OPPORTUNITIES WAIT SAYS SWOPE AT UNION

"There are a large number of unsolved problems in business today, and these very facts make for the opportunities of tomorrow," said Mr. Gerard Swope, president of the General Electric Company speaking on "Business as a Career" at the Union last night in the second of the vocational talks.

"Business can be defined as a fundamental science which provides inhabitants of city and country with food, shelter, and clothing. As time goes on when the work of providing these necessities of life becomes less, there will be more time for enjoyment and the development of individual characteristics. The search for better ways of doing things is constant."

Traces History Of Industry

Before reaching his discussion of business as we understand it today, Mr. Swope traced the growth of industry and trade. The first thing that prompted business was service. "Men", he said, "exchanged products to save time, and to save labor. Then as communities grew, matters became more complex. You first had the country stores, which were finally grouped together into larger unions. Then came the chain stores, and our large department stores. Now our cities have grown so rapidly that the status of economic conditions has not kept pace with them, for the waste in the distribution of food products is very great." Summing up the matter of industrial advancement, he said, "The whole question has been to find better methods for doing things. Whatever the methods of producing are today, always better ones can be devised in the future."

Mr. Swope, like all successful business men, is of the opinion that the best results come from methods of fair-dealing, and there was a note of this spirit in his final words. "If you go forth with the ideal that Harvard holds aloft to you in its motto of 'Veritas', it seems to me that you will carry a message to the community, that is worth while carrying and which, in the doing, will give you a great deal of satisfaction.