THE PROFESSION OF BUSINESS

The extension of the Leiter Cup baseball series into the examination period, an annual occurrence, has been the occasion of the usual homilies on "undergraduate irresponsibility." Complaints of appointments unkept, of carelessness and unreliability, break out at the slightest suggestion. The difficulty of securing trustworthy men for positions of even minor responsibility is becoming proverbial and, indeed, the question is one of the hardiest of the hardy perennials that grow in the editorial column. And that is not all. In the phrase "college-graduate irresponsibility" we have an addition to our categories. Again and again business men remark upon the shiftlessness and carelessness of the college man, and with unanswerable arguments demonstrate his inferiority in this matter of accuracy.

Now that almost one-fourth of college graduates go into business, and the calling is second only to teaching in popularity, constant attention to such accusations is imperative. Harvard offers laboratories for the use of future scientists; and libraries for the benefit of future teachers and scholars. Many a weighty problem arises upon which the future reformer may try his wits. For the journalist of the future there are journals, and for the artist of the future there is art. But the proposition that seems to be ignored is that for the future business man there are opportunities for the exercise and testing of business abilities. They pass by unnoticed. Here is a case crying for a man of administrative skill who has time to devote to its management. And still undergraduates and outsiders complain that there is no opportunity for the man of a practical turn to exercise his faculties.

The Leiter Cup series is not worse this year than in past years. But as these cases come up again and again, appeals are necessary to the members of the College who are potential business men to make the best of these occasions and contribute not only to the efficiency of the College, but also to their future efficiency in the "profession of business."