Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1897-1902, 1898-03-18

At recent meeting of one of the
literary clubs of Plymouth the follow
ing article appeared on the theme "Does
College Education Pay
"The details of an investigation in
the offices of prominent railroad cor
porations, among the employees of
manufacturing associations, and in
different lines of business and COM
merce, with view to ascertain what
proportion of the persons engaged in
clerical and other emplOyments were
graduates of collegiate institutions, re-
suited in that the college-hred man is,
IN business, an exception to his fellows
Also that not few of the leading
men IN the Industrial and commercial
world prefer when employing, TO en-
engage young men who have grown up
in the business rather than those who
have enjoyed the advantages of college
training. AS great manager of rail
road interests stated the case college
graduates have too much to forget"
This is surprising exhibit and seems
to indicate that the value of college
training is not appreciated by men
actually engaged in those lines of occu-
patton which make the business inter
ests of the country what they are. Few
college trained men, unless driven by
dire necessity, will be upon farm or
use their hands in earning their ivli-
hood. Since they are not to be found
In agriculture. nor industrial occupa-
tlons, nor offices where trade and COM
rDerce are managed, the question arises
what becomes of them? What does he
do for living? Does he do anything?
Occasionally, it must be confessed, he
turns up on the front platform of a
street car, In the mining camps of the
west, but in the greatest number of
cases, ne seems to vanish as utte.ly
from public view after commencement
as though the band which lends such
eclat 10 this occasion had played a fu-
! neral dirge.
AS d fact. therefore, it may be con-
cluded that college graduates do not
play the part expected of them In the
affairs of the world. Perhaps the fault
is their own, but perhaps also it lies
with the college authorities and the
college courses. The average man or
woman who skirmishes through col
iege course should imagine that the
world is at his feet, is not to be won
dered at.
While it is perfectly true that knowl-
edge is power, the question whether it
is OF not depends on the kind of knowl-
edge. For knowledge may be either
weapon to aid the traveller in cutting
his way through the jungle of life, or
piece of seless luggage to cucumber
his march, for after he has slowed away
in his Uranium all the knowledge of
! college course he is likely to find his
mind full of all sorts of things but pill
ed in so hurriedly that it is SC inpossi-
| bic to find any needed article without
OverhauliDg the whole. There is too
much of the dead past which cumbers
the educational grounds and not enough
of the useful and practical.
Such is the Importance attached to
the classics that young man who can
not name the presidents of the United
States will glibly deliver himself of a
IiSf of of
more about the wars of the ancient
times than the American Revolution.
Some educational circles think that
the class room is the crank, round
which the world revolves; but some
times when the connection between the
crank and the grindstOne has slipped
the axe grinding boy may be seen dill
gently at work turning as fast as his
arms can move, unmindful of the fact
that the grlndstOne does not stir.
Thus it is with many of our educa-
tional institutions, the crank is going
but the wheel ooes not respond"
ED:-It is evident that the writer OF
this article has erred in her conception
of the true purpose of an education.
No young man, who aspires to college
education, ever expects to compete for
$40 week clerkship. His ambition
is not to be lacky for some one else no
matter what industry he engages in. A
college education puts him on higher
plain than his fellows. His mind is
broadened. He may not be considered
if he applies for clerkship, but no is
fitted for the management of enter
prises and as rule, lands In a position
which close studentship fits him.
The agitation of the question of the
! ladies ramnxinn fheir haIS In church