Show oxfords problem fro 1 DI 1 cd nim ax 4 vt tom tower of christ church college oxford prepared by the national deot aph a society washington D C biord the famous english 0 oxford university city to town ton n Is confronted with a perplexing problem dependent Depend eit almost entirely upon the good will and trade of the students and professors of the ancient seat of learning which has carried its name around the world it Is natural ly anxious to present any outside fac tor from spoil no ng the un que character and appearance of the town yet only five live miles away in the neighboring village of cowley the largest automobile factory in great britain prospers and threatens to bring modern mass production up to the very walls and spires of its halls of learning england needs success ful industries just now and therein lies hes the rub the rational association of local government of england met in oxford recently and its members discussed tle tl e matter pro and con william robson one of the officers prophesied that oxford would become the latin quarter of cowley ox onland it Is clear would rather have such industries confined to the mid lands and would save each in its own way both oxford and lancashire oxford Is a picture of the middle ages whose spirit speaks of tomor row and Is a fascinating study in it self A home of lost causes and im possible loyalties it has been labeled by some writers perhaps libeled Is a better word lost causes and impossible loyalties suggest defeat and decay but oxford apparently has been nourished by lost causes it has thrived on or prospered in spite of impossible loyalties the spires of the good gray city look down upon us restless ones of a machine age with the same detach ment and indifference that they d s played in the face of cromwell and his roundheads or any others who have threatened their monastic peace and calm there are of course those who say that oxford is very far from being a home of lost causes and that on the contrary it has always been quick to fall in line with every copular fad which various generations have devel denel aped but this is a matter of opinion keeping up to date strolling along the winding streets and lanes of oxford town one notices many things in the windows and signs of the shops which indicate that the tradesmen and others not directly connected with the university hersity have made concessions to the times chain stores called 3 and Gs instead of 5 and 10 s the units being pennies there Is a branch of the well known woolworth Wool s in oxford american movie houses cinema Is the english i r word showing american and foreign films interurban bus lines garages and parking spaces soda fountains and novelty shops although every vista Is closed with a spire or tower a polite and efficient policeman will admonish you to come along move if you linger too long at crossings to drink in the beauty and charm of the scene sene before you but all this is oxford town which for generations has washed like a sea against the bulwark of walls towers and battlements known as the col leges of oxford university within their great iron studded gates the noise the ephemeral comings and go ings the ordinary pleasures and tri and disappointments of the workaday kaday world fade away anay I 1 here one feels sure Is no shell of a dead civilization but rather the rich fruit of ripe old age a maturity se k cure against whatever may come or go in the world outside be it near or far from the gates n of the university the origin of oxford as a university Is shrouded in the misty myths of a day when records were poorly kept and even more poorly preserved some authorities hold that oxford I 1 and cambridge were each founded by nearly early potentates others claim that religious establishments in the towns attracted scholars it seems more likely I 1 0 vever that both oxford and cambridge became universities as a result of af location and a series of fortunate circum stances halfway between london and the midlands of england on main routes connecting tl e two populous districts yet tar far enough removed from the disturbances of these industrial and political centers teachers and scholars alike found in them havens for academic life A few learned men gathered about them in their homes or in monastic buildings groups of students who found such eions as they could in halls or hostels about the town in course of time the scholars and teachers as a matter ot of convenience boarded together in halls gradually these halls gave way to corporate bodies or colleges most of them of rel bious foundation and endowment expulsion of foreign students from paris in the twelfth century proved a great impetus to the struggling lit tie tle english groups and we find a cen tury later that oxford has stu dents and that cambridge is lecog nihed in a writ of henry III as an important seat of learning today oxford is off officially iclal ly composed of 21 colleges one hall a delegacy of non collegiate students four so cleties or colleges of women stu dents and the society of oxford home students the last the female equiNa equivalent lent of the delegacy of non collegiate students graduates may continue to be members of the university by the annual payment of certain fees this membership carries with it both aca demic and political rights if the graduate has a degree of master of arts or h gher he may vote on all proposed university begic atlon and it if he Is also a british subject he may tale take part in the election of the two members of parliament to which the university as distinct from the town and county of oxford Is entitled each college independent oxford and cambridge are unique among institutions of higher learning in the world in that they are corn com posed of colleges which are also in corp orated bodies each college with independent endowments the right to receive and reject whom nhom it will and the power to regulate its students within the walls of the college itself as it sees fit no one in fact may be a member of the university un less he is first accepted by one of the colleges or tl e societies of which the university Is composed there are no members of the university at large the university regulates the teach ings prescribes the requirements for degrees and grants them and enforces discipline outside of the college walls almost every other power Is delegat ed to the individual colleges in some respects the relation between the hersity and its colleges resembles that between the federal government and the state governments of our own country one english writer comments facetiously on the system in solemn truth it may be said that the common law of england A which bach covers so great a part of the world even beyond the bounds of tl ti e british empire does not run in oxford oxford Is a free city wherein men are slaves of a chancel lorial tyrant this Is of course mere hyperbole but the vice chancellor who does the work of the chancellor an honorary nonresident officer may truly be said to be the lord of all he surveys in ox ford while the city of oxford has a ruling mayor and corporation coun ell and theoretically Is independent and supreme outside of college walls it usually gives way when the vice chancellor bot of the university wishes certain things for instance no dances benefit en or other amusements open to the general public and stu dents may be held within the limits of the city of oxford unless the per mission of the vice chancellor ha har first been obtained |