4 o4 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the reader, acquainted with actual conditions, finds himself comment- 

 ing involuntarily on some of the expressions. If one read records on 

 sporting pages of the great dailies, he will soon discover that the great 

 subjects are athletics and that the broad teachers are professional 

 coaches, who receive larger remuneration than that of the professors. 

 If he read addresses of college presidents at alumni gatherings and con- 

 sult the columns of college papers he will find little reason for change 

 of opinion. Nor is he likely to find anything different if he look in 

 other directions, though he may gain enlightenment respecting the 

 minor groups or special interests. 



A leading metropolitan daily published once a week two pages of 

 news calculated to bind alumni to their colleges — all reference to ath- 

 letics being avoided. The communications, many of which carried ear- 

 marks of official sanction, were examined during several months. 

 Barely 9 per cent, of the space dealt with the curriculum, increased 

 facilities for study, with the work of professors; aside from the inci- 

 dental references to such matters, the space was devoted to information 

 respecting glee clubs, society politics, college theatricals, glorification of 

 the democratic spirit among the students, the peculiar advantage of the 

 college over its rivals, with not infrequently a more than casual refer- 

 ence to athletics. In comparatively few instances is anything recorded 

 which would lead a wholly uninformed reader to suspect that college is 

 a place for study — and most of those references are not from colleges 

 but from technical schools. If one consider the important place which 

 these interests occupy in the mind of so-called students, and if he add 

 to them football, baseball, lacrosse, hockey, wrestling, boating, swim- 

 ming, gymnastics, as well as daily, weekly or monthly publications, he 

 will feel convinced that for a great part of the students none too much 

 time remains to be expended or, as some college boys would say, wasted 

 on study. He will be confirmed in his conviction when he observes that 

 intercollegiate contests are not interrupted by such matters as reviews 

 or approaching examinations. The college course need be little more 

 than leaning against college walls for four years — a simple luxury. 

 The opportunity to acquire knowledge and intellectual training is 

 offered, but students are not compelled to accept it or to leave. A man 

 must be a dullard or an idler indeed who can not gain the passing mark 

 by incidental study and by reasonable attention during recitation hours. 

 Frankly, there is no sense in showing surprise or irritation when busi- 

 ness men, demanding 98 per cent, efficiency for promotion, designate 

 college work as a four years course in the science of shirking. The 

 absurdity of the conditions appeals to the professional jester, the "stu- 

 dent" has displaced the mother-in-law and the politician. 



Some prominent universities have informed the community that the 

 college course is not so important as some good people imagine. A de- 



