Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1895 — A COLLEGE COURSE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A COLLEGE COURSE.

Its Value to Young Men Discussed By Dr. Depew. How much of practical value is to be got from a college course by a young man about to engage in business or a profession has always been, and will continue to be, a mooted question. It is generally understood that Chauncey M. Depew believes in the modern university, and that he is in about as close sympathy with the college student to-day as when he was himself a student at Yale. But while Mr. Depew believes that the college bred young man has much the better chance in the race of life, still he does not consider the college training of these times altogether faultless. In a recent interview in the New York Herald Mr. Depew says“ln one respect the graduates of 1895 are far behind those of 1855. Few of the boys who will leave college this year will be good talkers. They may be as good thinkers as those who were gradually four decades ago—better, for all I know. They may be able to grasp business and scientific problems as readily, but they will not be nearly so capable of telling what they know or what they think as the older chaps. Why ? Because of the decline of the debate as a means of training. There were debating societies in college when I was a student, and all the brightest men belonged and took part in the discussion. Nowadays few college students would think of stooping so low as to belong to a debating society or of engaging in a set discussion of any problem I regard this as a national calamity, which, however, is mitigated to some extent by the fact that, while the debating club has been practically abandoned by the college boy, it has been taken up by the workingman, who, by its use, as he could by no other means, is clarifying his mental vision as to certain matters. “As to the advantage of a college training in everyday business and professional life,’’ Mr. Depew went on, “there is to say, in the aggregate, indeed, a great many of them, who seem to get through life as well without the knowledge and training acquired at a college as if a full course had been taken. Yet it is my opinion that these men, even those of marked success, would have done better had they been college

trained. They might not have risen higher, but the riso would probably have been easier, and, on the whole, more satisfactory to them. To the average man the college course is extremely valuable. It teaches him how to use his mental powers; how to reason from cause to effect and back again; how to concentrate his engines; how to adapt himself quickly to suddenly changed conditions. Whoever would succeed in real life must get his training somehow, and in my judgment it is better to get it in college than while ‘sweeping out the office.’ II the ‘ sweeper out' gets ahead of the college boy in business, in his profession, or in public affairs, depend upon it, it is because of superior native ability, harder work or greater endurances. It is in spite of the lack of college training, not because of it. I know that as a rule the great corporations of to-day choose heads of departments mostly from the ranks of college graduates holding subordinate places, not because of the mere possession of diplomas by the graduates, but because the college man so often displays more ability, sounder reasoning, better judgment and quicker decision. But the young man who cannot get to college should not be discouraged by this state of things—he should work and study all the harder. “As a matter of fact,” continued the speaker, “almost any young man who really wishes to do so can go to college. It is as easy to work your way through now as it ever was, “Physical training? Ido not believe it is overdone except in a few cases—so few, indeed, as to be hardly worth considering. There are some in every college class who carry athletics and gymnastics to the extreme. But for the mass, I believe the present system has wrought wonders. When I went to college few students took physical exercise at all, and beyond an occasional farmer’s son, who had developed his bones by pitching hay and walking in the furrow behind the plow, most students were Bible-backed and hol-low-chested. Now, however, it is not so. The average college graduate of to-day has a broad and deep chest and plenty of muscle, and stands up traight. He is physically superior to most men he meets, and his extra bodily strength will be found to be o,f substantial advantage through life. If the young college man of to-day only knew how to talk he would be invincible.”

CHAUNCY M. DEPEW.