Printed at Chemawa, Oregon and Devoted to the Interests of Indian Educatoin
Vol. XXXI
Wednesday, May 21, 1930
WHAT IS DEMANDED
Old times are gone and new days with new stand
ards are with us. Forty or fifty years ago almost
anyone witôjjalf a will to work could find something
to do. It is different nowadays—one has to be anxious
to work in order to hold a job if he gets one. Com
petition is keen among those who labor and the
invention of labor-saving machines has added to the
problems of the wage-earners as a class. All over our
land standards of living, of production, and of demands,
have been getting higher and higher with the passing
of the years. There are so many ordinary people
that there are not enough ordinary jobs to go around.
What logically follows as the course for our students
if thev are to succeed? They must fit themselves for
positions of skill and responsibility—for the job above
the capacity of the masses. In labor as in life itself,
the “fittest will survive.”
Many of our boys and girls will soon be looking for
work during the vacation period, while many of our
graduates will be looking for permanent positions.
We wish to draw their attention to a paragraph in a
report recently sent out by the Y. M. C. A. of Port
land; it is worthy of serious consideration and reads
as follows:
“Difficulty in finding trained men with five or more
consecutive years of experience continues to be a prob
lem. Trained, experienced men in almost any line
can be placed even in these dull times. As it is, there
is a woeful lack of good men in the most ordinary
trades. It is most difficult to find good auto mechanics
or car washers, or a man who can park cars properly,
or sell gas and make correct change. Recent calls for
mechanical draftsmen, erecting machinists, steamfit
ters, and maintenance electricians went unfilled for
lack of qualified applicants. Wide-awake, trained
accountants, under 50, with good penmanship, and
first-class male stenographers are in demand, with the
supply limited.”
' It will be of interest no doubt to our readers to
ponder what the report says of clerks and salesmen,
especially if any of our young folk consider trying
their hands at something along this line, canvassing
for instance:
“Of Clerks there are legion, but those who can meet
the public properly and who snap into their jobs are few
No 36
indeed. Some one has said that people are divided
into two groups; clerks and salesmen, 90 percent
clerks and 10 percent salesmen. The latter fillingall
of the worth-while positions and getting most of the
money, while the clerks are just trailing along behind.
It is the ambition of this department to boost the num
ber of salesmen.”
This subject begins to grow serious now. The im
possibility of reaching, helping, or doing anything
for a certain class seems hard, but it appears as
true as it is hard. Read this paragraph of the report:
“The office is filled every day however with young
men and older men, without either special education
or training or experience, anxious about the future
but unable to find their places in the world. One’s
sympathies are taxed to the utmost while finding it
almost impossible to help.”
From here we shall give the report without any
comment. We think it will bear most careful reading
and prove well worth serious reflection. Read:
“Business conditions for the month of April were
disappointing. There was a tenseness in the atmos
phere, an uncertainty, that was felt all along the line.
While placements were fairly good the quality was
not what we expected. Very few first-class men were
called for, particularly in the office lines. The ma
jority of calls and placements were of the ordinary
kind. Lumber was exceedingly quiet with many mills
wavering as to whether to open or close. The tariff
squabble in Congress has filled the air with uncertainty
in our leading industry. What the outcome will be
no one can predict. Until the matter is settled mills
are marking time and thousands of men are idle.
“An unusually large number of both high' school
and college men have been coming in who have dropped
out of school on account of lack of finances. Most
of these young men were of a very fine type with
whom it was a great pleasure to confer and to try to
assist in their problems.
“We addressed letters to fifteen small denominational
colleges in a recent effort to supply five young college
men as teachers in mission schools and had only two
young men respond to such an appeal. We are still
hoping for later inquiries. Frankly we are puzzled
as to why there was not a greater response. The
(Continued on page 4)