Loyola University Maryland - Evergreen / Green and Gray Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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WILLIAM F. SAUER. Joined us early in our course. ‘‘Will” is an artist and musician as well as an actor. Founder and first President of the Loyola Chess Club. Art Editor of the Annual.

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men who have made their marks in the business and profes- sional worlds, and have seen just what the different systems of education have been able to accomplish. Banker, lawyer, statesman, scientist — one and all agree that, without the pecu- liar training afforded by the study of the classics, the young man is severely handicapped in his struggle for success. James Loeb, the senior member of the banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb Co., of Wall street, perhaps the leading financial insti- tution of the country, is a firm believer in the classical train- ing. “That a classical course is a valuable training for busi- ness life,” he says, “has always seemed to me a self-evident proposition. I firmly believe that a thorough training in these cultural studies is the sine qua non of every successful life. A graduate of such a course learns more quickly, and masters more thoroughly, whatever department of activity he enters, than does the one whose development is only along the lines of his own work.’’ That is what Wall Street thinks about the classics. Now let us take a glance at other lines of busi- ness. William J. Sloane, president of the W. J. Sloane Co., of New York, one of the largest carpet manufacturing concerns in the country, has this to say in favor of classical education: “I, for one, think that a classical education is a distinct advan- tage to a business man, and will prove to be so in increasing measure as he rises to positions of responsibility and influence in his business and elsewhere. It gives him a wider horizon, and this means greater ability to see through complex situa- tions, to understand motives, and to measure men.” From the classics to carpet making seems a far cry, but even in this branch of business are the ancient tongues able to hold their own. From the viewpoint of the statesman, the case for the clas- sics is put very clearly by the Hon. John W. Foster, Secretary of State in President Harrison’s Cabinet, and now a leading lawyer in Washington, D. C., who says: “Every man at the bar or in public life who was made familiar with the classics knows how valuable these studies have been to him in his pro- fessional career, because of the discipline they have given to the mind, and the accuracy of expression which they have (23)

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developed.” Mr. Foster tells of the many and prolonged dis- putes between our country and England over the wording of our various treaties, and says that the greater part of the ill- feeling and trouble caused by these disputes could have been avoided if the negotiators of the treaty had possessed the capacity to express their intent in more precise language. Such is the statesman’s view of the question. Dean Hutchins, of the Law School of the University of Michigan, earnestly commends the study of the classics to the prospective lawyer. “Its value,” he says, “is that it fits the mind for the analysis of the intricate questions presented in the practice of law; it lends balance to the judgment; it so develops one’s faculties that he has them at all times under his control, and is prepared for every emergency; and lastly, it gives him a skill in the use of languages that will be of inestimable value to him in his preparation and interpretation of the laws and legal documents.’’ And so, in like manner, does Dr. Victor C. Vaughan, dean of the University of Michigan Medical School, advise the prospective doctor to begin his course with the study of the classics. “No one can become a student of anything,” says Dr. Vaughan, “until he first learns how to study, and this he does in the pursuit of Latin and Greek. Such a training gives the habit of close observation, of attention to detail, and an alertness of mind, all of which will be of great value to him, both in his laboratory and at the bedside of his patient.” And finally, Professor C. O. Whitman, of the Department of Science at the University of Chicago, admits the necessity of the classics even to those whose minds have a decided scien- tific tendency. “I have long held,” he said, “that a thorough knowledge of Latin and Greek is quite essential to the mod- ern man of science. In my own department, the ablest men are, without exception, men who have had a thorough classical education.” And so it goes. In every calling the value of the classics is appreciated, even where one would least expect it. In our great national sport, for instance, most of the real “brainy’ ' players are those whose minds have had the college training. “Connie Mack,” perhaps the greatest leader of them all, real- (25)