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About The Nebraskan. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1892-1899 | View Entire Issue (June 5, 1899)
wwwwwsm, nKBnmni WHHEKibHHHH IHHHMfflMffMIPIMVK T .' i "' ' V & aas1 . ' k " tJVi'S ru rH NEBRASK Vol. VII. No. 3G. UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, LINCOLN, JUNE 6, 1809. Price 5 Cents. i r AN 'A COMMENCEMENT ORATION "The Education Which Our Country Needs." President Northrop of Minnesota. !M)ore Mum sixty years ago lOdwnrd ('ontaraitlvely a hiiiiiU area, of the country is inhabited by people among whom can 1r found three generations of the saini' blood In the same. place. Itecklcssness and change arc our pres ent characteristics. What we shall dio next Is uncertain. When a family's destiny Is practically settled at, birth you can educate them for their work according to established rules of train M lit 1 1 1 1 HWllM ivvorei in an n u. ess : i mo I'oiiego ntfm ,t ,8 llIlHy to ,(1o ,i1iIh ... ......... ciesmoco most teltcltiously the sp Irlt thk'K-ly settled pants of Ihiropc where imii purposes 01 an occasion nice tuns, jjeneration after generation from filth- system of education did not really ed-('little power, are neveithclcss forever lie wild: 1 er lo son the occupations tire tlie same, i.'nl... . ...i. a ... '" ""'" liic irrciii liuiiiv n neens uiiim iii.-i i .. ...i ,.. ...j .. . .. ,, . -y . ... i, :, urn wiu-u i in mis couiinry me cnn- this, and of tllie addresses they draw ,mv of flinvUv nri, destined to be for h, is imtto impart stores or Infor- K-utti-ed, and each child may in the ination, laboriously collected; not to 'tMHirse of his llfo livo tn a l(zeni (Fttror broaeli new systems, requiring cure- I ,. tf,.n,i,.H cf eivlll.atlon. and' unite fully weighted arguments for their I probaiblv pursue a dozen different em- iiun-iivv, m- iii urn- in wnnir-1 pioynieivts, from school keopin mngexl faots for their illustration. We New ICngkind to running u i meet at these mcrarj rcstiwiis to pro- viuwh mote kind feetling; to impart new strength to good purposes; to enkin dle and animate the spirit of i'mprove monit in ourselves and others. We leave our closets, our olYlces, and our studies, to meet and salute each other in these pleasant paths; to prevent (the diverging walks of life from wholly estranging those from each other who were kind friends at the outset; to pay our homage to the venerated fathers, who honor witlli their presence the re turn of these academic festivals and tlliose of us who are no longer young, to make acquaintance with the ardent and ingenuous who are following after us. The preparation for an occasion like this is in the heart, not in the head; it is in the attachments formed, and the feelings inspired, in the bright morning of life. Our preparation lis in the classic atmosphere of the place, in the tranquility of the academic grove in the unoffending peace of the occasion, in 'the open eoun'tennnoe of long-parted associates, joyous at meet ing, and in the kind' and indulgent smile of the favoring throng, which bestows its animating1 attendance on our humble exorcises." Mr. ISvcrott chose as 'his topic on the occasion refeiTed to, "The Nature and Efficacy of l&lucatioo, as the Great p, Kvmmm Instrument of Improving tllic UoftdMtea ot jmb... uy ectueauon na jgjjKt) .fatcrcgvapoiiJtrwcCT- ston in okE35-"'i,j "" iiro cvgnrnviKfrfc-OTia ior m. ii is a bwik- Vng'-ooiaminiavy on the ennnges which 'have conic in Mie last half century that totk.v while I culm It till that Mr. Everett olaimed for education in Uie olden time, 1 ask your attention to a subject which distinctly implies that education no longer is and no longer should be the same for alleven for all who are found in the same college. peaking in southern g in ng a cattle California the conditions are seriously changed and the problem how to harmonize this ever-moving population with its con stantly changing eiivironliucnts, and to assimilate it with the steady influx of a purely foreign element from every union under heaven, becomes more difficult and more discouraging. It is nt once seen that it is going to take time, to inuuc this mixed mass, tilio splendid people