THE MEMMA OF HIGHER EDUCATION
IN M 1920':

Thesis for tho Duo. of M. A.
MlCHiGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Shériey A. Falter
1956

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THE DIIBQ'IA OF HI"? EDUCFLTICN
IN T‘iE 1920's

37
Shirley A. Falter

AN ABSTRACT
Sumitted to the College of Arts and Sciences
:{ichigan State University of Agriculture and

Applied Science in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

DEPARTT'JEITI' OF HIS T351

1956

ABSTRACT

A rapid glance at the periodical articles on higher
education in the early 1900's and in the 1920's reveals a changing
attitude toward the institutions of higher learninfu At the turn
of the century the discussions are mostly of a general nature, but
by the 20's they indicate a widespread dissatisfaction with the
American system of college and university training. Higher
education was undergoing a series of rapid transformations which
were not acceptable to all the members of the education profession
and of society. .

A great industrial been followed in the wake of World
War I. The expansion of industry and business created more
positions for employment, but the nature of the work had become
more specialized. The economic groups, therefore, began to
require trained specialists. It was then mat the colleges and
universities were called upon to provide society with the desired
labor.

With the development of the college education prerequisite
for employment, college enrollments increased at a phenomenal rate.
A greater minor 0: students entered college for vocational
purposes alone. Not only did their presence mango the general
atmosphere of the college and university campus, but it also created

a more practical curriculum. The more the vocational departments

grew, the more the liberal arts seemed to suffer.

As the institutions of higher learning onlarred their
student bodies, administrative and financial duties became more
complex. In many ways they resembled the large businesses or
their surrounding communities. The necessity of efficiency and
organization, therefore, brought more representatives of the
business world into the college and university administrations.

It was the simultaneous development of intensified
vocational training with the increased number of businessman in
the administration and the weakening of the liberal arts which
brought the conflict between the traditionaliste and the
vocationalists to a climn. However, contrary to each youp's
expectation the controversy was gradually settled by a.compromise
in which a fundamental-practical curriculum was gradually devised.
This new curriculum was helped by the series of experiments in
hizher education'uhich were also begun in the 1920‘s.

The dilemma of higher education in the decade of the
20's was, therefore, the product of a changed society. This
society, however, was not satisfied with the prevailing confusion
in its institutions of higher learning, and through its criticism
forced them to make adjustments which, when inaugurated, minimised

existing trends and introduced new ones.

THE DIL‘Zl-fl’ZA OF HIGHER EDUCATION
IN THE 1920's

By
Shirley A. Falter

A THESIS
Submitted to the College of Arts and Sciences
Michigan Strte University of Agriculture and

Applied Science in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Dee's. nmw OF HIS TORY
1956

ACKNOWLEDGEHEHT

I wish to express nu sincere
appreciation to Dr. Madison Kuhn
for his guidance in the writing

of this thesis.

TABLE OF CDNTEIETS

INTRODIJC TION D O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 O O O O O O

I Higher Education m Soc1€ty . g Q o g o Q 9 9

II Posh-Civil War Developments in Higher Education

III Enrollment Trends in the 1920's . . . . . .
IV Cm'riculmn Trends in the 1920's . . . . . 0
V Control of Higher Education in the 1920's .
VI The Traditional-Vocational Controversy . .

O

0

O

O

VII Experimentation in Higher Education in the 1920's

CONCLUSION 0 o o o s o e o e s o e s o o o o e s e e o

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 0 o a e o o o o o o e o o a o o o

17
35

69
81
9h

ii

INTROD 'CTIJII

Although education is one of the major institutions of
Amrican society, dating from the founding of the first colonies,
it has been grossly neglected by historians. Of twelve histories
chosen at random, not one was written by an historian. The
development of education is without a doubt a part of the history
of America. It is the organ to which the people have looked for
the propagation of the American heritage, and as such, it affects
and is affected by the mind and life of the whole society. It is,
therefore, the general purpose of this study to place one phase
of the history of education, higher education in the 1920's, in its
historical setting and study it from the historical point of View.

The trends in higher education during; the 20's have been
discussed by both educators and writers of American history.
However, the histories written by educators are often s collection
of statements and generalizations with little, if any, documentation.
Some, in following the generally accepted attitude, appear to have
either overlooked or ignored the available evidence, Historians in
their general works usually give only a brief sketch of a complex
situation, stating the changes without relating the causes to them.

The developments which took place in higher education in
the post-World War I decade cannot be fully understood without some
howledge of the changes in the other aspects of society and their

influence on educational institutions. Education, which is s

111

product of society, must continuously strive to satisfy the demands
node upon it. The America of the 1920's witnessed s period of
intense industrialisation and technological advancement. From this
new economic order emerged the influences which pushed existing
educational trends to an extreme. During those ten years the
enrollment in institutions of higher learning doubled. The student
body more than ever before represented every economic and social
level. Hith students possessing a wider range of academic background
and notivation, and society's increased interest in the business
world and in making s living, the curriculum of the colleges and
universities became increasingly vocational. So great was the demand
for technical and practical courses, that.the liberal arts could
arouse only s limited following. The plight of the liberal arts put
the traditionalists on the offensive ss‘well as many who did not
approve of the extreme to which vocationalism had gone. Not only
did this group criticise the influence of business and industry upon
the curriculum, but they also accused these economic groups of
exercising undo influence from the directing positions they held on
the administrative boards of colleges and universities. As s result
of this criticism, many schools began to experiment‘with.new
educational methods in an attempt to eliminate some of the more
objectionable features of the institution.

The purpose of this study is to relate the character of

American society in the 1920's with the changes and movements in

iv

higher education, and since none of the changes originated in the
post-war period, to show why there was such a strong reaction
during this decade against the existing trends, and finally, to

indicate the florm the reactionary measures took.

Chapter I
HIGHER EDUCATION AND SOCIETY

Institutions of higher learning are a product of society
and are created to meet the needs of the peeple. In the United
States by the process of chartering or incorporation the college
and the university are formally instituted by the governing body of
the society. As social institutions, they are supported by the
public either through taxation and tax exemption or through individual
and group philanthropy. The more dependent the institution is upon
public funds, the more alert it must be to the society's demands, for
as Roscoe Pound of the Harvard Lev School stated, these schools
absorbed the money of the coaununity, and the commity, tinnefore,
was entitled to call the tune}

These creatures of society can maintain their status only
as long as they are responsive to the needs of that group. They
must, therefore, "beep in close and sympathetic touch with the whole
people and with all the currents of their life."2 Everything which
the college and university offers to its students and the cmunity
reflects the needs and demands of the American people either past or
present. John Dale Russell of the University of Chicago pointed out

w

1

George E. G. Catlin, I'Deseeerecy md Culture," Contempg; arz Review,
on. (December 1931). 733.

2

Ernest Dewitt Burton, Education in As Dermcratic World, ed. Harold

 

that professional education was offered in institution of higher
learning, not because individual stxuients wished to be docta's,
layers, or ministers, but because society needed well trained men
in the professions.3 If the university were the only agency which
could practically assxns a particular mnction, it was its duty tn
perform it, even if precedent were overstepped}; Thorstein Veblen
called this necessa'y responsiveness of higher education to society
'a tenure of use md want."5

In this subservient position, educational instimtions are
greatly affected by the forces which chase and snags sociow.
Education's growth has paralleled the changes in the habit of 11:.
which the Ansrican people have axparisnosdoé It has mirrored and
ofta: contributed to the advmcuent of the Amrican say of life, but
it has also been handicapped by the defects of the society which it

last at all tins serve.7

In a period of little social change, the
colleges and universities can readily nest tin demands put to than.
However, during a time or rapid social change in which old standards

and the established say of life are challenged and often cast aide,

 

John Dale Russell, "Higher Education and the Social Order," Indiana
Uninrsity School oi‘ Education, x11 (December 1935), 73.

“James Rowland Angell, "The University Today: Its Aims and Province,"
The Obli ation of Universities to the Social Order (New York, 1933), p. 10.

Thorstein Veblen, The Higher Learnim in America: A Memorandum on
the Conduct of Univers es :1 *us nessnen, c p s ord,
s p. 0
Veblen, p. 2.
7

zillion Bennett Biasell, The Relations of Learnm (Nornan, 1931;).
p. 1 lo

3.

educational institutions are faced with the problem of reedjustment.
lo en organisation based on a foundation or long established ideals,
it can not imdistely adapt itself to new demands. It must fees ‘-
the problem of- deciding s new course, and a in the case of all M
institutions: which serve the whole of society, no course will satisfy
all of the various interest groups.
A situation of this nature presented itself in the decade
following World War I. The chengee which had been developing in
A-erican society since the turn of the century were greatly eccelereted
by the war. R. L. Duffus remarked that in no other period in history
had such e transformetion men piece with such rapidity.8 Higher
education, ever sensitive to new demands, was forced to edept itself
to this new social order. The year 1916-1917, therefa'e marked the
beginning of e new epoch in the history of higher education, 'e period
which will be em or greet oignificeuoe in our educational history end
one that will tax for my years the best efforts of the leeders of
our universities and colleges to neat the issues and solve the problene
thet. are developing."9
However, the changes in higher education during the 20's were
so diversified and complex and, at the same time interwoven end

 

fl
New York Times, Janua'y 8, 1928, See. 5, p. ’4.
9

Walton C. John, 'College and University Education," Biennial Survez
of Education in the United States: 138.1%;0, Bull. U. 8. Bureau of
Education, No. 50 (Waeliington, . ., , 167-1458. Hereafter cited

as Bienni__3_1 Smog.

h.

overlapped, that even had the colleges and universities been
perfectly edepted to prewar conditions .. which they 1muons not ..
they would have had to more quickly to keep up. Their attempts

to hurry often created more confusion and made higher education in
the post-World War I decode ”on absorbing, if not always s happy,
spectacle .‘10 From: Aydelotte, President of Swathmore College,
celled college life “as transitory es the stuff that drone ere
node of ~— in this case not wholly a pleasant drew.“n Thus the
deeds in Amricen history which is noted for its radical social
ehsnges and innovations, is also recognized as a period of confusion
and reodjuehnent in the history of higher education.

As one would expect, not all of the changes in higher looming
produced results which were acceptable to all the segments of society.
Some leaders in education wished to olire, to the traditional system
of pedagogy, which in many says was no longer adequate, while others
spplied the new doctrine that I'the old order must be destroyed end
s new one - one entirely new - nust be created."12 Betveen these
two groups was a third which tried to develop :3 compromise system

of education comprised of the main principles of both of the other

‘16
New York Times, January 8, 1928, Sec. 5, p. h.
11
Now York Times, May 1;, 1930, See. 3, p. B.
12
Lotus Delta. Cofflnon, "The Efficacy of the Depression in Promoting
Self-Eminetion,“ Needed Roadiustmont in Higher Educ ation,
Proceedinrs of the Ins titute foerministI-ative CTficeI-s of Hi 61‘
not u ions , , e . em ey, (Chicago, 19355, I5.

 

5.

views. The institutions of higher looming were torn between these
various systems and whether they continued under the old or adjusted
to the new, they met the criticism of both educators and outside
observers.

There was, therefore, throughout the 20's much unrest and
uncertainty in higher education. The 20‘s marked the beginning of
a period of increased interest in higher learnint. and closer
inspection brought forth a more critical attitude. The literature
in the field of education.and the general periodicals were filled
with articles which criticised every phase of higher education.
Though a generation before literary discussion had been relieved
by hope, by 1926 it was "almost wholly the literature of

disappointment. '13

In 1919 President Butler of Columbia University
accused educational institutions of drifting with the tide and of
refusing to formulate a definite policy. This permitted them “to
be made the prey of every passing fancy and of every succeeding
educational whim-"1h The New York ZL'EE asked, ”What is happening
to our colleges?" This question was often heard and vigorously
debated.15 James Truslow Adena, 'an outside but interested observer,"
consented on the helpless uncertainty with which higher education
.13 a .

Grant Showerman, 'Heckling the College,” Schoolgand Society,
XXIV”: August 28, 1926, 21:9.

 

Frederick W. Roe, ”The College: Yesterday and Tomorrow,"
Scribner's Magazine, In (February 1919), 182.

New York Times, January 8, 1928, Sec. 5, p. h.

tried to decide what to do and where to go. He described it as
"a welter of 'isrls' in a sea of expense, without the slightest
agreement as to basic aids."16 College presidents, :zarrassed by
mounting problems and fewer solutions, looked at the new
deveIOpments and called the American college ”the world's worst
educational failure."17 Criticism of higher education continued
into the next decade, but the depression in the 30's presented a
different challenge to colleges and universities and only added
new fuel to an already burning discontent.

There were, hostever, some educators who were encouraged
by the presence of the critical attitude toward higher education.
President Aydelotte felt that the outlook for higher education in
the future was more encouraging because of the current discontent
with the prevailing conditions.18 With criticism coming from
within and from without, the educational institutions were not
going to be able to lag far behind society or rest on the merit
of past achievements, but would have to constantly move forward
to meet the challenge of the present.

Statements, such as Grant Showerman of the University of
Wisconsin made, that "Not even the introduction of the elective
‘-16

James Truslow Adams, "Do 'Be" or To "Do" A Note on American
Edu§;tion," £21323, LXXXI (June 1929), 321e
18

 

New York Times, January 8, 1928, Sec. 5, p. 1;.
New York Times, May 1;, 1930, Sec. 3, p. 8.

70.

system a generation ago was attended by so much oral and printed
discussion of college problems,'19 brings up the qmstione, “Why
were the higher educational institutions subject to such wide
spread criticism, what. changes had taken place in American society
to produce s situation to which the colleges and universities were
unable to adjust, and what were these institutions doing or
failing to do to pacify the criticism and to melee autumn“?

The ms to these questions make up the history of higher
education during the 1920‘s,

 

Shovemsn, 2,49.

Chapter II

POST-CIVIL WAR DEVEIDR-EENTS IN PEGHER EDUCATION

The content of all writings on higher education in or
about the 1920's points to one dominant factor, the influence of
which was directly or indirectly felt in every phase of hi ,her
education. This “pending force was accelerated industrialization
and the subsequent expansion of business. However, the growth of
business and industry had begun more than a half century before
and the impact of their developmnt introduced a new trend in
higher education.

The era of the Civil War and Recomtruction marked the
period in which education experienced the first of its major changes}
Until about 1850 there were in the United States only 120 colleges,
h2 theological «admin, and ’47 law schools.2 A large proportion
of the docta's, lawyers, and ministers still received their
training by apprenticeship. There uere no colleges of engineering
or of agriculture and very few teachera' colleges.3 Before 1850
two technical institutions, Rensselaer Polyteclnie Institute (1825)
md the United States Military Acadelv at Annapolis (1802) provided

ens—f
2v0b10n’ p. 22.

Richard Hofatadtu' and C. DeWitt Hardy, The Develo nt and Soc
of Higher Education in the United States (New YcrE, 15%;, p. 53.

Hot-tadter and Hardy, p. 21. D. S. Sneeden "Colleges:
What Purpose?" Journal of Higher Education. I (October 1930) , 366.

