The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1900-02-03
A Plea for the Johns Hopkins.

In the Baltimore Ault4icdu vi Cuuuay
January 18th, George Washington Ward
Phi. D., Professor Of History, Western
Maryland College, Of your town, gives "a
Plea for the Johns Hopkins. Without
attempting a complete answer to him,
will here jot few little replies by dialogue
Ward-The day when intelligent and
successful farming could be done by men
having no knowledge of letters beyond the
three ri is, and none too much knowledge
even Of them, is past.
Livesey-I have heard that before.
Eight Presidents of Agricultural colleges
jumped on me in one issue of the big
Chicago Farmers Voice on that question,
among others. The editor, out of consid-
Grafton for them, thought it best to stop
the discussion after he read my reply to
the first one. can take Mr.. Ward to
one of these semi-i lliterate farmers few
miles from here and show him 600 acre
farm that was recently estolled as model
by reporter who saw it.
W-Many can yet be found who long
for the good old days,
L-Yes, | am one of these myself, and
1 propose to bring up my children strictly
at home.
W-Can Maryland, can the farmers,
mechanics, professional men, as well as
those who control the wealth of this pros
porous and growing Commonwealth, longer
afford to leave the Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity out of vital connection with the life,
wealth and commerce of the State?
Everything that is of ''vital con-
nection with the life, wealth and COM
merce of the State should contribute to
that life, wealth and commerce from its
own pocket and out of its own muscle and
brain. The professional beggar the State
can very well ''aford'' to lose, whether
seated on a curbstone or in the Johns
Hopskins' presidential chair. "Let' er
go p and the young men she now seduces
from the pillow and the hammer will better
serve their State Vain glorious men and
institutions who think that the world will
stop when they are knocked out are mis-
taken.
W-If there be any who would advo-
cate such neglect | would like to have
them consider moment whether, if the
John Hopkins University were suddenly
and completely destroyed, there would not
have persisted nine tenths of that for which
even the existence of Baltimore city and
Maryland are known in Europe, and half
of that for which they are known and re-
spected in our own State.
10 no, no there would be no par
ticular mourning over Hopkins if it was
bIotted out. The Women College girls
and the sporting fraternity generally might
miss the fun of the teams, the airs Of the
glee club and the charming theatricals; but
the substantial men of the world would
remember what Senator Chauncey Depew
has said on the colleges and the Hopkins
would pass from their memory like a Whit
of tobacco smoke Chauncey said: ''There
is nothing conservative as the college. 1t
follows last in the procession of progress;
it distrusts innovations and discredits
theories. Its faculty, by the very pecu-
liarity of their existence, learn to respect
the traditions and teachings of the past.
Chauncey few years ago also said that
Education is the cause of labor trouble"
and from some recent words and actions
of Andrew Carnegie it would seem that
he, too, is disinclined to assist colleges.
WI can point to direct and great adj
vantages that have come to my own insti-
tuition through the university.
land for that reason you want to
see the university repaid by the State.
Pay your own bills 1t is little concern
of the masses how much the universities
and colleges help one another along.
s'Birds of feather will flock together. "
Let them flock and it will be all the easier
to kill two birds with one stone
WI feel moved to say that whatever
of intellectual power and liberty and hap
piness I have, or shall gain, will be due,
in the first instance, at least, to the Johns
Hopkins University.
L.-Yes, some people have so little in
them that it takes whole university to
initiate them. Others have so much in
them that they can raise up themselves in
the back woods and be called self made
men. Some men pass through the uni
versities to find that they are not what
they are cracked up to be and have to re-
solve themselves down to themselves after
ward. My own relation to schools brought
me to that realization myself After
leaving them | found | knew nothing and
I had to begin the pursuit of knowledge
all over again along the path Of manual
work.
Another fool besides myself, whose con-
demnation of colleges is going the rounds
of the papers, says:
from one of them. | owe neither of them
anything Such education az have I ac-
quired myself. | have written for all the
great magazines. | am an editorial writer
on one of the greatest newspapers of the
world. The philosophy taught me was a
deadly drawback to me. | know more than
hundred bachelors of arts, who cannot dc
capably any part of the worlds work. No
college is best; no college is even good; and
none will be till somebody POUNDS one in
which to educate the mind in the modern
ways of thinking
The woods are beginning to get full Of
these kind of men and they have a grea
effect in making the old farmers believe
that they should not be bled to death fol
the support of Hopkins. If the farme
wants any legislation for his benefit he ha
very hard time to get it.
Wis it not time that the State o
Maryland should see to it that the John
Hopkins University is placed upon such a f
nancial footing that every farmer sou VIII
has the ambition and the brains should b
enabled to enjoy the advantages of tn,
university, without paying dollar Of tut
ton !?
L.-Just for this very reason the Hop
kins should not have a cent. On thi
point | would sooner give it $50, 900 t
leave the country than to stay in it. Lik
every other college in the land it is seduc
ing the farmer sons from the farms