The Corrupting influence of the 'moneyed interest' on American higher education

“ The university has become the expression of the highest intellectual forces of the present as well as of the past.
You have held from the first that teacher and student alike grow strong through freedom. Working eagerly with you and for you are men whose beliefs, whether in education or in religion, differ widely from your own, yet who know that in speaking out their beliefs they are not more loyal to themselves than to you. By your faith in a young man's use of intellectual and spiritual freedom you have given new dignity to the life of the college student. ”

“ To merely political issues have succeeded those of grave social and economic importance, the solution of which demands the best efforts of the best men. We have a right to expect that a wise and leading part in the effort to attain this solution will be taken by those who have been exceptionally blessed in the matter of obtaining an education.
¶That college graduate is but a poor creature who does not feel when he has left college that he has received something for which he owes a return. What he thus owes he can as a rule only pay by the way he bears himself throughout life. ”

“ Unless these institutions are, with increased liberalism, to be marked by laxity of principle, and flabbiness of moral purpose, they must gain a new motivation worthy of the times, they must work under the inspiration that a hope and faith in human progress gives. To show how the minds of students can be affected educationally so that the college may be touched with this spirit of modern democratic culture is the main purpose of these pages. ”

“ The best part of higher education is the development of the instincts of the gentleman and the horizon of the scholar. To this end, self-directed industry is one of the most effective agents. As the force of example is potent in education, a college should tolerate idleness and vice neither among its students nor among its teachers. ”

“ The president and trustees as they now exist have their chief justification in financial conditions. We know that the lack of money is the root of all evil. Our private educational corporations, dependent on the generosity of millionaires, are in a remarkable and almost anomalous position. Yet it is evident that this unique phase of development has not only kept the university in advance of popular appreciation, but has also tended to maintain the stability of society. ”

“ Few people have the sense of financial individuality strongly developed. They do not know what it means to be a controller of wealth, to have that which releases the sources of social action—its medium of exchange. They want money, but not for money’s sake. They want it for what it will buy in the way of simple comforts, whereas the financier wants it for what it will control—for what it will represent in the way of dignity, force, power. ”

“ The mischief springs from the power which the moneyed interest derives from a paper currency which they are able to control, from the multitude of corporations with exclusive privileges which they have succeeded in obtaining in the different States, and which are employed altogether for their benefit; ”

“ The scene which some of us witnessed this morning, the giving over of an immense sum to the endowment of a college in this city, is but the token of a vast outpouring of munificence for advanced education such as this world never saw before. There is to be—mark the prophecy, fellow-citizens—great as has been the outpouring of wealth heretofore, and the statistics show in ten years, gifts to the amount of $60,000,000, we are told; there is to be in this time of revived prosperity an outpouring of wealth far greater, to which all this which we have seen is as nothing. ”

“ That is to say, during that time money from private sources has been devoted to liberal education at the rate of a little more than a million dollars a month. In many cases, it must be admitted, the claim of the institutions thus favored to the rank of college or university is not very substantial, but the gifts themselves represent the loyalty of the donors to a certain ideal of education, however imperfectly that ideal may have expressed itself. ”

“ Advertising looms large and boosts the bigness that brings revenues and responds to administrative ambitions. The general consequence, I contend, is that the policies pursued, the measures adopted, that determine what students do at college and how they do it, and what they fail to do, neither truly nor adequately reflect the intent, the wisdom, the influence of those to whom they rightly look for guidance. ”

“ Just how the millionaire founder or the millionaire trustee affects the social relations of the college calls for more extended statement than space here permits. In a few glaring instances in this country there have been serious infringements by the wealthy supporters of a university upon the spirt of academic freedom. But the predominance of the rich in the councils of the college has acted more insidiously in the social ideals that they perhaps unconsciously put upon the institution. ”

