Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-03-15
SAlESMANSHlP IN
MATTERS OF MORALS
The Churches and the Schools Seem to
Be Awakening TO the Necessity Of
Competing With Business for
Men to Keep Them Alive

its sessions in this city opening today is
| a symptom of a general ailment affecting all
moral and intellectual activities.
There is n shortage Of first rate teachers
! for the public schools. The demand for
efficient college professors is greater than the
supply and more than thirty colleges are
seeking new presidents
Neither the medical colleges nor the law
schools are turning out many men as
they used to do
And there is not so large a proportion of
! high grade men entering the law schools, the
medical colleges or the theological seminarics
as sought professional training there few
! years ago.
II the reason for this can be found then
the remedy, IL remedy is desired, may be
intclligently sought
There some observers who think they
| have found the cause for the existing condi
tiou in the large rewards that go TO men in
business. rewards so large that the income Of
| a professional man seems petty by compa-
rison. There was a time when few young
men went to college who did not intend to
enter one of the learned professions. But
| with the increasing wealth of the country,
fathers have found it possible to give their
sons college education when those sons had
no intention of entering a profession. As a
| result. boys who went to college intending
| to teach or 70 study law or medicine have
seen their classmates go into business and
within two three years get an income
lurger than they could hope 10 get after
! years Of professional experience.
When. for example, youth o. ability
receives from $4,000 to $4,000 year for
selling life insurance while his classmate
| does we'll il he gets $1,000 as q teacher the
other boys in the college who hear of the big
earnings of the insurance agent will hesitate
n long time before they decide to teach or
even 10 study law or medicine. They know
that IL will take them years to build up
paying practice in either profession. Unless
their yearning for the intellectual life is so
strong as TO make them willing TO pay q
high price for gratifying it. they will seek
employment in an insurance office or in an
office of some other kind where they are en-
gagged in selling something besides ideas that
are intended TO help men and women to live
Il fuller and more satisfactory life,
Different considerations affect the decisions
of the student for the ministry. He is not
| interested in money getting and he can look
with cOmpacency on the rewards that come
! 10 his classmates in business until he mar.
ries and tries to rear a family. The average
salary of clergymen is about $1,000 year
The devout young man who wishes to live n
human life with a wife and children finds
himself compelled to decide between follow
ing his nclnations to serve his felowmen
us their religious guide and providing the
ordinary necessities for those dependent on
him. Because young men have found that
they cannot live on the pay Of preacher
| the churches are confronted by a decrease in
the number of able men seeking education in
| the theological scminaries and by a Cnnse-
! Ournt deurth Of qualified pastors. They are
trying to meet the situation by providing
funds 10 help the small churches 10 pay a
living salary. But they are fixing the min
imum salary at $1,000 q year as though that
we're enough TO enable a man Of family to
live in comfort and keep himself abreast Of
thc times as the intellectual and spiritual
leader Of the group of families he is serving
DR.. Fincgan. the state superint endent Of
! public instruction. is following the example
OF the churches and is urging the Legislature
to fix the minimum salary paid TO school
teachers at q figure much higher than that
paid al present His minimum is higher
than the minimum salary which the churches
nre trying to fix for the preachers. He
| argues that il the Legislature should adopt
! the schedule the quality of the teaching force
Of the state could be improved because men
and women of better ability would be at.
tractcd and could be put in the places Of the
poorly qualified teachers now in the service
| az fast az they resigned or were removed for
| ineftciPncy.
There is back of this suggestion a reaIiza-
ton of the necessity of competing with bust
ness for the brains of the country. The war
showed what competition could do. The high
I pay offered in the muntion Industries
stripped the teachers training schools Of
their students just ms they took from Offices
| and factories engaged in the works Of peace
. and even from domestic service thousands Of
| young men and women. Young people who
had been getting Sl5 week received SO q
day and as fast their friends learned Of
their good fortune they sought work in the
war industries.
Generous pay is attractive to every one
And il is the rule Of business to give it to
those Immediately connected with bringing In
the income" The selling agent is generally
more highly paid than the technical expert
because he proves that what thc expert does
has commercial value. He can make il
bring in dollars and cents to his employer
II matters not that without the expert there
would b. nothing TO sell, for the expert,
whatever his abilities may be. is usually not
u salesman.
The Importance of salesmanEhip has be.
come so generally recognized that il is
stressed outside Of the realms OF business
Ministers talk about selling religion Men
organizing drives for college endov ments
boast that they have "sold" the idea to the
alumni committees \ more enlightened ulan
for benevolent work is something that must
be 'sold' to the public or it will be ignored.
The terms Of the business Office are used
everywhere else, but those terms are based
upon the accumulated experience in the way
to produce results.
We are 80 accustomed to this tcrminoogy
that we feel no shock when We are told thar
successful preacher, a popular novelist, a
cartooniSt, a painter Of pictures or writer
OF philosophy is good selling agent TIc
has a way of attracting attention to himself
He is a good press agent and gets the peo-
pie 10 talking about him. lie may BE- no
better than scores Of others, but he under.
stands the arts of Salcsmanship and he reaps
the rds Of that knowledge.
Yet the rule is that the man interested
primarily in intellectual and spiritua! mat
ters is rarely financial success. His mind