Show I J I I 5 n I College Education a t Privilege and Not at All Alla a Un Universal versal Right By Dy ERNE ERNEST ST M M. HOPKINS President ent Dartmouth College foo Too many men are arc going to college The file opportunities opportunities cal cal- for securing an nn education by way of the college collego col- col loge lego course are definitely a privilege and not at all a universal right The rhe funds uns available for appropriation i tion Lion to the tho of institutions uses of higher learning are not limitless and cannot be made mae so whether their origin be sought in the resources of public taxation W or in the securable l benefactions ns for the enhancing of 4 private endowments It c consequently becomes essential essential essen essen- 4 that a n working theory be sought that will operate operate operate oper oper- ate with with- some Borne degree of or accuracy to define the in individuals individuals individuals in- in who WIlO shall make up the group to whom in justice to the public good the privilege shall be extended and to specify those from rom whom the privilege should be withheld This is a twofold necessity On the one ono hand han that men incapable of profiting by the advantages which the college offers or indisposed shall not be withdrawn from irom useful work to spend their time in idleness leness acquiring false standards of living aid aud on the other hand that the contribution which the college i is capable oY ot making to the lives of competent men and through tit them em to society shall not bo be too largely lessened by the slackening of or pace due to the presence of men indifferent or wanting in capacity We re hear much of men seeking an education but too often orten they are only seeking membership in a social organization which has reputation for affording an education from which reputation they expect if tP benefit if they can avoid being detached from the association The assumption would be humorous if it were not so serious that enrollment t with a college college college col col- col- col lege requires that the college shall either cither force education upon the individual man or surreptitiously bait him to it rather than that he should crave and at the cost of any effort possess himself of the utmost which tho the college can give It would be bo incompatible with all of the conceptions of democracy to assume that the privilege of higher education should be restricted to any class defined by the accident of birth or by th the fortuitous circumstance circumstance circum circum- stance of possession of wealth but there is such a thing as an aristocracy of brains made up of men intellectually alert and intellectually eager to whom increasingly the opportunities of higher education ought to bo be restricted if democracy is to become a quality product rather than simply a quantity one and if if excellence and effectiveness are to displace the mediocrity toward which democracy has bas such a tendency to skid |