THE EDUCATED MAN AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 



BY JOSEPH SWAIN 



[Joseph Swain, President of Swarthmore College since 1902. b. Pendleton, 

 Indiana, June 16, 1857. B.S. University of Indiana; M.A. ibid.; Student, 

 University of Edinburgh; LL.D. Wabash College. Instructor in Mathematics, 

 University of Indiana, 1883-85; Associate Professor, ibid. 1885-86; Professor, 

 ibid. 1886-91; Professor of Mathematics, Leland Stanford Jr. University, 

 1891-93; President of Indiana University, 1893-1902. Member of National 

 Council of Education, American Society for the Advancement of Science. 

 Author of scientific papers for publication by Smithsonian Institute and else- 

 where.] 



IN this paper I desire to do two things: First, to set forth briefly 

 a view of the educated man; second, to inquire what should be his 

 attitude toward social problems ; to state some of the principles and 

 ideals on which this attitude is based, and to illustrate these. 



I am fully aware that the topic is large enough for volumes rather 

 than a brief address, but I shall not attempt to give more than a 

 point of view from which it seems to me these questions must be 

 examined. I am at least persuaded in my own mind that if this 

 view is accepted and acted upon after a complete knowledge of the 

 facts in any given question is ascertained, not only social religion, 

 but religion itself will be vitalized, and will have a new meaning for 

 the mass of mankind. I claim nothing new nor startling. 



At the Boston meeting of the National Teachers' Association, 

 President Eliot, of Harvard, spoke on the topic, " The New Defini- 

 tion of the Cultivated Man." He said: 



" In this paper he is not to be a weak, critical, fastidious creature, 

 vain of a little exclusive information or of an uncommon knack in 

 Latin verse or mathematical logic; he is to be a man of quick 

 perceptions, broad sympathies, and wide affinities, responsive but 

 independent, self-reliant but deferential, loving truth and candor, 

 but also moderation and proportion; courageous but gentle, not 

 finished but perfecting. All authorities agree that true culture is 

 not exclusive, but the very opposite; that it is not to be attained in 

 solitude, but in society; and that the best atmosphere for culture 

 is that of a school, university, academy, or church, where many 

 pursue together the ideals of truth, righteousness, and love." 



Assuming the correctness of this definition of the educated man, I 

 would emphasize only the last part of it, which concerns us especially 

 at this time. " The cultivated man is not finished but perfecting." 

 No one should ever think of having a " finished " education. Edu- 

 cation is a growth. The attainment of to-day is not sufficient for 

 to-morrow. 



