The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-06-11

mand for ColIege-TFatned Minds, Hs
 Affected by tho Present Tendency to
 Organization and Combination.
 A feature of the commencement ex- ercises of the University of Minnesota was an address by James B. Dill, a well-known corporation lawyer of New York, on "The Outlook for the College Graduate in America" MT. Dill said that there is an urgent call to-day for educated men and women having the qualities of promptness, courage, te- nacity of purpose, concentration and, chiefly, character. He began by speak ing of the places open to educated wo- men. He then contrasted the present theory of the business world as to col lege graduates with that held few years ago, when the time spent in col lege was regarded as wasted for those seeking a purely business career.
 Speaking of the effect of the corpora ton movement on the outlook, he said:
 The important point for the college graduate is that he must go into busi- ness or professional life affected by these aggregations and combinations. We see this tendency to organization and combination in every branch of business. We see it in the erection of great office buildings. bringing under one roof varied business interests than will be found in many small towns.
 Large universities are growing larger. In some aspects the university is an educational trust, combininb un- der a single management often the aca- demic department and schools of law, science, medicine, theology and fine arts. As indicating their growth, we find them calling for and receiving mill lions of dollars yearly for maintenance; we find the president of one of the large universities announcing to his gradua- ting class that he desires in the next year to raise ten million dollars. We find business houses combining until in the commercial centers the small storekeeper is almost thing of the past. We find a chain of newspapers, extending from New York to San Fran cisco, under a single control Railroads are combining into few vast systems. More startlingly, too, we find this ten dency to aggregation and combination in the financial interests of our coun- try. In no quarter is the present trust movement more in evidence than in the labor unions of the United States. The laboring man puts organization against organization upon the principle of the man who erects a twenty -four-story structure because his next-door neigh bor has built twenty-story structure.
 The assertion has been made that the doing away with the small independent manufacturer, the elimination of the small storekeeper, the apparent crowd ing out of the individual man in profes- sional work, is all against the college man. I cannot bring myself to believe that this is true. I believe that the tendency to organization, to combina- ton, has put demand on the college trained minds, has put premium upon the services of such men, and has made it easier than formerly for the college graduate to get started and to succeed in the world
 This view is opposed sometimes with IlIS ouSStStIull tpul l1iC lliCIl ol tO-ody who are at the head of the great com binations are not college bred men. That suggestion is answered by the fact that the men who are coming to the front are college men, and the men who are retiring and whose places they take are not college graduates. When the combination movement first gained headway there were chosen as eXecu- lives men who were personally familiar with the details of the business, not col lege men. It was necessary at the start to select men to control great organi- zation who were familiar with the de- tails of the business. who had had &C., tual experience. But the college man has come to the front with his trained mind and his trained body, and to-day is pushing off the throne those men who have not had the advantage of a college training.
 When the trust movement shall have steadied itself and when it shall have eradicated those tendencies which are, apparently, in the wrong direction, when it shall have increased and strengthened those elements which are right, then the men in charge of the great combinations and in executive positions will be the men who not only have a knowledge of the business, but whose minds have been broadly trained, and whose characters have been formed within university halls.
 The situation demands the employ ment of college men. The outlook from the corporate standpoint to-day beto-