EXAMPLES OF THE SCULPTURE OF CONSTANTIN MEUNIER, WHO HAS BEEN

COMPARED TO RODIN

Meunier's work has been on exhibition in Buffalo. It may later be seen in New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, and St. Louis. See editorial pages

These pictures are illustrations for two poems by Rabindranath Tagore republished elsewhere in this number from his volume "The Crescent Moon." They are the work of modern Indian painters, yet, curiously enough, they suggest the art both of Japan and of mediæval Italy

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HE entrance of large numbers of college men into business during the last ten years has focused the attention of the general public upon the college man as a business type. "Is it true," they ask. that the college really benefits the graduate entering business?" The question was originally asked timidly, and was emphatically answered positively by college professors and others who were supposed to know. But the cake of custom has had a hard time of it in the United States recently, and critical investigation, that started with the government and the church, has finally hit the college. The demand now is not for assertion but for proof-actual proof that what the general college education gives the business world desires and rewards. It is well-nigh impossible to answer that demand beyond the shadow of a doubt. The records of every college in the country would have to be ransacked, and even then the evidence might not be convincing on either side. But what is possible, and perhaps worth our while, is to ascertain the theoretical advantages and disadvantages of a college training for a business career, and to verify whatever conclusions we may reach by the actual evidence of various corporation officials who are in a position to know.

What training for business success does the college give? In order to answer that, we have first to state a definite conception of the most essential requisite for such success. To my mind, it is the ability to create practical ideas, the power to harness the imagination so that it will assist the individual in discovering new ways or improved ways of attaining the required result. Of course this is not the only requisite, but it seems to be the most fundamental. An executive can hire almost any other kind of work to be done— organization, accuracy in clerical detail, salesmanship. All these the executive can be more or less useless for, and still prosper. Without ideas, however—“workable "ideashe is no more than a well-trained clerk; and a business with a man at its head who cannot think for himself is headed towards the rocks. And at this point the voice of the college is heard. "That is exactly why the college exists," it exclaims, "to train our undergraduates to think for themselves."

This dictum has become the veriest platitude, but the truth on this subject can be uttered in only a certain number of ways, and they all become monotonous through repetition. The fact is, a college student has to work out problems for himself during the entire four years of his tutelage, and if he cannot or will not, he has to leave. Generally speaking, the student who fails to grasp the power to think is lost. I remember a maxim that was printed in large letters on the wall of a class-room at college. It was in Latin, and read to the effect that he who knows but cannot express that which he knows is no better off than if he did not know at all." If you wished to alter that a bit, it would make in itself an admirable college motto. For instance, "You must not only know. You must know what you know clearly and definitely." It is in an atmosphere such as this that the college youth, in the most formative years of his life, is forced to accomplish his daily tasks. He has a routine to follow, but it is a routine that calls into play his reasoning powers at every turn. Even in sport it is practically the same, although of course in a lesser degree. The "heady " candidate for left half-back on the football team is the one who beats out the "beefer " every time. The pitcher who uses his head" is the one the coach desires. In the class-room or out, the college lad is urged to educate his thinking powers. If, therefore, the college affords an atmosphere that is conducive for acquiring one great essential of commercial success, i.e., to think for one's self, are we not justified in giving to the college the credit for that service?

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This independent thinking on the part of each student develops other qualities that will help the graduate in later life. It develops self-reliance, poise, self-confidence. These are outgrowths of the other, and all cannot fail to be of aid at some time to the embryonic business man. If you were to see a freshman making his initial declamation or debate, and four years later saw the same individual making his farewell oration. you would realize that something far more than the mere passage of four years had been at work. This acquirement of balance can be proved by examples that frequently occur to any of us. Some time ago a young man entered my