that shall ulti mately occupy tills eon nit ry and live rest fully and peacefully willi their kinsfolk and acquaintances in that part of the country in which they have been born, keeping up the interests and promoting the works In which tlieir fathers before tiieni have been actively engaged. The situation, as may be seen, is not an id'eal one. There is a tremendous waste of force in all directions; and not u little of the educational work done under 'these conditions is like the training of a sportsman, wQio, having ilred at a calf, supposing it to be a deer, and having failed to hit it, ex plained his lack of skill by saying Mint lie Ilred so as to lii't it it it were a tiecr and miss it if it were n calf. Quite fre quently it is a calf, and1 perhaps it is fortuneite tli'nt we miss it as often as we do. This verv hasty sketch of tlh'c shi'fit- itwr elements of our country suggests kfccfi-iucfr''tnat- ifc-. --traJnmrtff-2'aTgc- mnnlbors of our people must be mm in exceedingly superficial. Vo are an im.mMi'intiR -neonle. an inventive nconle. i people wiitih -wonderful udhptnibillty. Hut there are altogether too -inn ivy jacks of all trades and good at none. Our meivhnnie nuts, our agriculture, our business interests of every kind have suffered from being undertaken bv men with no adequate training for their work. The thorough knowledge of his business possessed by the nrtl- icatic; and I think that the Indigna tion of the country nt such a state ment would be just. Yet 1 do not by any means 'believe that we have reuelred aiv cdueaitlontil millennium. If any college otl'leer or any teacher of a public school contem plates with perfect satisfaction the re sults of ithe training given to the aver age student, nil 1 have to sajr is thiat he is easily satisfied. For inyseM, i frankly ndimlt that, while guidliiL'' an educaitlonal InsMti- tion in the 'betet way 1 cam, so as to make it most serviceable to 'the sttite from which it draws its ll'fe, and so as to keep It at least, from being left high and drj, on tlti slhorc, while the rest of tlie educational -world saXs proudly on, 1 am fat' from 'being cer tain that we are headed for the tight port, that we are using the betit forces in the best way, or that we are lilcely to be entirely satisfied witli 'the re sults when our voyage is ended. lint while admiit'iing that our edu cation is not perfect, 1 am far from thinking that most of the evils in our country tire to bo, charged to defects in our educational, sjdtem. They fire evils which would exist under our pre ',wt conditions no mutter what niig'ht be our theory or p'.aa of edu cation' but they are also eviis which I am sure our educational work, faith fully continued, will remove. It has been customary to divide lit erature into two kinds the literature of knowledge ' and the literature of power. 1 would divide education) in tlie same way. Every one who knows anything about the inn titer, will admit that in respect ,'to the amount of knowledge imparted, our amstiittvtiions of learning are iieom'pma'lly superior to those of former iti m es. Tlie sciences are practicably Ithc product of tUie present century ,and the ithorough and systematic teaching of the scienees hat been, possible but little more tilinn a generation, lllstory and Htenaiture were never taught as 'they are today until comparatively a few yearsi ago. Otlter branches of learning nui'ght be named of whlcb the sarnie could le said. Tlie titden't 'when lie complates his college $ou;rso now, knows a great iicnr Jiiore twriuiniy 'biiuir wienmiiiKnc knew fifty jears ugo. But how is it in respect to power' in respect' to rcnl and unceasingly irrigating and fruc tifying broad territories that would otherwise be barren and unfruitful. Tlie irrigating ditches that cnn make a sage brush desert 'bear abii'ivd'anti'.y orange and kiinon, prune and apricot, grape and olive, lire not as suggestive of power as ne noisy stream, whose falling waters turn tlie wheels of a great mill, bin they are not luss benitl cent in their work, and their power, judged b, results, is not lews. That lncplicaille power wiuciii lilts tne sap from the roots wnd force's every branch and twig 'to bud and blossom unitill all nature is clothed In the garments of spring, is a silent force whose anove inenits inuc u n'li en rd, but wihose eilVwt in trausroriuiug tlie world of naiture, all the hurricanes in the universe can not equai. Power and noise are not synonymous terms. You reniennber that the seven lilberal studies wlhleh the seholiatiics of the middle ages called the trivium and 't.he quadriviuin, wdre granvma'r, logic aiwi rhetoric, the triple way to eloquence; and ani'thnietic, astronomy, geomiitry and music, tlie qundiiviul way to wilnyt ever eW In culture wiis deemed desir able. 