The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-16
The Value Of Higher Schooling
Fly R. T. CRANE lPresident of the Crane Company)

(Foreword-The following is an address I prepared with the evrcctation of req l. ing il before college, the president of which gave me to understand that he would permit me to 60 so. I furnished him a copy of It in advance and he then refused. for reasons hest known to the Higher Schooling people.
 R. T. GRAINED
 How to start their boys out in fife alright is the one question that IS giving the parents of moderate means the great est concern. They do not know what to do with their boys. Those parents who possess great means can aftord-from monetary view, but from no other-tc make useless ornaments of their sons. The poor man is never especially anXi- ous about his boys, because he knows that they will have to work, and that if they are decent, benave themselves, and try to get along, they will come out all right. As rule. many of them will achieve a position far in advance of that occupied by their fathers But. as above stated, it is the sons Of the men of moderate means who give their parents the greatest anxiety. 'Chis question is worthy of your consideration.
 Bane of College Publicity
 So much has been said and written about the presidents of the colleges, the professors, the glee clubs, the rowing teams, and the entertainments. not to mention all the silly talk about football. that minimizing people have been led to assign colleges value which they do not possess We have heard the college man talk about his graduating class. his fraternity, his university club and other silly rot, as If they were the sole end or existence The result is that all this has had a decided effect upon many peopie They imagine that person can not amount to anything unless he belongs to his college class. This idea has discour- aged many boy who had in him the clements that go to make success. It has led many parents to make sacrifices which they could i'll afford. It has re- suited In good carpenters practicing med- |icine flrst-class blacksm ths practicnS law, and excellent farnors preaching the gospel, because of the idea that any one who goes to college should not work with his hands. It has fostered dis respect for honest, manual labor
 Because your father and mother are impressed with this idea you are here to-
  here is that you are their darling boy When I was a boy there were no darlinSs we were Just boys, and l am glad Of it. Our parents were not afraid tntt work would hurt us. Your father who used to get up and hoe cabbages t") hours before breakfast thinks you are too good to do this; he must make sonIe- thing better of you. He has pretty clear idea that he is taking great FISK in sending you here to school; he knows you are not going to receive anything here that will help you in making a NV ing. He is in hopes that fin some hit-or- miss manner he may be aole to boost you LID in society and yet not seriously im- pair your chances of making a living or course, he has no idea of how he is go- ing to do it, but that is lis hope His one great ambition is to have you occupy a position higher in the sScial scale than he himself has been able to atta'n. IT that ambition Is to make you of more service to society, the ar1b,tion Is laud- able one.
 aa Herbert Spencer's View
 Herbert Spencer has very forclply stat ed why boys are sent to cohege. quote what he has to say on this subject:
 1.-The remark is trlte that in his shop, or in his office in managing his estate or his family, in playing his rart as d. rector of a bank or railway. he Che col lege graduate) is little aided by this knowledge he took so many years to ac- quire-so little that generally the greater part of 1t drops out of his memory. If we inquire what IS the real nl2- tive for giving boys a classical educs- tion we find it is simply conformity te public opinion. Men dress their chdrens minds as they do their bodies, in the prevailing fashion.
 "A boys drilling in Latin and Greek Is insisted upon, not because of their ln- trinsic value, but that he may not bo disgraced by being found ignorant of them-'that he may have the education of a gentleman'-the badge marking cer- tain social position and bringing a con- sequent respect.
 '-To get above some ana be reverenced by them, and to propitia:e those who are above us, is the universal struggle in which the chief energies of life ara ex- pended. Not what knoWledge Is or the most real worth, Is the consideration, but what will bring the most applause, hon or, respect-what will most conduce to so- cial position and influence-what will be most imposing As throughout life, not what we are but what We shall be thought, is the question; so in education the question is not the intrinsic value of
 
 feet on others. And this being our dom nant idea, direct utility is scarcely more regarded than by the barbarian when filling his teeth and staining his nails But we that have but span-long lives must ever bear in mind cur limited time for acquisition. And remembering how narrowly this time 5 lInired, not only by the shortness of fife, tut also still more by the business of life, we ought to be especially solicitors GC employ what time we have to the greatest advantag, Before devoting years to some subject which fashion or fancy suggests. it is surely wise to weigh with great care the worth of the results. as compared with the work or various alternative re- suits which the same years might bring if otherwise applied"
 I wish to discuss with you this ques- tion of higher schooling. Is it worth to the young man, who is gong into bpsi- ness, what it costs In time and money7 shall take the negative side In do ng so. I realize that I am at quite a dis, advantage. It is not the popular side of the question, and my position is apt to convey the idea that I am opposed to education. If I am not in favor of higher schooling, 1t must follow that am in favor of ignorance, and, conse- quently, belong to the dark ages.
 Not Opposed to Education
 Kindly dismiss this idea at the outset No man is more in favor of higher edu- cation that I am. The question is: What constitutes higher education? maintain there is vast difference between "high. CT schooling and higher education"