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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 1902)
) f * < t * - \ " y. ' ' < s utt ' ' M , t.ifi 13be Conservative * James H. Caufiold , A NEW BOOK , well known in Ne braska as a former Chancellor of the State University , is the author of a very neatly printed book of about 200 pages , just published by The Macmillan Company and en titled "The College Student and His Problems. " Perhaps the first thing that strikes an old acquaintance of the author in reading his book , is that his recent "down east" environment has not impaired the tactful familiarity of his address , while it has urbanized and otherwise refined his mode of expression. The book is destined to make an im portant impression upon the class of our youth to whom it is addressed , both be cause it is so written that it will be widely read , and because it is worthy of reading. Notwithstanding its title , the most pertinent and important part of the book is addressed to possible or prospective , rather than to actual col lege students , under the query , "why go to college ? " The professional phy- 'sioiau of souls and the professional physician of bodies with like persist ence , prescribe their remedies as indis pensable respectively , to spiritual and/ ' physical health ; and the manufacturer and the merchant also advertise the su preme advantages of their wares. And so from this prince and life-long spokes man of a vast educational organization or cult , wo would naturally look for at least a perfunctory plea for college education. But , as wo should also ex pect of the man , Chancellor Canfield performs this part , and much more with both power and plausibility. His pre scription , moreover , is sweeping a col lege course for all young men. He makes only this barely possible except ion : "Unless in some peculiar and un- usual way you have positive and definite and conclusive assurance that it will be only a waste of time and effort to un dertake a college course , enter some col lege at once even if debt must be in curred for its expense. " For , "if the choice must be made between entering upon life in the bonds of ignorance or of limited education , or in the bonds of debt , the latter is to be chosen every ' time. " . But the author puts the "practical" advantages of a college education fore most in his plea ; and this is indicative of the radical change of public senti ment touching this question that has taken place in a comparatively few years. He does not , however , wholly neglect the spiritual or sentimental argu ment : "Only the mind which becomes public and large can over enter into the highest joys of life. And only the mind which is early and thoroughly and wisely disciplined , can possibly and surely hope to become public and large. You may secure this discipline outsid the walls of a college. Some men have done this , but the surest road is that trodden by hundreds and thousands dur ing all the post the college. " But ifc is significant that these degen erate dnys of commercialism , should have driven a Goliath champion of the college to this as a crucial test : "The best business men of today very generally favor the graduate , prefering him to the non-graduate ; and look for more intelligent effort , a wider outlook , a finer grasp , more rapid advancement than are possible to the average man , who has been denied the privilege of higher training. * * * Twenty-five years from now the young men of to day must compete largely with college men. They will find themselves trot ting in quite another class , and they must meet , the pace or be barred. The learned professions , so-called , the tech nical callings , the world of literature , the avenues of production and of com merce , public life and service all are now crowded with collegians , give preference to collegians. * * * As A. E. Winship puts it : 'It is now certain that in every avenue of competition one must face elaboratly trained and educated men and women. ' * * * It is jg f 'Entirely true that the college-bred boy must begin at the bottom , and that at the outset he appears to have lost time wandering about among the dead languages and philosophy and the his tory of the past , and flue-spun theories of the present , while 'the other fellow' has mastered the elements of his busi ness or calling , and is already well up the ladder. But the college man is destined to climb faster and higher. He does not reach the end of his tether nearly so soon as 'the other fellow'and , all other things being equal , he soon masters the other fellow as being simply one of the incidents of the situation. * * * A few ex ceptional men are undoubtedly what they are because they were not trammelled by the work of a college. " "But there is a great cloud of witnesses , against the author's contention that a college education helps rather than hinders a man in the competitive strug gle of the commercial or industrial world , and prominent among them are Mr. Schwab , the colossus of the steel trust and many other captains of in dustry ; and for some time , doubtless , this will be a fairly open question. The prominence which this special repre sentative of the college system gives to the commercial argument in favor of the college education illustrates how rapidly the college spirit of devotion to ideals and to high thinking and learn ing for its own sake has been giving way to the "practical" commercial aim. And if Chancellor Canfield's contention that the college preparation is good 01 indispensable for a business career is true is it not so chiefly because the col leges too have become commercialized9 At any rate many of the collegians of middle life or beyond , who read our author's book , and are reminded thereby of the opportunities and time wasted in ; heir earlier years of business life be- : ore they could divest themselves of deals and ideas which were their college heritage , and were a cause of failure and a bar to worldly success ; and who may be still limping because of these early shackles , will come to this con clusion. But in spite of a bias of this sort on our own part the old-time spirit asserts itself in presence of the com mercial defense of a college education and we are impelled to oppose to it that noble plea of the late Joseph Leconte : "This entire plan ( of the educational course ) should be centered about the ideal of the development of the indi vidual , whom modern social organiza tion tends too much to reduce to a mere machine. Hence , the utilitarian con siderations should be rigidly ruled out if the college course. Life's business belongs elsewhere ; and the social order ; laims its own. A liberal education must be in conscious opposition tp the calls of the outer world ; for its purpose is the training of the individuals who shall be strong enough to resist the crushing power of the social forces , and thereby to become the centres whence new social forces shall radiate. " For the present , therefore , ostensible discussion of the question of the desira bility of a college course for the present young man is an utter confusion for want of a definition of what a college course is or should be ; and the contro versy really hinges on this last question. But it seems to the writer , that in the confusion of the meantime , older colle gians in particular , and frank question ers in general , will find a more con genial atmosphere for their sentiment and conscience and a firmer footing for their logic , standing on the old Orthodox ground with Leconte than on the new ground with Canfield and very many of his contemporaries. On the topic of fraternities and elect ive courses , the author gives many wise and timely suggestions. He apparently accepts these features of the modern college and university as having "come to stay , " and therefore treats them , though half warily , from the point of view that "whatever is , is right. " Though he makes no broad-side attack , he incidentally recognizes the force of the objections made against them by. others. For example , he says of electA' ' ives that , "they are not intended)1 ) to be regarded as a collection of soft/ \ snaps , it is not expected that they will \ become the refuge of every weak and \ timid man. * * * The elective system has been misused and abused by both faculty and students , beyond question. " The author also acknowledges that col lege fraternities tend to lead students / * - " into habits of extravagance. But af more fundamental and serious objection ) to the fraternities is that their gregarious - / ious club life breeds disorderly habitsA and in general tends to un-domesticate ) the young men. The great aversion of \ landlords to renting houses to fraternities - v ties on account of the damage they do N them , illustrates the first objection. In I the thick of present insistance and con cession that club life and extraordinary avocations are rapidly destroying the domestic spirit in our women , young and otherwise , how are we to conserve any remnant of the old home life unless we domesticate or hold in the spiiit of domesticity the boys ? ( The Maomillau Company , GO , Fifth Ave. , price $1.00. )