thomas arkle clark, b.l., dean of men, university of illinois
i worked my way through college from necessity—i had to do so, or to give up the idea of having a college education at all. i had no ideas then concerning the great advantages of such a course.
when i was a little boy my father had formed the plan of sending me to college when i should have reached the proper age, but he died when i was scarcely fifteen years old, and my hope of ever securing a college education vanished. seven years later, when i was twenty-two, a chance experience renewed within me the desire to go to college, and i laid my plans accordingly.
i had little money, though i had been teaching school two years and had also been farming for myself. it seemed to me then, and i feel it much more strongly now that i have had an experience with hundreds of other students in a similar situation, that it would be better to delay beginning my college course until i had saved enough money to give me a good start. this i did, farming another year and spending an additional winter in teaching a country 9 school. when i was ready to enter college i had money, which i had myself earned, more than sufficient to pay all of my college expenses for two years.
i had not been in college long before i saw that the fellow with no special talent or training is very much handicapped in earning his living. such a man must take what work he can get, and must usually work at a minimum wage. often, too, the only work which he can get is mere drudgery. the man who can sing or can play a musical instrument well, the man with a trade, or a particular fitness for any special sort of work, can earn his living more quickly and more pleasantly than can the man who must confine himself to unskilled labor.
soon after i entered college a chance came to me to become an apprentice in the office of the college paper and to learn to be a printer. i did not need to earn money during my first year, so i entered the printing office, and gave myself to learning to set type.
i worked at the trade industriously during my leisure moments, the fellows in the office were quite willing to instruct me, and at the end of a year i had become so proficient that i was employed as a regular type-setter. in this way i earned satisfactory wages during the rest of my college course.
my connection with the college paper gave me an interest in newspaper work in general, and i soon had an opportunity to do reporting for one of the 10 city daily papers published in the college town. for this work i was paid a definite amount a column, with an understanding that the total amount of news which i should furnish each week should not exceed a set number of columns.
these two sources of revenue, together with small amounts which i was able to earn proved quite sufficient to furnish me enough money to meet my regular college expenses. they gave me, also, more pleasure than i should have been able to obtain had i been forced to earn my living by means of unskilled toil.
my summer vacations i employed on the farm. i had many rosy opportunities presented to me by solicitors who came to the university to earn possibly fabulous sums of money during the vacation by retailing their wares, but i preferred to work on the farm for two reasons: such work offered me a definite sum for my summer’s work, small though it might be, and i was in such a position that i felt that i should know what i could rely on. it gave me in addition three months strenuous exercise in the open air, and thus prepared me for the months of hard study that came through the college year.
as i look back now at the manner in which i earned my way through college, it seems to me in the light of the many years of experience which i have had since, a very good way. as i have watched the hundreds of self-supporting students at the university of illinois, i am led to the conclusion that it 11 is seldom a good plan to start upon a college course without money, even if one has to postpone going until that is earned. unskilled labor is unprofitable, and anyone who would succeed must have or must develop skill or training in some special work. lastly, it seems to me that the average man will find it very much better to employ his vacations in work that will bring him a definite and assured income, even though that be small, than to risk earning ten times as much, as a book agent, for example, where he is quite likely to fail.
urbana, ill.
