Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 174, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 July 1916 — Where Earning and Learning Go Hand in Hand [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Where Earning and Learning Go Hand in Hand

.All the young men and •women students at Blackburn college work their way to education. The plan is proving successful

BY ROBERT H. MOULTON

a 1 "“IHE boy is certainly making good; his grades are up in the nineties, he is an excellent cook, a first-class laundryman, and can plow more acres of land in a day than any other boy in college.” Rather a remarkable statement for a college president to make concerning a college student, yet hardly more remarkable than the institution which the student Is attending—Blackburn college at Carlinville, 111. Blackburn, as a matter of fact, occupies a position unique among Institutions of learning In this country. No other college, perhaps, is conducted along exactly the same lines. Its aim is to train young men to be not only scientific, but practical farmers, Inculcating in them at the same time a love of the soil, and to make of girls and young women practical housewives, who will be able to cook and sew, and to take care of a home. Also, and this is where the unique feature comes in, It is conducted upon a plan of self-help, whereby young men and women of the most limited means are afforded an opportunity to avail themselves of a standard college education. The plan has been tried only a year, but during this period it has proved so successful, literally knocking the high cost of living all to pieces, that the great problem next fall will be what to do with the students. .1 The charges for the year at Blackburn have been placed at SIOO, and three hours’ work per day at some sort of manual labor. This pays for a furnished room with steam heat and electric light, board and tuition. The first thing one is likely to say on hearing this Is, “It’s too cheap; It can’t be done.” That was exactly what the college trustees said when, after tailing Dr. William M. Hudson to the presidency, they listened to his revolutionary scheme for rejuvenating Blackburn. x But Doctor Hudson had some convincing figures out of his past experience. He was optimistic and persistent. So finally the trustees agreed they might as well try it for a year. “It may blow us up,” they said, “but better that than rotting down. At any rate, an explosion will attract more attention.” It was nearing the noon hour when I reached the little group of college buildings nestling In a grove of fine old elm and oak trees on the outskirts of CarUnvftle, and the president suggested that we would better go down and see the girls getting dinner. Here was something hew. In the present age, -when the average college girl spends a goodly portion of her time in social amenities and athletics, the Idea of students preparing their own . meals was decidedly novel. Yet there they were, a dozen of them, In school dresses covered with long white aprons, busily engaged In preparing a menu which ■ had been written on a blackboard ,ln the kitchen—* kitchen, by the way, as Immaculate as the mostexactlng housewife could desire.. This combination of earning and learning Is one of the unique features of Doctor Hudson’s plan. The young women get the theory of domestic science in the classroom and then put It Into practice Tn the kitchen. They do all the cooking, with the exception of a certain amount of help from some of the young men students. That they also do It scientifically and well was attested by the meal that followed a little later. This meal consisted of cream of tomato soup, roast beef, baked potatoes, creamed celery, bread and butter, tapioca and .cake, and there was an abundance of each. I made bold to ask if dinners like that were served every day. “Certainly,” replied Doctor Hudson. “It’s not a visitor’s menu by any means. We didn’t know you were coming, and if we had we would have gone along just the same." “And the cost?” I Inquired. For answer Doctor Hudson beckoned to Miss Sparks, the capable head of the domestic science department, who not only teaches the subject, but plans the various meals and figures down the cost to a quarter of a cent, not even omitting such small things as the flout, in the graty and the salt in the potatoes, and repeated my query. “The cost per capita for the materials," said Miss Sparks, “was a fraction under eight cents.” By way of making the lesson, more impressive, she added that the only other expense, since the students do all the cooking and serving, was for the fuel consumed in the range, an amount so small ghat it could hardly be figured rat as so much per

capita. Breakfasts and suppers usually cost less than the dinners, the average for the three meals per day being 21 cents. Having no help to pay or to feed, important items in figuring up the cost of serving food In most colleges, has played an important part in this economical showing. The self-help plan not only cuts down expenses, but gives the young women such a practical course in domestic science—part of the laboratory work is to prepare each week four new dishes In sufficient quantities to feed all the people in the dining hall—that they will be benefited by it all their lives. They not only, study domestic science, but do all of the work In their own rooms, the laundry work, etc., and at the end of four years they will come out able, and, It is expected willing, to do anything and solve any problem that is likely to confront a woman In the home. The president led the way to a window from which was visible a fine rolling stretch of farmland, part of which was ready for the planter. This is the college farm, consisting of 80 acres. Next fall the students will be fed from the product of that farm. Some of It, of course, will be fed to the cows, but they will produce milk for the college commons; some of it will be fed to the pigs, but they will be growing into meat all the time; and some of it will go directly to the kitchen. In this way-the young men supplement the work of the young women. They produce what is cooked, and are learning to be practical as well as theoretical farmers. All of the farm buildings are put up by the students under the direction of the farm superintendent They recently completed a poultry house which is a model of its kind. A huge barn and silo are soon to be started. As Doctor Hudson remarked, those boys are likely to be much better farmers than their fathers. Another unique feature at Blackburn is that the students know as little of the cost of high living as they do of the high cost of living. The college puts a han on smoking, drinking, and the other evils commonly found In the youth world. A boy must keep himself clean, If he belongs to the Blackburn college community. Two particularly Interesting students are foreigners, a bright-eyed little Jap and a curly-haired Persian. The Japanese student came to America to get an education, believing that all one needs to do is just to come here and after that everything is free. But he was disappointed in his dreams. He had planned to spend three years .here and then go home to found a. little school on the fundamental principles of Christianity. A friend in Japan had said that he would furnish the money as soon as the young man finished his education. So he tried a large state university. They were very sorry, but th'-y had so many American boys, and then he knew nothing about our language or customs. They didn’t see how they could do anything .for him. Then he went to a large endowed university, and the story was the same. Finally he heard of Blackburn and went there. The president asked him what he could do, and he said he believed he could cook. So he was put tn the kitchen and he works there three hours a day, assisting the young women. The other boy came all the way frcta Persia, with the same exalted notion of opportunity In America. He had received a little training in a hospital, but he wanted to be a real doctor and go home to his people as a medical missionary. He spent 14 months looking for a college that he could afford. A Persian doctor in Chicago directed him to Blackburn and he went right along and has' made a fine record. He is the head of the Sweeping force. *■ .. The students ,at Blackburn all work—three hours a day. ATI pay the same and work rhe same. It is a communism. They don’t pay so much per hour as most colleges do, but each std-

dent works the same time and pays the same amount They don’t pay him; he pays the college. He does not work for himself, but for the college. They believe, at Blackburn, that after young men and young women have spent four years working for the college, they will be better fitted for citizenship than if they had spent those years working for themselves. “There Is a lot more to our plan,” said Doctor Hudson, “than just helping young people to get through college who would not otherwise get there on account of the expense, but they are all side issues. That is our main object We are looking out for the young men and the young

women the other colleges have passed by, the great class of young people who are willing enough to work and hungry enough for an education to do almost anything to get it, if they only knew how to set about it. It Is not our purpose to help any student who ought to help himself, but simply to provide the means whereby he may secure an education when otherwise it would be impossible. “We are especially interested in the young women. It’s a stiff proposition for a young man to go away from home to get his living and his education at the same time, but It’s almost Impossible for his sister. That is why we are providing for the girls, too.” While the fixed charge at Blackburn is SIOO, that, of course, does not provide for everything. It costs the college a hundred more for each student, even after buildings have been provided. This is made up out of the endowment and the help that is received from time to time from generous friends of the cause.