University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1911-09-14
Not SO Bad, Perhaps

E. One only needs to read the hea(
! lines over an attack on the morals o
| college men, fathered by II. T. Crane
q Chicago manufacturer, and pub
lished in a trade journal OF his, the
Valve World. to know that there i.
Something rather serious the matter
with the inside of Mr. Cranes head
According to him 81 per cent of the
men at Harvard drink. Il per cent
become irredeemable drunkards. and
80 per cent drink heavily, while the
conditions at Columbia and Prince
ton are worse than at Harvard.
Only a man whose judgment was
thoroughly unsOund would give out
statement like that on the word of
single observer. whom he had hired
to investigate the subject, without
checking up the reports of his agent
with the statements of men who
have had chance through long OBJ
servatiOn to know what undergradu-
ate life in this country is. Not far
back in Mr.. Cranes history We find
what is the matter with him. Some
years ago, when some members of
the Illinois Legislature wrote to him
asking his opinion as to the wisdom
of increasing the appropriation for
the University of Illinois. he wrote
back: Instead of appropriating
more money it would be a good deal
better for the State to put torch
to the buildings and burn them down
and turn furrOw over them" A let
ter like that puts man completely
out of court on the subject upon
which he has acquired his hallucin-
alton, however excellent manu-
facturer of valves and machinery he
may be. When a man of that bias
hired another man to make a report
On college morals. what sort of a re-
port would you expect his hired man
to turn in? Well, that is the sort of
report Mr.. Crane got and which he
publishes. so far as the summaries
CT his article show, without any YER
ificatiOn beyond that supplied by his
own prejudices
The college officials who are deny
ing Mr.. Cranes charges are men of
wide experience in dealing with un-
dergraduates. and their observation
of students has not been confined
chiefly to saloons. 1t hardly seems
necessary for them to deny such an
obvious exaggeratiOn. but Cranes
having been printed. it is
perhaps as well to give it official
refutatiOn. College BOYS are like
other boys i'm crowds. They have the
curiosity of youth and a certain Der
centage of them look over and test
the facilities for dissipation which
themfi Is there any body
OF boys ranging from is to 25 in any
large town of whom that statement
Is not true? The percentage with
" HON this test is carried to the
point where it con be called dissipa-
ton is nOtOriOusly smaller i'm the COL
lcges than among yOung men en-
ployed in offices. i'm shops and in
stores. The college boy has not only
the supervision of the faculty but he
has a social life which is interesting
without the aid of dissipation. and
he has the restraint of college fra
ternities and associations which OBJ
Iect to having members dropped
either for dissipation or lack of
scholarship. Boys must grow into
somewhere, and in that
process certain number of weak
lings will inevitably go down. But
hat the surroundings at college de-
Velop the best rather than the worst
among the great majority of their
is shown by the increasing
y large number of college gradu-
ltes who achieve positions of trust
md leadership.-BroOkIyn Eagle.