Excerpt from The College: Paper Read Before the International Congress of Arts and Science, Department 23 (the College), Section 3, at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis, Mo, , September 19-24, 1904

No one of the other subjects selected for discussion in the seven divisions, twenty-four departments, and one hundred and twenty-seven sections of the Congress of Arts and Science seems to me so vitally connected with the future well-being of the American people as the American College which we are to discuss to-day.

The College does indeed need eloquent defenders, such as the speaker who has preceded me, for the executioner's ax is at its throat. The school, however badly planned taught and administered, has an assured existence, the university, however amorphous and inchoate, is to be fostered and extended, but the College, the center of all our culture for the past century, is sore beset, and has more to fear from the Judas-like kisses of its friends in high places than from the mob of the illiterate and sordid, who always cry "loose us Barabbas" when the powers of evil are in the ascendant and any mighty influence for good is brought to the judgment seat. Let us this afternoon mount the tribunal and try the case. As the accused is on trial for his life, plain speaking will be in order.

We are told first of all that the prisoner cannot be identified, that his personality is all abroad, that his very aegis not certain, and that even his name is not his own, but that he is often caught masquerading under the name of "university" or "high school."

It is true that his adversaries have striven mightily to destroy the character and moral stamina of the college course thru the foolish dissipations of unrestricted electives, but, thanks be to the powers that make for righteousness, they have striven in vain.

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