FOR VALUE RECEIVED

It is Spartan advice that the St. Paul Pioneer Press gives the college senior when it says. "As the college commencement season approaches, it may not be amiss to tell the prospective graduate that education will not give him a sight draft on the world for a good living. The world owes no person a living, educated or not, until he has earned it".

To read the papers today one might think we were back in the nineties. The scoffing at the college man and his conceit is now almost as frequent as it was then. After the war for not inexplicable reasons the press temporarily conceded that University training might be of some use after all. Now they are beating out the old refrain again with pre-war vigor.

This belittling of the college man may be the result either of an actual relapse in the quality of graduates recently turned out or it may be the result of a feeling that it is good for the young man to be constantly reminded of his own worthlessness. But most of it is misdirected; such advice is undoubtedly needed in the case of the man whose sole function in college is to be what the world expects him to be -- a "typical college boy". But this type is becoming a negligible factor in the college of today.

Outsiders are prone to forget that many more students than are listed at the college employment bureau are taking jobs during the summer months and thereby become well acquainted with actual working conditions. This student of the new order who combines practical experience with the somewhat less tangible benefits of a college career is growing more and more numerous as the "college guy" disappears. Furthermore nowhere can there be found a spirit of competition better fitted for stifling self-pity than that aroused by the various student activities in evidence at every large American university. If there ever was a time when the college graduate started "life with the false philosophy that the desirable thing is to do as little labor as possible", that day is passed. The modern student undoubtedly expects a good living, -- but not until he has earned it.