The Daily Missoulian., 1911-06-04

zines OF today. Mr.. Wood is referring
to the state In which the average col
legc man finds himself when he goes
into the world to seek work. Mr..
| Wood pictures In n serio- comic way
the experience of the university man
who is fitted for nothing In particular,
who has a fine grasp of the higher
culture and very elemental under
standing OF anything that can support
his body. His latest article IL, indi-
rcctly. plea for technical education,
although the writer does not say so In
condition that obtains. The senior
packs his cap and gown away in
mothballs, slips his diploma In on top
OF these and goes to the head of some
great concern with the startling in
formation that he, the applicant for
work. Is n bachelor of arts. Strange
to say. the man with the job to give
out has no question concerning the
odes of Horace, but docs seem mighty
curious about certain details of the job
| hunters knowledge of practical me-
chanics or accounting. Then, II be-
gins to dawn upon the graduate that
he needs technical education or prac-
| tical experience, probably both. Then
also, he begins to regret the years
| spent I'm mental gymnastics with comic
| sections, deceased tongues. decayed
poetry and experimental chemistry as
turning poles and horizontal bars
The employer doesn't care about in
| tcllectual flip-fops: what he wants Is
| man who can work, honestly, rapid
| Iy and intelligently. The college man
can do this, of course, but he finds that
no must learn how. Thus. he starts
with handicap of from four to eight
years, way behind the men who went
to work instead of to college or high
school True It III that the college
|
drone who stumbled through his course
aimlessly, learns faster than the other
man. but handicap is on him In any
case.
Conditions OF today call for technical
education. The colleges and universi-
ties are recognizing this truth more
and more. Year by year now the
greater schools graduate young men 10
whom ovcralls and callouscd hands are
not strangers. alert fellows who com
bine technical information with prac-
teal experience. These OF our sons we
arc not throwing to the lions armed
with nothing better than their bare
hands.
Now, there graduate each year many
young men and women who desire to
do literary work." That's tho way
they put It, literary work" OF
course. In they cannot at once secure
"a position writing books for the firms
that publish the "bcst sellers" they
are willing to do newspaper work
This IL. OF course, Il very easy matter
and consists merely of going to q
newspaper office, getting job-papcr'
are always waiting to snap up bright
young graduatcs--and starting In. Tt
do what do these girls and boys start
II they do get IA job? Why. it's here
that they meet their first shock. The,
are sent TO all sorts of unlnterestinl
places TO get news that interests then
not at all, while a bald headed mar
who swears and smokes pipe. writes
the editorials and another of the same
remarks about 1t and wide. blue marks
on 1t. They find that they have no
learned to spell. even. in college ant
that the essay that won the senio
prize doesn't track very well with thu
concise style affected by the newspaper
In boiling the happenings of the whole
wide world for n day into a hundred
columns or so. Even here the college
graduate finds that he has to over
come the handicap of lack of expert
cncc. Tho college graduate Is throw
to the lions OF the newspaper offic'
without armor of any sort. without ;
knowledge OF what to do with hi
hands, even. The idea of technica
education for newspaper work Is OBJ
tanning firmer hold in the colleges
although this sort of work-for II L
work to help give birth to pape
every day or many times "A day--doc
not find its best men In the colleg
journalist.
Yet, 1t is safe to predict that the In
} stitutions of higher learning will b
sending out into the world men an
women with experience. OF n kind, a
} least, in real work before this gcncr
alton Is crowded into the grave.