€ttntll IKttimsitg ptarg THE GIFT OF j[Y\A/a..."^,...jrS V. NrsNjiur^wiii-Sjavv.-. i\....\.?i.rx.sr.s.-a- .-5^..«..|..V.ft..^.o..fW. 5474 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030179430 ,/^"=Nv '"**»-'«^.^,,^.,^„ PUBLICATIONS ^V | *^ | OF THE MicHiGAiM Political Science Association. VOL. V. No. 2. JUNE, t903. CONTENTS: HIGHER COMMERCIAL EDUCATION Papers Read at the Convention of Educators and Business Men, held under the Auspices of the Political Science Association, February, 4, 5, 6 and 7, 1903. « PRICE, ONE DOLLAR THE MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. OFFICERS. PRESIDENT. C. A. Kent, vice-presidents. Wm. WidDicomb, - . - . Wm. O. Hedrick, ----- secretary. John A. Fairlie, - - . - treasurer. Charles H. Cooley, . - - - MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE COnniTTEE James H. McIDonald, - - - James E. Mitchell, - - . - Edward D. Jones, - ... I),etrbit Grand Rapids Lansing Ann Arbor Ann Arbor Detroit Alma Ann Arbor EXTRACT FROM THE CONSTITUTION RELATING TO MEMBERSHIP. .^ARTICLE IV. Sec. I. .'^ny person may become a member of this Association on the nomina- tion of a member and the approval of the Executive Committee. Sec. 2. The regular membership fee shall be S2.00, payable on or before the annual meeting of each year, but by the payment of 22s. 00 at any one time a mem- ber may become a life member of the Association, and thereafter shall be exempt from all regular membership fees. The annual membership fee for college students shall be Ji.oo. For further information address, JOHN A. FAIRLIE, Secretary, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. CONVENTION OF EOOCATORS AND BUSINESS MEN FOR THE DISCUSSION OF L HELD UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION February Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Nineteen Hundred and Three ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN ANN ARBOR PLANT The Richmond & Backus Co., Printbrs igo3 k A^IS'^ a--- INTRODUCTORY NOTE. It is the policy of the Michigan Political Science Association to devote its annual meetings to the discus- sion of topics which are believed to be of peculiar and timely importance to the citizens of the State. The meeting of July, 1902, was devoted to the Social Problems of the Farmer, and the programme was joined with that of the annual convention of the Michigan Farmers' Institutes. In planning the meeting of Feb- ruary, 1903, it was decided to devote the session to the subject of Higher Commercial Education, which is of great and growing importance, and to call a convention of educators and business men. The results of their delib- erations are included in this volume. In the programme as carried out the three questions which have occasioned the greatest embarrassment in organizing university courses in Higher Commercial Ed- ucation were made, each in turn, the subject of discussion. In the first session the introductory addresses were given and the general subject of training men for industry and commerce was presented. The second or Educators' Session was devoted to the, relation of commercial educa- tion to the general educational system and to industrial organizations outside the universities. The third or Business Men's Session was employed in discussing the educational requirements of practical business life, so far as they may be met by university instruction. The fourth iv MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. session was divided between the consideration of the extent to which and the manner in which students of commerce should study science, and the business training required for the United States foreign service. There are many other questions, second only in the practical difficulties which they present, to those included in the programme; such as the character of instruction in his- tory, in economics, in mathematics, in statistics, in accounting, and in law, needed by students of commerce ; the extent to which co-operation between universities is feasible or desirable, etc. To the end that no question of interest be excluded, the last session of the Convention was left open for general discussion. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Remarks by the President of the Michigan Political Science Association, Hon. Arthur Hill, of Saginaw, Michigan i Address of Welcome from the President of the Univer- sity of Michigan, Dr. James B. Angell, Ann Arbor. 4 Recent Tendencies in Education as a Result of Social and Industrial changes, Dr. Edmund J. James, President of Northwestern University 7 educator's session. Place of Commercial Education in a University Course, '' Professor William A. Scott, Director of the School of Commerce, University of Wisconsin 40 Remarks Concerning the Amos Tuqk School of Dart- mouth College, Dr. H. S. Person 57 Co-ordination of High School and University Instruc- tion in Commercial Education, Professor Chess- man A. Herrick, Principal of the Central High School, Philadelphia 65 The Function of the Business Community in Higher Commercial Education, Dr. Edward D. Jones, Assistant Professor of Commerce and Industry, University of Michigan 80 vi MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. BUSINESS men's SESSION. What Can a University Contribute to Prepare for Busi- ness Life ? I. The Reply of the Manufacturer, Mr. David M. Parry, of Indianapolis, President of the National Association of Manufacturers of the United States. 9 5 II. The Reply of the Transporter, Mr. Edwin H. Ab- bott, of Boston loi III. The Reply of the Wholesale Dealer, Mr. A. C. Bartlett, of Chicago, Vice-President of the Hib- bard, Spencer & Bartlett Hardware Company . . 117 IV. The Reply of the Corporation Lawyer, Mr. James B. Dill, of New York City, Counselor at Law and Author of " Dill on Corporations," 124 SCIENCE AND EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS. EDUCATION FOR THE FOREIGN SERVICE. The Functions of Technical Science in Education for Business and the Profession^, Professor Robert H. Thurston, Director of Sibley College, Cornell Uni- versity 131 Discussion of Dr. Thurston's Paper, Professor Henry S. Carhart, Director of the Physical Laboratory, Uni- versity of Michigan 139 Training Needed for Consular Service, Professor George M. Fisk, of the University of Illinois 146 Essential Elements in the Education of a U. S. Consu- lar Officer, Professor James C. Monaghan, of the School of Commerce, University of Wisconsin.... 163 DISCUSSION. Dr. Henry R. Hatfield, Dean of the College of Com- merce and Administration, University of Chicago. . 177 Professor Parke Schoch, Director of the Department of Commerce and Finance in Drexel Institute 186 TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii Professor Joseph F. Johnson, of the University of New Yorlc (absence announced) 197 Hon. Arthur Hill, President of the Michigan Political Science Association 197 Professor D. Earle Burchell, Director of the School of Commerce, Agricultural College of Utah 200 Professor Davis R. Dewey, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 202 Professor W. Z. Ripley, Harvard University 205 Professor Isaac A. Loos, State University of Iowa 209 Professor Edward O. Sisson, Director of Bradley Poly- technic Institute 210 Professor Henry C. Adams, University of Michigan. ... 212 Professor Maurice H. Robinson, University of Illinois.. 216 Professor W. A. Langworthy Taylor, University of Nebraska 221 Professor Ralph W. Cone, University of Kansas 223 Mr. Edwin H. Abbott, of Boston 224 Resolution of Thanks 229 HIGHER COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. OPENING REMARKS OF HON. ARTHUR HILL, PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. The general purpose of the Michigan Political Science Association is indicated in its name and the personnel of its membership. It can be said that the association was born upon this campus ; and though from year to year it gathers elsewhere, this is indeed its home. Judge Thomas M. Cooley, whose name and fame are inseparably associ- ated with the University, wrote the first paper published by the association. During its decade of life important questions of gov- ernment, finance, education, philosophy and morals have come before it; but the chief subject to which this meet- ing is to be devoted included a broader range of practical possibilities than we have heretofore considered. Our Universities which have turned out doctors of theology, of law, of medicine, of science and literature, are to-day to be questioned in the persons of their representative? here present whether they can also turn out doctjis. of commerce or business and give them fitness for their calling. Men of affairs are to answer this same question for the business world, and I in common with other lay- men, await with interest the facts, the theories, the con- clusions. It is my own observation that in the ruder, cruder days force, courage and foresight won the grand prizes of business, while under more complex conditions, exact methods, close economies and perfection of organization, 2 MIcm&AN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. with the control of master minds, are the essentials of success. The first John Jacob Astor threw a me of ur trading posts across the entire contment. West of the Mississippi each post was a military camp. His trap- pers trod the forest between bands of hostile savages. He sent ships around Cape Horn to the North Pacific and founded Astoria. In that region there were assaults and massacres. The powder magazine of one of the ships was exploded to blow a hundred Indians into the air ; and with them went the one heroic sailor who worked this revenge. Astor shipped his furs to China, then the great- est fur market in the world, and there filled his ships with silks, spices and other products of the East for New York. By meeting and matching every hazard of the land and sea he gathered the greatest fortune of his generation through annual profits of from 200 to 500 per cent. Twenty years later, when the Indian and half-breed trapper came to learn from competing traders the value of his peltries and the goods he took in exchange, the bold and extravagant Astor methods of previous years were changed. Among the books at Mackinaw of the American Fur Company, of which he was the president, I have gone through volumes of copies of letters from his local managers, from which it appears that he was continually writing them that they must buy beaver and muskrat skins cheaper, that they must get more for sup- plies and merchandise, that the corn from Sandusky must be bought and brought forward in season, the ground- work of his letters being to enjoin system and saving to meet competition. There are even regrets that they are not permitted by law to sell liquor to the Indians who, therefore, take their furs to the rival Hudson Bay posts on Georgian Bay. We have now fallen upon the times of not only indi- vidual but of sharp' national competition, so that one of the chief functions of diplomacy is to extend trade and HIGHER COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 3 avert commercial war. We have fallen upon the times of immense, far-reaching enterprises, to manage which requires the capacity to finance an empire; upon times when the savings of the poor and the moderately compe- tent, as well as the fortunes of the rich, are entrusted to the banks, the trust companies, the great insurance com- panies, the railroad and other large industrial and com- mercial corporations. Rather than destroy or cripple these great co-operative institutions, as it is to-day popu- lar to propose, it is our duty as citizens to educate men both in honor and capacity to administer them on lines of sound moral and financial policy. I cannot forecast the conclusions of this convention as to what our schools and colleges should do to develop a greater skill and a broader sagacity to meet this end. They have done more already than any other organized agency. But I hold that a consideration of large ques- tions of business and economics, in theory, without the selfish motives entering, while lacking in immediate prac- ticality, tends to just conclusions and a reasonable final attitude. I hold, too, that character, a high sense of per- sonal honor and probity, which should be at the top and at the bottom of all these enterprises, is enjoined on every page of our curriculum; and that this prime requisite is no where better nor more surely builded than within the walls of a great university. It is now my pleasure to introduce to you the chief schoolmaster of the University, who will welcome you to its hospitalities and who, you will observe, continually breaks one of the laws of Nature — by growing young in its service. ADDRESS OF WELCOME FROM THE PRES- IDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICH- IGAN, DR. JAMES B. ANGELL. It is my pleasant duty and my great privilege. Sir, in behalf of the authorities of the University, to extend a most hearty welcome to you and the association which you represent, and to the distinguished and learned guests who are present with us. We desire to thank them for the high honor that they are conferring upon us and to thank them also, in addition, for the instruction which we know they are about to bring to us. They are to help us in the solution of problems which are in some respects difficult and embarrassing. We all know that the time has come upon us now when educated men are turning to a much greater variety of pursuits than formerly, and therefore the problems which are thrown upon our colleges and universities are made more complex, and in some respects more difficult. Many branches of instruction are now necessary to which for- merly no attention was paid at all. Civilization itself has become more complex in all its relations, and the univer- sities are obliged to respond to the needs which this brings. And so, I think without exception, we find the courses of instruction multiplying in number and variety in all the considerable institutions in the country. We have, for instance, found ourselves called recently to undertake the beginning of work in forestry for the bene- fit of the State of Michigan. We have found it desirable to establish courses in which young men can prepare themselves for some of the more important work in the administration of insurance companies. We have found HIOHEB COMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 5 it desirable to furnish suggestions that may be helpful to young men who are to engage in the great variety of work which we designate under philanthropy and public char- ity. And especially we have found it absolutely incum- bent upon us, like other institutions, to undertake to assist young men in training themselves for higher com- mercial service under the great and changed conditions of industry and trade which have come upon us within the last few years. Now all these changes present problems to the admin- istrators of universities which in some respects are by no means simple. We do not at all abandon our old belief in the doctrine that a solid general education is the best basis for any man, no matter what his specialty is. In other words, the first thing in making a good spe- cialist of any kind is to make a man of him, and if you cannot make a man of him you cannot make anything of him that is worth wasting any time about. And there- fore we do not, in allowing our young friends to take up special training for their various specialties, abandon the old belief in a fundamental and solid education at the bottom. But there comes a point at a certain stage in the training where it must be allowed to the student to make some choice. The field of learning is too broad for any man to conquer within the time alloted in any of our institutions of learning. Choices must be had and edu- cation must be shaped to meet that privilege of choice. And so we are confronted — particularly at this time — with this problem of what is the best method and best plan and best ideal for assisting young men in university courses, if we can assist them at all, to prepare for these commercial careers of high influence and significance ? I know there are some who say we cannot do any- thing. The whole college course is worthless for the busi- ness man. That is one position that is taken by some men, and by some business men of large experience. 