The Washington herald., 1912-04-07
BY JAMES q. MORROW.


the physical body, but Of the buoyancy
of girlhood and boyhood Educational
infanticide, DIR. Benton terms it. A
startling phrase. but one, he asserts,
that is sustained by the facts.
This is said to be an age made glori-
GUS by youth. Old men Of fifty and fos-
sis Of sixty have gone upon the shelf.
They may have rheumatism. Further
more, they are lacking in adapttbility.
And times have changed. Yet. the boys
In Wall street dance when ]. Pierpont
Morgan, seventy-five years old, begins
shooting toward their legs. DIR. Benton,
vigorous, courageous, and modern, only
torty-six himself. an optimist who greets
every new sunrise as the dawn OF the
best day the earth has ever seen, de-
clares that this. more, than any in the
past, is the achieving period of ma
turity and experience. He denies that
young men are masters of the country
They never have been. Moreover, as
time hurries on they are slowly Slip
ping back and making way for the men
who have been sufficiently prepared for
life, either by education or hard prac-
Nee.
The great lawyers OF the United States.
the great judges, legislators, physicians,
manufacturers, bankers, and merchants,
Dr. Benton positively declares, are not
the new graduates of universities, shops,
factories. banks, and mercantile estab-
lisIments, but seasoned men who nave
battIed their way to the front, and are
competent to maintain the leadership
they have won. The ruling public men
Of the country to-day are fifteen years
older on an average than were the
fathers who gave the nation its Constr
tuition and its first constructive laws
Four Great Americans.
Edison remains the king OF inventors
at sixty-fve William Dean Howells,
the foremost man of literature In Amer
lea, writes six mornings in the week.
though he is past seventy-five. John ID.
Rockefeller who will be seventy-three
next July, continues, regardless of his
denials TO keep the oil industry OF the
world in the hollow of his superhuman
hand. In his seventy-seventh year, An
drew Carnegie goes before a commlttee
of young congressman and sharp law
yers and pleasantly gives them inter-
esting nothings during quizzing which
lasted for two days.
Preaching a new doctrine, that there
is mo shortcut to maturity, that
manhood and childhood cannot go hand
IN hand" that it is morally worse TO
get educated quick" than to get rich
uujck." and that "man should be child
reaches the age of twenty-five" also
bringing a sensational accusation against
some of his professional brethren, charg-
Ing them with murder and saying that
educational infanticide, as l see 1t, is
one of the greatest crimes Of modern
times" DR.. Benton is travelling the
country. this week in New England,
next week on the Pacific Coast, ana
starting new currents of thought among
a delusion that has become commanding
and prevalent The antediluvian Of forty,
II he can bring il about. is to prove his
merit in popular imagination, as he al
ways has done in practical demonstra-
ion.
Ohio, that strenuous and unique bat
tlefield of strange and picturesque De-
,jefs. is the State in which DR.. Benton
was born He learned the printers trade
as a boy in Kenton that he might have
pocket-money while going to school, HIS
education was completed at Baker Uni
Versity in Kansas and at Wesleyan and
Wooster universities in Ohio. Waiting
at Fort Scott, Just west OF the mis-
souri, boundary, for a newspaper posi-
ton. he made teaching a handy bridge
that was to carry him through hard
winter. He thus found himself" to use
one Of his own expressions. Teachlng
has been his profession since that time.
Got SG5,OOO from Carnegie.
From the public schools, DR.. Benton |
went to Baker University as professor of
history and sociology. On his election
to the presidency Of Upper Iowa Uni |
versity he visited Andrew Carnegie and
got S95,OO0 The gift had no conditions. |
and was the second of its kind ever |
made by the ironmaster. DR.. Benton |
rod in md Il an
boarded a train for the West. He was |
called TO Miami University, in Ohio, in |
1902. Benjamin Harrison and Whitelaw |
Reid, the candidates on the Republican
national ticket in 1892, were Miami grad |
yates. President Benton found 124 stu |
dents He increased them to 1000 in |
nine years. His annual expenditures |
grew from Sc. 900 to $4,000. The five |
buildings became eleven. His history in |
the presidency, therefore, can be read |
from the figures here given. Last Octo- !
ber he took charge of the University of
after having declined a unani-
nous election to the headship of the 1
University Of Boston. He has a college |
Of arts and sciences, a college of medi-
cine, a college OF agriculture, and a col
ege OF engineering. The Federal govern
ment rays his university $4,000 a year
and hSs established an agriculture ex-
pertinent station and weather station
said. that my work lay here Fur
thermore. lie is doing all he can to un-
cover the dangers and errors OF social
Ism.
You have stated" said, that this
Is not the age of the young man. Has
anything occurred recently to change
your mind?"
mo. 1 deny that this is the golden
lay OF the young man. Like all the
others that have gone, and like all those
hat are to come, this is the day of the
prepared man. The big things of the 4
world have been done by the men who
we're ready to do them. Carpenters and
nasons cannot build a house until they
lave learned their trades. Serious work |
,annot be done under nothing more than
he impulse of inspiration. An undis-
,iplined army would fall back at the
irst volley Of the enemy. So / speak for
preparation. Once prepared, a man
makes faster and better headway in his
business or profession than would be
he case were he to learn his business
n profession by the slow process of ex-
,erience.
rhe Penalties of Crooked Thinking.
BY preparation, mean the ability to
10 straight and profitable thinking, to
,ut away nonessentials and go directly
D the root Of an occasion or a question.
\ great deal of time, energy and money
ire lost every year by men who cannot
hink logically and coherently. II all per-
ons thought precisely and sensibly the
york and worry OF humanity would be
essened substantially. The unprepared
nan lives to learn, but he gets a good