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UNIVERSITY COURIER.
UNIVERSITY COURIER A Monthly Publication Devoted to the Interests of the
KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY.
CONDUCTED BY AN ORGANIZATION OF STUDENTS.
Price of Subscription, Fifty Cents per School Year.
RATES OF ADVERTISING - $1.00 per Inch. First Insertion; 50 Cents per Inch each Subsequent Insertion.
CARRIE M. WATSON, 77,
W. E. STEVENS, 79,
SCOTT HOPKINS, 81,
R. W. E. TWITCHELL, 81
H. C. BURNETT, Editor.
Asst. Editors.
H. H. JENKIN$ Business Manager
Address UNIVERSITY COURIER.
WORK.
College diplomas are not legal tender for a life-long board bill. Time, effort, care in procuring an education, either special or general, do not release from the obligation of self-support, but may enable the willing hands to substitute brain for muscle, and so wonderfully lighten the tasks and multiply the joys of living. The whole tendency of our system of public education should be kept in this direction. Self-reliance, conscientious regard for the rights of others, respect for law—in short, the duties of citizenship, should be most zealously inculcated, not as a department of education, but as permeating all departments and degrees of education. University Report.
There is truth in this, which grasped and applied by the student to his college life and after manhood, will assure him success, in the true meaning of that word. Honest, earnest, hard work, with not only the object of self-support in view, but the duties of citizenship as well, should be the habit, as it is the privilege, of every young man and woman. A pernicious idea prevails with some that the object of obtaining an education is to evade labor. Labor is looked upon as a primal curse that falls heavily upon the unlearned man, but can be avoided by the scholar. This inspires, possibly, a momentary effort, that the future may be filled with easy idleness. Then the graduate enters a profession or occupation of some kind, to make a living easily and shirk the duties of citizenship.
Shakespeare makes Richard bemoan, as a man
"Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time Into this breathing world, scarce half made up."
And as Richard deplored his physical deformity, so can multitudes of men in active life regret a lack of preparation for and fitness to do a work they have planned. A knowledge of this unfitness usually comes too late to make a remedy possible. When a point is reached which, though low in the scale of a useful life, cannot be passed, it is very difficult to retrieve the losses that will make an advance possible. The cry of a policeman in the crowded streets of a metropolis, "Move on! Move on!" is typical of the world's order to every man. And when, in an age so progressive as the present, a man feels the force of that order, and cannot obey it, the only alternative usually possible is to get into some out-of-the-way nook and let more competent men pass, or—get run over.
Most of the incompetency of life is the result of a delusion that we are deceiving somebody else. To dodge honest work and reap the fruits of work is not possible. Though the semblances of fruits may be gathered, they are Sodom apples that turn to ashes on the tongue. A bright student may "cram" and get through college, but that device will not work when he meets the sterner realities of life in the active world. He
may be puffed up with spurious knowledge for a time, but the inevitable puncture comes, and the collapse will leave him thin even to the verge of the ridiculous. The delusion that the world can be deceived and the deceiver profit by the deception, fills some lives with crime and others with failures.
The student will find but one way to an honest, useful eminence in life, and that is through work. It is as impossible for him to pretend to prepare for and then accomplish that which requires genuine preparation, as it is for a man who is physically weak to do work which requires strength. That well directed, persistent and successful effort sometimes called genius, is within the reach of all, and the time to begin its practice is at the outset of student life.
Two members of the present faculty of the University have labored for the institution since its very beginning. The best years and best efforts of their lives have been given to it, and the present fair condition and prospects of the institution are, in a measure at least, due to the patient and faithful efforts of Professors Snow and Robinson in their respective departments. Other members of the faculty, though not so long identified with the University, have and do still render it valuable service. The declining years of Chancellor Marvin are filled with an almost ceaseless round of toil that is fast whitening his silvered hair and leaving deep traces of care upon his face. Several faithful servants who did not a little to make the University what it is, have gone; some to their graves, others to new fields of labor. And whatever else is said of them, one thing is acknowledged, and that is, that they were not well paid, nor even fairly paid, for actual service rendered. The same is true of those now here. They are not fairly paid. With business men, the world over, it is customary to advance the salaries of employees that have been long in service, so that they may at least obtain a competence for themselves in their old age and their families. Nor is this done as a matter of charity, but rather as a matter of right and gratitude. But Kansas neglects the laborers in her own vineyard, that are doing her more good than money can repay. She neglects even to provide them with the means for a fair living, leaving hope of future competence out of the question. It is certainly not a mark of gratitude. These men have given years of hard work to preparation for their respective departments. They are public servants, devoted heart and soul to serving the educational interests of the State. They cannot engage in other occupations without throwing aside the costly preparation made for that they are now in. They are at the mercy of the State, as represented by its legislators, and not to recognize their faithful service and make allowance for their needs, is a form of ingratitude that Kansas can ill afford to indulge.
The Topeka Commonwealth says "Senator Greene, of Douglas County, made quite a lengthy speech in the Senate, favoring the passage of Senate bill 136, which provides for the erection of an observatory at the State University, conditional that the U. S. Government allows certain claims for losses by reason of the late war of the rebellion. Naturally a pleasing speaker, and having a command of fine language, which many equally able men too often do not possess, he grew especially eloquent in advancing the reasons for the erection of the observatory."