Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-05-25
WHO WILL FILL
THESE BIG JOBS?
Bv Frederic |. HaSkin
TEW YORK, May 19.-Wanted
by Big Business: Young men
who are capable Of earning

y
umnS of our prominent dailieS, it is
an idea which is advanced at every
large business convention occurring
here, and one that is being given
There is a demand for resourcefuL
enterprising men, capable of striking
afield and the sky is the limit in
salary.
in pathetic plight. Never before
has it suffered from such an acute
shortage of high-priced experts
Never before has the top of the
empty of eligibles. The gap is so
large, in fact, that it is even pre-
dicted that our industries will have
to stop expanding unless the brains
and executive ability. needed to de-
velop them are somehow produced.
In it's terror of such a calamity,
Big Business has recently approach
ed the universities and offered to
endow whole sections of them if they
will only turn out the kind of
this ability is has been only vague
ly set down, but it is understood
that various industries are collabor-
ating in the compilation of list of
specifications for the types of, men
needed and this will be distributed
among educational institutions.
LIKEABLE MEN
Heading this list, undoubtedly,
will be personality. This is the
principal requirement in a high
lies in the fact that there is not
nearly sufficient personality to go
around. The man of great personal
magnetism, with the ability to make
fluence over them is the man for
whom American industry is now in
the market.
'"The ability to handle men," said
John D. Rockefeller some years ago,
has become just as much market
will pay higher for it than anybody
else i nthe world Well John D.
was pioneer but today finds him
self surrounded by competitors, all
bidding high for the same qualities.
Another urgent requirement of in
dustry is technical skill, supplement-
ed by creative ability. 1t wants
technical men, with ideas; men who
methods and Of developing new proc
esses.
These are the principal needs, but
several others will doubtless be sub
mitted to the universities, which
h haG aaRo%H % with p n
Training di1g it SV Wanfs FL Sis anna arrange
ment was discussed and agreed up
on at a recent conference held in
GIl1ldu6lpllla uuuGr the auspices Oh
the Technology Clubs associated,
which was attended by representa-
tives of more than a hundred corpor-
atoms throuhout the country and of
more than three hundred educa
tional magnates been SO chummy. 1t
was at this conference that DR..
Hollis Godfrey, president of Drexel
institute, conceived the specifica-
ton idea.
SPECIFICATIONS WRITTEN
Educational waste has been go
ing on for centuries" he declared,
because there never has been a
definite statement or specification
written by industry of the specific
knowledge required to meet its needs
The colleges and industry have been
working along different lines. 1t is
here proposed to carry out plan of
cooperation to eliminate that waste
by giving industry an opportunity
to state it's needs, and the colleges
an opportunity to state their capaci-
ties to meet these needs.
This challenge was eagerly ac-
copied by many of the corporation
began pouring a mournful account of
their unobtainable requirements into
DR.. Godfrey's sympathetic ear.
"First of ALL" complained the pres
ident of a great shipbuilding 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 4 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 col
leges, for example, to teach man
whom to slap on the back, whom to
take by the arm when he meets him
in the corridor or walks down the
street with him. L believe that this
ability represents about SO per cent
of. what is necessary for the success
of an executive, and knowledge OF
detail represents the other l per cent.
Sell Yourself
"It 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 1t.
with subordinates makes all the diff
ference in the world. If one 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
production and this may turn losses
into handsome profits. All the tech
nical training in the world will not
do it without knowledge of men
and human beings"
In word, what is needed in the
tionships, or possible, one on the ETH
quette of back-slapping. In addition
to knowing the technique of his pro-
fession, the college graduate Of the
future must cultivate the art of good
fellowship. In order to gain his
diploma in this course, he must pass
the personality test. E.
A brief glance at the great indus
trial and commercial world which
centers about New York does seem
to show that all Of the top-notchers
have well developed this essential
ability to handle men. Among our
personal acquaintance, for example,
is a man who is holding a $30,OOO-a-
year job in a large steel plant. Be
fore the way he was an office execu-
tive earning $4,000 year. Wnlle
holding this position it was noticed
by his colleagues that he did very
little work, and they used to rag"
him concerning the ease with Whlcn
he drew pension" one day, one
young man, waxing more mlrtnlul
than usual over the situation, sue
ceeded in arousing the office execu"
tive's wrath.
The POWER of Direction
eff you were man of any percep-
ton whatsoever" he declared colby,
you would realize that it requires
a great deal more ability to make
people work for you than to do the
work yourself"
The potency of this remark was
proved a short time later when
American industry began it's tremen-
dous war expansion, during which
the demand for trained Office eXecu-
lives became clamorous. This man
was quickly grabbed by a shipbuild-
ing concern at a salary of $500 a
year, and since then he has been
fairly leaping up the industrial lad
der.
Another case in point is the head
of a large automobile corporation
here who declares that he does much
less work now at $4,000 year than
he did when he was struggling along
for $4,000. And to listen to his con-
versation you would imagine that he
earns his salary by having as good
time as possible. 1t gives you the
impression that his chief occupation