The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-03-28
DISADVANTAGES OF
EDUCATION.

/ In the Nineteenth Century Review
! Mr.. O. Eitzbaeher states in a positive
| manner which has attracted much at
tention in England and is of interest
/ to schoolmen everywhere The Disad-
/ vantages Of Education" He finds that
book study. after having been long
neglected. is now in danger of being
OVerdone: that people are menaced by
the notion that TO insure competence
industrial. scientific or military-the
whole nation will have to put its nose
in "A book"
1T is an old experience" says Mr..
EltzbacEer. that the most prominent
men in nearly every province of hu-
man activity have been amateurs.
Cromwell was a farmer Warren Has
tings and Give We're clerks, Mr.. Cham
berlain was brought up for trade, Lord
GoscheH for commerce and Lord Cro-
mer for the army. Prince Bismarck
was brought up for law, failed twice
TO pass his examination, became
country squire and drifted without any
training into the Prussian diplomatic
service and the cabinet and founded
the German empire. George Washing
ton was a surveyor, Benjamin Franklin
a printer Abraham Lincoln a lumber
man, NJ. de White a railway official.
clan, Faraday a bookbinder, Scott
lawyers clerk, Murat a student of
theology Ney a nOtary's clerk, Ark
wright the inventor of the spinning
machine and the first cotton manufac-
turer, a barber; Spinoza glass-blow-
er, Adam Smith a clergyman, Lord
Armstrong an attorney, Herbert Spen-
Ger an engineer. Pasteur, the father of
modern medicine and surgery, a chem
a
Stephenson and most of the great in
Ventors and creators of industry of his
time were ordinary wOrkingmen.
Many of the 5blest politicians and
of the most successful business men
have not even had the advantage of a
fair general education. Abraham Lin
coin had learned at school only the
tently; President Garfield worked with
boatman when only ten years old,
President Jackson was a saddler and
never spelled correctly, President
Benjamin Harrison started life as a
farmer, George Peabody started work
when only II years old, the late Sir
Edward Harland was apprenticed at
the age of Is years. Andrew Carnegie
began his commercial career when Il
years old in as a factory hand, Charles
Schwab, president of the United States
Steel Corporation, drove a coach as a
at an iron works. Josiah Wedgwood
started work when only II years old i;
ArkWright, the father of our cotton
industry, was never at school; Edison
was engaged in selling papers when
years of age, and Sir Hiram Maxim
was with a carriage-builder when he
was IA. Commodore Cornelius Van
derbilt, the railway king. who left more
than 800 OOO, 900, started as ferryman
at tender age: the founder of the
wealth of the AstOrS was a butcher S
boy; Baron Amsel Mayer Won Roth
schid peddler, Alfred Krupp a smith,
Rockefeller, the head of the Standard
Oil trust a clerk.
1.-THE two greatest statesmen of mod
ern times. Bismarck and Lincoln,
might be called uncultured. Bismarck
was comparatively unlearned and GER
tainly not bookish. Again, that great
statesman Abraham Lincoln, the for
mer lumberman, brought the sturdy,
practical sober common sense and the
fearless determination which he had
acquired in his intercourse with ma
ture from the backwoods into office
and saved America from disruption"
The results of the rapidly increased
proportion of readers in England is,
in his view, depressing. Perhaps at
no time have uncrtical RIGHTEOUSNESS
and Grass superstition been more
great. GHTHdpS at 10 TIME nave SWIM
| oilers, quacks and charlatans of all
kinds found a larger and more guilt
| BILE clientele.
! The average man reads not for in
! formation, but for amusement. Di-
/ Vorces, murders, cricket, betting, etc,
| are the most popular items, as a glance
! at the evening papers or a visit to
the public Libraries will show, and
{ popular magazines and books are filed
with extravagant stories of the love
and murder type. which only serve to
distort the peoples ideas of life and
| may also be responsible for the crea-
! ton of the hOoligan. Even the short
] story begins to tire the faced brain
| and the stalled palate of the multitude
Its place is rapidly being taken by
| papers of the Scraps, Bits and Chips
style
| I'm spite of the universal education
of the people the stage is steadily de-
! generating. The masses are no longer
/ able to follow a drama, notwithstand-
/ ing universal education, and can only
! concentrate their minds sufficiently
| to follow performances of the Scraps
style, composed of comic songs, hal
! lets, acrobatic feats and buffoonery.
The brain of the people has evidently
not been sharpened. but been dullad
and softened by too much reading.
The triumphs of German science
and industry are unjustly attributed r.
/ the numerous universities and technical
and other schools which exist in Ger.
/ many. Those institutions have baer