Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1904 — TWENTY THOUSAND GRADUATES [ARTICLE]

TWENTY THOUSAND GRADUATES

An Army of College and University Graduates Now Face the World. Twenty-thousand young men were graduated from the colleges, universities and professional schools of the country last month. That means 20,000 more educated young men thrown into the business and professional arena to compete with those already there. Of these graduates, it is estimated that 9,000 are from colleges proper, 1,500. from technical schools, 1,500 from theological seminaries, 3,500 from law colleges and 5,500 from medical schools. The medical profession is already the most crowded and it is a question how so many new doctors are to make a living. The field of ths law is scarcely less filled. In business, finance and occupations requiring technical knowledge there is more room. But of the college graduates entering these fields, those who will find success awaiting them must work for it They are to come into competition with others possessing less general education but with years of experience. Those who think their college education alone should entitle them to superior places and who decline to work their way up through the ranks of employment will prove failures. But for the college graduate who is willing to begin at the bottom round of the ladder, learn all the details of the business, apply himself carefully, work long hours and throw himself heart and soul into the work, success is waiting. It will take years for him to catch up with the men who have been learning the business while he has been in college, but once he has caught up his superior education, his broader grasp of life and his wider range of vision will give him the advantage. All other qualities being equal, the college graduate has by far the best chance. His greatest enemy is What may be termed his tendency to get the ’’big head.”