place of 1910. Each of the six blocks is subdivided into the proportions of undergraduate, graduate, and Summer School students. A glance at Graph No. 2 will show that New England, which in 1880 fur. nished 1,000 out of 1,411 students, now furnishes 4,000 out of 7,750; the Middle States have gone up from 200 to 1,500; the West from 100 to 1,000; the South from 26 to 470; the Far West from 25 to 390; the foreign students from 23 to 300. New England and the Middle States together contributed 1,200 in 1880 and 5,300 in 1920. That is, while the students from New England have been gaining, those from other sections have gained much faster. For many years the individual contributions from the West, South, and Far West were small, but they have grown steadily, till near a thousand Harvard men are in the Central Western Group, about 460 from the South, and 400 from the Far West. That is, the extra-New England students are numerous and widely distributed, and rapidly increasing. It These agreeable facts are brought out in greater detail in Graph No. 3, which shows on an enlarged scale the distribution for the three groups (undergraduate, graduate, and Summer School). In Graph No. 4 appear the four largest Graduate Schools-Arts and Sciences, Law, Medical, and Business Administration. will be seen at once that New England furnishes a comfortable rock-bottom for all these schools; but that nearly half of the undergraduates come from outside, including large contingents from every section. The growth of Harvard College in total numbers is now due to slow increases in New England and the Middle States and more rapid increases in the other four sections. A decided majority of Harvard College students come from north of the Potomac and east of the Missouri. The Graduate Schools, on the contrary, have no more New England students than twenty years ago, though their total has increased from 1,800 to 2,800. The Graduate and Summer Schools taken together are nearly two-thirds extra-New England; and the fan-like divergence of the lines shows. that these elements are increasing. Only about one-third of the Summer School comes from beyond New England boundaries; and that is a reason for making every effort to bring the Harvard Summer School to the attention of the country at large. Here is a valuable opportunity of enlarging the national influence of Harvard. The explanation of these results is very simple-Harvard College and all the professional schools connected with it are widely known and much esteemed in every part of the United States. The actual effect of their reputation is proved by the increasing numbers from outside New England; and that steady and large gain sends out increasing graduates who exercise an ever extending national influence. Another very interesting point is how far Harvard has kept up or increased its numbers in proportion to the population of the Union. Graph No. 5 shows, first, the dis tribution of the national population into five national sections from decade to decade, since 1880. The diagram shows instantly that though New England has increased from four to seven millions in forty years, the Middle, Central, Western, and Southern States have each about doubled, and the Far West has grown up from two millions to eleven millions. The curve of the total growth of the Union is shown by the upper thick line. The publications of the United States. Department of Education furnish material for constructing a proportional curve for the total students in the American univer. sities and higher scientific institutions. After some falling off in 1906, due to reasons difficult to understand, that total runs up much more sharply than the total curve, showing that higher education gains ground steadily. Harvard, however, which began. proportionately below the national university total, passed it in 1880, and has ever since been decidedly in advance. That is, at all times since 1901 Harvard has had a more rapid growth than the average of all higher institutions and also more rapid in proportion to the national population. This relation is further brought out by the table of percentages of academic distribution, from which it appears that New England, with 7 per cent. of the population, furnishes 12 per cent. of all students in higher institutions; while the South is considerably below its proportion of university students the negroes, who are about one-third of that population, furnish almost no college students. The distribution of Harvard men in the various sections of the country has been ascertained through the classification by states, printed in the Harvard Directory of 1913, covering 38,000 individuals. The Harvard Catalogue of 1912 makes possible the exact comparison of the derivation of the student body. In round and necessarily inexact terms, there are proportionately more Harvard students than Harvard fathers in New England; but for New England and the Middle States together, the proportion of former students and present students is almost equal. In the West it is precisely equal. In the South, Harvard has more hold on the present generation of students than on their elders. In the Far West alone does the proportion of Harvard students considerably drop below that of resident Harvard men-a state of things which deserves inquiry. As a general proposition, this table establishes the certainty that Harvard not only has a firm grip on the extra-New England sections, but is enlarging that holding from decade to decade. Inasmuch as a considerable number of Eastern men who are New England and Middle States students and graduates are known to seek the West and the Far West for their homes, there must be a reflex flow of Westerners to the East; and that corresponds to the frequent experience of meeting in Boston, or New York, or Providence, Harvard graduates of Western origin who have settled in the East. The general conclusion with regard to distribution is that as a university, Harvard has a magnificent reach into all parts of the country, particularly in the Graduate Schools; that the influence of Harvard men throughout the Union is such as to induce young men to come long distances to seek Harvard; that every section has a considerable representation in every part of the University; and that the proportion of Harvard men to the total population of the Union is more than twice what it was forty years ago. Comparative Distribution of Large na Graph No. 6 is devoted to the third important question of university tionality. Harvard might include many students widely distributed and yet be inferior in average distribution to other institution aiming to be national. In making up these figures, the records of all institutions having a population of 5,000 and above have been consulted. The institutions that enter into competition with Harvard on this ground are few. Some of the colleges, particularly the New England and Middle States women's colleges, show a broad distribution. Wellesley, for instance, draws only a third of its 1,529 students from New England and nearly another third from the Central West; while about half of the 1,089 students of Vassar are from the Middle States. Only 30 per cent. of Smith's 1,940 students are from New England. None of these institutions, however, meet the other test of nationality— they do not provide for a variety of the nation's professions. A considerable and highly esteemed group of men's institutions, likewise lacks the essential of nationality, viz.: the provision of a group of special and professional schools to meet the needs of a various population. Such are, for example, Dartmouth and Princeton. A list of strong, important, and populous universities can be made which have the national qualifications of variety of schools, attended by large numbers, but are still local rather than national, in that the greater part of their students come from the section or even the state in which they are situated. The documents of Iowa |