 

9.

the country's entire supply of engineers."’ If non-professional
instruction were desired, the individual had to provide for it
himself.5 Higher education was far more a luxury, much less a
utility "for although a college education was advantageous, it
was not considered a necessity even in the professions.6

The lack of training for the professions was criticised
by the president of Brown University, Francis Wayland, in his
1850 'Report to the Corporation of Bram University on Changes in
the System of Collegiate Education." He found that the propa'tion
of college graduates to the mole population was dmppim and that
the average level of ability in the learned professions use no
higher than it had been thirty yea-a before. He, therefore,
concluded that the colleges were not providing the education which
the people desired and introduced plans for a curriculum which
would be adapted to the "wants of the whole commdty.‘ Wayland
proposed an increase in the umber of courses, the creation of a
five-or-six year course of study for sane professions, and “short
comes" in other areas “for those who do not wish to study for
four yews.‘ This report was praised by many newspapers and its
inauguration drew many students to Brown in the middle fifties, but
the new system extended beyond the facilities of the institution and

in F o r
Hofstadtm‘ and Hardy, p. 21. Arthur B. Mays, An Introduction to
Vocational Education, The Century Education ser. (Mn 53, 5553, p. 30.

 

6Ho£stsdter and Hardy, p. 26.
Hofstadter and Hardy, p. 21. Veblen, pp. 22-23.

10.

after a short time was abandoned. Although there had been
criticism of the old educational system, the public was not
ready to support the new. Like many other forward lookirg
educators, Wayland found himself "too far ahead of general
educational awareness."7
By the end of the next decade, definite changes in the
character of higher education were perceptible. The university
was becomirg a mre familiar sight. This system for organising
institutions of higher learning had been brought to America from
Germany and the dignified title was reaiily adopted whether or
not the school was qualified. The miversities, especially the
state universities, were from the first more utilitarian than
the older colleges. Although they developed chiefly as professional
schools, the universities rapidly annexed cameras in vocations other
than learned professions. Arthur 8. Nays of the University of
IllinOis stated that the line of their growth was similar and that
that of Harvard was typical. A medical school was established in
1782, a law school in 1817, a graduate school of business
administration in 1908, and a graduate school of education in 21.920.8
Another development of file 60's was the ”land-grant
colleges" which were established under the Merrill Act of 1862. These
colleges differed from the other colleges and universities for their

.Ta

8Hoi’stad‘ter and Hardy, pp. 25-26.
Mays. pp. 27-28.

 

ll.

sole purpose was to train students in the advanced phases of the
agricultural and mechanical occupations. Although similar
provisions had been made previously, Michigan Agricultural College
had been estdolished in 1855 and Yale had created a professorship
in agricultm'e in mm, the Act of 1862 firmly imbedded the
function of the land grant college in the American educational
system.9

After more than forty years Bensselaer Polytechnic
Institute was joined by Worcester Polytechnic Institute in
Massachusetts in 1868. It was followed in 1881 by Case School of
Applied Science in Cleveland, and by Rose Polytechnic Ins tituto
at Terre Haute in 1883. Althougl these schools were first founded
to teach the practical application of the physical sciences to the
economic life of the country, they gaduauy became primarily
engimering schoolsolo

These new institutions developed almost simultaneously
with the industrial boon that follosed the Civil War am, therefore,
reflect the rise of an industrial society. A dynamic industry “I
creating an almost insatiable danced for technicians which the old
educational system was unable to satisfy. Education based on the
ideal of training “for straight-thinking, good living and good
citizenship” did not produce men with the preparation necessary for

L44 A
F“— , 'V—V

Maya, pa 29.
10
M33”: P. 30-

 

12.

industrial and business careers..11 Industry's need for more
trailed employees increased the number of institutions of higher
learning and their enroment. In 1870 there were 67,350 holes
in the colleges and universities plus a few women. By 1890 the
total enrollment had reached 156,756 and by 1899, 163,000.12
With the rise of industry came an increase in the
wealth of the nation and the growth of individual fortune. The

donations to higher education in the last quarter of the nineteenth

century were larger than any period previous to the Civil War.
When Princeton was being revitalized in the 1830's by a group of
its distinguished alumni, the largest single donation was $5,000,
while the total goal of the fund drive was $100,000. The largest
single cash donation to Columbia before the Civil War was 320,033.
Amlmrst College was founded on a fund of $50,000. After the war,
new universities were frequently endowed by one individual with
donations which ranged from Ezra Cornell's $500,000 to Johns Hopkins'
$3,500,000 and Rockefeller's $30,000,000 to the University of Chicagoal'3
Feeling the pressure of industry and business and enabled
to expand with large endowments, higher education began to enlarge
its prog‘am. Some institutions, especially those dependent on the
"II
New York gags, June 8, 1930, Sec. 5, p. 1.

2L2Hoi‘stedter and Hardy Pa 31. William John Cooper, "Present-Day

Tretigs in the Colleges," urrent Histoq, XXIII (June 1930), 91.3.

Hofstadter and Hardy, p. 32. The influence of business on higher
education is discussed in Chapter V.

 

state, were establishing courses directed toward the wage earner.
Andrew Sloan Draper, President of the University of Illinois from
169h to l90h announced the new duties of higher education. He
believed that the university should consider the life and especialky
the employmnt or the people and aid industry as well as the
professions. The university ”must stand for work, for work of

hand, as well as of head, where all toil is alike honorable and

all worth based on respect for it."1h The college and university
were hearing one of the first calls for vocational education and a
college trained working class.

Higher education maintained its classical foundation,
although research was developing new fields of study and increasing
the knowledge of established fields.ls To be a well-informed
person, the student now had to become acquainted with.an increasing
number of subjects. These new courses were added to the classical
curriculum which became a core surrounded by the new branches of
study. Under this compound system, the length of time required
to complete the professional courses was extended. At a time when
there was an increasing demand for college trained nan, some
educators felt the preparation period was too long and argued
for the discontinuation of the classics and other cultural studies.
These courses scanned to them to have the least applicability to
everyday life and therefore could be eliminated.16 Nevertheless,

was, pp. 28-29.

1 1,
5James Jay Greenough, "The Basis of Our Educational System,"

Atlantic Mont LEV (£an 1895), 528.
Greenough, 528.

 

the tee ceases of study stood their ground side by side. The
Atlantic Month]; in 1895 reported that the classical college was
increasing in strength, but its rival “the curious mongrel
creation," the scientific school, as keeping space.“
One or the most important innovatiom of the post-Civil
Hu- psriod was the elective system introduced at Harvard by
Charles William Eliot. This system allowed the student to choose
the subjects he wished to take and it was hoped that the student
would then take greater interest in his college work. The increasing
emphuis which education sss placing on the individual and its
recognition of individual differences favored the adoption of the
systems. A product of an ”age of optinian, expansion, competitiveness,
and materialistic satisfaction,‘ it blew like “a gust of fresh air”
through higher education and eliminated many of the confinim
academic restrictions and archaic methods which were no longer of
value.” '
While the elective systa solved sum of higher education's
problem, it helped to mate another. Since the student use able to
make subject choices which were aligned with his own interests, the
colleges and universities found Meshes W138 to satisfy not only
a wider range of demands, but an ever increasing demand for entrees
which were vocational and specialised in nature and were without

 

 

Anon" ”The Amican College}l Atlantic Honthlz, LXIV (Kay 1895),
703.
18

Hoistadter and Hardy, Pps 53" 550

15.

precedent in higher education.” Because of the ease with which
the elective system not the needs of the rising industrial
society, some educators felt that vocationalism was a direct
outgrowth of the system. Others, althouzfii they did not give all
the credit to the elective system, did realize that both developed
during the same period, the period of industrial expansion, md,
es Veblen noted, the ease ergments which were offered in favor
of tie elective system were also used to aid the movement for
vocational training.20 Thus as the elective system reach“ its
apex at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, it
ceased to be the answer to the demand of the prevailing Hens,"
industrialist, capitalise, end individualimn.21

The criticism which abounded in the 1920‘s was s result
of the intensification of the trends which had begun in the middle
of the nineteenth century. Industry and camerce during and after
World War I expended at e rate which surpassed any previous record
and with it moved the whole of American society. 0f the change in
society, William John Cooper, the United States Commissioner of
Education wrote, "In place of the quiet self sufficient rural life
of the past, we now find the rush and hurry of the modern city. In
place of an economic system in which each plantation or community

 

Veblen, p. 195. Hofetedter and Hardy, pp. 53-514. R. Freenm
Butts, A Cultural Historz of Education (New York, 19157), P. 651.
20
aveblen, pp. 1914-4950

Butts, A Cfiultursl History, p. 650. Hofstadter and Hardy, p. 53.

16.

m ablo to supply its own mods, us have on industry highly
specialized and with minute division of labor. To exchange the
commodities amiss of «lawn travel on fast trains or in
airplanes. Other trades of bookkcopors, accountants and bankers
or. required to record and financ- thair transactions. Thousands
of generaliasmos of ominous are mquirod to mmago tho enterprises
and tons of thousands of lower: attempt to prevent autumn ad
untangle difficultioofzz Tho demands for thooo m1” of worker!
were directed team! the collagen and nnivoraitios and they could
not, would not, be ignorod. Thou institutions could no loose:

be “instruments of liberal. culture and professional training” but

had to become *1:me of nation]. service.'23

 

f“ 5
Cooper, 517. 31313911, 1:. 161. National Society of Collogo
Teachers of Education, Current Educational Rea now-lento in H1
Institutions, Studios in Educaflon, Yearbook No. T7 (ammo, E359).
.
23
Biennial Smell £28.30, 1:65.

 

17.

Chapter III

EBEOLH'EHI‘ IRENDS IN TIE 1920's

The impact of the intense industrialization of the
1920': on higher education wee felt noet acutely through its
influence on the enrollment in colleges and universities. The
New York ELM-g reported that up to 1917 the increase in college
students had remained fairly steady and had kept pace with the
increase in population} In 1890 the college and university
enrollment was 156,756 which represented .25 per cent of the
total population and 3.01; per cent of the pepulntion between 18
and 21 years of ago. By the turn of the century the enrollment
had increased 70,636. The enrollment then represented .31 per
cent of the total pepulation and 12.37 per cent of the college
‘80 group.2 During the four years between 1922 and 1926 the
enrollment m elmet equal to em: of 1910-1920, almet twice
a large a that of 1900-4910, and almost three times no Inge u
that of 1890-1900. The two year period, 1920—1922, had the lowest
increm, 20,675, and 19224321; had the highest increeeo, 107,569.
While the total population batman 1920 and 1921;, increased 11 per
__1_e A

New York liggg, Septmber 26, 1926, See. 9, p. 5.

2
Henry G. Badger, Frederick J. Kelly, Lloyd E. Blanch “Statistics

of Hig'.er Education,” Biennial Survey: 1936.19 0 and 19 0.1 , II,
33._ P. F. Valentine, ”Wage and America, “i=5 Erica:
College, ed. P. F. Valentino (New York, 1910), p.78.

 

cent, college and university attendance increased 206.14. per cent
or a fourth more than the previous decade.3 Between 19-28 and 1930
there was a decline of about 3h,000 students from the previous two
year period and in the year 1929-30 the enrollment had incr-zgzsed
only h.h per cent in two years whereas the 1927-1928 fi.;.ure indicated
a lh.9 per cent increase in his yearsJ” This noticeable decline in
the late 20's led Charles F. Timing in 1930 to believe fixat "The
vastness of the increase of students noted in former surveys
has ceased, the number has become fairly well stabilized."5 However,
the new point of stability in enrollment was twice as large as the
prewar figure and new stewards in sise were established. By 1930
one out of every 150 in the population was seeking higher education
where a generation before one in 1,000 was content to 30.6 President
Hoover's committee on social trends found that in 1930 cm out of
every seven persons of college age was in college.7

The 1920's marked a period of rapid transition in which
higher education lost its elite status and welcomed all seekers of
.1 :

Eustace E. Windes, Trends in the Development of Secondazyfiduca tion,

Bull. Department of Interior, Bureau of Education, No. f5 (YemE'zington,

D. 0., 1927), 6. Walter Landon, The Bass of Higher Education
(Pittsburgh, 1939), p. 237.

Emery M. Poster, at. al., ”Statistics of Higher Education,”
Elwin 8m 3 1 32.193, Bull. 1935' NO. 2. 9.

New York Times, May 1;, 1930, Sec. 3, p. 8,

New York Times, June 8, 1930, Sec. 5, p. 1.
7

Charles H. Judd, ”Education," Recent Social Trends in the United

States: Re rt of the President's Research 00333155; on Socifi Trams,
I w" his 1335). 5530

 

 

19.

college training. The cause of this change in enrollment
standards was attributed to several factors. The hindsmentel

idea behind the increase in enrollment was the democratic principle
that educational opportunities should be available to ell. This
idea, which received its broadest intcrzn'etation in the 1920's, was
known as "mass education.” A British observer cemented that
America had determined that ”the masses shall be educated «- the
masses have in fact determined this themele - snd only by e
mass education sisters can this be done."8 Ideally it meant
education for the masses, but in the post-war decade it came to mom
in practice a process closely akin to mass production. This goal
of universal opportunity for e college education was recognised as
cm which was worthy of the fullest support, nothing but lack of
ability should bar edMssion. Valentine cemented that even this
entrance requirement we often not a deterrent?

Another development which enabled a large masher of student-
to go to college was the extension of the period of education at the
secondary level. John Dale Russell of the University of Chicago
wrote, "In practice the effective ego of compulsory schooling has
been considerably increased. It may take many years for the legal
moment to catch up with the practice, but the effect is harm'm

K
John Dngdale, "Mass Education in America," Qurrent Histoq, XXIII
(5131911 1930); 71. w I

Valentine, p. 5.
10
Russell, 7h.

20.

The public high school had developed almost simultaneously with

the changes in higher education in the midpninetoenth century.

Ito enrollment had steadily increased affix-3r the Civil War until

it reached the point of greatest acceleration.aftar the turn of

the century. Enrolhent more than trebled between 1890 and 1910

and.mere than quadrupled between 1910‘and 1930.11 The distinct

downward trend in child employment after 1910 aided.thia movement;12

The developments in secondary education.provided a larger body of
potential students fer the colleges and.universitiea.

I While the philosophy of’nese edmcation and the extension
of education to a minim of four years of high school provided
colleges and universities with.mere prosgoctivo students, there

were other developments of the war and.post~uar period which
brought the students to the college campuses. One, the Studenta'

Army Training Corps, was an.outgrauth of the wer*yeerc. Under the
Selective Service Act of Hay 18, 191?, the Arm was authorised to
raise and maintain by voluntary induction and draft e Studenta'

Amy Training Corps. The Secretary of War was authorized to for:
theae corps in.edncationel institutions, colleges and.proflolaianll
schools were chosen primarily, that they might utilise the facilitie-
of these institution: fur selecting and training candidates for

 

Hofetadter and Hardy, p. 31.
12
Judd, 327.

21.

offica'md technical experts con-vice.”

In the beginning this plan was eagerly greeted by the
college ahinietratoro. Not only did they feel that the colleges
would than be doing their part in the war effort, but it also
eliminated the threat of discontinuation because of a lack of
etudentaq1h 1h. number of S.A.T.C. students was large and the
enrollment in the from class was larger than ow previoufly
known. Although Joining the 84.1.0. Md not men that the non
were exempt from the regular draft, it did mean that :11 their
expenses were paid by the government and that It collage ampu-
took the place of an em cilrllpol"S

In a chart while, however, the colleges were not so
optimistic about their new addition. Instead of the am using
the college facilities, the colleges found themselves forced to
adjust to army needs. This had its most detrimental effect on
the instructional processes. Ernest Emst wrote, “Facultie-
did their best to maintain a semblmce of academic work, but the
long hours of drill left students little time or energ to study.

