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A  Study  of  Student  Loans  and

ing  the  borrower  with  too  great  a  load  of  responsibility  in  meeting  the
Obligation  after  graduation,  it  is  encouraging  to  consider  the  vastly  greater
service  over  a  restricted  fund  that  the  revolving  fund  will  render  worthy
boys  and  girls  throughout  the  country  in  their  struggle  for  an  education.
This  view  of  the  business  loan  makes  a  strong  appeal  to  the  potential  donor
of  a  fund  who  wishes,  quite  naturally,  to  see  a  given  amount  serve  a
maximum  degree  of  usefulness.  There  has  come  to  be  a  general  realization
  that  the  casual  administration  of  Student  aid  is  all  too  likely  to  have
a  bad  effect  on  the  Student  who  is  allowed  to  slack  in  the  payment  of  his
first  loan,  and  that  the  real  responsibility  for  the  resulting  character  disintegration,
  however  subtle,  falls  upon  the  group  dispensing  the  assistance.
In  the  creation  and  development  of  its  unique  theory  and  System  of
making  loans  to  students,  the  Harmon  Foundation  has  been  working  in
virgin  soil  and  has  turned  up  and  brought  to  light  many  curious  facts,
starting  with  the  widely  diverse  attitude  of  educators  and  others  toward
the  forms  that  Student  aid  should  take,  and  ranging  from  a  balanced  judgment
  to  pure  sentimentalism.
The  unusual  and  unexpected  has  been  found  in  the  widely  varied
intellectual  group  of  prospective  borrowers,  varying  from  the  normal
Standard  to  be  expected  of  juniors,  to  a  level  very  little  above  that  of  the
grammar  school.  The  uses  to  which  borrowed  money  has  been  put  have
also  been  most  curious,  as  well  as  many  other  qualities  totally  unexpected
in  a  homogeneous  group  of  College  men  and  women.  Nothing  has  been
more  marked  than  difference  in  the  concept  of  Obligation  which  develops
at  the  time  repayment  should  begin.  This  ranges  from  a  most  admirable
attitude,  comparable  to  that  of  experienced  business  men,  to  utter  childishness—a
  Situation  which  indicates  that  this  side  of  education  has  been
completely  neglected  among  some,  leaving  many  a  young  man  in  the
kindergarten  age  as  far  as  his  knowledge  of  what  is  and  will  be  expected
of  him  by  society  is  concerned.  It  is  an  arraignment  of  the  influences,  or
lack  of  them,  somewhere  in  the  young  man’s  career—negligence  perhaps—
that  makes  progress  unnecessarily  difficult,  and  doubtless  results  in  very
many  unnecessary  wrecks  of  reputations.
A  single  illustration  is  here  given  of  the  flippant  attitude  of  a  young
man  who  had  borrowed,  completed  his  course,  and  received  his  degree.
He  had  had  a  year  in  which  to  get  a  foothold,  had  received  repeated
requests  to  remit,  and  only  when  he  was  informed  that  the  matter  would
be  turned  over  for  legal  attention  was  the  following  letter  received:
If  you  know  of  any  way  to  get  money  where  it  isn’t  by  legal  process
your  attorney  is  a  genius.  I  will  pay  as  soon  as  I  am  able  but  I  cannot  do
the  impossible.