Named a trustee in 1845, he supervised construction of the first college building in 1848.
In that year, the antislavery movement was sweeping across Wisconsin, and White was caught up in the excitement of the time. He and his schoolmates joined parades, carrying banners and shouting, "Free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men." Later, White recalled that this explosion of antislavery sentiment inspired him to become a journalist so that he could continue the fight.
In 1849, at the age of fifteen, White entered the third class of Beloit College, where the aptitude for economics that would be the hallmark of his career was sharpened. A course for seniors called "Moral Philosophy" was actually a course on political economy; it was taught by the college president, Aaron L. Chapin. Chapin was a friend and disciple of the Reverend Francis Wayland, a pioneer in American economic theory, and he used Wayland's Elements of Political Economy (1837) as his text.
White graduated with honors from Beloit in 1853 and went to work for the Chicago Evening Journal in 1854. Most of his early reporting was of the commercial activity of the city; this experience was a valuable apprenticeship for his later career.
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