The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-07-03
ntinued frompa
CATHOLIC HIGHER EDUCATION


one with an education which had for
it's direct purpose merely to open, to
invigorate, to strengthen the mind
will, if diligent and devoted, outstrip
in business capacity at the age of
twenty-three companion who from
his sixteenth year has continuously
occupied similar position. speak
not here of those whose foolish pride
would grasp the top of the ladder,
disdaining the lower rounds These
must always fail. My statement ap-
plies only to those whose heart is in
| their work, whose spirit is that of
brave men, who while their COM
panions slept were toiling upward in
the night" Industry is an essential
condition of success in any walk of
| life, but it is the intellect of the col
lege graduate quickened by disciplin-
airy studies and formed to habits of
method. of analysis, of comparison
that gives him a decided advantage in
business over his companion of the
mere business course.
Is it the professions?
| A great European university after
a trial of ten years declared that the
graduates of the commercial shoots
are not on a par with the graduates
of the classical schools in the pursuit
Of professional and philosophical
studies, and that unless the plan of
admitting both on an equal footing be
changed national scholarship would
soon be a thing of the past. The rea-
sons given were slower development
superficial knowledge, lack of indie
pendent judgment, inferiority in pri-
vate research, less dexterity, want of
keenness and defective power of ex-
preston. If the student of the prac-
tical and merely secondary education
is not match for his fellow of the
college course during the time of his
training for the professions, how can
he compete with him, other things be-
ing equal, in the arena of practice?
Is it the great enterprises of the
industrial worId-mining, manufac-
turing, trade, commerce?
We sometimes hear it said that la
Dor does it all-that labor is the
source of all production. Such a
statement is made only by dema-
gogues who would make political cap
ital out of labor. Competent experts
have calculated that seven-tWelfths of
the production of great industrial en-
lterprises is due to ability and only
fve-twelfths to labor. 1t is the ability
to organize, to foresee and forestall
difficulties, to open up markets, to
compete, to govern, to direct, to i'm
prove, to furnish occupation, to create
opportunity, which makes the largest
contribution to the success of great
industries. Whence that ability?
Barring exceptional natural genius, it
is the product of mind developed by
education. The railroads and mines
will not even admit to their engineer
ing shops as an apprentice the young
man who has not received collegiate
or at least a high school training.
hope the day is not far distant when
all the schools of law and medicine in
the United States will agree to re-
ceive only graduates of full col
legiate course.
Is it agriculture?
i Farmers formerly had little pa
tience with the college man who
would presume to instruct them in
agriculture. 1t was their boast that
actual experience on the farm was
worth more than all the book knowl-
edge in the world. Now they are reg
ular attendants at Farmers Institutes
conducted under the direction of agri-
cultural colleges by professors whose
remote education for their positions
has been in most instances purely col
legiate. More, they are sending their
sons to college in greater numbers,
the better to prepare them for the life
of a farmer in America in the TWEEN.
tieth century, and instead of sending
them late in the fall and taking them
out early in the spring as they used
to do during the two or three years
they gave them at college, they are
insisting on regular attendance dur
ing a much longer period. They real.
ize that it is only the trained mind
that can detect the scientific side OF
farming and by scientific experiment
contribute to it's advancement. They
are alive to the fact that mental cul.
ture sweetens the cup of toll and
counteracts the debasing tendencies
of material occupations, and that il
their children are to be kept on the
farm and spared the pitfalls of city
life, there must be more of it.
Is it craftsmanship?
Not to speak of the ward politician,
and his partner in the state legisla.
ture, now happily passing away, who
have been our presidents, the gov.
errors of our states, our senators, and
our representatives in the national
congress? AS body they have been
college men, large numbers of them
having been taken from the learned
professions. In fact, | may say a lib
eral education is regarded by the
American people generally as an es-
sential qualification in candidates for
such offices. Even the college pro
lessor or president is beginning to be
looked upon as being capable of com.
bining high intellectual attachments
with the practical wisdom needed in a
chief executive.
AS for the priesthood and the relig
!, ious life, the laws and customs of the
Church from time immemorial have
made liberal education necessary