Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1890-08-22
COLLEGE TRAINING.
1t Il No Longer Inimical to Success IN
business Life.

1t 10 No Longer Inimical to Success n
business Life.
A good deal of discussion has been
excited by Mr.. Andrew Carnegie's decla-
ration that so far as his observation,
goes, college-bred young men are not
apt to succeed in business. Assuming
that the purpose Of business is to make
money, he says that college graduate
does not fulfill it so quickly or so surely
as one who goes into business immedi-
ately upon leaving school. There was
time, no doubt, when no one would
have disputed the assertion. The origi-
nal aim of uni yersities was to fit young
men for the church, and up to the be-
ginning of this century, such colleges
as Harvard, Yale and Princeton 80 far
conformed to the medieval conception
of their functions, that majority of
their graduates were intended for the
ministry and entered upon its duties.
Even those who chose the professions
of medicine or law were largely impelled
by other than pecuniary motives, and
did not contemplate rivalry with BUSH
ness men as regards the accumulation
of property.
In the days when college curricu.
lum was mainly confined to Greek,
Latin and the higher mathematics, it
was generally acknowledged that lad
looking forward to business life would
do better to enter store or counting.
room at an early age than to spend at
college the Sc ven important years be.
tween fourteen and twenty-one. Not
only would the graduate find it difficult
to make up for the long start acquired
by his non-collegiate competitors, but
he would be handicapped by habits.
tastes predictions and points of view,
but i'll adapted to success in business.
1t was, perhaps, the belief once current
in the disqualification of highly edu-
Gated young men for business pursuits
that led the elder James Gordon Ben
nett to say to Mr.. George W. Childs las
the latter tells us in his "Recollec-
tions'):
'Childs, how unfortunate 1t is for o boy to
have rich parents. II you and had been born
that way, perhaps we wouldn't have amounted
to much"
In this country, however, and to a
C considerable extent in England, the
purposes and methods of college educa.
ton have undergone process Of read.
adjustment during the present genera
ton. The results of the changes in the
aim and the curriculum of universities
are not yet so ma nifest as they will be
later, but we may already predict with
confidence that the Carnegies of the fu.
ture will have comparatively little
ground for pronouncing college train
ing unsuited to business success. To
make clergymen has ceased to be the
primary purpose of our chief institu.
tions of learning. They are rather de.
signed to qualify young men for effect
i've exertion in whatever vocation they
may choose to enter.
| Their present function Is twofold
first to effect general stimulation and
discipline of the mental faculties: and
secondly, to supply instru ction through
elective courses in subjects specially
| uuupVoo w 1OOuEc dufdHOCiuoh III uuV
particular vocation to which a young
man looks forward. The time which
formerly lad must have expended
upon Greek, he can now devote to civi
engineering or to electricity and chem
istry, whose relations to industry are
manifold, direct and obvious. Moreover
the spirit of undergraduate life, al
might be expected, now that studies are
adjusted to postgraduate intentions
has become less academical and NOR,
practical. Instead of being, what it use(
to be, microcosm sequestered from
prosaic bread earning existence ant
having sea rcely any points of contao
with it, the college has become vesti
bule of the outdoor world. Universities
IN fine. have recognized the necessity Q
such radical reco Instruction of their pro
grammes and processes as shall maxi
education not merely an intellectual
gymnastic but specific and substan
tial promoter of advancement in an,
career. IN. Y. Ledger.