The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1905-01-06
CHANCES FOR A COLLEGE NJ
Mistaken Notion That Money g
pensation Should BE Immediate

i Mistaken Notion That Money Com
pensation Should BE Immediate.
A young man who says he In coli
lege graduate, presumably Of the year
1904, though he does not say 500 writes
to complain of the public tasteSas he
has observed it. He has spent eight
years in study since he left tie COM
mon schools, and feels that hi attain
ments ought to fit him to supply some
public need. He finds no on@ seeking
his services, however, excdpt at or
binary labor or clerking I'M a store,
and for such service very small COM
pensation is offered. At yhe same
time he sees another young nan, with
perhaps less than a comman school
education, readily earning STD day
or more by diving twice daily nom the
top of a G0-foot ladder into taAk con-
tanning four feet Of water The COM
plant the college graduate makes IS
that the public willingly provides. COM
pensation for the diver, but has Moth
ing to offer him for the intellectual
service he is prepared to render.
While it must be admitted that there
is something radically wrong with a
public taste that encourages a man to
risk his life in performing useless feats
of reckless daring such as those de-
scribed yet there is a Justification
for the conclusions our college bred
friend seems to draw from the facts he
recites Much better would it be for
the youth of the land If men and wom-
en- would cease to give the approval OF
their attention to daredevils whose.
necks are worth no more than the
value they themselves have set. Boys
may be expected to aspire to similar
accomplishments SO long as older men
Of responsibility continue to make
heroes of men who dive from ladders
or fly through space on bicycles. The
readiness Of a portion of the people
to patronize a show that has no other
attraction than monstrosity is also
demoralizing to the young and gives
them poor conceptions of what con-
stitutes desirable entertainment. But
the existence of such exhibitions and
the apparently liberal patronage they
receive do not prove that the general
public places upon them a greater
value than upon the higher things of
life.
The world is full of opportunities
for the college-bred, though few will
be able to step directly from the
threshold of alma mater into positions
of honor, influence and large pecuniary
recompense. The world is looking for
men who cannot only do things, but
who can do them better than any one
else. That is why the performances
of the high diver and the trick bicycle
rider command good compensation.
When the college man has shown his
superiority as teacher, a writer, an
orator, or business manager, his re-
ward will far exceed that of the man
whose feats of daring appeal only to
the lower elements of human nature.
At any stage of his progress on the
road to success the returns for his eff
forts are larger than those of the ath-
letic performer at a corresponding
period. The college man wno register
ed the complaint made no comparison
save in the matter of compensation.
and no others are made here. He is
in error in assuming, as many others
have done, that the people in general
are willing to pay more for entertain-
ment than for instruction, more for
amusement than for education.-Port-
land Oregonian.