The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-12-27

College:
Mr.. PRESIDENT, THE TRUSTEES, FAC
ULTY AND STUDENTS OF OAHU Col
LEGE AND LADIES AND GENTLE
MEN:
To those who are alumni of Oahu
College the occasion OF laying the cor
ner stone Of this structure, which will
be a beautiful and commodious aca-
demic hall, is inspiring, and in con-
templating the educational facilities
to be here afforded We cannot fail to
contrast the present surroundings and
status of this institution of learning
with what they were when we attend
ed here as pupils.
In order TO better appreciate the
value of q liberal education let me
lead your minds to the United States.
In that Republic, during the year
1898, and the year now closing, we
find remarkable condition of affairs.
1t was q condition of great CONNER
cial depression. Prices OF all products
were extremely low, factories were
closed and the unemployed were gath
cred into armies seeking redress from
the paternal Government. Strikes,
real and sympathetic, were unparal-
leled in their number and gravity. /
do not care to discuss whether this
condition of things was created by
over valuation or over production, by
the silver question, the depression of
securities occasioned by the suspen-
sion OF Barring Bros. owing to the
disaster in the Argentine Republics,
or by the uncertainties of tariff legis-
lation. The fact Of the general dull
ness of trade and commercial depres-
sion existed. Notwithstanding this,
we find an equally remarkable inn
petus all over the Republic of the
Gknf Tom o,-I .;r;rN ~
liberal education. The youth of
America of all classes, from the poor
to the rich, are entering the colleges
and universities as never before. Not
only do we see the establishment of
grand and magnificently endowed col
leges, from Stanford on the Pacific
Coast to the University of Chicago,
that have sprung forth Minerva-like
fully clad in armor, all crowded with
young people as students, but the
older colleges are making great pro-
gress, not only in the way of new
buildings and equipment, but in the
hordes of students that throng them.
Let me give you q few figures: Yale
College had in 1852 but 500 students
in all its departments-462 in the
academic or classical course, and "A in
the scientific. In 1873 the total num-
Der was 9e5; 512 academic and 242
scientific. In 1852 the total number
was 1119; Gil academic and 206 scIen-
tific. In 1892, total 1869; $50 academic
and 529 scientific. In 1893, total num-
Der 2202; academic, 1855; scientific,
sol. The figures for 1894 are: 33S
Freshmen, 294 sophomores, 27S
Juniors and 249 seniors. Total aca-
demic (Those in the schools of law,
medicine, theology, ETC., are not here
included) 115S, and scientific 665; and
so the present freshman class is over
three times as large as in our days.
The over two thousand students in all
the departments require the services
of two hundred instructors, as against
sixty thirty years ago. The expenses
of maintaining boy at college have
also greatly increased in the older and
larger colleges. Yet they come, not
withstanding the general poverty of
the land.
L can find no sufficient reason for
this except that the fierce competition
now prevailing in the struggle for a
competency and for even moderate
success in every avenue of human ac-
tivity is so great that it is an absolute
necessity that men who enter the
arena shall be better equipped than
ever before. The boy of America is
not content to dig and delve on the
ancestral farm, as his father did, or
enter the shop as a porter and work
his way up, as his father did. His
restless ambition Inspires him to do
better, and to begin some steps further
up on the ascent. He wishes to be
doctor, a clergyman, a lawyer, an en-
gineer, or TO go into mercantile pur-
suits. He knows that all these ave-
nues are full to depletion. He
must, therefore, start in the
race better armed than the mass
of strugglers. What better pre-
paration than knowledge how TO
study and to assimilate what the
books teach, which is the object of a
college course of four years. And
what better preparation to deal with
men than the friction and rubbing Off
of eccentricities, and the knowledge
of character afforded by association
with the hundreds of young men, from
all parts of the country, in the micro
cosm of q college? What better dici- |
pline than the tougheningof fibre, the |
development Of courage, the magnan- |
unity in victory and the cheerfulness |
in defeat, which are developed in the |
boat race and on the foot bail field?
So say to parents, "send your boys |
to college" That is, il the boys want |
to go and are worth sending. Don't |
waste 5000 education on 800 boy. |
But our boys are worth an education.
Boys, don't be In hurry to leave
school so as to get a $40 month gov
eminent clerkship. II you enter the
lists with a sound body, a strong and
pure character, and brain that
knows how to work, industry and
fidelity to your ideals will bring the
success you deserve; even IL you start
at twenty-five years of age, or elder,
you will find the place that needs you.
do not mean to say that liberal
education will insure every college
graduate fortune in money. L don't
need to be told that Jay Gonld and
the founder OF the Vanderbilt family,
and many of the multi millionaires
were "self- made men," and never
entered a college door. Native talent
and geniuses are likely to make their
mark under all circumstances. But /