The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-05-31
Urges Pupils to Stay
In School Next Fall

F..
An urgent appeal to pupils to re-
main in high school next rail- as a
patriotic duty has been issued by DR..
P. P. Claxton, United States Commits
s1oner of Education. DIR. Claxton
points out that there are in the high
schools of the United States this year
more than one and one-half millions
Of boys and girls, and somewhat more
than 100000 of them Will graduate
this month and next. In an ordinary
year 10000 or more of these would
next fall enter college, normal school
or technical school to be prepared for
such service to society, state and ma
ton as can be rendered only by those
who have received education beyond
that which the, high schools can give.
He says ''many college presidents and
others fear that on account of our
entrance into the war few boys and
girls will enter college next fall and
that the total college attendance will
be very small. The number ought
however, to be- much larger than u.s.
ual.
The more mature young men are
| the more serviceable they are in the
| army. The selective draft will take
| only those BETWEEN twenty-one and
thirty. In the total of 100000
people of productive age in the Uni
ted States the $4,000 students in col
leges and normal schools and technic-
al and vocational school of high grade
constitute only about one-half of one
per cent. More than nalf of these
live in cities and cannot be employed
in agricultural production except as
a few of them may find work on the
farms during the summer. Their GO
ing to college will not lower the pro-
ductive capacity of the country as a
whole in any appreciable degree The
colleges, normal schools, and technic-
al schools will all be open with I'M
diminished income from public funds
and endowments, and the expense of
their maintenance will continue. 1t is
| quite probable that many of the older
students will not return next fall and
the higher classes will be smaller
than usual. The graduates from the
high schools should see to it that the
lower classes more than make up for
this deficiency.
This appeal is made on the basis
of patriotic duty. If the war should
be long the country will need all the
trained men and women it can get
many more than it now has. There
will be men in abundance to fight in
the trencneS Out there Will be
dearth of officers, engineers, and men
of scientific knowledge and skill in
all the industries, in transportation
and in many other places where skill
and daring are just as necessary for
success as in the trenches. The first
call of the allies is for $4,000 engin.
GERS and skilled men to repair the
| railroads of France and England; and
other thousands will be needed later
Russia will probably want thousands
of men to repair and build her rail
| roads. The increase in transporta-
| ton and the tax on our wn roads will
| call for large numbers of men of the
same kind. New Industrial plants
shipyards, and our armies abroad viii
call for highly trained men beyond
all possible supply unless our college.
and technical schools remain ope1
l and increase their attendance ant
output.
when the war is over there will
be made upon us such demands 70,
men and women of knowledge ant
training as have never before come tt
any country. There will be equal neet
for a much higher average of genera
Intelligence for citizenship than ha,
been necessary until now. The worlt
| will have to be rebuilt and America
college men and women must assum
a. large part of the task In all in
/ ternational affairs we must play ;