Welsh Journals

IMPRESSIONS OF A WELSH TUTOR IN U.S.A. by John Thomas, M.A. IN asking my fellow countrymen to read these I observations of a Welsh Educationist and Economics Lecturer, upon a tour in U.S.A., I would like to impress upon them that I saw only the Eastern corner comprising the 'States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Massachusetts. Some of these States are singly greater than all of our gallant little country, Wales, territorially. America is not a country, it is rather a collection of countries called States, 48 of them in the Republic of the Northern Continent of the New World. Indeed, it is strictly more correct to call America an Empire, for such it is, with its Caribbean and Pacific Possessions. As coming from "Gwlad fach y Gân," which I used to traverse North, South, East and West- the longest journey taking but a few hours-the one thing that struck me was America's immensity or bigness. The distance from New York on the East Coast to San Francisco is greater than from Fishguard to New York, and that is over three thousand miles. The population of one city in U.S.A.-New York-exceeds that of the whole population of Wales, while the whole population of the U.S.A. reaches the staggering 'figure of 123 millions. My tour did not enable me to visit the Great Middle West-the agricultural backbone of the U.S.A., nor the fruit farming and film communities of the Pacific Coast, nor the cotton growing South, with its teeming Negro descendants of Uncle Tom's Cabin-which startling disclosures by Mrs. Beecher Stowe were read by sympathising anti-slavery Welshmen, who read every page of "Caban F'ewyrth Twm." Having thus explained the limits of my tour- which was circular, touching first at New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, IPittsburg, Buffalo, Niagara, Syracuse, South Hadley, Albany, Cambridge, Boston, Yale, Newhaven, and back to New York-I will endeavour to express some of my impressions of the educational or cultural life of America. Within the ambit of these Eastern States I was privileged to visit and in many cases stay at twenty-one Universities or Colleges. Although I was unable to see the educational activities of these organisations in operation (except in the Extra- mural or Vacation Courses described later), I had every facility to see over the buildings, lecture halls, dormitories, libraries-and the "Campus." Further, I was able to discuss with some of the College Presidents (which is America's equivalent to our Welsh Principal) a good deal about their educational ideals, curricula, degrees, and educa- tional standards. My comments will be confined to Universities and Colleges, although I did visit some Grammar or High Schools as they are termed in America, and I discussed with one Director of Education some features of the Elementary Schools. The "Campus" of an American University is a never to be forgotten sight and site! If one could roll into one the actual buildings and grounds of all the four Colleges of the University of Wales at Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff and Swansea, then one might conceivably think of the whole ensemble as a very small edition of a University Campus in America. Some of the larger Universities that I visited had more undergraduates than the whole number of students in the four Colleges of Wales. (Readers desiring details of American University life will find an exhaustive treatment in Dr. Abram Flexner's book on American, English, and German Universities-which I regret to say, does not do justice to the Welsh University and its Constituent Colleges, for he devotes but scant pages to Wales and incidentally to Scottish Universities). The lavishness of the buildings and lecture-halls, dor- mitories, laboratories, college libraries, art gal- leries, chapels, administrative offices, college grounds-the campus or site they beggar description. They have not been financed by the pence of the people (as is the case in Bangor, to cite one in Wales), but they have been lavishly endowed in many cases by millionaires or trustees appointed to administer the wealth accumulated by millionaires As an illustration, the former head of the Kodak Company, G. Eastman, who so tragically ended his life a few months past, has left his entire fortune of 5 million dollars to Rochester University, which he had founded with lavish benefactions during his life-time. Other Colleges, especially in more rural areas in the East, have been founded and maintained by State grants, and these in many cases have been further financed by huge donations and bequests by millionaires and other less wealthy people. In going through some of these lavish buildings, so exquisitely equipped (yes! I do not use extrava- gant terms), so extravagantly decorated and fur- nished, I had to pinch myself to be sure that I was not dreaming or wading through pages of "The Arabian Nights." I always thought that my old College-the New Cathays Buildings-and the beautiful New Bangor College, where the first W.E.A. Summer Schools were held, could never be improved upon for their site, architecture, charm, and equipment but now I shall have to tell my friends, if you want to see "some" University Buildings and "campus"