LOADED DICE

"There are three kinds of lies," said Mark Twain, "plain lies, damn lies, and statistics." When the New York Times editorial, quoted in an adjacent column, shows by repeated examples that college graduates do not furnish nine out of every ten leaders in society, it is not to be inferred that this excellent journal has gone over to the opposition. It is safe to hazard the guess that if the New York Times had a son, it would send him to college. What the Times does assert is that Mr. Albert E. Wiggam has played with his figures and got the answer he wanted, but, like Goldberg's famous Bughouse Fables, they don't mean anything.

The Times condemns the current tendency to overestimate the value of a college degree. A general sloppiness of thought uses the terms "college graduate" and "educated man" as identities. In many instances they are the same, but not always. And never are they related as cause and effect. A college degree attests to nothing more than an extraordinary opportunity to become educated. It is post facto evidence that for a prescribed number of years a man has been subjected to unusual mental and spiritual stimuli. That is all. Whether he has responded in proportion to his capacity is an entirely different question, but this is the significant question, but this is the significant question which determines whether a man's college degree is something for him to be proud of or ashamed of.

"Man is endogenous, and education is his unfolding," said Emerson. If proof were needed that education is not the same thing as college training per se, the Times has given it in an imposing enumeration of untutored genius. Who will deny that these are the names of educated men? Yet their college degrees are all honorary, bestowed in recognition of achievement. Without the opportunities of college training, they rose to heights the average college graduate never ascends. The simple truth is that college cannot give a man genius, seriousness of mind and determination of purpose. A man must bring these to his task. Perhaps the greatest service a college can do is to awaken the man whose attitude is: "Here I am Educate me if you can"