6 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. There are some who think that this work ought to be begun in the lower schools and that our course of work ought to be shaped more and more for fitting students for practical business careers. And there are various views as to what is feasible within the limits of college life. Now we are looking with great expectation to the assistance which we may receive at your hands. Gentle- men have come here with widely differing experiences, some of them giving their whole life perhaps to the more theoretical studies of economics and commercial prin- ciples; others who have the valuable testimony of ex- perience to bring to us; and we feel confident that the comparison of ideas which will thus be within our reach will be most suggestive and most helpful to us. And therefore it is, as I stated at the outset, that I risk nothing in extending to you our hearty thanks at the beginning for the pleasure and for the help which we know we are to receive in this series of meetings. I cannot but think that this gathering is to be a rather eventful one in the history of this kind of education in the country. We trust at all events that it may be so and that our friends who come here from other institutions will, like our- selves, gain assistance which will be of great service to the various colleges and universities in which they work. And so I desire most heartily to express to you our gratitude for favoring us with your presence on this occa- sion. THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. BY PEESIDENT EDMUND J. JAMES. The century which is now drawing to a close will be known to posterity, among other things, for three great features : increasing wealth, rising democracy, spread- ing education. It will be characterized as the age of wealth, the age of democracy, the age of education. No preceding century in the whole history of the world has seen anything like the absolute and relative increase of wealth which has marked the past hundred years. The significance of this remark will be borne in upon our consciousness if we reflect for a mo- ment that it is the age of steam and electricity. The power of men over Nature has been indefinitely increased and expanded. Men had used machines for many cen- turies preceding the dawn of the nineteenth. They had developed at certain places and certain times remarkable applications of natural and human force to overcoming the obstacles which Nature offers to man's dominion. But taken altogether, and taking all nations and all times, no such increase in human power has ever been marked within so brief a period as that which we have seen within the last hundred years. Time and space, those two great obstacles to man's control of the powers of Nature, have been largely eliminated. The effective force of one pair of hands has been indefinitely increased. A slight notion of what this means may be gained by considering the fact that in the year 1892, even a country like Germany was reputed to have possessed in its mills and on its railroads steam engines with an aggregate horse power of seven and one-half millions. As the maximum amount of work 8 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. done by a horse power is equal to that of forty-two human laborers, there was in the laboring force of the German Empire, represented by its steam engines, a total equal to the power of three hundred and fifteen millions of able- bodied men. There were then not over twenty millions of able-bodied laborers in the German Empire, and the steam engines alone represented therefore about fifteen times the aggregate power of all the laborers within that dominion. It is not too much to say that the population of the single State of Germany, with an area not exceed- ing that of Texas, is equal to-day in working force to the combined efforts of the population of the whole world at the beginning of the century. The United States has to-day within its borders an effective power in the en- gines at work, far surpassing the total possible power of the entire population of the world a century ago. In many lines of work one man, with the aid of a small machine, may do as much as fifty or a hundred men could have done at the beginning of the century. While in other departments, owing to the development of the ap- plication of steam and electricity, one man may do what all the population of the world combined could not have accomplished a hundred years ago. This enormous in- crease in the power of man over Nature, and the conse- quent increase of the sum total of wealth, has made sev- eral things possible which seemed to the men of even a century ago unrealizable, perhaps, in the whole history of the human race. The application of machinery upon this large scale makes it possible for the human being to get a sufficient subsistence from the soil by working a comparatively small number of hours and has thus given us the possibility of the leisure which is necessary to the development of a higher type of civilization in all classes of the community. We are, of course, simply at the beginning of this development, and the achievements of future ages will HIQHEB. COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 9 doubtless cast far into the shade anything which we have accomplished since 1800, but I believe that for all time to come the last century will be known as the one in which the beginning of this development was made, a beginning so great, so powerful, so sudden, that it will strike the imagination of men in all future ages, and will continue a fundamental epoch in the history of civiliza- tion distinguishing future developments from past. Intimately connected with this increasing wealth has come another development which will be no less character- istic, and that is the rise of democracy, the beginning of a development which will in the long run result in the government of the people, and by the people, and for the people. Democracy in this sense is something absolutely unknown on any large scale to any previous century. The ancient world produced no specimens of a democracy in the sense in which the United States is a democracy, or in the sense in which England is a democracy, or France a democracy, or even Germany, Australia and Italy. The political systems of the cities of Athens and Rome, which at one time had certain democratic forms of government, were based upon the slavery of the many, the absolute subjection of the mass of the people to the control of the few. No possibility seemed to have entered the minds of Greek and Roman statesmen that a time would ever come when all human beings, by virtue of the fact that they are human beings, should be recognized as having an equal value in the eye of the law, and when the normal adult males in society should have a direct voice in shap- ing and controlling the government under which they lived. This is an absolutely new idea in the history of institutions, and it has been reserved for the last twenty- five years to fairly accept it, and thus open the era of democracy. Our own country could certainly lay no claim to being a democracy in any true sense of the term, as long as its welfare rested in large part upon the institutions of 10 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. human slavery, nor had it any claim to be considered a democracy in the largest and truest sense of the term, nor has it any claim to be considered even now as anything more than a democratising community, that is a com- munity, growing toward a democracy, until we have reached a time when at least every adult male of sound mind, shall have been brought to such a point that it will be safe to permit him to have a direct and propor- tionate share in determining the policy of the government in which he lives. Unfortunately this time seems to be still far in the future, if the recent developments in the Southern States of our Union may be taken to indicate the line of movement. Prior to the year 1848 one of the most powerful and enlightened countries of Western Europe — Germany — had in its most important members no recognition in the law of any participation in the act of governing or legis- lating on the part of the great masses of the people. The first representative assembly with any real legislative power did not meet in Prussia until after 1850. Since that time, with giant strides, the idea of popular govern- ment has moved with ever increasing force, and although we have not by any means solved the difficulties in the organization and working of such government, we have at least arrived at a time when any other government is impossible. I have said that the rise of democracy was intimately associated with the increase of wealth, a fact which we are sometimes too prone to overlook. No large society could possibly be democratic which was not also wealthy. As long as the average human being finds it necessary to devote his whole mental and physical energies to the mere matter of keeping soul and body together, as has been the case during all the preceding centuries of human history, there is no chance for a democratic government in which every man shall have a proportionate and equal HIOHEB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 11 place with every other. To democracy, to participation in government, a certain leisure is necessary, and until the power of man over Nature has developed so far that he can acquire the necessities of a subsistence in a small portion of his time, it is impossible to secure that amount of leisure for the great mass of humanity which is neces- sary to the development of free government. The only way in which a shadow of democracy was possible in the ancient world was to be found in the absolute subjection of the many to the few, who thus obtained a certain amount of leisure which they might devote to the higher sides of human civilization. In other words, a condition of practical slavery whether legalized or not, was the necessary condition of the great mass of human beings until the age of machinery made possible a creation of wealth which secured to the great mass of men a degree of leisure absolutely unknown to preceding generations. The men therefore who sometimes talk about the accumu- lation of wealth as a source of danger to our democracy, are prating, it seems to me, of idle things. One great need of our civilization, as it has always been, is wealth, more wealth, and even more wealth, with a consequent increasing ease of life, increasing leisure and increasing possibility of improvement in the great masses, of the people. So this age will be known, in my opinion, to future generations as distinctly the age in which democ- racy took a start in such a different way, and on such a dififerent scale, and in which wealth began to increase at such a different rate as to distinguish it from every similar period of development in the whole history .of the world. But this age will be known for a third characteristic, no less important and at the same time intimately con- nected with the two preceding, and that is the ever spread- ing and ever deepening education. For the first time in all human history, we have set before ourselves the prob- 12 MICHIGAN- POLITICAL SCWNCIl ASSOCIATION: lem of bringing the possibility of an elementary education to every child in the community. We have definitely assumed the burden of unlocking for every person, so to speak, the treasures of the world civilization, or at least of giving a key to those treasures to every individual in society. Universal education has seemed to past gener- ations, so far as they have thought of it at all, to be not merely an impossible and impracticable thing, but to be dangerous, indeed a ruinous thing, if it should be possible to carry it out. The Athenians educated the male free citizens of the Athenian State, a mere handful of the members of that community ; the Romans educated in the same way the male free citizens of that State, a still smaller handful, and even the most advanced of our modern European communities had never until this cen- tury in their utmost state of advancement, done more than to propose universal education, than to talk about universal education, or at the most to make feeble ad- vances toward securing it. Indeed the idea of universal elementary education, which involves almost necessarily, as a practical matter, although not necessarily as a logical matter, a free elementary public school, I say this idea and its external realization is a creation even more dis- tinctly than democracy itself of the last quarter of a century. It was not until the waves of the Civil War had subsided in this country, and not until legal slavery had been abolished, that even our own American States took up in earnest the problem of establishing a sufficient number of free public schools in all parts of their terri- tory to bring home to every child the possibility of such training as an elementary school may ofifer. England, in many respects the most enlightened of our modern States, did not grapple with this problem seriously until after 1870, and it was not until after the Franco-Prussian war that France and Italy took up in earnest this prob- lem, and made much progress as to justify us in saying HIGHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 13 that they also have not only accepted this as a principle, but are rapidly realizing it in the actual institutions in the life of the people. This idea has found expression in the practical determination of modern nations to as- sume as a public function the burden of organizing and supporting the elementary school. The extent to which this has gone one may find reflected in the sums of money which modern nations expend on elementary education. If you take the budget of any of our modern cities which have a life extending back over a century or more, and compare the total expenditures for public purposes to-day with that of one hundred years ago, and note the pur- poses for which this expenditure is made, you will be struck, I think, first of all by the astonishing way in which the budget for education has grown. If you ex- amine the budget of the City of New York or Philadel- phia, or Baltimore a century ago, you will find practically no sum set apart by those communities as communities for the support of education, or at least only very small sums, while you will find that to-day, the largest single item of expenditure in all those cities is for education. You will find that whereas our American States devoted almost no money at that time, and even fifty years after- ward, to this same end, the appropriation for education to-day by the American State governments exceed per- haps the appropriation for any other purpose, and even the Federal government itself has been appropriating, in the form of grants of public lands, and lately of cash, enormous sums of money to the support of this same cause. And this same development has been no greater in the United States than in other countries. We some- times imagine that European countries are devoting themselves so exclusively to the development of their military systems that they have no money to spend upon education, but as a matter of fact, even those nations which spend the most money upon their military systems 14 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. have been increasing enormously in every direction the money spent upon their educational system. So this age will be known, not simply as the age of wealth, the age of democracy, but also as the age of edu- cation. And at bottom these three great things are parts of one and the same thing; no great development along either of these lines, such as we have seen in this century, could possibly have occurred without a similar develop- ment in the others. No such development of wealth could have taken place except as the incident to a steadily rising standard of education, to an ever increasing efficiency of the individual laborer growing out of his education, and as a result of the countless contributions to invention and to industrial progress springing from the growing intelli- gence of the great mass of the people; nor would that wealth have been created except by free laborers, and by people who were becoming freer. No such total average output could ever have been associated with slave labor under any condition, and the increase has mounted rap- idly as the individual laborer and the laboring mass has become freer ? Nor could freedom, nor could the democ- racy have been possible not simply without the wealth which I mentioned before, but without education, since nothing is more generally accepted than the propo- sition that to the successful democracy an educated citi- zenship belongs. On the other hand, education could not have taken the shape which it has taken to-day unless society, owing to its increasing wealth, had been able to assume the increasing burdens connected with its dififusion, and unless, owing to the rising spirit of democ- racy, the demand for education had continually increased. Upon this trinity, therefore, wealth, democracy, educa- tion will -be based the claim of the last century to be ranked among the remarkable centuries in the world's history, and upon this trinity will be based the progress of all subsequent centuries to come. HI03EB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 15 On this occasion, I desire to call your attention es- pecially to one of these three features, namely, the growth of education, and by education I mean the kind.of train- ing and instruction which is given in definite educational institutions organized for the purpose of giving this train- ing and instruction. I am aware that education has a much larger meaning; we are educated by all the count- less influences of the family, church, industrial, social, and political life which work in upon us from every pos- sible direction. Indeed, we might almost be tempted to say that the sum total of those indirect influences is far greater and far more important then the sum total of those direct and specific educational agencies which take part in our preparation for living. But while this is true, these are the influences which in one way or another have worked upon the human being to a greater or less extent since the dawn of history. They have taken a peculiar and special coloring in this century, and under modern conditions. They have become more compre- hensive and more' intensive, and in any exhaustive dis- cussion of education they would certainly have to be taken into account, and their proper sphere assigned to them. But for immediate purpose to-day, we need not concern ourselves with other things than those particular educational influences which are organized into specific institutions with a definite purpose of training, instruct- ing, educating the children, youth, and adults of a com- munity. This spread of education has shown itself along every line of national and community life. The development of elementary education has been no more remarkable than the growth of secondary and higher. This, of course, is natural, and what would be expected by any student of education, but it is a fact which sometimes has escaped the attention of the general public. No sooner had the elementary free school system become firmly es- 16 MICHI&AN POLITICAL SCIENCE A880CIA TION. tablished in our American States than the demand for facilities for secondary education began to grow up, and we find emerging, here and there, at first slowly, with halting steps, finally more boldly, with an ever increasing claim to consideration, and with an ever more rapid movement, the free secondary school, known in this country as the public high school. In proportion as the intelligence and wealth of our communities have increased has this demand for more and better high schools become more imperative. The development of this institution has been remarkable, and has had a most profound in- fluence upon our American system of education, lower as well as higher. But even before this institution had taken firm root, the demand had already arisen for a still higher type of institution, which should express the aspiration of the community after a still higher education, as well as offer facilities for the same. We find, there- fore, in most States of the Union, as result of a complex of influences, which I need not stop to describe, the State University. Hand in hand with the development of this institution has gone a general enlargement and develop- ment of facilities, and equipment, in all the higher insti- tutions of the community, which taken together shows quite as remarkable an advance as on any other side of our modern life. On this occasion I desire to call your attention to this development of education to which I have referred as it has been afifected by what may be called the principle of spe- cial or technical training. And in order to put this mat- ter into a concrete form, I may lay down as the proposi- tion to which I wish especially to call your attention this evening, the statement, that the development of education in the United States during the last century and a half is particularly noticeable for the development of special, technical, professional training. We cannot of course divide education by any hard HIQHEB COMMEBCIAL EDVCATION. 