“ As guardian in chief of this vast estate and director of the progress of a modern university, the president of Columbia needs to be a man of rare qualifications. High scholarship he should have as the head of a learned institution, and rare business ability he must have as the manager of the various interests intrusted to his care. The college is fortunate indeed to have at its helm one who so eminently combines the qualifications of the scholar, the gentleman, and the practical man of affairs as does Dr. ”

“ We seem to have made a further advance at Columbia by the election of a president who is at the outset an educational expert. He alone does not begin as an amateur and can devote himself to his work while cultivating his scholarship. But the demands now made on the university president are so diverse and exorbitant that even when he gives up both teaching and research they can scarcely be met. He can not be in loco parentis for 5,000 students; select and control 400 officers; coordinate the conflicting demands of incommensurable schools and departments ”

“ Alderman, who has been superintendent of schools, professor of pedagogy and for four years president of North Carolina and of Tulane, has the educational experience which will become more and more essential for a college president, and the gift of oratory which perhaps in the future will be regarded less highly than at present. His administration began with the announcement of gifts from our two ubiquitous eleemosynaryists, and there is every reason to foresee that the university will increase in wealth and in numbers. ”

“ Effect on the Trustees.—On one hand, the growth of financial interests has made compulsory the appointment of successful business men to the boards, while the urgency for additional funds has led to selection of men very prominent in all callings—extremely busy men. On the other hand, the extraordinary growth, internally, of the colleges and universities has made no longer possible for the trustee that familiar acquaintance with professors and with the departmental needs which he ought to have. ”

“ If the faculty are to act wisely, either for themselves or the college, they must know the financial possibilities. And if the trustees are to spend wisely, the recommendations upon which they act must have had these in mind. Under the present system of non-communication expenditure is too often footless. And nothing has done more to discourage the faculty sense of responsibility than the feeling that only part of the situation is shown them and that the president holds a card up his sleeve. ”

“ The only evidence of success, apparently, is increased enrollment, more funds, more houses, more low-priced teachers. Quantity, not quality. College presidents and professional canvassers hawk their wares as blatantly as criers at a fair; advertisements are placed in journals and circulars are sent broadcast, extolling the advantages of the institution as shrewdly as though the wares were oriental rugs; students entrusted to college authorities for mental training are utilized for advertising purposes and the college controls the process. ”

“ Constantly increasing enrollment is, for most college presidents and most college trustees, the only proof of success. Canvassing for pupils is as much part of the college plan in some portions of the country as drumming for customers is in a wholesale business house. Of course, no such vulgar conduct is countenanced by the older institutions, which never send their presidents or special agents on such errands. They utilize students as wandering minstrels, who appear as the blank college or university glee club ”

“ Toleration of poor work is sometimes due, furthermore, to a desire to keep up numbers; we must retain enough students to pay our bills, and we must not let our "competitors" get ahead of us in size. Either of these motives is unworthy of gentlemen, and scholars. To be sure, financial habits of mind may be strong in boards of trustees, but the merest business sense should teach us that the last place to economize is in the quality of our finished product. ”

“ There is something wrong in a system which creates a public sentiment such as permits a half-million dollar gymnasium or an immense stadium for semi-professional intercollegiate contests to be heralded as a gift to education; that receives gifts for scholarships and fellowships with as much acclaim as gifts for endowments; that points to piles of masonry and to mere lists of matriculants as proofs of success, that places the college on the basis of the shop and proves economy of management by showing as many clerks as possible on a minimum of expenditure. ”

“ If their constitPage 102uency, both rich and poor, would become imbued with the spirit of the Colonial fathers, and arouse themselves to give liberally, their power and influence would be multiplied a hundred fold. "Let it not be forgotten," says President Thwing, "that if the college and university have large need of the wealth of the community, this wealth has yet a larger need of the college and university. Without the aid of the higher education in the past, much of the wealth could not have been created; and without the higher education of the present, wealth would now become sordid ”

“ There is here promised a greater reward of fame than the college instructor can hope for, while in addition there is a prospect of pecuniary reward for the wise and industrious man, compared with which the maximum college salary is a pittance. It is quite in accord with human nature that young men after completing graduate study, costly both in time and money, should think applied science, which promises both fame and money, preferable to college teaching, which promises in our day not very much of either. ”