And the program brought in thousands of boys mri'itted to profit

 

Charles Franklin living, The American Colle a and Universitie-
gl. trawGreawaar 121h~19198 5 .3 or: xew ork, , p. .

Anon“ 'A Retrospect or the Stodenta‘ Amy Training Corpo,‘
The American Review of Review, L! (October 1919), M0.

liming, p. 62.

22.

from even a diluted form of higher education.'16

After the original not was waded on August 31, 1917,
the S.A.T.C. did not begin operating until October 1, 1918. Its
entire life, however, was barely three months, of which only six
weeks preceded the Amistice. The Corps was abolished by order
of the War Depar meat on Member 26, dembilization began on
Decanber 2 and was practically completed by December 26. This
letter period was marked by e notable leg in the morale end
activity of the Corps which had only a short time before been
forced to cease operation during the influenu epidmio}?

While the S.A.T.C. did bring many new students to the
colleges, it is difficult to believe that three months work could
have influenced my to continue their college career, especially
since the college treinim they had received was more nilitu'y
than academic. Also government aid was discontinued and students
who were not interested in s college education no longer bed even
monetary encom-sgemnt. Many of those who did remain in school,
said Earnest, "were of e different breed from former generations of
students: they were not well prepared for college mark, and they
cm from social classes with no intellectual traditions. The:
remained in college to raise 11.1.1318

 

"“16

Ernest Earnest,
American Cello gewlb

'A Retrospect or the Students' Army Trunim Corps,“ 2.1.0.
Emat’ p. 252.

Academic Procession: An Infomel Hie of the

   
 

 

23.

Some observers accounted for the increase in enrollment
by the return of servicemen whose college plans had been
interrupted by the war. This group alone, however, could not
have caused the increase in enrollment of the 20's. If it had
been exservicemen, prepared for training at the college level
who swarmed to the colleges, there would not have been as much
criticism of the standards of higher education. It was the group
of unacedemic minded students which crowded into the colleges and
universities that caused grief to these institutions.

Since the Students' Army Training Corps and the
exservicemen could not account for an enrollment that increased one
hundred per cent in ten years md was many times larger them the
natural increase in population, it is, therefore, evident that
another force was beginning to exert its pressure upon college age
people. This motivating force emerged out of the economic
conditions in the United States during the twentieth century.

The complex society which was developing because of
material and technological expansion presented problems which a
more highly educated.generation would be needed to solve and live
through. President McKinley of the University of Illinois stated
that the extension of education four years beyond high school “is
simply a raising of the level of education to a new minimum standard
for the greet mass of the people and is parallel with the establishment
‘2£_;; American minimum standard in economic life.."19 Higher

Arthur J. Klein, "Higher Education,“ Biennial Survey: 192h91 26,
Bull. 1928, Noe 25p 30

 

2h.

education, which had once been considered a luxury and only
indirectly related to everyday life, was becoming a necessary
part of an educational system which was preparing the youth of
America to live from day to day.

Furthermore, in the expanding technological society of
the 20's, the greatest impetus was provided by industry and
commerce. Many educators and observers in the 20's and 30's
verified the close relationship between these two elements of
society and higher education. Clark Wissler in his book, Men and
Culture, wrote, "Mass Education is one of the three 'dominaat
characteristics' of contemporary 592:7 American culture. Certainly
the growth of the school is one of the most striking trends of the
age that has witnessed the rise of an industrial civilisetion."20
A more definite statemnt was made by Chancellor E. E». Brown of
New York University, He believed that there was a correlation
between "American supremacy in the field of industry and comerce
and the great increase in high school and college enrollment" for
the'great econoMc growth in the United States created a need "for
trainirg the people - the mass - how to provide and enjoy economic
advantage."21

Another article in the Atlantic Monthly noted that by In

 

Clark Wissler, Han and Culture (New York, 1923) , p. 5. Quoted
in George 8. Counts, The Social Foundations of Education, Pt. I)! of

the Report of the Omission on the 30053 Sm: o? the American
Historical Association (New York, 1931;), 252.
21

Biennial Survey! 1228-1230, 1498.

25.

interesting coincidence, «- "these coincidences in the history of
our system are really remarkable” .- the development of the idea
of democracy as applied to college eru'olLuent, met ”as if made
to order, the great and sudden expansion of the nation's industrial
life, the glorification of profit making; and the implied
disparagement of all intellectual, aesthetic and even moral
processes which do not tend directly or indirectly to pmfit
making."22 A professor in a southern university also noted this
coincidence and wrote, 'Amrica leads the family of nations in
mass production; and not by accident does Amrica lead the world
in mass education."23

In this industrial society where machine power was taking
the place of manpower, there was not as great a demand for untrained
high school graduates. These young peeple realised, therefore,
that they would be more valuable to employers if they continued
their education in specialised skills which they could offer to
industry and comerce. Employers had begun to place a considerable
premium on a college education. Businesses and large corporations
in all areas were reported to have entered into acute competition
for the college gaduates. Thus it became a national belief that a
college education Opened the way to great success. Parents who had

had to struggle to make a living not: sent their children to college

"‘125

Albert Jay Rock, “American Education," Atlantic Monthly, CXLVII

(Hay31931). 592-593.
2

L. J. Nations, “Business Before Culture," North American Review.
CCXIII (June 1930), 708.

 

26.

so that they migd'xt rise in the business world the euro, easy way.
Indeed, the business and industrial opportunities of the 20'!
did not seem to contradict this belief.
The growig prosperity which followed at the heels of
economic expansion also helped to intense enrollment. The
expense or e college education was no longer s dotemining factor
to e mat many studentefh Trevor Arnett of the Dowel Education
Boerd reported that although in 2 57 endowed institutions, including
217 men's and coeducational institutions and ho men's colleges,
the average tuition fee incremd from $105 in 1919-1920 to $179
in 1926-1927, an increese of 70.5 per cent, it had little effect
on student registration.25 it Cornell thus was s decided decline
in competition for underg-eduete scholarships. In 1911; there are
13? commuters; in 1919, 108; in 1920, 933 in 1921. 773 in 1922,
751 in 1923, 80; and in 19214, 78. The Biennial Sorrel therefore
concluded that the cost burden was not e. determining rector in
college attendance, and, it stated, "in some instances he 51:.
atudeny prefers to psy in money tether than to comply with academic
end scholarship demands which would enable him to avoid out)”
Prosperity in conbinetion with industry and commerce helped

to increase enrollment. Not only were businesses not employing the

 

Biennial Survey: l92h-l926, 10.
25
Trevor Arnett, "Teschere' Salaries,“ Amrican Association of
University Professors Sulletin, IV, No. 2 TFehmar-y I957, m.

Biennial Survey 1221:4265, 10.

27.

young people of college age, but the increase of Health made it
possible for many prospective students to free themselves from
economic responsibilities at home. The I”‘ew York 233.."1 reported
that boys and girls could be "spared from farm or home or
mediate tram-earning to spend four more years of time and
mum."27

The great influx of students forced the colleges ad
universities to make adjustments in their wsdmio standards. The
denountic principle in education and the interest of industry
and business in college-trained employees brought to the campus a
more heterogeneous group than had ever been seen before. Traditionally
higher education had been limited to a comparatively small number of
students, most of man had similar family background and aoadenio
training. They had looked upon a college education as a cultivating
experience; an exercise for the intellectual faculties. Homer,
gradually this concept or higher learning was supercsded by the
belief that it was a necessity he :11 high school graduates.

The rapid increase in enrollment after World War I brought
this change in the stment body into sharper tom. Working side by
Cid-mungoniussndthedullerdgtherichboymdmepoorboyg
theeonoi’afirsti’uilysndthesonofereoent migrant) theeon
or a magerial family end the son of a labor fat-oily. Each of these
students was seeking an education, but for as many ressone a there

were students. The college end the university were faced with the

New York Times, September 26, 1926, Sec. 9, p. 5.

 

28.

task of providing a curriculum and a set of standards for these
seekers of knowledge.

Among the educators the general consensus was that
We standards had become very low. Instruction was directed
toward an "average” student whose intelligmce was much lower than
that of the average student of previous times. A professor in s
nid-uestern university estimated that ”25' per cent of the students
in his classes would not he" gone to college before the ear ..
and, which was more important, should not go now,"28 The faculty
had to simplify its presentation, not only so a majority of tin
students would listen, but also that they might umeretand the
material. In the overcrowded classroom the professor had to acquire
qualities which would have been unheard of a few years before. More
than a scholar the instructor had to be an orator, well versed in
witty stories and amusing illustrations. l'He nustposess the
ability to drmstise his subject, so that the dosing student in the
lsstmwill every now and thenwaloe up and grasp shot or a
primxiplle”"3!9 While the professor tried to keep his clus'
attention, the good student suffered. There was no longer a
ohsllengetobenet. All. i. Admccamented, "One mstolimp
who walks with the lane.'30

 

“'78
New York Tines, January 8, 1928, Sec. 5, p. 21.
29

New York Times, Jammy 8, 1928, Sec. S, p. 21.
30
Adm' 3250

29.

It was also believed that the standards for entrance
into institutions of higher learning; were being lowered by the
prevailing quantitive standards which allowed unqualified
students to enter college. State universities, it was assumed,
were under mater pressure to lower their entrance requirements
since appeals for public hands were Judged on the basis of
enrollment. However, there is some evidence which indicates that
these observers were more pessimistic about the quality of
students than the actual situation Justified.

Inastudy made inl928 byEdsin J. BrownandilillienM.
Proctor, the methods of admission and the matriculation requirements
in three munch-ed thirty-one colleges and universities were given.
Out of the total number of schools, no school based entrance
primarily on an examination in all subjects by the college or
university while 31 per cent used it occasionally; 2 per cent used
the College Entrance Exminetien predominantly and 27 per cent,
occmionallyg 71 per cent based entrance upon a transcript free an
approved high school predominantly and 6 per cent occasionally; I:
per cent used a combination of the examination and certificate
predominantly and to per cent occasionally; one per cent used a
dile from an approved high school (the two examples securing at
state universities) and 6 per cent used this method occasionally; 8
per cent used a high school certificate, psychological examination,
and personal history predominantly and 12 per cent occasionally; and
none used maturity, vocational experience, and the psychological

30..

exmination predominantly and 18 per cent used it occasionally.
The use of the transcript was the most common method of entrance.
The state universities included in the survey used it almost
exclusively and institutions with an annual income of over
$1,000,000 used it the least and relied on the College Entrance
Exmnination the most. The method which ranked second was the
high school certificate, psychological examination, and personal
history.

There was very little change in the language requiremnts
between 1921 and 1927. 0f the one hundred and thirty-one institutions
studied by Brown and Proctor the umber of institutions requiring a
foreign language for admission remained the some. The women's colleges
were the stronghold of the languages. Forty-four of the 51 women‘s
colleges studiedrequired a language. In 1927, 219 or more than two—
thirds of the colleges and universities required some foreign language.
One hundred and twenty-one or one half acknowledge a modern language,
Latin or Greek for admission while only 29 required Latin or Greek
only. Two-.thirds of the institutions required an additional three
units or English.

In 1926, 55 per cent of 287 colleges and universities
reported that less than one per cent of the transcripts offered than
did not contain at least ten units of academic work, i.e. courses in
English, social studies, science, mathematics, and a foreign language.
Forty-eight per cent of the transcripts offered to the fourteen

colleges of agriculture, applied sciences, and techmlogy did not

31.

contain less than ten units in the academic fields. The stste
universities were the only institutions that received 5 per cent
of the transcripts with less than ten units of academic work.
On the other hand only 25 per cent of the twee hundred thirty-one
schools would accept five or more vocational-cmercisl~industrisl
credits for entrance. Forty-one per cent of the forty-one state
universities would and 56 per cent would not. 0f the thirty-one
technical, agricultural schools 11.2 per cent would accept five or
more vocational course credits and 58 per cent would not.31

These statistics are very favorable when cenpsred with
the figures in the study by Dr. Clyde Furst, Secretory of the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teachixg and Dr. W. C.
John of the u. 5. Bureau of Education. In e study or 51 state
universities and SO endured universities md colleges in 1916-17.
they found that the average number of units in tin five scsdedc
field required to enter an LB. degree program at s state university
was 9.02 units and at on endowed school, 10.77. For s 3.8. degree
program the state universities required 7.83 units of ecdenio work
and the endowed schools 9.hh.32 Therefore, only in the endowed
college did the average requirsuent reach 10 units where es in 1926

more than half of the schools reports that less than om per cent
‘11

E. J. Brown and William Proctor, "methods of Admission and
Hetricula fion Requirements in Three Hundred Thirty-One Colleges and
Universities ," The Articulation of the Units of American Education,
DeEartment of Sigrintendence Seventh Year‘Eook (Washington, D. C.,

s " 0

 

32
George F. Zook, “Higher Education," Biennial 8:qur 1920-1922,
Bull. 1921:, No. 13, I, 80.

32.

of the transcripts had less than ten units of academic work.

As to the basis for refusal of students of accredited
schools, 36 per cent of the studied schools denied entrance because
of failure to present credit is specifically required subject matter.
Only 2 per cent of the total did not’refuse inpstate students while
making out of state students present high records, however, 10 per
cent of the state universities followed this procedure. Treaty-
eight per cent of the total never or rarely refused admission to
students. This fact seems to be an incongruous statement for
although the colleges and universities seemed to have kept»up their
academic standards 9h institutions out of 331 would.not,refuse
admission, a number almost equal to the number of institutions which
denied entrance because of poor scholarship.33

These figures indicate that entrance standards did not
deteriorate during the 20's to the extentrthat educators intimated.
There was a tendency to decrease the number of prescribed units and
allow more alternatives and electives, but one source of criticiss,
that students were able to use vocational courses to meet entrance
requirements, was not upheld, for, as it was stated, almost three.
fourths of the 331 institutions would not accept five or more credits
of vocational-commercial work for entrance. These figures indicate
that either educators were generalizing on the basis of a few
exceptional examples or that they had not studied the facts and data

to find if this "depraved" situation really existed.

Brown and Proctor, BSh-BSS.

 

33.

There were some observers who felt that the purpose of
the college had become nothing more than regimentala Since the
young people of college age were not being employed, educators
like John Dale Russell of'the University of Chicago felt that
there must be some form of regimentation for youth during the
interim between high school and employment. I"They cannot,“ wrote
Russell, "be left to roam the streets, to ride in box care, and
to fill the penitentiaries and prisons. Some form.of occupational
regimentation is absolutely necessary for them."3h It was this
attitude and.the change in the character of student bodies of the
colleges and universities all over the country that caused the
loud lament of education.

