Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-10-21
THE COLLEGE IDLER.
The Colleges Themselves Largely to
 Blame for His Existence.


 Blame for His Existence.
 The New York Evening Post is moved to regret over the growing lux ury of college life, and the increasing number of rich young men who waste both their time and their money. It sees no remedy. It proposes none, and only urges general platitudes as to the necessity of keeping the college atmosphere in a higher and simpler plan, the noble tradition of plain living and high thinking.
 1et the remedy Is d simple one The colleges have brought this on them selves. They have made their work easy. The last two years of every col lege and all four years of many col leges like Harvard are full of snaps Work to the amount of ten or twelve hours week, with just enough at. tendance at recitations and lectures to keep one from being dropped, will carry any man of average ability, with money to spend on tutors through any one of our colleges or universi- 'tites. When it was made possible to drop higher mathematics on the one side and Greek on the other. and the course was filled with all sorts of sub- jects like political economy or inter- national law, whose general princi- pies can be easily mastered, with curs- ory courses on bits of literature whose general outlines any man able to read and remember can cover in a few easy hours under a tutor, the possi- bility of getting through college with out effort was open to any rich young man with time to burn and money to waste
 This is the foundation reason why the college is being squeezed out in on direction and another Hard work is still required in the high schools because there are definite qualifications of college examination to face, though by the time President Eliot has succeeded in letting any thing be offered for the college eN animation it will be easy for anybody to take up a desultory sort of fit and get into college somehow. The profes- sional schools are braced by state ex- aminations and the test of active life.
 The college has neither Of these things. Hard work is still done there. But the faculties and college govern ment have arranged college affairs so that its intellectual success is invisi- ble unknown to the public and un- recognized by the college. There is much made of athletic triumphs in college "unions'' and "clubs" but the names of men who have honored the university by intellectual prowess through their course are conveniently absent No effort is made to make them conspicuous in a place where young men come together; and while membership on a team gives a man cherished insignia. there are none at tached to the mental triumphs of the university of college world. The fac ulty itself treats with tenfold the pub lie attention the men conspicuous in athletics. It has made it easier for the idler in dissipation or the idler in athletics to get his college degree with minimum. Of intellectual effort and then, having done this, the colleges are surprised to find that they are being pushed aside by the high school which encroaches on them with hard work in one direction and the pro- fessional school which encroaches on them with hard work in another. If our college faculties and uni yersity presidents would assert the in 1 tellectual side of college life; would render it impossible by severe ex- aminations in all studies for the idler to remain and would restore culture studies which require hard work, to their appropriate places, there would cease to be a necessity for lamenting over the light work and loose life which is overspreading some colleges like a pestilence. The great mass of students remain sound. The evils which exist and which catch public attention are confined to the few but they would not exist even there 1 if colleges and universities were to re l quire more work and have more rigid requirements, not merely at entrance 1 but through the course.
 Why should not man have Q work as hard at college as in medical CT law school l7-P Philadelphia Presss <