COLLEGE LIFE EOR THE UNDERGRADUATE WHO EARNS HIS BREAD DESCRIBED BY A PROFESSOR WHO PLAYED JACK OF ALL TRADES

"Anyone can work his way through any large college and keep out of debt, but, were I to do it over again, I would not hesitate so much about borrowing, for I am quite convinced that, with less time spent on earning money, more profitable employment awaits all students."

The above quotation, taken from the accompanying article, represents the view of one graduate upon the college life of many working undergraduates.

The following article was written for the current number of the Alumni Bulletin by David J. Malcolm '13, Professor of Rural Education at the Northern Normal and Industrial School, Aberdeen, South Dakota. Professor Malcolm describes the experiences of a graduate of Harvard in working his way through college.

Hardly a day goes by without some of my students coming into the office to discuss ways and means of solving what is to them an eternal problem, the question of financing their own college education. With the hope that the experience of one student may serve as an inspiration for others, these few notes are being written. I will tell the tale as it was told to me, for I know that every word is true. The individual whose history I am taking the liberty of writing was doubly handicapped in that he was very lame in both legs and hence was unable to do manual labor and thus cut off from many kinds of work. Today he is a Professor of Education in a large western college.

"When I left grammer school, I planned to learn the printer's trade," he began. "I thought my lameness would interfere least with this occupation. All summer I looked for a job, but none turned up. So, when the schools opened in the fall, I drifted into high school, thinking that I could find a job as well while in school as out. Two years passed and I was still looking for that chance to learn the printer's trade.

"It never occurred to me to think of going to college, for I was one of many children, and my father, a low-salaried laborer, never enjoyed good health. Financial assistance at home was out of the question and it was even necessary for me to support myself while in high school, which I did by a variety of means.

Tried Printing in Spare Time

"The idea of being a printer was still with me, and when one day I learned that by selling a certain amount of soap, I could earn a small press, I knew that at last the way was open. Within a few hours I had orders for the soap, which amounted to $14, but to my sorrow, it was necessary to delay sending the order several weeks. My folks, however, squeezed this amount from the family income and permitted to send the money with the order. The printing outfit proved to be substantial and with it I managed to earn considerable cash, printing tickets and cards and small programs. And all the while I was thinking my work would help me find a job in a printing office.

"Near the end of the second year in high school, I secured a desk position in a library, and it was then that thoughts of college entered my head. But they came by accident, for no one in our family had ever gone to college, and such an education was for rich men's sons, according to the traditions at our house. One evening, as I sat puzzling over a lesson for the morrow, Professor Ira N. Hollis, who is now President of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, came and sat on my desk. During our conversation I told him that on the following day we should have to choose between the college and the general course and that I planned to take the latter. He advised me to take the college course in case something did turn up that would permit my going to college.

"Then you will be ready,' he said. I followed his advice. Two years later, in June, a brother lent me five dollars with which to the entrance-examination fee. Those words, 'Be ready' kept haunting me, although I still had no hopes of going to college. My school work hardly merited a scholarship, but a kind fate was on my side and a few days before college opened, I was granted my first year tuition fee in the form of a scholarship.

Enters in Debt, Graduates Clear

"Thus I entered college with a debt of five dollars. Four years later I graduated with all my expenses paid and with a balance of $1.75. During those years I had not borrowed a nickel and had received only a few dollars in the form of a Christmas present. The remainder of the money I earned as I went along.

"Among other things, I enlarged my printing outfit and during the summers I took it to a resort in Maine and opened my own job office. At the same time I served as night clerk in one of the hotels. For a while I printed the menu at Memorial Hall and taught night school, and for two terms I worked in the Library. I mended shoes and repaired bicycles, and to this day a certain Dean tells me with much gusto of the miracle I performed on his wheel while he finished dessert during the lunch hour with his family. I addressed envelopes and painted wagons. I sold the Lampoon for "Alex," and I wrote an article about the humor in "Mutt and Jeff" for the Boston American, I went without lunch sometimes and occasionally I wore two rubbers that belonged on the left foot. I rode an old bicycle to save carfare, for I hated debt and under no consideration could I bring myself to ask assistance from the loan fund.

"Then after four glorious years, came Commencement Day, and, dressed in my brother's blue serge suit, I heard my name read with the class of 19--. It had been a close race, but I had won. I did not owe a penny and I had a few cents in my pocket.

Freed From Anxiety by Dean Briggs

"Only once during the four years had the outlook seemed hopeless. That was in the spring of the senior year. The city in which I had been teacing night school ran temporarily out of funds and I could not collect my salary. I had purchased a supply of paper for a printing job which failed me, and a late spring kept snow on the ground so that carfares ate up my earnings as fast as I received them. One morning, as I went to classes, I spent my last cent on carfare. I wore two rubbers for the left foot, and the world looked gloomy indeed. To make matters worse, the mail man passed me a note from the Dean asking me to call at his office at noon, and I wondered what new troubles were about to descend.

"At the dreaded hour I knocked at his door, and told him my errand. He stepped into the hall and in a stammering way said. "I hardly know how to begin. Some years ago a man in the Law School died, and for several years his sister used to send me five dollars to give to some student who could not go home for Christmas Day. Recently, one of the men to whom I gave the five dollars returned, and gave me back the five dollars doubled. Now, I wonder if you would feel hurt if I should ask you to accept the ten dollars which he just gave me." To my dying day, I shall always wonder how Dean Briggs knew of my financial condition, for, as far as I can recall, this was the only time he spoke to me during my four years in College.

"With ten dollars in my pocket, with a change in the weather which permitted bicycle riding, and with the receipt of a check for evening school work, the financial burden of four years suddenly be- came light, and I was able to enter the activities of the last few months with perfect freedom.

"Anyone can work his way through any large college and keep out of debt, but, were I to do it over again, I would not hesitate so much about borrowing, for I am quite convinced that, with less time spent on earning money, more profitable employment awaits all students.

"So much, for financial matters. In every other respect I always felt that I was on an equality with my classmates. My intimate friends ranked from the sons of a university president down to my own neighbors, and never once did anything ever happen that made me feel poor or embarrassed. It is my experience that working one's way through college is considered an honorable endeavor by rich and poor alike.