C -r VOL VIII, NO. I JANUARY, I907 BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI THE Success of the College Graduate BY J. C. JONES, Ph. D., Dean of the Academic Department and Professor of Latin, University of Missouri Entered April 12, 1902, at Columbia, Missouri, as Second-class Matter, under Act OF Congress OF July 16, 1894. University of Missouri COLUMBIA, MO. Oldest State University west of the Mississippi river. Buildings, Grounds, Books, and other equip- ment valued at $2,000,000. Annual Income equivalent to the interest at 5 per cent on $10,000,000. 180 Officers and Teachers, 2,307 Students in 1906-07. One of the Most Rapidly Growing Universities in the United States. In less than six years the enrollment has in- creased 130 per cent. The percentage of increase in 1906-07 over 1905-06 was greater, with one excep- tion, at the University of Missouri than in any simi- lar institution in the entire country (From the Boston Transcript). ELEVEN DEPARTMENTS Academic or College of Liberal Arts, Missouri Teachers College, College of Agriculture and Me- chanic Arts, Department of Law, Department of Medicine, Department of Engineering, Agricultural Experiment Station, Department of Journalism, Mis- souri State Military School, Graduate Department, and the Department of Mines and Metallurgy (at Rolla). TUITION FREE For further information address, MERRILL OTIS, University Publisher Columbia, Missouri The Success of the College Graduate. A review of our political history will show tliat the aid furnished by a college education is such as to increase one's chances of election or appointment to office from thirty-six to eighty-five times; that in a population in which the college graduates form hut a little more than one per cent., fifty-five per cent, of the Presidents, more than fifty per cent, of the Cabinet officers, and more than eighty-five per cent, of the Justices of the Supreme Court have come from this class. It will be interesting to push the investigation further and to inquire into the relative success of the graduate and the non-graduate, not in attaining office, but in performing successfully the duties after the office has been secured. This is absolutely necessary to make the results of this investiga- tion overwhelmingly convincing to all classes of people. There are those who see in the graduate's success in securing influ- ential positions only the success of money or family, or of both. There are others who would ascribe it to the graduate's superior advantages, which are in no manner due to the men- tal discipline he has undergone. Such skeptics can be con- vinced only by presenting the relative success in office of the graduate and the non-graduate. For this purpose, the century of our national life affords a fair field ; and since it is clearly impossible in the space of one paper to consider all classes of offices, let our investiga- tions bei confined to our national legislature. For this pur- pose, let us divide the century roughly into four quarters, and then let us inquire who were the most influential men in shaping the affairs of our nation and what was the proportion of college graduates. The percentage of college graduates in both houses of Congress is at present a trifle over thirty-six, and this per- centage has increased in the House in the last thirty years from thirty-two to thirty-six, and decreased in the Senate from forty-six to thirty-six and three-tenths. It is manifestly impossible to do more than roughly approximate the peroent- 3 4 SOUTHERN EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. age of graduates in Congress during the century. Perhaps it would be near the truth to put the average in the House at thirty-four and in the Senate at forty-one, making a general average in both of 37.5. Then, any excess in the percentage of successful college graduates in Congress over these averages must be ascribed to the advantages arising from their college training. In determining who were the prominent and influential men in Congress during the period chosen for investigation, it is necessary to have some reliable and impartial guide. For this purpose. The American Congress by John West Moore (^ew York, 1895) has been selected. In the first Congress, the important men were Elbridge Gerry, Fisher Ames, Jonathan Trumbull, Eufus King, all graduates of Harvard; James Madison, Wm. Paterson, Ol- iver Ellsworth, graduates of Princeton; Frederick A. Muhl- enberg, educated in Germany, and Charles Carroll, educated in France. Both of these men should be put down among the graduates, for they had the training which the colleges furnish. The prominent non-graduates were John Langdon, George Clymer, Pierce Butler and Elias Boudinot. Out of a total of thirteen prominent men, seven are college gradu- ates, and nine deserve to be so classed. That is, while the colleges supplied less than forty per cent, of the whole num- ber of members of the first Congress, they furnished seventy per cent, of the prominent and influential ones. Even if Charles Carroll and Frederick A. Muhlenberg are placed among the non-graduates, there still remains the striking fact that the graduates contributed nearly fifty-four per cent, of the leaders. During the first quarter of the century many able men sat in Congress. The list of leaders in thought and influence contains fourteen names. Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster, later known as the great triumvirate, were members of Congress during this period. ^'Then there was Rufus King, of l^ew York, who for forty years was con- spicuous in the public service. Mention should also be made of Wm. B. Giles of Virginia, an accomplished debater, SUCCESS OF THE COLLEGE GRADUATE. 5 who served in Congress for fourteen years; of John Holmes, of Maine, an eloquent ^ ": witty man, who was for sixteen years in the House and Senate ; of Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts, an able legislator of scholarly attain- ments and forcible speech ; f John Forsyth, the talented Georgian, who was noted for Lis elegance of manner as well as for his statesmanship; of Albert Gallatin, the very capable Swiss- American, who was a Kepresentative from Pennsylva- nia, and afterwards Secretary of the Treasury ; and of George McDuffie of South Carolina, an eloquent speaker and earnest champion of Southern institutions." {The American Con- gress, pp, 247-248.) It is certainly a striking fact, that every member of Congress mentioned above because of his great services, was a college graduate, with the exception of Henry Clay and Wm. B. Giles. Calhoun was a graduate of Yale ; Webster of Dartmouth; King and Quincy of Harvard; Forsyth of Princeton; Holmes of Brown; McDuffie of South Carolina College, and Albert Gallatin of the University of Geneva. Giles was a student at Hampden-Sidney and Princeton, but did not complete the course. To the list of distinguished men of this period must be added Thomas Benton of Missouri, and l^athaniel Macon of ■N'orth Carolina. Both of these men had enjoyed the training of the college — Benton of the University of l^orth Carolina, and Macon at Princeton. Of the fourteen leading statesmen in Congress during the first quarter, eight were college graduates — nearly sixty per cent, of the whole number — while all but three had col- lege training. The prominence of the college graduate is all the more conspicuous when it is remembered that the per- centage of college graduates in Congress at this time was probably not above thirty-six or thirty-seven. During the second quarter of the century there was even a more brilliant company of orators and statesmen in Con- gress than during the first quarter, and a larger number de- serving of mention for conspicuous ability. The prominent Democrats were Silas Wright, Levi Woodbury, Robert J. Walker, William L. Marcy, Lewis Cass, Isaac Hill, James Buchanan, James K. Polk, Andrew Johnson, Stephen A. 6 SOUTHERN EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. Douglas, Franklin Pierce, Daniel S. Dickinson, Kobert B. Rhett, John C. Calhoun, William Allen, John P. Hal© and Thomas H. Benton. The leading Whigs (or National Re- publicans) were William C. Hives, Tristam Burges, Ser- geant S. Prentiss, John Tyler, Henry A. Wise, Millard Fill- more, John M. Clayton, Thomas Ewing, George Evans, Thomas Corwin, William P. Mangum, Abraham Lincoln, John J. Crittenden, Caleb Cushing, Robert C. Winthrop, Ed- ward Everett, John Macpherson Berrien, Reverdy Johnson, John Bell, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and John Quincy Adams. In this list are thirty-nine names. Twenty-flvei of them are the names of college graduates^ — sixty-four and one- tenth per cent. The percentage of college graduates among the promi- nent men in Congress during the century's second quarter is amazing, since it is almost double that of thei percentage of graduates in the whole number of members. Cbuld any more striking illustration of the value of college training be fur- nished ? It means nothing less than this : A college educa- tion incrieases a man's chances of getting into Congress thirty- six times., and then when he has won this honor, as if enough had not been done, it aids him still further by nearly doub- ling his chances of becoming an influential member. The large number and the wide distribution of the col- leges represented attest the growth of higher education beyond the confines of l^ew England. Four New England colleges furnished all but two of the prominent congressmen during the first quarter. Fourteen colleges furnished those of the second, as follows: Bowdoin 4; Harvard 4; Dartmouth 2; Brown 2 ; University of North Carolina 2 ; Yale 2 ; Middle- bury College 1 ; University of Pennsylvania 1 ; Dickinson College 1; Washington Cbllege 1; University of Ohio 1; Princeton 1 ; Cumberland College (now University of Nash- ville) 1. During the third quarter, which includes the period of the Civil War and of Reconstruction, the important and dif- ficult questions to be settled brought intoi Congress a large number of men of pre-eminent ability. The leading anti-slav- ery men in Congress were Charles Sumner, a graduate of SUCCESS OF THE COLLEGE GRADUATE. 