The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-07-03

| The medical and legal professions are
not now made up in so large a degree
as formerly of college men; and farms
and workshops send forth fewer stu
dents who are ambitious of the educa-
ton which the college offers. One
cause of this condition of things is the
increased cost of education. Half a
century ago college education to a
farmers boy of earnest character and
economical habits was matter of $3.50
to 5000 a year. Now in most colleges
$500 is the average of economical stu
dents. This cuts of many. If Middle
bury college has any special mission, it
, is to ofler 10 Young men-and it now
includes young women-the opportun-
ity OF obtaining a thorough college ed
ucation at the old time rate of S175 to
5000 year. "Some of YOU in the
graduating class have kept within these
bounds without injury to health, schol-
arship or responsibility. This offer to
young men it is hencetorth prepared to
make and to call upon all the sons and
daughters of Vermont who are not
heirs of estates to enter upon course
by which in mental and moral culture
they may rival the highest in the laud.
This college may thus dc noble work
without interference with others, a
work which no other institution can or
will do. 1t is from the homes of farm
ers and mechanics and village mcr-
| chants that some of Vermonts most
distinguished men have come forth. If
that source should be dried mp, Ner-
mont will change her character and the
influence will be felt in every fibre of
society,""
But there is another less tangible i'll
fluence which has contributed to scpar-
ate thinking men from the college. On
some points the college has ceased to
be American and has become decidedly
English. This is especially the case on
economic questions. In explanation it
must be remembered that the college is
Of English origin, and at the beginning
its professors and its textbooks were
all English. The great English univer-
sites have continued to supply us with
our scientific textbooks. Until the be-
ginning of the present century all these
books were by English authors, or re-
prints with slight alterations and to the
present day English or English and
German thought and authorship large
ly rule in our colleges. "But after our
separation from Great Britain the ma
tional life diverged more and more
from its English origin and took on
new, independent forms. The old con-
federation of States, which carried us
through the Revolution, failed, and our
present constitution of 1859 was
formed, one great original purpose of
which was to regulate commerce and
free us from industrial subsection to
Great Britain. Prosperity Immediate
~ returned. From that day onward
experience by slow and painful steps
has wrought out the American system,
which is protection for our home in
dustries, our agriculture and our do
nestle commerce against foreign intru-
sion to their ruin. England has taken
another course, the direct opposite to
the American and perhaps she is neces-
STATED to do so by her environment.
She has chosen to sacrifice agriculture
and to make of little comparative i'm
portance her home commerce in order
TO become the great manufacturing
power, in order to become the work
shop of the world and the commercial
and banking house of all nations. Free
trade in foreign commerce is her mot
to; protected agriculture and free trade
IN home commerce is our motto. 1t is
The British system and the American
system, each adapted to its nation and
special design. The foreign commerce
of our country, largely composed of
British agents and British capital, es-
pouses the British system, for thereby
comes their wealth. The great agri-
cultural and mechanical interests, in
volving nine-tenths OF the people and
nineteen-twentieths of the wealth, sup
port the American system. Now, the
universities and colleges have general
y adhered to the British system and to
the wealthy but small minority of for
eign commerce. The farmers, mechan-
les and manufacturers of our land look
TO these great lights to see them shining
upon the water-never upon the land.
They see them teaching doctrines
which, If carried out, would either de-
stroy our chief industries or reduce our
workingmen to the deplorable and de-
graded condition of English operatives.
The colleges have fallen into this great
error by "a sort of natural heredity from
Great Britain. They have continuous
ly received thence an unidentified
flow of textbooks on all college stud
les. In some lines of study our learned
professors, although over weighted with
active labors, have made great improve
ments, and have made invaluable addi-
tons to science, yet the science of econ
omics is singular exception. In those
things in which our material interests
are most intimately involved, in all our
universities and colleges we have been
content to learn of our dear old moth
err, England. We have stretched up
our heads and opened our mouths and
she has graciously led us. Adam
smith and Ricardo and Nautilus and
Fawcett and Mill and Jevons and Sidg-
wick and Senior Mcleod have given us
our textbooks of economics. Our uni
versities, if they have done anything,
have only re.echoed this foreign teach
ing. Strange examples could be adj
duced OF British books made more
British by American professors, but
pass them by. There is much to be
said in apology for the professors.
Al.