The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-01-29
CHAUNCEY ". DEPEw ON THE
HIGHER EDUCATION.
Fifry-Fight per cent. OF the Best Offices
-. ,...I EIILnd hu NnIIarn q rnh Il .

New York city ana Ill MS Introductory
speech spoke in part as follows:
A distinguished doctor of divinity.
who represented college celebrated for
the rigidity of its theology and the liber-
ality of its endowmentS, and also for its
high scholarship and good athletes, had
his equilibrium unbalanced because of
the defeat of the orthodox leader and his
leninns on the ballfield by the COngregh
tiUnalist Stagg. 1t was then hat he re-
marked that never since Joshua blew his
horn about the walls of Jericho had
there been such a volume of wind instru-
ments as were Yale speeches. (Laugh-
teri So long as our victories continue
we accept the illustration and the rela-
ton assigned us 10y the eloquent doctor.
Changes which do not improve and re-
forms which reverse true development
have been the shadows upon progress,
and education has not escaped their bad
effects. The motto of our old college
has never changed. She promises to give
a liberal education and to teach the
Christian religion. Notwithstanding she
is located alographicall? in New England,
she continues to teach the Christian re-
ligion. Uaughter.) Her leading position
for 200 wears. he + adaptation to the times,
her conservatism and her radlcalism,
have all demonstrated that New England
clelgymcn can do much more than
preach. As meet them IN the rooms
of the corporation they are not quick and
eager for the fee for attendance, like the
thrifty business man who serves as
director in railroad and financial cOrpor-
atIons. They even pay for their own
luncheOns or bring sandwich III their
hats. (Laughter) But they will sit
longer and work harder far nothing than
any trustees in the country. (Applause,)
Wall street may smile at such weakness,
but the world has reason for rejoicing i'll
the results of their labors. applause
ADVANCED EDUCATION.
The new education is an enormous
advance upon old methods. 1t is the
necessity of our times. But its uses are
for industrial pursuits. 1t is the natural
evolution of the common school and the
free academy. 1t will be their auxiliary
OF their substitute. 1t trains men and
women for the vacations in life to which
they teel called. AS it improves and be-
comes more perfect the university
standard rises, and its curriculum be-
comes broader. Nothing ever can OF
ever will, however, take the place of a
university course for those who have the
time and opportunity to follow it. Money
making or even bread-winnlng is not the
chief end of man.
Colleges produce cranks, but they are
of the kind who become the levers which
move the world. They are those FAR
sighted and courageous statesmen who
dare be unpopular, and aggressive and
dangerous to the existing order OF things,
when power and patronage are vested In
slavery or the saloon or gambling. Ihey
are the Galileos who lie i'll dungeons IN
their own aye for the discovery and as
sertion of truths which are the light and
guide of succeeding generations. The
dangerous crank, with his dynamite and
pistol, never comes from the university.
He Is the product of narrow culture and
narrower environments. The genius of
this class who knocked at Mr.. Wander
bits door and demanded not money,
but brains, saw his real necessities.
Uaughter.) They were discipline and
method, self-restrAint and self-rellance,
knowledge and how to find it, the indie
Unable vet inestimable faculty which
comes from long and intimate contact
with ingenious minds studying the same
lessons, discussing the same topics, SOlV-
ing the same problems and intent on
similar pleasures In short, lie required
a course and cure at Yale. (ApplduSe.)
The materialist, like my friend Mr..
Carnegie, attacks college education,
because in his experience graduates have
not won the fortunes which have been
accumulated by those who stan ted early
and with Il common school equipment.
His lection lmtagOnizes only one of the
myriad advantages and pleasures OF a
college course. No fortune could com
pensate for the loss of the companion
ship and culture, the reading and the
lectures, the grasp of all things ana the
intimacy with many, the trained iacul-
ties and conscious power which come
from the class room and the campus.
The failures in life-wOrk among univer-
sity men are infinitely small in proper
ton to their numbers compared with
those who never had their advantages.
In my class of one hundred, there were
three dead failures and one tramp, but
OF the rest all have been successes, and
twenty per cent. of them distinguished
i'll their vocatiOns. Two at them are
Judges of The Supreme Court OF the
United States. Recent statistics have
demonstrated that though college men
men constitute Only one per cent. OF the
voters. they hold tifty-eight per cent. OF
the best offices of the Republic, and with
less data, but probably with equal truth,
a careful student has estimated that II
common school education adds fifty per
cent. to the productive power of the
laborer, an academical education one
hund ed per cent. and college educH-
ton three hundred per cent. (Applause,)
1t is AMI has been for many years
familiar charge that we have too many
conspicuous examples of poor copies
from foreign originals. Our dudes affect
an English accent Ond turn up the bot
toms of their pantalUOns when it rains in
London, and many of our fashionable
girls are the promising pupils of the
French gOverueSs, the French dress
maker aud the French maid. However
much of this may be true in our liter
ature, our morals OF our manners, our
colleges have develOI ed and grown upon
lines which are purely American. Zap
plause.)
Oxford and Cambridge meet all the
requirements of English life, aud Heidel-
berg, LeiDsic, Bvnn and Berlin are Ger
man ideals, but the boy whose life and
work are to be known in this Republic
will get an infinitely better education in
an American college. Here is the pecu-
liar strength of Yale. In her teachings
and tradition, in her faculty and stu
dents, in her spirit and work, she is
National and American. 1t IL said that
at the Vienna University, where Abbas,
the young Khedive of Egypt, is being
educated, part of the campus is set
Al q