7 Harvard, William H. Seward, a graduate of Union College, Salmon P. Chase, a graduate of Dartmoutli College, and Joshua E. Giddings, a non-graduate. Arrayed against these men as leaders of the pro-slavery party were Jefferson Davis, a graduate of West Point, Robert Toombs, a graduate of Union College, Alexander H. Stephens, a graduate of Frank- lin College (now University of Georgia), and John C. Breek- enridge, a graduate of Centre College (Kentucky). Is it pure chance that of these eight acknowledged leaders during the most momentous period in our history all except one are college graduates ? Is it not more rational to assume that it was the mastery over self which they had acquired in their college training, which fitted them to be teachers and leaders of men ? Other very prominent and influential statesmen of this period were Thaddeus Steviens, a graduate of Dartmouth, Thomas A. Hendricks, a graduate of Hanover College, and William Pitt Fessenden, a graduate of Bowdoin. There were also valuable men who were not graduates : Simon Cameron, Oliver P. Morton, student at Miami University, Elihu B. Washburn, student at Harvard, Henry Wilson, Schuyler Col- fax, Lyman Trumbull, head of an Academy in Georgia at twenty, and Benjamin F. Wade, also a school teacher, enticed away by the charms of political life, were statesmen of power, ability and untiring devotion to duty. Yet the leaders who were college graduates form nearly sixty per cent, of the whole number and that, too, in a body in which thie percent- age of college graduates was certainly less than forty. From 1870 to 1885 the list of illustrious statesmen in Congress as laid down in The American Congress, contains forty names. Seventeen of these — forty-two and five-tenths per cent — are the names of college graduates. The percent- age of college graduates among the prominent men is smaller than that of any quarter, and yet it exceeds that of the per^ centage of graduates in the whole number of congressmen by six or seven points. Though the excess is small, it indicates that the college graduate has yet an advantage. Two facts which appear in an examination of the above list deserve to be emphasized. First, the large number of 8 SOUTHERN EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION college trained men in the list who are not graduates. !N'ot less than nine of the twienty-three non-graduates had more or less of the advantages afforded by the colleges and univer- sities. The second striking fact is, that of the fifteen colleges and universities represented by their graduates, only two of those of the first rank are represented, Columbia and Har- vard, and each of those by but a single representative. It may be interesting to know the colleges and universities represent- ed. They are as follows: Washington College (Pa.), Brown, Williams, Hamilton, Kenyon, Columbia, Harvard, De Pauw, Indiana University, University of !N'orth Carolina, Centre (Ky.), Rutger, Bowdoin, Virginia Military Institute, Emory (Ga.). The mere mention of some of the names of the college graduates in Congress during the period under consideration will show that they are the names of the leaders, of men who directed in large measure the course of public affairs, and who exerted a profound and lasting influence upon our national life. There was Henry B. Anthony, called the "Father of the Senate," because of his long and distinguished service; James G. Blaine, regarded by many persons as the ablest statesman in public life at that time; James A. Garfield, a scholar and an able and impressive debater; Samuel S. Cox, an energetic legislator, whose services in Congress extended through many years; Joseph R. Hawley, who, as Chairman of the Committee on Civil Service, "vigorously promoted the enactment of civil service measures; Daniel W. Voorhees, fa- miliarly called the "tall sycamore of the Wabash ;- ' Abram S. Hewitt, to whom the Geological Survey owes its existence; Wm. M. Springer, an earnest, energetic and able representa- tive ; George F. Hoar, a scholarly man of much influence, and L. Q. C. Lamar, who, both as Eepresentative and Senator, maintained that the Southern States "were bound both by interest and duty to look to the general welfare and support the honor and credit of a common country." It is best to close the review of the century at this point. The difficulties which beset any attempt to extend the inves- tigation down to the present are apparent. It is altogether likely that many persons would place upon the list of leading Congressmen during the century names which are not found SUCCESS OF THE COLLEGE GRADUATE. g in the lists treated here, and omit some that do occur. Yet there can be no doubt that any fair list would disclose ex- actly the same results as have been reached in this article. The preneminence of the college graduate among the distin- guishd men of both House and Senate would undoubtedly be shown. Statistics testify to the increasing influence of the college graduate in our national