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

but applies to the great mass of the larger colleges.
 At the Berlin Conference on Secondary
 Education, held in 1S90 pr. Virchow ob-
 served
 T regret that I can not bear my teSti-
 money to our having made progress in
 forming the character ot rupis in our
 school. When I look back over the 40
 years during which I have been pro-
 lessor and examiner-a reriod during
 which l have been brought In contact
 not only with physicians and sclen-
 tific investigators, but also with many
 other types, of men-I can rot say that
 have the impression that we have
 made material advances in training up
 men with strength of character; on the
 contrary. I fear we are on the downward path. The number of characters be-
 comes smaller And this is connected
 with the shrinkage in rr:vate and in-
 dividual work during a lads school lire.
 For it Is only by means oe independent
 work that the pupil leain to hold his
 own against external difficulties and to find in his own strength, in his own na-
 ture, in his own being, the means of resisting such difficulties al d of prevail ing over them.
 If further evidence of the almost uni Versal demorallzation of college mer is
 necessary I will add that Mf. E. c. Mer7 .. cer, who Is special secretary of the As
 sociation of Colleges Of North America. is following up this matter for the as.
 soeiaton, which shows that it has taken fupon itself the work of reforming col ilege men. He Is It's special agent and is visiting the colleges and delivering iec- ture, entitled College Men 1 Have Met In the Sums and Prisons O.. New York.
 In its literature mention is made of 5S colleges and universities st which le has delivered lectures. This is accompanied by lot of certificates from the heads of these institutions, certifying to the goo!
 work that he is doing, which Is prac- | tically an admission of the general de- moralZa ton which exists among the stu dents and makes such work necessary. 1f | further proof be necessary. let me quo.e | from a letter received from MT. Mercer in which he says:
 l. 'T did say, and have written proof to back me up, that I had met personally
 and have heard from the most reliable | authorities of some 1200 college-bred rnen in the slums, prisons jaiis and sani- | tarums. who were down apd out through | fast living. I have the pictures of about | 5O of these college-bred men who have wound up in slums and prisons; also have 1 the letters from about 50 others asking me | for help and while I did slam and prison work in New York city I cane in personal contast with scores of these college-bret
 men down and out. In one gospel tent on West street, New York city, last sum
 mer, 16 college-bred men down and out applied for help. The noteo bread line of our city Is constantly having college | bred men in it.'
 \ The colleges have not only spoiled all of the men for business. but college life. in
 many cases, has destroyed their moral characters. Thus, the colleges, instead or being the grand institutions they profess l to be, are, oftentimes, moral plague spots. | While my remarks so far have applied
 to the general college course, or the col 1 lege of letters and science, yet my in- vestigation of the technical schools has forced the same conclusions upon me; their courses are not worth what they cost in time and money, and bright au,- bilious boy is more injured than aided by
 them, so far as achieving success is con cerned.
 Send Their Sons to College Doubtless sometof you boys ask why if
 the colleges are so utte. iy useless, do rich men send their boys there. I'll ex- plain. The college is now looked upon as the backbone of the aristc cracy of this country. Many people scnd their sons 10 | college with no idea that they will de- rive any benefit in the way of educa tion
 or morals. They think that the colleges l of this country are what tlie nobility is to England, so send their boys there sim ply that they may get into the aristo- cratic,class. Unfortunately. the fact that | rich men doNsend their scns to college is used to bolster up college pretensions | If men of ability send their sons to col lege, is not that proof os the value Of higher schooling? say the professors. Why Men Give to Colleges Another humbug is that because men
 give money to colleges they must consider
 them legitimate and worthy enterprises.
 Don't be misled. While some honest men
 de this, they are not what you would call
 practical men, men who first study and investigate and then invest. Most of
 them do 1t to get a standing in society,"
 merely buying their patent of mobility. To aggrandize themselves they are willing | )
 demoralize you. They do not care how
 much damage they do to you. A lot of
 men in this country thinN that they can
 buy a standing in this way.
 Andrew Carnegie is q shining example.
 Some years ago he gave H..O00,O00 to found | a technical school, and lie has recently announced that he has Iearranged his
 charitable work and that henceforth hc proposes to provide means for encourag- 1 ing college education. This would seem
 10 indicate that he was in his dotage or Ithat he was making another bid for mo- | toriety. Carnegie roundiy condemned college education in his book "The Empire of Busness.v says, among other things .'the total absence of the graduate from
 high position in the business world seems