The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-10-14
THE DRAWBACKS OF a UNIyER-
SITY EDUCATION.


said the manager of one of our largest
city retail establishments, sis what to 10
with the army of college graduates who
constantly hesiege my Office in search fer
a place in the business. They are usual
ly men of from Twenty-Five TO forty years
Of age, who have spent seven or eight
years of the best part of their lives in
fitting themselves for what?-Doing moth
ing. They are university graduates who
have spent one or two years teaching or
studying law, or perhaps the ministry,
and have at last decided that their call
ing is business. He says he has had no
experience, but can easily learn the busi-
ness. I mentally ask myself why 1 have
not learned it after an experience of
fifteen years. But am behind with my
bookkeeping and ask him if he knows
anything about double entry. If he is
honest he will say mo- If not, I give
him a trial and he fails. Ny furniture
man wants some one to help him, but has
| already tried three inexperienced men,
anu WILL nave i1O AlOIG VI IIISIu. Lie
manager of the mail order department is
looking for a man. 4 send my applicant
there, and after a. short conversation
| with the manager, he comes back thor
oughiy convinced of. his own inability to
make himself usefullto the extent of even
small salary. at last set him to work
classifying goods returned on complaint,
at a salary of 81 per week. The chances
are that he will earn about So, and at the
end of fortnight asks for a raise, aid
on being refused. go away thoroughly
disguised with the firm, the business.
and the world.
"And yet if this man had started in the
same position at the same salary at the
| beginning of his college course, before
| the hope and the vigor of youth had been
Slapped out of him by hours of midnight
honorable and useful position in the busi-'
ness world y
The foregoing remarks are but a sam
pie of what business men learn to think
of the average college-bred man, and in
most cases it is not prejudiced opinion,
for these business men are very much
alive to the advantages of culture aid
refinement which university education
undoubtedly gives. They simply deplore
a lack of the capacity for business, which
in a great many cases seems to be the
result of higher education. The cause Of
this failure and it's remedy have become
serious question in American education.
That colleges ard universities are aware
of this deficiency ana are striving to rem
edy it is shown by the establishment Of
a chair Of business in the University of
Pennsylvania, the recent opening of the
Tucks school of administration and
finance at Dartmouth, and the report
on1 va few days since of our own uni
versity authorities upon the same sub
ject. But all ofstllese schools are for post
graduate work, and IN this fact will lie
their failure. The average age of a post
graduate student is, not less than TWEEN
ty-eignt CT thirty years. 1t is a well
known psychological fact that If the
habits which are toibe the handspring of
thought and aetfone in a man have not
been formed by the age of thirty the
chances are that they will never be
failure in business does not do so because
he has not as much native ability as the
successful business man who COM
menced work at the age of fifteen But
| age of fifteen and twenty-five when he
should have been forming habits OF bust.
| ness ne has been forming habits of abb
stract thought and reflection At the
age of twenty-eight or thirty he finds
that while these habits are sources of
great pleasure TO him, they will not earn
bread and butter. He at last turns to
business, only. to find that he has lost the
inclination and The power to apply him
self TO ii, and from the very nature of
things he fails. The remedy for this
state of things lies In an earlier settle
nlent for each boy of the course in life
or his father or guardian should have so
watched the inclination and bent of his
nature as to belable5o decide at the age
of fifteen what profession or calling he
! should enter FEoHb.that time on his edu-
cation should be- directed with a definite
| end in view and 70 aid him In this. in
connection with our high schools and pre-
paratory schools as well as colleges and
| universities certain well defined lines of
technical work should be maintained
along Wits the general courses, so that
when he is confronted with the great
problem of ming a living he may not
find himself handicapped by a surplus of
theory and lack Of practical experience.
THE FRUIT or :aBEnAL THOUGHT.
There was IN interesting and instruc-
tive incident in connection with the
Baptist conference in Meriden, Conn
last week. when the question of raising
fumes for the Baptist seminary In New
| ton, Mass, WAS under discussion. It was
announced that .Iohn p Eockefe;fsr had
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