St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-09-21
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION.

NC satisfied WITH the results OF us 6X-
pertinent in prison reform.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION.
Pending the discussion whether col
legiate education is help or hindrance
to successful business. career, new
feature has been gradually ENGRAVING
itself upon our educational system
which promises to solve the whole prob
lem. We refer to the university extern
sion system, which has atlength reached
st. Paul, and is being successfully es-
tablished under the auspices of the
academy of science. The readers of
yesterdays GLOBE were entertained
with the address delivered by Rev. S.
G. SMITH in high school Friday evening,
in which he explained the origin and
purposes of the university extension
system. While it is of English origin
and of comparatively recent birth, the
system will find soil better adapted to
its growth here in America than in the
countries of the old world. 1t is essen
TALLY in line with our American ideas
Of popular education, and harmonizes
with the spirit of free government. The
very nature of our political institutions
makes the necessity for educating the
masses more pressing here than in the
other countries of the world.
DR.. SMITH gave lucid explanation
of the purpose of the university ex-
tension system when he said that il was
an effort to 81 We every town a college of
its own. Furthermore, it proposes 10
establish course of technical training
in connection with the college work
that will besof advantage to the several
industrial classes. And last, but not
least, of all, it proposes to employ only
so much time in college education as
can be conveniently spared from other
employments. Thus it meets and salts
fies all the objections that are now
being urged against collegiate educa-
ton. The point is made that the years
spent by the young man at college are
just that much time taken from the pur-
suit of other knowledge that would be
more serviceable to him in the practical
affairs of life. When the college grad
uate enters upon a business career it is
claimed that he is just four years short
of an experience that he ought to
| years more of preparatory course in
obtaining knowledge of subjects that
| are not included in the regular college
| course. Another objection is that col
| lege instruction, even if it should be all
| that it ought to be, is too expensive to
| permit the bulk of the industrial classes
to enjoy its benefits. The establishment
| of state universities to be maintained at
! public expense is only partial relief
in this direction. The tuition is free,
but all the other expenses remain, and
those who live outside of the town in
which the university is located are vir-
tually denied its privileges, unless they
happen to be the children of rich par
| entS.
The advocates of collegiate education
insist. and properly so, that the higher
education of our business classes is alb
SOlutely essential to oul permanent well
fare. Whether for good or for evil, the
control of our modern life is slipping
into the hands of the business classes.
The professional world is losing, while
the business world is gaining. 1t is the
banker, the manufacturer and the rail-
road manager, and no longer the lawyer,
the statesman or the clergyman, who de-
cides matters of public Importance.
Yet the underlying stratum upon which
| all higher interests must rest is the
great body OF wage earnerS and wealth
producers. The higher education of
one class involves the necessity for the
higher education of the other. If either
is to be sighted, it had better be the top
of the structure than the base.
Hence the university extension Sys-
tenn comes with its facilities for obtain
ing a liberal education just when it is
most needed and in the way that is most
efficient. The literary college, in its
| present form, is unable to meet the ne
| ceSSities of the case. Its benefits are
conferred only upOn the favored classes,
and they are OF character unSuited to
the wants of modern industrial inter
ests. What is wanted is a system that
will provide a more expeditions and
more generally practicable means of
obtaining liberal education. The mud
sIlls and the clodhoppers stand as much
| in need of a higher education as do the
bankers, the manufacturers, and the
| railroad managers. According to census
| returns there are about twelve millions
of growing boys and girls who are to
| control the future deStinies of this re-
public. They must receive an educa-
ton of the kind properly called liberal
| if our institutions are to be preserved
and if our social and political affairs are
to be kept pure and sound. 1t is not
enough that they shall learn trades
and handicrafts, nor that their educa-
ton shall be circumscribed by their
knowledge of the three RS. They must
learn to think, and to think straight, on
all subjects. 1t is a viciously narrow
education which confines persons
| thoughts exclusively to his occupation.
| The One-ldea man makes the poorest
sort of a citizen. A citizen has no moral
right to vote on question that he is in
| capable of understanding. And yet
there are thousands and hundreds of
thousands who do. and for the most part
they are good men and thought to be
| good citizens.
The university extension scheme
brings it within the reach of high and
humble alike to acquire classical and
scientific knowledge. The travelling
college, with its studies and its lectures,
| sits down right at every mans door. and
he can arrange his hours for study to
| suit his own time and convenience
MORAL HORSE RACES.
In the case of the Methodist minister
ioi, fr;o