The Commons, Vol. 7: A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor From the Social Settlement Point of View (Classic Reprint) - pocketboek

Excerpt from The Commons, Vol. 7: A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor From the Social Settlement Point of View

Professor Adams emphasized the idea that the work of research carried on by the faculties of colleges and universities should always be included in the term "higher education," for such an institution must extend knowledge as well as impart it.

The topic was treated from the point of view: (1) Of those who seek an education; (2) of those who utilize the services of trained men; (3) of the political, social and industrial conditions which are in large measure the product of these higher institutions.

From the first standpoint not much can be said, because it is not a social viewpoint; yet so much does prosperity of one class depend on that of other classes that the personal point of view is not the true one. It is worth noting, however, that in Michigan the highest in education lies open and practically free to all. Nothing is more democratic than our educational system.

From the second point of view we note that the expert is in the saddle. Yet, though the motive that leads a man to become an expert may be personal advantage, his services extend to the public at large. Moreover, you cannot produce an expert unless you raise the general plane of excellence and efficiency of the whole class to which the expert belongs. Professor Adams instanced the physician as an illustration of this fact. For instance, diphtheria used to be extremely virulent. One case out of every two was the rate of mortality. Now the rate is one in ten, as the result of the education of a class of experts and their valuable investigations. So the people at large are more interested in having experts than is the individual expert himself. His interest is in being a little bit better than his competitors; the public's interest is in having a body of expert knowledge at its service.

From the third point of view Professor Adams suggested, first, the fact that industrial prosperity depends not only upon natural resources and security of property and contract, but upon invention as well. And modern invention is not the product of chance and ingenuity, but of professional work. That business men appreciate the importance of trained intelligence in commercial affairs is shown by their interest in our university course in higher commercial education. Take, again, the wonderful changes in rural life that are promised through the advent of the telephone and trolley line. The electrical expert, the trained investigator, will some time be praised for having made these things possible.

And finally let it be said that the worth of life does not depend upon conditions, but rather upon a high grade of intelligence; and the higher institutions are, or should be, the guardians of this intelligence. Indeed, the schools, and the churches, too, for that matter, should perform wider functions than they do. We are drowned in commercialism. We can meet it only by keeping open the door of opportunity, and this must come through our higher institutions of learning.

This topic was vigorously discussed by Professor H. E. Pattengill, who emphasized roundly the need of keeping the culture aim in education to the front.

Professor Charles H. Cooley, of Michigan University, read a valuable paper on the subject of

The Movement of Rural Population,

which he modestly entitled, "Notes on the Decrease of Rural Population in the Southern Peninsula of Michigan." Dr. Cooley called attention to the well-known fact that the proportion of urban population in our country has rapidly and constantly increased, being 4 per cent, in 1800; in 1880, 22.6; in 1890, 29.2; in 1900, 33.1. In Michigan the figures are: For 1880, 16.6 per cent.; in 1890, 31.2; in 1900, 37.2. In both cases the percentage of increase was less in the last decade.

This method of comparison is not wholly fair, because the census sets