South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-02-15
Youths Earn Pride
Of Their Elders
Number of Students Working
Way Through Columbia
Refute Fallacy That Young
er Generation is Lacking
in Steiner Virtues.
BY Woods Hutchinson. VI. ID.

The Worlds Foremost Writer on
Medical Subjects.
Not the least interesting feature
in the recently published annual re-
port Of Columbia university was the
list. with details, of the students
within its walls who are working
their own way through collegde. If
anyone has "a doubt as 10 whether
the college students OF today are
serious" a glance at this section OF
the report ought 70 cheer him up
greatly. IL is really impressive, not to
say surprising, TO learn of the num-
Der Of students who during the past
year have earned their own way
in whole or in part and whose aver
age earnings were $225.OO apiece.
This is the more noteworthy, be-
cause by early association and famil-
iarity we have come TO unconscious
ly regard earning your own way as a
special if not exclusive feature Of
rustic fresh-water colleges. state uni
versities or small UNCONVENTIONAL
schools on leafy campuses in country
towns. Currying the presidential
horse, milking the PROFESSIONAL COW.
shaking DOWN the local magnate's
furnace are the images that rise in
our minds. To find this whole regi-
ment of eager-eyed youngsters work
| ing their own way through the larg-
est university in the world, in the
heart OF Americas greatest metro
arfc 10 f-
| flying.
TOday's Youth Serious.
our first reaction is one of pride
and admiration for the pluck, the
ambition. the cheerful sacrifice of
these hundreds OF young boys and
| girls, and we have a right 10 be
/ proud of them. Moreover, this glow
of pride is markedly for our souls
good. for all the baseless delusions
| Of incipient dotage, the most un-
4 founded is the wall which we par
ents and middle ayers are prone to
emit in moments of depression about
! over the frivOlity the lack of seri-
BUSINESS. the unwillingness to do any
| thing they don't like, the lack Of
moral fibre and the sterner virtues.
not TO mention the disrespectfulness
and disobedience, of the boys and
girls of today
The only basis for it is the short
| ness of our memories and the huge
ness of our self-conceit, our genuine
and irrepressible fear Lest Exist
ence, closing your account and mine
/ shall know the like no more"
Never was youth so thoughtful and
serious in the very few matters
about which it is desirable tina
youth should be serious. never w
its will to work so keen, so INTEL
| gent, so irrepressible as now. NeVe
were it's sports, its amusemen'ts. il
| fun as clean and whole hearted auC
wholesome. as free from faint of dis
| sipatiOn. of vulgarity, of cruelty a.
! today.
! Instead of worrying over the i'm
I agined degeneracy of the rising gen
! Grafton, the thought that ought
| really TO keep us awake at night ia
what our sons and daughters and
nephews and nieces will think of us
and our precious moral standards
when they are old enough TO be
taken into partnership and the led
/ gers are opened TO them and all our
trade secrets of ey-making, our
tortuous and astounding codes of
/ professional ethics. our shufflings
and evasions in matters OF taxation
and our petty thieveries. called Gus
toms of the trade, exposed.
Certain whole occupations and
/ D. L. %
garded as most lucrative and re-
spectacle. il on a large enough scale
such as real estate speculation. food
cornering. liquor selling, gambling
whether Wall street or green table;
the practice of criminal law. garbage
picking. stock jobbing, etc. are in
serious danger Of falling into decay
in the near future. because the boys
who are now growing up are too
/ clear-eye6 and decent and socially
minded 10 be attracted by them and
their tainted profits.
Burden is Unjust.
We may well be proud of the boys
and girls who. by thousands all over
this country. are pluckily facing the
strain and hardships of working
their own way through college and
the high school. But we have no
right 70 be anything but ashamed
of the conditions which render this
strain and burden necessary. how
ever pluckily and cheerfully under
/ taken and borne In this great. rich
and prosperous country OF ours.
/ whose pos SEES sions mount up into
/ the trillions and whose yearly in
/ come is counted in billions. with ST.
\ $50 available every year for every
/ family i'm the land. il is a disgrace
/ TO impose any burden upon any
Of its children under eighteen. save
that Of growing up as whclesomely
as vigorously, as happily and as far
/ both mentally and physically. as is
born in them and can he made
1 humanely possible.
A long step has been taken in the
right direction by the establishment
Of our magpificent system OF free
education at public expense. from
+ the "primariest" bench OF the coun-
/ try schoolhouse up 10 the most high
! ~ specialized department Of the pro-
fessional school in the State dniver-