17 and fast line into different classes, but for our special purpose we may divide education as a whole into two classes — general or liberal education, and special or pro- fessional education. By the former we mean that edu- tion which has for its primary object the general develop- ment of the individual, the training of his powers con- sidered as an intelligent being — by the latter, the training of the individual conceived as a member of a calling, his training to undertake and carry out the specific duties of some special occupation. General or liberal education has sometimes been de- . fined as education for living; technical education as edu- cation for a livlihood. The former has to do primarily with the attempt to excite and train all the different sides of the human being. The latter with the attempt to train especially and particularly what may be called the peculiar quality of the individual with a view of preparing him for some specific vocation. As I said a moment ago this division of education cannot by any means be strictly upheld in attempting to mark off either the work of individual schools, the work of individual teachers, or the work of individual branches or departments of a school system. All education is liberal and general. No matter how technical it may be. All education is technical and special no matter how liberal it may be. Thus if we take those objects which are considered par excellence, lib- eralizing, namely, those underlying, common, sub- jects of all education, reading, writing, cyphering, drawing, singing; all these subjects do not merely open the mind of the child, do not merely give him a general or liberal training, but prepare him specifically all the better for every individual occupation he may take up, they are tools in any calling. They are, therefore, even in this widest and most general sense technical and spe- cial. On the other hand, the most narrowly technical 18 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIA TION. subjects like technical chemistry or the study of the strength of materials, or mechanical drawing, — all these do not merely prepare for some specific calling or some group of specific callings, but they also perform the func- tion of opening the eyes and quickening the hearing, of training the judgment to as high a degree perhaps as any subjects mentioned before. But not only are all the subjects commonly classed as general or liberalizing, in reality technical or special in the sense which I have just indicated, in that they prepare the persons who take them the better for any occupation which they may pursue : but those subjects which are ordinarily spoken of as general or liberal par excellence, namely, the study of language, and history, and general mathematics and pure sciences or a curricu- lum based on these subjects exclusively is of itself highly special and technical as the whole history of our education demonstrates. When the proposition was made some years ago to establish manual training high schools, the argument was advanced against such a policy — that it was no part of the business community to look out for technical or special education, its function was completed when it had established or maintained what may be called a general or liberal high school curriculum containing only those elements which are common to the education of all classes such as was characteristic of the existing general high school courses. An examination of actual facts showed that the so-called general or liberal high school course was in many respects a highly technical one, at least in the common idea and notion of the general pub- lic. Thus it was found that the people refused to send their children to the higl\ schools unless they were looking forward to going to college or going into some form of business life in which the specific knowledge acquired in that high school course was supposed to be of special value to them. It appears that the great bulk of the boys HIQHSB COMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 19 and girls in the high school of even the old liberal or gen- eral type were there because their parents fancied that they would get something in that curriculum of special utility to them in the callings which they expected to take up. In the second place it was found that of the pupils who actually finished the high school course, the vast majority went into a comparatively few callings, so that at any rate the bias produced by the completion of such a course of study was strongly in the direction of a few specific occupations, and strongly away from the great mass of others. The same thing was true of the old- fashioned literary so-called liberal general course in the colleges. Men took this course often not because they were con- cerned about getting this liberal or general training which ought to underlie all special training, but because they thought that the particular so-called liberal training of the college would prepare them the better for the particu- lar calling which they had chosen. In spite of this sonsideration, however, in spite of the fact that all education worthy of the name is at once liberal and technical, or to repeat what I said a moment ago, that all general education is special in a certain sense, and all special education is general, it will still be found to be of advantage for the purpose of our dis- cussion this evening, if I accept this general division as expressing a certain broad distinction between the pur- poses, and to a certain extent, the functions of two great classes of schools — the schools which aim to give a fun- damental and common training, that is the training com- mon to all the specific callings, and therefore, a training to be called general or liberal ; and the schools which take for their specific aim the purpose of training the individ-^ ual for some specific definite calling. Now, my proposition to lay it down again, is that the great improvements in American education which 20 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. have been effected in the last century or century and a haJf have come about largely through the increasing ac- ceptance of the principle — that every human being ought to receive a special, specific, technical or professional train- ing for his future life work if such a training be possible. I may perhaps go further and say that the history of the last century in the United States demonstrates in a strik- ing way the growing faith of the public in the efficiency of school education as distinct from the so-called prac- tical training of active life; that with every passing year we see a wider acceptance of the proposition — that it is possible to construct a special school curriculum adapted to specific training for the given calling which it will be worth the while for the individual to complete if possible before taking up the practical work of his profession. There are multiplying on every hand evidences of a grow- ing belief in the superiority of the well-planned, carefully, elaborated, properly administered school curriculum as a preparation for life over the haphazard training of the shop, the factory, the farm or the street. Now, let us for a moment glance at the history of American education and see whether in its broad outlines this proposition is substantiated. If we were to take as starting point the year 1750 — it is only a century and a half ago — all the original colonies had been established and had developed the wants and needs of civilized life as the standard of that time demanded. Some of them had been established over a century; important cities had de- veloped on the Atlantic sea coast and a high standard of civilization had been actually achieved at very many cen- ters within what is now the limits of the United States. If we examine the educational system of that };ime we shall be struck by the marvelous meagreness both as to the variety of institutions in existence and as to the equip- ment for work in the institutions which had been estab- lished. There was generally speaking the elementary HIGHER GOMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 21 school, in which those children in the community whose parents especially desired it found an opportunity to ac- quire the rudiments of an education. In New England the elementary school had gone hand in hand with the settlement of the community and every town was sup- posed to be looking out in an adequate way for this op- portunity of an elementary, that is to say, fundamental, general, liberal education. There was further, the gram- mar school, in the old New England sense of the term, the school which prepared for college, which took the children of the well-to-do and offered them an opportunity to extend somewhat the scope of the elementary training. And finally there was the college which gave the only form of higher training which that community knew, and this higher training was nothing more than an extension of the grammar school. Language and mathematics formed almost the entire curriculum of the institution; Latin, Greek, a little Hebrew, arithmetic, the elements of algebra, geometry and the Holy Scripture formed the basis of the entire system of higher training offered in the Colonies.. The college was intended primarily for the education of the clergymen, it was not only a liberal, or general course in one sense of the term, but it was a special or technical course in preparation for the study of divinity. You do not appreciate what this means until you look at the negative side of the picture and find out what was absent from this educational system. The elementary system itself was confined to reading, writing, and cypher- ing. Drawing, singing, history, nature study, manual training, any one of the numerous so-called fads which are valuable features in some of the best schools of to- day were conspicuous by their absence. Even in the grammar school and the college, of the scores of sub- jects which are to-day to be found in our greater col- leges' and universities which may be pursued by the indi- 22 MICHIGAN POLITICAL 8CIENCE ASSOCIATION. vidual student as branches of his liberal training only three or four were to be found at all. But even this system of higher education which was primarily a preparatory training for the clergymen did not offer any specific technical or professional training such as we are accustomed to associate with the better organized schools of theology. The student who desired to become a clergyman after completing this course in the college then took his special divinity studies with some practicing minister. There was no opportunity for the physician or the follower of any one of the numerous branches of medicine to get even elementary instruction in physiology, to say nothing of the technical subjects of a medical course. The physician, like the surgeon and the dentist and the veterinary surgeon, so far as they had any training whatever, were compelled to obtain it from some actual practitioner who was willing to take them into his office and give them such a training as they might acquire from watching him practice his profession. The same thing was true of the lawyer, and as there was no medical school so there was no law school in the Colonies at that time, no opportunity to obtain any in- struction in the elements of the sciences underlying this career. Even the teacher had no special opportunity to prepare himself for the work either in a general or spe- cial way. It was supposed that if he graduated at college he not only knew enough of any subject matter to enable him to teach it in any position to which he might be called, but that he was also thoroughly qualified from a profes- sional point of view. There was no normal school, nor was there any one of the numerous special schools which are a striking characteristic of our society of to-day. No music school, or business college, or art school, no school for any one of the engineering callings. In a word, abso- lutely no opportunity for any man to acquire special training in preparation for the special calling or profes- HIGHEB GOMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 23 sion. What I have described as the condition in 1750 was in a broad way the condition in the year 1800. The principle of technical education had been recognized it is true by the establishment of a medical school in con- nection with the University of Pennsylvania and by the establishment for brief periods at two or three different institutions, of professorships in law, but otherwise there was no recognition of what we are coming to feel is a fundamental principle of modern social, industrial and educational life, namely, that it is possible to offer a school training in preparation for many callings at any rate which should be of great value to the persons who are thinking of taking up these callings. It was reserved for the last century to establish at first in a slow and halting way, but subsequently by enor- mous strides, a vast variety of special schools in which a special preparation for some special calling or pursuit is offered. Broadly speaking, it was the double decade from 1840 to i860 which saw a distinct recognition of this principle in such a form as to give some slight ink- ling of the enormous extension which it was to receive within the last two decades of a century. The principle of technical education in the engineer- ing profession had been recognized by the establishment of an incomplete scheme of training as early as the year 1824. Theological and law and medical schools had been established at various places in the country prior to 1830, and it was the last year of the thirties that saw the establishment of the first normal school in the United states of America. But in the twenty years which elapsed from 1840 to i860 the number and variety of special schools increased with marvelous rapidity. They were years of enormous material prosperity in the United states ; they were years of great territorial expansion and a rising standard of civilization, of increasing wealth, in- creasing education, increasing complexity of social life. 24 MICHI&AN POLITICAL SCIENOE ASSOCIATION. and increasing difficulty in the great material problems which the country was called upon to face. The start which was taken in these two decades has been kept up with marvelous energy and marvelous per- sistence during the forty years which followed, and to-day we find most striking evidences in every direction that whatever else the last century may have brought to us it has established once and for all the feasibility, desirability, nay, necessity of special technical professional education for all classes in the community, for all occupations for which such a training can be elaborated. As in so many other departments of human life, es- pecially in this country, this development had been very unequal in many parts of the country, and in many kinds of callings very incomplete. It is perhaps more complete to-day in the field of medicine and in the field of the engineering professions than in any other departments. I can remember the time when it was no uncommon thing to hear a physician advise a young man who desired to practice medicine not to go to a medical school, on the ground that he would be wasting his time, advising him rather to go into the office of a practicing physician and there learn the business practically. I think it is safe to say to-day that the physicians who would give that advice are very few and far between and belong only to the most ignorant of their class. There are perhaps den tists who would give the same advice, but they are be- coming fewer with every passing year. The principle for which we are contending has not by any means acquired the same wide validity in the field of legal education as in that of medicine. It is still no uncommon thing for the lawyer to advise a young man not to go to a law school on the ground that legal train ing in the schools is nonsense and far inferior to the prac- tical education offered in the lawyer's office. I still find many clergymen who depreciate the value of theological HIGHER GOMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 25 training in a theological school. It is still true that the average teacher in our pubHc and private schools has not received any special technical or professional training in padagogic or the various branches of knowledge con- nected with it. It is still true that the average college professor in the United States performs his work with a simple knowledge of the subject which he had upon leav- ing college; to say nothing of devoting any time or atten- tion to what may be called the purely professional aspects of his work. Many are the engineers who have not had the benefit or the injury, if you choose to call it so, of special school training in the technical institutions. But in all these departments the victory of the well-planned, well-ordered curriculum over the irregular and uncertain training of so-called practical life is becoming more and more assured. The very meaning of the term university in its mod- ern significance shows this change of attitude, this change of mind. What is a university ? It is to-day a great complex of professional or special schools having for its object the special, technical, or professional training of its students for the callings which they expect to take up. Nearly all universities have, it is true, also a college as a constituent part or an appendage, but the college in the sense of a department in which liberal studies are offered to students who do not yet know what they want to pursue as a livli- hood is destined to play an ever decreasing part in our great universities. Our so-called graduate schools are purely technical or professional departments. You will find no students at work in them except those who are preparing for some definite pursuit, they specialize their work, they devote their attention to few subjects. They are looking forward chiefly to an academic career and expect to become teachers in high schools, colleges or universities. 