Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-21

ber-only very few are willing to think
about 1t at all. Most of them want to be
professional men OF one sort or anothr.
Twenty-six have declared for the law
which means more years of schooling
seventeen for medicine, six for engineering
civil electrical or mechanical-nine for
teaching, three for the ministry-aIl of
which also mean more schooling-and TWEEN
ty-two for business Business in the
vocabulary OF the authorities OF this par
ticular university includes banking book
and magazine publishing, newspaper re-
porting and some other things, banking
being In the lead-not straight banking ex-
actly, but banking of the sort that includes
extensive dealing in bonds Two or three
prefer insurance-the percentage being
much smaller than last year. before the In
surance exposures-and possibly two or
three will take up with the department
store offer. More than a quarter of them
all are still undecided.
1t seems hardly probable that the de-
partment store company will be able to get
as many graduates as 1t wants to enter its
employ, though II has made application at
several colleges and universities for the
average college graduate doesn't like the
idea of going into trade" to say nothing
of beginning as member of the gang"
Railroads After Graduates.
Some of the great trunk railroad lines
have agents visiting the colleges on the
lookout for graduates who may be made
available as wheels In the big transporta-
ton machine, and undoubtedly a fair per-
centage of this years crop OF college men
will enter railroad offices. Graduates from
technical schools, engineering or otherwise,
are not now alluded to, but college gradu-
ates proper. taking either the classic or
scientific courses. so-called.
Inc demand for technical students Is
still greater than for collegiate gradua tes
pure and simple, but If the latter demand
continues to increase as it has in the past
two or three years Ii will soon outrun the
former. 1t Is the opinion of some employ
ers VINO have experimental with technical
graduates that they sometimes have to I'M
learn too much before they are ready TO
take life practically.
1t cannot be said that many prospective
graduates take very kindly to employment
In railroad offices. The pay at beginning
is small. and for some reason an impress
sion seems to have gained ground among
them that the promotions are reserved
mainly for the young sons and other rela-
tives of railroad officials and directors This
is bolstered by the stories of the rapid rise
within the last twenty years, of a number
of young men belonging to railroad farni-
lies" from the lower levels to the highest
grades, while the great majority of those
without the pull of consanguinity have been
obliged to peg away at very ordinary jobs
and very moderate pay
Big railroad men say the students at
tttude Is all wrong, and 1t is a fact that
within the last six months one Of the big
trunk lines has advanced two men who en-
tered Its employ as college graduates, with
out pull, less than ten years ago, to very
high places.
College Men in Insurance.
Two or three years ago the insurance
companies made a great play for college
graduates. They established departments
which were practically schools for instruc-
ton for them. The graduates were selected
carefully and placed in various agencies
where they would be under the eye of ex-
pertS for two or three months, instruction
as to the art of soliciting being dinned into
them morning, noon and night-besides Sum-
days, sometimes.
During this period each was paid $500
a week; at its close those who showed apti-
tude and energy were generally placed on
the footing of regular soliciting agents
though occasionally one would be put to
work in some other department Those who
did not do fairly well were released at
the end of a few months.
There Is small country college whose
students are mostly young men from farms
and villages. upon which an employing
panies swooped down two or three years
ago, convinced that he had made a find"
of an institution likely to yield quite
hurdle of agency timber which the other
companies would be pretty sure to over
look. He went early to the remote but
really delectable little city In which the
college is located and stayed long. devoting
his best energies to the cultivation of the
prospective graduates.
But, despite all his pains he didn't sue
coed in getting a single one OF the young
men to enter his company's employ. Why?
Well, the boys were pretty we'll taken with
the proposition at first, but on talking it