The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-09-16
A WARNING TO PARENTS.

The warning comes from a we'll
known and responsible business
man Of Chicago, r. T. Crane, who,
he himself tells us, speaks only
after serious investigation of con-
ditions, whose words, further
more, are ratified, to a large ex-
tent at least, by the declaration
of E. G. Mercer, Secretary of the
Association Of Colleges Of North
America. The warning bears up
on the moral conditions existing
in the famed colleges Of America
Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Co.
lumbia and Cornell. The state
ments of Mr.. Crane are startling,
and should be needed by parents
who take at all to heart the well
fare Of their sons. Even should
we be at first hearing tempted to
discount those statements, enough
must remain to cause alarm: where
there is so much smoke, some fire
there needs must be. At any rate
the statements hold their ground
in the mind Of the American pub
lie until they are disproven; and,
so far, they have been met either
by silence on the part of the col
leges and their friends, or, as in
a few cases, by vaguest and most
indefinite replies.
We summarize the statements of
Mr.. Crane. Of the students of
Harvard 80 per cent drink in their
freshman year, IS per cent in their
senior year, and Is per cent of
them go irretrievably to the bad
THE students who combine wine
and gross immoralities aggregate
IS per cent Of the total number OF
students in the college. At Yale
drinking and debauchery are rife
At Cornell the conditions are some,
what the same, although students
at that institution do not carry
their excuses so far as do the
young men at Princeton, Yale and
Harvard. Columbia leads in de,
bauchery, owing to the proximity
of the horrid resorts Of New York
City. s
Mr.. Crane concludes: 'sThat the
facts disclosed by the reports are
true will be admitted by any one
at all familiar with college life
yet the colleges and their defend
ers still insist that colleges are
great developers of moral charac
ter. II they were to say destroy
ers, they would be nearer the
truth. Conditions or practices thai
cause a boy to become a rake a
. twenty, and a roue at thirty ar
not usually considered the soil il
which high character is produced
My own impression is that thu
longer a boy postpones meeting
and associating with people Of thi
character the better off he will b.
in health, in moral character ant
in purse. Parents will do we'll tt
consider, the things brought O
limited at in this report when con
sidering the question of sendins
their boy to college"
s'The Catholic Bulletin, in Civ
t ing a summary Of the statement
of Mr.. Crane, looks especially to
wards Catholic parents, and fail
would bring home to them thei
responsibilities when they Sc
about choosing for their sons
; school or college. It is well know
E that Catholics are counted by tn
c hundreds in Yale, Harvard, Cor
6 nell, Princeton and Columbia. TIL
! glamor of fashion has led then
! thither. There, it is said, repai
the sons of the wealthy, of tn
leaders of society, and to mingl
: with those is an advantage, salts
/ faction that should not be over
4 looked. May be, wealth and fash
t ion do congregate there: but so d
e drunkenness and immortality: an,
c of what avail to young men ar
!. worldly benefits, whatever thes
: be, If, while securing them, the,
lose their faith and become reck
5 less and dissolute in morals. n
' parent can be allowed to say tina
his boy is different from othe
: boys, and will be unscathed wher
4 others perish. No boy is safe annie
7 the perils and temptations of evi
e surroundings: and into such sur
I roundings he should not be driven
j, Perhaps, it will also be said, tn
c boy must be allowed the specia
scholastic advantages, so easily Sc
D cured in such colleges as those nov
under discussion, and scarcely &,
s be found elsewhere. Advantages