The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-11
COLLEGE MEN ARE BOOZE FIGHTERS Bitter Arraignment of Big Universities
  WINE, WOMEN, SONG"
R. T. Crane, a Millionaire, Makes Thorough Investigation and De- clares Debauchery at lnsti-
 stutions Is Appalling

Chicago. September 10--R. F. Crane, millionaire and iron manufacturer. made public today an arraignment of the oig of the country. He charges alarming prevalence of drinking and gam ling among the student bodies.
 Columbia he ranks the worst, but con ditions al Harvard. Princeton and Cornell he declared were almost as bad.
 Of the students at Harvard, 90 per cent drink in their freshman year, 95 per cent in their senior year and l5 per cent of them go irretrievably to the bad, accord ing 10 the report of an investigation which MT. Crane has made.
 Mir Crane spent much time and money putting under scrutiny the result of higner education So bitter has he become that he declared colleges did more harm than good.
 MT. Crane says in his report:
 An outsider can scarcely realize the amount of drinking that goes on in the |cluhrooms of the colleges. Referring par ticularly to Harvard, estimate the num- Der of students who combine in mild degree wine and bad women, 65 per cent;
 who drink heavily. B per cent, and who have two or three bats a year, 45 per cent. I do not doubt a worse state of affairs exists at other colleges. At Princeton it is beer, beer, beer. The town has licensed the students, in my mind. to drink and do it more than Har- ward men. On one occasion believe there must have been more than 300 students Idead drunk.
 Drinking at Yale At Yale drinking is recognized in go great a degree that the clubs have their tables in the barrooms I was never 50 struck In my life as when I found New Haven so debauched In whisky Some time ago the statement appeared in a New Haven paper that there were 2oOo fallen women in that city. At Cornell the conditions are somewhat the same, although l believe Cornell stu dents do not carry their excesses so far as do students at Princeton, Yale and Cambridge. The Cornell boys are great on beer, as are also the men at Prince 1 ton.
 At Columbia, I believe there exists | more debauchery than at any other cob | lege on account of its proximity to tho famous resorts of the city. If further proof be necessary, let me quote from { letter received from F. c. Meyer, who | Is special secretary of the Association | Of the Colleges of North America Ht
 is following this matter up for the as sociation. which shows that 1t has taker l upon itself the work of reforming col | lege men. He Is the special agent and visits the colleges. He delivered a lec- ture entitled, Collge Men I Have Met
 in the Sums and Prisons of New York. | He says:
 'I did say, and have written proof to | back me up, that I have met personally
 and have heard from the most reliable
 authorities of some 12OO college bred men | in the slums prisons, jails and sani. l tariums who were down and out through | fast living. The noted bread line In ou, l city has constantly In 1t college brec 1 men,"
 | The rest of MT. Cranes report is g
 story of drinking. immortality and reck | less money spending. He gives many ex | amples and says the proof is irrefutable The report which Is printed in the col
 umns of the Valve of the World. owned l by Mir. Crane. describes unsparingly stu | dent dissipation, and is otherwise re morseless indictment of not only the uni
 versailles but of the municipal governmen that permits such conditions.