The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-06-23
THE INTERESTS OF POPlJLAR. EDUCATION
SUCCESS AND EDUCATION

Is a success which becomes we'll known
gredlent.
Aside from the evidence or the num-
bers OF those who have achieved sue
cess. with or without education, which
is not conclusive. we cannot do better
than to subject the idea of success to
the test of our analysis or the objects
of education. How far is 1t probable
that success will be promoted by
1. The requirement or knowledge.
.. The forming of habits;.br,
3. The training of the intellectual
force.
The memorizing of facts and forms,
usually called the requirement of
Knowledge, cannot directly aid success.
Successful men are not walking die
tionaries or encyclopedias. The sue
cessful man commands Knowledge, but
does not memorize 1t. He knows where
TO flnd II, knows 1t when found, and.
above all. Knows It's application. 1t
does not seem to take one long to at
tain such a command of the knowledge
he needs for his practical purposes;
and he gets this command without the
aid of the schools, and generally in
spite of their influence.
The colleges make no formal effort
to teach the science and art of finding
knowledge. Their libraries even have
very poor facilities for reference to
general knowledge and no professors
chairs of applied library reference has
yet been founded. True. Melvi Dewey
has started school for training libra
rians to know how to make libraries
useful. but no one seems aware of the
Importance of giving every student of
book learning the training necessary
10, ,aI, ln Ia 10 ~ i,tp
gently. Such training W Il undoubt-
edly serve success more potently than
any subject in the college curriculum,
and possibly more than the whole cur
riculum so far as the requirement of
knowledge is concerned.
1t needs only to be mentioned that
the formation of good habits are very
essential to success. But the habits
contracted by prolonged residence at
| schools are highly detrimental to sue
cess.
| Routine alone, however, makes one
person like Others. and one is success
| full only in that he Is different. So
| one ambitious to succeed must get out
of routine education as soon as pos
! sible.
1 AS education becomes popular and
4 universal, and tends to leave the uni
| form imprint of its increasing routine
on all citizens, it will cease to have, If
it ever had, any tendency to promote
the success of individuals, which con-
| sists essentially in surprising the aver
age.
/ The habits necessary to the making
of living contribute to success mas
much as good living is the necessary
preliminary and accompaniment to all
success. Getting on in the world Is
+ more ant to he retarded nv tI,o ,,saIo.,.,
routine of education than by the ne
cessary routine of getting a living. A
simple routine of labor may. indeed be.
of benefit to the intellectual force In
4 benefiting the body and occasionally
eclipsing and resting the forces of the
intellect engaged in the struggle for
success.
l need not argue that success Is duo
almost absolutely to the intellectual
force, and that an education necessary
to success could only be one which
would draw out, train and conserve
the brain power. Practically all that
has been said In these articles con-
corning intellectual force, therefore APP
plies to the point under consideration
whether education. as at present plt,c-
ticed. contributes to success.
The leader of men IS perhaps the
most conspicuously successful, and he
depends upon native force. whether he
be a foreman of gang of laborers
the politician who rules a city or a
military commander. 1t is true bill
. of Indictment against the present edu-
cation that 1t tends deract from
ones native power OF leadership. II
is VIGOROUSLY difficult for the scholar
to lead in politics. The hundreds OF
bosses. good and bad, flourishing il
the cities, counties and States, are
practically all devoid of the debilitat
| ing college education.
I The success of American women ir