Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-08-29
HIGHER EDUCATION
SUBJECT OF ADDRESS BY GEO. W.
ELLIS, PRESIDENT OF TABOR
COLLEGE.

| gregational Church-Dr. Gage of
! Parsons College Speaks at First
| Presbyterian Churct,-Men's Meeting
From Mondays Daily.
At the First Congregational church
last evening was held the last of the
union meetings of the four central
Protestant churches. President Geo.
| W. Ellis, of Tabor college was the
speaker. President Ellis address was
divided into two parts: First, plea
for the SO called smaller colleges, and
second demonstration of the impera-
tive necessity that the young men and
women of today should go to college.
| In opening his address Mr.. Ellis
said: Il am going to speak this even
ing about colleges and about the high.
| er education. What else could a man
who has spent all his life as an edu-
Gator, connected for the most part with
smaller colleges talk about. What else
would you, expect him to talk about?
There are two systems of higher ed
ucation, that under the auspices of the
church and that under the control and
with the support of the state. That of
the church is the old system and it's
worth has been proven. The state
system is the new and it is still in its
experimental stage. In the first place
all wisdom came from God direct tc
his people. Later as numbers increas.
ed there grew band Of holy men
through whom the wisdom of God was
given out to the masses. These men
were priests. They had charge Of the
moral and the physical welfare of
their parishioners and they had a mo-
nopoly on the wisdom and learning of
the time. But in time this class be.
came separated into three classes,
the priest the physician and the
teacher. These are the three funda-
mental professions. The church has
been the conservator of learning
through all ages. In the dark ages it
was only in the cloisters that the
monks kept alive the flame of knowl
edge. And l say to you that it will
be sad day for the church and sad
day for the country when it valves
this God given right.
State Education.
"The system of the state education
is a new system, started by the state
for self protection in order to develop
good citizens. it is a ncv system,
and it is comparatively an experiment
IL has been trie BY England in India
on an extensive and very expensive
scale and it has not proven very sue
cessful. There is something lacking
in the higher education when the in.
fluence of the church is taken away.
II now wish to make a comparison of
the great universities with smaller
Christian colleges. In the one the
classes are large and the members of
the classes are only atoms in the vast
number of students that attend these
great institutions. In the other the
classes are small and each student is
an individual. In the university for
the first two years the classes are
taught by tutors or young men only
recently graduated from the courses
and who wish to take up post graduate
work and are allowed salary as tu-
tors in order to help them along In
the college all the classes are taught
line. Of course the great universities
have great teachers but the student
does not come under them until the
education moulding. You can polish it
you can not mould it. In the small
college the student comes in person
al contact with the teacher thai is i'm
possible in the larger ones.
Risk in College Life.
"And now l como to a point that I
consider great one. There is risk
in sending boy or {. girl away to one
of these great state seats of learning,
| located as the most of them are with
in easy reach of some large city and
with all the influences of the home
gone, those influences that would tend
to hold them away from the tempta-
tons of the world. But in the small
Christian college those influences are
kept up and I think that student is
much less liable to err under the
watchful eyes of the faculty of a small
college. than under the system of lib
erty of action that prevails in the
large university"
The speaker spoke at length upon
the reasons why every young man and
young woman of this day and age
should go to college. He said that be.
| cause their parents had not gone was
not only no reason why the young peo-
pie of today should not go but it was
| a great reason why they should 60
at is time" he said, that some one
of your family got started on the path
that leads to higher things" AS a
reason why the young man should go
he stated that the American girls were
going and that it was not wise for the
men of this country to allow the
young women to get to far start of
them in the educational line.
The College Graduate.
! He stated that any one who intend.
| ed to be professional man must go
as the best professional schools re.
fused admittance to men not college
graduates. That men of business were
beginning to require college bred men
for their employees and that the bust
ness men of the future would be col
lege bred men. These and many 9th,