isa-normaladvance-1914-00060

Description:	60THE NORMAL ADVANCECfjoosrtng &n (OccupationCARL N. MILLERBEFORE going to college, and before choos¬ ing an occupation for life, a young man should decide whether he wishes to be a pro¬ fessional man, and be one of many, or whether he wants to be an experienced and thorough business man, and be one who helps control the destines of a nation.The United States is at the present time pass¬ ing through a very critical stage of its history. The nation has had up to the present time, and to a very large extent has yet, great natural re¬ sources. But these have been wasted and de¬ stroyed so carelessly during the past, that it now behooves the country to practice conserva¬ tion of all her natural resources in every way possible. In order that this may be done, the modern young man should be trained for such work in college so that he may practice later in life, what knowledge he has acquired in school.We do not have to look closely to see the need of such knowledge and training even now. The people of the country at present grow wildly, almost insanely enthusiastic and venturesome during a boom, and then distressingly cautious during the period of depression that follows. This is on account of the insufficient knowledge of economics and fundamental business train¬ ing on the part of the men who are at the head of our industries.Keeping this ,in mind, let us see what the modern college makes of its graduates. They can practically all be summed up in one class, professional men. They can solve problems in Analytics and Calculus, and can translate Latin but are utterly untrained Avhen the problem of practical business life is put before them to solve. They have never had such matters brought before them in college and are in themain totally unfitted for such work in prac¬ tical life.In looking over the land one sees it practical¬ ly flooded with doctors, lawyers and engineers. This state of affairs exists, because from child¬ hood on, the young man has seen, and has had pointed out to him, the wealth and the appar¬ ent ease with which the professional man lives. In consequence he wishes to be a professional man himself, so when he goes to college he goes with the intention of becoming a doctor, lawyer, or some type of engineer.Let us briefly scan the separate fields of work for these men.Despite the great increase in population the doctor has by no means the amount of work for him as was formerly his. Civic conditions are not allowed to exist as they formerly were. All city drinking water is tested daily and is kept from causing infection of any kind. Garbage is collected regularly, trash kept cleaned up, and streets kept clean. These precautions, to¬ gether with the wider education of the public through magazines and newspapers, tend great¬ ly to lessen the need for doctors, by doing away with much sickness.A present day lawyer does not amount to much unless he is a well known corporation lawyer. Furthermore, since the present cor¬ porations are combining, several under one head, fewer and fewer lawyers are needed.Although there are many kinds of engineers, they may be considered as one class since near¬ ly all their work has the same general charac¬ teristics. There is more work for them to do than either the doctors or lawyers, but there is such a large number of them, that despite their large field for work, their wages are phenomen-
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/32504
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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