The Commoner
AUGUST, 1916
SENDS 1,044 READERS TO THE COMMONER
From a Kansas Committeeman: I am herewith enclosing you a list of 1 ,044-short
term subscriptions, to whom I desire that you send The Commoner regularly till the
close of the campaign.
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The Christian College
The Christian college occupies a more Import
ant position today than ever before, because the
necessity for moral development increases 'with
the extension of our educational system.
The mind Is a splendid servant but it is not
worthy to be the Master of the Man. The heart,
not the head, must occupy the throne, if. the life
is to be what it ougbt to be. As a rudder built
for a fishing boat is impotent to guide a modern
merchant ship, so a heart development which
might safely guide an undeveloped mind is im
potent to direct the highly "trained intellect.
The necessity, therefore, for a larger, broader,
deeper spiritual life is the imperative need of
today, and the need can not be fully supplied by
schools and colleges from which religious train
ing is excluded, for morals rest upon religion
not upon a creed but upon man's sense of re
sponsibility to God. The development of morals
can not be made incidental; it must be a part of
the plan. Religious tests can not be applied in
institutions supported by public taxation, and,
as a result, we find that irreligion is being,
taught under the guise of philosophy. Pro
fessors who would rebel against the application
of biblical tests to themselves, have no hesita
tion in undermining the faith of students who
come from Christian homes by attacks upon the
Bible and its teachings. The college period,
therefore, instead of qualifying the student for
life on a high plane and with the promise of big
results, sometimes shatters his Ideals and sends
him out with the instability of the agnostic or
with the sneer of the infidel.
What is to be done? The small Christian col
lege, with its lofty aims and its noble purposes,
is engaged in a struggle for existence. Its en
dowments are insufficient and it makes a pre
carious living from year to year, wiping out its
deficits by an annual appeal to friends. If we
look the situation squarely in the face, we find
that the principal- cause of failure is to be found
in the fact that the small college has undertaken
a task that is becoming more and more impos
sible. It is trying, unsuccessfully, to compete
with the big universities, state and private.
When a representative of a small denomina
tional college calls upon Christian parents to so
licit students, he is met with the answer that the
children want the prestige of a diploma from a
larger institution, and the parents are so anxious
to encourage the children in the obtaining of an
education, that they do not feeL like risking the
effect of a refusal to gratify what seems to be a
very plausible ambition.
It might as well be understood that the small
Christian college can not rival the big institu
tions as a finishing college. Each of the denom
inations, of course, has one or more large in
stitutions with a prestige equal, or nearly equal,
to the prestige of the state Institutions, but this
is not true of the great majority of the denom
inational schools. They are attempting to do
"what they can not do, and, because they attempt
the unreasonable, they are falling behind in the
race.
There is a place, however, which the small
Christian college can fill, and it is really a. more
important place that the position to which it has
aspired. The critical time in life is covered by
the years during which youth merges into man
hood and womanhood; and nothing except spirit
ual guidance is sufficient to direct the student's
steps aright during these years. If the child en
ters school at six, it will generally finish the
eighth grade at fourteen. Then comes the high
school period, generally covering the years from
fourteen to eighteen, and then follow the four
years of college life, bringing the student to
graduation at twenty-two. A few of the more
precocious students may graduate at twenty-one
a still smaller number at twenty. If the stu
dent is backward, or the school period Is inter
rupted, graduation may not take place until
twenty-three, twenty-four or even twenty-five.
But, generally speaking, life's impulses and pur
poses become fixed in strength and direction
while the student is nearing the end of the high
school period, or during the earlier years of the
university course. If the Christian college can
take the student at this time and exercise a sym
pathetic supervision during, say, four years, the
foundation will be laid upon which to build a
substantial character.
Why not, then, include the Christian college
in our school system by making it a Junior or
intermediate school instead of a finishing school?
The name, Academy, Is as appropriate as Junior
College; they convey the same idea, namely,
of a school that is neither the beginning nor the
end of the educational period.
If co-education is questionable at any period,
it is at this period, when early attachments may
divert attention from study and dwarf educa
tional growth. The junior and senior years of
high school bring boys and girls, or shall wo
call them young men and women, together at a
very susceptible age. If they fall in love, the
five or six years intervening between them and
the completion of a college course seem a long
time, and many yield to the temptation to aban
don school before finishing. It is just at this
period that a separate school for boys and girls
may offer some advantages, as shown by the
fact that these separate boarding schools are
practically the only schools that are self-supporting.