26 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE A SSOCIATION. Now, in all this development, what has been the part which technical schools, in the narrow sense of the term, including engineering, and other subjects ordinarily- taught in the same connection have played, what has been the function of these particular institutions? It seems to me that it has been a two-fold one of great advantage to all. The school of technicology has in the first place done valuable service for the community in offering a special training for certain specified callings. ■ It has thereby conferred a great service on the individual benefited by qualifying him better to earn a living. It has done a still greater service to society by supplying it with a morfe numerous and a far better personnel in the technical callings. But it has done more than this — one of the most striking services it has done for education in general is to be found in the reflex influence which the whole idea for which it has stood has exercised upon higher education in the United States. In the field of medicine and law and theology, and above all in teaching there has been great need of a high degree of special, technical, professional training. The technical school, the schools of technicology, the schools of engineering and polytechnic institutes and by whatever other name they may have been called exercised a steady, persistent and powerful influence in educating the people as to the de- sirability of a higher standard of technical and profes- sional excellence. Such schoools as the Massachusetts School of Tech- nology, the Troy Polytechnic, the Stevens Polytechnic and the corresponding department of our state universities have exercised a most profound influence upon university policy and university ideas. If the engineer or the archi- tect or the chemist needed a special training, certainly the physician, lawyer, and clergyman, and teacher needed it as much. And as these technical schools have demon- strated their right to an existence by the value of their HIQHEB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 27 great service to the community, so they have demon- strated the need of a sounder training in all the other callings for which it was not their function especially to care. The technical school has not only trained the Ameri- can public to believe in engineering education, but it has given a powerful impetus to all kinds of special and pro- fessional education in other departments of life. To illustrate still further the idea I have in mind, I should like to formulate briefly from one point of view — that of the student of economics and politics — the func- tion of an American system of education and you will see in this formulation and in the brief argument which I may connect with it, my own conception of the funda- mental importance of technical education, using that term in the largest sense in any national scheme of training. What, then, should be the fundamental object of an American system of education, looking at it from an economical point of view? My answer in brief is — ^the fullest possible development and training of all forms of ability, mental, moral and aesthetic which at present exist or which may be cultivated in the American people. This does not mean merely the development of the ability of a few individuals to the highest point, or of a few types of ability in many individuals, but of all useful types of ability in all individuals. We may draw a useful comparison from the economic world. In my view the economic policy of a country should be directed toward developing all its material capabilities. All the advantages of soil and climate should be exploited to their utmost. Its natural water-ways should be corrected and improved. New means of com- munication should be opened. Its rivers should be bridged, their navigable channels deepened and widened ; railroads built, canals opened; turnpikes constructed; its mineral wealth made accessible and available, enlarged and 28 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. improved; its agriculture encouraged along all possible lines ; its live stock improved, new and better crops intro- duced, its forests cultivated, fish planted in all its streams, in a word, everything which will develop the material re- sources of the country and place them at the disposal of man. This demands a careful and well considered policy, directed toward developing our industrial resources, man- ufacturing, commerce, mining, agriculture and forestry. Is there a gold mine or a silver mine or coal mine in some remote portion of the national domain? If so, the eco- nomic policy of the country should find it out and make it a part of the available resources of the nation. Is there a possibility of some great crop which will revolu- tionize agriculture, and make a thousand grains grow where one grew before, if so, the economic system should discover this crop and naturalize it. Is there the pos- sibility of some great and fruitful industry which can bring the blessings of civilization to an otherwise barren waste? If so, the economic system should introduce and develop it. In the same way, the educational policy of the coun- try should be directed toward calling forth and training all of the resources of the human being, so to speak; to exciting and developing all the various forms of faculty, using that term in the good old New England sense. Is there the possibility of a great singer in some outlying rural district? If so, our educational system should find it out, and having discovered it, it should never let go its hold on the boy or girl — sent of the gods — until the very highest possibility has become a reality. Is there in some lonely schoolhouse among the hills, a possible Edison, or Newton, or Farraday, or Darwin, or Stevenson, or Web- ster, or Elliott, or Oilman, or Brooks, or Beecher, our educational system should seek him out and put him on the highroad to his loftiest usefulness. No less should the school system take hold of the child of moderate or HIGHER COMMUBCIAL EDUCATION. 29 mediocre abilities and by bringing out the best that is in him make a new center of life and power where none would otherwise be. One of the greatest distinctions between barbarism and civilization lies in the fact that in the latter form of society, there is an opportunity of utilizing vastly more types of ability than in the former. Consider for a mo- ment, a tribe of Hottentots, or even of American Indians, and running over in your mind the men who fill the pub- lic eye in the United States, either by their names or their works, how many of them would find a useful place in such society. The great preachers, physicians, engineers, teachers, scientific investigators, artists, singers, manu- facturers, merchants, all these classes that help to make our society bearable or enjoyable would be absolutely lost or good-for-nothing in such a state. But even if we corripare ancient civilized society with our own, the same difference is to be found, though, of course, not in so striking a degree. Athens, in the very height of its glory, had no use for the study of natural sciences. Even Socrates thought that nothing could be gained from the study of the stones and the trees. All that magnificent series of great scholars, investigators, and inventors, beginning with Bacon and ending with Edison, would have found no useful function to per- form in the world subject to Athens and Rome. We should, of course, try to hold everything good that the ancient world had, but we have now and shall continue to have a vastly more varied civilization than they; largely because we provide for the play and development of a vastly greater number of abilities. If this be true of society, certainly there will be a general agreement as to the truth of a portion at least of my thesis, that one of the objects of an educational system is the systematic and thorough exploration and cultivation of the wide range of human faculties to be found in our society. If this 30 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. be accepted as a correct formulation of the true end of an educational system so far as it is viewed from the stand- point of the student of economics and politics, it remains for us to pass in review certain tendencies of our present education, and pronounce upon them in the light of this thesis. We may divide education from one point of view into elementary, secondary, higher, professional, technical and trade. There would be, perhaps, agreement as to this classification, and to the definition of its various parts only in regard to one or two of these classes, and it is quite possible that in this country to-day, it is not feasible to organize education strictly on these lines, even if it were desirable. However, we may perhaps all agree as to the scope and function of elementary education, more especially as it, for a large part of its course, covers much the same ground in all civilized countries. Let us take as the point of elementary education the years from six to fourteen, the time usually covered by the compulsory school laws; the time at which the country child has usually completed the round of opportunities offered in the best rural schools; the time at which the city child is ready for the high school. The school during this period must accomplish certain results, in order to satisfy the minimum recognized by the common consent of all parties. The pupils must learn to read, write, and cypher. This is demanded by all educationalists and all practical men. But anything more than this is a great subject of dispute. Now, from this point of view our common schools should not only teach the absolute minimum, not merely impart a certain amount of instruction, which every child in our society should have; but it should engage very largely in what for lack of a better term I must call the exploring work, i. e., its curriculum should be so consti- tuted that it may assist in discovering the capabilities of HIGHEB COMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 31 children. It must then furnish them so far as possible efficient assistance in developing their capabilities in every direction, and this means a vast variety of technical, pro- fessional and special schools. And so we are ready now, I believe, to take another great step in advance and to wrestle with the problem of providing a special training for that large proportion of our young people who ex- pect to go into mercantile, commercial, or business life. Thus far, with few exceptions, the only special provision for such training has been made by the so-called business or commercial colleges, which are such a striking char- acteristic of our American educational system. Proprie- tary institutions nearly all of them ; having a purely prac- tical — one might almost say material aim. I do not wish to say a word against them. I believe they have done and are doing a most valuable service both to the young people who attend them and the business classes whose interests they subserve. I have no sympathy with the current slurs upon their function or their character. Such belittling criticism as is usually meted out to them springs, it has always seemed to me, from ignorance of the work of the schools and the practical needs of our American life. Lincoln has well said that you can fool some of the people all the time; and all the people some of the time; but not even the shrewdest of knaves can fool all the people all the time. The fact that year after year young people (who have to earn their own money) can be found by the Tiundreds and thousands who will pay high rates of tuition for the teaching of these schools and that they will advise their friends to do the same thing, and will send their own children to the same kind of schools is, to my mind, a proof of the valuable service they are rendering our society, which the unanimous testimony of all the college presidents in the country to the contrary, would not weaken in the least. They are, however, of a purely elementary character, 33 AtlCHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. far from being as efificient for the purpose as they should be even in the best specimens, and in their worst they almost justify the severest things said about them. Now even this work I believe our public school sys- tem should take up, and our endowed academies and institutes should cultivate and foster because I believe they would do it better and under better surroundings than the average commercial college can do it. They could turn out stenographers and typewriters and bank clerks of a higher type because the spirit of the school would be more liberal and educative. The easy objection to this is that this would be pay- ing for trade and professional education ! Of course it is. But by what system of reasoning can you justify the sup- port of high schools to prepare the children of the well- to-do for college and the professional school as is done now in every state of the Union ; or the support at public expense of universities where the children of the well-to- do can get the training for the practice of medicine, or law, or divinity, or engineering, or farming as is done in nearly forty states of the Union, and yet deny all oppor- tunity to the children of the less fortunately situated to get a training which will prepare them to be more efificient members of society in their field of work ? The properly organized, well-equipped commercial high school such as exists in France, Germany, Austria and most other European countries, will serve this pur- pose. I believe that every large city in this country should have such an institution, and the large cities several — schools which would insist thoroughly in the disciplinary and liberal quality in their curriculum, while at the same time they would ofifer the opportunity to get that practical knowledge and skill which could facilitate the obtaining of employment. If the curriculum is properly constituted and properly taught the young people will get a valuable mental discipline and culture, though it may not carry HIGHEB COMMJEBCIAL EDVCATION. 33 with it a knowledge of the philology or history of the wonderful peoples of antiquity. But in our scheme of national education, we should not stop with providing facilities for commercial training for pupils in our secondary schools. We must advance to the higher schools. We must prepare to train leaders in commerce and business and not merely clerks and bookkeepers. We must insist that the college and uni- versities shall turn their attention to training men for the careers of railroading, banking, insurance, merchandising, as they now do for law and medicine and engineering. The common answer to this by institutions that are unwilling to adopt innovations or have no money to es- tablish new departments is — The best training for busi- ness is a general college education which will unloose a boy's powers, set him intellectually and morally free, and then let him go into the practical work. It has not been so very long since we heard that doctrine preached in regard to the training of the clergymen, lawyer, phy- sician, dentist, engineer, farmer, teacher. It is the same old objection which has always been made to any kind of special, professional or technical education. Surely we need such education badly enough if it be found practicable to elaborate a curriculum. Look at the state of the business world to-day even in the most successful and commercial countries. We have the greatest banks in the world ; and the greatest bankers. Yet look, at the banking system of the country! In a chronic state of fear bordering on a panic because of the obscure system of government finance, and yet no bankers or statesmen seem to have been developed thus far who can devise a scheme which will be practicable and acceptable at the same time. I do not suppose that a lot of college professors constituting the faculty of a School of Commerce could devise such a scheme — I know them too well to dream such a thing — ^but I do believe that if 34 MICHI&AN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. such schools turned out young men with a sound training in the sciences underlying this great department of busi- ness some of them would become wise enough in the great school of life to solve this and similar problems as their brothers from the technical schools do over bridges and over skyscrapers. Look at the condition of our railway system to-day. We have the greatest railways in the world; the fastest long-distance trains ; the lowest long-distance freight rate ; the ablest railway managers, and yet who will say that conditions are even approximately satisfactory from any point of view? What a breakdown in our whole trans- portation system have we seen the past winter. Who does not believe that if our railroad men were better educated and trained as a class we should have a better managed railway system. It has grown clear beyond their abilities to grasp or control. A prominent merchant in Chicago assures me a freight car leaves the city of Pittsburg to-day for Chi- cago much as the old time sailing vessels left New York for London. It is launched upon a trip whose duration no one can foretell. Not even the system of wireless telegraphy enables any shipper or railroad ofificial to trace its course. After the l^pse of many days it may arrive at Chicago only to be lost in mazes of a freight-yard whose intricacies the combined wisdom of the freight agents of Chicago can scarcely trace. What do the long history of railway bankruptcy (over three- fourths of the railway mileage in this country has passed through bankruptcy in one form or another) and recent consolidation of rail- ways mean except that a majority of the men who have been in charge of railways for the last fifty years have not understood their business. They managed it so poorly that bankruptcy finally stared them in the face, in spite of such an abundance of traffic that at times they could scarcely move their trains. Take the whole system of HIGHER GOMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 35 trusts and combinations which is exciting such uniyersal attention. Many are the conspiring causes leading to this marvelous development, economic, social and politi- cal. But no one can doubt who studies the question that one of the prime causes is the inefficiency, ignorance, lack of courage, and initiative enterprise of so many of our business men. Statistics show that a majority of the men who take up a business career fail. Messrs. Morgan, Rockefeller, Harriman, Hill, etc., etc., are able men — marvelous men, but they are largely so, relatively speak- ing