Semi-weekly herald., 1912-03-11
DOES A CLASSICAL COL
LEGE EDUCATION PAY?

WASHINGTON, ID. u, March L.
The acid test of an education is what
a man can do. Is it fair to put a
commercial test to a university de-
gree? Such test how, lever, has been
made by the Harvard appointments
office and the showing while startling
is certainly far from flattering. Ac-
cording to the statistics available the
average wage of man who has re-
ceived a bachelors degree is at first
about SIS per week. Princeton .e-
ports show that it's graduates start
at an average of Sc per week. From
tables made ur from the salaries ,ai'
graduates in Certain lines of emoi "
ment the averages are as follows
Brokerage business, SO to So PEI week
man n.factIsIng, 81 to s12; an! engi-
neering S!u to SIS. In all these lines
the college graduate does not receive
more than the average high school
graduate. II is obvious that these in
stitutions are not measuring education
in dollars and cents. Their declared
purpose is to give an all around edu-
cation for gentleman. That they
are doing this to good purpose is
shown by the following incident which
recently occurred at Harvard. Pro-
fessor w. H. Scofield, instructor OF
comparative literature, asked class
of more than 100 when Aristotle lived
Not one could answer. When he fur
ther inquired how many thought he
was born after 1910 six men held up
their hands.
The attainment of the degree which
stands for culture insures, however
respectable position in society. Mos,
graduates are also skilled in several
of the gentle arts of idleness, and
while they have not increased their
earning capacities, they have quite
necessarily acquired the needs and fa-
cilities for spending more than when
they entered college. With the earn
ing capacities of children and the
spending capacities of men the Pc
riod of dependence is prolonged aid
un'ess the earning and spending can
be II ade to balance the danger is t..,at
oar elegantly clue -.ed gentlemen vii
serve no higher pnirtse thar. to dis
tribGtc the ws,i,h t. at his forh,ai
have accumulated. And this alas
through no particular fault of his own
OF course our average college grad.
rate has a higher ambition, and 81
let us leave him to struggle with life
on his small earnings and strain oul
Imagination while we contemplate .
different kind of university One
thai does not deal with the theory Of
life as set forth in text books, lee.
lures, and libraries, but is ruled by
science anr art in every phase of its
manifestation, having control over q
large area of land and dedicated q
showing youth by actual contact WITH
all kinds of productive occupations
the marvellous possibilities of the arts
and sciences. Not merely talking
about them and analyzing them but
learning how to produce by means Of
them.
1t would be necessarily divided into
two great interlacing and overlap.
ping sections, one of which would be
devoted to the minor arts of expires.
sion or to those things which are de.
voted to the care, and development
and welfare of the body, and the other
to the major arts or those things de-
voted to the care, development and
welfare Of the spirit.
In order to comprehend this new
university we must establish a new
fundamental principle that education
is not n commodity that can be ac-
quired for fee. 1t can only be had
by living it. That only by self-reli-
ant. self-supporting and self-respect-
ing work can we attain real knowl-
edge of the arts and sciences. BY
dealing with them personally at first
hand and not by the means Of in
direction from some one else; a great