THE GIFT HORSE

In an article written for the Associated Press newspapers President George Thomas of the University of Utah has said that the traditional ideal of the highest possible education for each child of the American family is rapidly disappearing. Increased tutitional rates are, he feels, the sole contributing factor to this change. To inject new life into the dying ideal he suggests that the state undertake the added burden, an expenditure that would be justified by "the fact that the durability of our institutions depends upon the intelligence of the electorate. With the wealth of the nation increasing as never before, what fundamentally sound argument is there that the state cannot carry the added load?"

There is, of course, no such assurance. But it is extremely doubtful if the subsidization of universities by the state is wise, for the same reason that national subsidization of schools was rejected: the fact that such subsidization cannot go on without an accompaniment of con-control. And however wise it may be that the secondary schools be subject indirectly to the voter, the same control would not be a healthful influence on the university.

The durability of our institutions does depend, in a loose way, on the intelligence of the electorate. But college head men are not the only rational voters. In consideration by proportions, which is the only way to consider large educational questions, the importance of the extreme minority who ever go to college is slight. It would therefore behoove the state to set the secondary schools on a uniformly sound financial basis before turning to the as yet un-requested assistance of the college.