because the average man engaged in business is such a small man. Like his counterpart in any other calling, he is timid, distrustful, resourceless, helpless in the face of a sudden crisis, ignorant, uneducated, untrained, even in his own business. And thousands go from one branch of business to another — failing in all alike. The people perish from lack of knowledge even as they did 2,500 years ago in the time of the Hebrew prophet. Who can doubt that our business classes, like all other classes, need education, training, not in the classics perhaps, though I have no objection to that, of course — quite the contrary in fact — but also in the principles underlying their own practice. Do not mistake my meaning. I am not here talking of the successful business man, of course, but of that great majority who fail, if statistics are to be believed. I go even further. It is well known that the man who has a genius for business will succeed, training or no training — or rather he is sure to get his training in the business. So the man who has no sense for business will never succeed no matter how much training he receives, or rather he can never get a training no matter how long he toils at it. The right kind of training, however, will facilitate success even to the genius ; it will minify failure even to the dullard in this line, while it will do an enormous 36 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. amount for the average man forming the vast majority in this as in other occupations. It will render success for him more certain ; and make failure more rare. The re- markable development of our society in its economic, so- cial, and political aspects has caused a marvelous develop- ment in our educational system, and at the same time has determined the form and substance of this education. Our schools have, of course, had a great influence on our economic advance, but the latter has had a determining influence on the former. \ It may well be questioned whether it is a great medi- cal profession which has created the great medical schools or the great medical schools which have created a great medical profession. They have, of course, reacted on each other, and the truth is perhaps that they have each been created by circumstances opened outside of both. An advancing and educated society demands by the very laws of its own development an educated and trained body of leaders in all departments of its life. This body of men it will have. If life itself produces them without the intervention of the schools, well and good; we may safely leave it to life. If life fails to do this and the schools have any thing to offer we may be sure that their services will be in demand. I believe that we have reached a time in this country when all conditions are favorable to large development of special training in our secondary and high schools for the future business man. In the first place, the country demands now as never before, and the demand will become more and more im- perative that its business men shall be educated gentle- men as well as good business men ; and experience teaches that the rank and file of a profession or calling will get a high degree of education only in connection with pro- fessional or special training. In the second place, the business men them- selves are beginning to demand of their sons who HIGHER GOMMEBCIAL EBUGATION. 37 will succeed them in business a higher standard of education than they accepted for themselves, and they are looking about for a center of study and a curriculum which will not wean their boys from business, but will stimulate their interest in business while it qualifies them for its problems. In the third place, the youngster who feels within him the desire of going into business is now asking himself as his predecessor never thought of doing — now, is there any school where I can prepare myself better for my future career? and so he is looking about for. just this opportunity. In the fourth place, the progress of the economic and social sciences has finally begun to give us a body of doctrine and knowledge which furnishes us the requisite means of training the intellect by the study and appli- cation of principles at the same time that it supplies a mass of fact which interpreted by the principles may be- come the basis of practical training. And finally the colleges and universities themselves are waking up to this need as never before and they are all asking, what can we do to supply it. President Wilson, of Princeton, asked sometime ago : "Why, you wouldn't have the colleges teach business, would you?" Well, perhaps not the colleges; but cer- tainly the universities and all institutions which aspire to be in that category. Twenty years ago when I first took up the subject of higher commercial education my voice was that of one crying in the wilderness. The University of Pennsyl- vania led the way. But it remained for nearly fifteen years without an ally. And then the other universities began to wheel into line. California, Chicago, Wiscon- sin, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois followed within the space of five years. Columbia has announced its intention to fol- low as soon as it can get the money. It is only a question 38 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. of a brief period when all our leading universities will be committed to the policy. I should be glad to speak positively for Northwestern — I should have done so two years ago, but since becoming president of that institu- tion I have often been reminded of a saying of Lincoln's. On one occasion a politician wished him to inatfgurate a certain policy. He replied: "My friend, I do not see how I can do it." "Oh, yes you can; just say the word and it is done." "Ah ! You do not understand the situa- tion. I have no influence at all with this administration." As soon as I get influence with the new administration I expect to use it in this direction. As the University of Pennsylvania in its Wharton School of Finance and Economy was the first university to lay out a college curriculum for the future business man, it was natural that the City of Philadelphia should have been the first city to incorporate in its high school system a distinct recognition of the value of this commer- cial training in secondary education. Other cities had previously established high schools — with two or three year courses, called commercial, but they were simply commercial colleges of the ordinary type supported by public taxation. The Philadelphia school was the first experiment of a modern type. New York has decided to follow on a large scale and it will only be a short time when other cities will do likewise. In closing I wish to repeat what I said above, viz. : that the most cogent ground for my belief in the steady, unresistible development of this movement is to be found in the character of our civilization. Ours is a commercial country. Our great leaders for a generation to come will be our business men. But our country is becoming civilized and educated. We shall insist that our leaders shall be educated and trained men. The rank and file of no great body of men ever became educated and trained except in connection with a training which leads directly HIGHEB COMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 39 to their calling. Hence a great commercial school will be developed. As these schools must base their training — if it is to be higher training at all — on the sciences underlying the art they will be most easily and effectively developed in intimate relation with the other schools which train for the higher sort of leadership, and those schools make up the university. Hence the home of the highest sort of commercial training, like of the highest sort of any kind of training, will be the university. We may accelerate the movement somewhat if we work for it; we may retard it a little if we oppose it, but in either case its progress is sure. Its ultimate victory inevitable. THE PLACE OF COMMERCIAL STUDIES IN THE COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM. BY PROFESSOR WILLIAM A. SCOTT, OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. The wording of the subject which I have been asked to discuss impHes that commercial studies have a place somewhere in the university curriculum. In our large institutions this means that they should be introduced somewhere between the beginning of the freshman and the end of the last year of the post-graduate course. I am, therefore, relieved of the task of discussing the need of special preparation for a business career and the obli- gation of colleges and universities to furnish it, and I may proceed at once to a discussion of the problem in- volved in the question, — where in the curriculum covered by the seven years devoted to university work in this country should the subjects needed for the special train- ing of business men be placed ? In answering this question three considerations are important: First, the nature of the subjects which I have characterized by the adjective, commercial; second, the interests of young men who are prepared for college and who expect to enter business- as a career; and third, the educational ideals and ideas which it is the business of colleges and universities to foster and maintain in the interest of the development of the highest and best type of social life in the communities in which they are located. In the discussion of the first of these topics, the initial difficulty is that of defining the term, commercial studies. HIGHEB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 41 If one were to include under this head all the subjects found in the curricula of the commercial schools now maintained by our colleges and universities, this present discussion would have no significance whatever, since nearly every branch of science, literature and art are therein represented. Many of these subjects, however, would not be designated as commercial by any one, and their introduction into these curricula is explained by the necessity of preparing the student for the successful pur- suit of the special subjects of the course, or by the desire to increase its eciucational or cultural value. I think we shall all agree in limiting the term commercial studies to those subjects which are designed to give the special training which prospective business men are supposed to require. In this sense it should include commercial math- ematics, i. e., the application of mathematics to business, physical and commercial geography, economic history, applied political economy, commercial law, commercial products, bookkeeping and accounting, business practice and foreign languages, taught with a view to their actual use in commercial life. An examination of any one of these subjects will show that it may be presented in an elementary or an advanced form, and therefore that it may properly be introduced in any year of a postgrad- uate, undergraduate, or even a high school course. The application of mathematics to business, for example, are so numerous and varied that it would be possible to construct an eminently practical course, some por- tions of which could be suitably introduced into a high school, and others into a university. The same may be said of every subject in the list. Physical and commercial geography are now frequently taught in our high schools, but when pursued in a thoroughly scientific way, they require at least the preparation furnished by a high school course and, as subjects, for investigation in seminars, they demand all the training 42 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. possessed by the best college graduates. Of economic history it may be said that published material in text- book and other form now exists in sufficient quantity and of sufficient good quality to make possible elementary courses suitable for the high school and the early years of the college course, and that it offers unusual oppor- tunities to juniors, seniors and postgraduates for training in the processes of investigation. Since it is a specialized form of history and requires for its thorough mastery an extended knowledge of various branches of economics, it is eminently suited to mature and advanced students. The law course for prospective business men should include the law of real and personal property, contracts, sales, torts, corporations, partnership, agency, bankruptcy, ne- gotiable paper, bailments, carriers, insurance and patents, marine law, labor legislation, etc. A number of text- books are now upon the market treating these various branches of legal science in an elementary form adapted to the needs of immature students, but at the same time a thorough knowledge of them, or even such a knowledge as the leaders of our business enterprises require, can only be obtained by a person who has acquired the training and maturity of a junior or senior, and possibly that of a college graduate. The subject of commercial products has not been generally introduced into the commercial courses of this country. Everywhere in Europe it plays an important part in comwiercial education, and is found in the curriculum of every grade of school from the low- est to the highest, and this means that it is taught in schools which correspond to our high grammar grades as well as in those which offer the equivalent of the post- graduate courses of our universities. Bookkeeping is usu- ally regarded in this country as a simple subject, fit only for immature students. When it is combined with account- ing, however, it furnishes ample means of training for mature students of university grade, and no one familiar HIOHEB COMMEECIAL EDUCATION. 43 with the subject would nowadays deny that it has a place in the college curriculum. Of foreign languages, it is, of course, unnecessary to speak, because they are already a part of the curriculum of our high schools as well as of our colleges, but it should be said that the acquisition of a command of these languages for business purposes requires their continuous study for a number of years and by students of at least the maturity of high school graduates. Business practice is a subject which it is impossible to discuss in the time at my disposal. It means very different things in different institutions, but it would be easy to show, if time permitted, that under this head can be introduced work of a high order of merit suitable for almost any grade of students. So far, therefore, as the nature of commercial subjects is concerned, there is no reason why they may not be introduced into any or every part of our college and university curricula, it being understood that when put early in the course they must be presented in a more ele- mentary form then would be possible later on. We must not, of course, forget that as a preparation for the high- est places in the business world the most thorough knowl- edge possible of all of these subjects should be obtained, while for other positions of lower rank a more elementary course in some of them and a more advanced course in others would be desirable. The proper distribution of these subjects throughout the course must, therefore, depend largely upon the needs of individual students, and it is safe to say that probably no order could be adopted which would be best in all cases. The students whose interests need to be considered in this connection may be classified under four heads : I. Those who, if no commercial course in college or university were open to them, would enter business di- rectly after graduation from the high school without any special preparation; 44 MICHIGAN- POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 2. Those who would seek a special preparation for business in some commercial college or in some of the technical departments of our universities, or who would select from the programs furnished in the letters and science departments of our universities such courses as seem to them fitted to furnish the praparation they desire ; 3. Those who, in any case, would secure a bachelor's degree, but would select a commercial course to that end, if one were offered, rather than any of those ordinarily open for election; 4. Those who have the leisure, the money and the inclination to pursue a course of liberal study in college or university, and are willing to spend two or three years in preparation for business or a profession after the bach- elor's degree has been secured. How large the first of these classes is, I am not pre- pared to say. An investigation made in connection with the entering class of the University of Wisconsin showed that more than twenty-five per cent of the total number who elected the commercial course would have gone into business directly from the high school, had not our insti- tution offered them the special work they desired. I believe that a similar investigation in other institutions would reveal the same state of affairs. I have no reason for thinking that in this respect conditions in Wisconsin are peculiar. It is evident that in order to appeal to this class and satisfy their needs, commercial studies must be placed in some one or all of the four undergraduate years, and it is probable that the introduction of at least some of them into the freshman and sophomore years is de- sirable, in order to satisfy this class of students that the course they are pursuing is really practical. However, judging from our own experience, if pedagogical or any other consideration require it, I would not hesitate to place the commercial subjects later in the course. The students of this class with whom I have come in contact HIGHER COMMDBCIAL EDUCATION. 