The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-06-02
DOES COLLEGE COURSE PAY?
CHAUNCEY VI. DEPEw. FREDERIC
COLBERT AND OTHERS DIS
CUsS THE QUESTION.
Henry CIews In the Negative-Hovv
the Modern University Differs From
the OId-TIme COIIeges-AthIeties
and the Classics Not Inconsistent.

the Modern University Differs From
the OId-TIme CoIIeEes-AthIeties
and the Classics Not Inconsistent.
Copyright.
New York. June How much Of practf-
cal value is TO be got from
a college course by a young
man about to engage in business or
a profession has always been and will
continue 10 be, mooted question. The
near approach Of the graduation season,
when hundreds Of young men will be sent
out into the world from the various coll
leges Of the land, as fit for the real work
Of life as careful training can make them.
renders discussion Of this matter espe-
cially timely.
1t is generally understood. l believe,
that the Hon. Chauncey n. Depew be-
lieves in the modern university, and that
he is in about as close sympathy with
the college student to-day as when lie
was himself a student at Yale. But while
Mr.. Depew believes the college bred
young man has much the better chance
in the race Of life. still he does not con-
slider the college training of these times
altogether faultless. Indeed, he believes
it lacking in one great essential. as he eN-
planned to me at some length yesterday
in the course of talk upon college train
ing, past. present and future, and its
part in the general economy Of human
progress.
do you believe" / asked him. that
the college graduates of to-day are bet
ter trained than those. of forty or fifty
years ago?"
Yes" was the reply, Gin most things.
But in one respect the graduates of 1898
are far behind those of 1850. Few Of the
boys who will leave college this year VIII
be good takers. They may he as good
thinkers as those who graduated four
decades ago-better, for all know. They
may be able to grasp business and scien-
tiic problems as readily, but they will not
be nearly so capable of telling what they
know or what they think as the older
chaps Why? Because of the decline Of
the debate as a means Of training. There
were debating societies in colleges when L
was a student, and all the brightest men
belonged and took part in the discussions.
Nowadays few college students would
think of STOPPING so low as to belong TO
debating society or of engaging in set
discussion of any problem. / regard this
as a national calamity. which, however
is mitigated to some extent by the fact
that while the debating club has been
practically abandoned by the college boy
it has been taken up by the workingman
who, by it's use, as he could by no other
means, is clarifying his mental vision as
to certain matters. In England there is
more of this than here, for over there
mock parlaments, before which current
topics in politics. morals and economics
are deliberately discussed, are held in ev-
cry city and town. 1t is a good sign when
the people of any country begin systemat-
ically to debate on current affairs. They
sometimes take up the wrong side, but
that does no harm in the long run. People
had better be mistaken than not to think
and discuss, since thought and honest dis
cusson are sure, sooner or later, to set
them right
LAS to the advantage of a college train
ing in actual everyday business and pro-
| fessional life" Mr.. Depew went on, there
is this to say: Some exceptionally strong
men there be, in the aggregate indeed,
great many of them, who seemed to get
through life as well without the knowledge
and training to be acquired al college as
If full course had been taken. Yet it is
my opinion that these men, even those
of most marked success, would have done
better had they been college trained. They
might not have risen higher but the rise
would probably have been easier and, on
the whole, more satisfactory to them. To
the average man the college course is ex-
tremely valuable. 1t teaches him how to
use his mental powers; how to reason from
cause to effect and back again; how TO
concentrate his energies; how To- adapt
himself quickly to suddenly changed con-
6itions. Whoever would succeed in real
life must get this training somehow and
iG hpf for 70 uof
lege than while sweeping out the office
If the sweeper-out' gets ahead of the col
lege boy in business, in his profession or
in public affairs depend upon it. it is be-
cause of superior native ability harder
, work or greater endurance. 1t is in spite
OF the lack of college training-not because
of il. l know that, as a rule, the great
corporations of to-day choose heads of
! departments mostly from the ranks of
college graduates holding subordinate
places; not because of the mere possession
of diplomas by the graduates, but because
the college man so often displays more
ability, sounder reasoning, better iudc-
ment and quicker decision. But the vounr-
man who cannot get to college should not
be discouraged by this state of affairs
he should work and study all the harder
AS matter of fact, continued the
speaker, almost any young man who real
ly wishes to do so can go to college II ie
as easy to work your way through now as
it ever was. To be sure, owing to a combj
nation of circumsta nces, for which the col
leges are not to blame, and which they
cannot do away WITH it is much more ex-
pensive nowadays at some of the older in
situations than it ever was before But if
TINS is the lettering cause, the young man
who is debating with himself as to whether
or not he should go to college need not hes
itate for it is still possible to take the fun
course at nearly every one of the smaller
colleges at much less cost than at Yale
Harvard or Princeton. At the Leland STAN