Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/148



Says that great student of Western history, Professor Frederick J. Turner, formerly of Wisconsin, now of Harvard University:—

"Nothing in our educational history is more striking than the steady pressure of democracy upon its universities to adapt them to the requirements of all the people. From the State Universities of the Middle West, shaped under pioneer ideals, have come the fuller recognition of scientific studies, and especially those of applied science devoted to the conquest of nature; the breaking down of the traditional required curriculum; the union of vocational and college work in the same institution; the development of agricultural and engineering colleges and business courses; the training of lawyers, administrators, public men, and journalists—all under the ideal of service to democracy rather than of individual advancement alone. Other universities do the same things; but the head springs and the main current of this great stream of tendency come from the land of the pioneers, the democratic states of the Middle West. And the people themselves, through their boards of trustees and the legislature, are in the last resort the court of appeal as to the directions and conditions of growth … have the fountain of income from which these universities derive their existence…

"In the transitional conditions of American democracy … the mission of the University is most important. The times call for educated leaders. General experience and rule-of-thumb in-