Birmingham age-herald., 1895-07-05
"A CARD FROM ALUMNUS."

To the Age-Herald
 Yesterdays Age-Herald contained an
 article from "Alumnus' which seems
 to me to do great injustice to the Poly technic institute at Auburn. After say ing that a boy can go through college there and pay for uniform, board and all
 for S1S0 or less he adds that "a parent that can't afford that amount for his son should keep him at home behind the blow, or keep him at some business where he can feed and clothe himself That is very harsh. l know many par
 ents who cannot pay so much. and l am glad that the board of trustees are try
 ins to reduce the expense. and sincerely
 hope they will succeed; for if they do
 succeed there are hundreds of young
 men who will go through college and af-
 forwards become great and useful men,
 who will otherwise probably be behind
 thePlow'' all their lives There are many
 young men in the different colleges in
 Alabama who are borrowing money to
 go through They are straining every
 nerve, and in few years they will be in
 the forefront of every department Of
 worthy endeavof. Let a poor boy have
 a chance; don't keep genius behind the
 blow. If poor man wants to educate
 his sons the colleges should, if possible
 reduce the expense so low that his desire
 may be realized.
 But A1umnus further says: What
 we want at Auburn is not expenses
 cheaper than $175 session, but sweep
 ing out of the old fossils, from the pres
 dent to the board of trustees, and give us live, progressive men, who will work
 for the true interests of the college and
 not want to go backward fifty or seventy five years" Now, Alumnus may be much better posted in educational mat ters than I am, but that does not pre-
 vent me from believing, after personal acquaintance with every man in the faculty at Auburn. that there is not a fossil" in the board of instructors. On the contrary, every professor is pro | gressive" and well up in his own depart ment. l think l know something about
 men, and can tell dead one from a live one. l think, too, that 1 know SoIne- thing about colleges and can tell when one is well equipped for instruction and l whether the work done to develop the mental forces of youth is well done or | badly done. And I do not hesitate to 1 say that the collegeat Auburn is doing ex- cellent work, and that the young men | make of themselves there about as much 1 as they can in so short-a a time and at such a youthful age. The fact is, the | state should be proud of the college and I it's professors and also of it's alumni. | It is not classical school. 1t is a poly 1 technic institute No Greek and but a | short course in Latin Is taught, without 1 which it is next to impossible, in my l judgment, to attain the higher mental l finish. No philosophy, or but little, is | taught, without which the broadesi l range of speculative reason cannot be l reached. But Auburn does not pretend | to this. It is only a technioal school, de
 signed and equipped for the purpose oi | giving and intelligent start on some Inc | of practical manual industry. To get 8 | classical education one must go else | where.
 ] The beard of trustees may or may not l be careless and inattentive. Of this ] 1 know nothing at all. But one thing do l know: very few boards of trustees have