THE OVERCROWDED PROFESSIONS

The old argument in favor of attending college, based on augmented earning power, is little by little losing its force. The most recent refutation of it comes from Germany, whose Bar Association last week revealed that one-third of the German lawyers receive less than $1400 a year; one-sixth, less than $600. To remedy this situation, which has been brought about by overcrowding, the Association adopted a resolution prohibiting any admissions to the bar for the next three years. The New York State Bar Association, in a report last spring, made equally pessimistic observations concerning overcrowding. In the teaching profession and engineering the situation is much the same. If in the other professions the saturation point has not yet been reached, it may be only a question of time.

The significance of this for the college man is important. It means that the average wage for men in the professions must, in the long run, go down. Only a very few top-notchers will continue to receive the high salaries. The time may eventually come when there will be little to choose, financially, between the professional and non-professional careers. Some economists are already predicting that the day is not far distant when the average lawyer, with twenty years of schooling behind him, will got no larger wage than the average plumber.

All this is purely a matter of economics--the law of supply and demand. But it forces to the front an educational issue of vast importance. The traditional view of a college education as a way of increasing income must go. In its place must come the view which educators have all along taken: that college does not teach how to make a living, but how to live. The college man of the future, when he comes to assess the value of his college education, will not look to the richesses of a purse, but rather to the richness of a life.