The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1916-03-10
What An Educated Person
Knows.


turer at the University Club OF
Chicago handed a hundred type
written sheets with twenty queS-
ions on them to a hundred men
in his audience, explaining that
if anyone present could answer
the questions correctly he might
consider himself an educated per-
son, but that otherwise he had
better go back and and take a
post graduate course for fear
that his college degree might re-
ceive the recall" One of the
more difficult questions-"Who
is Hugo Munsterberg "--would
be found much easier now, for
the Harvard professor of Ger
man birth so named has attract
ed wide attention during the past
year by his extraordinary state
ments, the last to be reported
being that after the war in Eu-
rope there will come a reorgani-
zation of the United States
which will "imbue the American
nation with German ideals"
But let us return to the Uni
versity Club of Chicago and the
college men who were "stumped"
by the lecturing professor.
Though all of the men present
boasted of a degree won at a uni
versity, forty-one of the hun
dred called on merely read the
questions and then gave them
up" The other forty-nine filled
out answers, but very few ac-
cording to the report published,
gave correct answers to half of
them and not one answered cor
rectly in every case. The ques-
tions were as follows:
1. Name of the vice president
of the United States. 2. Name
the treasurer of the United
States. 3. Name the conductor
of the New York Symphony Or.
chestra. a. Name the leader
of Tammany Hall. 5. Name
your congressman. 6. Who is
Hugo Munsterberg?. 7. Who
was Sir Christopher Wren. g..
Who is Ali Baba? 9. What is
the Pentateuch? 10. What is
q seismograph? II. What is a
clevis? II. How many justices
are there on the bench of the
supreme court? 13. Name five
of them. ii. Who said "The
child is the father of the man ?"
Is. Who said "The groves were
Gods first temples ?" 16. Who
said "Once more unto the breach,
dear friends. once more 2" II.
Who Is MOmmsen? 18. Who is
the president of the Lake Shore
10. What is the fourth
city in size in the United States d?
20. What is proposition?
One commenting and giblinp
newspaper editor doubted if any
member of congress or governor
of a state could answer these
questions correctly. He even
made bold the question whether
there was "a half dozen men in
the United States outside of ac.
tive college professors who could
offhand every one of
them" 1T is surprising that he
did not go further and add a
doubt as to the ability of sac.
tive college professors" to ans
Wer offhand in all cases, for the
of the average college
of our time is to be-
come a thoroughly equipped
specialist. not a library of uni
verSal information. No doubt
even the man who wrote these
questions could nave been trip
ped up at some point or points
i'll other similar lists prepared
behind his back.
educated person" must be able
to answer offhand every question
that is put to him is all wrong.
The really necessary qualifica-
tions of an educated man are Of
Il different character. Prelimin-
ary drill in sciences, languages
and literature may be properly
as a sine qua non, hut.
a retentive memory is by no
the hallmark of genius:
The walking encyclopedia" is
rarely man of unusual force
or intelligence. Such man
knows where To find q million