During the 20's enrollment in institutions of higher
learning increased at a rate which was phenomenal. The developments
in technology and science had created an industrial world in which
specialists and trained laborers were needed. Not only did this
situation urge more students to enter college, but also induced an
entirely different segment of the population to pursue their
education beyond high school. Many college students, therefore, were
only interested in vocational training, much to the dismay of the
liberal arts instructors. This vocational atmosphere lead many

educators to believe that the colleges were lowering entrance

"—31:

Russell, 7h. Karl'fl. Onthank, "Conference on.Effect of Social
Trends on Higher Education," School and Society, IL, August 25, 193L,
257.

 

- 3h.

standards, for the proportion of scholarly students was decreased.
However, as was shown, this was not true. The very magnitude of
the classes and the changing purpose for entering college tended
to create an unintellectual atmosphere on the campus. Higher
education in the 20's was suffering from "acute indigestion in
the system.due to extreme congestion.'35 it was this situation
which caused education to grasp at ”straws in the wind? schemes

and to appear to be without sin or*purpose.

 

‘13

New York Times, June 8, 1930, Sec. 5, p. l.

35.

Chapter IV

CURRICULUM RENEE IN THE 1920's

However, the increase in enrollment in higher education
was not the only change brought about by the new way of life
emerging in the 1920's. Industrialised America was demanding a
new form of education for the great mass of students it was
sending to the colleges and universities. In this society in
which efficiency was the key to vast profits and busimss success,
all the social institutions were being judged on the utilitarian
basis that the most useful results must be produced by the most
direct means. Higher education did not escape the influence of
this point of view. The standards by which the value of higher
education came to be Judged were more pragmatic than academic and
the result was the most intensely vocational curriculum that
education had ever offered.

Valentine stated that there could be little doubt that
the needs and temper of the American people would tend to force
the tum to vocationalism.1 The United States had begun almost a
half century before to pass beyond the stage of small privately
owned business and hand made products. By the time of the First
World War that simple method of manufacturing was only a part of

history. During and after the war production reached a new peak

Valentine, p. 20.

 

36.

with technical machine power takim; the place of routine machine
power. Technological advancements, accelerated by the needs of
war time, created a comtant demand for experts in entirely new
branches of knowledge. Factory workers and soldiers who had
been rapidly trained to supply ttn need during the war could
not carry the burden alone. Trained specialists had to be
supplied to business and industry upon which, in turn, society
was making increasingly heavy dsmds.

Thus the whole econanic system turned to the university
and college for trained workers and the idea that educational
institutions should emphasise training directed tom-d specific,
useful objectives took hold of the mind of Amrica. These
institutions had the teachirg facilities. They were also dependent
upon the wealth of the nation for survival. 01' the greatest
importance, however, was their obligation to answer the educational
demand of the student body, which more than ever before was seeking -
in higher education the means by which it could survive in a complex
society. For, as Nations wrote, ". . . one today who aspires to
economic success must be an expert in his particular line."2 Higher
education, as in the case of use education, could do nothing but
give the people what they wanted.

There were some advocates of vocational education who did
not feel that their ideas were new in the field of higher education.
.1

 

"Cm” ’ 708.

37.

In an address delivered at Oxford during the annual meeting of
the Association of Special Libraries and.Informatioanureaux,
Professor A. M. Carr-Saunders suggested that ”in the tendency

of the modern university to give professional training we are
returning to the old tradition, when the prime function of a
university was to equip its members for life, even though life
was to them represented at first by no more than the Law and

the Church."3 Russell pointed out that Harvard had been founded
explicitly for the training of ministers.h’ While this argument
for vocational education would seem valid to the casual observer,
it had no real value in the 20's. Althoudh their function was
vocational, there was little similarity between the professional
training provided by the American college up to the time of the
Civil War and after, and that of the twentieth century. The
control of the curriculum, the ends it sought, and the values it
upheld were based upon totally different social needs and upon an
equally different concept of higher education.

The most outstanding curriculum change in the 20's was
the rise of a new group of professions. Until the twentieth century,
medicine, law and theology had maintained an exclusive and
unchallenged position as ”academic professions.” Although technical
education had been introduced into the curriculum earlier, it had
___15 ___

Anon., "University Training in Relation to Industry," Nature,
CXXZIII, December 19, 1931, 1017.

 

Russell, 73 O

38.

been regarded as a "stop child" and, therefore, carefully kept in
the bazkg'ound. Industry was looked upon as ecu/thing but 0. cultural
pursuit. In an age of untrained and unskilled labor, those engaged
in industry were considered “low brow.‘l One could not be cultured if
connected with production, trade, commerce, and finance. Samuel P.
Capen called this period 'tho golden age of academic mwbbery."5
However, in the first three d80&168 of the twentieth
century the attemts of the academic ”snobs" to keep their position
of superiority were being challenged more frequently and with
greater force. Engineering and agriculture were mong the earliest
to petition for a position next to the established professions.
Once the door was open, it was never completely closed cgsin.
Cautiously at first, but with increasing boldness and confidence,
new professions which were comidorod of doubtful academic status
by nineteenth century standards, were aided by universities and
colleges, education, business, social science, industriul arts,
journalism and new others. If 1: course of study were denied
professional status by one institution, it was accepted by another,
which forced the first to eventually adopt it or lose s mmbsr of
prospective students. Valentine cemented, ”Toe inroad of practical
and occupational fields opened 3 new era of competition among thou
colleges that have chosen to exploit then, and we have seen such

Samuel P. Capen, 'Relsticn of the State College to the lies
Movements in Higher Education,” American Association of Universig Professors
Bulletin, XVI (Jmusry 1930), 533.

39.

large institution seeking to out do all the others..."6 As these
new professions grew in prestige and increased in enrollment,
constantly dividing into minute subject divisions for specialised
training, thsydemmded, and mutually received, individual
identities with departmental and school status, granting degrees
which were of academic value equal to the traditional professions.
Ls Cepen stated, "The tables have been neatly and completely
turned."7 The new professions dominated the academic scene. They
attracted the bulk of the students and absorbed the major part of
the appropriations. Their success could even carry the
institutions‘ reputations.

If the institutions of higher education had been left
to develop according to their own predilections, the evolution of
vocational education would have taken a slower and more methodical
course. However, the nature of educational institutions would not
allow them to isolate themselves from the society around then, and
as the representatives of the new social order came in ever
increasing number to their cmpuses, the demands for new curricula
came from all directions. Society was changing its attitude toward
vocational trainim. Business and industry were becoming more
attentive to the benefits they could receive from higher education.
Just as education had looked down upon those who worked only with

 

6
Valentine, p. 20.

0813913. 5380

ho.

their lunch for profit, business and industry had been contemptuous
of the educated class, preferring to hire a laborer who left
school early and to teach him themselves, letting hin.1esrn.the
business day by day, However, the complicated business world or
the 20's made producers realise that this system was no longer
efficient. Rescarch by corporations showed that a college men
was likely to prove more valuable in the competition of business
than one who was not.8 And, when one business hired men sith
more specialized training, other competitors were thread to do

the same. The New York Liege reported in 1925 that s definite
change could be seen in Pittsburgy‘whers the manufacturing
companies were turning more to college trained employees.9 In
1933 Senator Arthur Copper of Kansas stated that at least nine
businesses out of ten wanted as their employees young people with
as such education as possible,10 Dugdale observed, 'Once Assricsn
big business hunting for says and means of increasing efficiency,
decided that a university education was an asset, it put its whole
heart into encouraging the university. And the more it encouraged
the more it determined the trend or university education."11 There
also was s definite trend for oocupstibns, which were seeking

.T “A A
9mm. 323-3214.

 

New York Tines, August lb, 1925, p. 12.
10
Arthur C r, "Why Business Needs Education,“ School Life, XVIII
(February 1933 , 108.
11

Dugdale, 71.

hl.

professional and semi-professional status, especially in business,
to require certain educational standards, both general and
specific, for eznployment.12 Thus the growing esteem with which
society regarded business and industry was reflected in institutions
of higher education by the establishment of scientific 31d
technical depm'tments and schools in the colleges and universities,
and the increase in the number of technological institutions with
totally scientific and technical curricula.

At the same time there was developing a new attitude toward
the working class. With the development of the factory system and
mass production, the skilled artisan had lost his individuality and
the laboring class had lost much of its prestige. As machines
began to do the routine Jot; however, and non and women were again
performing special and intricate tasks which required extensive
training, the attitude of society toward labor was more favorable.
T13 laboring class was viewed as the foundation upon which their
industrialised society was built. As Dean James E. Russell said,
America needed "leaders, not aristocrats, but experts giving a
particular service.."13 Therefore, a new slogan, “a university
education for all salaried workers," m adopted by the public md

forced, with varied degrees of difficulty and ease, upon higher

William Chandler Eagley, “The Upvu'd Expansion of Mass Education,"

Hi her Education Faces the Future: A Symposimn on Cells and
University Educann In the United States of America, ed., aul

DP ‘9“ .01" g . 3 Po e

 

 

Biennial Survey: l928-19fl, 1498.

1:2.

education. Following the usual pattern, state universities and
colleges readily responded to society's demand for educated
workers, while his privately endowed universities gradually
changed or ignored the demands.

New educational ideas also developed in the labor class
itself. Because of the loss of status and the lack of qualifying
standards in the industrial and business world, many youths who
would normally have entered industry, agriculture, or business,
went to college because these institutions bestowed status upon
their graduates.1h Frederick'W; Roe, Assistant Dean at the
University of Wisconsin, wrote, "In the programmes of the British
Labor Party and of the American Federation of Labor we already see
what new and broader responsibilities the workers are placing upon
education, for they have learned the indespeneable character of
their work and they will no longer accept a social philosophy
which.would keep them permanently in an inferior status."15
Therefbre, an increasing percentage of the laboring class entered
the colleges and universities for technical training and for the
prestige which was attached to a college degree.

With these three groups, business and industry, society,
and labor, recognising the necessity of vocational training and

giving it their full support, the nsw’non-liboral arts departments

 

Habib Amin Kuroni, Sales the Cello Student America
Teacher‘s College, Columbia niversity Ser. 'eu ork, , 9.

  
 

 

became firmly established and cans to be considered of a
professional nature. But their axpansion.presented a new
challenge to the general liberal arts colleges, whether

affiliated with a university or not. A. Monroe Stowe defined the
purpose of'the college of liberal arts as a preparation "for
intelligent participation in the activities of life as socially
e?ficient citizens willing to meet their responsibilities to
society, for the rational enjoyment of work and leisure in a world
innwhich they have learned to be at home, and for scholarly
achievement in graduate and professional schools."1'6 ‘with this
purpose guiding their course of instruction, the liberal arts colleges
were not following the trends of society, and they soon realized

that they must take direct action. For as W’ liam.J. Cooper, the

United States Commissioner of Education, pointed out, the survival

of the liberal arts college depended upon the meeting of present-

day conditions. In the presence of conditions which were unquestionably
favorable to universities, Cooper suggested that the older colleges
could profit by the example of Harvard and Yale, liberal arts colleges
that had added professional schools of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy,
education, and business administration.17 Many colleges did adopt

this plan. Even though the college of liberal arts within the

_2_i

16
A. Monroe Stowe, "What is the Matter‘with Our Colleges?" School
and Societ XXII, September 26, 1925, h01.

Cooper, 515-517.

’41:.

university met. maintain its identity for a. while, it too was
gradually reorganized into a preparatory course for graduate
schools of research.

If the liberal arts college wished to maintain its basic
principles, many times it was forced to degrade itself to the
position of e ”feeder” to all the professional schools. It become
merely a two or four year stepping stone to the university. Carl
Holliday of the University of Toledo estimated that probably
thmo-fourthe of the energy, time, and courses in the mrogo
liberal arts college: was being donated to the I'umrelcomed and
unprofitable" task of supplying students to the professional
Ilchoolu.18 In this way the "pure-profession” curriculum boom
oomon in the liberal nrte colleges.

Almougn the emollnent of the colleges of liberal Irtl
continued to inmaee, it no longer maintained its traditions).
standing. More often than not it was looked upon as an intermediate
stop, but it still remained & “cultural haven“ for those who could
"still afford the luxury of e liberal education which conduct. to
m appreciation of the good, the beautiful, and the true” to
this otetement implies, higher education could no longer offer
fundmentelivaluee alone to a nation that needed mechanics and

cooountmts.

m '
Carl Hollidaw 'Hmtringing the Liberal Arts College," School

92 Societz, XXV, ebruary 5, 1927. 153.
9

Ratiom ’ 7%.

 

£5.

Not only did the number of professional fields multiply,
but there was also s phenomenal grouth in the number of courses
within each field of study. The demand for more specialised
training and the increase of howledge in all the fields or
lsernirg could result in nothing less than the minute subdivision
snd resubdivision of the curriculum. The elective system had set
the pace for this multiplication of subjects. Under this system
the student could choose the subjects he wished to take. Thus the
college and university use constantly under pressure to satisfy
new demands. As the new post-war generation of students entered
college seeking training in specialised fields, the elective system .
fit their needs and allowed for the "trivialisation' of education.
Although between 1910 and 1920 educators began to see the short-
comings of the elective system and tried to introduce s mater
measure of order, there was little significant change until the
middle 30‘s.20

The nultiplication of subjects reached its extreme during
the second and third decades of the twentieth century.21 By 1910
there were so many courses offered in the colleges and universities
”that s student might spend his entire life in s given institution,

takirg a normal load or different subjects each semester, and never

 

:6 A
Hofstadtsr and Hardy, p. 55.

21
Judd, 339.

M.

be able to take all the offerings."22 In the liberal srts college
st Harvard the number of courses increased 33h between 1900 and
1920 and 237 between 1920 and 1930. At the University of Chicago
between 1910 and 1920 the amber of libm-al arts courses increased
22.2 and between 1920 and 1930,- 236.23 The course s incremd st
such a rapid rate that college catalogues resembled telephom books,
both in sine and umber of items. A student could find courses
which were beyond the wildest flight of imagination. For as
Joseph Jastrow described it, "If the old fixed course use s table
d'hote, and the elective syetm en} la carte, the vogue is new
for s cafeteria service with the professors behind the counter.
The Universiteria is in the cffing.‘2h

The content of the curriculum aid the areas of woelersted
growth reflect the new trends in Amrican society. Among the most
noticeable changes was the final deterioration of the traditions).
curriculum core of higher education, the classics. When collegiate
training had been the privilege of s highly select group, the college
had been able to maintsin s fixed and conservative curriculum. Those
who did not wish the type of education offered by higher education
fig: W k i

Mount G. Fraser, The Colle e of the Future (New York, 1937),
p. 170. Quoted in Guy . es , her Education,“ Twentieth

Cantu? Education: Recent Develow nte in American Education, ed.
0 e n W a. ’ , ps 5.

23
hJudd, 338.

 

 

Joseph Jastrow, 'Hho Runs the Universities,“ Centug Magusine.
cxv (April 1928), 672.

1:7.

could and usually did stay away from the college, since higher
education was not required for most OOCup.'1tior‘.s. I'iowever, the
democratic philosophy of education and the economic needs of
society brought to college a student body to which a classical
curriculum was not suitable. In the first place the new students
were not interested in basic studies, for in most cases they were
looking for means of making money. Guy A. west of Chico Stet.
College in California commented, ”I! the student spends his years
in college pursuing the 'pernanent etudies' [c'lessics, general
courses] and gaining e profound under: tar-ding and knowledge of
'truth', he may find himself severely handicapped in the competition
of the labor market, for he will obviously not be qualified for
medical practice or the law or school teaching. Nor will he be
ready to essum his duties as a mechanic or a boiler makerfles

This attitude gained the support of 1 large segmnt of the population
which urged the replacement of the classics and tunda'centel coureee
by the practical studies. In the second place, the narrow
traditional curriculum was incompatible with the academic and
cultural background of e large portion of the student body. It won
perceived, however, that even the ineducetsble person night became
e successful badger, industrialist, or salesmen, although he could

never become a scholar.

