Conference Stresses Greater Opportunities In Financial Fields

Exceptional opportunities for advancement in the field of finance are open to college graduates today, a three-member panel of experts said last night.

At the Conference on Careers in Finance, representatives from the fields of banking, investment, and accounting emphasized that "Wall Street is everywhere." The conference, fourth in a series, was held in the Eliot House dining hall.

"An exciting, rewarding, and challenging form of life," is the prospect for the modern banker, remarked Gaylord A. Freeman, vice president of the First National Bank of Chicago, and the other panelists were equally optimistic.

The banker, according to Freeman, has the greatest knowledge of "what's going on in the community." Banking, he continued, offers respect, challenge, and security.

Character, intelligence, and a capacity for hard work are more important than connections for the prospective broker or investment banker, noted Thomas B. Gannett '35, partner of Hornblower and Weeks, Boston investment firm.

"The broker must know more about the meeds of his clients that the client knows," he noted. "One of the most rewarding factors is the caliber of people you run into," he added.

J. Harold Stewart, partner of Arthur and Young, Boston accounting firm, noted that "The impact of the federal income tax has projected the accountant and the corporate controller to the foreground."

He asserted that competition was light in the "recently developed" field. "If you can survive the early stages of the career, you can reap the rewards."