in Belgium in the days of the German occupation is a part of the great contribution which was rendered under the direction and inspiration of Herbert Clark Hoover. Mr. Hoover, himself a graduate of Leland Stanford University, was, by reason of his experi- ence, as well as because of the highest personal quali- 22 Colleges and Universities in the Great War ties, abundantly qualified to guide and to inspire his fellow graduates of American colleges who them- selves had been at Oxford. Of them the great inter- preter of Belgium, in the years of its Inferno, Mr. Brand Whitlock, has said: " They came as volunteers, to work for no other re- ward than the satisfaction of helping in a great human- itarian cause. The work never could have been done without them, or half so well by men who had been paid for their labor. I suppose tiie world has never seen anything quite like their devotion; it used to amuse, when it did not exasperate, us, to see the Ger- mans so mystified by it ; they could not understand it, and were always trying to find out the real reason for their being there. ... It was, in fact, as fine an exam- ple of idealism — American idealism — as, in its ulti- mate organization and direct management, it proved to be of American enterprise and efficiency. The young men were under the heaviest adjurations from all of us to maintain a strict neutrality, and this they all did. JSTot one of them was ever guilty of an indiscretion, not one of them ever brought dishonor upon the work, or upon their nation, or its flag, or upon the various universities whose honor they held in their keeping and on which they reflected such credit." ^ 1 " Belgium," by Brand Whitlock, United States Minister to Belgium, I., pages 409-410. Before the Entrance of the United States 23 Men of such character, of course, would be secured under the conditions laid down by Mr. Rhodes' trus- tees. In the first circular issued by the trustees, it was said that they desired " as Scholars students of power and promise, and representative types of the manliness, culture, and character of the communities from which they come." ^ Such devotions, more individual than institutional, were contemporaneous with movements which were rather institutional than individualistic. A significant development of the last and of the present generation of academic life lies in the associa- tion and cooperation of the colleges and universities. This academic development is a microcosm of what has occurred in the nations of the world. Among these educational societies are found the Association of State Universities, the Association of American Universities, the Association of American Colleges, the Association of Urban Universities, the American Association of University Professors, the Association of American Law Schools, the Association of Ameri- can Medical Colleges, and the American Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. These associations, — a list to which, long as it is, several others might fittingly be added, — created a spirit of co-working and of inter-institutional service i"The Rhodes Scholarships," by Parkin, page 114. 24 Colleges and Universities in the Great War which, in the three years preceding the American declaration of war, were devoted to the welfare of the nation and of the world. The common devotion thus secured in and through the colleges for the na- tion and for the nations becomes the more marked when seen in contrast with the lack of academic co- operation prevailing in the period of the Civil War. In that period each college gave richest service but gave it largely as an individual unit of society. The various organizations and agencies, new and old, established . for making the services of the col- leges effective in the great war were both general and special, transient and lasting. Some of them were clearing houses of activities, while others were di- rectly operating forces. In point of time the first of these organizations was the Intercollegiate Intelligence Bureau. This Bu- reau was an agency set up' for the purpose of assign- ing places in the government service to college men and women. With headquarters in Washington, its chief officer and, in a sense, its founder, was Dean William McClellan of the University of Pennsyl- vania. On its establishment in February, 1917, Secretary Baker said that the organization was " a gift to the nation, a gift of preparedness, alike for service in war and in peace." In making a report reviewing the work. Dean McClellan wrote : — " We Before the Entrance of the United States 25 have spent a busy, and, we believe, a useful year in trying to fulfill our obligations and living up to our ideals. We have organized branches at about two hundred colleges, technical and agricultural schools throughout the country and city committees, com- posed of representative graduates, in the larger cen- ters of the ISTation. Using entirely a decentral- ized system and responding to the definite calls made upon them by our Division of Serv- ice Calls at our office here, these branches have had the satisfaction of knowing that about four thousand of the men and women nominated by them have been appointed to positions of responsibility in the service of the N^ational Government. All of these positions called for highly trained specialists in professional and technical fields. Roughly speak- ing, about 50 per cent, of them represented commis- sions in the Army or IsTavy. Every nomination ac- cepted and also the many nominations made in good faith which did not result in appointments, were thoroughly investigated before being sent in both by our branches and by us, and we have the satisfaction of sincerely believing that no finer body of loyal cit- izens can be found than the men who are now serving the country and who found their proper places through the agency of this Bureau." The second event in the earlier academic history 26 Colleges and Universities in the Great War was found in a conference held in Washington on May fifth of the same year of 1917. In Continental Hall on that day, about one hundred and fifty