The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-05-29
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. G.
WHO WILL FILL THESE BIG JOBS?

Business: Young men who are capa-
bic of earning from $4,000 to $4,000
a year.
| While this announcement has not
| yet appeared in the classified columns
! of our prominent dailies. it is an idea
which is advanced at every large BUSH
ness convention occurring here, and
one that is being given wide circula-
ton by rotary clubs. There is a de-
imand for resourceful, enterprising
men, capable of striking afield and
the sky is the limit in salary.
The truth is that Big Business is in
pathetic plight. Never before has
| it suffered from such an acute short
age of high-priced experts. Never be-
! fore has the top of the American in
4 dustrial ladder been so empty of eligi-
bles The gap is so large, in fact,
that it is even predicted that our in
dustries will have to stop expanding
unless the brains and executive ability
needed to develop them are somehow
produced
| In its terror of such a calamity. Big
Business has recently approached the
universities and offered to endow
whole sections of them il they will
only turn out the kind of ability that
/ is needed. just what this ability is
has been only vaguely set down, but IT
| is understood that various industries
I are cola boratins in the compilation
! of list of specifications for the types
of men needed, and this will be dis
| tributed among educational institu-
! tions.
/ Lkeable Men.
! Heading this list, undoubtedly, will
| be personality. This is the principal
requirement in a high-priced man. AMI
most of the trouble lies in the fact that
there is not nearly sufficient person
atty to 20 around. The man of great
personal magnetism. with the ability to
make others like him and to exert an
influence over them is the man for
whom American industry is now in the
market.
"The ability to handle men," said
J John D. Rockefeller some years ago.
| has become just as much a market
able commodity is sugar. and L will
pay higher for it than anybody else in
the world" Well, John D. was
pioneer, but today finds himself sur
ROUNDED by competitors. all bidding
high for the same qualities.
! Another urgent require nent of in
dustry is technical skill, supplemented
| by creative ability. 1t wants technical
men. with ideas; men who are capable
| of improving upon old methods and of
/ developing new processes.
These are the principal needs, but
several others will doubtless be sub
mitted to the universities, which have
announced themselves willing and
anxious to cooperate with industry in
supplying the kind of training it wants.
! This arrangement was discussed and
agreed upon at recent conference
| held in Philadelphia under the aus
pices of the Technology Clubs AS
ISOLATED, which was attended by rep
| resentatives of more than a hundred
corporations thruout the country and
of more than three hundred educa-
tional institutions. Never have college
professors and industrial magnates
been so chummy. 1t was at this con-
ference that DR.. Hollis Godfrey, presi-
dent of Drexel institute, conceived the
specification idea.
| Specifications Written.
Educational. waste has been going
on for centuries,"N he declared, be
cause there never has been d defi-
mite statement or specification written
! by industry of the specific knowledge
required to meet it's needs The col
leges and industry have been working
along different lines. 1t is here pro-
posed to carry out plan of co-opera-
| ton to eliminate that waste by giving
industry an opportunity to state its
needs, and the colleges an opportunity
to state their capacities to meet these
needs"
| This challenge was eagerly accepted
by many of the corporation magnates
present, who Immediately began pour
ing mournful account of their I'M
obtainable requirements into Doctor
| Godfrey's sympathetic ear.
| First of ALL" complained the presi-
dent of a great shipbuiIding corpora
ton, the colleges do not teach a man
| how to sell himself Too often they
turn out sliding rules rather than hui
man beings. Their graduates are
highly trained technicians. They
know their own jobs, but they don't
know how to handle men.
Not a thing is done in the colleges,
for example, to teach a man whom
to slap on the back, whom to take by
the arm when he meets him in the
MIN. 1 believe that this ability repre-
sents about 80 per cent of what is
necessary for the success of an execu-
tive, and knowledge of detail repre-
sents the other L per cent.
Sell Yourself.
'1t all SINNERS down to the ability
to sell ones self to the head of the
corporation to get job, and to the
men working under one. to hold it.
The maintenance of proper relations
with subordinates makes all the differ
ence in the world. If enc knows
enough about human relationship to
make men trust him and believe in
him, they will work for and with him.
This personal cooperation may mean
a difference of ten per cent in preduc-
ton and this may turn losses into
handsome profits All the technical
training in the world will not do it
without a knowledge of men and hu-
man values"
! In a word. what is needed in the
colleges is a course in human rela-
tionships, or possibly, one on the ETH
quette of back-slapping. In addition
to knowing the technique of his pro-
| Iess1on, the college graduate of the
future must cultivate the art of good
fellowship. In order to gain his d.
ploma in this course. he must pass the
personality test.
| A brief glance at the great Industrial
and commercial world which centers
about New York does seem to show
that all of the top-notchers have we'll
developed this essential ability to ham
die men. Among our personal ac-