Conant Enlarges Ideas Limiting College Studies to Best Talent

ATLANTIC CITY, N. J., Mar. 3--Claiming that "the country at large would benefit by an elimination of at least a quarter or perhaps one-half of those now enrolled in advanced university work and the substitution of those of more talent in their place," President Conant's long-awaited enlargement of his decrying of 'unemployment of university men' idea came yesterday in the form of a speech delivered here.

The address was given at a meeting of the American Association of School Administrators. President Conant read a part of the same speech over the radio, station WJZ, at 8 o'clock last night. The entire speech will appear in a future issue of Harper's Magazine.

No Direct Reply to Union Charges

Those who looked for the President is answer directly the charges recently hurled by the Cambridge Union of University Teachers, that his annual report idea of cutting down on University enrollment was a "ploughing under of human brains," were disappointed, for the President did not mention the accusation.

Conant did say, however, that "only the most unrealistic optimist would believe that the accidental interplay of social and economic forces has resulted in the selection of the right 11 per cent of our youth for college work."

Mentioning specifically the legal profession, in which he stated "there is no selective process at work," Conant declared, "Quite apart from economic considerations, the existence of any large number of highly educated individuals is unhealthy for any nation."

Sounding the cry for a fair scholarship policy, President Conant declared "we have had fortunate experience" with the "sliding scale National Scholarship" plan at Harvard. "It is perfectly evident to me," he said, "that at the college level, and at the advanced professional school stage, all the institutions of the country have been fishing in one small pond. They have been concerned, by and large, with a competition for the most promising youths in the income tax paying group; and at least three-quarters, or more probably 90 per cent, of the youths of the country are not to be found within this class."

In what may be taken as an answer to the two-year junior college proposal of President Hutchins of Chicago University, Conant announced that "no one educator can outline the perfect plan" for higher education because of sectional differences.

Opposing the junior-college scheme, he said, "Personally I should prefer the alternative by which selected high school graduates leave their local communities and go directly to a four-year college of what I may call the 'University type'."

The speech opened and closed on the vein of the Jeffersonian ideal, "to cull from every condition of our people the natural aristocracy of talent and virtue."

"Jefferson's ideal must be achieved . . . our children will see what the world has never witnessed: a nation in which basic education is truly universal and careers are open to the talented drawn from every class and section of the land.