1903-04 Volume 28 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

THE SCROLL. 103Alfred Mosely, a prominent English economist, is in thiscountry at the head of the British Educational Commission,which has come at his invitation and expense to investigateAmerican educational methods. The men composing thecommission are from England's highest educational circles,some being members of Parliament. Mr. Mosely's interestin and admiration for American institutions were firstaroused, it is said, by his acquaintance with American engineersin the South African mines where he gained his fortune.His high opinion of American colleges was illustratedthis fall by his placing his two sons in an Americaninstitution, Yale, in preference to Oxford.At the convention of the American Medical Association,in New Orleans, Dr. Billings drew attention to the fact thatthe medical colleges are graduating annually from 10,000to 12,500 physicians, when the actual needs of this countrycall for only about 2,500. It seems a pity that some of thesegraduates have not entered other professions that are not socrowded and can offer better prospects of remuneration.Sanitary engineering, naval architecture and the comparativelynew profession of forestry, for instance, are not overcrowded,and there will soon be a great demand for reallycompetent automobile engineers, men who combine withmechanical ability a thorough knowledge of gas and otherengines that are competing for the control of the field.—Scientific American.So far as the Rhodes scholarships are concerned, the mostunkindest cut of all comes from Australia. The Argus,which is the most influential paper in Melbourne, pointsout that, setting aside social polish, and looking only to intellectualacquisition, Australians, at all events, should recognizethat the student who seeks merely to graduate, andwho does not take the so-called 'honor' course, has nothingto gain from Oxford. In the opinion of the Argus, the colonialwould be, for the most part, better taught at Melbourne,Sidney or Montreal, because the B. A. degree conferredat the larger colonial universities means more as regardsquantity and quality of acquirements than the 'pass'degree obtainable at Oxford. It adds that, hitherto, whenrich Australians have sent their sons to graduate, or to try tograduate, at Oxford or Cambridge, rather than Melbourneor Adelaide, they have done so candidly on social grounds.As regards an equipment for the struggle of Australianlife, the step is pronounced injudicious.—Harper's Weekly.