The Washington herald., 1914-05-19
Business and the Boy.
: by EMORY J. HAYNES.

How to do business, the exact how OF modern
trade is the essential The boy may or may not &c
to college. He may, may not have learned "spe-
calty" like engineering electricity. But to get on
and become independent he must have knowledge OF
the present-day commercial procedure.
One may graduate from college and not know how
checks go through clearinghouse He may not be
accurate in keeping his own check book. He may be
wholly in the dark what is really meant by the
Bank of England rate today" or its mercantile sig
nihcance.
just how the Office goes through its daily routine
might be wholly unknown the brightest young theo-
rist who is rising in the chemical department
of the factory. To be expert chemist may be pos
sible because youth enthusiast that subject
He would work days, perfectly content, some new
product of his laboratory. But when he has tri-
umphed he is wholly satisfied with the chemical VIC
tory He could not buy carload of supplies, sell
one of the product of his art Nor would he try.
II he asked to do either he would feel it per-
haps not degradation, but at least hardship.
He is chemist and not in any sense business
man does he ever hope to be. Yet the business
end of that corporation is the basic end If this
knew business also there would be place for him in
the Office and future Not otherwise.
Never was the eomplexity of business procedure so
great today The trade, the art, the knowing how
to do business is now exacting study painting,
architecture philosophy the law Indeed, does not
the very successful attorney show that he is thor
oughy informed in the business process? So highly
developed is his business knowledge that wonders
why he does not go into business He would. except
that he make more money by selling his business
knowledge tosperplexed merchants, bankers, and
ufacturers. --a .a
The average high school boy, or college freshman,
knows almost nothing of the routine steps of his bus
fathers daily task. He only knows that father
goes to business" Why does he not say, Father,
take me to the store this vacation.
Show what you do l do not even know how
you calculate your selling prices. Show me how YOU
get the cost on the goods and how you reckon the
10 or 20 per cent you hope to make in profit"
The fact is all attention is concentrated the gen.
eral purpose say, that John will be physician But
family conferences about John ever think of. The
musician is too often business TIE divinity
student rarely has bookkeeping in his horizon The
colleges full of men who could not properly nego-
tiate exchange between here and Calcutta.
Suppose young civil engineer has also knowledge
of business. He is on his engineering job up the
State There is tange up there, that is business
snarl The contractor asks him if he set that
mix-up right. He can he does for it is within his
business knowledge. That is the youth who pulled
out of the tunnel and utilized headquarters and
has a career opened far wider than the surveyors
chain could ever reach around
1t is the new aspect of this trading age. How to
buy and sell, how to do banking how to foresee
nomic changes, how keep out of debt what things
cost No brief catalogue compass so vast a sub
ject. Business and how to do it. the detail the
drudgery the accuracy the keen foresight Yet these
are too often considered the tools that are ex
peced reveal themselves the first few days that the
graduate goes to his position. Very shortly, at
the present rate of this drift of things business meth
DDS will be so exacting that only few can manage
them