Iron County register., 1891-10-15
BUSINESS TRAINING.
a Practica1 Education Preferable to c
steal Learning.


some years ago we had the pleasure
OF listening to a discussion between
two gentlemen regarding the training
y! tnelr sons. One of them was man
OF peculiar eecentricities. and the other
was man who did not have MANY
erochets or crankyisms. Both of them
We're wealthy, being very successful
BUSINESS men, self-made in every re-
spect Their views upon the matter
OF training their boys were wide
~ apart The first one was a
great believer in giving his son a
pialn, wholesome business education,
the other had deep-seated conviction
that his sons should have in every re-
spect most classical education, and
take professional line for their future
vocation. The arguments used by the
hrst In favor of the practical business
education were to our minds most val
liable and certainly unanswerable He
SAID that he had built up large and sue
cessful business and that his am bition in
life was to have his sons succeed him.
and for this reason he would
leave no stone unturned in order
TO equip them for their business
career. Latin he regarded as a
good thing for men who desired to waste
their time in studying the past; past,
ne said, that had become utterly useless
1or any practical purpose. The comfort
and happiness of mankind did not de-
pend upon the derivation of the word
or OF the translation of a Greek poem.
Inc past to him was absolutely useless
indeed, worthless, except for the expert
ence that it gave. While he had a re-
spect for many of the things, persons
and historical "reminiscences, his great
belief was centered in the future He
regarded man like Stephenson, or
man like Edison, as worth all the Homers
that history has ever produced. They
had given to the world something that
was practical benefit, that tended to
make the human race happier and bet
ter increase the comfort of mankind in
general. He was in every respect a
practical philosopher without knowing
It. We have hardly any necessity to
say that his sons proved to be all that
he could desire.
There is too much egotism in the par
ents of the present day. 1t is an
egotism that some may admire, but as
rule it results in considerable mischief
being done. 1t is generally conceded
that the majority OF successful business
men spring from the ranks, and manv
of these, while being sound on most
business transactions, have an ambition
that their sons must pursue different
course than follow in their footsteps.
The result is that many of the large
business houses which have existed for
a great length of time gradually get out
of the families that have made them
new blood having to be imported in
order to keep up their reputation and
standing.
Business training is quite as neces-
sary for successful business ventures as
military and naval training is to make
successful generals and successful ad-
mirals. We must grant that training
alone will make neither of these; there
must be some good groundwork and
material to work upon. Take the sea
captain as an illustration. You could
not take a fireman from the hold of the
ship and place him in command of
one of the large ocean steamers
without running a risk that would
be condemned and in MANY
cases criminally idiotic. Fancy man
who had been used to riding in a street.
car for every couple of blocks that he
had to go, getting up in the morning
just in time to bolt his breakfast and
jog to business, entering into a ten
mile race in competition with trained
athlete, and you can fancy what a RI
diculous exhibition he would make of
himself. There is the same relation
ship in business matters as there
is in any of the above illustra-
tions. Business education in many
of the higher schools is neglected
entirely for the sake of Greek and
Latin. We once heard a practical old
fogy say that there was more time
wasted on dead languages in our col
1eges than would make a nation
wealthy. There is great deal of truth
in what he says. and the time is not far
distant when our colleges will be to
certain extent remodeled. Indeed, the
remodelling is taking place gradually
and surely every day, and the sooner
our professors take a practical view of
the matter the better it will be for the
progress and development of the coun-
EDUCATIONAL Grocer