'We have not almndoned a single one of these studies, but we hue add ed ti great variety of other studies which the presen't age requires. Kveiy .student must choose as witsei.v as ne can what will contri'bute most to his own success in life. When an intitiition provides insittnic tion in every department Mint dan rc snnmbly be desired, there is no antag onism etx'a ted1 between ithe old educa tion tmd tUie new. llot'h are provided; you take your choice, the refrasii uients are served on the Ruropcnn plan. If vou want to atituin to elo quence, the old path is open to you with the foot-murks of many genera tions still visible. On the other Ihand, in every well endowed, unwersiiy, uie single subject of biology, animal and plant life, is so broaduy nl minutely studied, that it might easily occupy the undivided nttentioni of t'lie student for itlie whole four years of college life, and Mie student might graduate an ac curate observer of nature, n muster Vf 1 uliii.11 nflVr nln lllMilotrV for S to vou upon a plain and practical sul- isan of (ierinany, would put our Anien jecV the lluca'tioii' which our Coim- nan aiitlsans to th blush, if tliey liad .. ..iu I iMimiiiiKtyn iii this su'b- not lonir iiiro cot oast blushing. Tlie icct. the evnrcssion wiiich our Country i Hermans are trained for years to do ,ie4i what men in this country will tinder I believe that diiToreut peoples re quire different education and that the Mine people may riuin' different exl'iicatlon at different stages of tUieir development. There are peculiar con dition? both of population mid of de velopment in this country, which jus tify departures in education from the lines of work which may be the most desirable in some other countries. I need mention only two or tlhree. First: Our population' is not homo geneous. Tit is not changed ineroij from time to time by the death of the fatlliers and the succession of tlie chil dren, but on the contrary it is con stantly receiving accessions in 'large numbers from other countries and races, and other civilizations. Second: Our people are all equal In political rights and political ipwr. It is as necessary for the day W1orer to know wiiat is best for the country as it is for the man of any other iosi tioii'. Tn many countries political xw cr is vested in' n few, and only these few have anything to say as to nation al policy. Practically it makes no dif ference whatever to them whether the millions know anything nlout politi cal Bcicncc, 'history, sociology or not. Tuey are simply to tread in the steps of their fathers, and the king and nk bilibv take wipe of the state. Rut wiih us this is all changed. The power is wl'th the people, legislation wim w determined ultimately by 1ie people. If 'Mie people nrc intelligent and wise, it here will Hx oonslstenfy and contin uity In legislation, Init if the people arc not iimtelligont nnd wise, Miey will o like an lavalnnehc one year against ' MoKinley 1UU mid Ulie next year grow frantic to reverse iMieir former verdict, and shout "Orcat Is protection ..iirr.rir.i.v t Uss nranhet.' 