The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-17

ing the nation. 1t is record of mutua
services of which we are proud. 1t was
w oouroW Wilson himself who formulated
.ne Prlnceton idea in a phrase familiar
70 Princeton men, princeton for the ra-
tion's service
Pure Scholarship at Princeton
"Unscrupulous persons now and then
nave tried to distort the Princeton idea
from It's true meaning, as implying that
we uhdervalue pure scholarship at
1incelon. All who know the actual facts
at princeton know that it is precisely
pure scholarship which we put at the
very center of the picture, saying to our
men In effect, your business here ana
now is TO learn in order that you MAY
develop your innate powers. But we try
10 discriminate between that scholarship
Wilich is mere accumulation of dessioated
learning and that scholarship which is
vital and vitalizing to a mans whole
nature
For the man himself is what we are
chehy concerned with at Princeton, We
nave no quarrel with those colleges which
chlef1y emphasize vocational and techni-
cal training, which focus their energies
on the task of equipping men for par
tlcular professions and trades. Such col
leges are needed But we believe rSat
'''tiN tiiilt Is Su1lltleill LOT the lOuS pio-
cess the best is got out of a man by
first training his powers to deal with
large and fundamental principles of
knowledge, and when his innate powers
have been developed and precisioned 10
turn him into the technical or profess
sional school. That is our philosophy
And when the mans raw material has
been wrought over into a developed and
trained product we believe that the man
should he hat &c
put this development and training at
the service of the nation, sometimes as
official, always as citizen. To whom
much has been given from him much
is expected. That is our ideal
II am not here to advertise Princeton,
but it is hard for Princeton lover
not to speak enthusiastically of her.
tend Princeton. You will make no mis-
take If you go to Princeton. 1 can war;
rant you that on the authority of thou
sands of living Princeton graduates. /
know many men who regret that they
are not Princeton graduates. but l don't
know any men who regret that they are
Princeton graduates. But there are other
great American colleges which you will
make no mistake in attending.
THE one quite incurab BILE blunder that
you may commit is to go to any one Of
these and be idle there. Into each of
you God has put certain innate capaci-
ties. Only by work and training can
these be developed into powers There Is
a heresy that 1t is better to go to col
lege and be idle than not to go at all.
1t Is an utter heresy. If you don't in
tend to work at college. don't go. Do
not take four of the most precious years
of your lives, just when all manner of
capabilities are shyly budding, and curse
them with the blight and frost of idle
ness. Go on farm, go in a shop. go
in an office, go somewhere where you
will have to work. Any work honestly
done will develop you in some fashion
but a college education honestly pur-
metrical fashion.
"And the idler in college hurts so many
besides himself BY his wretched ex-
ample he diminshes the industry of 9TH
ers who are susceptible to influence and
would work If properly Influenced. And
by his systematic neglect he causes the
faculty twice as much labor as those
who are deserving of their labor. Four
fifths of the time of half the college
committees are consumed In attentions
to the lazy man. 1t Is the peculiar and
ingenious curse of the idler to propagate
useless idleness among those who need
to be taught to work and to propagate
useless work among those who have al
ready learned to work.
"And now let us blend the two thoughts
suggested by the two windows. The col
lege trains men: America needs trained
men; therefore America wants YOU to go
to college to be trained for her service.
That is the syllogism.
"Our national life is getting more COM