Brewer Calls Babson Statement That Newsboys Will Lead College Men "Ridiculous"--Lists Needs of Modern Citizen

"It is ridiculous, of course, to claim that being a newsboy of itself will give an all-rounded education, adequate either for success in vocational life or other activity," said Professor J. M. Brewer, Director of the Bureau of Vocational Guidance of the Harvard Graduate School of Education in answer to a statement made by Roger W. Babson, industrial statistician.

Speaking at a dinner at the Harry E. Burroughs Newsboys' Foundation, Mr. Babson said: "I am more hopeful of the later success of a newsboy than I am of the average college graduate of today. Not many years hence, these newsboys, not those of the Back Bay, will be the leading bankers and merchants of Boston."

"America's tremendous material prosperity will come to nothing if the training of future citizenship is neglected," he continued. "Apply the same scientific intelligence to improvement of human beings that we devote to improving material things, and we need not fear the future."

Professor Brewer, continuing his criticism of Mr. Babson's statement, and discussing the training of a newsboy, said:

"Nevertheless, it has some advantage over a monastic kind of education which withdraws from ordinary contact of life a group of boys of similar environment and denies to them real instruction and guidance in such matters as understanding the organization of industry, contact with practical situations in politics, how to meet every kind of human being, how to budget personal time and expenditures, and how to integrate earning capacity with learning.

"All of these are necessary for modern citizenship, and a liberal arts college should not ignore them."