41.1111 ,l-,.iiJ 1 l . -.,,. the scientific method of investigation, hrarxwriftriniociToTh'cr ciples of eloquence, anl no power in Ms nnirtt ic. Here, doubtless. IMOllW rntollectual vigor and the ability to im- Ijc a loss, not indeed' without great vhlli lmvid nnd bultter do not con -- ----"".". " V , -... iiJ-" wi'ou'ie. e wauii to iiuuku iiuiikiiu mu, comfortalilc. Yc want to sa-c men, if possible, from, hunger and cold, ami, misery. Unit we do not want to reaucc universal humiiui existence to a dead, level of mere comfortable animal life. As ljenr well suvs: "iAMow not nature more Minn nntuix" needs; mam's lltfo is cheap na beast's." rIMik.k lu um,i.,I1i tiifi Ij-t ititfin liutrltfxu uodlv. The mind, the soul, Is itseil'f to"'; be cultiiited. TasJtc is to be rellned and givitlfled. Music, art, literature, none of these do for man wnut fooi does, but tliey create n.ndi diirect far- six reaclilng longings, aspirations, aptl iludes; they contribute to hi? growth and' perfection and1 happiness, and they must never 'be excluded from cftir system of education as things, not needed. Old Homer with lulisi divine epic, and his words t.hait echo the voices of nature in the most entranc ing way, is as refining in u.ls influence as ever; the Greek tragedies are ns trrnnd .ns over. Virnil is.as deHchtfill. ShakcsiKSire is as thousandsouled'. 'jCm of these if permitted to do itheilr legtfS Imnte work for. tlie student, will dO for him something that the mere wTucn-'.' tion of knowledge cannot -do. The glory of our modern education Is its adaptation1 to the wants nt once of the race and of tlve individual. It provides for both the material and spiritual wants of the student.. It does not reject poetry and literature be cause eiremistry and plrysics are more tonportant; nor does it reject science because literature gives a. different kind of culture or a better culture. I)t furnishes whatever will help man to do the best, work, and also whatever will help hSm to 'be the best man. Audi t'luilt is just what its needed. This pro vision for both culture and knowledge is today the most marked feature of- university life in this country.. Hair- $ vard has in some respects taken Mio lead; John Hopkins was the pioneer and the other universities willingly or unmillingly, htive fothmved. 12vcn ven erable old Oxford, where tradition nns so long been tine law, has now, accord ing to a recent writer, fallen ilnto the .'irac.' ...,Ai--i:: ?.&siZ$iZ7-3 Fumroung writer wjwts uoiaxiUTeiuiio' ' in take to do after acting as a 'helper for a few weeks. This results from our freedom whV'h lets men do whatever thev think tliey can do whether they are' qualified for it or not. As for spending years to learn a trade or business when one can get just as good wages if he has merely learned n smattering of the business, the 'American is not such a fool as to do f.limt. In brief, our whole system of in dustry is wasteful. Work that should be done once ior uu, is none mn u dozen tiuuvs because never done ns it ought to lie, and as it would be if everj man in every occupation were not so free, hut. we're required to know thor oughly the trade or profession which he undertakes to follow. I snpiose there has been enough nionev wasted on trying 'to get nviHk from 'beef cattle and to make beef of milk cattle, to pay off our national debt all from Ignorance an ignor ance oivlv equaled 1y Mint of the lndy who kept poultry nnkl, wondered liOw ! ivai that with ten hens she only got one vKd a day. Nine of licr hens were roosters, wiio cannot lo relied on Ho lav with regularity. There Is today a detmnnd for edu cated men in a multitude of occupa tions that formerly had no existence or were conducted by uneducated men. The whole world of IaDor is to ne en gaged in Mie application of setontiflc principles to mechanics or to agricul ture, to transportation, to socinl life or municipal life. The. hlwphazzard .noM.od of dolne things by gtfess ihns got to stop and the laws of nature tire to 1)0 applied' to nearly every thing Mint .imvites hiMiian lallior our educa tion must fit men for all Miesa varied occupations for which in the: olden time there was no call to fit nny one. Plie situntlon of itself would' require n ?ff anJ'ourSi Mo'n h-UflKta Mic scop, of our cduca; nettled and our IP'u'tJO'' ,1S ft nl1loiwi Work. Our whole ooiinitiry womM - wtiitliniK .v lo the new ones, Imt there is an irreg- uiiar nvovcmeiiii oi wiii.W"" -t -- -raotlono-from the vest baclc to tlie ' dHl, Ui'e on1h, lo Mic souMiwcsj, in t&P Creation it thftre seemo a ohtaoo r.'VZ-ni;.. n onndition. TBlO timf m had not made great progress in education In. Mie last half century; that our colleges nnd universities wore no lwtter than thoo of fifty years ago; Miat our schools