The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-04-29
THE SMALL COLLEGE.

Pacific University is looking for a
president. 1t is the common occupation
of many small colleges throughout the
, country and of some institutions of the
age and standing of Amherst and Dart
mouth, College presidents constitute
one OF the rare branches of unorganized
labor in which the demand always ex-
ceeds the supply. 1t is not condition
to crafty the statesman or moralist
for higher education is not of the things
we IKE TO think of as imperfectly
equipped with either men or money
The men needed are filling professor
Shlps IN the great universities, attract
ed by better pay and the opportunities
for original research The mischief of
these great universities made over night
by questionably acquired fortunes in
the hands of Stanford or Rockefeller
lies In this sacrifice of the small college.
Great Wealth and great ambition lays
its hands on these struggling but indis-
pensable institutions, and carries off
their best men to the great cities,
whittier the youth must go to find them
The result is multiformly bad. A great
city is not the best place for the young
person to be reared, especially when he
or she is far from home at the critical
formative period of life. Many of our
best and brightest men cannot afford
the great university. They must at
tend the nearby school, and they suf-
fer and the community suffers by every
sacrifice that is made in the quality of
the men who train them. Educationally
speaking, the small college is the salt of
the earth There, near his home, the
youth must be trained. There, in close
contact with his teachers, he must i'm
bibe not only the learning but the prin-
ciples of high thought and honorable !
action which constitute the university's |
true service to society.
There is nothing harder in the world |
than to take ill-gottep gains and dis
burse them for good. The equipment at /
Chicago, with which John d. Rockefel-
Ter dazzles the world of college teachers
and pupils, affords small atonement for
the wrongs upon rivals and consumers
with which Standard Oil has wrung its
millions from the masses, and even in
his spasms Of philanthropy he sets in
motion influences of evil to the farthest
bounds of the land, where the small col
lege Wrestles with debt and diminished
faculty. The libraries which Mr.. Car
negie scatters ostentatiously about as q
princeling throws pennies to a crowd of
beggars do not wipe out any one of the
sad memories of Homestead or mitigate
the injustice of the tribute levied by the
tariff on consumers to fill his swollen
Golfers; and while they set thousands at
devourinG the latest rovel, they di~cred-
it and discourage that spirit of indie
pendent and Jealous poverty, in which
Franklin, and Lincoln, and Stanton,
and Henry Clay earned their own
books, and with nothing free. and
through hard knocks gained strength
for the battles of life
1t is a dangerous thing to cast a
shadow on the welfare of the small coll
lege. Yet it is an incident of the great
benefactions with which our mil
lionaires hone to atone for the manner
of the acquisition of their enormous
fortunes. Tt is a fitting fruit to gather
from such tree.-Portland Oregonian.