Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-09-30
BUSINESS AS A PROCESSION

MOT long ago even the wisest men used to
~ say that business was business. What
they meant was that business was a sort Of
rough and tumble contest in which only
tho strong could or should win. The hard
old aphorism has lost its force. Business Is.
In one sense, process of co operation. And
1t has become a profession in which wide
understanding fnesse and a sensitive and
seeing mind count heavily. An executive in
any great industrial organization cannot
go far nowadays unless he has wide knowl-
edge not only of his own work but Of the
trends and impulse that govern and direct
life in the world about him. Doctor God
frey, of the Drexel Institute. and the men
who are interested with him in scheme to
specially train the ceDtains and lieutcnants
of business in the colleges obviously desire
to utilize the educational facilities of the
country for a larger efficiency in what might
be called the most general Of the professions.
They wish to train executives and produce a
type of man who will fit naturally into a
job and know that Job at the beginning,
instead Of learning it through expensive ex-
periencc.
But what processes are best for the train
ing of business executives? Technical train
ing alone will not do because there is no
known technique by which great masses Of
men can be kept invariably content and
loyal. To undertake to supply finished ex-
eCutivCS to any business institution is to
assume an extraordinarily difficult task.
Lawyers begin in the schools. They get
their real training at the bar. Physicians
know little enough when they graduate from
college. They acquire most OF their skill
in practice. though some of them would
hate to admit this.
Similarly. II Is in business. in contact
th Ia, ~ k,,, e 4.
ciates, that business executive is trained
and polished off A man who knows only
his business. though he may know its every
twist and aspect and difficulty, is not the
best executive The man who cnn unite
technical knowledge of a thorough sort with
an even greater and more penetrating
knowledge of men is the one who goes far.
And knowledge of men is possible only TO
those who live among them and learn to
have admiration for the strength and toer-
nncP for tho weaknesses that persist side
by side in all people.
1t is by emphasizing imagined differences
between men who work and the men who
direct them that you can create friction in
business and obstruCt the best plans devised
for peace and efficiency. Naturally, then,
the best place to train an executive is in the
ranks. Business men of the old fashioned
type, VINO put thelr sons at the very bottom
of the ladder and compelled them to toll
upward by consistent effort. had the best
system for the training of executives that
ever has been devised If, in the general
system Of training contemplated by Doctor
Godfrey and the firms which are preparing
to support his plan. students of modern
business are permitted to work hard with
the rank and file and thus learn all that
executives need to know about the impulses
that animate the large and intensely sensi-
tive human element. we may see something
good and new in the industrial life of the
near future. But if executives to- be are
to be trained as a special class and given
at the outset a disposition to aloofness and
a class consc iousncss of their own. they
will certainly fail in every important
emergency.
The more you know about men the surer
You will be that all men want to be just
and decent The good executive of the
future will be one who will learn more about
men and permit mon to know more about
him.