Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/516

512 that the state can wisely permanently entrust the education of the individuals to any group of men or any group of interests. Logically this could only happen when the group interests become identical to the interests of the state.

The danger of permitting commercial interests to provide all education would be probably as great as the danger of extending that privilege to religious denominations. The commercial interests are not fearing a dearth in their supply of presidents and directors of their companies. These high offices can willingly be handed over to the friends and sons of the controlling millionaires. What they do want is trained labor. They want the stenographers who can give the greatest numbers of words for their money. They want draughtsmen who can give the most and best designs for a particular machine. They want in every case experts who can give the best judgment on a particular line of goods. It is of less than secondary interest to the factory owner, whether any of his employees can vote intelligently and conscientiously, or it may be stated more broadly that he little cares whether the men of his corporation are morally sound. Although it may seem a little inconsistent, he does want men who will not rob his cash register, or purposely endanger the owner's life. Consequently there are organized commercial interests at work in this country trying to get the universities to give the professional students a more narrow education than they now receive. They call it a more efficient education. They insist that it is scandalous that an engineering graduate is not worth more than twenty cents an hour to start, forgetting that the ideals and practises of society should be raised »to a higher level by the work of the university. The late Mr. Crane recently, in criticizing the professional education of the University of Illinois, stated that the cost of training was out of all proportion to the product. He figured that the really successful electrical engineer cost the state upwards of $18,000. My reply is that the electrical engineering profession to-day stands as a monument to good investment of money and energy in pure and applied science, and this without calling especial attention to the betterment of society by the better class of engineers.

On the other hand, if the church controlled education, the training would perhaps be so idealistic that there might be considerable doubt if any of the practical needs of the professions would be met. A really successful electrical engineer would not be produced at any cost. Church education, naturally conservative, would be entirely inadequate for the needs of our changing democracy, even if it should try to eliminate creed. The conclusion is that even if the preachers, the doctors, the dentists, or the engineers would furnish all the money to educate their kind, the state can not afford to risk giving them this privilege.

The plea is that the state university, as the only fit organ of the