The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1890-08-15
$500 PER YEAR IN ADVANCE.
COLLEGE TRAINING.
It Il No Longer Iuiuical to succsss IN
business Life.

business Life.
A good deal of discussion has been
excited by Mr.. Andrew Carnegie's dec1a-
ration that. so far as his observatzon.
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 fulfll 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 oriRf-
nal aim OF universities was 70 fit young
men for the church, and MP to the be-
ginning of this century. such colleges
as Harvard, Yale and Priuceton 50 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 impefled
by other than pecuniary motives. and
did not contemplate rivalry with busi-
ness men as regards the accumulation
OF property.
In the days when a college currieu-
lum was mainly confined to Greek,
Latin and the higher mathematics. IL
was generally acknowledged that lad
looking forward to business life would
do better to enter q 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 1t difsicult
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 CbiIds las
the latter tells us in his ssRecollec-
tions.'l.
.-chiIds, how unfortunate IL il for boy 70
have riSh parents II you and had been bora
that way. perhaps xe wouldn't have amounted
70 uauch~
In this country, however, and 70 8
c considerable extent in England, the
purposes and methods of college ednea-
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 b
later, but we may already predict with
confidence that the Carnegies of the fu-
/ ture will have comparatively liftls
ground for pronouncing college train
ing unsuited to business success. re
make clergymen has ceased 70 be the
primary purpose of our chief instita-
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 twofoId j,
frst TO effect general stimulation and
discipline OF the mental faculties. and.
secondly. TO supply instruction through
elective courses in subjects specially
! adapted to secure advancement in the
particular vocation to which q Young
man looks forward The time which
formerly q lad must have expended
upon Greek. he can now devote to civil
engineering or TO electricity and chem
istry. whose relations TO industry are
manifold, direct and obvious Moreover,
the spirit of undergraduate life, an
might be expected, now that studies are
adjusted to postgraduate intentions,
has become less academical and more
practical. Instead of being, what it used
to be. microcosm sequestered from
prosaic bread earning existence and
having sea rcely any points of contact
with it. the college has become q vesti-
bule of the outdoor world Universities,
in fine. have recognized the necessity OF
such radical reco Instruction of their pro-
grammes and processes as shall make
education not merely an Intellectual
gymnastic but . specific and substan-
tisl promoter of advancement in any
carcar Ta7rar