< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu
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THE DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGE

cerning registration blanks in which membership in orthodox churches kad not been indicated. The first extract is as follows:

It will not help you. . . that you are a member of the Universalist church. . . . Sometimes employers will go so far as to state that they want a member of the Methodist, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, or Baptist church, these four being the most common of the so-called orthodox churches.

It is of interest to note in passing that this agency discovered by business experience what we have above shown by statistics, as to what denominations control most of the colleges. In our statistics, Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists lead, Roman Catholic, which evidently does not employ the aid of agencies, or of this particular agency, to any noticeable degree, being fourth. In our statistics Lutheran and Christian come next, followed by Congregational. The reason that Congregational seems to this agency to rank with the three first quoted will doubtless appear from the latter part of this article. Another extract from a similar letter is as follows:

It is likely, however, that you will be handicapped there, as you will be handicapped in most colleges, by your lack of church membership. Have you never been a member of a church? You understand that most colleges are directly or indirectly connected with some church, and as a general rule the president insists upon membership in some church.

An extract from a third letter reads as follows:

You are handicapped for the majority of positions for which you would otherwise be eligible because you are not a member of a church. We had a letter to-day from. . . that is in no way sectarian and yet they absolutely demand in the teacher they desire a member of some protestant church. Frequently the denominational schools make no requirement as to a particular church but do demand membership in some church.

Let us now return to a statistical consideration of the private educational institutions. We have noted that of the 620 such colleges, listed in the U. S. Commissioner's Report, tables 29, 32 and 34, 417 are avowedly denominational. Of the remaining 203, 99 are quoted as non-sectarian, while four are not specified. In the catalogues of three of these four, the claim is made that they are non-sectarian, thus bringing the number of such colleges up to 102. From the definition of denominational or non-sectarian college which we have accepted, it follows that any college which conforms to all or even half of the four clauses of this definition may not be called non-sectarian. Stating this affirmatively, we find that: Any college which (1) was founded by a private citizen or organization of citizens, and which (2) conducts devotional exercises at least five days in the week at which student attendance is "required," or "expected" or "urged" or not distinctly stated as "voluntary" in its catalogue, may not rank as non-sectarian, in spite of any claims it may make to that effect, but must rank as a denominational college. In case a college was privately founded, but

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