--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Lewis A. Merrill collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 5 number: 3 published: 1902-01 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Lewis A. Merrill, "Choosing an Occupation," *Improvement Era* 5, no. 3 (January 1902): 212–216.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0503unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0503unse start_page: 212 end_page: 216 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1902-01) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0503unse publication_year: 1902 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1902, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Choosing an Occupation CHOOSING AN OCCUPATION. BY LEWIS A. MERRILL, PROFESSOR OP AGRICULTURE, STATE AGRICUL- TURAL COLLEGE, UTAH. Many of the readers of the Era have arrived at that stage of life when the choice of an occupation must be made. The pur- pose of this article is to point out some facts which should be con- sidered by our young men in entering upon their life's work. Among the Latter-day Saints, there should be no young man who does not have an occupation of some kind. Although he may be financially independent today, the changing conditions of life may bring to him poverty tomorrow, and remunerative occupation may be to him a practical necessity in aiding him to provide susten- ance for himself and family. Under such circumstances, many men have been saved from poverty, by possessing the knowledge and skill of an artisan, which enabled them to battle successfully against the financial misfortunes which had overtaken them. Aside from financial considerations, every young man in Zion should have an occupation, because of the security it furnishes against all those evils which result from idleness and a luxurious mode of life; or, in other words, because of its influence on the moral and social natures. "Idleness," it is said, "is the devil's workshop." True it is, that the young man who finds regular emplo)rment is not found around street corners, indulging habits which tend to his moral degradation. If we consider the controlling influence which one's occupa- tion must exert upon his life, his character and his happiness, and considering also the necessity of its possession, how important it seems that the selection of an occupation should be given most careful attention. And yet, how few of our young men fully realize what a factor the decision of this question is to be in all that will CHOOSING AN OCCUPATION. 213 go to make up the sum of success or failure in life. Probably not more than one man in ten, on the average, can be truly said to have chosen his occupation. It may have come to him as if by chance, or more correctly, circumstances may have changed the course of his life, and led him to adopt a vocation for which he either had no natural inclination, or for which he had never believed he possessed the requisite talent. It has been forced upon him, and after a time he has, perhaps, discovered that he was "building better than he knew," and the result may be satisfactory. Sometimes a young man is brought up and educated in the profession or vocation of his father, or a noted business house is perpetuated through several generations in the same family, but such instances are exceptional rather than the rule. We generally think of our occupation as less desirable than any other; we have found the objections that exist against it, and have too lightly esteemed, or entirely overlooked, the advantages peculiar to it; while we have seen all the apparent good points in our neighbor's calling, and failed to note the objections to which it may be, and doubtless is, liable. And thus it is often the case that fathers do not encourage their sons to follow the occupation which has proved so irksome to them, although they, perhaps, have been reasonably successful. In choosing an occupation, one's own peculiar tastes, his likes and dislikes, his aptitude and his native ability, must be considered. Often a very young man reveals marked ability in a certain line of work, and in this he should be encouraged to put forth effort and energy, in order that he may overcome all obstacles and com- pel success. To most young men, that occupation which will be most likely to yield best financial returns is the one most likely to be chosen. It may be, however, that the pursuit of this occupation would prevent the young man from attending to his duties as a Latter-day Saint, The writer calls to mind a young man, now counselor to the president in one of the stakes of Zion, who re- fused employment in a bank, at a remunerative salary, because the particular duties required of him, did not give him the time to magnify his calling in the priesthood. This question, above all others, should be a controlling factor in choosing an occupation. Again, is the occupation one in which the mental and physical 214 IMPROVEMENT ERA. natures will be kept healthy and active? Is it an occupation which will permit of the promotion of healthy family relations? These questions must be answered carefully, and in the light of the good judgment and experience of others. And right at this point may be the turning point of our lives. We should seek counsel of our older brethren, who have traveled over the way upon which we are about to enter. They know where the pitfalls and dangers are concealed, because they have traversed over these paths and are able to give advice founded upon experience. The opportunities opening before a young man in these days are so many, and the need of skilled young men in all of the walks of life is so great, that he becomes confused. While the occupa- tions may be divided into a few grand divisions, as the professions, agriculture, mechanic arts, commerce, etc., their subdivisions are numerous, but most of them are honorable when well filled. When Horace Mann, the great educator, after having been president of the Massachusetts senate, was offered the Secre- taryship of the state board