New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-02-27
THE COLLEGE GRADUATE IN POLITICS.

Thomas Wentworth Htgginson IN ne Harvard Register
The proportion of colege-bred men in public life
does NOT diminish in America; though tnas OF
land. BY the latest documents have ct hand.
nearly half Of the United States Senators and about
one-third of the Representatives In Congress have
spent more or less time at something calling itself
a college university in some part OF the iand Ia
the statistics of the Massachusetts, Legislature tho
facts are little more definitely given; and 1t ap-
pears that 10 out of 40 Senators and 35 out of 240
Representatives have been students In the under
graduate department OF some college, without IN.
Guiding those who have studied only at professional
schools In the Senate the proportion 10 precisely
one quarter, aud In the House OK Representatives
more than One-seyenth. The INSTITUTIONS repre-.
Dartmouth q EACH; Amherst. Yale BOwdoin u
eachl ;-House Of Representatives Harvard AZ
@ Yale az A%ssrss and q
Norwich Georgetown, Union II eacbl.
But these are mere statistics. After ALL 1t is only
discrIminate the coliege-bred man as belonging to
distinct class. In most eases, but Tor tue evidence
of the annual catalogue, you never would detect
him. Neither In appearance, nor in manners, nor ~
Dress nor In eocution. non even In the use OF
language could the sbrewdest observer hnd hne
of demarcation that should include the men who
have been at college and leave out the rest. ooue
of these men are strong. Others weak some appear
cultivated others ubcuitvated and 80 on, with al
the standards that can be applied The simple fact
Is that the general classification OF eolege-bred or
pon-college-bred IL of very little Importance.
Among the great controlling forces which form
the American man. tne idcb U COloko 10
but one, and by NO means the most important.
Hereditary qualities are more importantj so 10
social framing: Is the stimulus or popular m
situations Even In the metsst exteTnals, the test
amounts to very little. The 6rst scholar IN his
class If be comes from @ rural neigbborhoOd and
goes back there to live will be very apt to say
deestrek" all his life; while boy who has grown
up in a shoe-shop, il filled with intellectual anu
bitiOn, and gifted by nature with ready ear may
make himself model Of accuracy even in language
AS to ease IN public speaking. IL is something so
neglected of late IN many OF our colleges that the
debating societies of our smaller cities aud towns
often afford better training In this direction.
neighbor of mine in the Legislature last winter
was constantly complaining OF the college graduates
them as an Evolutionary model yet ne was o
wholly self-educated man. Even the test of hum-
ity which Is often said to reveal those who have
4" had the nonsense knocked out of them" by inter-
course with equals does not always apply; though
it refers to what s perhaps. the best discipline that
any college gives.
Yet 1T may fairly be said after all that II our col
for public career. they ought to do it. aud perhaps
will yet accomplish some such result. The general
influences of American life the stimulating ana en-
largiug power of Republicanism must oil avs rank
in Importance before any special form OF traintng:
but 90 far Us colleges recognize these sources OF
to succeed in producing large proportion OK the
leaders in political life. There Is no real prejudice
against college bred men. but rather In their favor
they have an advantage, not disadvantage III
public service until they take airs upon Themselves
or In some other way sacrifice their favorable po.
sinOn. What they chiefly need to remember ls that
theory is not the whole OF life, and that practical
successor influence, which is the highest form Of
success-can only come to him who can act az well
"a think,