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

over with one another they finally decided
week. was so high that there lust must
be something about that company which
was not quite right. So they all decided
to say no to the agent and stuck 10 their
decision TO a man.
High-Grade Men Seek Graduates.
1t shouldn't be understood that any OF
the firms or corporations which seek gradu-
ates as employees send low-grade agents
after them. Far from f.
The mission of selecting young men who
may rise to high executive places is alto
gether too important to be Entrusted to
any one OF less than unusual Intelligence
and standing with his corporation and
OFTEN an officer of the company will be
sent 10 round up the graduates
one insurance company sent out its gem
erat superintendent of agencies. big
manufacturing concern DESTROYS OF getting
some young men with brains and training
into its clerical department sent its vice
president; trunk line railroad company
mas the head of each general department
skirmtsh for himself after as many gradu-
ate% as he thinks he may be able TO place.
and so on.
annual quest for graduates by the larger
en- ployers has been going on for six or
eight years, II is still largely experimental.
The situation is that the demand for young
men above the average in training energy.
initiative and adaptability is greater than
the supply which was formerly drawn most
~ from the graduates not Of the colleges,
but from the lower grade employees. The
big employers hope that the experiment
will prove grand success. but they are not
yet sure that 1t will. What they will do
If Ii doesn't they don't know. Just now
they are studying the students with q
magnifying glass.
Some OF them have had rather bad luck
and are already on the point OF giving ie
hat "a ST "A
years of his college training, lives a life so
utterly different from the everyday life OF
the world that he lacks practicability, sense
of responsibility and the ability to buckle
down to a steady routine OF work for the
long hours that. are often required. The
students time Is divided daily between sew .
eral subjects which give variety. He goes
from lecture room to lecture room; he
doesn't have to grind hard at one thing
hour after hour. day after day and week
after week as he does in business and he
doesn't have to give and take with others of
all grades as he does when working MEM
Der of the gang employed in a big de-
partment store, for instance 7
Often, while an undergraduate, he feels
and displays a certain antagonism toward
the discipline of the college; when he dis
plays a similar spirit toward his superior
In business his usefulness is questioned at
once. A few employers of graduates have
been so unfortunate as to introduce young
men of this type into their working force.
and naturally such employers have lost
some of their enthusiasm for college men.
Apprentice Schools for Graduates.
A few years ago three OF the greatest
electrical corporations in the country MAIN
tanned apprentice schools for technical
students who wished to go into electrical
work. They took undergraduates as well
as graduates for the summer vacation. and
paid them $40 a week each. These schools
attracted much attention and were the SUBJ
tect of many enthusiastic write ups as
the practical solution of a very difficult
problem
None of these schools. in the form they
were established will be opened next sum-
mer the reason given that the percentage
of the practically minded among those who
joined them was too small to make the
scheme profitable one. Besides, it used
to take all summer long to get them into
such shape that they wouldn't destroy more
value in material than their pay. Just IS
they were beginning to show possible future
usefulness they had to go back to school
Two OF these electrical Corporations,
have been informed, have abandoned tho
students apprentice school altogether; the
third has established a modified apprentice
school not restricted to students and made
It's term two years instead of a few weeks.
Technical graduates not students who have
10 return to school are not barred, but they
cannot enter simply because they are TECH
nical students.
This means that the electrical corpora
tons nave round that Wflle the training OF
the schools is undoubtedly advantageous to
the young men of determination and ability,
it doesn't make g. man out OF a mtlksop,
nor does it give ability to the inefficient.
Everything considered however, II is true
that the value of college graduates in all
sorts of practical life is recognized by many /
employers who were decidedly prejudiced
against them only a few years ago. It is
true also that the college authorities are
trying harder than formerly to make prac-
teal men out OF their undergraduates. and
also to help them more than in past years
to make a start in real life after leaving
college.
On the whole, the college graduate in .
America is making good. and Is bound to
be a bigger feature in the practical life Of
the country in the years to come than he
has ever been IN the past