of education, his friends tried to dissuade him from accepting it, on the ground that it was a mere secretaryship with no honor attached to it. His answer was, ''If the office is not honorable, then clearly it is my duty to make it so." Whether a calling is honorable or dishonorable de- pends upon the character of the man engaged in it. All necessary work is honorable, but that calling is most honorable which con- tributes most to the welfare of mankind. There are golden as well as honorable possibilities in most of the occupations, waiting to be improved by the young men, and it is their duty to study their own capabilities and measure their own ambition with that care and shrewdness which will enable them to make a wise choice. Of late years, there has developed among our young men a disinclination to engage in industrial pursuits. Many young men leave the farm and go into some of our larger cities, and there en- gage in any kind of menial labor, if it enables them to wear fine clothes and a starched collar,rather than perform the duties required on the farm. Again, there are many of our young men who like the farm and hesitate to adopt farming, only because they fear that the returns of a farm are not equal to the efforts put forth. But if the great financial troubles which have at different times CHOOSING AN OCCUPATION. 215 swept over the country have proved one thing more conclusively than another, it is the certainty of the necessities, comforts, and even the luxuries, of life to those who sensibly and systematically follow farming. All professions but those of the farm and mine are more or less closely connected with the city. Of these, he hears and reads much, and often he learns of the 'success of this and that remarkable man. He does not hear of the purgatory of days and weeks, and years of weary labor, exhausting abiost to discouragement, that most of these same men endured before suc- cess finally came. Of the final failure of many, he does not hear at all, nor of the wrecked hopes of the multitude that never en- joyed even a brief space of prosperity, in the intense struggle for existence, that characterizes all professions, and is destined to grow yet more bitter, more exacting, and more merciless. With the hard labor upon the farm he is thoroughly familiar. It is almost the only business which little children see in full operation, and which, in a way, they can understand and take part in; and in this fact lies the superior advantage possessed by the boy raised on a farm. He has seen more enterprises carried through from start to finish, accumulated more experience, and tested his power to a higher degree, than is possible with his city cousin, although in the learning of the schools he may be less adept, and in the lan- guage of the hour less fluent. Our boys must get rid of the idea that it is more dignified and honorable to stand behind a counter measuring calico than it is to till the soil. There are hundreds of graduates of colleges, and some of the oldest and leading colleges in America, too, who are agents of sewing machines, solicitors for insurance, clerks, copyists; in short, performing a hundred varieties of menial ser- vice. They seem to be willing to do anything that is not regarded as work, anything that can be done in a city, in a house, in an of- fice, but they avoid such work as farming, or industrial work, as they would leprosy. That greatest colonizer of modern times, President Brigham Young, emphasized the importance and dignity of agricultural pursuits. He foresaw that under the peculiar conditions existing in this inter-mountain country, a system of agriculture could be produced, which would sustain a vastly greater population on the 216 IMPROVEMENT ERA. same area than anywhere else in the world. The agricultural pos- sibilities of this country have not begun to be developed, and while our leaders have been calling settlers out to open up new countries, they have at the same time in public and in private, em- phasized the necessity of better methods of culture, of a more careful study of the needs of the soil, of a more systematic selection of crops, so that the lands already in possession of our people may sustain a greater population. Here, then, is the opportunity for our young men. They should prepare them- selves for this work of raising our agriculture to a higher and more dignified standing than it has today. Of all the occupations, none give opportunity for rearing the family under so nearly ideal conditions as does the occupation of farming; none furnish such good conditions for rearing children and developing them into strong, natural, useful and God-fearing men and women. No occupation gives the Latter-day Saint a better opportunity to attend to his religious duties; none offers so good an opportunity in building up and beautifying Zion. Let the parents realize, then, that though the work and drudgery of the farm sometimes seems unendurable, that their children are receiv- ing invaluable training in coming close to nature, in learning her laws; and, through this training, a child's conception of the Creator and his handiwork becomes indelibly impressed. Let our young men realize that it is within their power to help transform the rude surroundings of the frontiersman, and the slovenly homes of the indifferent, into pure and beautiful homes, a part of our mod- ern Zion. But no matter what occupation a young man may choose, it will be impossible for him to succeed without unremitting toil. He must prepare himself for his life's work by educating himself for the occupation he has chosen. All ambitious young men desire an education, and no great class of people educate their children as w^ell as do the Latter-day Saints. The mutual improvement worker who educates himself for his calling, and then enters into it with zeal, having a firm determination that for his own sake, and for the pride he has in the success of his people, will succeed, and the sacrifices he has made in preparing himself for his work will be most abundanty rewarded.