Education in Business

EDUCATION IN BUSINESS AN ADDRESS BY DR. OTIS U. RANDALL, DEAN OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 18th January, 1927.

The President, COLONEL KIRKPATRICK introduced the Speaker, who brought fraternal greetings from the British Umpire Club of Providence, a great agency for encouraging closer relations between the British Umpire and the United States. It was essential, he said, to cultivate such relationship between the two great nations, because the advance of civilization in the world depended more on that relationship than on any other cause. He made humorous reference to the question that might be asked as to why a College Dean should address business men, and then proceeded-.

Is a College education necessary in business ? Fifty years ago though clergymen were educated in the United States, college education was not considered essential for the practice of medicine, law or engineering. The greatest demand, in matters of health, was for the man who had the longest experience in actual medical practice, and this applied also in engineering. But times have changed, so many complicated problems have arisen in those professions that well-trained men must be had who can handle them. In those early days, education was looked upon by many as merely a storehouse of information, professors doling out knowledge to those who could pay for it. But education has changed its methods completely since then, so that the man who says College education is not essential in the practice of business is either antiquated in his notions or not familiar with the conflicting problems that arise every day in the business world.

Fifty years ago the stress was laid upon subject-matter, and little upon training the mind. The object then was to furnish to the physician or clergyman or lawyer simply a knowledge of history, philosophy, chemistry, physics, and the man who could pass the examination at the end of the semester was called an educated man. In those days professors insisted that the learning of those lessons was essential. I remember that if I tried to translate a Latin or Greek passage into any other language than the one selected I failed. There was little encouragement for a man to think and act for himself. That is not true education, but that was the kind they gave us, and I know thousands of men who have been through a college course and have studied law from beginning to end, yet today they are not serving mankind in the best possible way. So there are many practising medicine today who, through such old-fashioned training, have not yet learned the significance of human needs or how to apply the proper principles in dealing with them.

At a meeting in Providence lately, Mr. Chesney, the Superintendent of Health, made a report on the cooperation between Brown University and the City of Providence in maintaining the health of the City, and closed with the startling words, "The health of the City of Providence would be far better if you would chloroform fifty per cent of the practising physicians." Then we called upon a Clergyman to say how the University cooperated with the Clergy of the City of Providence in looking after the spiritual welfare of the people. He did not apply Dr. Chesney's statement to the clergy, but I wish he had, for I think we would be better off if fifty per cent of the pastors retired. Why? Because they are simply learned men, educated in the old schools, without having selected those colleges which stand for character and manhood, which make it possible for you and me to see the human needs and supply them.

In our institution we have seen the necessity for a revolution. We are trying to educate men, and are simply using the various subjects of the curriculum as agencies through which we can build men. I consider that modern education is divided into three parts.

The first has to do with physical needs. You will find thousands of men in the great business offices of our country who are not able to give more than fifty or seventy-five per cent of their ability, simply because they have weak bodies. That matter cannot be neglected, and we are looking after it as carefully as we can from the time the boy comes into college until he goes out. We have a corps of physicians watching every physical symptom, and if a man shows evidence of disease he is put under proper care. We are also devoting our athletic agencies in such a way as to build strong, healthy bodies.

Secondly, mental development is usually considered the proper work of the college, but that alone is not enough, and we are throwing overboard many old requirements, and are constantly insisting that the professors shall make use of their laboratories and libraries, lectures, and whatever the subject may be, with the aim of building men. There are only a few subjects that need to be taken in our schools and colleges for their value as education. There are some who claim that, a man must have so much of this and of that or he is not cultured; but it is not the subject-matter that counts, it is the influence that study has upon the student. I believe that only a few subjects should be required in our colleges. Everyone must study English, because we must know our language, which is the tool we use in our work, the channel through which we express our thoughts. Then every man should have some knowledge of mathematics and general science, with some foreign language, some social science, which shows us how to live with one another-and there is nothing more important than that; the failure to understand it is the cause of our domestic and national and international troubles, so social science is essential. (Applause). Philosophy and history are also essential, for we must know where we stand, what went before us, in order to know how to go on in life. But outside of those subjects I am frank to say that it does not make much difference what you study. These are simply agencies through which we are building men and women, just as we use the gymnasium with dumb bells, chest weights, horizontal bars, etc., to make a strong body not to be experts in the use of those agencies.

