The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1901-08-17
A Nation of College Graduates.

education Is = disadvantage to q u.s.
iuess man. Mr. Carnegie, the dis
coyerer of Mr.. Sehwsb, thinks so much
TO the contrary that be hss given ten
or fifteen million dollars to enable
more Scotchmen to have the benefits
OF which be himself was deprived IN
his youth.
u II appears Is II Mfr. Csrnegies
views we're rather more popular than
Mr. Schwab's. Every commencement
season sees more college graduates
turned loose upon the world, Every
new academic year finds college walls
strained by increasing crowds OF stu
dents. Where is 1t going to end9
Well, there is no reason why ii
should end at all, short Of The collie
giate education OF every person 10 the
community. A hundred years ago the
function OF the college was thought TO
be to train candidates for the min
istry. Preachers we're the only persons
who really needed a college education,
aud that education, by the way, was
less advanced 10 most respects than a
high school training is now. Besides
the ministers, it was thought that law
yers and doctors might get some bene-
fit from a higher education, but in their
case it was not at all necessary. The
candidate for one of those professions
might very well start in a s BOY
sweeping out the Office OF ar old prac-
%titioner, snd pick up a knowledge of
the business in his odd moments. Out
side Of the three learned professions
nobody had any real occasion tor the
things that we're taught in college. In
deed, the education of that day was
carefully designed to be as impractical
as possible. 1t gave no assistance in
anything so sordidss the art of getting
a living nor did 1t help apprecIably to
expand the students knowledge of the
world in which be lived. 1t ran in a
narrow groove, and made no CON-
cessions TO vary tastes or sptitudes.
But now the whole meaning of edu-
cation has been transformed. 1t is no
longer a matter Of learning to make
quotations from Horace. 1t touches
life on every side. 1t meets every
possible need and aspiration, practical
or ideal. In the hundreds of courses
offered by the great American univer.
sites, with their thousands OF possible
permutations and combinations, there
is something to fit every individual
mind. There is not only the oppor-
for intellectual culture beyond
anything dreamed Of in the old educa.
but there is the most practical
OF training for an infinite variety
gainful occupations as new as the
modern education itself. A single
electrical company this year offered
positions to the entire graduating class
IN the department of mechanical
science at Cornell.
Evidently, Mr.. Schwa6's ideas are
not universally held in the business
Even now the higher education
reaches directly only an insignificant
fraction Of the population, buf there is
reason wey, in time, it should no,
reach all. A few years ago there was
a iustitiable fear that an increase IN the
number Of college student might mean
the creation of 3 swarm OF superfluous
ministers, doctors and lawyers, and
the satisfaction from productive pur.
suits OF numbers of young men who
ought to be working with their hands.
now the young man who works
with his hands a find in college
OF material to give him pleasure
and inspiration in his calling. The
education in this country no
longer tends to produce a parasitic IN.
tellectual aristocracy. The American
college Is the most powerful ally of
American democracy.
An ingenious Telephone.
There Is in the interior al pra,I nj.