Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1912 — College Education [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

College Education

Demand for Trained Men Greater Than Supply

By MADISON C. PETERS

N 1791 Daniel Webster’s father, who was a captain under Gen. ■'John Stark in the Revolutionary war, was made a judge of the local court at a salary of about $350. This success turned his attention to giving his children that which he had irretrievably lost —an education. Such was the genius of the new institutions to which our independence gave rise and so, great was the controlling power'of the people in political affairs, through the elective franchise, that it was apparent to all thoughtful men ' that general intelligence among the masses of the people was essential to the healthful "working and the perpetuity of the

new form of government. Not only therefore (lid state legislatures and the municipal officers of the various towns give special consideration to educational matters, but men of wealth, under the influence of patriotism, contributed freely of their own private funds for the endowment of schools and colleges. When Daniel Webster was fourteen years of age his father took him to Exeter academy. Daniel’s education was determined upon because of the fear that the heavy work of a farmer would be, too severe a task for Daniel, who was weakly as a boy, and Daniel was sent to school that, according to the custom of the times, he could teach school in winter and work on the farm, if his health allowed, in the summer. After a year at Exeter he was sent to the school of Rev. Samuel Wood, who prepared boys for college at one dollar a week for tuition and board. It was while on their way to Mr. Wood’s that Daniel’s father first held out to him the hope of sending him to college, an advantage Daniel had never aspired to in his most ambitious moments. Daniel wept from excessive joy. How different were his feelings from those of many at the present day, who when the privilege of a college education is offered them, regard the proposition as an affliction so great that they cry from sorrow. The golden opportunity thpy throw away and when too late to repair the disaster deeply regret their folly. . k You will not always be boys. In a few years you must take your place among men and in order to be qualified to exert much influence over them you must know something. Every boy now in school, every young man now in college is placed in an enviable position; by rightly improving his advantages he will qualify himself to occupy important positions. If you would have your opinions respected, your advice sought, and hope to be looked to to fill places of trust, you must be educated. Who would have supposed that the puny, awkward, backwoods lad, in homespun clothes and rustic manners, who was made the object of ridicule, would astonish mankind with his eloquence, settle through the skillfulness, of his diplomacy some of the most difficult problems of international government and attain

an eminence immeasurably higher than any official distinction within the gift of the people ? It is no more unlikely now that you may acquire distinction than it was in his case when he was pf your age. Mere money makers can succeed without education. But money making is not the highest kind of success. The demand for thoroughly trained men today is greater than the supply. The best jobs go begging for the right men to fill them.