Parents will pay for that which they feel
they must have, and for that reason many
children are taken out of the public schools at
this period and sent to boyB' schools or girls'
schools. While this is more common In the
case of girls, the reason is scarcely less strong
in the case of boys.
Is there not an opportunity hero that has not
been fully improved? Can not the church, with
great advantage, encourage the establishment of
the boys' school to cover this period? It need
not bo a large school. In fact, the small school
has some advantages over trie large one. In
the first place, there can be MORE small schools
and thus the schools can be brought nearer tfc
the parents and a larger number of communities
supplied. An educational institution is an in
spiration to a coirimunlty and most of its stu
dents come from the immediate neighborhood.
In a school of, say, two hundred, the students
will find a sufficient collegiate companionship to
develop the social side of their natures, and yet
they will not be so numerous as to loso the
close personal contact with the Instructors; and,
what is also Important, they will not dlvldo up
into groups, separated by pecuniary lines. Edu
cation to be complete must fit the student for
life, not merely for study, and intimate inter
course with Instructors who have a spiritual
vision and a real Christian sympathy, is a part
of the education which can not be over
estimated. Here is a field for the philanthropist not the
millionaire, but the independent business man,
whether he be a prosperous financier of a
small city, or- a successful professional man,
merchant or farmer. He can give enough to put
up a hajl which will bear his name, or one of the
few buildings that such an institutionould re
oulre, and he can thus make himself a part of
an Institution which will go on and on through
out the y,ears, influencing lives that may mold
tho destiny of the nation.
The enormous gifts and bequests of the
wealthy to big institutions should not discour
age those able to make only modest contribu
tions A multitude can give as the widow gave
her two mites, .and verily they shall receive
their reward. There is scarcely a county which
could not easily afford such an academy and
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who can measure the influence of such a school
on tho morals of a community and tho welfare
of a nation? Every big denominational unlvor
slty needs "feeders" of this kind scattored over
tho territory tributary to it.
Such an Institution would tako tho student
over tho lino between tho high school and the
university, tho place where so many drop out.
By tho time tho student finished such an acad
emy, ho would bo within two years of a univer
sity diploma and would thon bo likely to com
plete his education. His foot would be fixed upon
the solid rock; tho foundation would bo laid for
a Christian character; and he would bo prepared
to take up tho studies of the last two years of
tho university with an understanding of tho re
lation which physical science bears to tho science
of "How to Llvo."
In the university, ho would associate with
young women with ambitions similar to his own
and whose tastes would bo congenial; and ho
would then bo able to select with moro intelli
gence and with greater certainty a real helpmate
in his life work.
Is it not worth while for our Christian edu
cators and our Christian philanthropists to con
sider the wisdom of multiplying these inter
mediate Christian academies as training places
for the development of- Christian manhood and
womanhood?
W. J. BRYAN., t
A GOOD PURCHASE
The purchase of the Danish islands Is good;
excellent. And now let tho Columbian treaty
bo ratified. Panama was much moro valuable
to us, and Columbia, because of republican op
position, has received nothing yet. Why does
not Candidate Hughes urge tho republicans to
do justice to Columbia.
"CAN YOU BEAT IT?"
When one reads the violent and abusive
speeches of the ox-justice, of tho supremo court
ho wonders whether Colonel Roosevelt could
have done worse, No wonder the Colonel writes
the woman, "You work for me when you work
for Hughes."
Iowa Democracy's Victory
The democracy of Iowa has won a great vie-'
tory a victory for the party because it is a vic
tory for the home and for good government. On
another page will be found the platform,adopted
by the democratic convention, especial attention
being called to tho following plank:
"We commend the stand of our candidate for
governor upon the liquor question, and it being
a fundamental principle of democracy that the
people- shall rule, we favor the resubmission of
the prohibitory amendment to tho people, and
pledge ourselves, if given the power, to so sub
mit it. We further favor such legislation as may
be necessary, if any, for the effective enforce
ment of tho present prohibitory laws."
Candidates Meredith and Clarksou and Na-,
tional Committeeman Marsh deserve great credit
for tho success of the effort to free the party
from the baleful influence of the liquor Interest
and put it in a position to represent the hopes
and aspirations of the people of Iowa. The dem
ocratic party can now go before the voters of
Iowa and make its appeal to the best element
in tho state; It can now pledge itself to serve the
whole state and labor for the welfare" of all.
Here's to Meredith and Clarkson and the entire
ticket. And here's to the democracy 6t Iowa;
she deserves a place in the front rank in the
great fight ahead of us.
W. J. BRYAN.
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