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THE UNIVERSITY COURIER.
The 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,
Asst. Editors.
H. C. BURNETT, Editor.
C. V. KING, Business Manager.
Address UNIVERSITY COURIER.
Address UNIVERSITY COURIER.
UTILITARIAN EDUCATION.
There is a popular demand now for education that tends toward utility. That demand is inspired by a modern philosophy which teaches that the test of the worth of everything is its utility. But the ideas that offshoot from this philosophy are apt to become perverted and narrow, unless the broad and right meaning of the term "utility" is always kept in mind. A genuinely useful education is not always such as will enable its possessor to enter the field of active business life and accumulate wealth. That is not a desirable culture which only furnishes its possessor with weapons, and trains him to their skillful use in business competition with his fellow men. It will not do to let the almighty dollar creep in and make itself the object even of the student's ambition, and thus destroy the best intellectual effort, and turn education towards an unworthy object. The power to accumulate property is not so desirable an attainment as is that true manhood which comes from a generous development of the mind.
When a young man enters college with the object of fitting himself for what he hopes will be a lucrative calling, and will bring with it influence and position, he aims too low. If he intends to make himself a sharp business man, he aims lower yet. It is good to have a lucrative calling and to be a sharp, but honest, business man, but there is something better. The struggle to accumulate wealth is already too bitter, and no man should cultivate all his energies to be used in that direction. Competition needs to be relaxed, and the best way to relax it is to inspire the young men and women of this age with a nobler object than that of gain. The happiness that comes from the possession even of a fortune, is fleeting and treacherous, and, oftener than otherwise, lands its votaries upon the shores of pain. The last few years of "hard times" have furnished numberless illustrations. There is something better than material prosperity, something that will not desert the man and leave him bankrupt—that something is a cultured mind, that finds comfort in itself, and an integrity of soul that will not stoop to what is wrong. This is lasting, while the low order of happiness found in the idea of ownership is continually broken in upon, particularly in this age, when the possessor of a fortune must guard against and repel continual attempts to take it from him.
A wiser one than many of the wise men who have followed him knew, and did not hesitate to say, that "the love of money is the root of all evil." The branches from this root show themselves in numberless forms. Some times it is an Isaacs, who, for a few dollars, drops behind his companion
and puts a bullet through his brain; sometimes it is a man who secures the appointment of receiver of a broken bank, at a salary six or eight times as large as is right, and then delays settlement with the bank's creditors until the assets are absorbed; sometimes the branch is very large and flourishing, as, for instance, a moneyed aristocracy that lives upon the labors of others.
"Daily, with souls that cringe and plot, We Sinais climb and know it not."
The genuine student learns that culture only comes in her best form to him who woos her for her own sake. If sought for baser purposes, she eludes the seeker, or, if overtaken, drops the beauty, grace, the charms that make her so attractive. Loved for her own sake, she is ever lovely, winning and true, ever brings new delights. And for this reason the student must give himself entirely to her, if he would win that worth having. Keeping up the mere routine of study is not enough. How many students pass a few years at college, graduate and receive their diplomas, who never once taste those pure delights that come from genuine culture. Absolute devotion, and that only, will win it; and this devotion must not be clouded by any wayward turning toward false gods. The struggle for existence, as seen in the toil and care of business life, will come all too soon; but he is thrice armed against those ills who can turn with keen zest and ever renewed pleasure to fields of learning that delighted him when a student, and where he ever finds new beauties and pure enjoyment.
The University starts out this year under very favorable auspices. The number of students thus far enrolled is 331, representing forty-one counties in Kansas, and twelve States in the Union. This is a larger number of students than has been enrolled at this time during any previous year, and if the number increases in the same proportion as in former years, it will reach 400 before the close of the year. The increased attendance from our own State is an evidence of the growing popularity of the University among its supporters. Right in this connection we desire to speak a few words in reply to an assertion which has been made in some parts of the State, in reference to the University. While we believe that all malicious charges should be treated with studied contempt, we know there are some statements which are not inspired by malice, but by an ignorance of facts. Such a statement is the one that the University is a "school for Lawrence." From a careful examination of the catalogues of Yale college, we find that a larger per cent. of the students are from New Haven, than are in attendance at the Kansas University from Lawrence. A larger per centage of the students of Harvard are from the immediate vicinity, than we find in attendance at the University of Kansas from the vicinity of Lawrence. The same is true of Michigan, and all the important public universities and colleges in the country. It is but natural that Lawrence should take advantage of the superior educational advantages at her door. The same would be true were the institution located at any other city in the State. Out of a total cost of the University and grounds, of $245,000, the city of Lawrence has given $180,000, yet she neither claims nor expects any privileges not enjoyed by any other portion of the State. The city schools of Lawrence have not been abolished as has been asserted. Her schools will compare favorably with the schools of any city in Kansas. It has been asserted that the University of Kansas is in rivalry with the school system of