THE DISCIPLINE OF ADVERSITY

An investigation into the careers of college graduates revealed that those who graduated in a year of depression were more successful than those who left college in happier times. Here at least is some encouragement for the student who finishes his formal education when employment is difficult to obtain.

It does not seem probable that better students go to college in periods of business inactivity, nor is it any more likely that instruction is improved. But bad times make anyone more serious and diligent, and firmness of purpose at a formative stage of character can have far-reaching consequences. Regardless of what pursuit the graduate takes up, he will find that more than customary application is needed; if he is to advance or even held his position. The chances are, too, that the firm that employs him will not be of the type that flourishes only in speculative booms.

Whatever the immediate advantages of entering upon a career in a depression, the mental influence of times of stress is beneficial. The young man entering a fool's paradise from his university may conceive of life as a series of halycon days interspersed with a few unexplainable storms, but he who graduates in the collapse of this paradise will have greater respect for the sterner virtues, which, come to the front in stormy days.