Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/541

Rh young men desiring higher training by offering superior courses of study, but later, when college graduates began sending their sons, the alma mater was the first choice and was the college finally selected unless the opportunities were far greater at some other institution or else for economic reasons a near-by or home college was chosen. Now, when great efforts are put forth by the authorities of a university to keep pace with its foremost rival, this 'going away to college' is very great as may be seen in the accompanying table.

The small number of Boston students who do not attend Harvard suggests the fact that there is in this city a preponderance of Harvard alumni, and the large number of students from New York at Harvard and Yale illustrates a similar condition, as does also the small number of Boston, New York, Connecticut and Philadelphia students at Chicago, though in this last instance distance doubtless exerts some influence.

It is evident that in the manifold centers of instruction with students from practically all the states, the process of 'freeing themselves from local prejudices and jealousies' is more effectual than if there were congregated at one place numbers so great that state associations would be formed for social reasons.

In Germany the migration of students is encouraged, and in this country the Association of American Universities is endeavoring to formulate a plan by which students may pass from one institution to another, receive credit for work wherever done and return for his degree to the university at which he matriculated.

In 1790 state capitals were as far apart in time as national capitals are to-day, and the prejudices and jealousies that now differentiate people of different nationalities are no greater than those that in Washington's time separated the citizens of the various states of the Union. And though the nations of the world will never be brought under a single government, the desirability of removing national prejudices is as great now as was a century ago the elimination of state jealousies. The logical conclusion therefore would be that the