45 are able to appreciate the desirability and even the neces- sity of pursuing certain courses of a general character as a preparation for the purely commercial subjects and as a means of supplying forms of training and a breadth of culture which these special subjects may not be fitted to give. The problem presented by this class of students ma> be stated as follows: Is it worth while to offer the in- ducement of commercial studies to those young men who would not pursue a college course for its own sake, and who seem to be interested only in securing a preparation for the business they expect to enter? In my opinion this class of students is quite as well worth attracting to our universities as most others. On the score of intelli- gence, ambition and earnestness, they rank as high as the average high school graduate, and they are capable of profiting quite as much as others from a college course. I have found among them extremely able and earnest students, as well as those who have very little capacity or fitness for college work. The fact that such students have a definite aim in view does not injure their scholar- ship or render them in any sense undesirabe comrades for those who are supposed to have no end in view except that of a good, all-around education. Those high school graduates who so thoroughly ap- preciate the necessity of special training for a business career that they are willing to pursue a course of study which only remotely approximates what they desire are also probably represented in every college and university of the country. In Wisconsin we discovered that a con- siderable number of such students were attending our law school and our college of engineering, and were pursuing so-called special courses in our colleges of letters and science. The organization of the School of Commerce brought these students together and in most cases held them for a four-years' course. As a rule, students of this 46 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. class are older and more mature than most others. Many of them have already had more or less experience in some business or profession, and in that hard school have learned to appreciate the advantage of a thorough training for one's special work. Others have been advised by par- ents or guardians to study certain subjects because of their supposed adaptability to their peculiar needs. While the interests of this class probably do not require that com- mercial subjects should be introduced into the freshman or sophomore rather than the junior or senior years, they do demand that such studies shall be open to students of undergraduate grade, and it is highly probable that many of them would be shut out, if the two first years of college work were required as a necessary preparation for the study of commercial subjects. Certain, it is that prac- tically the entire class would be shut out, if these studies were open only to postgraduates. The third class of students mentioned above presents by far the most difificult problem. In this case we have clearly to face the question: Is the ordinary college course, sometimes known as a general culture course, as a preparation for business, equal or superior to a course of study of equal length which shall include the commer- cial subjects? If this question had been asked me three years ago, I would have been inclined to answer it in the affirmative, and I am still a firm believer in the value of a college course in which the subjects of study shall be pursued for'the sake of the general, all-around training they give, without any reference whatever to their so- called practical character. A somewhat careful study of commercial courses, and of the content and methods of teaching commercial subjects has, however, convinced me that they differ very little, if at all, in their educational value from the other subjects, usually called cultural, which are included in our college and university courses ; and I am certain that a four-years' course, including all HIGHER COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 47 the commercial subjects as well as others which are usu- ally regarded as fundamental to a liberal education, can be constructed which will have as high a cultural value as the average course which a college student of the present day pursues. In my opinion, it is a mistake to suppose that the pursuit of any subject or any combina- tion of subjects for the purpose of acquiring the capacity to do a specific thing takes away or in any respect detractb from the cultural value of that study, and I very much doubt whether the average college student of his own volition pursues any subject merely for its own sake or because he thinks it has a high cultured value. His parents may advise or require him to take a particular course because they consider it best from a cultural point of view, but the student himself will usually select those subjects, wherever election is possible for him, which to his mind have some connection with what he needs or desires. He may have a liking for a subject and may pursue it simply because he thinks it will help him in the work which he now has on hand or expects to do in the future. It is certainly a mistake to suppose that the average student in our so-called cultural courses is en- tirely uninfluenced by the profession or calling which he expects to pursue, and, so far as I have been able to ob- serve, there is in this respect very little, if any, difference between students in commercial and in other courses. I am obliged, therefore, to conclude that the young man who expects to devote his life to business is able to derive from a four-years' college course which includes the com ■ mercial subjects as much general culture as he would be likely to obtain from a course selected under any othei conditions, and at the same time secure a most valuable special training for his life work. In the case of students who can be induced to spend seven years instead of four after graduation from the high school in preparation for their life-work, the problem is 48 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCJE ASSOCIATION. simple. Under all circumstances, I would advise such students to pursue during their undergraduate course a^ wide a range of studies as is consistent with thorough work, and to defer the commercial subjects in most cases until their postgraduate years. It follows, therefore, that for. this class of students arrangements- should be made by our universities and colleges for the pursuit of com- mercial subjects after the bachelor's degree has been ob- tained. To accomplish this, however, it is by no means necessary to provide two sets of courses, one for under- graduate and another for postgraduates. At the present time the number of students of this class who are likely to present themselves. is very small, and it will be entirely possible, through seminaries and the special direction which instructors are able and quite willing to give, to enable such students, more or less independently, to pur- sue their studies in commercial subjects far beyond the limits set for undergraduates. I very much doubt whether the number of this class will in many years be so large as to warrant the organization of special courses of lectures and special seminars of postgraduate grade in our universities. Against the introduction of commercial studies into the undergraduate course, the most serious objection I have heard concerns the possible effects of such a procedure upon the educational ideals which it is the business of col- leges and universities to uphold. It is claimed that the in- t-oduction of the "bread and butter" motive into college education tends to lower, if not ultimately to destroy, these ideals. The trend of life at the present day, it is urged, is strongly toward materialism, and up to the present time the colleges and universities of the country have been the chief influences operating against this tendency. They have tried to inculcate the idea that the things best worth striving for are outside of and beyond the business or profession by means of which one earns his bread, and HIOHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 49 that education should have as its aim the preparation for life in the largest, broadest and fullest sense of that term, rather than preparation for the mere acquisition of an income. It is feared by many that a mistake has been made by our universities in offering engineering, medi- cal and law courses to mere high school graduates. Many people hold that the universities should refuse to admit students into their purely professional courses before they have laid the broad foundation which is supposed to be represented by the bachelor's degree. To such per- sons the introduction of commercial courses of under- graduate grade is regarded as a backward step, and many of them have expressed the fear that, if we offer to the young people who enter our colleges and universities an opportunity to pursue from the freshman year a course of study preparatory to almost any calling which they may expect to enter in after life, the old, traditional col- lege course will entirely disappear, and we shall ulti- mately lose all the advantages which come from the edu- cational ideal which that course represented. The problem which considerations of this sort bring before us is certainly most serious. For one, I frankly confess that I believe in the old educational ideal which the traditional college course represented. I firmly be- lieve that it is a mistake to permit our young people to get the notion that life consists chiefly in the pursuit of busi- ness or a profession. I feel strongly the necessity in our civilization of keeping constantly before our people the highest social and moral ideals, and of constantly im- pressing upon them the importance of the pursuit of science for its own sake, of literature, art, religion, and everything which concerns the higher and nobler life of the human race. If I believed that the introduction of commercial courses into our universities endangered these ideals, I Would oppose it. I would willingly sacrifice some of our present material prosperity, and retard its 50 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE AS&OCIATION. progress in the future if, by so doing, we could raise our people to a higher level of culture, strengthen their moral fiber, and give them a better appreciation of what life really means. I do not believe, however, that commercial courses involve any danger of this sort. On the contrary, I maintain that they offer to our colleges and universities another opportunity, perhaps the best they have ever had, of impressing their high ideals upon many departments of social life which up to the present time have been largely neglected by our higher institutions of learning. In proof of this statement, permit me first of all to bring forward some considerations in support of the claim made a few pages back, that the cultural value of such com- mercial courses as our colleges and universities are pro- posing to establish is as high as that of any other course. It is difficult to discuss this question without giving a definiton of culture. I fear that many people use this term without any clear conception of its meaning. I have most frequently heard it from the lips of those whose conception of an ideal education seemed to be the acquisi- tion of a, smattering of Greek and 'Latin, of "specimen bricks" from the various structures of human knowledge which the civilization of the past has bequeathed to us, and of a love of learning for its own sake. By the side of this, though not opposed to it, I would like to place the conception of an education which shall give to our young people a thorough and appreciative knowledge ot the life of men and a sense of the responsibility which active participation in any department of that life in- volves. I believe in an education which disciplines the faculties of the young, brings them under efiicient cor^- trol, and renders them available for any purpose which life may present; which equips the young man with a thorough knowledge of the society in which he must live, including its constituent elements, their relations to each other, and their development out of the life of the past; HIQHEB GOMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 51 which teaches him in particular the relation which his own prospective business or profession bears to the life of society, and which develops his moral and social nature to such a degree that, in the midst of the greatest temptations, he can never forget the claims of the higher life of society or subordinate them to his own personal advancement in a purely material direction. I would not overlook the importance of the acquisition of learning for its own sake, nor the value of a thorough knowledge of and a love for literature, art and the other amenities of life. I would not, however, place a higher value upon these than upon other elements of education, and I do not believe that that indefinable something, which we call culture, is more apt to be the result of this class of studies than of the other. Indeed, the process of educa- tion, which results in culture, in the true sense, must begin several generations before the student is born, and the larger part of it will be carried on outside the walls of schools and colleges, and the subjects of the colleges course will have little to do with it. If this conception of culture and education be ac- cepted, the commercial courses already organized in the United States must be given high rank, since they include those subjects generally regarded as fundamental in a liberal course of study, as well as those which are best fitted to furnish the special sort of training which I have described as essential to a complete education. By way of illustration, will you permit me to instance the course in the University of Wisconsin, with which I am most familiar. I dare say that any other would answer my purpose quite as well. In this the four undei-graduate years are about equally divided between these two classes of subjects. It includes two years of mathematics, three of physical science, four of history, including mediaeval, modern, American and economic, two of political econ- omy and its applications, two of political science, four of 52 MICHIGAN POLIIICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. the consecutive study of some foreign language, and one and one-half of the English language. The commercial studies in the course in reality are applications to the commercial life of the present day af the principles taught in these general courses. The science of . chemistry is studied in its application to the various branches of man- ufacturing; and physics in its application to factory con- struction, to the utilization of electric and water power and to the simpler forms of machinery. History and political economy are applied to the study of the actual problems with which the manufacturer, the farmer, and the merchant are concerned, and the science of physical geography and physiography to the development of the industrial resources of the world and to the growth and distribution of the means of transportation, factories, banks, other commercial institution and the population of the world. The study of the grammar and principles of foreign languages is applied in conversation and com- mercial correspondence as well as in the reading of litei- ature. An application of the principles of mathematics is made to the every-day problems of commercial life. In a word, theory and practice, science and art, pure learn- ing and its applications to life are everywhere combined in the commercial course. Does the cause of pure learn- ing suffer from such combinations? Is the student liable to lose his interest in mathematics, or history, or lan- guage, or science, when he has learned their application to the work which he is expected to do in the world? Does he forget the connection between the social sciences and improvements in our social and political life, when he has been made thoroughly familiar with their applica- tion to his own particular branch of business, and when he has learned the relation of that branch to every other and to society as a whole? Does the student, who has studied labor legislation in its relation to the problems which concern the employer of labor, lose an opportunity HIGHEB COMMEBVIAL EDVGATION. 53 thereby of familiarizing himself with the broader aspects of this great question or with the importance of its right solution to the development of the higher life of society ? On the contrary, must not he who would use the physical and social sciences in the solution of the problems of his own life acquire a broader and deeper knowledge of and love for them, and a better conception of their application to the development of the higher life of society than the man who carefully avoids noting their practical applica- tion and who pursues them for their own sake alone or simply for the intellectual power or the culture they may bring him? In the course of study which I have been considering about one-third of the student's time in the junior and senior years is left free for the election of any subject taught in the university which he is fitted to pur- sue and which he may wish to choose for cultural or other purposes; It is entirely possible to devote all this time to literature, art and other subjects remote from the im- mediate ends of the course. There is another aspect of this question which must not be overlooked. How can a university best impress its ideals upon society? By cutting itself off from the most active departments of social life, by surrounding the young people placed in its charge with an atmosphere entirely different from that of the world in which they must live, or by opening wide its doors to all classes of students who are fitted to enter, and by striving to give them every possible assistance in the praparation of them- selves for the specific careers they expect to follow ? This latter course compels university professors to make a careful study of the actual life about them, to classify the phenomena of the actual world, and to reduce them to a scientific form. It gives them an opportunity to dis- cover how high social, moral and religious ideals can be introduced into the life of society, and to impress upon the young people placed under their charge the importance 54 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. of those ideals, and the dangers to which they will be ex- posed in the careers they propose to enter. For my part, I cannot understand how an unprejudiced student of the relations between civilization and education can possibly desire the universities to hold themselves aloft from the pulsing life of the present day. It seems to me that the movement which has resulted in the establishment of technical schools of all grades in connection with our universities is one of the most hopeful and encouraging of our time. To me it means that the power of our uni- versities is increasing, that they are strengthening rather than loosening their grip upon the people and the country, that the cause of culture is safe, and that the highest edu- cational ideals have a better chance of survival than ever before in our history. The refusal of our universities to establish schools of commerce and other technical schools, which belong to the college grade of development, I should deprecate as a great misfortune. It would mean a relative increase in the power and influence of