A STUDY OF TWENTIETH CENTURY SUCCESS. 243 



enter the elementary schools, but a very small percentage continues to 

 the completion of the college course. This comparatively small num- 

 ber of persisters does not fairly represent what our educational machin- 

 ery could have done with the entire number who started at the bottom, 

 but what that machinery can do with the kind nature had endowed with 

 sufficient energy, determination and persistence to enable them to with- 

 stand the temptations to drop out one by one by the way and take a 

 seemingly short cut to some ignus fatuus of success, but who continue 

 to the end. There is here shown undoubtedly with considerable force 

 the potency of the law of the survival of the fittest, if we take as our 

 criterion of fitness mention in 'Who's Who.' This, however, does not 

 invalidate the fact that the college course, either because of its educa- 

 tional or selective influence, increases largely, perhaps to the extent we 

 have shown, the probability that the graduate will gain a favorable 

 place in the public eye. 



A classification of the names in the book which forms the basis of 

 our study, in terms of the various professions and vocations, gives us 

 the following numbers for the twenty-four which seem to form the 

 most natural divisions. Actor: male 54, female 40. Artist, including 

 illustrators: male 260, female 21. Author, including writer, his- 

 torian, novelist and poet: male 528, female 272. Business, including 

 the various mercantile pursuits: male 200. Clergyman, including 

 bishop, rabbi, missionary, priest, salvation army and monk: male 655, 

 female 7. College professor, including president, dean and chancellor: 

 male 1,090, female 11. Congressman (both senate and house) : 446. 

 Editor, including journalist, critic, correspondent and reporter: male 

 509, female 13. Educator, including superintendent, teacher, philan- 

 thropist and reformer: male 188, female 30. Engineer, including 

 architect and miner: male 284. Financier, including capitalist and 

 banker: male 215. Inventor: male 26. Lawyer, including justice, 

 judge and jurist: male 857, female 4. Lecturer: male 21, female 6. 

 Librarian: male 362, female 9. Musician, including singer: male 

 111, female 21. Physician: male 540, female 7. Railroad official: 

 male 102. Sailor: 103. Scientist, including naturalist: male 416, 

 female 7. Soldier: 205. Statesman, including governor, diplomat, 

 politician and mayor: 202. U. S. official: male, 98, female 1. Mis- 

 cellaneous, running all the way from farmer to insurance president : 

 male 53, female 2. The sum of these figures does not quite equal 

 8,602, the number which, as has already been stated, the book mentions, 

 since a comparatively small number who failed to give the year of 

 birth were not included in the study. 



One question, among others, which the young person about to 

 choose a profession is apt to consider is this : How long will it take 

 to get a foothold? How many years of hard sledding before the 



