Evening star., 1941-11-30

There is more certainty than news in
the fact that endowed education in the
United States. whether by university,
college or school, faces a precarious fu-
ture
Caught between the millstones of de-
clining interest rates and rising price
levels. the operating problems of these
institutions become steadily more diff
cult. Competition from State-controlled
education intensifies as the middle class,
always the bulwark Of private schools,
suffers the attrition of an infiationary
economy. The Federal security admins
traitor, Paul v McNutt, did not eXag
gerate when few weeks ago. he gave
warning that the university of tomor-
row must render service or die"
Substantial service has for many years
been rendered to their own graduates
by American universities and colleges
Its monetary value is noted in a recent
report on The U. S. College Graduate
published by the magazine Time. Sta
tistical evidence is offered indicating that
while college graduates amount to only
about per cent of the population. this
group contributes over tWo-thirds of all
those Americans with annual incomes
of $4,000 or over.
The cultural advantages inherent in.
q college education are usually conceded.
But in addition to these Intangible VAL
ues, the Time report concludes that col
lege graduates have incomes that are
well above the average, and may be as
high as double the average
Analysis of Service.
However, it is not so much the service
which higher education renders 10 its
beneficiaries. but that of these beneficl-
aries to society, which is called in ques-
ton. From the nature of the problem,
effective statistical information on social
service rendered by college graduates is
difficult to obtain. Yet it is obviously
important to have such information, If
this service is to be the criterion On
which the continued existence of insti-
tutions of higher learning depends.
Perhaps the most comprehensive an
alysis of service rendered to the COM
munity by college graduates is that COM
piled by the editors of who's Who In
America" Inclusion of an individual in
this standard work of biographical ref
erence is at least some indication of a
life devoted to general social advantage,
the more so since nobody can promote
himself into its columns by mere ma
terial success.
Tabulations prepared by Who's Who
for the editions of 1929 and l934-5
S,ow that in the earlier edition 73 63 per
cent of the names of those included were
college graduates, while in the latter
issue this percentage rose to 7473. The
percentages of those with no college
training were respectively 1491 and 1874.
Those with some college training. but who
failed to graduate, represented 1l46 per
cent in the earlier and 83 per cent in
the latter edition. this class completing
the tabulation IN both cases.
These statistics seem to confirm the
reasonable inference that college edu-
cation advances not merely the ability,
but also the desire, of the individual to
be of service to mankind And. so far
as the fragmentary data provide basis
for Judgment, this combined ability and
desire on the part of alumni seems to be
increasing.
Could Do More.
One may justifiably conclude that by
and large the colleges are adequately
serving their students; that these stu
dents, as alumni, are in return paying
large dividends of serving back to the
community and that the colleges are
therefore, at least indirectly, performing
the function which Mr.. McNutt and
many others regard as essential for their
continued existence.
Nevertheless. in the minds of many re-
sponsible for educational administration,
there remains an uneasy feeling that the
colleges, and particularly the endowed
colleges, are not doing enough in this
period of grave emergency for civiliza-
ton. There are many who think that
the contribution of the colleges should
be made more distinctively by the edu-
cational institution itself.
Among the many interesting endeavors
springing from this sense of obligation,
the so-called Civilian Morale Service
sponsored by the United States Office of