institu- tions established for private gain and permeated by a narrow, selfish spirit, and a rapid diminution in the in- terest which young men and the most active and influen- tial elements of society now feel in our colleges and uni- versities. I believe that the highest interests of society can be trusted with safety to the faculties and governing boards of our colleges and universities. The considerations which I have so far brought foi- ward tend to show that commercial subjects should be intrpduced into the regular college course rather than relegated to the postgraduate years. I have still to con- sider the question of the distribution of these subjects throughout the fcjur years covered by this course. Ex- perience both in this country and in Europe seems to war- rant the conclusion that two years of time is adequate for the pursuit of commercial subjects, provided the student has a preparation at least equivalent to that of a high HIOHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 55 school graduate in the United States. This being the case, it would be entirely possible to place in the fresh- man and sophomore years those subjects which are re- garded as fundamental to a liberal education, and to defer the period of specialization to the beginning of the junior year. There is doubtless some advantage in this method of procedure; but, in my opinion, another distribution is to be preferred. In the interests of the commercial studies themselves some should be introduced in the freshman and sophomore years, because they may properly be re- garded as preparatory to others. I refer here in particu- lar to commercial mathematics, bookkeeping and account- ing, business organization and management, commercial geography, the elements of the various foreign languages and the acquisition of some degree of facility in speaking and writing them. Commercial geography is a great aid in the study of economic history, transportation and busi- ness practice, which properly belong in the last two years of the course. The same may be said of applied mathe- matics, bookkeeping and accounting and business organi- zation and management. It would be quite impossible to carry on a business practice course with students who possessed no knowledge of these subjects. The kno^vl- edge of the foreign languages acquired during the fresh- man and sophomore years is also very helpful in all the special courses 'of the last two years. The introduction of these subjects into the freshman and sophomore yeais need not involve the deferring of many of the more gen- eral courses to the junior and senior years. From three to five hours a week during the first two years will be entirely sufficient for these subjects, and if the remainder of the time be devoted to the general subjects which 1 have mentioned, most of them can be completed before the junior year. No particular harm will be done by spreading out the history course so as to make it cover the entire four years instead of concentrating it all in the 56 MICHIGA N POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIA TION. first two, and the study of language must be continued throughout the entire four years if the student is to ac- quire a real command of it. I have found also that the introduction of subjects of this sort into the freshman and sophomore years satisfies the desire of students for the study of something practical and adds to, rather than detracts from, the efficiency of the other subjects of study. I have been unable to observe any bad effects from such a combination, and am convinced that it is a great advan- tage to keep the student's specialty continually before his mind from the beginning of his course to the end. While I regard the distribution of subjects which I have suggested as, on the whole, the best, I recognize the fact that the needs of students differ widely, and that any cast-iron arrangement, which is inelastic and renders modifications impossible, would be very unfortunate. I would, therefore, suggest that any distribution of sub- jects which is proposed should be recommended to rather than forced upon the student, and that he should be per- mitted to make a change whenever good reasons for so doing are presented. In a word, I believe that college courses are made for students, and that their interests should prevail in all cases. REMARKS CONCERNING THE AMOS TUCK SCHOOL OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. BY DR. H. S. PERSON. I have been asked to follow Professor Scott's paper with a few remarks on the organization of the commercial courses at the Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance, of Darmouth College, and on the theory of that organization. I am asked to do this, I suppose, because a convention is a place to bring out differences of opinion, because the Tuck School theory differs in important as- pects from that presented by Professor Scott, and be- cause, consequently, our commercial courses have been given a relationship to the college curriculum different from the relationship which he seems to favor. The Tuck School, like the engineering school at Dart- mouth, is looked upon as an organization distinct from the college, but with roots reaching back into the college work; a professional school with a formally separate or- ganization, yet so closely joined to the college that the two have an organic unity. The strictly commercial work is carried on by the students for a period of two years, the first of which is the college senior year, the second, a graduate year. A Dartmouth student, for instance, de- ciding in his junior year to prepare himself for business life, will elect studies preliminary to strictly Tuck School work, like elementary economics and industrial history. In his senior year, at the end of which he takes his bache- lor's degree, as both a Dartmouth student and a Tuck School student he pursues studies considered as transi- tional from the liberal college work to the technical work 58 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. of the graduate year, — say courses in transportation, labor, and commercial geography. Finally, in the gradu- ate year, at the end of which he receives his Master of Commercial Science, he finds himself in a new atmos- phere, working under a stricter discipline, in specialized courses like corporation finance, investments, economic chemistry, insurance, the organization and procedure of typical industries, commercial French, Spanish, and so on. In other words, the commercial courses present a period of increasing specialization following a period of liberal academic preparation, or again, a two years' su- perstructure of specialized professional study reared upon a substructure of liberal academic study. The theory upon which this organization is based cannot be presented in so few words. As I have already suggested, the Dartmouth theory is one of two general theories in accordance with which Higher Commercial Education in the United States, in the organization of courses, seems to be conforming. The one theory con- ceives Higher Commercial Education as a particular form of academic education itself, carried on through the four years, and differing from any other form of academic training only in the exercise of the choice of electives, and in being looked upon as technical as well as liberal in its nature ; the other theory conceives it as a form of special, professional education that should follow a liberal aca- demic preparation. I am asked to tell you why, at Dart- mouth, we agree with the second of these conceptions. It seems to us that the most fundamental question that should be asked in setting out to organize any insti- tution is : In response to what demand is it being organ- ized; what is it expected to accomplish? or, if it be an educational institution. What sort of young men should it aim to develop? Consistent with the answer to this larger question must be the answer to the immediate question of our consideration. HIQHEB COMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 59 As we understand it, the chief force that has made most of us agree upon the question of the desirabihty for institutions of Higher Commercial Education is that situation in the modern industrial world which calls for a social selection of those young men in whom the instinct for management can be developed; which calls for machinery that can present to such young men every opportunity for the acquisition of knowl- edge and discipline that later in business life will bring out managerial ability. What that ability is I shall not attempt to define; I doubt if it can be defined. Suffice it to say that in our complex industrial world, in which markets are world-wide, competition keen, and the margin of profits narrow, the men occupying respon- sible places in industrial institutions must be men who have become so acquainted with all those elements which enter into business activity that they can size up accu- rately situations that are big in all dimensions, can form judgments quickly, and can act upon them with a confi- dence born of knowledge. What the business world is searching for, what the directors of the big corporations say there is a dearth of, is directing ability. The busi- ness world is not concerned about the supply of skilled labor, skilled chemists, skilled engineers, or skilled ac- countants; what it is worrying about is the insufficiency of that class of young men to whom the manufacturer — as in the case once related by Professor Dewey — can safely intrust, not the performance of some mechanical or clerical task, but the share of his responsibility. Schools of Higher Commercial Education are being es- tablished not to perform the function now performed by manual training schools, business colleges, and technol- ogical schools, but to per-form for society the task of presenting an educational environment to young men that will nourish and develop the individual capacity for or- ganizing and directing, a capacity that undoubtedly in 60 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. many instances has been lost to society because oppor- tunities have not been presented to the individual for de- veloping it. If the searching out of young men with these qualities be, then, the task imposed upon Higher Commercial Edu- cation, that fact must be recognized as the most funda- mental one in giving courses in commercial education their places in the university curriculum. Considering it as the fundamental fact, it seems to us that technical commercial courses and liberal academic courses must be so related in a curriculum as to best develop two capaci- ties in every physical man, — ^the man, in the loftiest sense of the word, and the business man in the special sense of the word; or to express it differently, to develop a man who, looked at on one side, is a broad minded man inter- ested in business, and looked at on the other side, is a business man who is broad minded. We believe that the training of the man should pre- cede the training of the business man and that the result can be best accomplished by having a period of education organized primarily for the first end followed by a period organized primarily to accomplish the other result. That is the reason for our organizing the Tuck School work, so that there is first a period of undergraduate and liberal study, then a transitional period, and finally a graduate year of specialized work. We believe that the man side can be best developed by the regular college undergrad- uate work in which the student is brought into contact with the classics, the humanities, and the sciences; in which he enjoys the cultural college atmosphere. Higher Commercial Education is not a protest against the effi- ciency of college training; it is really a protest against its sufficiency. The great number of our mature business men, especially those who have been searching for young men to fill responsible positions, will protest against doing away with the liberal college training for men going into HIQHEB GOMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 61 business. The young man himself, ambitious to get at his work, may not agree with this, but it is our duty to heed the wisdom of the experienced man, not to cater to the desires of inexperienced youth. Mr. Carnegie says that the chief indictment against college bred men in busi- ness is that the fire and energy necessary for business have been lost in the easy going college life; not that he has been taught unnecessary facts, or not given a valu- able discipline. He specifically says that, given the col- lege bred man with this fire and energy, the college prep- aration is a distinct advantage, making him "open minded and without prejudice," with "the scientific attitude of mind, that of the searcher after truth," and rendering him "receptive of new ideas." The protest, to repeat, is against the sufficiency, not the efficiency, of college prep- aration for business men, and in organizing our institu- tions of Higher Commercial Education we should accept and build upon what is valuable in the old college cur- riculum, departing from it and adding to it only to cor- rect its defects and to shape it to meet our particular ends. Furthermore, instances might be cited showing that it is coming to be the accepted opinion that liberal training should precede any training for special activity, no matter what that activity may be. A college preparation is more and more demanded as a requirement for entrance to medical and law schools. The trend is certainly in that direction, and we should profit by the experience in those fields of education. Even the engineering schools are beginning to look in the same direction, and we find the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education tell- ing us that the "crying need of the engineering profession is men whose technical knowledge and proficiency rest upon a broad basis of general culture. If that be true, it seems to us that the broad basis of general culture should first be acquired in the unique atmosphere of undergraduate life, the one place, according to Bagehot, 62 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. where can be got "the impact of young thought upon young thought, of fresh thought upon fresh thought, of hot thought upon hot thought," the elements that build the man. Having first trained the man side, provision should be made for training the business man side — the specializa- tion. That this should be distinct from the liberal train- ing seems to us sound for at least two reasons. First, being distinctly organized, the work need not be subject to the limitations of a place in a rigid academic curric- lum and can be made highly tec|inical, the student during this period being able to devote a concentrated attention to the investigation of business facts and principles. If he has decided upon a particular line of business, he can make himself thoroughly master of its development, tech- nique, present conditions and relations, and form some judgment of its possibilities. He can pack into a short period of intense study and observation what it might take the apprentice years of casual observation to acquire. In the second place, and this we consider the greatest advantage of the separately organized graduate year, the work can be so presented as to give a new atmosphere, a new esprit, a new discipline, to correct whatever tendency undergraduate life might have to stamp out that fire and energy necessary to business life. Into this graduate year can be introduced a discipline and a pace not so very dif- ferent from the discipline and pace of actual business life, so that when the student steps out into the world he is not a narrow-minded, bookish man, "up in the air," but is a broad-minded man of affairs, walking with firm tread on solid earth. Permit me to illustrate for a moment with facts drawn from our own experience. At the Tuck School during this last year the men live by themselves, recite in a building devoted exclusively to their work, with a special library to which each man carries a private key. HIGHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 63 where trade monographs, magazines, and papers are con- tinually before his eyes. There is no such thing in this last year as semester divisions, as a required number of hours, as a certain passing grade, and the men are allowed only the most important of the college recesses and vaca- tions. There is, for instance, no April vacation. The idea is that the men shall work — and work hard — all the time during this last year. Under these conditions there is created a feeling for business affairs and a business-like discipline and pace that would not be possible if the work were subjected to the limitations of being a part of the undegraduate curriculum, and the opinion has been ex- pressed that these men show a better grasp of business affairs and a keener thinking upon them than the average apprentice of the same age. We do not see how these important results can be achieved if the commercial courses be distributed through the four undergraduate years. Courses, no matter how technical, scattered here and there through the under- graduate period cannot create that discipline, pace, fire, and energy which Mr. Carnegie demands. On the other hand, if they could be technical enough to accomplish that result there would be lost that broad basis of general cul- ture which the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education says is essential. It is true that how a thing is taught is important, and that a course in science can be made to give both science and a liberal dicipline. But teaching subjects according to the best method does not make them interchangeable ; each still has a distinct con- tent and may have a distinct discipline. And, further- more, if courses in science are made liberal courses, they lose a large part of their value as science; for us they should be taught for their own sake. The liberal training should be sought in other fields. The question which we have before us is but a par- ticular aspect of a larger educational problem to which 64 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. serious thought is now being given — the question of too early specialization. I agree with President James' remarks of last evening that commercial education, like education in law, medicine, and engineering, should be looked upon as a matter of specialization. And it seems to me that the warnings of eminent educators today are directed against too narrow and too early specialization. I beg leave to remind you again