Earmarking Collegiate Manpower

Abstract

T HE country needs trained men. The armed forces, business, industry, the government, the professions are all in need of superior young men. The demand is for potential leaders. A traditional source of such material is the college. In more normal times the selection is made from among the June graduates. The exigencies of the current situation have changed this practice. The selection is now among the Freshmen. The Army and the Navy, through programs of enlistments of college boys to inactive service by means of classifications such as V1 and Vs. now select early the promising men for their services. Business, industry, the government, and the rest will be driven, sooner or later, to devise comparable programs for selection and retention of their young hopefuls through a college education, or as much of one as the situation permits. If it be true that four or five men are needed in civilian war pursuits for every one engaged in the armed services, leadership qualities are as essential in these civilian activities as they are in the more direct military services. In addition, the secondary line of defense activities such as are carried on in research laboratories also needs an enlarged flow of welltrained help. There is likewise a shortage of doctors and engineers. Potential leaders in all these fields must not be forgotten when we deal with college material. Total war presupposes thinking in terms of the total situation. The purpose of this article is to present briefly what all this means to the colleges. In most well-conceived colleges the first two years are devoted to the completion of general education. Most seekers of potential leaders, whether they represent the Army, the Navy, business, industry, the government, or the professional schools, speak enthusiastically of their high respect for general education. What constitutes general education, however, is a matter of personal opinion. Those who have in mind the potential leaders of men engaged in technical operations conceive general education to be training in the physical sciences. The medical corps, pharmaceutical processors, and the like emphasize the biological sciences. There is no intent to ridicule any of these viewpoints but rather to direct attention to the awkwardness created within the colleges unless two conditions prevail. First, as never before, the challenge to all college administrators is to provide genuine general education for all their students irrespective of later vocational specialization. This challenge must be seriously