Omaha daily bee., 1889-09-22

same uay IN ABOUT Two nunureu OIner
dailies. There is nothing like doing
very big business on Il very small
amount of capital.
| is THERE TOO MUCH LEARNINGP
A professor in one of the universities
| OF Germany has recently issued u work
| giving statistics OF the increase in the
| number OF learned men in that country,
| which London journal refers to as
| alarming. There are twenty-one uni
| versities in Germany, at which the
| average number of students entered is
| twenty-nine thousand. OF these hope
| full youths the Gottingen professor af-
| firms that fully one-half are doomed to
| a life Of poverty and disappoint-
ment. The vast majority of them
are looking forward to becoming
lawyers, or doctors, or preachers, or
| schoolmasters, or in some other way,
| either in private life or as servants of
| the state, to earn their bread by means
| of the education they are so laboriously
| acquiring.
What is true of Germany is true also.
| though perhaps in less marked de-
gree, of other European countries and
of the United States. The rush to the
| learned professions is of steadily in
| creasing volume, and if the statistics
were at hand they would doubtless
| show that in proportion to population
| the rush is as greatin this country and in
! Great Britain as it is in Germany. The
| consequences here, however. are less
serious. 1t cannot be shown that one
| half of those who are preparing In this
| country for the learned professions, as
the German professor shows with re-
| spect to the youth of his own country,
are doomed to a life of poverty and dis
| appointment Doubtless majority of
them will be able to secure a respecta-
BILE livelihood, though probably very
| few of them will realize their expecta-
tions. But while the United States en-
joys the advantages over Euro
pean countries of vigorous growth
and increasing opportunities, the
limits to which will not be
reached for atfleasta century, yet it is a
fact that already in portions of this
country the ranks of the learned profess
sions are over full, and at the rate at
which they are being annually recruited
there is danger that the time is not re-
| mote when what has come to pass in
| Germany will be experienced here,
| namely, that quite one-half of those who
| adopt the professions will be doomed to
| poverty and disappointment. The COM
! petition in the professions is yearly be-
l ~.
with it. necessarily, the rule of the sur
| vival of the tittestis becoming more gem
orally operative.
| 1t is far more easy to point out the
cause of this state of affairs than to
| apply the remedy. For at least a gen
Grafton the tendency to look to
the "gentlemanly professions in
stead of the more certain calings of a
| less ''genteel" description, as the Lon
don Journal states it, has been stead lily
growing, and it seems likely to go on
expanding for an indefinite time to
come. The efforts to impress upon pa
| rents that their sons are likely to find
greater security for their future in in
| dustrial than in professional pursuits
have had little or no effect, for the OBJ
| vious reason that most parents
are incapable of judging wisely and i'm
partially of the capabilities of their
sons, while the sons themselves early
learn to regard with disfavor all forms
of manual labor. Thus it happens that
thousands of young men who would
have made superior carpenters, or
| blacksmiths, or machinists, are sent
out to make precarious battle for
bread with professional titles they have
not the ability to creditably sustain.
| There are in every large city of the
country many such who bitterly depre-
cate the mistake they made. or the
vanity and folly of parents, and envy
the Industrious mechanic who is able to
obtain a certain income and CO mforts
that are beyond their reach.
There is not too much learning but
there is far top general lnisapplica-
tion of learning.tiB There is no reason
why the mechanic should not be man
of education, and he would certainly
find pleasure and enlarged chances in
life in being scholar, besides the en-
HANGED esteem of his fellow men. With
the opportunities offered the boy of
to-day who becomes an artisan may also
secure advanced intellectual acquire
ments. But tho difficulty is that such
requirements sephlto antagouize man
ual labor. The scholarly and thought
full mechanic would be as likely to be-
come dissatisfied. with his calling as the
professional man N,ho discovers after a
sad and weary experience that his linn
itations had not been correctly gagged.
The problem suggested by the German
professor has many phases, and it
grows more serious and difficult from
year to year. But to the question
whether there IS too much learning a
negative answer must be given.