The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1901-01-17
An Educational Revival.

The history of the closing years OF
the nineteenth century indicates tina
industrial and educational conditions
in the beginning of the twentieth cen
tury will be just the reverse OF the
conditions at the beginning of the
nineteenth. It is a remarkable fact
that for the first two-thirds of the
nineteenth century, or from it's 1nc1p1-
encv down to the close of,the civil war,
there was an actual decline IN the
number of students who graduated at
the various co11egessEin proportion to
the population. The demand for in
.struction in the liberal arts actually
fell off in this country during that
Time, in consequence of the diversion
dnto industrial pursuits of the most
promising young men, to whom the re-
ward of business was more attractive
than the delights of learning. AS a
result, while the country was develop
ing industria11Y and growing in
wealth, the conservative influence of
higher and liberal education was being
lost. The school and the college were
deserted for the counting room, the
highways of liberal learning for the
,thoroughfares of commerce.
The present great wealth of the
United States is largely result of this
rush to commercial pursuits that
marked the first sixty years of the old
century. The movement was also pro-
,ductive of the antagonistic social con-
sditions that are the heritage of the new
century. An increase in wealth, with
a differentiation in the two extremes of
thescale, unprecedentedsin history, has
been accompanied by an accumula-
tfou of disturbing conditions, which it
will tax the wisdom and the patience of
the present generation to deal with.
Bat the conditions that created the
enormous wealth and the social ques-
lions which are perp1exing the people
of today, have turned upon themselves.
There has been a reaction toward lib
.erad education chat presents, at the be-
g1nning of the present century,a state
of affairs diametrica11ys'o opposite that
of one hundred years ago. What
might be called surfeit of wealth
created at the expense OF the educa
tioual institutions and features of oul
society, is now being used in the serv
ice of education. The closing years Of
greatest endowments of educational in
stitfltions known to history. Cornell
John Hopkins, Chicago University ant
Leland Stanford, all the creatures o:
philanthropic requests, have sprung
into existence in a comparatively few
years. Moreover, there has been {
vide contribution to schools already
founded, both state and denomination
al, such as the State University o.
California, which has been given {
new lease of life by the magnifcen
gifts of Mrs. Hearst.
Thus, just as the momentous prob
lens growing out of the strained socia
conditions are beginning to look mos
Eneuacing, the identical condition:
that promoted the questions build VI
educational institutions, in which mer
and women shall be educated to prop
er1V deal with them. Most importan
of ali the educational institutions tina
the fractional wave of public senti
saeuf is nursing to full strength is the
State University. It is the climax o.
our splendid system of public instruc
ton and the most representative anC
typical republican institution of learn
ing. Like the government, it is 60
the people, by the people and for th'
people" What it is capable of being
as evidenced in Wisconsin, Michigan
liable to degenerate to, unless givel
the most jealous care by the people o
the state, is demonstrated in many o
the twenty-three states outsid
of those mentioned, which support
state university. It must be guarde,
against the influence of political opin
ion or party interest, and even agains
the rivalry of great universities found
ed on the wealth of charitablY incline
multi-mi11ionaires, for no institution
of Iearning is more directly and entire1
the peoples and so capable of abso1ut
freedom from prejudice as the stat
institution.
1t is a matter of just pride to tn
Badgerite that the university at Mad
son is in the van of the educational il
stItutions Of the land, and that it is
leading representative of that TYPICAL
American class of schools, the stat
universities. But while Wisconsi
has, by dint of years of endeavol
created a noble school of training
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