SUMMER MEETING. 96 



education and telling them of their State University, bat it is impor- 

 tant that we look at something else besides one institution. 



I take it for granted you want to hear from me about education, 

 and education a little more broadly than it is found in any one institu- 

 tion. 



It is a subject of gratitude, a fact for which we cannot be too 

 :gratefal that college education of good grade is obtainable in a large 

 number of places ; it is obtainable in our State as well as in other 

 states; as well in the East as in the West; at great and small ex- 

 pence — very cheap at Columbia; obtainable under the different denomi- 

 nations; you have a very admirable institution here, of which you 

 «houId all be proud. 



We should be thankful that the Providence of God has made it 

 possible for the young man and woman to get a good education in at 

 least seven or eight places in this State. The most important thing 

 for people to do is to get a college education somewhere. I speak to 

 you as people who consider in one way or another the destinies of 

 young men and young women ; it is, in my opinion, one of the most 

 important things for a young man or young woman to do, to secure at 

 all hazards, provided only honest means be used, a good college edu- 

 cation somewhere. 



Americans are always prone to ask practical questions, and some- 

 times ask, does a college education really pay ? I have been asked that 

 question a thousand times and always answer "Yes it does." Probing 

 will show that that question always means this : "Does it help a man 

 to make money f Does it raise him to prominence in the eyes of the 

 world? In other words, does it lead to high living, fine clothes and 

 delicate f. asting and champagne? I protest against any such estima- 

 tion of education as this, but yet I am willing to put it on the lowest 

 grounds and answer, yes it does pay. It is true some millionaires 

 have made their millions without any education, but for every one of 

 such millionaires I can point you to thousands of boot-blacks who 

 have not any education or any fortune either. 



If you will collect in one bunch all those who have been educated 

 at college and in another bunch all those who have not been educated 

 at college, I will warrant that the average wealth of the first class will 

 be greater than that of the second class ; I will warrant that the mor- 

 ality of the first, I will warrant that the health of the first and that the 

 social position of the first class will be, on an average, better than the 

 second one. Or let us make it three classes : first, those that were 

 educated in college, then those that were educated in high school — not 

 in college — and third, those that were not educated in either high school 



