THE CASE OF HARVARD COLLEGE 609 



medicine, law, politics, etc., or giving expert training in subjects such 

 as the biological sciences or the classics. A student may devote three 

 years to exclusive and intensive work in mathematics; and the training 

 has proved excellent, having produced not only many of the ablest 

 mathematicians of the last century, but great men in all departments 

 of activity. The English system of public schools and scholarships 

 selects for the universities a large share of the ablest and most earnest 

 young men of the country; Oxford and Cambridge have continuously 

 sent forth their men to lead the nation. None the less it is true that 

 in numbers, in resources and in educational methods they have remained 

 nearly stationary, while the great movement in higher education in 

 England has been the establishment and growth of the metropolitan 

 and provincial universities. These are essentially trade schools, similar 

 to our own state universities, and having but little in common with our 

 country clubs of the North Atlantic states. 



It is not desirable to support at public expense certain country clubs 

 or detention hospitals in which rich boys may be segregated. The idle 

 rich and the lazy poor we have with us always and everywhere. Colleges 

 only contribute their share to the failure to solve a problem at present 

 insoluble. It may be that these rich boys cost society more than they 

 are worth ; it may be that their value is a minus quantity. They will, 

 however, occupy a far more important place in society than others. 

 From the vast numbers born in the cottage, there are a few who grasp 

 " the skirts of happy chance " and live to shape a " state's decrees," but 

 in the main those who eat at the high table of the palace are born there 

 or in its dependencies. Thanks to heredity and opportunity combined, 

 there are more dominant personalities, such as Mr. Theodore Eoosevelt, 

 Mr. Pierpont Morgan and Mr. Lawrence Lowell, from this small upper 

 class than from the working millions. Whether or not we should be 

 better off without such men is not the question. Until opportunity can 

 be equalized we shall have them; the college must bear its share of 

 responsibility for what they do in the world. 



These rich boys are as a rule nice boys and many of them will become 

 leaders in their own class and in the community. The luxury to which 

 they are inured at home does not especially hurt them in college. The 

 difficulty is twofold — they set false standards for the boys who are not 

 rich and they do not themselves profit greatly from their college work 

 and life. The college community is more democratic than any other; 

 but as an institution increases in size sets are formed, and the rich are 

 segregated in dormitories, clubs and fraternities. They enjoy the social 

 life which the idle classes maintain after reaching years of discretion, 

 and are turned in that direction rather than to ideas of useful work 

 and service. They do not see the use of the college courses, but study 

 as little and pay their coaches as much as may be necessary to pass exam- 



