The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-13
AFTER GRADUATION COMES
Ts what Shall the Young Man Set Himself s-The College Gradu- ate and the CorpOr-
 atfOns.

E.
 2 Washington Star.
 With commencement day but few weeks away many a college graduate 10 be is now facing seriously this question: How am I going to make use of the college training I have spent so many years to obtain? I am sup posed to have learned how to earn a living in those years; now how am i going to do it.
 The typical college graduate as por- trayed by the funny man of the news papers never has any mfsgiving about his future, or, if he is obliged to earn his own living, any doubt that he will be able to get good job without much delay. just because he Is q graduate. Occasionally the real graduate is very much like the humorists' type. and the present attitude of many of the country's greatest corporations and oth- CT employers towards the coming crop of graduates is such as measurably to encourage the type. For this year, as last, and for several years. in fact. cor poration agents of one sort and an- other are lowering pretty closely around the colleges, looking for likely young men who want jobs and have the ability to rise perhaps to executive duties.
 There is a speck in the amber, though which makes some of the prospective
 
 duly large--hesitate a little before talk ing up with the chances offered to them This speck is apprenticeship" and 1t seems distasteful alike to the athletic, the grind and the idler. though there are exceptions. For while the demand for new blood to reinforce the working force of mary of the country's great enterprises Is so great that they are reaching out eagerly for graduates. the latter must begin literally at the bottom of the ladder not only in the matter of pay, but also in the nature of their work. As one employing agent stated the case to certain college oficial the other day:
 we want about half dozen young men to pu. at work in the gang at wages that will barely support them till they find out something about us and we find out something about them. Wed rather have graduates than oth- CTS because they've been spending some time trying to learn to think and will probably catch cn' quicker and more easily thar others. We shall have to put them through a severe apprentice ship, and we don't expect them all to stand the test successfully enough to rise to places of trust and high pay within the first few weeks. but there are plenty of good chances for those who will go whole-heartedly at the work we offer"
 
 poration that operates department stores in two cities, each of more than a million inhabitants. and he began to visit various colleges looking for youngsters to put in the gang" early in March. He went straight to the col lege authorities, and told them in de- tall the sort of work he wanted to put the young men at to begin with, the pay they would receive and what would be expected of them. He made it clear that they would receive no special con sideration either in pay or kind of work because they were graduates; he didn't want them because they knew something about mathematics or Greek or any of the sciences. he didn't want them at all unless they were real men. and they would have to prove them selves such before they could look for promotion.
 His idea was that having worked several years to get through the college course, they would now be ready and able to pick up the hdmdrum work of earning q living with some enthusi- asm and the ability to learn the busi- ness at least. He said his company hadn't been very fortunate in it's at tempts to promote low grade employees, not college bred, to higher grades; now