New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-06-18
WHAT rs THE A. B. FIT FORT

OratiOns and diplomas arc the great move
ments in the universe in his eyes during these
weeks of June; he wonders compasslonafely
how people outside of the college can make
such a pothcr concerning strikes or Chinese or
IrshGuestions From the large universities down
TO the numherless unknown little colleges in
Of-the-way corners OF the country the
same scene is enacted; the young fellows are
bidding good-by to school, and beginning
life, and they are so full of ardor and amDl-
ton and harmless vanity that the Nation really
feels pleasant holiday stir of sympathy with
this so-caled crisis in their young Ii 3.
But after ALL is it crsis7 How nue. do
they really begin life when they sally forth
with their diploma in hand In every vale
dctory Grafton which will be delivered the
same story Is told they "have girded on their
armor and are going into actual battle;
thy "have served their apprenticeship and are
r,ady to take up the labor of life" Now, If
the battle and labor of life mean, which they
generally do, to earn ones living, these gal
liant A. BIS have hardly begun their appren-
ticeship. Even if lads father have money
enough to keep him from the necessity OF
work, and his business in life be simply the
gentlemanly arts of helping to manage the
estate and to I'LL a place in society, he will
find long training is necessary after he has
done with Cicero and Homer before he is tit
for either employment Neither Greek nor
Latin nor the higher mathematics have
brought him a single idea concerning prudent
investments. the capabilities of money in the
worlds different markets, nor yet the best or
most effective part to play in u drawing room.
1t is however but small minority OF the
graduates of 50 who will be called to the re-
sponsblities and powers of life of mOneyed
ease; the great mass of American youth in our
colleges are given their education as their cap
ital. Ii is the tool whcrewith they are to carve
their way at least to competency. But howl
For any part in business life, trade or manu-
features college training is held to unfit
Young man, whether with or without capital
He could not, with his diploma in hand, earned
by years of hard study, sell pound of nails or
sugar intellgently. There is not trade by
which the most ignorant man makes his living
in which he could now earn a dollar week,
without at least q short apprenticeship. If he
wishes to become clergyman, lawyer or doctor,
a regular course of two or three years study
is required, and after that a season of weary
probation, waiting for hearers, clients and
patients, in which he has to learn that new sci
ence-how to influence and deal with human
nature Every man, especially every young
man, thinks he can edit newspaper and man
age farm; but let the first-honOr man of
boasted &" fine literary abilities go into news
paper Office in search of position and see
what welcome he will meet. He will find that
an education is needed which he has never had,
even to write Personals or TO report fire. If he
follows the multitude and goes West, he will dis
cover in every cattle ranch college-bred menlike
himself, who are going to work to learn the
business from the beginning like any plough
boy before they can have the slightest chance
of success 1t was but last week that The
Chicago Inter- Ocean protested against the
hordes of young men with an education OF
books. but ignorant of ranching rcattle raising,
who were rushing into Colorado, Texas and
Dakota in hopes of making a fortune. The
farmers son from New England or Ohio begins
work intelligenty but the training of day
laborcrs was necessary to give to mere college
graduates equal advantages with farm-hands.
In short, the A. b., however high his rank
in class, will find there is only one employ
mcnt-that Of teaching-in which his college
| training alone, without cOrOllary OF special
| study, will enable him to earn his living. He
| cannot put up prescription or mend chair
preach sermon shoe n horse, pail tooth
| or play a super's part, without learning how ;
and his textbooks have not taught him how
| Whatever business or trade he may go into, he
will find a crowd of youths, often sons of
wealthy men, learning as apprentices, from the
| very beginning working III queue, waiting
| their turn for advancement. After the appren-
ticeship is over, the scholarship which he has
| acquired at college will serve useful part and
| help him to success Homer and Legendre will
make him not only better lawyer or preacher,
| but merchant and miner, simply because they
have made him a bigger man.
| The only colleges whose graduates this week
| will step Immediately into positions in which
| their college work will prove remunerative
are the Government schools ut West Point
| and Annapolis and the Polytechnic schools
| elsewhere. The young man who leaves
| Columbia Mining School or Lehigh, for ex-
| ample usually goes at once to active paying
work as chemist, civil or mining engineer,
| etc. He is no older than his brother from
another college who has years of work before
him before he can buy a meal with his own
earnings nor whit more ignorant. The diff
| Is tHdb Ills tidluluE Hto hoV b'Ou 'iii-
| fusive. There are no foundations laid which
will never be built upon; every brick laid has
had its meaning and use toward the great end.
| Why should not more education be directed so
as to take this special form9 Is it Admir-
able Crichtons that we want from our schools,
or men fitted as thoroughly as our officers in
| Army and Navy or engineers or chemists for
| a definite work
| DRUGGISTS DIFFICULTIES.