The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-05-19

| w custer ndQ 10 HILLS lol uCeiN isSA-
guages and mathematical puzzles, ana
pe1sistently leaped the high paling OF
| the college curriculum to browse at
will in the inviting fields of literature.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, denounced
as an impenetrable Ounce because ne
neglected his lessons in outWorn creeos,
has left to the world two great master
! pieces, the School for ScandaP ana
the Speech Against Warren Hastings
1t is generally conceded that the mere
study of the dead languages does not
develop but dwarfs inventive genius
Such a course of training gives one the
power to pursue theories only.
You ask my opinion as to the cause
of the popular tendency to slight
| fundamental education in the great
, hurry to reach the higher Well, there
are many-too many to be explained
in q short interview. / will mention
one: Lectures upon high ideals in ed
| ucation delivered at our county In
stitutes by Professors who are still
struggling with their first mustaches.
1t would also be we'll to take into con-
sideration concert troupes and football
teams sent out by rival universities for
advertising purposes. Football, you
know, is now most important factor
in higher education
You also ask me to suggest rem
edy That is much harder. However,
it is my opinion that if the men who
have developed our country's resources
and harnessed natures hidden forces
to the car of progress-men who have
shown their faith by their works and
proven themselves to be capable Of ad-
vising-if such men will set the seal
of condemnation upon the course pur-
sued in the education of those who are
to succeed them, it will go far toward
correcting the mistakes that are now
being made. At the head of that class
of men stands Mr. Huntington, and he
has now taken the initiative step and
set an example for others to follow
DIR. VAN NORDEN DISAGREES.
DR.. Charles Van Norden disputes
every point set forth by Mr.. Hunting
ton, and even states that California s
| schools are too practical in their curri-
culum. DR.. Van Norden was President
of Elnira College, New York, and is the
author of several scholarly works, one
published by the Appletons) on the
elements of psychology. He Is to-day
manager of an important business in
Sacramento, and has been a large en-
ployer of men. Speaking of the issues
involved, he said:
"Mr. Huntington is man of large
affairs, but his opinion is in no way
decisive or weighty with me in this
matter, for the reason that the whole
problem is one of statistics. The ques-
ton is, Are college men more success
ha M in hI1c "a
figures show an Affirmative answer.
Most college men who enter business
fail but ten times as many who are not
| college men fail in business The schol-
astically disciplined men are the bright
est; and a large percentage of the
prominent places are filed by college
men. especially in the East Modern
business means adaptability. for voca-
tons are changing and men must be
ready, or the trade mounts beyond
them. Take our business of electrical
engineering; the strides it is making
are enormous, and keenly educated
electrical engineer must study all the
time to keep up.
up to the sophomore year a child S
education should be a series of mental
gymnastics; it should be taught to
think logically; it's powers Of observa-
ton should be trained; also its magma
ton apd powers of utterance. From the
day it goes to the day nursery, through
the kindergarten and up to the sopho-
more year, its cerebro- spinal column
should be trained from the cerebrum
down. until it becomes a skillful, re-
! sponsive nerve machine. From the
| sophomore year on it might work for
information, specific knowledge, as we'll
as training: not until all the previous
discipline should it seek information
but from the sophomore year on it
should seek it's special knowledge in ge-
ology, mathematics. law or what not.
"A book was once written in New
England called Our Ministers Sons,
and it was there shown what a wonder
fully large proportion of college men
We're attaining high places in the world
Of course, many college men are fall
ures, poor wretches forever at the door
of want. Mr.. Huntington sees and
hears from many Of this class, and
many of them are the pampered sons of
rich men, spoiled in their home train
ing and heredity beyond the power of
classical course to redeenl-and some
victims of drink and environment
These defections, delinquents and de-
pendents are not to be charged to the
college,; they were bad in spite of the
college, for blockheads sometimes man
age to get through. Mr.. Huntington's
successful business career has led him
to place undue emphasis on mems purses
as measures of success; but if you will
carefully go among the wrecks you
meet in life-the failures in business of
all classes-I think the men with col
lege educations will be. compared with
the failures in the ranks of the nom
educated, very much smaller than Mr..
Huntington's remarks lead one to be-
lieve. The percentage of the college
men who succeed is far higher than the
ratio of those who graduate and enter
business bears to all others who enter
business. With equal opportunities the
college bred man will outstrip his rival
every time, in spite of certain pre-
JUDGES against him, which prevail
among the uneducated."
C. P. MASsEY'S VIEWS.
c. P. Massey, a gentleman of culture,
wide reading and experience in the lit
erary and business world, gives the fol-
lowing conservative opinions:
Probably in regard to the main
proposition, I am very nearly in accord
with Mr. Huntington, but 1 can CON
ceive of many instances where a rigid
enforcement of any such rule, even in
respect to young men whom circum-
stances call early to the battle of life,
would be exceedingly unkind
THE professions, at least, should be
represented by scholarly men, and the
increasing numbers now entering the