UNDERGRADUATE EXPENSES AT HARVARD.--A physician has written me to know
what the annual expense is for an undergraduate at Harvard College.
The inquiry is made that he (the querist) may know somewhere near what
it will cost to send his son to that institution. Thinking that others
of the _Journal's_ readers might like to know what a literary (or
liberal) education costs at a first-class college, I have looked up
the present cost, and by comparing it with my own, thirty-five years
ago, I find that expense has increased from year to year, until now it
requires about $550 to $600 annually to cover tuition, room-rent,
board, and common running expenses. A boy might squeeze through for
$400 a year, but he would have to pinch and be niggardly, if not mean.
The $550 or $600 would not cover vacation expenses and society dues,
therefore the larger sum ought to be reckoned as the cost annually for
a Harvard undergraduate at the present time. And upon inquiry, I find
that about the same amount of money is required by an undergraduate of
Yale. Board in New Haven is the same in price as in Cambridge. For the
four years' course, then, there should be provision for $2,500. Rich
students spend a $1000 or more each year, but they do not embrace ten
per cent. of the classes. The average student when I was in Harvard
expended $350 to $400 a year--a cost which did not cover vacation
expenses and society matters. I will venture the remark that as high
an order of scholarship can be obtained at "Western" colleges as in
Harvard or Yale; and that the expense of student life would not be
two-thirds as much. Why, then, take the extravagant course? The _name_
and _fame_ of an institution count for something. A recently founded
college may not live long; it has to be tested by time before
_prestige_ can be attained. Universities have to be endowed before
they can command the best talent of the world in teachers. The fees
obtained from students will not pay the expenses of a first-class
literary institution.
Lastly, an education of a high order does not insure success in life,
but, other things being equal, the man of learning has the best chance
to win in the race we are running.--_Eclectic Medical Journal_.
EUROPEAN WAGES.--Senator Frye said in a public address in Boston: "I
say from all my observations made there, and they were made as
carefully as I could make them, and in all honesty of purpose, there
is only one country in Europe that comes within half of our wages, and
that is England, and the rest are not one-third, and some not within
one-quarter, of our wages."
INDIA AS A WHEAT PRODUCER.--"Consul-General Bonham says she is a
dangerous competitor of the United States. The report of Consul-General
Bonham at Calcutta, British India, treats at length of the wheat
interests of that country. The area devoted to wheat in 1886 was about
27,500,000 acres, and the total yield 289,000,000 bushels. As compared
with the wheat of the Pacific coast, the Indian wheat is inferior, but
when exported to Europe it is mixed and ground with wheat of a
superior quality, by which process a fair marketable grade of flour is
obtained. The method of cultivating the soil is in the main the same
as it was centuries ago, and there seems to be great difficulty in
inducing the farmer to invest in modern agricultural implements, and
yet, with all the simple and primitive methods, the Indian farmers
can, in the opinion of the Consul-General, successfully compete with
those of the United States in the production of wheat. This is due to
the fact that the Indian farmer's outfit represents a capital of not
more than $40 or $50, and his hired help works, feeds, and clothes
himself on about $2.50 a month. The export of wheat from British India
has increased from 300,000 cwt. in 1868, to 21,000,000 cwt. in 1886,
and the increase of 1886 over 1885 amounts to about 5,000,000 cwt.
"The Consul-General says that some of his predecessors have
claimed that the United States has nothing to fear from India as
a competitor in the production of wheat. In this view he does
not concur, and believes that to-day India is second only to the
United States in wheat-growing. Furthermore, wheat-growing in
India is yet in its infancy, and its further development depends
principally upon the means of transportation to the sea-board.
He fears that with the cheap native labor of India and the
constantly growing facilities for transportation, the United
States will find her a formidable competitor as a producer of
wheat."
INCREASE OF INSANITY.--I have repeatedly referred to the increase of
insanity and crime under our heartless system of education. It is
illustrated by every collection of statistics. The increase between
1872 and 1885 was, in Maine, with five per cent. increase in
population, in ten years, 23 per cent. increase in insanity. In New
Hampshire, 13 per cent. in population, 55 in insanity. In these two
States insanity increases four times as fast as population. In
Massachusetts, population 33 per cent., insanity 91 per cent. In Rhode
Island, population 40 per cent., insanity 94 per cent. In Connecticut,
population 23 per cent., insanity 194 per cent. The total number of
insane in New England has increased from 4,033, in 1872, to 7,232, in
1885,--an increase of 3,199 in 13 years. Such are the estimates
prepared from official reports by E. P. Augur, of Middletown, Conn. Is
it possible by the repetition of such statements as these to rouse the
torpid conscience of the leaders of public opinion to the necessity of
a NEW EDUCATION?
TEMPERANCE.--According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the
annual consumption of liquors per capita in the United States, from
1840 to 1886, shows a reduction in the consumption of distilled
spirits to less than one-half of the average between 1840 and 1870.
The most marked decrease was between 1870 and 1872. The consumption of
wine has averaged, from 1840 to 1870, about one-eighth as much--since
1870, from 30 to 40 per cent. as much, but the consumption of malt
liquors, which in 1840 and 1850 was little over half that of spirits,
has rapidly risen until, in 1886, it was nine times as great, the
number of gallons per capita being of spirits, 1.24; wines, 0.38; malt
liquors, 11.18. The total consumption of liquors of all sorts has
risen from 4.17 gallons per capita in 1840, to 12.62 in 1886. The
consumption of malt liquors per capita has increased fifty per cent.
in the last seven years.
The tax collected on whiskey for 1886-87 was $3,262,945 less than for
the previous year, and the tax on beer was $2,245,456 more than for
the previous year.
"Chevalier Max Proskowetz de Proskow Marstorn states that in
Austria inebriety is increasing everywhere on a dangerous scale.
The consumption of alcohol (taken as at 10 per cent.) was 6.7
litres a head in a population of 39,000,000; but in some
districts 15-1/2 litres was the average (4-1/2 litres go to a
gallon). In all Austro-Hungary there was an increase of nearly
4,000,000 florins in the cost of alcohol in 1884-85 over
1883-84. In 1885 there were 195,665 different places (stations,
gin-shops, and subordinate retails) where liquors were sold. In
districts where the most spirits are used there were fewer fit
recruits."
FLAMBOYANT ANIMALISM.--In Boston, which sometimes calls itself our
American Athens, the highest truths of psychic science are daily
neglected by the more influential classes, while races, games, and
pugilism occupy the largest space in the daily papers, and a leading
daily boasts of its more perfect descriptive and statistical record of
all base-ballism as a strong claim to public support.
The pugilist Sullivan is the hero of Boston; he received a splendid
ovation in the Boston Theatre, with the mayor and other dignitaries to
honor him, and a belt covered with gold and diamonds, worth $8,000,
was presented, besides a large cash benefit. His departure for England
was honored like that of a prince by accompanying boats, booming
cannon, and tooting whistles, and he is said to swing a $2000 cane
presented by his admirers. How far have we risen in eighteen centuries
above the barbarism of Rome? There is no heathen country to-day that
worships pugilism. Perhaps when the saloon is abolished, we may take
another step forward in civilization. London has rivalled Boston,
giving Sullivan a popular reception by crowds which blocked up the
principal streets.