25
West. p. 536.

1:8.

it the University of Chicago in 1900 the Latin courses
had the third largest enrollment and the number of Greek students
was larger than the number of economic and chemistry students,

By 1930 the number taking Latin and Greek had decreased to 6 per
cent of the 1900 enrollment.26 A steady decline could also be
noted in philosophy and mathematics. The limited classical

core was being dropped by highor education, and the individual
courses Joined the ranks of the electives.

However, after the traditional core was abandoned,
nothing was developed to take its place. Without a mental focal
point each new field developed and added courses as they were
needed. As can be expected, the practical courses on the lost
rapid growth. L. J . Nations wrote that he felt that the history
of the university where he taught was representative of the rise
of the professional school of business in America. He stated that
although the university was almost one hundred years old, the
school of camera, only ten years old, was the lugest of the
university's ”professional” schools in student enrollment.” H. G.
wright in his work in ooounercisl education pointed out that the
vast amount of building of comercial and business administration
facilities was an indication of its growing inportmoe. He believed
that the schools of oomrce ranked second only to the schools of

liberal arts in enrollment and surpassed all the other professional

“'17

Nations D 705.

 

149.

schools.28

At the University of Chicago the records of one
hundred.graduates showed that only one course in commerce and
administration had.been taken in 1920, while in 1930, lh2

courses had been.taken.29 Another indication.thatwoolleges and
undwersities were placing greater emphasis upon commercial
courses was shown in the decline of the number’ot private
business and commercial.schools. Between 1900 and 1920 the number
of these schools increased by 529, the period of greatest increase
coming between 1910 and 1915. Atter 1920 there was a.downsard
movement, the number of schools choreasicg 251 by 1929 and the
enrollmentrdecreasing So‘per centsao As the public institutions
created a commercial curriculum, the:need.£or private schools
declined.

The engineering and agricultural courses also saw a
phenomenal development. The schools of technology betweenil906
and 1932 increased their faculty by 186 per‘cent. The period of
greatest growth came after the war. London added that he felt
that the war and post-war period had a more definite influence on
technical school faculties than on university or college teaching

“15.31
“-5” ._ w __
Quoted by Nations, 705.
29
”Judd. 339s

3Charis M. Proffitt Statistics of Private Commercial and Business
Schools: 1228-193013 U. S. Department of InErIor UTHce o?
ducat on, o. zWashington,ID. 0., 1930), 3.

nmdfin' 1313.2 222.]!‘225.

 

50.

The rise of new professions to the status of department
and schools and the increase in the number of technical and
practical courses, which reached the point of greatest intensity
during the 20's reflect the changes in society more than a
reorganization of ideas by institutions or higjxer learning. Higher
education was only followhg the dictates of its master, the public,
which was caught in a rising tide of industrialism, technology,
prosperity, and individualist. The student body, encouraged by
industry and business' need for trained workers, demanded an even
wider range of vocational subjects. is the enrollment in these
courses increased, the vocational fields were able to win their
struggle for professional status and departmental and school
organization. But as the practical courses expanded, the liberal
arts declined, often becoming pro-professional courses or electives.
Although many educators lamented this reversal of emphasis in the
curriculum, higher education had followed the course which was

mapped out by society.

51.

Chapter V

COIITROL OF HIGHER EDUCETIOB IN THE 1920 'I

With the increase in enrollment and the orpansion and
subdivision of the curriculum, came a change in the governing
body of institutions of higher learning. For, just as the
limitation of enrollment to a select few and the traditional
imutable course of study had been proved inadequate to meet
the needs and demands of society, so had the administration.
Elements of the business world entered into the directing body
of higher education, and influenced the whole administrative
hierarchy.

The first American 0011er were founded under
religious sponsorship and were under the control of the affiliated
church. While the office of president m often limited by
charter or preference to mmbera or the sponsoring sect, none or
the early colleges had religious qualifications for entrance.
Although one of the functions of the church college was to prepare
men for the ministry, by the close of the eighteenth century foul-
fifths of the graduates were entering other occupations, and the
institutions became primarily liberal arts colleges.1

One of the most outstanding fisstures of the colonial

colleges was their system of lay control, a system in which the

 

1
Richard Hofstadter and Walter P. Lfetsger, The Develo nt of
Academic Freedom in the United States (New YorE, ESE}. pp. “F

116.

52.

major decisions were made by boards of nonresident governors who
were not talcharl.2 This system was a colonial development, for
the Eumpean university, with a few exceptions, had from its
beginning been under faculty control. Lay control allowed
persons who, though educated, were not directly affiliated with
the college to formulate the policy of the institution. The
president, as a college resident and often as a teacher, while
at the same time a member of the board, was usually the only
intermediary between the two groups.

The board, which usually represented the colonial upper-
class, was a fairly homogeneous group. The set curriculum, which
excluded courses in politics and economics, prevented disagreement
because of group interests. Similar academic background also
averted aw challenge of either the curriculum or the administration}

The boards of trustees of the first three American
colleges, Harvard (1656), William and sax-y (1693). and no. (1761).
were sectarian. The later colonial colleges were not sponsored by
a single sect, and therefore established interdenominationsl
boards. The College of Philadelphia (1719), a nonsectsrian endow
which became the University of Pennsylvania in 1779, had a policy

whereby six of the twenty-four trustees were to be the senior

members of each of the principle religious denominations of the city,

2
Hofstadter and lfietsger, p. 111;.

 

Hofstadter and iietsgcr, p. 151.

I:

.10

including the Roman Catholic.’4

By the end of the eighteenth century nondenominational
institutions were being established by the national and state
governments. The first institutions of higher learning to be
chartered by the state was the University of Georgia in 1785.
The Ordinances of 1785 and 1789 established a public education
systen.in the Northwest Territory and between 1817 and 1870 a
state university was established in each of the six states
carved from the territory.5 The principle of'the separation of
church and state prevented sectarian interests from.entering
the state institutions, a policy which has continued to the
present. Higher education was, therefore, divided into two
categories, the church school and the state school.

The change in controlling bodies in the nineteenth
century was most noticeable in the denominational college. Even
though the colonial boards of trustees had represented business
interests, they had adhered to the wishes of the church
represented by the clergyman trustees. However, by 1860 in
fifteen private institutions, the clergy represented only 30 per

cent of the governing board membership.6 They had been replaced

 

1‘ .
Hofstadter and hetzger, pp. 115.117.

Guy E. Snavely, The Church and the Four-Year College: An
Appraisal of Their Relation {New YorE, 1935). PP. 137‘1350

6 .
Earl J. chrath, 'The Control of Higher Education in.Amsrica,'
Educational Record.IVII (April 1936), 259-272.

Sh.

by bankers, merchants, industrialists, and railroadmen. The
movement toward secularization had begun before the Civil Var
period, aided by the colonial policy of lay control, and was
furthered by the post-Civil Var develOpments.

The money which poured into the colleges and universities
from business and industry produced a period of great expansion
in higher education. As income increased and the institutions
grew, the business of the college became more complex, and
financing and administrating were major functions. Higher
education was cutgrcwing church control, and educators soon
realised with Eliot of Harvard that "A university cannot be built
upon a sect."7

The individual grants from business and industrial
leaders did not secularise higher education. Endowments were
given to church and state schools according to individual
preference. Rockefeller endowed the‘University of Chicago though
it was affiliated with the Baptist church. Vanderbilt gave money
to the methodist college which bears his name. The stigma which
was attached to this money in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries prevented the donors from designating a
particular use for the endowment. However, the ensuing growth of
the colleges did lead to secularization of boards of trustees.
.7

George W. Pierson, “American Universities in the Nineteenth

Century: The Formative Period," The Ecdern University, ed. Margaret
Cllpp (Few York. 1950). p. 78.

 

 

Wealthy businessmen not only represented money for the school,
but they also were capable financiers and organisers which.neant
efficient college management. Therefore, by 188h the Cornell
Board of Trustees, for example, included five bankers, three
lawyers, two manufacturers and one editor. In the group was
Henry W. Sage, the owner of the largest lumber business in the
world at that time.8

Nor did the office of the president remain unaffected
by the secular trend. With administrative knowledge at a
premium, the clerical teacher-president was replaced by secular
practical men with wide experience and cosmopolitan'views. It
is interesting to note, however, that in the late 1800's the
secular presidents of’many of the leading colleges and universities
had formerly been professors. Eliot had been a professor of
chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and P..A. P.
Barnard of Columbia had been.a professor of chemistry, mathematics
and natural history. Some of the more conservative institutions,
such as Princeton, were slower to abandon clerical presidents, but
finally in 1902 Princeton inaugurated Wcodrow'Wilson, a political
scientist, as president.9 While the secular presidents were not
consciously anticlerical, their concern for the practical and
business aspects of the institutions resulted in the gradual decline
.._8

Horstadter and Hetsger, p. h15.

9
Hofstadter and Hardy, p. 33-31;.

 

V1
Ox
4

of sectarian influence on higher education.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, the
secularization of higher education was an established trend. is
the new century opened a new deveIOpment took place which forther
weakened sectarian control. This new deveIOpment was the
philanthropic foundation. The two major foundations established
in the first decade of the twentieth century, the Carnegie
Foundation and the Rockefeller General Education Board, through
the farmer's pension plan and the endowment plans of both, worked
indirectly to help higher education make some order out of the
chaotic conditions which prevailed in the early 1900's. They,
therefore, formulated a set of requirements which all institutions
had to meet to qualify for foundation funds. Both of these
philanthropic organisations believed that one of the major offenders
against the standards which they were trying to establish in higher
education.sere the Protestant religious denominations. They agreed
that if a concentrated effort were made in a few strategic areas
the result they'wiehed would be achieved. Hollis stated that this
implied ”that the weak and ineffective college should be allowed
to die from financial starvation and other 'natural' causes." This
was the end which both organisations sought, but their means were
dissimilar.

From its beginning the Foundation had stated in its

undenoninaticnal clause that an institution could not share in the

57.

Camgie pension mad if it remained in any way under the control
of a religious sect. Encouraged by the prospect of sharing in the
pension plan. many of the financially stronger denominational
colleges that had been trying to break their ties with church
sponsors decided to take the final step. The influence of this
stronger group and the criticism and advice of the Foundation
tended to loosen the hold or the church on new of the weaker
colleges though aftercards they did not join the pension plan.
The Foundation also helped and encouraged the rise of new
independent colleges.

The General Education Board sought its ends through
"systematic and helpful cooperation” with the sectarian selleges.
It gave direct support to the strong deminational institutions
which not certain “unannounced“ standards and followed the "natural
death" strateg with the smaller ones. Although there sometimes
were conditions which had to be agreed to before a grant was made,
these were usually organisational and ad-inistrative changes. for
the Board in no way interfered with denominational control or
affiliation. It chose to make its improvements possible through
the church's support. Under this system the Board established the
policy and the sect was a 'Yes" body.“‘0

In the 1920’s the influence of religion itself was

 

“TU—
Ernest Victor Hollis, Philanthropic Foundations and Higher

Education (New York, 1938), pp. {2'7-1hlo

U1
’7')
O

greatly reduced. Society, filled with post-war pessimism,
criticised religion and forced it to adjust to a new generation.
This critical attitude was also found on the college campus.
America was witnessing a rapid growth of scientific research and
religion was considered very unscientific. The materialism.of
American society} which was reflected in higher education. was
in continual opposition to religious principles, and especially to
religious control. Secularisation which in the early movement had
meant the desire for nonclerical control and nonsectarianism, took
on the meaning of no religion at all.11
As sectarian interest diminished, business interests
moved in. thrath's survey showed that by 1930 clerical membership
on college boards had dropped to 7.2 per cent.” If a clergman
were on the board of trustees of an undenominational college, he
was more apt to have gained the appointment because of his
influence and possibly his leadership than for his religious
affiliation and training. There was a very definite increase in
the number of businessmen trustees. MoGrath found that the
percentage of bankers on boards increased fron.h.6 in 1860 to 20
in 1930. In this same length of time the preportion of businessmen

increased from slightly more than one—fifth to slightly less than

 

Il
Herrimon Cuninggim, The College Seeks Religion Yale Studies in
Religious Education (New Haven, 19h7). p. 18.
12
HoGflth. 2&0

 

S9.

one-third, The total of the businessmen, bankers, and lawyers,
made up 73.6 per cent of the board.members by 1930.13 In a
survey of five state universities, the percentage of clergyman
on the boards of trustees was obviously much lower, the
proportion of businessmen was approximately the same, and the
percentage of farmers was much greater.1h These figures'shich
represent a study of only fifteen private institutions and five
state institutions in various sections of the United States,
nevertheless, indicate the nationwide trend.

It was during the 20's that this trenduwhich had been
in progress since before the Civil War came to the direct
attention of many educators and observers. The influence of
business and industry leaders in the directing bodies of the
institutions was Judged a blessing by some and a blight by others.
Richard Hofstsdter wrote that these outside interests did not
enter higher education as intruders. They were instead ”welcomed
into the real-.and escorted to its high place by its grateful
inhabitants . . . To offend the bearer of gifts was an action
sometimes defined as the deepest disloyalty and treachery." This
solicitous attitude toward business and.industry arose from two

strong motives, self-interest and a desire for social approval.15

HoGrath, 263-261;.

 

McGrsth, 265s
15
Hofstsdter and Metsger, p. M9.

The need of“wealthy patrons and men of influence became more
pressing as enrollment increased and institutions were forced

to enlarge their facilities. The operation of these vast
organisations called for boards esperienoed in business

practices and who knew-more about them than the men who were
creating the great prosperity of’the 20's. &y 1918 Cornell
University had added to its board of trustees, Andrew Carnegie,
Charles W. Schwab, president of Bethlehem.8teel, and H. H.
Wbstinghouse. ‘An appointment as trustee of a college or university
became synonymous with wealth and "a trusteeship in a large
university became along with a listing in the Social Register, a
token of business prominence and of pecuniary qualification.'16
Viewing the immense value of educational institutions in.ths foam
of facilities and moneyed interests, Robert H. Hutchins of the
University of Chicago asked, "How can we escape taking a commercial
attitude toward higher education?”17 This was not an easy question
to answer.

Voicing the opinions of those who looked favorably upon
the interest the commercial world was taking in higher education
was Josiah Harmer Penninan, Pnsident of the University of
Pennsylvania. At a newspaper conference in 1925 Penniman stated

that he was not distuer by the growing affinity between scholarship

16
Hofstadter and lietsger, pp. h15-h16.
17
Robert H. Hutchins, ”The Present Emergency in Higher Education,“
Hooded Readlxstments in Higher Education, Proceedings of the Institute
?%E.Administrative Officers in Higher Institutions, ed. William 8.

