Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 61.djvu/248

242 problem, we find no help in 'Who's Who' since ancestry is not included. On the nurture side, which would mean education in its broadest sense, we find facts descriptive of certain phases only, namely those of the schools. How important a place they take in the education of the individual can never be determined with any degree of exactness, but even with a full recognition of the force of the home, the church, the state and the vocation, it must be conceded that their influence as an organized educational machine is very great. Facts bearing upon this influence are the ones principally furnished by 'Who's Who' and, together with those of age, the only ones considered here.

A mention of 8,602 names in the volume in question means, if we assume that every inhabitant of the United States above the age of twenty-one was eligible to such mention, that one in each six hundred was so honored. This then, would be our ratio of success for all degrees of education—good, bad and indifferent. We find, however, that of the whole number mentioned, 3,237 had received the bachelor's degree in arts, literature, science or philosophy at some college or university. But a study of the alumni lists of such institutions shows us that after the commencement season of 1899 there were 334,000 living graduates. A comparison of the number mentioned in the book (3,237) with this whole number alive shows us that one college graduate in each one hundred and six found a place. Here then we have the ratio of success for college graduates. But to carry our process of comparison one step farther: taking 1:600 as the ratio of success (the 'Who's Who' kind) for the adult American, and 1:106 as that for the college graduate, we find that the probability of success is increased more than 5.6 times by a college education. This relation is shown graphically in Fig. 1. This tremendous advantage can probably not be attributed entirely to the direct educational effect of such a training, but, to a considerable extent, to the selective influence of the course. Of the whole number of pupils who