repre- sentatives of the leading colleges and universities as- sembled. They also intimated a desire to know the methods which are adopted by colleges and universities of the Before the Entrance of the United States 27 allied countries in meeting the conditions of the war. This conference was of the utmost value in uniting, solidifying and energizing college sentiment respect- ing the seriousness of the condition and the rights and the duties of the higher institutions of learning in the prosecution of the war. A third organization relating to the colleges bore the name of the ISTational Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. This organization was in its constitu- tion in part only academic. But in it six outstand- ing institutions, Massachusetts Institute of Technol- ogy, Cornell University, Ohio State University, Uni- versity of Texas, University of Illinois, and Uni- versity of California, had the prevailing and controll- ing interest. In and through these schools were trained aviators to the number, at times, of about a thousand a month. As aviation is primarily a sci- entific work it was fitting that those following this art should be trained in schools of science. A fourth item in this academic martial interpreta- tion related to the War Department Committee on Classification of Personnel in the Army. This com- mittee, organized largely by Professor Walter Dill Scott of N^orthwestem University, had for its pur- pose the classification of men of draft age and con- dition on the basis of education and other allied qual- ities. This body made a distinct contribution in 28 Colleges and Universities in the Great War impressing upon the governmental authorities the value of scientific training as a military factor. In creating this factor it was made plain that the ef- ficiency of the scientific and other schools in train- ing graduates and undergraduates as officers, was most important. Mention should also be made of a further educa- tional force although this force belonged less to the higher learning than did several other agencies. It was the Federal Board for Vocational Education. This Board, originally organized under the Smith- Hughes act, was concerned largely with the training of mechanics and technicians. The sixth agency, and one of the more important, was the American Council on Education. The American Council on Education represented some fifteen educational Associations of the United States, and was formed primarily to aid the government in meeting certain needs of the war conditions. It also served to unite these educational bodies in a com- mon purpose and to interpret the aims and the meth- ods of each to the other, ^ot only was a better un- derstanding thus established between the Associa- tions themselves, but the government was enabled to use efficiently an instrument which proved of inval- uable service. The Associations, too, were benefited Before the Entrance of the United States 29 by a leadership, the lack of which, in their relation to national work, had been keenly felt. The purpose of the American Council on Educa- tion, or the Emergency Council on Education, is best stated in a paragraph taken from one of its own records : " To place the educational resources of the country more completely at the service of the ^National Gov- ernment and its departments, to the end that, through an understanding cooperation, the patriotic services of the public schools, colleges and universities may be augmented ; that a continuous supply of educated men may be maintained ; and greater effectiveness in meeting the educational problems arising during and following the war may be secured." The American Council on Education had charge of the Publicity Campaign for the Students' Army Training Corps. Directors were appointed in every state, the cooperation of all colleges, universities, pub- lic schools, and other institutions and organizations, was sought, a great amount of " literature " was is- sued, and a large correspondence carried on. Because of the urgent need of nurses, at the re- quest of the Surgeon General of the War Depart- ment, the Council took upon itself the duty of ar- ranging for courses of twelve weeks' duration, for 30 Colleges and Universities in the Great War the preliminary training of nurses in colleges and universities. So well did the Council succeed in this task that, at the signing of the armistice, over fifty institutions had pledged to offer such courses. A campaign, too, had been arranged to secure women of essential fitness for nursing, — ten thousand of whom the Council had promised to obtain and to have their training completed before the 1st of July, 1919. Through its efforts scholarships for French women, scholarships for invalided French men, and for Rus- sian soldiers were established. Over two hundred French women, under its auspices, came to the United States to enter its colleges and universi- ties, — the college fees of whom were met by the in- stitutions receiving them. Forty invalided French men were brought to this country under conditions similar to those obtaining in the case of the women. The Council had charge of the visits to the United States of the British Educational Mission and of the French Educational Mission. These facts indicate only a few of the great services given by the American Council on Education. That its work will be of vital importance in the future is assured. It already has outlined for itself a course of activities which include International Educational Kelations, Educational Information and Standards, Before the Entrance of the United States 31 Educational Policy and Organization, Education for Citizenship, and the Training of "Women for Public Service. The National Research Council was fittingly named as an agency of the higher military education. It was established by the Academy of Sciences in the year 1916, as a measure of preparedness in the event of war. In 1918, the Council was taken over by the government of the United States, and, after the armistice, in the spring of 1919 it was reorganized as a permanent institution. 