The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1910-06-17
Higher Education.

6NHNtoAtoh aSos az oO ~ tiidi 10
demonstrated his ability, and the worl
knew what might be expected of hin
To-day at 80 man is a boy fresh fror
college, and ten years behind those VIII
7 entered business with a rudimentar
training at 90"
1t was about 100 years ago that tn
younger Pitt was Prime Minister @
England at the age of %, and he had
before entering public life, complete,
the university course at Oxford. On tn
other hand, we are told that Cat,
learned Greek at so. Various othe
noted lights Of the past, both old anC
young, have performed prodigies o
achievement, but conditions in thi,
respect are probably about the same
now that they always were. Instances
of early successes are still possible, and
it will always hold good that
Nothing is too late
Until the tired heart
Shall cease to palpitate. ("
The university course that keeps a
man student until he is 80 is not in
tended for the working millions, nol
for the man who proposes an active
business career Of any kind, but the
higher education, without regard to the
time required for its attainment serves
an indispensable purpose. 1t was
not necessary in the accumulation oil
Mr.. Carnegie's millions, nor the execu-
tive management of the big industries
of which he was the head, but without
| it, the progress of steel manufacture
would never have reached the giant
scale that made possible Mr.. Carnegie S
operations. From Tubal Cain, who,
according to Scripture, first taught men
to use iron, down to Sir Henry Besse-
mer, is far cry, but every step in the
advance came through scientific study
So also of steam and electric railroads.
telegraph and telephone lines, and the
many uses to which steel is put. In
every step of his career Mr.. Carnegie
found it necessary to rely upon engi-
neers, chemists and men learned in the
sciences on which his great industries
were based.
The successful chauffeur is not neces-
sarily a man of mech learning, and
neither are the builders of the motor
cars in the machine shops. The cap
italists who are the head OF the great
establishments that turn out the ma
chimes need no obstruse knowledge
learned from books to make their bust
ness profitable, but none of these would
have their occupations to-day but for
the scientific knowledge that made the
motor car possible. The making of
fine steel, the preparation of rubber, the
discovery, manufacture and application
of gasoline, and many other things, all
in scientific exploration,
have entered into the finished product,
which the shallow-pated may think
required only a combination of cap
italists, mechanics and chauffeurs.
1t was learning that brought the
modern world to its present high state
Of practical Advancement, but beyond
what is pure utility, there is a vast field
that learning serves in expanding the
knowledge and the thoughts of men.
Astronomy, geology and kindred sci
snces, in their higher branches, may
serve little practical use, but what vast
revelations they have made to the mind
II man, and how they have lifted him
Ibove the groveling superstitions and
views of the ancients
The study of languages has given
greater insight into the past, and, by
processes, done more to
eveal the origin of races than could
otherwise have been possible What is
lassed as belles-lettres may be, in great
art, ornamental, but in these things
he souls of men find expansion.
treat thoughts and true philosophy
ONE of the communing of the litera-
ure of ages which such studies afford.
lore than anything else have they
ontributed to that manner of mental
plift which is closely allied with the
piritual. (,
1t is through learning alone that the
-orld has progressed, or, at least, there
4 lay all foundation of progress.
Without it the world would have re-
lained savage. Those communities
here it is greatest and most general
re the most advanced in civilization.
OF course it is not possible to make
very man pundit it is not desirable
, keep every man in school until he is
lirty years old, but every aid given to
igher education, its spread and prog
sss, means that much done for the