“ It was indeed passing strange, the near-professor pondered, to find such unanimity of opinion between a great university president and a humble college professor as to the part in the educational system played by the college faculty, and henceforth he felt his own course was clear; if the high cost of living restricted his own daily menu, he could at least serve the cause of education by cheerfully recognizing his place and becoming the baked meats for the table of his academic superior. ”

“ It has become something that a man wishes to use in order to get the better of his fellow-men; to enhance his fortunes; to do all the things that center in and upon himself; and it is professionalism that spoils the game, the game of life, the game of humanity, the game of cooperation in social undertaking, the whole handsome game that we are seeking to throw light upon by the processes of education. It is a remarkable and interesting fact that Princeton is becoming a great university and a great scientific center almost in spite of those in control. ”

“ It does not seem to occur to this gentleman that if college professors knew anything about finance, they would probably not remain college professors. Learning and wealth have never run in harness since Cadmus taught Thebes the alphabet. It would be a brave man who should say which was the better gift; but one thing is sure: unless we are prepared to grant the full value of scholarship which adds nothing to the wealth of nations, or to the practical utilities of life, we shall have only partial results from education. ”

“ How shall we ever rear a race of scholars when there is neither pay nor honor in scholarship? The scant money compensation is patent, and honor is more than money to the idealist, and such, after all, the college professor is. ”

“ The present wretched condition will be changed when the control of college affairs has passed from the hands of men unacquainted with the actual needs and when it has been placed in the hands of those who know what teaching means and have respect for teachers. ”

“ The truth is, with most young men, a college education means that just at the time when they should be having business principles instilled into them, and be getting themselves energetically pulled together for their life’s work, they are sent to college. Then intervenes what many a young man looks back on as the jolliest time of his life,—four years of college. Often when he comes out of college the young man is unfitted by this good time to buckle down to hard work, and the result is a failure to grasp opportunities that would have opened the way for a successful career. ”

“ The main object is to keep from flunking out; for as yet absolute immunity has not been achieved, and real college life is too pleasurable to be hazarded too far. Getting something from the course is at least secondary. Getting the credit at present seems necessary, and, when hard pressed, one's wits need to be well sharpened. ”

“ If credit can be secured for success without full payment in labor, if deception can be practised for the avoidance of irksome tasks, is such procedure different from current practise in the world of business? Can the student be expected to rise in the college class-room above the ordinary standards of honor in society, in the street or on the athletic field? ”

“ They go out to their various schools with their life’s ideas supplied to them ready made, and with the fine “morale”—in the building of which the teachers’ college prides itself—to safeguard them against getting any new ideas.
This young lady goes on to explain that so far as she knows, the Columbia ring are “perfectly sincere and earnest gentlemen,” and no one has ever heard of the financial powers taking a hand in the matter. I am advising this correspondent to consult “The Goose-step,” and see who it was that paid for the costly education of these Nebraska educators. ”

“ The fellows who were going to study professions were hugging themselves at the contrast between their fate and his, and were making remarks about business that were to say the least unbusinesslike. A few years ago we should have made a summary disposition of the matter, and I believe some of the newspapers still are in doubt about the value of a college education to men who have got to make their way. ”

“ When the leaders are educated they will understand they can get all they want at a cheaper rate than violence. After four years in a Workman's College they will be familiar with history, philosophy, and political science, and not likely to commit bélises.'
"'It will be a costly experiment,' I suggested, 'to create, endow, and maintain such a system of education for a whole people!'
"'No,' he said, 'they will learn all they need by conversation with me.'
"Mr. ”

“ The standard of collegiate instruction will at once rise many degrees, the college teacher will become a more useful member of society, as will also the college president, harmony instead of discord will reign among the three branches of the college government, and all three will be in a position to make a united and effective attack on the educational problems that are calling for solution. ”