College Education in Business Life.

For many years past it has been a much disputed point among business men whether an extended course of study such as can be obtained by attending any well established college is, in the main, a proper training for a man who intends to make business his vocation in after life. Many arguments, pro and con, have appeared in the press, in all of which the great mass of discussion has centered about the one point, is, or is not, a highly educated man fit to devote his time and attention to the trivialities of any occupations outside of the professional? Many are convinced that the higher the polish a man puts upon his mind the less readily it adapts itself to the hard and exacting circumstances always found in a purely financial pursuit. But is this true? Has it not been found by trial that the more a man cultivates studious habits, the more he can understand situations that, although irksome, may yet be necessary and unavoidable? Many college educated men take up mercantile careers and are disgusted to find that they are expected to do work only fit for boys of fourteen or fifteen years of age, and unfortunately they show their disgust by assuming airs superior to their situations, by leaving before they have given business a fair trial, and by condemning as impossible careers that are simply misunderstood by their inexperienced and unsettled minds. Naturally, practical business men of a limited education, but early business training, are unwilling to take such superior (?) spirits into their offices and do not hesitate to prefer younger men, who are more amenable to reason and command than many of those well grounded in history, philosophy,-nay, all the liberal studies of a college education. Thus both employer and apprentice join in running down a career which is as full of promise for an highly educated man as for the graduate from the High School. One of the thinkers of the century has said that "a man of education will pull a rope better than a common seaman, at the end of a long voyage," and this principle applies as well to business as to nautical life.

An educated man will learn more about the workings of a business in one year than the average boy apprentice will in three years. He brings a mind well trained and disciplined, accustomed to view things fairly and liberally, quick to comprehend, and once having grasped a subject tenacious of it. Place against these qualities the mind of the boy of fourteen or fifteen years old, and there can be no comparison made. The contrast is too startling and decisive. The one disadvantage of a college man entering business is, that his age is too advanced by the time he leaves college; but this is a drawback that can be overcome, provided the man is sensible enough to accept petty duties at two and twenty, and not be above learning the rudimentary duties of business life. The failure of so many college educated men in business may be attributed to this foolish pride of age, this refusal to do what must be learned by all, young and old, who intend to make a business career successful. In trade, as in the professions, no power is stronger than that of a well educated man.