At Claremont, Calif., hard by Los Angeles, another Oxford rises. Oxford, at least, is the handiest comparison, for Oxford is a group of autonomous colleges, individually staffed, housed and administered, under a university seal that indicates their federation into a community of learning in which only major facilities, basic policies and an enveloping tradition are held in common.
The California Oxford does not call itself a "university," that term having assumed a peculiar connotation in the U. S. It calls itself Claremont Colleges. Lately the Harvard Alumni Bulletin set forth the aims and status of Claremont Colleges, an educational project unique in interest and possibilities. Harvard's interest was intimate; graduates of hers have helped make Claremont history for 5 years.
This history began with the foundation of Pomona College in 1888. A local population with New England antecedents made it possible for Pomona in the midst of the booming, expanding West, with the tenth largest city in the U. S. (today) close at hand, to adopt and maintain the characteristics of a "small college," like Amherst and Williams, Knox and Antioch. Intimacy, hospitality and the individuality of teacher and taught are prime among these characteristics When popularity and population pressure increased, Pomona firmly fixed 700 as its maximum enrollment figure. Rigid selection of entrants was enforced.
But population pressure and popularity are not diminished by such measures. And the Pomonians fell to reflecting that one good creation justifies another. They pictured a group of colleges, like but distinct from Pomona, growing up together as funds became available. As the picture became a fact, they planned a general library, certain special laboratories and a central administrative body to deal with matters (for example, honors examinations) of community interest and value. They pictured a growing milieu of teachers in congenial surroundings, with wieldy groups of students and a rare chance to test and compare pedagogical theories. They saw undergraduate scholarship spurred by competition among the colleges . . . athletics at home . . . university breadth for small college thought ... a metropolis of student-villages. . . .
So Pomona's first neighbor college was founded-Scripps College for Women. This will open next autumn. Up and down the Pacific coast go praise and thanksgiving for the woman who gave the money, Miss Ellen B. Scripps of La Jolla, Calif., "most beloved woman in Southern California."
Lord Bryce wrote The Holy Roman Empire at 26, which was Ben Franklin's age when he wrote Poor Richard's Almanack. Buskin and Roosevelt were 24 when they composed, respectively, Modern Painters and The War of 1812. John Jay was Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court at 44. Charles James Fox was a junior lord of admiralty, a thorn in George Ill's side, at 21. William Pitt, Britain's prime minister for 17 years, assumed office at 24, having previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer. At 20, Alexander Hamilton was a leading authority on government; at 24, conceived the National Bank. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence at 33. Robert Peel's name was great in Parliament soon after he was 21. J. T. Delane became editor of the London Times at 24.