College Not Inimical to Success, Says Rosenwald

Julius Rosenwald was one of three of America’s most prominent industrialists who disagreed with the statement of Dr. Harold F. Clark of Teachers College, Columbia University, that a college education can be a detriment to wage earning.

Mr. Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck & Co. of Chicago, believes in college education, but points out that many of the great fortunes of America have resulted from the exploitation of our natural resources.

“Although I am convinced that many who go to college would be far better off if they went to work,” he asserts, “I believe in college education. If I did not I should not have served for many years as a trustee of the University of Chicago nor taken so much interest in the growth and development of that institution.

“It is true that many men have achieved greatness in various lines without ever being inside a college, as, for instance, Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland and Thomas Edison; and because they are greatly in the majority a large number of non-college men have made fortunes as compared with those equally lucky in business who have had an education. But this does not seem to me to prove the lack of value of colleges.

“We must remember that many of the great fortunes in America have been made in part at least simply by taking advantage of the great natural resources of this new country and by reaping the almost inevitable rewards of developing these resources in the presence of a rapidly growing population. It required only energy, imagination and courage to turn oil into millions and billions of dollars, to amass great wealth by building railroads over a vast and rich country, to roll up fortunes form automobiles as millions of people began almost overnight to demand them, to take advantage of good transportation and communications to develop national mail order businesses.

“As we pass the pioneering period in America, and as the great natural resources of this new country become more nearly balanced by the increasing population, it may not be so easy to build up huge fortunes by these relatively simple means. Increasingly business is becoming complex; and success in it is tending more and more to require special and general training Colleges and technical schools are likely to be called upon in increasing measure to train men for industrial leadership, while they continue to serve to broaden and enrich the lives of their students.”