The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1915. THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE EMPIRE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2417, 24 March 1915, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1915. THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE EMPIRE

The olaima of the State and tho Empire upon University men were referred' to by Professor Adaiison in an address which ho gave on Monday to the students of Victoria College. He laid stress on the fact that privileges imply responsibilities. Universities do not exist merely for the purpose of enabling a number of specially fortunate individuals to prepare themselves for a successful career in certain walks of life. These institutions owe a duty to tho nation as well as to the individual.' One of their main functions is to inspire students with a clear and sound ideal of public service. University men ought to set a high Standard of enthusiasm for the State, directed and tempered by knowledge. The State _ has a right to look to tho Universities, when the need arises, for men who are ready and willing to make great sacrifices for the servicc of their country and the welfare of its citizens.. Never in the history of our race has thero been a more urgent call for tho services of such men, and.Professor Adamson was in a happy position in being able to refer to former students of Victoria College who have volunteered for the front. One thing that Victoria College is proud of, ho said, is the gallant answer its men mado to the summons when it came. He was fully justified in holding that if the College had done nothing beyond tho 'fine spirit displayed by the students who joined our Expeditionary Force it would have deserved well of the country. A crisis like the present puts citizenship to the test, and separates the genuine article from the worthless sham. It gives University men an opportunity of showing that a University is something much more than a raero degree factory, and that a keen sense of public duty is given a prominent place in its ideal of culture. The present war has impressed us with the greatness of our'obligations to the Stale, though we need not deifv the State as certain German professors have done. Treitscuke taught that the State "is the highest thing in the external society of man: above it there is nothing at all in the history of the world." This is sheer paganism. The m'einbcrs of the Oxford Faculty of Modern History, in explaining wb.v we are at war, lake a different view, and a more rational one. Thnv remark that the new German political theory vnrm-!< "our inlcrcf.t. i<i mi'r I'lgliti" old English

political theory is "the right is our interest," The: almightiness of tho State is a dangerous doctrine. The State is not an irresponsible thing. It is subject to the reign of law.

The British Universities have made a really magnificent response to the Empire's call. Their men are doing their duty to the Empire so wholeheartedly that the audiences of the lecturers aro being reduced to vanishing point. Processor Jacks, of Oxford, tells us that "the best—morally, intellectually, physically— have gone. With rare exceptions only the weaklings remain." To many of those who have gone to the front war is an absolutely hateful thing, but, as one of them said. "I will not stay here and lot the other fellow's fight for me without taking a hand myself." Some idea of what the Universities are doing is given in the official figures for Oxford. Among those who haro enlisted are 280 Scholars and Exhibitioners, and over 40 Fellows. Oriel alone has given over 87 per cent, of her men, Magdalen 86 per cent., and Trinity 82 per cent. The 1912 and 1913 men of' University College appear to have joined the forces almost in a solid body. Nearly the whole of the Oxford athletes have volunteered, including all the Eight of last year's Boat, thirteen out of tjie Rugby fifteen, nine out of the cricket eleven, eight out of- the "Soccer" team, and the whole of the lawn tennis six. About sixty other representative athletes have also gone to the war. The vacant rooms are used for the housing of recruits, and the Examination Schools liave been turned into a hospital. The editor of one of the University magazines says that the war has caused a great change to come over the undergraduate mind. The letters which are now coming in every day aro strangely different from those ho used to get a year ago. They show that Men think more deoply now than men of yore, And men now think who never thought before. ' "Keen young soldiers a-re interested in questions of philosophy and divinity which never troubled their comely heads in the old days before tho war." They are now thinking about the teaching of history regarding the fate of Empires. It is stated that in order to find anything comparable to what Oxford is now going through one would have to go back to the period_ of the Great Rebellion. The spirit of practical patriotism is equally keen at Cambridge. The latest figures show only 1200 undergraduates in residence as against 1600. for last term, and 3180 in the Easter term of 1914. If the figures were available for the other Universities of the United Kingdom they would probably tell a similar tale. T/hcy are giving that lead in public scrvico which, as Professor Adamson told the students of Victoria College, the State expects— and has a' right to expect—from the Universities.