The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-09-28
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY e. HOUSE.
(From Phiiadeiphia Public LedgsrJ
Thoughts on ColleA Life.


There is for the moment, a lot of
talk in the papers about the higher
education and who should be per-
mitted to assimilate it We regard the
discussion as unimportant but, be-
fore we plunge into it. we wish to say
| that our reactions to the higher edu-
Ication are all favorable. College train
ling would have meant much to us. We
| learned tor play poker by the light of
a smudged lantern which pierced very
imperfectiy the bosky shadows of a
dusty haymow. In summer the-hay-
l{how was too hot; in winter it was too
cold. The SURROUNDINGS, too, were
conducive to eyestrain. When one
drew to a green" flush il often was
difficult to tell whether the fifth card
was a heart or a diamond. In that
company one had to keep his hand
we'll covered Had we gone to col
Ilege we might have learned to play
poker in a comfortable frat" house.
At the worst we should have learned
the game in warm and well-lighted
| environment We didn't begin the
factive reduction of the visible supply
of smoking tobat CO until we were
twenty-five or twenty-three Had we
gone to college we should have begun
smoking by the time we were nine
teen. We lost two or three very pre-
cious years there.
This column is in thoro accord with
President Hopkins, of Dartmouth, in
his contention that college training
lshoufd be restricted to those who arr
likely to derive some benefit from it
That is to say, If any restriction is
necessary. College is for the hick
Amy agency which tends to mitiga t5
the hick, or reduce his numbers, is OF
great social and economic value. The
Iyoung man who grows UP in cultured
land sophisticated surroundings has nj
burning need of the higher education
He can get along pretty well without
it. Any Institution which can take q
hick and in four years, transform hin
into an alert and sophisticated either
rs tremendous asset to civilization
A college-almost any college-can d.
that. Had we gone to college W.
should have got in four years. anC
virtually for nothing, the polish anC
lsophistication which ten or fifteet
Years of patient effort and the ex
lily were necessary to acquire. Had W.
gone to college probably we never
would have been guilty of tbs
gaucherie of wearing a fancy blue
waistcoat and a rose-colored crava'
coincidentaily- We did that once a
a football game and the college com
nudity in which the indiscretion was
committed pulsated with the shame
\ OF it.
The higher institution of learning
with which we are most familiar i:
a state university. Since we used Il
llecture to its class in Journalism, it i.
also the one in which we have tht
keenest personal interest. One young
man who sat under the drippings o.
that elective ordeal now is pres
agent in New York The others have
acquitted themselves creditably-no
so well, perhaps, as the young MAI
in New York, but ,creditably. Tina
university has been the most effective
and ameliorating influence its STATE
has known It has given distinction
to the body polite. Any stranger car
and pick out the "old grads. IT.
course in sartoriaI investiture has
penetrated and influenced the mos
remote communities of the common
wealth. One can drop casually into
the most obscure hamlet and pick VI
the trail. For no communal back
water ever assembled to watch q
sophomore from the state universit.
descend from the ABB train, CARRIED ir
the regalia of his rank, leading a bull
dog with one hand and carrying g
ukukele in the other, without being
visib1y impressed and improved by
the spectacle.
We have watched young men WHIT
had never known nightshirt go away
to the university in september chew
ing a wooden toothpick. We have
seen them come home ror the Christ
mas holidays with silk pajamas in
their new kit bag. Bill Hedges was
one of these. We ate dinner with
Bills folks on Sunday before he went
away to school. He was so excited
he could hardly keep the peas on his
knife When he came home for the
Christmas holidays he was using Z
fork for everything. When he ran
down for the Easter vacation he had