BRITISH BUSINESS

Evening Star, Issue 20685, 7 January 1931, Page 9

BRITISH BUSINESS

FIGHTING FOR LIFE EDUCATED MEN NEEDED I am one of those people who believe that the greatest hope for a dominant Britain in the future depends on the extent to which business goes to the public schools for its recruits (writes Sir Herbert Morgan, in the ‘ Sunday News ’). Do not accuse me of snobbery or prejudice when I say that the public schools are getting 50 per cent, of the best material in this country. That is a fact, I think, beyond dispute. But this great stream of youth is not being turned into the channels in,which it can best serve the country. In a word, business is not getting its fair share of the product of these great schools. In almost every other branch of service they produce the country’s leaders —soldiers, sailors, statesmen, politicians, clergy, lawyers—but business, which, after all, is the biggest thing in our life to-day, whether we like it or not, is practically ignored. I have no of entering into a discussion as to which side, business or schoolmastering, is mainly responsible for this state of affairs. It is easy to say that the schools cultivate a cloistered life, detached and out of touch with world realities, and just as easy to add that many business men are somewhat contemptuous of the practical value of public school education. THEIR NEED. That sort of thing gets us nowhere. It is much more to the point to emphasise that at the present time, as all through their history, the public schools have definite objects in view for their boys—tlic universities, the services, professions generally, and the work of the State—and they achieve these objects exceedingly well. I feel sure that, given a similar squr to act as a recruiting and training agent for business, they would be equally successful. People always ask me in this connection to lay down a curriculum. Well, I think that is the schoolmaster’s job rather than the business mail’s. But in any case I am not so much concerned with the_ curriculum as with the spirit—the spirit to regard business as a great and vital State service, and not a mysterious and rather dishonest world ; the spirit to give spontaneously to our great business men something of the hero-worship now reserved for soldiers, sailors,' airmen, and sportsmen ; tile spirit to sweep away the snobbery that to be “in trade” is something to be ashamed of. Long before you come to think of business curricula aud specialised training in the public schools you have to get the boys to realise that men like the late Lord Leverhulme, Mr George Cadbury, and Siy William Morris, to name only a few, represent as high a form of patriotism and public service as exists. “ HEROES.” They have blazed the trail for British products throughout the world; they nave given employment to thousands of people; they have helped to' make the country prosperous. They are heroes. Get the public schoolboy to regard them as heroes and you have done a real service. I believe that business men have it in their power to give a scheme of this sort a great start on the road to success. They are always calling out for £IO,OOO a year > men. Supposing that a group of business men devoted one £IO,OOO a year man’s salary to the creation of forty posts each year at a salary of, say, £250, available to public school boys as the result of. examinations, just as is done with the Civil Service at present. Would that not create the incentive that is now lacking ?_ It would make business a definite object for boys and piasters alike. At the moment it is not, because there is no nexus between business and the public schools as there is in the case of the professions, the services, and the Civil Service. If you have over attended a puhlm school prize day you may have noticed that the achievements of which the authorities are proudest is the number of scholarships their boys have won at the universities. The head master apparently is not concerned with the number of soundly-educated hoys who arc leaving, but with the number leaving to take up scholarships at this or that college. The fact is that this competition for money prizes ..underlies the whole system, and tho curriculum is based oil the almost exclusive recognition of those studies which are necessary to gain that form of success. EQUALLY KEEN. With some sort of money prize in business I think you will get the boys and masters equally keen, and I feel sure the success the teachers have achieved in training their charges for those vocations that are their special aim will be repeated when business is added to tho list. The curriculum I leave to others, but there are a* few points that come to mind:

Modem languages are invaluable, buS, only when allied to the other essential qualities. . “ Uncommercial correspondence •». should be taught. The average business! man’s letter is dull and'stupid beyond belief. You want a blending of c rigm-t ality and “ literature ” with commercial directness. A really good business let* ter can be so effective. Commercial geography is anothe* vital subject.- A boy should know jfclxeS per capita expenditure of the Brazilian, the Australian, or the Dane just as hei knows the date of the Battle of Has* tings. He should study' the daily hta of the peoples of the world, know wha£ they manufacture, what they export, what they import, and why. Holiday tours abroad will help t<* broaden his outlook and bring him int<| contact with other people. Courses will have to he devised tof develop clear thinking, ability to ex* press oneself, and close observation, all of which are most vital. WORLD WAR FOR TRADE.

Details, however, are best left to the schoolmaster. It is bis job, and yotf can be sure be will do it _ thoroughly when be is convinced there is a definite opening for bis boys in business and when the spirit of the great public schools is more attuned than it is afi present to the fdea of trade and conw merce as a great and honourable calling. We are fighting, for our lives in trade as much as we did during the war. The nation which can produce the best and most scientifically-trained men of busw ness will head the commercial worlds It is a serious thing to say, but I.sayj it in all earnestness, that unless we cans got the public schools .to answer the call of nig business that dominant, nation will not V Britain.