6. It has a final provision prohibiting all corporations from giving degrees except those specially chartered with this power and those incorporated as colleges or universities under the subchapter relating to "institutions of learning" and also provides that all colleges and universities of the District now or hereafter incorporated shall maintain such standards for conferring academic and honorary degrees as are usually insisted upon and applied by colleges and universities of recognized standing in the United States.

RECOMMENDATION OF THE GALLINGER BILL

Your committee recommends that the board of trade approve the provisions of the Gallinger Bill as above set forth, and take all proper measures to procure the amendment of the law on the principles stated in that Bill.'1

The foregoing report was presented at the meeting of the Board of Trade on December 1, 1914, and was opposed and not adopted. The following resolution, offered as a substitute, was then adopted:

"Resolved, That no institution desiring to give degrees as a college or university be permitted to file articles of incorporation until it has received the endorsement of the United States Commissioner of Education."

At the meeting of the board of trade on April 27, 1915, the committee submitted the following special report, which was adopted:

II

SPECIAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON UNIVERSITIES

April 27, 1915

To the President of the Washington Board of Trade:

The Committee on Universities respectfully reports as follows:

At the meeting of the board held on December 1, 1914, your committee presented its annual report, calling attention to the defects in the general incorporation law enacted by Congress for the District. This law permits any five persons, citizens of the United States, to incorporate as a college or university and give academic or honorary degrees, without any restriction. In that report the committee, while approving the supervision of all the colleges and universities in the District by a supervising official

or board as a proper method of reaching the abuses caused by the defects of the law, recommended another plan which they thought proper as an immediate measure of practical relief from the most pressing abuses. The plan recommended was for Congress to pass an act providing a property qualification for new degree-granting institutions proposed to be incorporated under the general law-$20,000 in the case of a college and $100,000 in the case of a university; this property qualification is to be determined by the district commissioners and their approval to be obtained before articles of incorporation could be filed.

Upon the reading of the committee's report, Dr. T. A. Williams, a member of the committee, proposed as a substitute the following resolution:

"Resolved, That no institution desiring to give degrees, as a college or university, be permitted to file articles of incorporation until it has received the indorsement of the United States Commissioner of Education."

The board voted in favor of the substitute resolution, and the report of the committee was therefore not adopted.

It thereupon became incumbent upon the committee to carry out the principle of supervision by the United States Commissioner of Education, to which the board of trade had committed itself by this resolution.

Upon consideration by the committee, it seemed impracticable and unjust to provide a supervision exclusively for new institutions desiring to incorporate as a college or university, and that it was necessary to treat all alike as respects supervision, placing all existing degree-granting institutions upon the same basis as proposed institutions.

The committee also concluded that a board headed by the commissioner of education would be preferable to vesting this power in that official alone.

The committee considered whether the board should be a local board of and for the District, or a national board with special powers in the District. The board of trade having designated the commissioner of education as the supervising official for new incorporations, it seemed to follow that the sentiment of the board of trade would be

in favor of a national supervising board with special powers in the District, rather than a local supervising board. The committee, upon consideration, concluded that such a board should be national, with special powers in the District.

The progress of the national university idea and the impracticability of there being two university boards in the District led the committee to consider the possibility of combining the two functions in one board. The hearings in February and March, 1914, before the committee on education of the House of Representatives, on the National University Bill introduced by the National Association of State Universities, made it evident that there was a considerable body of opinion in the United States favoring the establishment of a national board of university character for utilizing the resources of the government for educational research and possibly also for carrying on postgraduate instruction. Such a national university board, if established, would inevitably come into relationship with any supervising board for the colleges and universities of the District. The committee concluded that it was best to combine the two functions in one board.

After several meetings, the committee has agreed upon a draft of a bill to be introduced in Congress, if the board of trade approves. The principal features of this bill are as

follows:

A board called in the draft of proposed bill "the University Board," is proposed to be established in the Department of the Interior. This University Board is to consist of the commissioner of education and ten other persons, citizens of the United States, partly educators and partly men representative of the general interests in arts, sciences and industries, to be appointed by the President, by and with the consent of the Senate. The ten nonofficial members are to serve for long terms-ten years is proposed at a per diem compensation.

This proposed university board is to have jurisdiction to devise measures for utilizing the resources of the govern

ment for educational research and to organize and carry on any postgraduate teaching for which Congress may appropriate or accept funds. Besides these national powers this proposed university board is to have the following powers in the District:

To establish for all degree-granting institutions in the District any classifications, definitions, requirements and standards which it may deem necessary and proper and which are consistent with the ordinary practise in the United States; to act as relator in quo warranto proceedings to forfeit the charters of any degree-granting institutions which may have subjected themselves to such forfeiture by non-user or misuser of their franchises; to approve or disapprove any proposed incorporation of a degree-granting institution and any proposed consolidation or merger of existing degree-granting institutions, according as the board may deem desirable in the public interest; to enjoin the operations of any foreign degree-granting corporation which may improperly grant degrees in the District; and generally do all acts, not inconsistent with law, to protect and preserve the degree-granting power as exercised by institutions in the District.

This proposed university board is to report each year to the Secretary of the Interior, including in its report recommendations for carrying into effect the purposes of the act. This provision will, it is hoped, furnish Congress with the information necessary to enable it gradually and judiciously to develop the jurisdiction of the board if it should deem it proper so to do.

The powers designated are, it is believed, sufficient to enable the proposed university board to remedy all existing abuses in the District. The dignified and conservative character of the board, under the chairmanship of the commissioner of education, and the limits placed on its powers, will, it is believed, insure that its action will be beneficial to all the existing colleges and universities in the District which are properly exercising the degree-granting power.

The commissioner of education has carefully gone over with a subcommittee of this committee the draft of proposed bill of which the general features are above given, and authorizes the committee to state that he considers the plan proposed by it the best that has yet been devised.

The committee therefore recommends that the board of trade approve the principles of the draft of bill as above set forth, and authorize the executive committee to take such measures as may be proper to procure the passage of legislation on the general plan above outlined.

III

A BILL'

TO ESTABLISH A UNIVERSITY BOARD IN THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is hereby established, in the Department of the Interior, a board, to be known as the university board. Said board shall consist of the commissioner of education, together with ten other persons, citizens of the United States, representative of the higher educational interests of the United States and of the general interests in arts, sciences and industries, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the consent of the Senate. Of the first board two members shall hold office for two years, two for four years, two for six years, two for eight years, and two for ten years; the President to designate the terms. The members appointed upon the expiration of said terms shall hold office for the term of ten years. Vacancies shall be filled by appointment for the unexpired term. The commissioner of education shall be chairman ex-officio, and the board may elect one of its members as vice-chairman. The board shall appoint a secretary and may employ necessary clerical and other assistants and employes. It shall have an official seal. Each member, other than the commissioner of education, shall receive a compensation of ten dollars per day during the sessions of the board, and necessary traveling expenses. The secretary shall receive a salary of $3,000 per year.

Sec. 2. The board shall have power:

(a) To inquire into the scientific operations of the government, and recommend to the President, from time to time, measures for utilizing for educational and research purposes such scientific operations and the governmental facilities connected therewith;

(b) To advise and direct adult research students, having such qualifications as may seem proper to the board, in the use of such governmental operations and facilities, under the limitations provided by law or by executive regulation; and

1 Proposed bill recommended by the Committee on Universities in the foregoing Special Report, and approved in principle by the Washington Board of Trade at its meeting on April 27, 1915.