The following special article was written by Sir James Irvine, president of St. Andrew's University, the largest center of learning in Scotland. Sir James is on the board of administrators of the Harkness Fund, which was established two years ago to promote Anglo-American friendship by sending British graduate students to this country.

The Commonwealth fund as the Harkness gift is called, has given me the chance to study your American universities and to compare them in method and policy with out British universities. Of course, my primary aim while in this country has been not to generalize about the differences to be found, but to find what universities can give most to the 20 students that come here annually through the Harkness gift.

We are very anxious that the selected men that receive the schola ships contribute as much as possible to the understanding of your country by our country. We, therefore, try to send the students to as many different schools as possible, and we require that they shall spend their Summer vacations at our expense traveling throughout the country.

Harkness Standards Are High

The standard for the Harkness scholars is considerably higher than that for Rhodes scholars. A Rhodes scholar may be an undergraduate, and he is chosen chiefly for his qualities of leadership, both in the classroom and on the athletic field. On the other hand, a Harkness scholar must be a graduate of some British university, and although athletic ability and leadership in extra-curriculum activities are by no means disqualifications, the first considration is intellectual ability and originality.

The Harkness scholar comes to America with a serious intellectual purpose and it is the business of our committee to find the right environment for him. Most of the men that come to this country are not familiar with the various types of higher education that are to be found in. America, and we have to keep each man informed as to the place most suited to his needs, and yet we never can allow more than three of the scholars to be at one university at the same time.

Small Universities Are Popular

There has been from the beginning a strong claim for Harvard, Yale, Princeton. Cornell and California, and so to these universities we have sent many of our men. Gradually, however, we are showing to our men the advantages of the smaller colleges in the East and the State universities in the West.

The great objection to choosing a Western university for one of the British scholars, is his natural aversion to a large institution, in which his connection with his teachers and fellow students can not be intimate. In fact, I view with a certain amount of alarm the increasing size of American universities. Most of the higher seats of learning in the West are considerably overcrowded, and only recently have the Eastern colleges limited their numbers strictly.

British Colleges Breed Intimacy

In the British Isles, even when our enrollment becames large, we have the compensating feature of the college system. A man who goes to a British university is a member of the university only for the purpose of examination and parietal regulation: his real connection is with one of the many colleges that form the university. The British student is more than a name on a register, for he is known as intimately by the members of the college as he is known by the members of his own family. Although in Great Britain, very few of the men room together, and much more study is done in comparative solitude than in America, I would unhesitatingly say that the Britisher far exceeds the American in his familiarity with his professors, tutors, dons, and other students.

Fraternities Powerful In U. S.

I understand that there has been some discussion of the possibility of introducing the college system in this country. Without attempting to give a hasty judgment, I should be inclined to say that the system of fraternities in this country. Without attempting to give a hasty judgment, I should be inclined to say that the system of fraternities in this country would make the college system impracticable. The fraternities are in America a strong social and political force, and they are so deeply embedded in the structure of higher education that an attempt to infringe upon their privileges would meet with considerable opposition.

The are serious attempt that has been to counteract the influence of the fraternity was made by the late President when he was at the head of Princeton University, and I am told that even there the suppression of fraternities is only nominal, and that the eating clubs exercise practicaly the same functions that the Greek letter societies once had.

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