MEYER SAYS WORLD NEEDS COLLEGE MEN

Mr. Meyer is Managing Director of the War Finance Corporation, having held this position since 1919. He figured prominently during the war first as advisor on non-ferrous metals for the War Industries Board, member of the Council of National Defence and of the National Committee on War Savings, and later in his present position. Since his graduation from Yale in 1896 he has been a well known figure in international banking circles as head of the firm of Eugene Meyer and Company from 1901 to 1917 and as a director in many important corporations.

It is relatively easy for a man who has made his choice of a career or a profession to direct his course in college so as to fit himself for his life work. But for that large number who go to college for a general education and who, besides preparing themselves, are trying to determine the paths they are to follow after graduation, it is by no means so simple. The trouble is that never before have there been so many interesting and difficult problems in the world or such rapidly changing conditions. The very variety and number of fields of opportunity make it more difficult than ever for the college man to decide into what channels he shall direct his activities.

A man wants to work in a field that is interesting, that is worth-while, that has a future in it, that gives scope for ability and effort to make themselves felt. Besides accomplishment in his work, he wants to live a life which permits him to "be" as well as to "do".

Must Adjust Affairs of World

It is all quite complicated when one looks ahead and about him from the college campus. There never was a time, however, when well-trained minds were so needed to help in making adjustments in the affairs of a troubled world. We need more of such minds in the public service and it is a fine thing to know that more college graduates are turning to public service as a field for their endeavors.

Too many men have graduated from college and after a few years in the world have lost contact with intellectual activities. They have cut off systematic reading and thinking. They have drawn too sharp a line of division between their academic life and their practical world. My own feeling is that a little more insight into "practical" life during the academic years would be most helpful in making those years more full of meaning to the student. I am equally certain that, in the years of "practical" life, too little contact is maintained with the academic, theoretical, or intellectual side of life.

Science Will Play Large Part

Science is bound to play a greater role in our future. As the country develops and its natural resources become loss responsive to wasteful exploitation, engineers and economists must find the ways to continue progress and maintain life on a decent scale of existence for an ever-increasing population. With the increasing complications in the social and political structure attending the growth of population, and the fuller development of our economic resources, better methods must be found to administer the machinery of government and better men in greater number must be found to do the work of the state.

In these days the picture changes almost every year. Financially, commercially, and agriculturally, as well as socially, the movements produced by the storm of war have by no means sub- sided, and their suddenness and violence is giving rise to new problems with startling rapidity. In the spring of 1920, for example the problem was: What to do about the high cost of living. Within a year the problem was: What to do about stabilizing demoralized markets. In the spring of 1920, the people of this country were wondering how production could not be increased to meet the demand for commodities which, it appeared, could not be satisfied. Less than a year later, the problem was what could be done with our unwieldy surpluses. A year ago a conference was called in Washington to deal with the problems presented by millions of unemployed. Today, manufactures and farmers alike are wondering where they are going to get the necessary labor to do their work.

Such changes have occurred before but never have the fluctuations been so rapid or so extensive within a short period.

The world needs trained thinkers to consider its problems and aid in their solution. At no time, as modern psychology has demonstrated, do peoples act upon intelligent consideration alone, but the influence and importance of the emotions is only beginning to be understood. When I studied economics in college, I do not believe anybody mentioned the importance of psychological factors. The trained mind was never so badly needed to make its contribution of calm rational thought as against the emotional unthinking reactions of so-called discontent.

Don't worry about getting a job that is good enough for you. All you have to worry about is to be good enough for the jobs that need to be done