The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-10-08

500, OOO-that is, as twenty to one.
Yet, when we make up the roll Of
persons of distinction, we find that
one out of two and a third of the
men of note are college, bred; while
if we make the exclusion a little less
rigid and include all those mentioned
above as having had the advantages
of college training, we shall see that
more than half of the distinguished
persons in the country are within
the inclusions. The figures seem to
me to make a very plain story so far
as what we call the higher walks of
life are concerned.
Gas to practical affairs, it has been
impossible for me to gather data
anywhere nerly so comprehensive as
that which 1 have presented. < x 4 I
selected what seemed to me the half
hundred most considerable railway
companies in the country, and began
a canvass of the presidents. I learned
that eighteen of these were college
men. That is largely in excess Of
the proportion of bankers, and
proves, mayhap, that railroading is
more intricate than cent per cent.
While speaking of men of affairs
there are some who loom so large
that there is no indelicacy in men
| tioning them. The names of J. Pier
pont Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, John
D. Rockefeller, William Rockefel.
Ter, James j. Hill, James Stillman,
| Charles Schwab, and William G.
| Whitney are all household words,
and have been eve since the consol-
idation of those huge industrial en-
ter prises that almost battle the imag-
ination in their immensely of inclu-
sion. Of these only one-the last
named-is a college man in the sense
that we ordinarily use the term.
Mr.. Morgan went through the Bos-
ton High School and then attended
lectures at the University of Got
tingen in Germany. Likely as not
he is as much d college man as he
would have been if he had stayed at
home and gone through Harvard or
Yale. And quite rightly he should
be set down as such. The rest of
them are not college men at all, tho
Mr.. Hill and Mr.. Schwab each went
to an academy. But Mr.. Schwab,
who is at the head of the largest en-
cheering works the world has ever
dreamed of, has acquired his tech
meal knowledge mainly by his own
efforts and by study in practical
work, rather than in schools Of theO-
retical instruction. The others in
the list, Mr.. Carnegie, the two
Rockfellers, and Mr.. Stillman, had
but common school advantages. -
''In this era of big things it is in
teresting to consider the cost of col
lege instruction. That may enable
us is make up our minds as to
whether or not it pays. The grounds
and buildings are appraised at $780,
OOO, 1000; the productive funds at
$138, 600, 900 the scientific apparatus
at $14, 900, 900; the benefactions at
$21, 600, 900, while the total income
of them all is $21, 100000. That is
a great sum, even greater than the
$40, 600, 900 the poor people of the
city of New York annually pay into
the policy shops of the metropolis in
a game in which they have no chance
to win. Here is an illustrating CON
trast. The whole country pays
$21, 900, 900 annually for it's highest
education the metropolity city alone
puts SIG, 600, 900 yearly in a game
that only preys on the ignorant. 1
fancy that no college man ever
played policy except in the pursuit
of knowledge and by way of expert
ment. When ignorance is so costly,
higher education cannot be very
dear at twice what is now spent on
it,