Gray, V (Chicago, 1933)s he

 

 

61.

and business. He believed that higher education was broadening
its interest scope and that business and industry were becoming
more academic. "If higher education has been influenced by
business,“ stated Fenniman, “it is now enjoying the advantages
of organisation on a large scale.” He was also encouraged by
the outside influence being exerted on scholars in the various
fields of research to "dig deep and look 1hr." The fear that
business interests were causing practical courses, especially
business courses, to overshadow other departments was groundless.
It was a cause for gratification to Benninan that education was

18 Dr. Ponniman,

becoming applicable to many practical fields.
as can easily be concluded from his statements, represented the
new group of educators who looked with liver upon the pragmatic
education of the 20's. He did not see business and industry as
sinister monsters ready to devour higher education or use it to
further their own mercenary ends. Instead these ccmreial
groups represented beneficent guardians the were working
harmoniously with higher education to improve each other and to
serve society.

the sinister apparition was, however, very real to any
educators, and their written and verbal denunciations of the new

trend were loud and miner-cue, Upton Sinclair in his book, Goose-

Step, made the most vicious attack on outside control of higher

 

18
New York Times, May 17, 1925, See. 8, p. 10.

62.

education. Carried to the extreme by his strong biases, Sinclair
wrote, “Our educatioral system is not a public service, but an
instrument of special privilege, its purpose is not to further
the welfare of mankind, but merely to keep American capitalists."19
Through a system of "interlocking directorates" the leaders of
higher education and big business worked to further each others
private interests. J. P. ”organ was a trustee of Columbia
University, which Sinclair called Morgan University, all his
active life, as was his scn-in-law, one or two of his attorneys
and several of his bankers , while President Butler was a director
of one of Horgan's insurance companies.20 Similar interlocking
directorates were described at various other universities. Sinclair
sew the academic procession marching in “Goose-step" to the command
of vested interests, while the obedient teachers, the 'Goslings,‘
rues after thema

Thorstein Veblen criticised higher education for adopting
material requirements, while sacrificing spiritual aims. He
accused the institutions of being comereial minded and of using
quantitative standards of output rather than qualitative standards,
thereby falling into the hands of business. Unlike Sinclair, Veblen

“'19

Upton Sinclair, Goose-Step A Study of American Education,
Revised ed. (Los Angeles, 1923f, p. 18.
20
Sinclair, p. 21.
21
Jutra', 673‘67h.

 

63.

did not ascribe the business bias to a conspiracy between
business and education leaders, but to the ”strain of the price
system and the necessities of competitive earning and spending"
which had driven society to favor practical efficiency in
education.?2

Others like J. E. Kirkpatrick and Dean Otto Heller
accused higher education of being controlled by those in the
'conningtower of financial strength” and of introducing the
ethics of industrialisn on the college campus.23 Kenneth C. ii.
Sills, President of Bowdoin College stated their position to the
Boston Chamber of Comoros, “Colleges welcome criticism from
businessmen, but businessmen must not attempt to dictate college
methodsfl'ah

Though tin exact extent of control of higbr education
by business and industry was never conclusively ascertained, a
situation which led Joseph Jastrow to refer to control as the

'25 it is evident that

'lively skeleton in the echxcational closet,
eomrcial leaders were gaining more positions on governing boards
and endowing colleges and universities with larger sums of money

for specific uses. At tin same time the practical and vocational

 

Veblen, p. us.

2
3Jastrorw, 67h. Otto Heller, "The Passing of the Professor,”
Scientific Monthly, XXIV (January 199]), 31-140.

New York fines, April 27, 1928, p. 28.
Jastrow, 668.

61:.

schools and professions were growing in enrollment and importance.
These developments could be considered coincidental and beneficial
or intentional and harmful. With the rapid pace at‘which
traditional standards and curriculum were being undermined, it is
little wonder that men like Sinclair, veblen, and Kirkpatrick

took the latter point ot’view. the basic reasoning behind their
criticism seemed to come tron.the belief that the world of business
and the world of scholarship were far removed from each other,
seeking different ends by different means, and that am joint
activity could never be beufieial to higher education.

College and university presidents were second of working
hand to hand with business. E. R. Craighcad at a meeting of the
lational Education Association deplored the system by which
presidents of educational institutions were chosen not on their
merits, but because they oere skillful politicians who employed
the methods of politicians and bosses, though he said he realised
that they were not the creators of the system, butwsere merely
creatures of external governing boards. President Schurman of
Cornell Undwersity accused presidents and trustees cf'obstructing
and even.deetrqying the ideals of higher education and replacing
them with an alien ideal, the ideal of the business corporation.26

is a result of this presidential 'bossism" it was

believed, and in some instances said to be true, that the college

26
Jastrcv, 669’670e

and university profeeeore eere being eubjugated by the unacademio
presidente and governing bodies. new educator-e began to urge that
education he rotumed to the hande of its rightful guardian, the
faculty. They argued that the faculty nae better qualified to
eettle educational problem and that nae more important, to preeerve
eduoation'e original ideale end etanderde. Faculty control in
higher education wee called for throughout the 20'e and in 1928
received the eupport of the Association of American Prom-core.”

Educate", like Pennimen, however, did not consider tb
change in the qualifications of college presidente 'a terrible
calamity.” ”Some or the ableet men in this country are bueineee
heads," said Penniman, ”men who are conducting net undertakinge,
apparently with coneumate eaee, building breed foundatione for
future develOpment and at the lame time studying the peyohologr of
t]: nation and ite relatione with other peoplee.”28 This
etatement not only reveale the growing esteem of bueineeemen in the
eyee of the general public. but it aleo impliee that eociety felt
that the professor and scholar in hie ”ivory tower” had eomehow
leet contact with the practical world. It m thie concept of the
echolar which prompted Dr. Charlee Gray Shaw, profeeeor of

philosophy at new York University. to prepoee that the college

 

Jafltl‘O'. 6Q.
28
New York 11MB, 3d” 17. 1925. $06. 8. p. 10.

profeeeore, instead of eeeking exchange fellonhipe, trade their
academic ohaire for bueineeemen'e deeke. he thought education
needed leee education and more energy and therefore urged
proteeecre to eetablieh "practical relations with the world."29
The administrator and politician was thought to be the most
eapable man to direct the enlarged and complex organization.
Under the label of efficiency, higher education institutione
came to be operated in accordance with commercial principlee and
the financial relationehip of adminietration and studente eae
considered a buoineee traneactionfio Therefore, the director or
this organization had to poceeee the special administrative
abilities to keep it functioning preperly.

Bueineee and induetry were not the only external organs
to take an interest in higher education. After the Civil War the
{adoral government began to aeeume more responsibility in
education. Through the yeare it had eet up many Mania and
eomieeione to aid education and had epent millione of dollare
on higher education alone. The Merrill Act established the land
grant collegee. Varioue o’dmer acte helped to further vocational
education at the college level. There was, hoeever, no coordinated
policy which governed the federal educational program. Lotue

Cofman wrote that appropriations and progeote were established

“'99

new York rims, March 19, 1927. p. 16.

 

Biennial Surveys 19214.1926, 11-12.

67.

through special pressures to serve special needs. Overlapping
interests and struggles for survival among groups became

more intense. Expanding government influence in higher education
added fear to confusion. This situation resulted in ”a new deal”
for education. On December 3, 1929 in his annual.nessage to
Congress, President Hoover called for the appointment of a National
Advisory Committee on Education. Coffman called the charter of
this organization one of the nest important educational documents
ever issued in.inerica. It discussed for the first time in terms
of fundamental.principlee the background against which public
education should be evaluated and announced also for the first
tile a series of principles that should serve as a guide for the
federal government in future legislation relating to education.31
Thus by the and of the 20's the federal government had begun to
-take formal steps toward.defining its action.in the field of
higher education.

The question, who controls the universities, appeared
frequently during the 20's. It arose free the difference of
Opinion as to the extent and effect of business influence in higher
education. Though each group had its own opinions, neither attempted
to mate an adequate, unbiased study of control to prove its
statements. Studies were made of the increasing representation of
business on the boards of trustees, but this does not indicate a self-

 

an, 16-17 e

68.

interested use of higher education, though some thought their
very presence could produce nothing beneficial to the institution.
It would be very difficult to measure separately the influence
of business on the inside and on the outside in producing the
emphasis on vocational training and the introduction of business
practices in the management of higher education. The increase
in the number of students, the cause of which cannot be traced
back to the boards of trustees. and the resultant expansion of
facilities mde it necessary for business experts to help direct
the new complex institutions. Business and technical courses
were probably more a result of the students' demands and the
economic condition of society than of the boards of trustees.
Although many deveIOpments of the post-World War I period. if
viewed with preconceived opinions, would seem to indicate tint
higbr education was greatly influenced by the business interests
in the governing boards, without a study of the extent of this
control, internal economic interests cannot be said to have

subjugatsd higher education to their will in the 1920's.

69.

Chapter VI
THE TRADITIOHA IpVOCA'rIONAL CONTROVERSI

Underlying nuch of the confusion and criticism in the
1920's was a difference of opinion as to the purpose of higher
education. It was a conflict between the traditicnslists and
the vocationalists. The antithesis beteeen the two groups had
developed long before the 20's. Since the beginning of organised
efforts to promote vocational education, there had been disagreements
as to its desirability. The debates over the Merrill Act in the
1850's and follceing its final passage in 1862 were very heated,
and.the supporters of the hill Iare accused of 'prcetitnting
education and of eta-ping the dollar-stark upon the sort of tin
schools .' hen the Federal Vocational Education Act was debated in
1917, the controversy flared up with increasedvigor} The post-
sar increase in enrollnent and the expansion of technological
training brought the conflict to a final showdown.2 For as Boner
P”. Rainey, President of Franklin College, pointed out, this
spectacular growth of the technical schools and the schools of
business and comerce tended to bring professional and general or
liberal education into sharp contrast.3 Both groups ears forced to

:u‘V's Po 850
zzarnest, p. 281;. Valentine, ”p. 23.

all“ P. Rainey, "What is the Future of Professional and Liberal
Education?" School and Societal, XXIII, July 19, 1930, 80.

 

70.

take e stand and be judged by the public as to their value in
higher education end society.
The treditionelists end the vocationslists, both.
firmly believed thet there was en inherent entipethy between
the 01.1an1 end the precticel. It wee felt that the two could
not be lunmed together successfully. Lowell of Herverd stated
thet educetion could not serve ”both gods end keep its integrity."h
The most edement preponents of these two educationel “gods" were
either unable or unwilling to eppreciete each others views end
purpose. The difference in their concepts end their presumed
incompetebility wee illustreted by Ernest D. Burton's enggereted
stetement, "Probehly else there is no way of touching Greek so
thet e men may in the process leern how to mks automobiles, or
of training cheuffeurs so thet they will turn out to be writers
of clessic prose."5 It wee this problem which would here to be
solved before there could be uniw of purpose in higher educeticn
end if it were not, it wee e ”peinless but sure form ci" suicide.‘
The purpose of higher education which the traditionelists
or "consemtives" ecceptsd wee to provide treining of e culturel
end intellectuel neture. Especielly with the vest complexity end

instebiliw of society, it wee the duty of the university to

 

I;
New York Time, Jenuery 11;, 1928. p. 16.
5

éi‘urton. p. 150

R“. 182.

71.

uphold cultural standards.7 Burton wrote that in a democracy
every sen should be a producer of real values and a thinlrcem8
Hutchins later said that the task of higher education was the
deve10pment of intellectual leadership.9 The conservatives
based their educational system upon the traditional liberal
arts which prepared the student to make 'a life rather than a
living."

The ”cultural" educators. therefore , vigorously
Opposed the expansion of the scope of higher education into
practical fields. They did not accept the changes which had been
produced by the develOpments in society as inevitable. Abraham
Flemer, one of the most outstanding critics of vocational
education in the late 20's and early 30's. stated that practical
training, "the ability to do different things without profoundly
understanding the processes therein involved,“ was not a duty of
the university. It was no concern of institutions of higher
learning to train carpenters, secretaries, school teachers,
businessmen or anyone who was more interested in learning a skill
than in understanding the fundamental problems and processes

involved.10 Even if technical training were necessary , it was not

""7

Abraham Flexner, "The UniwrSity in Amrlcan Life," Atlantic
Monthly, CXLIX (May 1932). 622.

 

Burton. p. 15.

9
Robert Maynard Hutchins. ”The University of Ut0pia," Yale

1‘71": 1X (Lurch 1931’s 1570
T

Flexner, Atlantic monthly, CXLIX (may 1932), 621.

72.

the responsibility of the college or university for they 'med
not and should not concern themselves with miscellaneous

.11 Planner. as well

training at or near the vocational level.
as new other educators, believed that "a trained mind, stored
with knowledge , will readily enough find itself even in our
complex world.”12

In the eyes of the traditionalist not only had education
extended itself beyond its mtural area of responsibility, but it
had sacrificed its values uni integrity. J. '1'. Adana cemented
that as a general rule the college and university made only the
slightest cultural impression on the student.13 The essential
university spirit had been sacrificed to “Opportunistic

voeet ionalian'm

Hutchine stated that the ain of the college to
train intelligence and to substitute it for “stupidity and
prejudice” he ruled.15 Colleges and universities had spend
their doors to everyom and had lowered their academic standards
instead of accepting only those who had scholarly or professional
interests. These professional interests. obviously. did not include

the recently acknowledged fields. Planner and Hutchins both agreed

ll
Abraham Flexner, Universities: American English German (Oxford,

1933. pp. 53-514. 172.
Flexner. Universities: American English Germn. p. 53.

13
‘dme 3239

1h
ISMII. Po 9e
Hutchins, v.1. Review, xx (March 1931). use.

 

 

 

73.

that the “service” schools and departments such as home economics,
business, hotel management. etc... did not belong in the university}6
The university. according to Hutchins, was not an instrument for
public instruction, but an organisation for the promotion of

scholarship.”

Accepting these basic principles , not only had
higher education erred in being influenced by business and industry,
but it had betrayed its academic integrity by acting upon public
demnds.

The traditionalists could not easily be swayed from
their point of view. Ernest Earmst commuted that this
attitude had greatly aided the very excesses of vocationalism which
they were protesting against. He said that instead of guiding the
new educaticml developments they had ”braced their feet and
called nmes.’ When students began to call for vocational courses,
the traditionalists had refused to expand their liberal arts
courses. Therefore, courses in Journalism. for example, denied a
place in the English departments, were forced to organise a
(10th of their sen, and statistics. ignored by the mathematics
department, joined the school of business or also developed its own
department. Earnest stated that the most tragic separation took

place between learning and pedagcg which led to the development

 

16
Plsxner, Universities: American English German, p. 152.
17
Robert Haynard Butchins. "A New Plan for Higher Education,..
Eview of Reviews. WWI (March 1933). 35.

