The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1914-07-30
THE LIFE CAREER. ("


sued by the Oregon Agricultural Col.
leRe Whether he expects to attend
the Oregon Agricultural College or not,
il is booklet that every college stu.
dent in the United States might we'll
study TO advantage. The reading Of il,
unless the young man or woman were
If very Indifferent nature, would at
least cause him or her to ask, What
am | going TO college for?" Too many
young men and women enter the insti-
tutions of higher education without
ever for a moment considering that
they should be making preparations for
the days that will follow college. Many
boys and girls. whose parents are
wealthy do not have to consider this
question. The effect of their attitude, is
in a measure blase. and has an influence
on their less wealthy companions. We
came very near saying less fortunate.
That would have been bad error: for
the student who goes TO college with
plenty of money to spend is really very
unfortunate. Unless he is of extrsor.
dinary calbre, he will not turn out to
he much Of student.
Men who have never been to college
are fond of telling US that college edu-
cation is detriment instead Of a bene-
fit TO boys and girls. 1t is too true that
many of the college graduates of the
couHtry develop into very mediocre cit
izens. This has resulted from the in
difference of the institutions them
selves, and from the lack Of serious
ness on the part of the students. Ex-
cept in the technical, professional and
agricultural schools of the country. the
greatest benefit the student derives is
from the companionship and friendships
formed with other students. The very
courses Of study he is left to pursue
lead to an Indifferent viewpoint Of life.
We.quote Us follows from "The Life
Career"
Formerly youth went to college
only TO study for the ministry, later
for the law or for medicine, still later,
for finance, for engineering, for book
keeping. or vaguely, for journalism.
Vaguely; since the youth, after special
izing in English for four years, during
which he has edited several Of the col |
lege periodicals, written a college play
or two, and contributed verses and
short stories to popular magazines,
finds himself, at graduation, confronted
with this sort of dismissal by the
managing editor of metropolitan
daily: mo, Sir these are not quail
fications. They are disquaIifications.
They disquaify you for doing the only
sort of work that the management of a
great daily paper can entrust to its
new subordinates. 4"
This was only yesterday in the
history of education. Yesterday, we
that did not study law or medicine or
general engineering, simply studied
for the degree of b. A. or B. S., with
the implicit conviction that it was the
master key to unlock any door-an iIlu-
sion swiftly shattered when wo reached
the door. We studied books. We dealt
in sweet distractions. We INDUCED in
glad ranticipations. Then we drifted
about for year or two while these
glad anticipatiOns cooled incidentally,
we observed that the people engaged
in the actual affairs of life studied ma
ture chiefly, and human nature; that
they dealt with concrete things tick
cts, freight, quarter sections, log
boOms, grades, bridges, galleys of
type, proof, pigments, stumpage, court
calendars, primary elections, range
steers. surgical operations ana that,
for the most part, they were so happily
absorbed in some energizing occupa-
tion. bristling with possibilities and
radiant with enthusiasm, that they
wasted no concern whatever over the
tardy fulfillment of any morbid or i'll
conceived ambitions, and could little
sympathize with those unfortunates
whose education had saddled them with
a puck of these.
This was yesterday. Today, the
young man seeking a higher education
can pick out his life career and the
college training TO fit him for it. He
can choose, for instance, to work in the
national forest, building trails and
marking boundaries, providing fire.
breaks, planting seeds for propagating
new or different species of trees and
grasses. and projecting plans for the
most permanently profitable method of
handling the timber, and he can find
special training for such interesting
services in school of forestry. He
may aim to enter business, or follow
the eXacting but polished duties of a
private secretary, and he will find the
specific training for the technical du-
ties of these vocations, as we'll as much
helpful instruction in the larger prob
lens of the work, in the various cOurs-
es of school of commerce.. He may
aspire to be an expert machinist, hand
ling the intricate and precise tasks of
a worker in iron and steel, a maker of
instruments as delicate in op-
GRAFTON as the poised magnetic needle,
and he will find in mechanical engln-
eerlng exactly the training he desires.
He may want to be horticultural ex-
pert, TO aid in the development of some
potential Eden; TO protect the fruit
wealth of an abundant commonwealth
from the inrosds of disease and the
rs9ages of insect pests; or to engage
in the mysteries of propsgating new
and wondrous fruits.