New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-02-15
VIEWING TIE COLLEGE As 4 FACTORY.
ITS FINISHED PRODUCT As ESTIMATED EY soMr
Rr-STSESs MEN.

| ITS FINISHED PRODUCT As ESTIMATED EY SOME
BUSHES; MEN.
TO the Editor of The Tribune.
| Sir prepared for college, but did not go, owing
| TO poverty and have often wondered whether
| gained or lost thereby debate on the usefulness
Of college education has been begun IN The Tribune
and hope the pot will go on boiling until the true
facts OF the value of college conrse to business
man become known. That Is the only point at i'sue
Is II nOtl Merely TO help keep the water boiling
allow me to throw dry stick into the flames roaring
underneath the cauldrOn.
When Mr. Carnege's article first appeared, about
year ago. the point he made struck me rs BENG cor
| rect Since then | have asked at least twenty sue
cessfu business men I'm this city. all Of them employ
! Of labor what they thought OF the point made.
Every OF them agreed with Mr.. Carnegie emplat-
cay and most of them said that their experience
was that n young man with common schOoi OF
academy education. beginning rs an ohce boy clerk
or mechanic, would, rs rule rise faster ana 20
further business than college graduate who should
begin life at twenty twenty-five. ! give you these
facts for what they worth. They have gone far
10 console for my own lack Of college education
Aprup0s OF th, dispute 1t may be OF interest 10
mention the fact that heard most earnest discus
sion evening at dinner between charming ana
Intellectual woman Of this city, person OF acknOwi-
edged tastes and literary attachments, on the one side
and n wcllmown and successful public man on the
other. She turned upoE him point blank with the
question IL he had ever noticed how much better
educated the women Of country are than The men,
He replied with much surprise that he had not
noticed the phenomenon She insisted that 1t Is so,
that women better educated, that they are sent
TO school, and that after graduation they read ana
study far than man, and reach higher state
OF mental cultivation, whereas the men begin He
young; they must their living and learn busl-
ness do not have time for study, and end by being
far less educated than women. The man In the case
stOutly maintained that better educated than
women because the school Of life supplies tTiGning
for the faculties and ability to reason and see
things as they brond development of all the
powers and wide knowledge of all that is best worth
knowing. which can never be acquired In any other
school Neither Of the isputants convinced the other
but what the man said seems TO me to have bear
Ing on this debate to the value OF college educa
ton. Il seems to show that who must do
without 1t may bS better educated man, after all,
/ wish more could he said by college men on this
point which was actually raised by Mr: carnegie.
and fathers whose sons Will have to follow business
career. 1t Is Of the greatest Importance ior them 70
lSaS or nS s not % ces S speak on
that exact point They seem to avoid it;
day says surely a man WHO was never inside OF
college, and who knows nothing OF It's ady9ntnges' Is
that a man who was never inside a college knows
nothing OF its advantages. How absurd u Is as
easy to Judge Of the finished product OF college as
Of That Of factory. | have never been In gun
factory yet will guarantee to tell lust exactly what
"a gun "a good for after il comes out OF the mctory
As a matter Of fact. the makers Of all Kinds OF ma
chnery tools cloths and practical products have 10
60 10 the classes OF people who those things to
learn what the productions are good for after they
have been made. All Improvements III the Things
from the experience OF the various users
In ms humble opinion the people who have 10 employ
college boys know better what they are good for, ana
The utility 10 them Of college education, than the
manufacturers OF the graduate even II one Of them Is
"nfy years teacher And employers seem rather
20 favor Mr. Carnege's Wow. -
DISTINGUISHED OBSERVER.
NeW. York Feb. 10. 1sO2.