were nob doing hfrgcr and hatter.' work thnm 1lhe schools of former times; nndi that our press otliem with his ideas and to guide Mie thought ol the age. .lames 'i Field, the great publisher, the friend of authors and scholars nnkl no menu author audi scholar himself, said some years ago, that no man of very marked power had' graduated from any colleges of nlie country since lS.r).". All the eminent American authors 'like linierson, llawHliorne, lyongfelJow, liowell and Holmes, preceded this dead line of 1S55. Yuule college has the hon or to 'have three of its graduates at the present time on the bench of the su preme court of tlie United States. Tliey have all 'been appointed in recent years, and t'hey were all worthy of ap pointment; but they were all in col lege before 1855, and the latest to graduate was in 1S50. The Venezuela commission apjoint cd by President Cleveland, was com posed of ivc distinguished citizens, three of wtyiQin nre graduates of Yale college Ciidiinan, White and' Ilrewer; nil three were in college before 1S55. Was .Mr. Weld's dictum correct, that the age of developed power in colRiegcs ended, so far as appears, in 1S55? Kven if the dictum were true, it need not fill us with alarm. What Mr. Field esjieeial'ly lamented, 1 suppose, was the disappearance of t'lie creative power as represented in oratory, po etry, and prose literature. Hut men wnite and think as clearly now as they ever did. The country needs today a good1 many things more Minn it needs a great poet. I say it even at Mie risk of 'being called a IMii list inc. -Whoit this age needs is knowledge. What this age wants to use for its own advance ment to the highest civilization is knowledge. What this age, therefore, is try in it to tret is knowledge knowl edge not for a favored' class, but for the world every Iinporton't fact and priniciple discovered' to he used' for the good of the race. It is not, therefore, necessarily dis couraging if we nre compelled' to ad mit, that in our efforts to hjrondem Mie field of study and to satisfy the very general demand of the age for n more practical education, 'there seems to have 'been a certain loss or power to the indivldnal student. Tt is more in tlie seeming than in reality; more in the method of its application Mian in the power itself, and1 it does not by any menns follow thnt there is in the aggregate n loss to the community. Modern scholarship, despite its ten dency to specializing, is no longer a deep and narrow stream sweeping everything before It in its welil-worn channel; it is rather a countless num ber yf strenms ever dmdtnjg Unto new and smaller ones, and ever seeking for themselves new olinniny-ls, and Hliese streams though thyy-'mny show gain, but n loss if eloquence is to be regarded ns the enter end' or education. Hut the world for half a. century has censed to regard eloquence as the chief thing to lie desired even in a states man, and much less in a scholar. Chat ham and Tlurke no longer thunder Im tlie llritish parliament, hut mem in parliament today discuss the budget nnd home rule ns practical questions er, much as Mu would discuss the value of different breeds of caltltile, or of rotation of crops. Facts have 'taken the place of tropes, andeomuion sense tills up the void created ty tlie depar ture of ( ! reck and1 Latin 'quotations. Tlie rhetoric-inn is nt n discount even In congress. The man who cam tell all' about the effect of taking the tariff off wool and' putting a tariff on hides, of making lumber free and of putting a duty on coal', who can lay down any one principle of finance which will 'be accepted as true by both the gold, and the silver men of the country, lie is the man for Mie times, while tlie elo quent dedal mer on the abstract rights and wrongs of capital and la'bor, is of little account. legislation! is no longer a matter of feeling and' emotion. It is a practical matter coming home to meii'V business and bosoms, and to ho decided largely by evidence gathered by the patient student of statistics in tlie field of poiitlcii.l science. Kdward livcrett spoke two hours at Gettysburg a pellucid stream of classical eloquence and not fifty men in the country today either know or