Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-01-10
Mental Equipment of BuSi-
ness Man Needs to Be
Greater Today Than Ever
Before
BY JESSE w. ARMrsTEAD.

That national wealth and industry
are dependent primarily on education,
and must, in the nature of things,
become more and more dependent
is now so obvious that illustration is
hardly necessary. That individual ed
ucation is an equally vital factor in
individual efficiency and success in
the different walks of life is mat
ter about which the facts are not so
obvious, as the occasional successes
in large way of comparatively I'M
educated men and the occasional fail
ures of men Of considerable school
ing have attracted disproportionate
attention and hidden in a way the
more significant facts. However, in
recent years quite a number of
studies and Investigations have been
made which clearly show the intiu-
ence of education upon individual
success.
arts and sciences during the last two
or three decades has made education
an absolute necessity to reach any
degree of practical success. The
mental equipment Of a business man
needs to be greater today than was
ever before necessary. Just as the
sphere of actions have broadened with
the coming of rapid transportation,
cables, telegraph and telephones, SO
have the needs of a broader under
standing of sound business principles
increased. Technical education was
made necessary by the steam proc
esses of transportation and produc-
ton, just as electrical engineering
was created by the electric dynamo
Better Trained Men
"The enlarged scope of business is
demanding better trained men who
inent New York banker in speech
before the student body of Girard
college several years ago. New
forces have made large scale produc-
ton, and we need men who can COM
prehend the relation of that produc-
ton in the world of markets. There
has been introduced such completely
into modern business and such a
high degree of specialization that the
young man who begins without the
lag is in danger of remaining a mere
clerk or bool1keeper. Commercial and
industrial affairs are conducted on so
large a scale that the neophyte has
little chance to learn broadly, either
by observation or experience. He is
put at a single task; the more eX-
pert he becomes at it the more likely
it is that he will be kept at it, I'M
less he has had training in his
youth which has fitted him to COM
prehend in some measure the rela-
ton of his task to those which 9TH
ers are doing"
An excellent illustration of the
manner IN which modern business
has Widened the scope of it's demand
for training and broad education is
given by Dr.. A. Caswell Ellis. For
example," he says, "a century ago a
transportation system was little more
than a wagon and a driver who knew
the road. Now, in handling a prob
lem of tranSportiOn, experts in traffic
must first determine whether a road
5,Nt loo L ]
what kind of a road will be most
economical and efficient; experts in
finance must provide the tremendous
sums needed to build the road; civil
engineers must lay it out: bridge
engineers plan the bridges; chemical
engineers test the materials; mills
and factories with scores of chemical
and physical experts make the rails,
build the locomotives and steel cars,
and host of traffic experts. auditors,
accountants and specially-traine
managers and clerks, telegraphers.
others keep the trains moving with
safety and with profit
Farmer Must Study
I'm like manner" adds DR.. Ellis,
exhaust one fertile piece of fresh
soil after another by crude methods
of agriculture. Intelligent rotation
must be planned, soil must be con-
served and built up; improved stock
and seed must be bred: methods of
and conserve moisture and fertility
must be practiced: markets must be
studied and considered in plant
ing; new methods of marketing must
homes must be made healthful. If
this is not done the landowner will
soon lose his land and become a
tenant, and the tenant become day
laborer.
The efficiency of an illiterate
GATED nation is as the crooked stick
against the sulky plow; the bullock
cart against the express train; the
pony, messenger against the tele-
graph; the individual harangue
against the printing press, the news
paper and library; the unaided eye
against the microscope. Take away
from one entire generation all edu-
cation. and society must revert to
the stick plow, the oXcart and such
primitive means, because steel i'm
plements, locomotives, telegraph,
WateTworks. mining and chemical in
dustries, hygiene and medicine,
defend the rights of the weak are
all impossible without education and
are efficient only in proportion as
educated intelligence is applied to
them"
Financial Value of Education
The salary paid to an individual
because, of certain educational quail
ifications possessed by him repre-
sents not only the financial value of
that education to him. but also in
a general way represents the finan-
cial value which the community
places upon the service made posi-
BILE by that education.
In his article on "The Money Value
Of Education" DR.. Ellis tells of a
study made by the Massachusetts
committee on industrial education of
100 workers who had left school
at either fourteen or eighteen years
pf age. The committee traced the