There is something else that must be looked after in the education of youth-the cultivation and development of those qualities that make you and me worth while to ourselves and to our fellow-men-I know no better name to use than to call it the spiritual. (Applause). Germany developed their men physically and mentally to the extreme, but they lacked the third element, and that lack was the cause of the world disaster. (Applause). If you leave out the cultivation of these spiritual qualities you simply make dangerous men. (Applause).

Now, what is business ? It is not true today to say that business is merely an occupation through which a man may earn his livelihood. I claim that if the law, or medicine, or engineering is a profession, then business is a profession. (Hear, hear). A profession is the pursuit of a particular activity created by human needs, involving so many complicated problems that men must have special preparation in order to handle them. Business today deals with production, transportation and distribution of those commodities which are essential for human living, including all the machinery needed for carrying on this work. If that is not a profession, I do not know what a profession is. From your experience you know that the problems that come before you every day, if they are to be carried on the right scale, call for men of the best business training, with strong minds and sane judgment; and the man today who says that a college education is not necessary for business is behind the times. (Hear, hear). Why, every college of any pretentions in the United States has within five years introduced courses in business administration. In my own college 45 per cent of the students are enrolled for business courses, and every Spring, before we close, representatives of the biggest corporations in the country ask us to recommend men in the senior class for business positions, and they always say, " Don't recommend a man who is not going to get his degree." That means something. We are going to bring the profession of business to the point where it will be recognized as one of the strongest agencies we can use for the benefit of humanity, and we want the best pupils that we can find in the world for it.

Now I wish to lay stress upon three things. First, the relation between the employer and the employee. Some employers look upon their employees merely as part of their office equipment or mill machinery; they have not yet learned that those employees are human beings with souls like their own, and entitled to their rights. Look over the history of the warfare between capital and labour, and note the bloodshed, loss of millions, the stoppage of plant, etc., that has been going everywhere simply because there was not that friendly relation and understanding between employer and employee. This is not a small matter; it is not a trite affair; it is a vital problem, and the man who does not realise that his employees are human beings who are to be treated kindly is not going to succeed in business. It is not a question of morality, but of economy, because it is just as easy for the leaders of great organizations to make their employees enthusiastic supporters of the plant as not. Everyone can be trained to see that in working for the promotion of the big cause they are securing their own personal promotion.

Secondly, I would speak of integrity in business. That is a common phrase. But there was a time when people looked upon business as an opportunity for one man to "do" or "outdo" the other; and when a man "put over" a low deal it would be said, "Well, never mind, it is business." But that is not business; and I tell you that the sooner we can bring the golden rule into our business transactions the more readily will we succeed, and the more completely will we serve our fellow-men. (Applause). The time has come when we should pay great respect to that principle, which I find is being so completely adopted in large business circles that men are ashamed and even afraid to do a crooked thing. From my experience I will say that I would trust my fortunes in the hands of a great many business men in preference to some who occupy high positions in churches. (Hear, hear). I say that, not because a business man regards it as business to be upright. Oh, we could carry that a great deal further.

Finally, and I believe this is the most important of all, I want to speak of the use of money. There has been a tendency for great business concerns and great corporations to look upon money acquired either by inheritance or by their own effort as their own, to be used for selfish purposes. You will find people of all professions who have been giving their lives up to those things which are really material and temporal. Many men who have acquired millions will tell you frankly, as they are about to pass into the other world, that life has been a failure. Why a failure ? Simply because they have misinterpreted the meaning of their good fortune; they have misused the opportunity which God placed in their hands. No man has a right to take the things which he acquires in this world through his God-given talents as his own. They are all lent; and the man who fails to make use of those opportunities is going to lose the best that life has to offer. (Applause). Speaking from a long experience in my own and various professions I can say that the only enjoyment I have had out of life is through the consciousness that I have helped somebody else-(Hear, hear)-and you business men, representing various branches, must look upon your funds and your assets as funds in trust, to be used by you for the service of mankind. When you recognize that, you will serve mankind as no other organization or profession can.

Gentlemen, I pray that you go on with that ideal, for only thus can you make this old world better for us to live in, and you will thus advance civilization. (Loud applause).

THU PRESIDENT thanked the Speaker for his interesting address, and then installed the President-elect to office.