Evening star., 1934-09-02

BY DEANE w. MALOTT,
| Associate Professor of Business. Harvard
Business School
IF YOU happen to be the mother or
father of q young man in college,
you may have listened with in
ward qualms to the local wise
acres who have an apparently
plausible concept that the college
trained youth is the most pitiable VIC
tim of the depression-facing a
changing social order where jobs and
opportunities are microscopic and
where luck alone has the upper hand.
For more than four years the depres-
sion has carried. the burden OF din
ner table conversation. Not only do
we talk about it almost incessantly,
, but we carelessly handy about GER
tain rigid ideas, among them the
thought that the young man with
professional training finds no oppor-
tunity in this economic chaos.
The situation is further befogged
by the prevalent feeling that business
must be chastised for its guilt and cor
ruption in plunging the world into
the misery of worldwide maladjust-
ments, that business is the dark abode
of the powerful forces Of selfishness
and is scarcely worthy calling for
the young man Of brilliance and
ideals.
There has been dishonesty and
greed in some quarters, obviously
meriting punishment; but let none
of us forget that the commerce, in
dustry and finance which we call
business are the very roots OF our
economic existence, and it Is incun-
bent upon large groups OF men, under
any conceivable government or So
cial order, to devote themselves TO
those economic functions upon which.
all our lives depend. There Is chal-
lenge to the young men of the Nation
in business today, because business is
calling for trained leadership, and
this leadership has been conspicuously
small. rqe
AZ Per Cent Get Jobs.
In the records of the Harvard Busi-
| ness School there is ample contradic-
ton for the authority Of those who
talk only about the past glories of
business opportunity. Forty-two per
cent of all our graduates have left
the school to enter business in the
depression years 1929 to 1888, inciu-
sive. Our experience with them war;
rants the attention of those who won
der what is to, become OF present-day
youth. :
To be sure, our experience lies in
the realm of graduate education; but
the inevitable trend is toward the
professional schools upon graduation
from college. College itself equips a
man to live, rather than to make a
living. Additional broad professional
training has been found of advantage
In getting a toe-hold in our complex
economic society. Years ago the
young man entering medicine rolled
pills in doctors office. rode the
rounds of the village physician and
eventually acquired SUFFICIENT knowl-
edge to enter practice for himself.
Law schools have shortcut the long
apprenticeship in the attorneys Office.
Business schools have arisen to train
men for business.
Today professional schools have
sprung up in many institutions OF
| higher learning, and it has become
rather normal part Of education to do
professional graduate work. But there
again is the bugaboo Of depression:
How can my boy get through college
and professional school? We simply
cannot afford it."
Let us take look at youth itself.
personally visited perhaps so col
leges last Spring and talked with doz-
ems of seniors on the eve Of gradua-
ton. Had the depression affected
them? Assuredly. They were hav-
ing to plan and scrape and go without.
| I am amazed at the large number OF
men in our colleges getting on some
/ how at the bare subsistence level. The
first real impact of the depression on
nnany a Young man was when he dis
covered his parents could no longer
| finance his education. But youth Is
resilient. The young man may tighten
his belt and shift for himself, but he
does SO with a grin.
Many Garry On.
OF course, some give up their educa-
ton, Some are forced to; others lack
| the necessary zest and drive to &C
complish the task. But I am still
struck by the number Of those who
do the impossible and carry on.
No longer do they all arrive on
| Registration day in the Pullmans Of
! limited train. They come on freights,
! by buses, in day coaches: and many
battered car has rolled up with
| full quota of students and alarming
quantities of luggage, all the way from
| the Middle West or the Pacific Coast.
! Hitch hiking, too, has its devotees, as
one young chap explained after COM
| ing from California by this means: