Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-08-04
MR.. BLAINE
Delivers an Address Before the Chau.
tauqua Assembly at Fryeburg.

tauqua Assembly at Fryeburs.
PORTLAND, Aug. 3.
Mr.. Blaine was among the visitors at Chau-
tauqua camp today at Fryeburg, and in the
afternoon spoke briefly regarding some of the
tendencies in modern college education.
Mr.. Blaine's Speech.
He had long wished, he said, to visit one of
the Chautauqua assemblies to learn more of
their modes of procedure and express his
admiration of the singularly efficient work of
this a>sociation-doing so modestly and with
such smsll cost. The members are indeed &C
compii- hing what Sidney Smith declared the
founders of the Edinburg Review have pre-
scribed as their aim in their classic maxim
which freely translated, he said, meant that
they were translating literature on little
oat meal. The organization which DR.. VIM
cent has ably perfected is novel in design
and would have been absolutely impossible
before the era of railroads and telegraph
DR.. Vincent has founded populs: university
in which students can be admitted without re-
gard to age or previous culture, and which
by a large stimulus. impaired by cooperation,
Is producing hundreds Of thousands earnest
and serious readers in the country. 1t is
self instruction, guided in the right channels
and made efficient by comprehensive and
mastery organization. Some of the features
of this Chautauqua organization might teach
useful lessons to many of our colleges. The
danger besetting our higher education is its
expense and beyond that the still greater
danger of permitting demoralizing and cor
ruptive expenditure beyond the necessary
outlay of college lite. In the colleges which
have come down to us from the colonial pc
riod, the ancient habit was to arrange boys in
class roll, according to the recognized social
rank of their parents.
The establishment of national
republican government as the result of our
successful revolution broke down this aris-
tocratic pretention and the names of students
were thehceforth called alphabetically. But
in the remarkable acquisition of wealth on the
part of SC many in the United States another
was growing up in our highest colleges even
more offensive than the ancient oDe-a dis
tincton which the equality of all men as set
forth In the declaration of Independence
would not endure of all the forms of social
superiority. Most unendurabe is that found
ed on mere wealth unaccompanied as it often
is bv learning, by virtue. or by good manners
The sense of inequality forced upon the poor
boy, or the boy OF moderate means, by the
in the end destructive to the usefulness of
any institution that permits it. The military
and naval academies OF the national govern
ment have been opposed often in Congress on
the grv und that they are arlstocratic insti;u-
tiOns. That is a great mistake. There are
no Institutions in the country in which equal
ity OF right and equality of position are so
absolutely maintained as in those at West
Point and Annapolis. No cadet can spend
more than another and each is limited to
some S540 per annum. On that amount
son of Mr.. Van Buren,, when he was Presi-
dent of the United States, and the son of the
tailor who was making the cadet uniforms
were each and alike compelled to live. The
university in the United States which can es-
tablish democratic equality in the style of
living among its stude nts and tolerate no dis
tinction except those based on aristocracy of
talent and requirements will inevitably be-
come the centre and source of the highest
culture in America and will contribute 70 the
elevation of learned professions in civil lie
in as high degree as West Point and An
napolis have contributed to the military and
navy prestige of the republic.
Another feature of modern collegiate train
ing 10 which exceptions may be taken is the
long time employed Admission to college
which students in the preceding generation
graduated. To young man favored bv
ample means the course runs thus: Ad-
mitted to college at Is, graduates at %, COM
pletes his professional studies at 25, goes
abroad to hear lectures in foreign universi-
ty, and returns home at Il or 2S. If he be
heir to Il great fortune and intends to lead
life of mere leisurely elegance this form of
is very good, but if he is COM
PEELED to depend ultimately on his own labor
for his bread, he is sincerely to be pitied for
he has contracted habits and tastes quite out
of harmony with the people with whom he is
to live, and uncongenial to the clients upon
whose favor and confidence he must depend
for success. He finds that contemporary
who opened law office at twenty-one or two
years of age, has already gained strong foot
hold in his profession, and while he with his
European training, may know more in many
fields, he knows less in the fields essential to
success. He finds himself junior to those
of his own age. and finds he has wasted in
general culture some precious years which
should have been devoted to his special call.
ing in life. The disadvantage to which a
young man would be subjected in the learned
professions is vastly increased when he in
tends to enter upon a business career; bank
er, merchant, manufacturer, and in either
case his fate is not unlikely to be that of a
life. | would not put forth this
judgment with such confidence, said Mr.
Blaine, II | didn't feel sustained by the opin-
ion of one of the ahlest men who ever taught
in an English tongue.
An English gentleman the late Mr. For
ster, widely known as Secretary for Ireland
in Mr.. Gladstone's cabinet, was a son-in-law
of the Illustrious Arnold Of Rugby, and in a
on the subject which am now
discussing Mr.. Forster told me that it was
the opinion of DR.. Arnold that the young
men of England were making mistake of
the delay, and it were better if they should
be engaged in their life calling by 2l or 22
years of age.
OF course shall not be misunderstood az
applying these remarks to any young man
" ho is devoting himself to a purely literary
life, OF TO any specialist who gives his time to
the utmost bound of investigation. | am
speaking of the great mass of college gradu-
stes, who are to be the men of affairs who
depend uaon their earnings for their bread.
But even with literary men | think New
England history would bear out nv
assertions strongly as with professional
men. Longfellow graduated at Bowdoin
before he was Is; George Bancroft had
earned Harvsrd's diploma ar II; Ralph
Waldo Emerson was under l9 when he grad
usted, and Edward Everett was IL. In pro-
fessional and public life it is equally strik-
ing. Mr. Webster, Mr.. Choate, Mr.. Seward
and Mr.. Fessenden were all through college
and Ia, hrr h,-f 81.