Omaha daily bee., 1905-10-08
Why America Leads the World in Intel
lsotual Development.
MILLIONS SPENT IN TRAINING MILLIONS
Instructive Review of Educational
Progress I'm All Parts Of the
Country and the Money
Invested Annually.

But the grand passion Of people Of the
United States is for education. not money.
With them the education microbe has done
Its perfect work. In their efforts for mental
| training Americans lead the world The
latest official and trustworthy figures. the
only ones, in fact, are furnished py the
United States bureau OF education. It's last
report deals with the school year of 1902
1903. When the report was closed the total.
to be exact was 1S,1S7,slS
But even this vast total does not take In
| all the Americans who are striving eagerly
to improve their mental condition. some OF
| them with every ounce Of energy they have
left after doing their days work each TWEEN
| ty-four hours.
For entirely outside the 100000. en-
| tirely unnoticed by the statisticans, come
the students enrolled for instruction by the
famous Chautauqua university, the 10000
who are regularly taking the Young Mems
Christian association courses, and the stu
dents Of the correspondence schools, whose
| subscribers number thousands
Uncle Sans Educational Problem.
This country alone, of all the countries
| in the world has manfully attacked and
| for its own preservation must accomplish
the herculean task Of operating constantly
| educational mills of such magnitude that
they can accommodate 100000 pupils and
| students from almost every race on earth
The pupils of the common" primary
schools, including the city evening schools,
make up 1575O,OOO of the grand total of be-
tween 100000 and 100000 composipg the
American school army, as shown In the
latest educational reports. This 15,75OOOO
are put through our educational mills with
out the cost of penny to themselves for
tuition, and in many states for books, even;
each community paying the cost of its
| own schools in the main, the federal gov
| eminent educating only about $1,000 Indians.
in round numbers, and $500 primary pupils
in Alaska.
Now, what about the other millions in
| the educational army? Well, rather more
than 100000 are swallowed up by those
primary schools that are supported by pri-
vate means.
A Million for Higher Education.
Broadly speaking, considerably more than
100000 of all the students who go to school
in the United States are intent on some
degree of the higher education. This is one
in every eighty of the whole population
following that the 100000 Of 1900 have
grown to 100000 in 1867 by all odds a
larger proportion than can be shown In the
high schools preparatory schools, colleges
universities and professional schools OF
any other nation now or ever in history
dwelling on the crust of the earth.
Not to initiate the pages of a gazetteer
too closely, here are the exact figures
showing how this army of higher educa.
tional students, in America itself larger
than the army of Japan in Manchuria
was divided up when the latest officia
figures were made:
High schools, academies and pre-
paratory departments (60S, 412 being
| public high school students) ....... 776 SO
Universities and colleges proper. 125 SO
Professional schools Claw, medicine,
divinity etc). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 61,S
Normal schools. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. GALL
Total ............................ OPS, 40
That part of life covering the clever
, years beginning with the age of IS and end
, ing with % may properly be considere,
, the college age" and, roughly speaking
the number of persons included in thes
ages in the United States when the las
, census was taken was 100000. Extending
: the college age limit for those who ma,
, linger over professional and postgraduate
studies to q, the total would be abou
! 100000. Besides the million and NOR
; students in these high schools, college
, and professional schools, there are abou
| 10000 young men and women Q3797 Il
1909 attending business schools and NOR
than $1,000 studying art, music and othe
subjects in miscellaneous schools-a total
: say, OF 100000 in round numbers who ar
training themselves solely to earn a livln
4 and without the slightest pretensions I
l. any aim at scholarship.
An Army of Teachers.
More than 100000 men and women fror
e college presidents down TO plain school
J: ma'ams and schoolmasters are kept bus
d as teachers throughout the school year TIL
public school teachers alone numbered i4s
2S7 In 1903
h Everything in America. say the critics o
4 America, must ultimately be figured dow
e to the basis of the dollar. 1t is in order
then, to say that the total cost OF carryin
$ on the public schools in the country is NOR
o than $3.50 900, 900 a year almost exactly tina
in 1909, and that the yearly expense of run
ming the colleges and universities is rattle
g more than one-tenth as much-rising abov
81, 1000 in 1908. The yearly expense q
y carrying all the other schools I'm In
s country has not been computed.
n But there is no doubt that the total Is
good deal more than $4,000 OOO a sum $
big that the wealth OF a Rockefeller eve
=, would quickly melt II It were put to the ties
3 or meeting II as a yearly payment.
h Including the students in the professions
d schools, and the faculties as we'll as tn
! students I'm the colleges and universitie,
u the division of the population which ma
d here be Jumped as college students nun
j. bered about 1877 900 when the last educationa
- report was got out. At the opening Of IN
o college semester this fall It must humble
1 more than 10000, or, to make a militar
n comparison only few thousands less tina
n the entire military force Of Great Britai
= and Ireland in time OF peace.
n The United States leads in number OF col
leges and universities as well as students
there being more than COO in this country, a
against less than 100 all told in Grea
> Britain, Germany and France.
Presidents and Their Work.
p But, on the other hand. the best OF gu
universities, our old established seats q
learning in the east, like Yale and Harvard
Princeton and Columbia; our newer fabu
4 lousy endowed western universities, Xix
Chicago and Leland Stanford our great CO
$ educational and state universities, Xix
Michigan at Ann ArboT, Wisconsin at Mad
$ son and Pennsylvania at Philadelphia; GU
Johns Hopkins and our Clark; our smalle
= colleges and universities dating hack 10 m
early days, vital with tradition and scholar
$ ship. though never rich or Roasting student
by the thousand such as Bowdoin Virgini
Williams and scores gcoras q