affairs. For example, from 1789 to 1841, a period of fifty-two years, the college graduates among the Justices of the Supreme Court were just 50 per cent, of the whole number; from 1841 to 1900, a period of fifty-nine years, the graduates form nearly 8Y per cent, of the whole number. During the first period — fifty-two years — the Presidents who were graduates were but 50 per cent, of the whole number; while during the second period — fifty- nine years — they form nearly 60 per cent, of all persons chosen to the Presidency. In the House of Representatives, thirty years ngo, the college graduates formed 32 per cent of the whole number; now they form about 36 per cent. This becomes even more striking, if we confine our ex- amination to some of the newer States. For example, only seven of the Governors of Missouri are college graduates, 26 per cent, of the whole; but if we take the eighty years of Missouri's history and divide it into two parts, one part be- ing the fifty years prior to 1870, and the other the thirty years subsequent, we shall get some interesting results. Dur- ing the first period, the percentage of college graduates among the governors is not quite six; during the second period the percentage is sixty-six and six-tenths. These figures are very significant, and mean that the graduate's chances of election as governor have increased amazingly in the last quarter of a century. While in the first half century of the history of the State, the graduate stood only six chances to the non- graduate's one, in the last quarter the graduate's chances have been nearly sixty-seven times those of the non-graduate. In new countries a man's chief dependence is upon the powers bom in him ; but as States or nations advance in civil- ization and increase in population, opportunity becomes so small and competition so fierce that wei need to cultivate to 10 SOUTHERN EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. the uttermost our native powers. As opportunity grows less and competition sterner, education becomes more important. Europe has already reached the position toward which we are traveling fast, where college training is almost necessary to success. Let us now turn aside from the consideration of the col- lege graduate in politics to inquire briefly into his success in other fields of endeavor. In medicine, the leaders in thought, the men who are pushing their investigation into fields here- tofore unexplored, the successful physicians, are college-bred men. Statistics show that only one physician in twenty is a college graduate — just ^yq per cent.; but this ^Ye per cent, furnishes fifty per cent, of the successful physicians, while the ninety-five per cent, of non-graduates furnishes the other fifty per cent. Perhaps it becomes more striking when it is said, that from every group of fiYe graduates comes one successful physician, and just the same number from a group of ninety- fivei non-graduates. The success of the college graduate in the church is strik- ingly illustrated by the bishops of the Episcopal church in the United States, and by those of the Methodist Episcopal church. There are. eighty bishops of the Episcopal church. Of that number three are unknown, leaving seventy-seven. Sixty-two of these are college graduates — over eighty per cent. In both branches of the Methodist Episcopal church there are thirty bishops. Of these, two are unknown, leaving twenty-eight. Nineteen of these are college graduates — nearly seventy per cent. It is difficult to determine with exactness the per centage of graduates among the ministers of these two churches; but it is safe to conclude from statistics at hand that it is far below that found among the bishops, which fact illustrates vividly the pre-eminence of the college graduate in the church. There is scarcely a position of note in college or uni- versity that is held by a non-graduate, and when such is the case it attracts much attention. In the business of teaching, competition has become so fierce and the demands of the col- leges so high that one must be more than a graduate to secure even a subordinate place. It was formerly not uncommon SUCCESS OF THE COLLEGE GRADUATE. ii for the leader of his class immediately upon graduation to assume the position of teacher in his alma mater. Such a thing is now absolutely unknown, even in second rank col- leges and universities. Scores of the American professors are graduates not only of colleges or universities at home, hut of those of Germany, England and France. It cannot he denied that in literature some men have at- tained eminent success upon whom no college has set its seal of approval; hut that proves nothing; and the fact still re- mains that the great names in American literature are the names of college graduates. Hawthorne and Longfellow are graduates of Bowdoin ; Webster, of Dartmouth ; Harvard has given us Lowell, Holmes, Dana, Motley, Bancroft, Prescott and Emerson. Cooper is not less the son of Yale because his defiance of academic restraints forced her to thrust him from her breast ; and