cure what he said. A'braluniv Lincoln followed Everett with n speech of three ini'nutes, a plain statement of fndts appealing to tlie highest patriot ism, and today thousands of Aimeri cans, from the child in school to the old man in Mie ohiminey corner, can tell what he said. Tlie world! .has cens ed to care much for mere words, liow ever choice an!d elegant. Macnulny's Catalogue of the achieve ments of modern lenring is inspiring. irn tlie old! idea of a literal' fsnch!tion', d. multitude of' narrow and technical schools, for orohiuilngi the .tmemoriy1 and starving Mc intellect. " The old. education may have heen' defective, acid's this writ"Clf,bnt at least it was1 an education and' not an nippremticesliip." II n all of ottr universities of today, ti stlndent if lie Avishes nrt CfllminWvn can still get it;!or if !ho wishes what this writer calls "tin apprenticeship, ho " Can get that. That is the best eciuea tion' which fits tt man "for lu.e groatest usefulness. No man is likely to pe' 'V very useful who dloewn'ot. observe oc- . ', ' curately ami reSuvon eorrwtly, however 'V much, 'he may Tcnow. Tlie mam who vt. cannot "djra.w just, conclusions for h'is , ." own gnHdnuce lis nc)iti likely! to be a" safe guide for otlHers m any field of '- c'omipiex human' activity. WQiatever J . discipline' to the intellect caiv possibly ' ' 1k given shotilifRbo given1, whether the '" !,' "in'teliect is to i)e applied; Ito oi-eortlng', i inventing, adapting, using motter;.'or ' inspiring, invigorating, or leiadlirig inind. In either case utility ifl' the controlling consideraltion, Verj- few men am afford to use their brains merely as an object lesson of what dis cipline can accomplish, or as an latbic for the storage 1 a?itiqua!tcli,,rtwb;li't' nre. IMost meii . '-rrtttfelti therefore get 'A. Ji whht they can use.' No. floaibt a plr'nTn'- f br wilio cannot rend! Latin 4ind' 'Preelc -V mil answer our purpose Tery wuil, air be wall keep our water pipes tr&ttii our sewerage from Retting haok'Sto :;s ' V our lnpndirj- tubs, and' the farn3lyWK dyiin'g in consequence Cf urisanlftairt'' conditions produced by hitnolff ) Tt'ytei cannot, hnvc botlj culture and' .meolfarii cal skill in our .plumber,. et us by all means (have thtit which is tfsscritiail to his doing well the one thin whsiidh. hw proposes to do. Tlie same IthoJnghA applies to the whole bodyox enginieef4, and students in technical! schools. If they are to lie masters of thieir todhini cnl work they must, 'forego to some ex tern, general cultui'e, as liliei eiasslcal student, ifor culture foregoes the World! Tt shows what man has dono. But it of jntical seien"o. Tlie mos J'tm.- .. ' dots not touch the question ns to what i Ppi)it. and tundamental' rule of 'ttin?" ; Is he to lo sweet or bit- on-won "o-ti to leave outs whiefcteef 1 man is o be. ter in ills temper? Is lie to be reiflned or conrse, n gentleman or n boar, a Glndstone of a Gradgrlnd, in syimpathy or out of FP.inpathy witli manldnds a glad' listener to the voices of love, nnfjj oenuiy, aim nnrmony, nni art, ano na ture which is the art of God, or insen sible to everything which his -eye can not see nor his nnim handle. Wo must not neglect the. culture which will determipe. which of these the student is to be, svhJle wt; grow wild over studies -which ml- deteumi ine what the student' shall le able to, do. There is still feft in the worklia dhine sense o-f henuty and noetirviias contributing to soniethihig Xn mnu "to'-prl m fouindntion or ihk strutftmre. tftto -oh thin'g- necessary 'to fit us for whalt -wib pn'optMte "to -do. ymd' the anost iTOipor-t- am. nue ror eduontional institutlonscti the COTOllhrv of this, "rnlrjv it jvn.jaoi'VJ for every student to get what is neces sary for the best foundation) at least? in his future worh, Bub Ithe jsubieet which the student in college nneeAj especially to pursue is not netfesswrjiy that which ainneatis to bo imotet. cioaeTv related to his fuituire work. 1 Wafce :. :.. no -doubt dint chemistry and btony v Ti anu mecnanics nre mticiti more rrtipotift' nmt.io-a farmer than IMlnjantQGreeJc i i.. .(sir m - "l vv:& .,& W mm ".( s country lias not yet- heen subdued. V. . V ' r 'f ' . iKi.' ".''St.' !0 -v -.