The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-08-03

cred the storms of life and have
reached harbor of affluence reflect
that they have never been to college;
that they have never missed it, and con-
s!equently lend a ready ear to the
untutored who declare academic train
ing units the boy for life.
What are the facts? Is there any.
thing the boy learns in college that can
in anywise unfit him for granting
for the moment the debatable fact that
life" is better than knowledge? The
answer is unequivocal- nothing. The
function Of the college is to fit and not
to unfit men. 1t trains them for life,
and not away from life. 1t equips them
for the greatest possible service in that
placed
Were there anything in college that
is calculated to unfit man for useful
ness in the world, it would be reflected
in the career of the men who have
graduated from college since the war
and have made their way in life. Any
educator will be willing to accept this
challenge and to base the claims of
intellectual training on the success of
the college graduate in life Take him
as you find him, not the best, not the
worst, but the average man who has
been graduated from college. Measure
his achievements by the standards of
the day and test the service of the
college accordingly. The result will be
an overwhelming argument in behalf Of
higher education
And If the boy who goes from the
college to the contingencies proves
himself ignorant of business methods
charge this not to what he has learned,
but to what he has not learned, and
give him a fair chance to master his
calling. 1t will be found, as we shall
demonstrate in a moment, that his
training in college equips him to learn
far more quickly and more thoroughly
than the boy who is taken from the
grammar school to the office chair.
If, then, it can be shown that the
college has no immoral influence, does
not inculcate eXtravagant habits, does
not preach snobbery and does not unfit
for life, is there single valid objection
that can be urged against the college?
To our mind, none can be found, unless,
indeed, it be lamented that a college
cannot make purse of sows ears
a learned, useful man of simpleton.
The college has never yet been found
which can do more with fool than to
make him an educated fool; no college
can make genius of mediocrity. But
within these bounds this great truth
can be laid down: the college teaches
no evil of it's own and does its utmost
to lessen the evil that it finds in the
boys who enter it.
The Credit Account.
Failing thus to debit anything
against the college except it's ability to
do the impossible, let us reckon the
credit side of the account and calculate
the gains which accrue to the individual
from course in college. And from
this account let us omit for the time
being reference to the advantages
which accrue in making the graduate
successful in business or in profess
sion. Upon these we have already
dwelt, and need not now repeat the
manifest fact that the most successful
men of the age are college graduates
Whether in politics, in the professions,
in the great industries or in the lesser
callings of the life, the vast majority of
all the leaders are men intellectually
equipped.
Trained to Think Straight.
The first specific entry on the
credit account of the college is that it
trains boys and girls to think straight
and to think quickly. A century ago
the test of a soldier was his ability to
hit the mark, to shoot accurately. In
the intellectual warfare Of this age, the
first demand is for the man who can
think accurately. 1t matters not, in the
final test, how much one man or