TRAINED ECONOMISTS NEEDED, SAYS CARVER

The article printed below is the fifth of a series written at the request of the Crimson and designed as a guide to undergraduates in selecting fields of concentration. These articles will cover all of the main divisions under the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

A vocational purpose has a legitimate place in every plan for a college education. It need not be a selfish purpose because the world needs trained men in many fields. To train oneself for some of these fields is less selfish than to seek an education without regard to any useful work. To seek an education with a fairly definite idea as to what the world needs, even though the world is willing to pay well for it, harmonizes perfectly with a social purpose. The fact that you will be well paid for your work need not deter you, provided the work is useful.

The study of economics may have a definitely vocational purpose. There is a large and growing demand for well trained economists, not only as teachers, but in business as well. Business becomes a more and more intellectual calling as civilization advances and the industrial system becomes more and more complicated. Problems of investment, of valuation, of coordinating the factors of production, of forecasting business tendencies, are not solved by men whose chief qualification is the ability to "hustle". They are solved by men who have a grasp of facts and principles, and the ability to think. That is why trained economists are so much sought after in business.

The principal reasons for concentra- tion in economics are not vocational, unless being a citizen is a vocation. Even aside from enabling one to be a good citizen, one's education ought to initiate one into the intellectual life of the world. When the learning of the world was limited to a knowledge of ancient literatures, no one could be called an educated man unless he shared that knowledge. Without it he could not understand the language of educated men, nor enter into their thoughts and feelings. The interests of educated men have broadened; but it is still true that a student's education should fit him to share their interests, to think their thoughts and to speak their language.

To an increasing extent, the world is thinking and talking about great economic questions. The "thoughts that shake mankind' are economic thoughts; the revolutions and the attempted revolutions of the world are economic revolutions. To enter intelligently into the thought of the world one must have some training in economics. To achieve any kind of constructive leadership in this field, or to be able to direct the thinking of the world into constructive channels, requires specialized training in economics.

Being a good citizen consists, in part at least, in voting intelligently on all important questions. The problems before the citizen, upon which he is called to vote either directly or through representatives, are mainly economic problems. In order to vote and act intelligently, one must possess an understanding of the underlying economic principles. The time is past when these problems were so simple that any one with a fair degree of common sense could vote intelligently. Like all other jobs, the job of the citizen is coming to require a certain amount of technical knowledge. Neither the lawyer nor the engineer can get along now without something more than his untrained common sense. The economic problems which the average citizen has to decide are quite as complicated as those of the lawyer or the engineer.

An Expert Knowledge Valuable

General or specialized training in other fields can not take the place of specialized training in economics. As well expect a trained economist to be a sound lawyer, as expect a trained lawyer to be a sound economist. Not every one needs to be a sound lawyer. We can rely upon a few trained experts to do our law work for us. We can not rely upon a few trained experts to do our voting for us. Every citizen, whatever his vocation,--whether, he be a lawyer, an engineer, a business man, or a manual worker,--will be a better citizen if he is well grounded in the essentials of economics. He will be a better citizen not merely because his mind is a little better trained,--that might be said of special training in any field,--but, in addition to that, because he has expert knowledge of the precise questions upon which he must vote