The Irish standard., 1903-06-13
THE COLLEGE GRADUATE.

THE COLLEGE GRADUATE.
These are the days when institu.
lions Of learning all over the country
are issuing certificates of learning and
merit to thousands Of young men and
young women. Newspapers and dis
tinguished men are giving the grad
yates lot of gratuitous advice. Par
them and congratulating them on the
termination of their school career. In
the midst of all this Qualification it
would not be strange if the graduate
misconceived the actual situation in
which he is placed. And it is great
misfortune that college graduates
should be thus misled. The old idea
that the purpose of higher education
was to enable it's beneficiary to earn
an easy living ought not longer to
deceive either parents or sons. I'm
doubtedly college education in
creases the earning capacity Of it's
possessor when the education is prop
erly applied. If the college graduate
when leaving college could only
thoroughly understand that he must
start at the bottom in any pursuit
which he may select, except possibly
the profession of teaching, there
would be less disappointment and
less loss of time. When the joyful
days of graduation are over the grad
uate in most cases finds himself ex-
ceedingly lonesome. The fullsome
praise of graduation day ceases and
lie finds himself unable to fit in any
where in the fierce Industrial strug
gle. The trouble generally is that he
tries to eft in in the wrong place.
In some way the graduate has gained
the idea that he is superior to the
young man who has been learning
how to do things in the business
world, while he has been learning
Latin and Greek for four years at col
lege. The college man who has that
idea must learn his mistake, discard
the idea, and start in about the same
place that the young man without the
college education started. If he learns
his mistake without too much loss of
time and starts in with the same pluck
and modesty of opinion in reference
to himself that the young man with
out the college education did, he ought
in few years to overtake and out
strip the latter. But if he waits for
the development of something which
he regards suitable for him to do, in
stead of developing it, he will become
an educated loafer.' The college
man who starts in and does the best
thing he can get to do, will avoid the
loss of valuable time and escape
serious disappointment. 1t is a false
assumption for any one to suppose
that he is too good to do the best
thing he can get to do. Glitch your
wagon to a star" is good advice when
correctly interpreted, but when I'M
derstood to mean, wait until the star
of your ambition visits you, it be-
comes very unwise practice.
President Draper of the University
of Illinois in his address to the grad
yates of that institution, aScribes Il
great deal of the criticism directed by
successful business men against col
lege education to "the conceits of too
many young college men and women
their unteachableness and their IN
willingness to adapt themselves to
the conditions and the details of the
labor which alone can build up sue
cess" "Work," he says, ''the steady,
persistent doing of things upon n
workable plan is the foundation of all
ordinary accomplishments. If one
gets the idea that the things which
he has studied in books are sufficient
to enable him to get on without his
persistent doing Of things his case is
hopeless" That was we'll said, and
sums up the whole situation. But on
the other hand. many make the mis-
take Of thinking of college educa-
ton mainly in the light of n bread
winning proposition. That is wrong.
A man does not learn anything in
college which will enable him in and
of itself to produce dollar unless he
is Il graduate of a professional college
or school of technology. If a college
education has trained the mind to
think. and think without destroying
the ability and desire to apply the
mind and body to the ordinary details
of the work of the world. it has done
all that is necessary and all that
! should be expected 1t is mistake