The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1921-04-22
o EDUCATION


~. -. - .
Thirty years ago in, its advertise
ments for students, it was stated that
the necessary expenses of attending
Erskine> College for a,year. was one,
hundred and sixty-fve dollars. That
was q good while ago, and things have
changed in many respects since that
time. :: .~4 E,..:i!
/" Perhaps if, you looked through the
catalogues Of all the colleges of the
state, you might find that a student
may still attend Erskine College for
a smaller amount than will enable
him to attend any other college in
the state. And yet we suspect that it
will be found that the necessary ex-
penses of a year Of college training
at Erskine is twice as much as it
was thirty years ago.
3 There are a good many reasons
why this is true. Board and lodging
are much higher today than at that
time. We believe that the board and
lodging at Erskine College today,
even in the dormitory, will cost a.
student more than all the college ex-
penses of former days. It has been
said that the professors of a half
century ago became rich OF their
salaries of six hundred dollars per
year, while we know that at the pres
emit salaries of two thousand dollars,
the professors at Erskine College are
the poorest paid of all the educators
in the state. But the students must
Of course contribute to the increase
of these salaries even though they
are small. The other expenses of the
college have multiplied. Books are
higher. There are more organizations
to be supported and the fees and
charges are larger.
In some of the colleges of the
state we suspect that the necessary
expenses of college life, including
necessary wearing apparel and other
necessary expenses, run to twelve
hundred or even fifteen hundred dol
lars each year.
From these facts we should learn
that the colleges must be better
supported than they have been in the
past or they cannot be expected to
do the work they have done in the
past. Erskine College, fifty years ago,
had an endowment of some eighty
thousand dollars. The people were
contented to let the matter go at
that, and for years nothing was done
to. increase the amount of this en-
>dowment. The Woman's College at
Due West had no endowment, and
for half a century it did a fairly good
work without capital, except the CAPT
tai of faithful men and women who
worked for the cause Of Christian
education. But of late years the Sc
ceders, like all other Christian peo-
Piles, have been doing better. And
unless the expenses of college life
may be expected to continue to in
crease with the advancing years
there must be a continued increase
in the endowment funds of our col
leges. .~
There are those it is. true, who
think we are getting too much edu-
cation, but the man of the first grade
thinks that Of his neighbor' who
passed the fifth. A college which is to
take rank asa college must keep up
with the best of the schools of it's
class. Its Instructors and professors
must be given the advantages that
are given to the instructors and pro-
fessors in other colleges. 1t takes
money to do thi. and it takes money
to pay men of this class. They will
not always be found willing to work
for a mere pittance of what other
men of less calibre and Of less at
tainments receive. They desire to ed
ucate their own children, and them
selves to have some of the comforts
and emoluments of life. The college
which fails to see these things and
! which fails to prepare to follow the
procession may not expect to receive
patronage along with the institutions