The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-01-28
The College Man in Business

Grand Forks, NJ. D, Jan. 2s.-one OF
the best addresses before the North
Dakota Retail Hardware association
was delivered by President Frank l..
McVey of the state university He
spoke in part as follows:
1T is generally accepted that the
methods of doing business have been
completely changed in the last thirty
years The old fashioned general store
is making way for the specialized bust
ness concern, and the method of distrib-
uting products has been materially al
tered through the development of ex-
press and mail order business. In the
field Of manufacturing the apprentice
ship system Of the earlier day is giving
way to the new rapidly developing
trade school. In retail business com
petition is more severe, and the de-
mands made upon men engaged in
business to keep their enterprises go
ing are greater than at any period in
their business history
When asked what was the essen
tial thing in business, men have re-
piled again and again in one word
brains. To this answer should be add
ed two other qualities,--accuracy and
Imagination. These are, however, de-
pendent upon the possession of the
first. When brains are mentioned the
speaker has in mind the power 70
think, to analyze conditions, and to
come to conclusions that are more or
less correct Accuracy has reference
to the ability to accomplish results in
a yfunn Fr1n vry14tfn INA eyFNa aFg lie 1zn
power to see beyond the mere things
that surround a man in his business
experience
These three things being required
in the field Of business today, the ques-
ton arises how and in what way does
the college of the present time assist
in developing them. The power to
think Is one that is materially develop
ed by the practice Of thinking, and no
where can this be attained with more
satisfactory results than in the college.
1t is more than the practice of thinking
in the narrower sense. IT is the giving
to the individual of an attitude toward
facts, instilling in him an ability to
discriminate between what is cause
and what is an effect. Moreover, the
man who goes to college is brought
into association with men of equal age
and position, and Is compelled at the
very beginning to find a place for him
self in the strictest and severest kind
of competition. Cut Of this assocla-
ton comes a broader, more liberal atti-
tude toward things, with some knowl-
edge Of how TO develop organization,
both social and business, which has
been the result of his student rela-
tons.
TN this matter Of imagination col
lege training brings to the attention of
the student a great many things that
were never known to him befor7 in the
field of science, of ar: and Of literature
and stimulates his ability to perceive
what he had not been able to see prior
to this experience Many examples
might be cited of the truth of this
statement.
THE criticism which has been made
of college training is, in word, that
of over education. Men say that the
college student is over educated, be
cause he refuses or fails to begin at
the bottom of an enterprise. But in
reality there is no such things as
over education. No man can + too
much learning or too much KIN re.
But there is such thing as under
training of will power The two are
not necessarily associated together,
however. College training strengthens
the will rather than weakens 1t. al
though there are examples Of men who,
with all their learning, had insufficient
will power to use 1t advantageously.
Bad habits and temptations are
made the basis of another criticism.
But think 1t may be said without fear
Of contradiction that the morality of
the men in colleges is materially high
err than 1t is of any group of the same
size and number. But college is not the
place for every boy. The boy who has
no inclination whatever for study, who
is lazy and loafer should not under
any circumstances be sent to college.
I'm the modern fields of business or