Bryant surely owes something to the inspira- tion received during his two years at Williams. The success of the collegei graduate in business remains to be considered, and this will be the last point treated. It is often said that the boy who is going into business need not trouble himself about a college education ; but this is a griev- ous error. To conduct a great business requires a man of as well-trained powers as to conduct any great enterprise, and the man who undertakes it with undisciplined powers will in every case be outstripped by the man who has taken time to get his mental equipment, and will be crowded to the wall. There is no better illustration of the advantage of mental training than is furnished by the struggle now going on be- tween England and Germany for the world's trade. The methods used in the two countries for preparing a young man for business are wholly different. In England, the boy is trained up in the business, the learning of this being his chief mental training. In Germany, the boy is first trained in the school, perhaps even in the university, and then he learns the business which he expects to follow. The results of the two methods can now be seen in the rapid encroachment of Ger- man trade upon that of England. The position of the latter has for centuries relieved her of devastating wars, and while other nations were stniggling for existence, this "tight little 12 SOUTHERN EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. island" was developing her resources and extending her trade relations. But when peace came at last after the !N"apoleonic wars, the Germans, too, entered upon a period of develop- ment and hegan the pursuit of a nation having many decades the start of them. With the "seven-league boots" which edu- cation furnishes them, it is safe to predict that they will rap- idly overtake their competitors, and fiercely contest with them the supremacy in the matter of the world's trade. To come closer home, it is proposed to inquire into the success of the college graduate in business. It is manifestly impossible to ascertain the number of college graduates among business men of all classes, hence the investigation upon this point shall be limited to a single class, the railway presidents of the United States. Of these there are seventy-five, if we count all the principal systems. Sixty-eight of these re- sponded to the writer's request to be informed whether they were college graduates or not. Twenty-seven of the sixty- eight are college graduates — ^nearly forty per cent. This is amazing, in view of the fact that the college man in business has been so much decried and ridiculed. In this group of sixty-eight men we have no right to expect to find a single col- lege graduate; for only about one man in every hundred is a graduate, and this fact must never be lost sight of. Yet in this field of business, where great skill, ability and prudence are required to manage the immense properties, we find that the graduates number not one per cent., but nearly forty. This can only be due to the fact that these men have demonstrated their fitness to be at the head of these great enterprises, and they have been prepared for their work by the discipline of the college. The replies of many of the railway presidents indicate how sorely they regret that they have had no col- lege training, and how keenly they feel their loss. One writes thus : "I regret to say that I am not a graduate of any col- lege." Another thus : "I am not a graduate of any univer- sity. It would have been of great benefit to me, if I could have had the benefits of a collegiate course." Still another writes thus : "I regret to say that I never enjoyed the bene- fits of a collegiate education." Another writes: "I am not a college graduate and never had any college training." Then, SUCCESS OF THE COLLEGE GRADUATE. 13 as if to show tliat lie is not wholly without merit, he naively adds : "But I have four sons that are college graduates." The facts presented above clearly show that the question before the young men of America today is not whether they can afford a college education, but whether they can afford to be without one. Every clear-sighted young man must see how great an advantage will come to him if he will take the time and trouble to become master of himself before h© tries to be- come master of others. And in this connection it is pertinent to mention the in- fluences which are drawing the youth away from the institu- tions of higher learning. The first is found in the very character of our material civilization. This has so dazzled our eyes that we cannot see that any knowledge which cannot be used in making a living has any value whatever. Froude speaks the sentiments of a large class of people when he says: "Yes, wet do want more light, but it must be light which will help us to find work, and find food and clothing and lodging for ourselves. 