The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-09-11
ISSUE AN ADDRESS
Friends University West Side
Conference Committees
ADVICE to YOUNG MEN
Horace GreeIy's Famous In
junction Is Revised.

The committee on conference Tor me
Friends university, the committee con-
slgting Of citizens OF the West Side, has
issued the following address:
Years ago the phrase was often on the
tongues Of men farther east Young
man, 90 west" Many of these heroic
Young men went west, and so through
their intelligence and energy, the west
has developed till practically there is no
west, no west with forests to be felled,
bridges to be built, roads made and prai-
ries subdued. These have largely been
done and 50 in development and culture.
the west is east and the east west. Hence
no more need Of the injunction, young
man. go west" but in it's stead comes
the equally worthy and more imperative,
Young man. go to college"
Many young man hearing this from
the preacher. the lecturer or reading it in
the paper, says "Why go to college?
Can't man get on in the world without
going to college? Can't he do business,
read medicine study law, or preach with
out going to college?" People used to
do those things without going to college
Yes. seventy-five or a hundred years ago,
before Horace MARI electrified New Eng
land with the plea that every child Of
the republic should be educated. Since
that plea, has come the public school sys-
tenn. which has rolled its waves of light
from Boston common to the Golden Gate.
From that date to this intelligence and
culture has ih.reased among the masses
two or three hundred per cent. Then an
academic or high school student outside
Of New England, was rare; now they are
everywhere. Then a college graduate was
In many neighborhoods wonder "A prod
icy; now they are in every community
and in nearly all the calhngs of life.
Here, young man, is the reason you should
go to college. When only one out Of a
thousand Of your co-laborers or competi-
tors was armed with a college education,
you could have got along fairly well with
out it. because working with or competing
with those without-hence on equal terms
that IS, with equal equipment. A hun
bred years ago. you could have fought
an Iidnan with a bow and tomahawk, but
today you need a sword. rife and bayonet.
In life's battle every man owes it to him
self to have, If possible, an outfit proper
tionate-culture equal that of his CO.
most efficient means, of receiving this out
fit, this preparation, is the college. Hence
the pertinence and significance of the ex-
hortation above: 60 to college"
on say yes, believe in the advantages
of a college education, but I can't go.
You say you can't. Let's consider that
can't a moment Why can't you? I'm
too poor. What are your earnings?
From SIS to $50 and $50 a month and live
at home. You earn $500. 1850 or $42O a year.
Won't that take yo uto college a year?
Oh, I use that up as I go along. I'll not
ask you how much of that is spent in
parties. dances, bands, cigars and other
folles and vices. We will go into figures
showing how much a college year costs.
We viii refer you to the the catalogues
and circulars of the universities. colleges
and academies in this city. We will refer
you further 10 the life of James A. Gar
field, who was pOos as poverty. Space
does not admit a detailed account here
but read his life as written by Dr. Rid
path. and there see the heroic struggle
of a boy in poverty. There see him chop
ping twenty cords Of wood for 81, work
ing in the saltery" for $14 a month.
Without following him through his canal
boating. carpentering, choring. etc, suffice
1t to say that he saved 81 and with that
started to Grange Seminary. Thence ne
soon assembled to Hiram college, and
working his way by carpentering, jani-
toring. etc, he finished his course and
left, not in debt as many faster" boys
do. but left with $3.50 over and above ex-
penses.
In the light OF this and hundreds OF
Ike examples. young man. don't say you
are too poor to so to college"
No young man with good health and
proper habits of industry and economy.
is too poor to so to college in this day of
opportunity. unless he mas a widowed
mother, invalid sister or other helpless
ones to support. One other point of en-
enlargement: College history shows that
as a rule. these struggling young men
make the best scholars and. in after life.
the most useful men. Read biography
and see
In closing let me entreat you not to
lose your Ife's opportunity by stumbling
over cant" Look at the colleges all
over the land. and look at them here at
your door; Lewis Academy. airmount
CoiIese. The Friends University all With
open doors, saving come. If YOU neglect
or refuse, twenty years from now you'u
take mp The wall Of thousands Of others.
II could have had a college education.