The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-11-24
NOTICE.
NOTICE.
A.A Campbell is tho only authorized travel
ing agent Of this paper.
THE II.
roe, HIGHER EDUCATION pAYe

noe, HIGHER EDUCATION PAY?
The question is put in all seriousness
by a young man of Brooklyn to the ed
itor Of the New York Morning Journal.
He says the matter has been under dis
cussion by a society OF young men. but
they have not been able to reach a sat
isfactory conclusion. The editor does
not undertake a reply to his CORES
pondsnt's question, but by Il ct those
circumstances likely to happen in any
we'll regulated newspaper a positive an
swer in the negative is gwen in another
column of the same issue. The answer
of course does not necessarily have the
editors endorsement, for it was printed
as all matter except editorial is printed
in a newspaper, because it is interesting
reading. The uu%intentional answer at
firms hat Germany suffers from an in
tellectual overproduction. All the pro-
LESSONS are overcrowded. There are
more than 1000 examined architects
without G-cd employment; it is the
same with engineers, teachers in clas-
sizes, mathematics, etc; while of lawyers
and doctors and literary men there IS
almost no accounting. It is sad that
these unemployed forces are particu-
larly attracted to the great capitals in
the hope that in the multiplicity of
chances they will finally find a gap into
which they may jump. OF course there
is discomfort among them, and social
and political revolution are the result.
If men with university training do not
succeed in their particular line they
cannot become artisans or workmen,
and naturally drift into giving cheap
lessons, p~ettifogging. writing for infe-
rior papers, or working at any quasi in
tellectual vocation for starvation wages.
The article summarized in the New
York newspaper was written by DR..
Getfchen for the Forum. The learned
doctor, besides recounting the facts as
given above, makes the observation that
it was fondly believed up to our days
that the state had no more important
task than to render the acquiring Of
knowledge as easy as possible; it was
not asked whether there was room
enough for employing men when their
education was finished.
DR.. Geffchen's statement of facts is
doubtless true as to Germany, but is
far from true as applied to this country.
The Germans are a vastly different kind
of people. Affairs are managed in a
very different way in the Fatherland.
The aim and object Of higher education
in that country is considered to be to fit
the student for a purely intellectual
vocation. In this country young men
60 to colleges and universities to fit
themselves for business of every kind.
College-bred men are to be found in
railroad offices, railroad shops, insurance
offices, mercantile houses, mines, facto-
ries, on the road as statesmen, In fact In
every position where a trained mind
supplemented by vital energy and a de-
termination to get ahead bring their
sure reward. If the genuine American
college-bred young man does not find an
opening that exactly suits him he takes
the best opening that he can get, and
works and waits for the better position
which is sure to come to him. AS long
as this is a characteristic OF American
young men there is no danger of a sur
plus Of educated men IN the United
States, and it can be safely asserted that
a higher education is a good financial
investment. This assertion is SUD-
ported negatively by the fact that there
arc almost no criminals who are college
graduates. When one of this class of
citizens turns criminal it is in the line
of swindling and the betrayal of fnan-
cial trusts. Murderers, highwaymen,
train robbers and the brutal and vicious
are almost invariably men of exceed
inRly scant intellectual training. The
same is true of tramps and paupers.
The college man is very seldom q public
charge.
1t is undoubtedly true that men OF
higher education are seldom thrifty.
They do not as a rule accumulate great
sums of money. AS their resources in
crease their expenses for the finer luxu-
ries of life keep pace. They spend more
in the qualification of their desires for
art, literature and travel. They hold
that it is not all Of life to pile UP dollars,
and who will affirm that it is?