The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-06-25

a
ond district has an opportunity for a
square-toed tariff fight at it's republican
congressional primaries this year.
Does a College Course Pay?
Is it worth while for a young man
who expects to pursue a commercial
rather than a professional career to
go to college?
It may be q little late to raise this
question. 1t would seem to have been
settled In the affirmative. The an
swer Of experience is YES But this
ly recent experience. twenty-five
years, or even twenty years, ago an
application by a college graduate for
a place in a commercial house or fac
tory was unusual, and was likely to
be received with surprise and preju-
dice.
Today, however, the situation is
different. The reason for the change
is that the college man has made
good, and when a young man makes
good in a position requiring technical
skill or business capacity, that's all
there is to it. 1t doesn't make any
difference what his antecedents are
or what his preparation may have
been.
H. j. Hapgood, writing in the Sat-
urday Evening Post, says that TWEEN
ty-flve years ago less than 80 per cent
Of college graduates went into bust
ness, and that when any Of them sue
ceeded it was considered very COM
mendable to have overcome what was
regarded as handicap college ed
ucation. Today he says, so per cent
of the college graduates enter bust
ness and have little difficulty in get
ting there. He cites an instance Of
one Of the largest electrical manufac-
turing concerns in the world which
began hiring college men ten years
ago and is now engaging annually
over one hundred of them. This con-
Germ reports that during this period
1t has kept a careful record of the
progress made by the new employees,
which shows that 80 per cent Of the
| college men have made good, while
only 10 per cent Of the non-college
men have succeeded.
OF course, it will not be contended
here or anywhere that a college
course will insure every man business
success. What seems to be supported
however, by the facts is that the col
lege man has received training dur
ing his college course which greatly
aids him to meet the demands made
upon him in business. A man who
really amounts to anything in college
learns there to work, and to work not
simply eight or ten hours day, but
often twelve or fifteen hours a day
A man in college, too, is thrown upor
his own resources and is taught as {
i lad to be self-reliant and independent
Most college students, too, are re
stricted in their expenditures anG
learn something about economy anc
, how to use money. Another point
i doubtless, is the fact that the college
( man comes to his work little late1
usually than a man who has no
i stopped to take the college course blu
has gone into business less mature ant
with less mental development, SO tina
his progress after he gets started i
likely to be more rapid and his imi
tations are not SO soon arrived at.
Some of these things help to ex
plain the reader access of the colleg,
man to business avocations, for GER
tainly, there is no philanthropy in tn
countinghouse which opens the door
to the college man in preference t.
any other. Any advantages which h
may enjoy there or anywhere in TIN
business world must come from bette
preparation for it than that which i
possessed by the man who has lacked
, the advantages of intellectual train
ing which the college is supposed t.
give. A good deal, it might be added
depends on what kind Of colleg
course is taken and perhaps some
+ thing, of the greater inclination on tn
, part of the college man to go int
, business rather than into a profes
sion as well as his increasing success
there is to be credited to the NOR
+ practical college course which i
, now available to the student.
Mr.. Dunn did not succeed In gettin
any taxes for the 271,000 acres Of tn
7 Bierman land grant, but he did succee