Omaha daily bee., 1890-01-19
SHALL He co TO COLLEGE?
Editor Dana's Answer to a Young
Mans Inquiry.
EDUCATION OUTSIDE OF BOOKS.
1t Was That Made no Success of
Gould and Rockefeiler-A Kan
sas City Contemporaries Opin-
lon on College Degrees.
The True Education.

important question, says the New York
Sun:
Is a college education necessary to.
or would 1t pay, a young man having "a
high school education, and who intends
to pursue u business careerp
No, we do not consider 1t necessary,
and it would not pay in a pecuniary
sense. Very likely our young friend
would make more money if he gave to
business the four years which he would
have to spend Mt college. In that time
usually extending from the seventeenth
or eighteenth to the twenty-first or
twenty second year of q 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 a collegiate educa-
ton is not likely to ~abbreviate the Pc
Rod requisite for it. He will only begin
the work of preparation when he is
older and perhaps less pliable If he
spends four years at college. Even if
he decides after his graduation to un-
dertakc u professional career, three or
four more years of study will be re-
Quircd of him, for the ordinary colleg-
late course merely lays the foundation
for subsequent special training. 1t does
not Of itself fit HIM for any gainful &C.
cupation.
So far as business is co ncerned, after
graduation from college he Is just
where he was after leaving the high
school, the college, in the sense in
which our correspondent speaks OF it,
being nothing more than d higher
matics, moro chemistry and physics,
more Of literature, and get some knowl-
edge of Latin and Greek. None of this
is necessary for a business career. De-
sirable as they all may be gen.
orally, he u get along without
them, and the time expended
in acquiring them may be
without practical compensation for
him. If Mr.. Jay Gould and Mr.. William
Rockefeller had received a college ed
ucation they would be no richer than
they are now, probably they would not
be so rich. The great mass of success
full men of business secured the training
which laid the foundations of their for
tuLcS uuIluB uhC ySdlo IcuulTeC lot
a collegiate education, and they got 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 moro pro-
ticient in what business demands of
them.
Yet we would not have our young
friend suppose that we underate the adj
vantages of the four years study at a
college, if it be a good college, worthy
of the name. There is something even
more valuable than money, and it is the
best and fullest use and development of
a mans powers. 1t is Knowledge, self
improvement, the cultivation of the
training and exercise of the faculties.
Other things being equal, if a mar
wishes q thorough education he must
begin by going through u college course,
though it is true that many OF the best
educated minds have received q
collegiate or university training. But
they have spent in study the time such
a course would require. Nor Is it an
invariable rule, by any means, that a
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.. Hierpont
Morgan. His career has beer an unin-
terrupted success, and yet he passed
from the Boston high school to the
university of Gottingen, though he was
only twenty when, in 1857, he became a
clerk in a New York banking house.
But it must be remembered that Mr..
Morgan Is the son OF a rich father. Mr..
Junius Spencer Morgan, and that he
started in life with opportunities which
even his rare business genus might
never nave created.
This brings us to the main point.
Whether to go or not to go TO college is
a question which a young man must de-
eide according to his circumstances and
his intentions for the future. If he is
poor and has his living to make if he in
tends to pursue business or q trade, if he
has no taste or aptitude for study, and
ii he has no time to spare for the lux
prudent for him to get the practical
training outside of a college and in the
occupation he would pursue. But il he
has the money and can spare the time
for Il collegiate education, or if he pro-
poses to learn a profession, the addi-
tional years Of study are desirable for
him. 1t is a practical question.
The trouble in this country is that we
have too many colleges, and many young
men are induced to attend them who
might better be ~devoting the years to
preparation for employments for which
a collegiate education is not necessary
or even desirable, and for which alone
their aptitudes and capacities fit them.
Most of these institutions, too, are
merely high schools, They do not make
educated men. But If n young man is
determined to educate himself, and. no
matter how poor, is, ready to fight for
the requirement, depending on his own
energies, let him go to college, choos-
ing the best institution he can find.
Comforting Degrees.
One of the greatest evils connected
with the colleges and universities of
this country is the indiscfiminate prac-
tice OF comforting degrees. This vicious
custom has gone SO far that men of
scholastic ability avoid such marks of
distinction AS much as possible. Many
OF the ablest scholars of this country
never Drefx Or nnnax anv titlao IN thair