1^0 education which does not make this its first aim is worth anything at all." The colleges and universities are censured because they do not make the ultimate test of all knowledge its practical utility. It is claimed that their courses do not fit men for the duties of life ; that their curricula are made up of studies that have no practical value and are therefore absolutely worthless; that the graduates are turned out upon the world as helpless as young birds and with no more ability than they to procure a living for themselves, l^o one claims that the courses offered by colleges and universities are per- fect. They show the infirmities that attach to everything hu- man. Whether they are practical or not depends upon what is meant by that word. If it is meant that these courses con- tain many subjects which a boy can never use in after life, it must be admitted that the claim is true. But this admis- sion does not carry with it any censure of the work done at present by colleges and universities. The object of all edu- cation is discipline and character, and incidentally informa- tion. The standpoint from which higher education must be 1 4 SOUTHERN EDUCA TIONAL ASSOCIA TION. judged is whether it imparts mental power and creates strength of character in the individual. The second influence emanates from those who do not know what a college education is, what it aims to accomplish, or what are its fruits. They point tO' those men in our history who in every period, without the advantages of higher educa- tion, have attained not only success^ but distinction, and claim that these instances prove that a collegei education is not nec- essary. The inference' is wholly wrong. These cases prove nothing more than this — that some men are bom with such splendid powers that they can afford tO' disregard the drill through which the average man must pass to siecure the high- est development, just as some men grow, without any effort on their part, into giants. Intellectual giants may forge past their fellows on the road that leads to success at a pace that men of ordinary strength cannot reach ; men endowed by na- ture with that mysterious power which we call magnetism, or with that persuasiveness of voice and gesture which we call eloquence, may rise to positions of influence, without apply- ing to themselves the stimulants and restraints that ordinary men must use. But these men were cast in a larger mould than the average man. For the rank and file of the human family, long continued and persistent exercise is necessary if one would reach higher than the dead level of his fellows. This fact, however, must not be lost sight of. While men without a college education have wrought worthily and well in all periods of the world's history, who can say how far they might have surpassed their own splendid efforts, if they could have entered upon their work with well disciplined powers ? In this connection, the "self-made man," who often un- derestimates the value of education, deserves a word. There is no such thing as a "self-made man" in the mental world, any more than in the physical world. We are all heirs to all the learning, to all the culture of the past, and this, the "self-made man" inherits along with the rest of mankind. The influence of learning is not directed upon him through exactly the same channels as upon other men; but he feeds upon it and assimilates it, and is nourished by it, just as SUCCESS OF THE COLLEGE GRADUATE. 15 other men. Cut him off from all the influences that culture has set at work in the world, throw him back upon his own barren self, and he would realize his own emptiness. He loses sight of this point and imagines that he is the product of himself, when, in reality, he is just as much the product of the combined influences of knowledge and culture as any other man. These influences surround him like the sunlight, and envelop him like the air, and he can no more free himself from them than he can escape from the influence of air and sunlight. The third influence that draws our youth away from the colleges and the universities is the most potent of all. It is haste to get into business, to get into one's life-work and es- tablish a bank account. Young men would do well to learn that there is no time in life, when the motto, festina lente, ^^make haste slowly," can be more wisely adopted than in youth. If they are going into a physical contest of any kind, they prepare themselves by long and patient training ; but in preparing for the race of life, the longest and most difficult race that they may run, many young men imagine that they can enter upon this without preparation, and trust to fortune for success. This is a grievous blunder. It pays in the sav- ing of time to prepare well for one's life-work. The well- equipped man will do more in ten years than the poorly- trained man in twenty, and will do it with more ease and pleasure. It pays in dollars and cents, too. Statistics show that a college education adds two hundred per cent, to one's wage- earning power. N'o arithmetic has yet been devised that can estimate the per cent, that it adds to one's manliness, useful- ness, and happiness. Press of W. STEPHENS PUBLISHING Columbia, Mo. CO.