The Arizona copper camp., 1919-12-06

heSn CdpdC1Iy lOf straight thought,
will go much further than the man
who comes out with a knowledge of
business detail, hut no habit Of
thought. The second man may go
on quicker during the first two or
three years, but by then the other
man will have picked up a knowl-
edge of business mechanics and will
soon forge ahead. l have in mind,
of course, the particular needs of
banking and general business, and
not of the professions-they are on
a different basis.
Details VS.. Relations
In business the man who has not
the advantage of an educational
background will learn detail, but not
the relations. For instance, he may
become very expert in the handling
of checks, or foreign currency, or
foreign exchange, and yet have no
knowledge at all of banking systems
or of the federal reserve hank, ex-
cepting as an institution for redis-
count. He will not know the eco
nomic reasons behind the federal re-
serve bank, or the real foundation
of currency, or what bank check
is. And he is very apt, indeed, to
fall into a routine and be able to
attend to most of the affairs of his
day by quasi-involuntary motion 1t
is extremely easy in bank to fall
into routine and to function by rule.
And also it is extremely dangerous.
The man who grants discount by
rule is certain some time to get into
trouble, for commercial statement
is never to be judged merely by the
figures appearing within the four
corners of the paper.
The ability to comprehend things
most easily comes as a result of the
broader viewpoint. And it is the
ability to comprehend which makes
the well-trained college man so val
liable. If the thought of his educa-
tion has been merely to cram him
with information, the education is
not worth while.
am not against the colleges
teaching the so-called practical sub
jects, but l am against confusing
the superficial with the fundamental.
Let us not imagine that when we
give course in the detail of busi-
ness we are thereby qualifying the
man who takes that course to say
he knows all about that particular
phase of business. There is only
one way to learn the technique of
business or banking and that is by
actually getting into practice. The
bread and butter courses are helpful
insofar as they tell man the why
that is, the foundation of business
practices-and they are of no use at
all when they give only detail
The Danger of Specializing
Being a specialist is very good
provided it denotes that one section
of knowledge has been studied more
intensively than other sections. 1t is
bad if it denotes that one section
has been studied to the exclusion of
all other sections. For then the spe-
cialist is man of warped perspect-
i've and, because he is given public
respect, contains an almost infinite
no nnif fOr bor hot a0cf
need today in the business world is
the all-round man-the man who
knows one thing and all it's relations
very well indeed, and then also
knows a great many other things
fairly well.
The Importance Of sound scholar
ship does not seem to be fully real
lied, probably because of the wholly
untrue saying which has been ele-
vated almost into a maxim, that the
poorest scholars make the best show
ing in business. Both my own obser-
vatiOn and the collated records prove
quite to the contrary. The man who
can tn1nk MS way through college
will think his way to the top in busi-
ness nowadaysA
The place to get scholarship is in
college, and the four years that re-
suit in getting it are we'll spent
When the college does not give schol
arship it fails; if the college has
scholarship to give, and the boy
does not get it, then again it fails
because the atmosphere should be
such as to make scholarship some
thing to be desired and not to be
jeered at. The technique of detail
can be had later, or better perhaps,
ty spending the long vacations in
actual business.