Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 24.djvu/316

302 the twenty-one German universities, during the last semester, in order to ascertain what is doing in the various departments in which he takes special interest. Everywhere the question was asked of university professors, "Do you think that too many are studying at the universities?" Almost uniformly the answer was returned, "There is no doubt about it." A few figures will make clear how rapidly of late years the number of students has increased. During the five years ending 1861, for every 100,000 inhabitants in Germany there were, on an average, thirty-two students in the universities. During the year 1881-'82 there were fifty-one students for the same number of inhabitants. Of these in the former period eight were enrolled in the philosophical faculty (the only faculty to which real-school students are admitted); in the latter period 20·7. That is, in a little more than twenty years the number of students in the philosophical faculty per 100,000 inhabitants has more than doubled. The average for the five years ending 1881 was eighteen, and the proportion is still increasing. This enormous increase in the number of students excites the gravest apprehension, and is characterized by thinking men as a sad state of affairs.

It may seem somewhat ludicrous to us to hear of an over-production of educated men. A German professor gave the key to the riddle, in a remark to the writer, that Germany is fostering the growth of an intellectual proletary—i. e., a class of professionally educated men for whom there is no room in the professions, and who are too proud to go into business of any sort. This state of affairs can not be fully appreciated without going further into detail than the limits of this article allow. Suffice it to say that the German universities are essentially professional schools. A man who enters such an institution intends to be a lawyer, a physician, a minister, teacher, professor, or member of the civil service of the country, and he receives there his professional training. It is easy to see that there can be an over-production in each and all of these fields. In this country such a state of things is easily remedied. If a man finds he has no chance to succeed as a lawyer, a year or two will turn him out a physician. If he fails in that, he can try theology, or he may go into business of some sort, or anybody can go into politics. In Germany the case is widely different. The Government demands such a long preliminary training and such intense and laborious effort in preparation, that, by the time a man finds there is no place for him in the profession he has chosen, his elasticity has gone, and there is no desire or ability to try anything else. To take up another profession he has become too old, and to go into mercantile or industrial life he is forbidden by his ideas of social position and scholarly dignity. To such a man two courses are open—to drag out a bare existence, with many wants which his education has developed, but which he has no means of gratifying, or—to commit suicide. Many take the latter alternative,