Alumni Oration

"Need for Sound Thinking People in Canada UNB Alumni are Told" Daily Gleaner (18 May 1961). (UA Case 67a, Box 2)

P. Bancroft Reid, chairman of the Canadian Stock Exchange last night informed the 1961 graduating class of the University of New Brunswick that "specializing" was not the only road that led to success.

In giving the Alumni Oration at the University’s Encaenial Dinner attended by some 700, including graduates of previous years, and faculty members and their wives and husbands, the speaker said, "there are increasing opportunities for experts and technicians and those who specialize in certain areas of their calling.

"But, in addition, there is also a great need for well trained, well educated and sound thinking people who are prepared to do a conscientious job of finding out and weight all the available facts before arriving at a conclusion.

"The need for this type of person can never be eliminated and it may explain why so many top corporation executives are lawyers or accountants who have spent much of their time weighting facts and general considerations and avoided becoming emmeshed in the details.

Post-Graduate Courses

"I think it is a very significant development that post-graduate courses in business administration are drawing a great many technically trained men such as engineers and foresters, and providing them with a broader background of qualification for executive positions," the speaker said.

Earlier in his address Mr. Reid noted that scientific developments have brought big improvements in our standard of living, but pointed out that they have also brought some serious disadvantages by tremendously increasing the complexity of our economic and social organization.

Basic Problems

"Among the more noticeable trends evident in the economy is the replacement of labor by capital, that is, the investment per employee has been increasing and consequently productive capacity per employee has improved; this is part of an unending struggle to stay competitive, but the lack of growth in manufacturing in Canada in recent years is a disturbing fact indicating some basic problems," he said.

"Our social organizations has been affected by providing us with a higher standard of living at the price of complexity and dependence upon others." Mr. Reid observed that "when the electric can opener won’t work, the wife takes her husband out to dinner."

Emerging From Recession

The speaker reported that business today is generally believed to be emerging from a minor recession, and a generally optimistic attitude exists toward the immediate future. Government, he said, has assumed a much wider role in the economy, and combined with the Bank of Canada is expected to prevent major setbacks.

The stock exchange official cited persistent unemployment, high taxation, and high costs of production as pressing current problems. He said, "the art of government is closely related to economics and neither of these is an exact science so that the practical application of highly commendable social theories sometimes turns out to be the reverse of what was intended."

Active Interest

In concluding, the speaker urged members of the graduation class to take an active interest in politics and pointed out "The efficiency of democratic governments varies with the interest or lack of interest take in them, and hard won liberties can quickly lapse through lack of interest."