Ah, Youth, Youth

A college education, once the privilege of the very few, is now being enjoyed by six times as many individuals as was the case during the last generation, recent statistics prove in establishing the fact that enrollment in our colleges, universities, professional and technical schools has jumped 600 per cent. Today 18 per cent of our population of college age is registered at institutions of higher learning. In 1900 a bare 3 per cent enjoyed such advantages.

The figures are significant. Chancellor Chase, of New York University, has pointed out that higher education "has ceased to be a matter of privilege for any class or group; it has become an opportunity for the many. And it bids fair to remain such an opportunity."

With the influx of youth to advanced educational institutions there has come a demand for a wider definition of the liberal education. Investigations by a government survey indicates that the average number and variety of courses offered today, compared with those of 25 years ago, is 500 per cent greater. And, in proportion, the range and variety of opportunities open to the average graduate are far more extensive today than was true 25 years ago.

On the whole, our institutions of higher learning have kept pace with swift-moving progress. Here and there appear isolated charges to the contrary, as for example, the recent attack on the Harvard engineering school. In the continuous extension of higher education -- liberal and technical -- to greater numbers of American youth lies one promising route to this country's salvation. A college education is not longer, as in the last decade, a privilege -- modern youth has found it an essential factor toward success. --The Dartmouth.