The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-01-17
R. 7. CRANE WAS
FOE OF COLLEGES
Advocated Burning Of Higher
Educational Institutions,
HEAD OF A BIG CONCERN.

Gave Employment to Six Thousand
Persons-carneeie His Pet Aversien.
His Sensational Attacks on Harvard
and Other Colleges.
Richard T. Crane, head of the Crane
company OF Chicago, who died recent
ly. was a foe Of universities and higher
educational institutions.
Burn the colleges and use the mon
ey they spend for better purposes" de-
clared this self made ironmaster. Col
lege men Of all classes, he believed.
tended both to inefficiency and immor.
atty, and in his last years he spent
much time in attempting to prove his
assertions.
The autocrntc manufacturers pet
aversion was Andrew Carnegie. broth
er ironmaster. but giver of Libraries
and supporter of universities. And
indeed in most respects the two men
were the direct antitheses Of each 9TH
er. Crane was a man OF powerful
frame, thickset, sinewy and agile al
most to the day of his death at eighty
years The square head and thick
neck showed bullheadedness of pur-
pose which the keenness of eye stamp
ed as coDpetent of carrying out.
1t took this man more than fifty
years to complete the building of his
big business with its 5000 employees.
When 1t was done it was called the
Crane company, but the company"
was to the last Richard Teller Crane.
Other Cranes there were in the busi-
ness, but ~. u r. T." as he was known
to his e. .ployee associates of half a
century, was all that counted
He was the president of complex
corporation. yet knew how each ma
chine should run and was likely to
stop at any workman's bench and give
him sharp rebuke for some shortcom-
ing. Yet he was as quick to seize the
grimy hand Of an old employee in
friendly greeting and talk with him
like fellow workman. Most Of his
men he knew by their first names. He
was democrat and autocrat in one
Academic learning beyond the es-
sentials Of the grammar grades in pub
lie schools is waste of time and waste
Of money for the boy who is to enter
commercial life" was the dictum of
Crane.
In a volume he published early in
1910 Mr.. Crane told of the results of
an investigation into the methods. uses
and expenses of higher education" of
all kinds. He charges that the mil
lions spent annually on universities,
and technical and agricultural
schools and law and medical schools in
general are swallowed up in one of the
most gigantic "swindles" of the age.
Among other things he says: THE
college men talk as though they knew
all about every other mans business
and that they could manage affairs
better than the business men them
selves.
college professors and teachers are
prepared to give advice on all subjects.
AS $1,000 a year teachers they tell us
how to turn out $4,000 and $4,000 a
year business men. Isn't II n bit
strange that it never has occurred TO
these smart college fellows to go into
business for themselves2 Why draw
a small salary for telling young men
how to draw big salaries If you are
capable of drawing the big salary
yourself?''
Last September he came out with his
most sensational attack. when he as
sailed the morals of the higher insti-
tutions Of learning. At Harvard. he
declared. 9S per cent Of the students
drank more or less and Is per cent
went completely to the bad. He found
bad at Yale and Princeton
and worse at Columbia. Cornell was
also particular target He found
all sorts Of immortality rampant In all
centers Of learning. The storm of pro
test this aroused among college men
has hardly yet died away