The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-09-18

From The a.
The sound, prac b
the extract below Ell
in the educational
higher institutions of lel
and all other countries:
Sometimes I think the vi
craze about education, high +
classical education. 1t is say
Georgia heads the list Of illitd
Well, that is bad I know, but Ma
chusetts heads the list of. crimes, al
that is worse. If some of our people
can't read and write, they are good
citizens. Education is not a guarantee
for good citizenship. Right now the
overcrowding of the learned profession
is giving trouble in Germany. Their
press is discussing the matter very Sc
riously, and trying to find remedy.
Too much education, they say, and it
is breeding discomfort and socialism
among the graduates who can't find
employment to suit their high culture.
There are seventy-one universities and
tWenty-eight thousand students in at
tendance, and the number Is increas-
ing five times faster than the popula-
ton. What does this mean?
Pope said:
ga little learning is dangerous thing;
Drink Deep, or taste not Of the Pierian
spring."
I never did believe that but now
here is a new theory which says that
too many are drinking deep, and the
professions are all crowded to an alarm
ing extent. Is it possible that knowl-
edge is coming to discount, and
much learning is making people mad 2
Is it fact that the number of gradu-
ates in the universities ought to be
limited, for fear of endangering the
safety of the government? Has a
young man less stability and less pa
triotism because he has been through
the university? Germany has boasted
of the best educational system in the
world. She has compulsory education,
and requires five years schooling be-
tween the ages of seven and seventeen
and special attention is given to the
moral training Of her pupils. The IL
literacy of her population is only q
per cent, which is a smaller ratio than
any State in our Union, and yet Ger
many is alarmed at the spread Of So
cialism.
Well, it looks like there Is another
problem to solve. How much educa-
ton shall we give to our children?
Pope is not infallible even, though he
was a "Pope.p A little learning is not
a dangerous thing. It is a good thing,
q safe and harmless thing, and every
human being ought to have it. To
read and to write and to cipher adds to
the usefulness, the independence and
the happiness of mankind. We can
all agree upon. that. A common school
education does not put the man or the
State in any peril. It does not pro-
duce any disinclination to work for q
living-to work in the common avoca-
tions of life. But suppose we could by
some enchantment give every man
and woman college education, would
we dare do it? Old Uncle Sam chops
my wood and cleans out my stable and
gets his daily wages and is content.
If he was suddenly endowed with my
learning would he chop my wood any
more? If not what would he do for q
living; who would do the cooking and
washing, and scour the floors and kill
the chickens? Who would dig and
plow and curry the mules, and haul
the wood, and butcher the cattle and
hogs, and work in the factories? Who
would be brakemen on the railroads OF
firemen on the engines? !? Who would
be porters, and draymen, and hack
drivers in the cold, sleety days of win
ter? The college graduates won't do ii
now-would they do it then? In fact,
does not higher degree of culture un.
fit man for laborious or menial pur-
suits I? If it does. then what is left
him when the professions are over.
crowded as they are in Germany?
Now, neither the State nor the peo-
pie are responsible for the unequal
condition Of mankind. Some vessels
are born to honor and some dishonor.
Work has to be done-hard work, dir
ty work, unhealthy and perilous work,
or else everything would stop and the
human family would perish. We can
not help this. Fortune and misfor.
tune move along together. ..
"Some rise by sin, and some by vir.
tue fall" Society is its own regulator.
[ have no just cause of complaint that
I can't move in the first circles. am
happier in my own, and so is every.
body, even down to Uncle Sam, the
Wood-chopper. Our white people are
getting along pretty well and the pro.
fessions are not yet overcrowded to
any alarming extent. There is still
room at the top. But the negroes OF
the South are fast approaching the
condition of the whites in Germany.
Their colleges are turning out scores
who can find nothing to do--nothing
that is congenial to their educated feel
ipgs. When q young man, white or
black, has acquired high strung edu-
cation and can find nothing to apply 1t
to, he begins to brood over the unequal
condition of things. He sees class
around him who are mentally his infe-
riors, bnt who have accumulated prop
erty and are reveling in wealth. He
sees another class who have made for
tunes by crooked practices, by extor-
tion, speculation, monopoly and polit-
ical intrigues. His thoughts tester
and fret in idleness, which is the pa
rent of all vice, and before he knows
it, he wants division and is at heart
O. socialist. The negro does not have
far to 90 to reach this point, for it is
b ;n ro To ,uant O division He be-