Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1886-09-02
COLLEGE EXPENSES.
Masua Influences Which Should b
Brought to Bear Upon Students.

Brought to Bear Upon Students.
A good deal of discussion has been
provoked by some remarks made by
Mr. Leverett Saltonstall at the recent
commencement dinner at Harvard up
on the general subject of personal ex-
penditure among college students.
The upshot of what he said was that
simplicity was greatly needed in the
college life of the day, and that every
one that can influence it should inf1u-
ence it in this direction. President
Eliot replied that there never was
time when students of limited means
could procure an education more
cheaply, and that the scale of living
had not increased in college in undue
proportion to its increase elsewhere.
President Eliot is aconvinced optimist,
and always has most plausible and
statistical answer to any criticism up
on the existing order and tendencies,
but on this point we must say we are
inclined to agree with Mr.. Saltonstall.
The real fact of the matter is not
whether student must pay more for
his education now than he used to, nor
whether the scale of college living con-
tinues to bear a constant relation to
that of life outside college walls. 1t is
simply this: Is there as much "plain
living and high thinking in college
life nowadays as there once was? Ger
tainly there is not. INDECENT stu
dents may have the same or
even greater opportunities. With
the prodigious increase in the
wealth of the country it would
be singular indeed if philanthropy had
not increased in corresponding meas
ure. But the great mass of students
are not beneticiaries in the first place,
and, in the second, the latter are more
or less subject to the general inilu-
ences, however opposed following these
may sometimes be to their consciences
and their convenience. No one needs
to be told how much self-respect de-
ponds upon not accentuating an ex-
ceptional position, just as it does upon
not to dissemble the same.
Nor can college expenses, SO far as
they indicate extravagant living, afford
to bear a constant ratio to the expenses
of living in general. No reproach
brought against the society of the pres
ent day is juster than the reproach of
extravagant living brought about by
the tremendous inequality of the in
flation epoch. Society and "high
thinking" have in great measure been
divorced. Society and right action
even have made many dishonoring
compromises everywhere. If we are
content to see social conditions which
every moralist and publicist deplores
reflected in the scholastic life of close
and quadrangle, where can we look
for any leaven with which our
current stock of vulgarity may
gradually be permeatedP 1t is re-
diculous to ask monastic and middle
age restrictions in the modern
college, but it is not ridiculous, on the
contrary it is most reasonable, to ask
that colleges, so far as they are organic
communities, should hold, if not illus
trate, the ideal of the higher life of the
day, whatever that may be.
In spite of President Eliot's ingenious
statistics, we do not believe our col
leges count in this way as they once
did Certainly the larger ones do not.
And yet there is more need for them
so to count than ever. They have made
considerable progress in one respect
during the past fifteen or twenty years.
They have brought themselves into
more perfect accord with society and
undoubtedly care more than once they
seemed to care for the way The world
is going, for what is called the time
spirit. But in respect of extravaganza
living and the manners and moral,
which are derivatives of eXtravagan
living they have come to illustrate tn,
weaknesses rather than the aspirations
of the day, There is no remedy excep
that suggested by Mr.. Saltonstall. NJ
regulations will serve, especially if tn,
lawmakers are as skeptical as Presi
dent Eliot in regard to the existenc,
of the evil. But professors and parent
can certainly bring a potent moral in
fuence to bear upon impressionabl
and right-minded youth far more effica
cious than the conventional influence
which they used to exercise and agains
which the present extravaganza is il
great part reaction. - Philadelphia
Press.