The sun., 1889-12-16
Shall He Go to College?

A young friend In Ohio asks US this Inn
! portant question:
"Is college education necessary would 1t pay
young having . high school education. and who
| intsnds 70 pursue business career'"
No, we do not consider 1t necessary. and it
would not pay In pecuniary sense Very
likely our young friend would make more
money II he gave to business the four years
which he would have to spend at college. In
that time, usually extending from the sew
enteenth or eighteenth to the twenty-frst
or twenty-second year OF young mans
life he can serve an apprenticeship
to a trade or make himself acquainted
with the methods of business. This
preliminary training for affairs he must
get at some time, whether he goes to college
or not and collegiate education Is not
likely to abbreviate the period requisite for
1t. He will only begin the work Of prepara-
ton when he is older and perhaps less pliable
II he spends four years at college. Even II
he decides after his graduation to undertake
q professional career, three or four more
years of study will be required Of him, for
the ordinary collegiate course merely lays
the foundation for subsequent special train
ing. It does not Of itself fit him for any
gainful occupation.
30 far as business is concerned. after grad
uation from college he Is just where he was
after leaving the high school, the college, In
the sense In which our correspondent speaks
Oft, being nothing more than higher school,
He will learn more mathematics, more
chemistry and physics. more of literature,
and get some knowledge Of Latin and Greek.
None OF this is necessary for a business
career. Desirable as they all may be gener-
ally, he can get along without them, and
the time expended In acquiring them
may be without practical compensation for
him. II Mr.. JAY GOULD and Mr.. WILLIAM
ROCKEFELLER had received q college educa-
tion they would be no richer than they are
now, probably they would not be SO rich.
The great mass OF successful men Of busi-
ness secured the training which laid the
foundations OF their fortunes during the
years required for q collegiate education,
and they got it In actual contact with affairs.
Many of them are deficient with respect to
what is taught In schools, and yet for that
reason they may be all the more proficient
In what business demands Of them.
Yet we would not have our young friend
suppose that we underrate the advantages
OF the four years study at college, II 1t be
o good college, worthy Of the name There
Is issomething even more valuable than money,
and 1t Is the best and fullest use and devel-
opment OF mans powers. 1t Is knowledge,
self-improvement the cultivation OF the
mind and heart, and the well-rounded train
ing and exercise of the faculties. Other
things being equal, II man wishes a
thorough education he must begin by going
through a college course, though 1t
is true that many OF the best edu-
Gated minds have never received a
collegiate or university training. But
they have spent In study the time such a
course would require. Nor Is 1t an invariable
rule, byany means. that man is delayed In
his business career by going to college.
There Is no banker in the Union of greater
business and financial genius than Mr.. PIER
PoNT MORGAN. His career has been an un-
interrupted success. and yet he passed from
the Boston high school to the University of
GotHngen, though he was only 20 when. In
1857, he became clerk In New York bank
ing house. But 1t must be remembered that
Mr.. MORGAN 10 the son OF a rich father, Mr..
JUNTUs SPENCER MORGAN. and that he started
In life with opportunities which even his rare
business genius might never have created.
This brings us TO the main point, Whether
to go or not to 60 to college Is a question
which young man must decide according |