71s.

of independent teachers colleges. The "fantastic anti-
intellectualismd cf’Columbia Teachers College and its offepring
across the nation was largely a result of the thilure of liberal
arts educators to provide adequate training for teachers.
Preparing the prospective teachers in the fundamental studies,
not onhy did they not realize that much of this knowledge would
be of little use in a high school curriculum, but they were
completely oblivious to the large group in high school which
would not attend college and, therefore, need vocational training.18
The purpose of education accepted by the traditionalists
was thought to be completely idealistic, in view of the society
or the 20's; by the vocationalists. The vocationalists also
believed education was a preparation tor life. but in.their
concept or no: was included the making .0: a living. Education
could not divorce or isolate itself fron.the world around it, but
Inst keep in close contact with society and adjust to its needs.
The vocationalists. therefore. could not accept a systenwwhich‘was
not of service to the community or of use in contemporary society.
By these two criteria, service and utility, the
vocationalists developed their systemrand criticised the
traditionalists who accepted the very Opposite point of view. Dean

Roscoe Pound said that any vocational course was worthwhile so long

 

18
Earnest. pp. 28h9285.

75.

as it was useful to the community.19 William Bennett Bissell of

the University of Oklahom stated that professional training was
inherent in the idea of the university, and that it was a duty
of that institution to provide leaders in all the professions
including engineering .‘na journalism. that they might render a
service to society. In his inaugural address in 1926 he said
that the university should help everyone who wished to increase

20 Another

his skill and capacity for industrial service.
observer wrote that higher education met aid in the replanning
of society, in which the occupational distribution was constantly
changing.21 Under the vocational system education was obligated
and organised to render the service demanded by society.

Higher education in order to be of service, also had to
be useful and applicable to contemporary society. The long range
ideals of the traditionalists to the vocatiomlists were not
close enough to everyday life. During World War I the president
of Tufts College wrote ”Our courses in history must concentrate
attention on the present . e e e Our mathematics should be used

for a specific purpose; it is not a time for pure mathematics.

' 22
pure science, pure art. or purity in any subjective form.“ An

 

19
“151111. 755.
20
Bissell. pp. 11;. 150-151.
21
Harold 1". Clark, "Economic Effects of Education,” Journal of
Hi her Education. I (March 1930). 113.1.

“Wins- Po 133.131»

 

76-

alumni comittee submitted a dcvelOpment plan at Yale University
in 1919 with the recommendation that a definite course of
instruction or curriculum be provided which led to each of the
several professional schools or toward the life work of the
students}!23 It was the vocationalists' has is contention that
th vast majority of the student body of colleges and universities
were not preparing for scholarly careers. but for life in a I
competitive and materialistic world and should, therefore, be
trained accordingly. Hot only were vocational courses useful in
themselves, but it was felt that all branches of scholarship
should be Miliar with the workings of the business world.2h

i'o produce a course of study which would be useful to
the student, the vocationalist bar-ran to take greater interest
in contemporary society that the students night be trained in the
“realities of life.“ Pennimn viewed with optimism tin trend of
education to replace the"stcck samples" used as college courses
with examples chosen from present day life .3?5 The New York College
of Agriculture of Cornell University, the Himsota College of
Agriculture and Iowa State College made studies of the occupations
of their graduates in order to measure “to a degree the suitability

T

hmflt. ’0 287.

 

Carl Frederick resusch, ”Business and Education,” School and
Bocie , XXIX. Jun 8, 1929. 728.

New York Times, Ray 17, 1925, See. 8, p. 10.

77.

of the educational program to life interests after graduation."26
Professor Jerome Davis of the Yale Divinity School claimed that
defcctive knowledge of industrial facts was a result of the
college 's and university's failure to teach realities and of
their relating of a false concept of everyday life. He prOposed,
therefore, that the student not only be trained for everyday
living, but that he also take part in it while a student. If a
student was in sociology or economics, he should study and work
with labor and other social and economic groups.27 Thus a
“living” curriculum became the means by which education achieved
its ends, service and utility.

Although the purposes of the traditionalists and the
vocationalists were in direct opposition to each other, a synthesis
of their ideals was not totally impossible. is Mays brought out,
the conflict had grown out of a misunderstanding of the opposite
group's meanings and purposes, and a misconception of the necessaq
relationship of these two major aspects of education in a democracy."28
There was a need for both intellectual leadership and scholarship
and for a trained labor force. One could not be emphasised to the

exclusion of the other. Gidecnsc maintained that the ”cross-

 

16
Arthur J. Klein, ”Higher Education,” Biennial Surveys 1926-1928,
Bull. 1930. NO. 16. 2.
27
New York Times, December 50. 1925. p. h.
28
Mays, p. 86.

 

78.

fertilization of theory and practice" was the very life of
each.29
With the intense vocationalisation of higher education,
nary began to realise that some of the worthwhile values of the
liberal arts were being eliminated as the liberal arts college
declined in influence. The supporters of liberal arts education,
therefore, became the aggressors in higher education, and the
same cyclical movement which had put vocational education on the
offensive a few generations before, had now compleud a half
turn and the two groups had changed positions. The vocationalists
and even industrialists themselves began to realise that there was
something lacking in the strictly vocational preparatory course.
Mays wrote that vocationalists had never advocated the curtailing
of general and liberal education, but wished only to include
vocational education in addition to general ecbicaticnjo However,
the synthesis of the two courses had too often degenerated into
psuedooliberal arts subjects like Business English and Commercial
Spanish which, though of a general nature, were slanted toward '
vocational preparation. This had also been a wide spread practice
in the pro-professional courses. Carl Holliday of the University
of Toledo even preposed that there should be different liberal
.__?9 _ ,
West, pp. 539-5140.

30
liay's , In 370

 

79.

arts courses for pro-professional students because when they
were in these courses, they were not interested and spoiled it
for those whowere.31 Too often instead of adding vocational
courses to a general curriculum, they had been so combined as
to produce a predominantly vocational program.

President Burton of the University of Chicago as
early as 1922 at a convocation address said that if there had
to be schools for mechanics and finishing schools to produce a
certain number of members of the leisure class, why not make
institutions of higher learning places which make ”neither good
scholars who are good for nothing, .cr tradesmen without
vision,” but men and women who, while preparing themselves for
occupations, also gained "a breadth of vision and sympathy,

insight and outlook, culture and philosophye”52

Colonel R. 1.
Ross, an industrialist, stated that the new economic order had
been 'Wped rather than served. by the machine. The
businessman was faced with more problems in lanes relations than
in the technical processes. Rees urged, therefore, that the
potential industrial leaders be equipped with a fundamental
knowledge of biology, psychology, sociology, economics, and the

humanities.33 Bissell, though a vocationalist, stated that the

 

Duran. p. 16.

33
Biennial Survey. 1928-1930. L99.

80.

high purpose of the college and university was to impart “a
knowledge of the laws that govern our social relations, of the
ethical principles that should guide our conduct and to prepare
each student for the work he should do in the world..3h Thus
the definition of education had changed from that which was
desirable for a cultural and intellectual life, to that which
was desirable for vocational success and finally in the late 20's
and early 30's to that which was desirable for all cultivated
men and vocationally necessary for nature intellectual leaders.35
The revolt which had taken place against the ”impractical”
fundamental subjects of the traditional liberal arts colleges had
been followed by an excess of practical vocational courses. One
extreme had caused education to move in the opposite extreme. It
was during the 20's that a median between the two groups was
realised, and a new synthesised form of education was adapted by

higher education.

 

Bissell , p. 31.

5
Catlin, 731;.

81.

Chapter VII

EXPEfifli’EBTATICN IH HIGHER EDUCATION'
IN THE 1920's

The growing tendency of higher education to realise
that there was a need for cooperation between the traditionalists
and the vocationalists. the problems of increased enrollment and
academic standards, and the criticism which forced a reexamination
of these institutions, gave rise to a series of experiments at
the college and university level. 80a of the experimental systems
outlived the immediate problem they were designed to solve, while
others were later discontinued because of the difficulty of their
operation or their lack of educational value. Their very existence ,
however, was indicative of the unrest and dissatisfaction in
higher education and the institutions' persistent attempts to
adjust to their environment.

Many of the experiments in higher education during the
1920's were reactions against technical courses and too narrow
specialisation. The new systems established one or two-year
courses of gemral mndamental studies to provide a broader background
of knowledge. The earliest experimentation with this type system
was initiated at Reed College, Portland, Oregon in 1921. It
consisted of a two-year course in "General Literature ." which was a
study of the ”lasted works of poets, drantists, and philosophers

from Homer to the present, and a correlated course , ”History or

82.

Civilisation," the aim of which was to dcweIOp a ”thoughtful
acquaintance with what civilization has been, how it has
changed, and what our inheritance is.""1
The plan for the Experimental College or the University
of Wisconsin was announced in 1927. The New York Liza: called
this experiment one of the "new offensives against the old
curriculum."2 Under the direction of Alexander Heiklejohn, the
college attempted “to create and to cultivate insight or
intelligence” through an Athens-America curriculum. This was a
study and contrast of Athens and nineteenth century America.
After the plan was revised, contemporary problems were studied
with emphasis on intelligent reading. The experimental college
also attempted to eliminate credit hours and course requirements.
There were small discussion groups led by “Advisers," and the
student advanced at his own speed. A degree was granted when tb
student had attained a command of the subject and not according to
the lumber of classes attended. Those who did not succeed in
this course dropped out at the end of the sophomore year, while

the remaining students continued for two more years. Lieiklejohn's

eXperiment was discontinued in 1932 because of the difficulty of

 

1
Patricia Beasley, The Revival of the Humanities in American

Education (New York, 1%). p. :57.

New York firms, May 1;, 1930, See. 3, p. 8.

 

83.

administering the program in a large state university;

The first ”Humanities" courses were given at Stephens
College,'Columbia, Missouri and Scripps College, Claremont,
California in 1928. The Stephen course was primarily a course
in appreciation with emphasis on the analytical rather than the
historical study of art..’4 it Scripps College, founded in 1928,
there was a three-year required sequence of courses in the
mm... '1')» Ancient World,' ”Western civilization to r150."
and "The Modern World.” The object of the program was to instill
an understanding of the development and character of civilisation
and the bearing of each period on modern life»5

Tb Hmnenities movement continued on into the 30's,
steadily increasing in momentum. It was in the late twenties,
however, that the movement began. Valentine wrote that the
movement gathered strength after World War I as a reaction against
scientific and technical training which was replacing the study of
liberal arts courses. 25am! educators were alarmed and turned to

the humanities as “the conservators of the nobler virtues."6

"T
Beasley, pp. 107.108. Biennial Surveys 1928-1230. halt. New

York Times May 1,, 1930, See. 3, p. 8. Also see Hennder
Meiilejo , The Experimental Colleg (New York, 1932).

 

Beasley, pp. 108-109. Also see W. W. Charter, The Ste hens
College Program for the Education of Women (Columbia, 130., 1933).

Beesley, p. 109. Also see 1!. S. Ament, “Literature in its
Humane Setting,“ The lish Journal, College Edition, XXIII
(November 1951.1), 7&3 W

6

O

Valentine, p. 23.

81:.

Between 1920 and 19140 at least 50 new general humanities courses
appeared or were being planned.7
The grouping of the college curriculum into four or
five major divisions was another form of eXperimentation. The
program of the University of Chicago under the guidance of
Robert ii. Hutchins divided the university into two divisions,
the upper and the lower. All students first entered tin lower
division for a general education in the “permanent studies" which
included the classics, mathematics, gremar, and logic. When the
student felt adequately prepared, he took a comprehensive
examination and either entered the upper division or was graduated.
The student who advanced to the upper division entered one of four
groups of courses, the hmanities, the social sciences , the
physical sciences, or the biological sciences or one of the
professional schools. The student graduated from the upper
division by passing another comprehensive examination. Degrees
were granted on the recomcndation of the whole division, not just
the department.8 This system proposed to eliminate many of the
undesirable features of the prevailing education system. Knowledge
was emphasised rather than the accumulation of credits, hours, and

grades. All students were given a background of general knowledge

 

Bofstadter and Hardy, p. 55.

s

Biennial surveys 1928-1930, 1.182. Robert ii. Hutchins, The
Higher Learninan America (New Haven, 1936). West, pp. 533537.

 

 

85.

in the fundamental studies which with specialisation produced
a well balanced education. Elimination by examination after
two years decreased the number of uninterested applicants and
also released those not qualified for advance study and those
who did not wish to continue their education. The large
divisions in the upper schools and the integration of study
within each division prevented extreme specialization and
departmentslisation. This also prevented any discrepancies in
the academic value of the degrees in the various schools.
Colgate University introduced a series of five survey
courses in the freshnsn year curriculum. After these courses
were completed the student chose one of six schools for
concentration in the mining years of study. This plan, lilss
the Chicago plan, was designed to give a fundamental background
and to coordinate the departments which would othersise have
acted as individual independent entities?
At Comell College, Iowa, and Bennington, a newly
founded wcnen's eellege, a two-year progrsn of general courses was
organised with concentrated study in the last two years. Benningtcn
also abolished entrance requinnsnte and based admission solely on

 

“T

Biennial Surve : 1928-1 30, 1:82. Beasley, pp. 25, 111. Also
see 5. fi. TEurF‘r .375 saga. Plan,‘ Journal of High_er Education,
IV (February 1935, 59-66. ‘

first-hand may of on individual applicant.1° A similar
curricula: was introduced at Colunbia College, Columbia
University.n The Princeton pm of 1921. provided for
independent study in the field of concentration over which a
emprehensive axe-ination as given.“ '
Various plans were inaugurated to eliminate the evils

of siae in the colleges and universities, it Rollins College,
Winter Park, Florida, after 1921; the enroll-ant aas lieited to
700 students, and the faculty ass enlarged so that theiratio was
less than tn students to a professor. At Harvard the house
plan was designed to divide the student body into small cements
vhioh would provide an seeds-dc ataespbere conducive to study and,
as Lovell explained, a place where scholars could discuss problem
in an intiaate infernal atmosphere. A siailar plan at Brovn
University grouped the facilities of one depart-ant together,
library, staff offices, seainar roe-s, etc. This systea was to
provide an ataosphere conducive to study and closer contact .cng
"-IU

Biennial Surv 3 1928-1930, h82-h83. New York Times, May b,
193mm. n-es. n... ... am 0. 1.131.,
"Plans For the Reorganisation of the Curriculu- of Bennington
College," Recent Trends in Anerican Coll e Education Procee 0:.

 

 

 

of the hem-for Administrative 0‘ cers o ' :uer ns ions,
e."lam . ray,’ case. ". '“v
11
Biennial Surve : 1 28-19 0, 1381:. Bissell, pp. 120-122. Also
see H. 3.1mm”, c \- vision at Colmbia College,"

 

Educational Record, I (January 1929), 29-39.

““131 g 2!! 1228'E2, hale ”Mp p. 150.

87.

the students and among students and faculty!"3

Another innovation of the 20's was designed to aid
the better students. President Aydelotte of Swatimcre introchiced
his plan for an "honors course" which he said was to rescue the
ablest students "from the mechanical systen which has been.
devised for the 'average' man,” who since the war had becosie
11;

"both more numerous and more 'average' ." Honors work was not

an entirely new development. Honors had been given at the

Healeyan commencements for a thesis and course work since 1873.

In 1883 Hichigm inaugurated the University System which allowed

able students to follow a freer and more specialized program

upon which they were tested in the senior year. This plan worked

successfully for eight years.15 Other honors systems were

established at the University of Vermont (1888), Princeton (1905),

the University of Missouri (1912), Lafayette College and Rice

Institute (1916), and Colmbia (1920). m 1911; Harvard established

its general examination and tutorial mm.“

"13 .
Biennial Survey 3 1928-1929.. has-1:86 .

