Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-09-26
MR.. CRANE ON THE COLLEGES
M BISHOP w. A. CAMDxER.

ed nearly twenty years ago, have had
many striking exemplifications and con-
firmations in the history of our coun-
try during the period which has elapsed
since they were published. The Amer
lean people were never so enlightened as
now. and thsy were never so restless, so
and so unhappy. Conscience
less agitators were never so plentiful
in the land and senseless and sensation
al agitations were never so abundant
as now. The axioms of common moral
ity are set aside by agitators and agi-
tations inspired by INSCRIPTIONS amui-
ton or sprung from Unsuitable greed
MuItitudes with the acquisition or O
little knowledge seem to have taken
leave Of fundamental principles in pur-
suit Of. visionary aspirations Thou
sands seem now to assume that tn ere
is something better for individuals and
nations than essential goodness, and
they appear to believe ordinary virtue is
obsolete when it stands in the way Oh
their dreams and schemes. They have
had too much education and too little
moral training
We can scarcely expect that there will
be less education in the United States;
there will be more rather than less. But
1t must be better, or the people will
grow worse Willie they are growing
wiser. 1t is high time, therefore. we
had asserted as never before the prf-
macy Of the moral element in education.
Mr.. Cranes pieces will do good II they
bring home to the minds of our people
the supreme Importance Of this moral
element. II any of his charges brought
against particular institutions are found
ed on fact, such institutions ought to
be avoided as II they were infected with
deadly disease. However wealthy a
college or university may be, 1t is utter
ly unworthy of patronage If its influence
weakens the faith and relaxes the moral
convictions Of the students who attend
It. If 1t does not exert an influence posi-
lively religious on its students, they are
in great danger while attending It.; but
If 1t affects them to make them posi-
lively less moral and less christian, II
exhales the breath of pestilence on the
land. No amount of money in buildings
and endowments and equipment, and no
degree of scholarship in its teaching
body can offset the evil 1t does.
Our colleges have had a mania during
the last decade for what is called rails
ing the curriculum" They seem to have
lost sight of the condition of the conn.,
munitles which they were called to serve,
and to have been entirely absorbed in a
wild competition among themselves for
making entrance requirements more diff
ficult and adding new courses of study
TO their lists. All this may have been
well enough in it's way, altAough II
seems wiser for an institutionsto adapt
itself to the needs of those whom II
serves than to struggle too much for
the honour Of putting its courses OF
study out of their reach in order to prove
itself superior to a competitor. But
whatever may be true about the mat
ter Of raising the curriculum" it is evil
dent that the time has come when some
of the colleges need to raise their moral
standards. If there is so much as a
modicum of truth In what Mr.. Crane
charges upon the universities which he
names in his article, those institutions
sadly need toning up.