The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-05-25
REPLY TO Mr.. HUNTINGTON
HIS DECLARED TO BE A MER-
CENARY OPINION.
knowledge Acquired in Colleges, They
Assert, Does Not Unfit a Man
for Fighting LIES
Battles.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

LOS ANGELES, May 24-Los Angeles
educators do not agree with Coils p.
huntington in the statement he made at
a recent function that college training
lessons the chances of a man in life's bat
lie. Particular objection is made to the
following assertion by the railroad mag
nate:
How many young men with college ed
ucauons are standing about waiting for
something that will never come because
the work that lies nearest at hand is not
10 their liking? Somehow or other our
schools which teach young people how to
talk do not teach them how to live"
When asked to express an opinion on
Mr. Huntington's speech President E. I.
Pierce Of the State Normal School said:
80 far as public school education is
concerned l have already expressed my
self. l would not say with him that l re-
greet the tendency to higher education 1
believe most firmly in that. We ought to
give our young people practical views Of
life and the ability to take their places in
society as workers L don't believe young
people are fitted for the practical work Of
life at the age OF 10 to p years, but l do
believe that their education during that
period should be of a nature to fit them
for IL. / would not have any one stop at
tending school between the ages OF Is and
Il. That Is not the thing to look forward
Huntington is all wrong" said Profess
soT James A FOshay, superintendent Of
Los Angeles Public Schools. The chill
dren must be trained-and when l say
trained 1 mean all-around training. If
we would have it ideal the btiy must be
trained as we'll as the mind. Education
should be threefold-mental, moral and
physical / believe physical training
should receive much more attention than
II does. In regard to intellectual train
ing We cannot have too much. People
should be taught how TO talk and how to
live, the one as well as the other; and edu-
cation should mean both. The educated
man, if he is going TO dig a ditch, can do
the work just as well as or better than
he could were he uneducated. His educa-
ton will certainly not be a drawback to
him. and il must be a benefit"
President George W. White, of the
University of California, said he had
read Huntington ; speech. In discussing
the railroad presidents language he did
not spare his words.
Huntington voices, l suppose. the
mercenary side of the question" said the
college president. "as well as il could be
voiced. great many people think that
a man should educate himself for bust
ness purposes, but II is a very defective
have higher motive than that. 1t does
help man in his business life. l don't
believe Huntingtons statement that
higher education units a man for bust
ness life. If a man is judged as to his
business capacity upon the conclusion of
his college education he might not make
the man who has spent some years in a
distinctly business training, but put the
college trained man at the beginning Of
a business training beside the man who
has not had a college training and he
VIII distance him every time Having
had his faculties trained to education, It
is all to his advantage.
The effort has been TO combine the
two ideas-that is. to put the first part
Of the college course into general culture
and the last part into specializing TO fit
a man for whatever line he expects to
follow. This prevents the common weak
ness. which is one Of the most dangerous
things in the human mind-the tendency
TO run TO one idea. The one-idea man
IS the crank and is liable to become a
dangerous man TO the community by his
unbalanced judgment.
THAT is the purely mercenary or bust
ness side of education. My judgment is
that the highest value of education is
the selfhood of the individual Its real
worth is in the development of mental
power whereby man puts himself in
touch with the best things the world has
produced. makes himself a part of the
best in all the realms Of thought. That
IS the real value of education. with which
the money value IS not to be compared
at all. The greatest menace to our ed
vocational system of to-day is such senti-
ments as Mr. Huntington has expressed,
by which the mercenary influence is
given the highest place and young men
are led to think that money making is
the chief end and aim of life"