Harvard Alumni Bulletin "Honors Courses," School and Society,
ms flax-c“ Is 1555s 2399 .

15
See Prank Aydelctte, “The University System at liichigan,‘l

Uichigan Alumnus, XLII, June 27, 1936, 228—233.

Frank Aydelctte, Breakifig the Academic Lock Steps The
Development of Honors or can jges an n vers itiss
0' O ’0 pp 0 hme

 

 

88.

There were three types of honors courses. The limited
form used by a majority of the schools gave honors based on high
grades in the courses of the regular curriculum. Under tie
second system honors were awarded for special work undertaken in
addition to the regular program. The work consisted of collateral
reading plus a thesis and an examination. In 1921., 35 Institutions
had adopted this or a similar system. The third system which was
in Operation at nine institutions by 19214 allowed the honors
course to supersede the ordinary requirements usually during the
Junior and senior years. This was the system develcped at
Swatimore in 1922. All course work and the credit system ceased
to exist during the last two years of college. The student chose
a field of concentration and worked in it. independently. The
degree was granted on the merit of a fiml examination. Not only
did this third plan lelp the better student, but it also tended to
reduce excessive departsentalism which iydelctte called one of. the
greatest evils of undergraduate studies.17

It was more difficult to establish honors courses at
state universities than at the smaller institutions, though the
very problems which this plan tried to eliminate were often found
in excess at the large universities. The average ability at a

state institution was apt to be lower since they could not as easily

“'17

Aydelotte, Breakin the Academic Lock Stgp, pp. 245-89.
Harvard Alumni m. ‘

 

89.

limit enrollment. State legislatures would not he as willing
to provide appropriations for a program which benefited only
a small group. The very size of the state schools also tended
to limit the possibility of am experimentation. Despite these
handicaps , honors courses were developed at several state
institutions under the leadership of the University of Virginia
and Ohio State University. The University of Virginia adapted
the Swathmore plan, though its use was limited to a few
departments. The Ohio State plan coordinated the honors course
with the conventional course and credit system, and entrance was
based on the academic record of the first two years.18

i'hese innovations of tie 20's reveal the dissatisfaction
of some college administrators with the educational system. the
new plans tried to reduce and eventually eliminate save of the
problems of enrollment, specialisation, departmentalisation,
admission standards and academic attainment. They also show that
educators were trying to find a solution to the traditionalist-
vocationalist controversy. Thus this decade witnessed new
educational trends, the decline of the liberal arts to near
extinction, the rise of technical and utilitarian subjects to their
senith, and finally a tendency toward the equalization of these

two trends in the experiments in curriculum and organisation.

 

Aydelotte, Breakfl the Academic Lock Step, pp. 90-95.

The philanthrOpic foundations took a very active part
in the experimentation in higher education. Following World
War I there was a more favorable attitude toward philanthrOpic
trusts which made it possible for them to work directly with
higher education to solve some of their problems. The foundations
aligned themselves with the progressive element. Large sums were
appropriated by the General Education Board, the Carnegie
Corporation, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, and the
Comonwealth Fund to aid the conceiving and perfecting of newer
devices for college admission and guidance. The Rockefeller and
Carnegie trusts were the most influential in the individual
college experiments. They aided the programs at Swathmore, Stephens,
Chicago, Harvard, Yale, and Bannington. Grants ranged from 325.000
to $200,000 a year. Chicago, Swathmore, and Minnesota, 0.
development of the 30's, received the most support. Not only did
the foundations aid the “new colleges," but they also encouraged
many of the more conservative schools to adopt progressive program.
Hollis commented that without the foundations' grants and
encouragement, many of the undertakings of the conservative colleges
and universities would have been delayed or never completed.19
Considering the expense and criticism which the new projects

created, Hollis was probably right.

 

19
3011 1‘ . pp. M‘IS‘}.

91.

The mottled state of higier education greatly
encouraged the growth of a new type of institution of higher
learning. This was the twcqyear junior college. The Junior
college had its beginning in the middle of the nineteenth
century, when President Henry P. Tappen of the University of
Michigan in 1852 fonmlated the idea of the two-year college. The
idea was first put into practice at the University of Chicago
under the direction cf'William.Eainey Harper in 1892. The first
Junior college was founded in 1896 as the Lewis Institute in
Chicago, and the first public Junior'college was inaugurated in
1902 when Joliet Township High School extended its program tn
years beyond the secondary level. Californis.was the first state
to encourage the extensive develepment of the two-year college.
Between 1892 and 1907 the idea was kept alive by Dean A. F. Lange
of the Universiw of California where the janior college idea was
embodied in.the Lower Division.ia 1905. In 1910 the Fresno.
California high school established the first Junior college in the
um.” By 1915 there were twelve, all neon-ion. of high

schools.21

 

Phebe Ward, 'Development of the Junior College Hovement,‘
American Junior College, American Council on Education, ed. Jesse
moguls, Md. Washington. 0. Ce. 19148). p. 9. “111181! To
liagruder, ”The Junior College As A Belief," Educational Ibview,
111 (April 1921), 288.

21

David B. Carson, ”The Claims of the how Type Junior College ,"

Education, XL (February 1920), 327.

 

92.

Until 1915 the growth of the junior college was slow.
In 1900 there were about eight of these colleges in the country
with an enrollment of approximately 100 students. By 1915 the
number of schools had increased to 7b and the total enrollment
to 2,563. During the following decade and a half there was an
accelerated increase in number and enrollment. By 1922 the
number of junior colleges had almost trebled and the student
body was eight times as large. Within five more years enrollment
was more than double that of 1922. At the beginning of the mat
decade there were 1429 Junior colleges with 67,627 students.22
The growth of the Junior college occurred concurrently
with the college and university boom in the 20's. The factors
in the rise of the two-year college are, therefore, either the
same ones which account for the growth of the four-year
institutions or products of the university and college expansion.
Unlike the experiments of the postmr decade the Junior college
program did not try to eliminate the problems of higher education,
but its existence did help to reduce some of the pressure of
enrollment and of vocational domed. It could even be said that
they were develoPing the same tendencies that the experimental
colleges were attempting to eliminate in the four-year institutions.
One of the main reasons for the rapid growth of the junior

college during the 20's was the need for more higher educational

1
Ward, p. 9.

 

93.

facilities. Colleges and universities were filled beyond capacity
and the two-year college absorbed the overflow. Another reason
for their growth was the increased demands for vocational training.
There were many vocations that required only two years of
training which the Junior college could readily provide.
Preparation for mentions and professions which required pre-
professional training could be obtained at a twoayear college.
Their development was encouraged by those educators who felt that
the first two years of college work was essentially "the capstan
of secondary education,” and advocated the entrance of students to
university level work in the Jmior year.”

The Junior college movement was a product of the time
and an outgrowth of the developments in higher education in the
20's. Not only did it answer the ixmediate problems, but it
proved itself of value later as an excellent place for experimentation
because of its limited size and as a feeder which would tales this

blight off the mall liberal arts college.

 

‘75

hagmder, 288. Hollis, p. 11.1. Carl E. seashore. The Junior

Colle Movement (New York, 19140), pp. 3-6. The Christian Science
on tor, vent of the Junior College,“ School and Sociitl,

EVE-December 17. 1927. 782k

9h.

CONCLUSION

During the 1920's the American people witnessed a
period of rapid economic eXpansion. The war had been a strong
stimulus to business and industry, encouraging develoPment and
continuous efforts toward improvement. With increasing demands
fer better products and greater efficiency, the amount of
technological and scientific knowledge multiplied and remultiplied.
It was soon realised by the economic groups of society that each
individual could no longer be expected to be well informed on the
increasingly complex methods and machines nor could an untrained
worker be used in a highly specialised position. It was,
therefore, to the institutions of higher learning that society
turned for the large mmbers of specialists needed to supply the
nation's industry and business.

The educational trends of the 20's were not developments
of the postwar period. Higher education had long felt the
pressure of'demands for vocationally trained graduates, but the
needs of the 20‘s, far surpassed those of any previous period.
Enrollment in colleges and universities had been increasing
steadily before the first World war, but it doubled in.the decade
following the war. The curriculum had been gradually becoming more
vocational, but during the 20’s vocational-technological courses

and departments so greatly outnumbered those in the liberal arts in

 

.Ill ‘1
In]! l
I!!!

 

{All}
I

9S.

quantity and enrollment that in many instances the liberal arts
schools had to adopt vocational preparatory courses to survive.
henberehip on university and college boards of trustees had

long before been granted to men in business and industry. and
presidents of these institutions had become more often administrators
than scholars, but in the post-war decade the trends of higher
education second to indicate that these board members had boom
self-interested dictators of educational policy. And, although
the differences between the vocational principle of education and
tin traditional principle of education had been debated since the
middle of the nineteenth century. it was in tin 20's that their
controversy reached a showdown and each had to prove its value or
fail. Thus the 20's marked the point at which existing trends
reached their apex.

Not only was it the intensification of these trends which
caused the unrest in higher education. but it was also the rapidity
with which it happened. Institutions of higher learning had not
been prepared for the great influx of students and their demands
for a practical curriculum. It was their attempts to adjust to a
rapidly changing society that created the atmosphere of confusion
and the widespread criticism. While educators tried to solve the
existing problems, more developed. It was this situation which.

made may predict an even gloonier future for higher education. i

96.

While pessimism and criticism seethed on the surface,
there were some educators who. instead of criticising. took
steps toward a solution of the prevailing; problem. Experimentation
had already begun by the second year of the post-war decade.
Various new curricula were being tried to eliminate the limiting
effects of specialisation. Other experiments attempted to reduce
extreme departmentalisation and over-emphas is on course hours
and class attendance. There were also attempts to decrease the
unintellectual effects of the large university. The 1920's were,
therefore, brightened by tress pioneer steps toward a balanced
college curriculum and a student orientated program.

The deoade of the 1920 marked an important period in
the history of higher education. It was the point at which
vocationalism reached the peak of its influence and at which
educators began to realise that in contemporary society there must
be a synthesis of the practical and the liberal arts. It was the
society of post-war America, a society under the influence of
rapid industrialization and growing busimss, therefore. that was
a major factor in the developments and trends of higher education

in th‘ 1920 'I.

97.

BIBLIOG'PAFHI CAL NOTE

There are two very good bibliographical references on
higher education in the 1920's. Trends in University Education
compiled by James Goodwin Hodgson. vol. VII. No. I... New York,

1931 in The antenna. Shelf (27 vols.) lists books and periodicals

 

and divides them into negative and affirmative discussion groups.
The Encyclopedia of Educational Research edited by Walter S.
Eonroe, revised ed., New York. 1950 is a good general
bibliographical reference.

The Biennial Survey of Education in the United States
published by the United States Bureau of Education, Washington. n.c..
is an excellent smnmary of educational developments. It is the most
reliable source for statistical material.

Since this is a study of the problems of higher education
during one decade , cantanporary opinions are used as often as
possible. Therefore, professional journals. periodicals. and the

How York Times were the primry sources of information. School and

 

Sociefi was the education journal which yielded the most material
on the problems of higher education. Another good source of
contemporary views was time Journal of Higher Education. There are
in addition many other education periodicals which can be used in
a study of higher education, School Life, Educational Record,

Education Review, §g_hccl Review, Echers College Record. and Education.

98.

The bulletins of the various education associations

are very useml. In this stuchr the American Association of

 

University Professors Bulletintwas used extensively. Bulletins
are also published by the National Education Association, the
Association of Amrioan Colleges. the National Society of
College Teachers of Education and many others.

Other sources of contemporary views are the reports
of conferences and special comittess. The third and fifth
volumes of the proceedings of the Institute for Administrative
Officers of Higher Institutions edited by William 8. Gray,
Chicago. 1931. 1933, supplied a wide variety of information on
higher education in the 1920's. Many college and university
schools of education issue their own publications, such as the
Indiana University School of Education Bulletin. The Teachers
College of Columbia University has an extensive collection of
published theses and dissertations in the field of education.

or the general periodicals the Atlantic Monthly

 

contained the most articles on higher education. Other useful

periodicals were the Review of Reviews. Yale Review, North American

 

 

Review, New Republic. Nation, Contemporary Review. Outlook, and Forum.

 

 

The only history journal which contained material on
higher education in the 1920's was Current History.
Ithe New York Times was a very important source for it

contained interviews of leading educators and their addresses to

 

 

civic organisations, material which is not printed in other
sources. The 2329!. also gives the nest contemporary report of
popular opinions in the fare of editorials and letters to the
editor.

Two types of secondary works were used, general and
specific works on higher education, and the works and edited
speeches of educators and observers during the 1920's. 111:.
Develogsnt and Scope of Hither Education in the United States
by Richard Hcfetadter and c. Dewitt. Hardy, New York. 1952, was
the general history used, especially for information on higher
education in the post-Civil Her period. The Development of
Academic Freedo- in the United States by Richard Hofstedter and
laiter P. Hetsger, New fork, 1955, was especially useful on
control of early colleges, secularisation, and business and
higher education. These two books are among the few works in
higher education which are written from an historical point of
view and are extensively documented. B. Freeman Butts' book,
The College Charts Its Course - Historical Concepts and Current
Preposals, new Icrk, 191.7, and Ernest Earnest's Academic
qum in Infernal matey of the American College 16321125,}.
new Tort, I953, contain general accounts of higher education in
the 1920's, but Butts uses no documentation and Earnest's
description is, as he adsits, infernal.

A good source of information and statistics on changing

100.

trends in higher education from 1890 and 1929 is Recent Social

 

Trends in the United States Report of the President's Research

 

Committee on Social Trends (2 vols.), New York, 1933.
There are also numerous works on various phases of
higher education. Ernest Victor Hollis' Philanthropic

Foundations and Higher Education, New York, 1938, is the most

 

extensive study of the foundations and their influence on

higher education. Arthur B. Mays' An Introduction to Vocational

 

Education, Bow York, 1930, is a very useful study of the
develOpment of vocational education. The American Junior Colleges,
edited by Jesse P. Bogus, 2nd ed., Washington, D. 0.. 19L8, and
The Junior College Movement by Carl E. Seashore, New York, 19140,
are good sources for the Junior college movement. l'ierrimon '
Cuninggim's The College Books Religion, New Haven, l9h7, discusses
the secularisation of higher education and the changing position
or religion in society. The Revival of the Humanities in American
Education by Patricia Beesley, New York, 19140, is a good source
of information on experimentation in higher education. It .1»
has an excellent bibliography.

The other type of secondary source is the book by .
contemporary observers. ham of the leading educators of the 20's
wrote about conditions in higler education; Charles Franklin
Thwing's The American College and Universities in the Great War

Elli-1919, New York, 1920, and American Society . Interpretations

 

101.

of Educational and Other Forces, Eon York, 1931, Abraham Flexner's
Universities: American English Geman, Oxford, 1930, Robert
haynard Hutchins' The Higher Learning in America, New Haven, 1936.
Some like Flemer’s and Hutchins' are critical studies.

There are also morons edited collections of college
and university presidents' speeches which give the administrators
View of contemporary education. Ernest DeWitt Burton’s Education

in a Democratic World, Chicago, 1927, was useful in this study.

 

f! ‘ Il‘. 'nl ‘ {Ill .q t l I It.
.. . i
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