Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-05-07
The Education of Successful Men.

The E0CCat ton Oh SuCceSSIul Men,
The advance sheet from the forth
coming report Of the United States
Bureau Of Education contains some in
tereStiug information. Under the topic
The Education Of 10000 Successful
Men" William W. Smith. chancel-
iur Of the Randolph-Macon system.
writes a follows:
The editors of Who's Who in
America have rendered the country
service by inducing more than ten
thousand of the men now living i'll the
United States who are most notable III
all departments Of usefulness and re-
putable endeavor' TO report their edu-
cation. These men have wen enviablc
distinction and the facts they give viii
help answer the questions. Does edu-
cation help one to success?' and What
amount Of school training helps
most
According to the last census there
are in the United States If,794. 4O5
males over thirty years old. The
United States bureau Of education
estimates that these are divided edu-
cationaIly as follows:
Class /. without education... 1851. O23
Class =. with only common
school training or trained
outside Of organized
schools Recommendations
Glass ,. with regular high
school training added. 800. G57.4a2
Class !. with college or high
cr education .. 325.G13
"Omittng the few persons under 80
wears old. the report from 10.1O4 not
ahles show: Without education. none;
~clf-taUght. p; home-taught. 21s; with
common-schocl training only. 1.O6G;
with high-School training. 1.G21: with
college training, 1.7O9; of which g.
l29 were college graduates. That l.:
! From the 1.7j7,O23 of Class l no not
able reported.
| From the 12.OJ4.33j of Class >
| came 1.36s. one for every...... SSH
! (24 of these reported them
! selves a. self taught; 27S as
! privately taughtD
| From the G57.4%2 # Glass = came
l.G27. one for every .......... 4Ol
From the 32j.G13 of Class / came
7.1Oy. one for every..... IL
1t thus appears:
/. That from 1900 t. 1870 the Un-
educated boy in the United States
! failed entirely to become So notable IN
any depart mcut of usefulness and re-
putahIc cndcavor a. to attract the at
tcnticn of the Who's Who editors, and
that only p sclf-taught men succeed
cG.
>. That Il boy with only common
school education had. in round num-
bcrs. enc chance in 1000.
;. That Il high-SchooI training in
creased this chance nearly twenty
two times.
{. That college graduation added
gave the Young man about ten times
the chance Of Il high-schoul boy and
two hundred times the chance of tho
boy whose training stopped with the
common-schuoI.
;. That the y. l.. graduate was
prc-cmincntIy successful and that the
lsclf-educatcd man was incunS picuous
From the nature Of the case il can
not he claimed that these classified
tiuns are exact. but they are baseo
upon the fullest statistics ever oh
ltaincG. and the necessary estimates
have been made by government eN
pcrtS. 1t j. also doubtless true tina
ether circumstances contributed tc
the success Of these trained men, but
after all reasonable allowances are
made the figures force the conclusion
that the more ~chool-trainin@ The
american boy of that period had. tn,
greater was his chances of distinction
How viii il ne in this century?