Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-07
AooLLEGIATE REFORM.

Most of our colleges were originally
founded with provisions for young men to
support themselves, either partially or
wholly while obtaining an education. 1t
was this which more than any other influ-
all classes, and in past times made it possible
for any young man, however poor, If he
possessed the capital of determination, vigor
and industry, to secure training for any
position. Some institutions, more famous,
perhaps, for their popularity than for their
high standards, were founded on the basis of
providing manual labor for all students
who wished to work their way through col
lege. While some of these plans were rudi-
mentary and many of the so-called colleges
rather crude in their appointments, all
worked together with eminent success, thirty
and forty years ago, to realize the democratic
ideal of placing an academic, if not a uni
versity education, within the reach of the
humblest who had the desire and persist
ence to work his way from the common
schools into the preparatory departments of
these colleges, and thence through the col
lege course.
OF late years our colleges have progressed
in the matter OF educational advancement,
but at the same time have lost great share
of their old democratic accessibility to the
common people. Most of them have taken
the more stereotyped functions of places
where the children of prosperous parents
can obtain the polite training which will
enable them to scatter the parental wealth
in good style when they get hold of it. Re-
cent publications of the cost of keeping a
student at college have disclosed that there
are few colleges where the annual expenses
will not equal the total income of skilled
mechanic or moderately prosperous
farmer. This excludes the son of the
mechanic or farmer from any chance of COL
lege education.
AS Harvard College, until very recently,
has been regarded as leading example of
the colleges available for rich mems sons
only, it is pleasant to learn that steps are
being taken there to reverse that undesira-
BILE tendency. A recent report of President
Eliot shows that the Foxcroft Club, an Or
ganization which furnishes meals to STU
dents at an average cost of 50 IS per week,
and the Loan Furniture Fund, which fur
nishes rooms at an annual rent of So for new
furniture, and 81 Go for secondhand, have
materially reduced the cost of living at
Harvard for those to whom economy is an
object. In addition there is a regular sys-
tenn for securing to students of narrow
means employment of various sorts by
which they are able to earn the 1915 year
which an economical student needs to pay
| his way.
The effect Of these arrangements has been,
according to the Boston Globe, that the rich
| young alumni of Harvard, who were the
gilded youth of the last decade, are now be-
ginning to reproach it with having turned
into "digs" or scrubs" college, instead
of place for the enjoyment OF the youthful
wealth of the nation. This is the most
honorable reproach that can well be brought
against great institution Of learning. The
endowments of rich colleges are perverted
unless their benefits are brought within the
reach of the poorer class of students. Tc
endow a college that the sons of rich men
can enjoy educational advantages would be
a mockery which neither John Harvard, OF
the great mass of his emulators in this coun
try, had any intention of perpetrating. L
is to be hoped that President Eliot and hi.
associates will continue to bring the ad
vantages of the Harvard endowments withir
the reach of self-supporting students. 1
the result of such efforts shall be to fiji
that university with hard working and poo
students, to the disgust and exclusion o
fast and fashionable youth, we may be Ger
tain that the contribution which Harvard
will make to the useful citizenship of tn
next generation will be all the more valu
able for the change.