The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-02-22
COLLEGE EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS
MEN

We keep on increasing the number and
enlarging the equipment of our colleges
and universities and the attendance at
them increases much faster than the total
population. At the same time we con-
tinue to debate the question, Is college
education help or impediment to
business man? The latest attempt to ar
subject has been made by R. I. Crane,
Chicago manufacturer. Mr.. Crane has
issued a little pamphlet in which he sets
forth his inquiries, the answers and con-
clusions In his Introduction he says:
The question whether an academic, or even
a high school course, is of benefit to young
men who have to make their own way in the
business world and intend entering upon
commercial life, is one of such vital impor-
lance and is surrounded by SO much doubt
that it is high time it thoroughly in
vestigated, for, if the facts are as many
believe, these institutions are a most stu
pendous mistake. if not positive injury to
this class of young men.
After remarking that, important as the
subject is, there has never been a sub
stantial contribution of facts, but merely
Of theories, guesses and opinions, he sets
forth his method of inquiring for facts
from university presidents, recent college
graduates and large employers. AS he de-
fines the object of his investigation it was
to ascertain:
The utility of academic education for
young men who have to earn their own ltv-
ing and who expect to pursue commercial
life. -r
Mr. Crane is evidently friend of tech
meal education of all kinds, his game is
the pure academic course. 1t becomes
evident early in his pamphlet that he is
personally convinced that an academic
education is a dead loss to business
man, and that is the conclusion he ar
rives at after weighing evidence that is
largely against his theory. He disposes
Of it by declaring that it is inconsistent
evidence. He means by that that when
railroad president says that he thinks
that college education tends to make
better railroad man and then admits that
he has few college men on his pay rolls
he is giving his theory instead Of his act
ual practical judgment as demonstrated
in his business.
The statement to Mr.. Crane, made by
President E. P. Ripley Of the Atchison,
Topeka & Santa Fe railway, may be
taken as typical of the replies of most Of
the employers. He says in part:
l am of the opinion that college graduates
are better equipped for general work, men
tai caliber and habits being the same, than
uOncollegiateS. -
Their mental processes are more likely to
be accurate; they have generally clearer
perception of the fitness of things, and can
meet the public and deal with other men
upon rather better plane than man who
has not been through college.
He then adds that while ordinarily he
would give a college graduate the prefer
ence yet it must be remembered that in
many instances the man who has the four
years of practical experience in a given
business, as against the man who has
had four years OF academic education,
may be better equipped for the purposes
of that particular business. III
Mr.. Crane is not consistent himself in
discrediting the value. of the answers
given him by so many employers because
lege men themselves. He forgets that
only one man in a hundred is a college
man. Hence If an employer has, as many
of them have, as many of S per cent of
their force college men, they have more
than demonstrated the courage Of their
convictions. Moreover in the very nature
of things the bulk of men in business life
must be other than college men so long
as the bulk of the population is without
college education. So long as the great
mass of our boys plunge into business at
16 while the few go on to college, pro-
motion by priority and the right and
natural tendency to favor employees for
promotion to the better places, instead Of
giving them to new men, operates against
the college man. 1t is not altogether dis
credftable to the college man that he
doesn't like to begin as an Office boy and
run errands for his playfellows Of four
years before. Even il he hadn't gone to
college he would hesitate to take posi-
ton as an Office boy after he had come of
age. There can be no doubt, then, that
in this way a college education is handi-
cap to the self-dependent young man who
wishes to enter business. He has lost a
great opportunity to grow up with bust
ness. His chances of getting In are
much less than those Of the man who
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