The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-01-06
A LECTURE ON ECONOMY.
Collegians VS.. Apprentices-"Get-
ting the Eye Teeth Cut"

The question is often asked why edu-
Gated young men do not succeed as well
in obtaining employment as do boys
who have grown up in trade, and re-
ceived their education and experience
along with the hard knocks commonly
called "get,ing the eye teeth cut"
That the fact, as thus stated, is true can
not be denied. The precise reason
would, perhaps, be hard to find, but
there are many things which the mind
recurs to at once as having bearing
on the subject.
First, college bred young mon are
without experience on the practical
side of life. The pushing, alert bust
ness man is not particularly Impressed
with the value of college degree in
forecasting the market or determining
the value of "job lots" because he
knows business is not theory at all,
but hard fact. Then, too, collegians
often give themselves superior airs,
which do not go down with heir asso-
ciates, the majority of whom have re-
ceived honorable scars in their fight
with circumstances, and have little
tenderness for carpet knights. More
over, the impressionable and formative
period of life having been spent in the
school room. they have not acquire d
that alertness, that power to grasp q
business situation or problem and IN
stantly solve it. Nothing in their
school books taught them the shrewd
watchful readiness competition makes
necessary. Their refined mental dH-
cipline is almost useless, and at once
upon entering the field Of trade they
find they have great deal to unlearn.
| 1t is not to be denied that So clerk
ship and slow painful climb to bust
ness manhood must seem insulting to a
young fellow who can toss off Greek
he1ameters on call, or deliver an ora
ton in Ciceronian Latin. We are far
from denying the value of academic
training to the professional man, but
the tradesman's requirements are diff
ferent.
Take the young fellow who left
school as soon as he had mastered the
rule of three, and entered upon the
struggle for existence. His mind was
open to all impressions-he learned
business without knowing he was learn
1uS rs Cullu lcdIuS W Idih. ne uds
formed business habits unconsciousiy
His mind was moulded to alertness.
rapidity of thought, promptItude OF
action, the requirements of business
character. Let US illustrate. Take 8
little fellow of or 9 years, brought up
in a welI-regulated home, and place
him beside the street Arab, boot-black
or newsboy. On the score of mental
activity and practical knowledge and
shrewdness, the latter will run him to
cover in two minutes. Does not some
such difference exist between the edu-
Gated young man and the one to whom
bus ness has been a matter of daily life
since early youtt, which makes en-
ployers prefer the latter? Is there not
SONS way of combining an intellectual
with practical business training which
will insure to the benefit of all con-
cerned? We have no desire to disceur-
age intellectual ambition, but the ma
j0rity of mankind must work for theil
living, and the time to receive the neces
sary training for their work must, tt
accomplish the best result, be COM
menced in youth.-Balduin's Teztil
Designer.