San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1886-07-06
TOO MANY COLLEGES.

The wall is heard at last from the New
England section of this great and free
land that her colleges are falling into de-
cay. With the exception OF Yale and
Harvard nearly all her colleges, even
those OF long standing and undoubted
scholarship, are fast assuming more To-
cal character and their rolls no longer
bear the names of students from all sec
lions of the great west and south as
formerly. Brown, yarmouth, Amherst,
Williams, BowdOin, all feel the reaction
which has largely come through the
multiplication of colleges at the west
and south until there is no longer any
necessity for the sons and daughters OF
remote states to seek an education In
New England. While these larger COL
leges find themselves falling into decay
and their class rolls yearly diminishing
the smaller colleges find ruin staring
them In the face, and with dimished
revenues they are fronting the vexed
problem Of maintaining themselves at
all. Recruiting for college classes in
these institutions has become bust
ness; scholarships are added to scholar
ship In order to induce attendance, and
the standard of scholarship is lowered to
meet the lower financial condition which
with its decreased revenues is unable to
maintain the high standards heretofore
set. The simple truth is that the col
lege supply Is greater than the
demand and the cheapening process
comes in as result. There are more
colleges and universities springing up
all over the south and southwest than
are necessary TO supply the needs of
those who having completed their edu-
cstional course in our high schools seek
to supplement that course with the
university curriculum. While New
England is suffering from plethora of
good colleges, institutions Of established
reputation and acknowledged scholar.
ship, the west and south are on the
highway to more undesred condition.
Ali over these sections colleges, So
called, are springing up like mushrooms
in q night. In no sense do they answer
any higher educational end than the
classes of a good high school. They
fritter away the money and energies Of
those who maintain them, create low
grade OF scholarship which passes
muster for college course, and act det-
rimentally to the establishment and
maintenance OF high grade public
schools. These so-called colleges, we
are told, are only in their infancy; by
and by, with larger endOwments and
increased patronage, will come in
creased rank In scholarship and gradu-
ally the true collegiate standard will be
reached. Granted, for the sake of the
argument-in a few yours these COL
leges then, like those Of New Eng
land, will be so numerous that
the claim upon the community to
support them will be exhaustive and
they will fall into decay. Just consider
for q moment how numerous are the
80 called colleges, universities, collegi-
ate Institutes, female seminaries, etc.,
ETC., in this state, and yet their creation
has only commenced. In few years
this state will be fairly spotted with
small academies, called colleges, no
whit better than the high schools main
tanned by the state, and whose real ten.
dency will be to work against the inter-
est OF that higher education which soon
er or later the state must furnish. The
drain made upon the public to main
tain these schools, colleges, universities,
or whatever they may by imitation be
called, will in time become exhaustive.
AS the grade Of the public school rises,
the grade of these private institutions
of learning must also rise; this means
Increased endowments, added expense.
A caste feeling is also engendered