The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-17

day at Ann Arbor; Mich. to be the ! leading American idea, is illustrated by q comparison of the proportion of Americans with other nationalftfes in 1 schools of higher education. While t ] is difiicult to secure exact figures of ] this character regarding other coun-' tries, yet. based on those available, II 1 is evident that no country in the world equals the United States in the arnbi- ton of It's people to secure college 31egree.
 Middle west Leads East.
 By a conservative estimate there are l 45o, 900 living alumni of American
 universities and colleges Out of ev- l cry TIT persons--men. women and cbil-s ] dren--one may meet upon the street l one of them has taken college de- gree. Based on the divisions of ths 1 population according to age made by 1 the ubiquitcus census taxer in 1900, one In every eighty-one persons over l 25 Years of age in the lands of oppor- tunfty has passed through the portals of degree-giving institution.
 A fact which will be surprising to.
 some Eaaterners is that the people of the Middle West are ahead of them in l the matter of average education. The rate of illiteracy in cities of z6,o00 or over in the Northern Atlantic States,
 which include New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 1 was at Tn6 uAt9f 0k the taSJ uaL1QuAt census 5.s per cent and outside the cit
 les "a per cent Tn the North Central
 States, which include Ohio, Indiana. i Illinois. Michigan, Wisconsin. Minne- 1 sota, Iowa. Missouri. North and South i Dakota. Nebraska and Kansas. the per centages were s.s and 4.s respsc- ] lively.
 Women Have Better Chance.
 Tn the former division there ars l eighty-seven universities ana colleges.
 with 2a.es5 undergraduate and S,0o3
 graduate students. while in the latter ! there are 1s7 institutions of this char
 acter, with 4os5s7 undergraduates and 1 e,s27 graduate students. An interest
 ing sideiight on higher education in the Middle West is shown in the fact that of the 32, ,9sS students in the East. ern institutions only 3,7s2 are women.
 while of the 43.s54 in those in the
 Middle West I5.470 are women.
 There are more women In the col.
 ieges of this group of States than in ! all the other groups of the country i combined. The average standard of 1 the Eastern college Is probably higher
 Shan that of the Western. It will not 1 be long before the colleges of the Mid- l dle Western States take the lead in l numbers of rratriculants if one may be 4 guided by some recent figures
 i The universities having over 4.oe6 i arc as follows: Harvard, S.34S: Uni-
 versity of Chicago, 5,07s; University | of Michigan, 4.so0; Columbia Universi- i ty. 4,643 and University of Minnesota. I 4.025 Columbia was second two years i ago following Harvard At the rate < of gain which the Middle Western Col- 1eges are making if is expected that
 soon they will lead even Harvard. as
 they have taken precedence over ths
 other older Eastern colleges.
 Not State or a territory fin tha ! Trfo Ia noJI fafA zn~ 4kss. l ton and Oklahoma. which is one oi
 the last sections of the United States 1 to be opened for settlement has twa ] universities. four sectarian colleges I and other institutions for higher edu. l cation. ~