1916] OF THE SENATE., 29

ing to the preamble, the purpose of the incorporation was to
promote the cause of education and to make uniform the stand-
ard of scholarship, and to increase the opportunities and facili-
ties for study and research; and to encourage and promote
higher education in the State by creating an executive centre
about which the various collegiate, technical and professional
institutions of this State may be co-ordinated to carry out a
comprehensive and harmonious scheme of education.

The Act, after providing for Trustees, enables the Maryland
State University to enter into a contract, articles of agreement
or mutual ordinances with any existing or heretofore created
college, university, conservatory, institution, technical, profes-
sional, military or agricultural school, or other similar institu-
tion; and to affiliate any such institution under such terms as
may to the governing bodies of the said institution and of the
said Maryland State University seem meet and proper.

The thought behind this Act was that, while much had been
done in the State of Maryland furthering the interests of pri-
mary education, compared with other States, Maryland had
been backward in the promotion of higher education, leaving
this field to various private corporations, and contributing
toward their support and maintenance various sums from time
to time as was by theni deemed equitable in exchange for cer-
tain public scholarships. Under this system a number of impor-
tant schools of higher education have grown up in the State,
some confining themselves exclusively to certain professional
training, while others occupied alone the academic field.

It seems a waste of energy and resources to maintain these
institutions in their present condition, and if the State desires
to follow the modern trend, it will itself take charge of the
higher education of its citizens. While this is probably not of
as much importance from the standpoint of a State function as
the care for and promotion of primary education, it does seem
to present and demand an opportunity for a more efficient and
satisfactory administration of these matters so as to avoid the
many duplications which necessarily attend a multiplicity of
schools. And, were the facilities of all held by one univer-