EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS

Following a suggestion which seemed to contain within it much of value, an effort has been made to ascertain the educational advantages enjoyed by the people mentioned in this volume, as far as such statistics could be collated from the various autobiographical statements. In all there are 8,602 people embraced in the compilation. The educational inquiry has necessarily been kept down to certain defined limits, and only partial discrimination could be made. Thus it will be found that of the total, 3,970 are disclosed as educated in colleges and universities. Some of these have attended several colleges, but each name could only be counted once as to general education, and no account has been kept of post-graduate degrees or courses. Of the collegians about eighty per cent took baccalaureate degrees. This, of course, includes graduates of the smaller colleges as well as of the great universities.

The figures of those below collegiate grades indicate, in each case, the highest class of institutions attended by the number of persons enumerated.

The graduates in technical and professional schools are in some cases also enumerated in the statistics of general education, while in other cases physicians, clergymen, lawyers, etc., have given the details of their professional preparation, but have omitted all other reference to their educational career.

Those enumerated as having furnished no scholastic details are not covered by any of the other items, the absence of information in these cases including both general and special education. The figures ascertained are as follows:

3237 graduates of universities and colleges conferring bacca-
laureate degrees in letters, science or philosophy.

733 others attended like institutions but were not graduated.
693 closed their scholastic career in academies, seminaries
and other institutions of secondary grade.

79

finished in normal schools.

171 have a high-school education.

640 have merely common or public school education.

185

were privately educated.

20 are self-taught.

298

were educated in foreign institutions.

1307 furnish no educational data.

553 graduated in medicine.

265 graduated from technical schools as engineers, architects,
chemists, agriculturists, etc.

378

are theological graduates.

336 graduated from law schools.

109 graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy.

9 naval officers were not graduated as such.

162 graduated from the U. S. Military Academy.

35 military officers were not graduated as such.

29 artists received their education at the National Academy of
Design.

As to the last item it may be stated that it was found impracticable to designate in a general way the various degrees of artistic preparation either in painting, sculpture, music, the drama, etc., because these arts have in large measure been learned from individual instructors.

After presenting the figures, their significance must be largely left to individual deduction. Yet some features are especially prominent. Assuming that the names from which these figures are compiled represent a fair selection from the best known men and women of the country, they speak most convincingly of the value of education as a factor in success. The 1,307 who furnished no educational data include a large number of persons whose present occupations or avocations indicate that they, too, must have received the benefits of higher education, and if they had all supplied scholastic statistics the relative number in each grade would probably have undergone no material change. For purposes of comparison these and the 298 educated abroad may be eliminated, and only the first eight items and the naval and military graduates be considered, making a total of 6,029 out of a grand total of 8,602 in the entire list of names.

Of this 6,029 only 205 (20 self-taught and 185 privately educated) did not attend schools; and only 640 of the others stopped with the instruction they received in the public schools. This is no argument against the common schools of the country, however, because nearly all who are in the higher classifications began their education in public schools and from them passed into the academic and collegiate institutions. The strong fact is that so large a proportion of the whole have had the advantages of the higher education.

In regard to professional education it will be seen that there are only 336 graduates from law schools, although there are 860 practising lawyers represented in the book, and of the 847 clergymen in active pastorates and hundreds in other associations, only 374 are graduates of theological seminaries, showing that the special preparation in these professions has been very largely carried on under private tuition.

This educational inquiry might, of course, be carried much farther, so as to even more completely cover, as one scientific man suggests, "compiled statistics showing where the various people came from, and what sections and institutions had given us the most eminent men in the several lines." It might also be found what proportion came from the country and the cities respectively (doubtless with a preponderance in favor of rural youth), while as to present residence the balance would, without question, be in favor of city and suburban homes. It has not been found practicable for lack of time and space, to compile all these and other statistics suggested by an examination of the book, but a mention of them may serve to indicate many useful purposes to which it may be put, aside from its main object as a work of reference.

BIRTH AND RESIDENCE STATISTICS

The following table shows the birth-place and present location of the 8,602 men
and women biographically mentioned in WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA by States and
countries.