The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-16

schooling. l might add that in taking my position, l do not choose Il because t Is easier or more agreeable. On the cen
 trary 1t is far easier to foat with the tide than 1t is 10 breast the waves. T.
 Is much easier to be sreall and cow ard and a do-nothing than il Is to stand up for a great fundamental principle, es- pecialy when one is apparently in ad-
 vance of the times.
 Are You Starting Out Right? The question 1 wish you to consider lss are you starting out in life right? This iS the most important question that eve arises in the life of any person. Most of the people who have mdde success in life owe it largely to having stared right. Of course, they lad natural abIl- ity to aid them; but il may be safely said
 that if most of them had started dit- ferently they would not have succeeded as well. And, conversely ii q great many of the failures had begun rlght, Il would have been greatly to their advantage. ffis
 matter of starting right has not been given the consideration | deserves. It
 has been largely left to chance in the
 past.
 You are starting out with the idea tha.
 great amount of schooling is going to | help you; in fact, that 1t IS indispensa-
 ble. This question now presents itseli-
 what light, if any, can he thrown on
 this important subject Information based upon facts is what you want Js.e 2
 theories, guesses and the individual cpin-
 ions of people who have given this sub
 ject no serious thought, are of little or
 no importance.
 A Few Facts
 Now what do we. know obout this sub I T rxFttk
 years ago this country has gone to the greatest extreme in all hnds of higher
 schooling. We know that this country
 was immensely successful before We went
 extensively into this sub5ect of higncr
 schooling, or at least before we could have
 received any results from tiff there are
 results to be had. We also know tea,
 with very few exceptions the eminent'y
 successful men of this country have hau
 very small amount of schooling. | Many of the Presidents of the United States did not receive a college education.
 In fact, some of them had very little
 schooling, and one of them none at all. George Washington, Andrew Jacks yn. Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Mil lard Fillmore, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew | Johnson, Grover Cleveland and William Mckinley were not college graduates. These Presidents without d college edu- cation averaged as high as those who lad
 one. So you see, boys, there Is no neces-
 sity for going to college to prepare for the presidency If that is yeur aim. If Washington and Lincoln with a va " small amount of schooling, and Johnson, without amy except what his wife gave him. could make good Presidents. lsn 1t clear that a large amount of school~
 ing is not necessary to qualify you for | Ettr. ther, we know that the man with a large
 amount of schooling who has succeeded in any business, except the professions, is the exception rather than Inc rule. These are fundamental facts from which there is no escape.
 She college men of achievement in the past were graduating from college al a lower age than that at which most ooys are entering college today. Dewitt Clin- ton, James Monroe and John Lothrop Motley graduated at F. Salmon P. Chnse and William Ellery Channing at IS. Dan iel Webster, John Adams, Samuel Morse. Wendell Phillips and F rankin Pierce at 1s Others might be mentioned, but these suffice to show that from five to seven years longer seems to be required to get a college education now than then.
 This indicates in another way the ex- treme to which we are going. Either the longer one generation goes to school, the longer the next will have to go, in ov- der to master the same body of knowl- edge, or else the college courses of cartier days were approximately tre equivalent of present high school coul ses or even less This is probably the case, so that the high school graduate of olden tines was scarcely the equivalent of our mod
 ern high school graduate. If that is so, Il, ,,,.f,r hot education, as today understood, is unlec- cessary, as today al that has been ac-
 complshed has been done by the non col lege graduate as we understand the term college graduate.
 The discussion of this matter might end right here; there is nothing to dis cuss. We have been successful with but | little schooling, and notwithstanding the l colleges have multiplied in numbers and run riot In corses of study calculated to prepare for business. yet today there Is | little or nothing to show that they have
 been successful in producsing men of spe- cial ability.
 Failures in Business
 However. 1t may be profitable to go into | this subject a little deeper. l might say,
 incidentally, that I became interested in | higher schooling because, in my long | puSlItSs ana III lIlN tpSSlN dilol ol
 men. 1t became increasingly apparent t.iat | college men were a failure in business
 I finally concluded to meise an investi-
 gation, the result of which I have em-
 bodied in my book-"The Utility of All
 Kinds of Higher Schooling
 1 My facts and conclusions have not been
 refuted on any point Naturally, they
 occasioned some reckless talk on the part of the people who are getting their liv- | ing out of higher schooling, but they have | failed to show that my sources of jn- | formation were faulty. or that my com clusfons were erroneous. Men are al 1 together too selfish today to admit any thing that is going to interfere with their
 bread and butter. These same men ore not frank and honest in debating this question. as any one can see by reading
 my book. The writing of this book ani the preparation of numerous articles on I