of the tendency towards higher requirements for entrance upon specialization in law and in medicine ; of the opinion already referred to of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education that the crying need of the engineer is a broad basis of liberal training; to remind you of the opinion of Pres- ident Hadley in the Vanderbilt University Address, that the function of the college is not to give special or tech- nical training but to develop breadth of view and to widen sympathy ; and finally of the Inaugural Address of President Wilson, in which he states that the specialists for whom we should have concern are those "who have never had any general education to give their special studies wide rootage and nourishment." SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF COMMERCE AND THEIR RELATIONS TO HIGHER INSTITUTIONS. BY CHEESMAN A. HERRICK, PH.D., DIRECTOR SCHOOL OF COMMERCE, PHILADELPHIA HIGH SCHOOL. There are many ways in which a system of education may be considered. Quite recently the president of one of our large universities said it should be like a pyramid, which all the way down takes its shape and proportions from the capstone at the apex. The suggested apex is the university; but the objection to this is that the cap- stone' is of too formal a cut, and too often it has pressed down rather than lifted up. Any attempt to make a part of an educational system dominant the whole is to be deprecated. Each division of the field should influence and in turn be influenced by the other divisions. There can be no rational study of commercial high schools without regarding elementary education and the training of colleges and universities, just as a study of higher ^commercial education should have due regard for the preparatory work on which it must rest as a foundation. Higher institutions by college entrance requirements and accredited schools have so far dominated secondary education as to make "high schools" and "preparatory schools" almost synonymous; and this, despite the fact that relatively but a small portion (termed in the Com- mittee of Ten's report "an insignificant percentage") of students from these schools ever enter upon courses at colleges and universities. The traditional college en- trance high school has been aptly termed "a fetich," or 66 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE association: [112] "something irrationally reverenced." Existing high school education as pointed out before a recent Harvard Teachers' Association tends to leave the boy who does not go to college, "indefinitely and unhappily suspended between the earth of the elementary school which he has come to despise, and the heavens of the university, which he is taught to aspire unto in vain." It is not strange therefore that business men have chosen to em- ploy young people directly from grammar schools or those trained in business colleges rather than those from high schools. In the combination of knowing and doing, and in their aptitude to learn, the business community has found high school graduates woefully deficient. Sec- ondary education should have less regard for the small minority that enters upon higher education, and consider much more the rights of the large majority that does not. Incidentally only the high school should be a fit- ting school, and it "wrongs the public when it gives its best efifort to college preparation." Similarily, only inci- dentally should the elementary school prepare its pupils for admission into higher schools. At each stage there should be an education complete in itself, which should be articulated with the next higher stage. High schools should be at once finishing schools and fitting schools, — the former for those who do not and the latter for those who do enter uf)on higher institu- tions. Industrial and social interests of the community should find their expression in high school organization. Without abandoning the educational ideal, high schools can have much more regard for the future vocations of those who attend upon them. The English Royal Com- mission's definition of secondary education is not without interest in this connection; it is "the education of the boy or girl, not simply as a human being that needs to be instructed in the mere rudiments of knowledge, but it is a process of intellectual training and personal dis- [113] HIGHER GOMMEECIAL EDUOATIOW. 87 cipline, conducted with special regard to the profession or trade to be followed." Such in spirit has begun to be the treatment of high school education in our own country; such the universi- ties have already become, for, as declared by the late president of the University of Wisconsin, "The old- fashioned college, designed for a few favored classes, belongs to the past. The modern democratic and indus- trial world demands a university as broad as the life and interests of all the people." The co-ordination of a university of this sort with high schools conceived in the same liberal spirit ought not to be difficult. Let the universities widen their system of credits, or entrance requirements, and touch the schools at more points, and the question will settle itself. As the instruction within the university is modernized, it becomes easier to recog- nize modem subjects in the secondary schools. If schools do good work in a wide range of subjects, commercial included, the universities should approve this either by credits or examination; but let us in the schools escape from this bugaboo of "getting into college." The boy fitted for getting into life, ought not to be thereby inca- pacitated for getting into college, and if he is there is something wrong with the college requirements. First let us have schools giving real education, — classical, scientific, English, manual training or commercial, and then let the universities welcome students from any and all of these schools. It is manifestly unfair to compel all students to take a special course for college admission when only a small proportion go to college; it would be just as unfair to deny college admission to those who have not taken the required course but who find at the close of their high school work that college is possible for them. The rational thing is to open more doors be- tween school and college. This does not mean the ac- ceptance of poor work, but the more general acceptance 68 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [114] of good work. The ideal is better schools, and more students in the schools; better colleges, and more stu- dents in the colleges; and a more vital and organic con- nection between school and college. In the application of this principle to the relation of the secondary school of commerce and the higher com- mercial school there are no difficulties worth mentioning. The secondary school here meant, as compared with other schools, is one with a curriculum equal in extent, and fairly corresponding in educational efificiency. English, history, the modern languages, general science, elemen- tary algebra and plane geometry, — these must form the basis of the high school of commerce curriculum as they do of other high school curricula. There can be no ob- jection to the universities recognizing work of this sort, and it but remains to ask what will be the attitude of the higher commercial institutions to the more special work in such subjects as commercial geography, elementary economics, bookkeeping and phonography. Commercial geography is fairly equivalent to the physical geography of the other courses. The universities of commerce must have an introductory course in economics at some time, and I fail to see why they should not recognize this work if it has been done in the upper high school years. If elementary economics were already completed it would be a saving of time, as the students could enter at once upon a study of more advanced economic theory, and of applied economics in the many fields of commerce and industry. The latter is after all the best work in econ- omics that the college of commerce can do, and more of this can be accomplished if the preliminary course be given in the secondary school. This introductory work in economics should be accepted for college entrance; more than this, it may be taken for advance standing in the university as has already been done for students of [115] HIGHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 69 the Philadelphia Central High School at the University of Pennsylvania. Concerning the bookkeeping the case seems perfectly clear. The higher commercial schools are giving, or plan- ning courses on the science of accounts. These are prin- cipally in lectures dealing w^ith ideas and terms of which the student knows little unless he has been taught the elements of accounts. Either these lectures will miscarry, or the universities must teach bookkeeping preliminary to them, or they must get the schools to teach book- keeping. The latter is preferable, and the higher schools of commerce should co-ordinate themselves with the sec- ondary schools and get the necessary preliminary work done by recognizing and accrediting that work when it has been well done. I doubt whether our universities will teach phonog- raphy, and yet who questions the practical, the one might add, the cultural value of short-hand writing. Such writing would mean to every professional arid business man an increase of efficiency amounting to the lengthen- ing of life. In the making and preservation of mem- oranda, in the keeping track of a multitude of details, short-hand is invaluable. The head of the great Baldwin Locomotive Works has said recently that he took up and mastered short-hand for its practical use to him. No one of us but could do his work better and easier if he knew this form of writing. The typewriter, too, has become an indispensible adjunct to modern literary life as well as to the conduct of business, and familiarity with it is a part of general education. These facts so pro- foundly affect the work of students of commerce in the universities, and in the future practice of their callings, that the universities cannot afford to ignore them utterly. This question of relations of school and college is thus dwelt on because it is one on which there is such lack of agreement. The high school should be a good 70 M1CHI9AN POLITICAL SCIENCE A8S0CIA TION. [116] finishing school because for the most of its students it closes their school life; it may at the same time be a fitting school by the universities liberalizing their entrance requirements so that the finishing subjects can be offered to satisfy college admission. This is the true ideal for co-ordinating higher institutions and secondary schools. The ideal is not revolutionary; it is but a recognition of the conditions out of which the high school originally grew, — conditions which still exist and which should in- fluence policies of secondary education. The historian of these schools, Professor Elmer E. Brown, says that the early high schools arose as an extension upward of the elementary school course. It would be as much an error to permit them to be determined by this ideal alone as it is to fashion them by the extension downward of classical college course. The high school should be in- tluenced by both elementary school and university, and by the larger social needs in the community life of which it is a part. The school with which the writer happens to be connected and which dates back to the rise of secondary education in this country, will serve as an illustration. Alexander Dallas Bache came to the organization of this school fresh from a study of education in Europe; he provided three courses : i. A "principal" course for four years, modeled after the realschulen in Germany. It was the purpose of this to prepare young men for commerce and industry, and it is not strange that this division of the school at once claimed two-thirds of the pupils. Par- allel with this and equal to it in extent of time, was the Greek and Latin course which prepared for college and for professional studies. Supplementary to the foregoing was a shorter English course for those who could give but two years to high school studies. In 1841, Bache described the aim of the school to be "to provide a liberal education to those intended for business life.", James P. Wickersham, who inspected the school about this time. [117] HIQHEB COMMEBCIAL EDVVATION. 71 said that the instruction was extensive, but that as com- pared to the instruction in colleges, a "more practical business turn" was given at the Central High School. In 1842, Bache went into the government service in charge of the coast survey, but his successor in the presidency at the Central High School further developed it on the mod- ern side. By 1849 phonography had become popular in Amer- ica and a phonographic society of leading citizens was organized in Philadelphia. In the year named, Oliver Dyer, one of the enthusiasts of this society, got permis- sion to form a volunteer class at the high school. For one term he taught 250 pupils free, and out of school hours. The subject was so popular and results were so satisfactory that the next year phonography was added to the school's curriculum under a regular instructor. Attack and defense were the common order for four years, when it was proposed that phonography should be dropped, on the grounds that it was not a part of an edu- cation and that it made bad spellers. John S. Hart, then president of the school, made a test by dictating a series of exercises to those who had, and then to those who had not studied phonography, and found that the ratio of errors were as one to five in favor of those who had studied the subject. In a letter reporting the results of the investigation President Hart said of phonography: "It aids the students by facilitating the taking of lecture notes in the higher work ; it is part of a general education, in that it necessitates habits of close attention, and re- quires a cultivation of the ear." The practical results from a study of phonography also appealed to President Hart, and he said that graduates of the school not yet twenty were commanding more money at reporting than he was making after twenty years in his profession. Sev- eral men early went from the Central High School as reporters in the Federal Congress, and one of these said 72 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [H8] in 1854, "It would seem that the day is not far distant when the high school will supply the Congress with re- porters as it does the coast survey with clerks." But what is stated above constitutes the least con- vincing of the facts to show the wisdom of having had the type of school that the old Philadelphia Central High School was. The boys trained in that school are to-day the foremost men in the community and constitute promi- nent business men, judges on the bench, and the leading attorneys before the bar. The president of the Phila- delphia Board of Education and many other lawyers of the city still practice the short-hand writing learned in some cases fifty years ago. The testimony of these men, and their own careers, is a most convincing argument, if argument were needed, of the wisdom of such a course as they took. It was fortunate for Philadelphia that when her educational administrators came to plan for the mod- ern high school of commerce they had to deal with men trained in a business high school of so good a type. But the Central High School in Philadelphia went the way .of most high schools during the last third of the nineteenth century, and became dominated largely by the classics. Two other influences, however, began to work in this period. The first was that of the popular and successful business colleges that was taking so largely of the high school students. To offset these the high schools introduced short and technical courses of the business college stamp. The courses began quite thirty years ago, and in some quarters they are still in operation. Mr. Durand W. Springer, of the Ann Arbor High School, makes the following very satisfactory statement of the mistakes from setting up commercial work for one or two years in the public high school: "The short courses were failures. They created wrong impressions in the minds of the students. They belittled business by implying that the preparation required by the successful [119] HIGHEB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 73 business man was not as great as that demanded by the successful man in other pursuits. They attracted the inferior class of students. Those who had made a failure in the other courses hoped to find something in the new which they could master. Those whose only ambition was to secure a diploma naturally drifted toward the course which offered the least resistance. They created wrong impressions in the minds of the public as to the disciplinary value of commercial studies. Graduates from a one or two years commercial course were compared with graduates from other four year courses to the dis- paragment of the former, and in most cases the critics did not take into consideration the fact that the training was from two to four times as long in the one case as in the other." The second iniluence working to changes in high schools was the agitation of students of social science and education. In 1892 Professor James made his plea for a commercial high school before the American Bankers' Association. The suggestions in this address met with a hearty response, the movement was taken up in various quarters; the old business college high school courses were enriched, and elective commercial instruction was offered in existing schools. In 1898 the high school of commerce, with its independent organization and a full four year scheme of studies, was established at the Phila- delphia Central High School. The movement for a four year curriculum has grown in favor, and recently the Expert Committee of Nine in the Business Education Section of the National Educational Association has unanimously decided to recommend for a four year course. New York has established a High School of Commerce with a five year curriculum ; independent com- mercial high schools are also now in operation at least in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Washington, and Pittsburg; commercial departments are conducted by the scores and 74 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [120] hundreds in every part of the country. Already this form of instruction is finding a large place in our system of secondary education, and yet we can but feel that the development in this direction has only begun. Professor John Dewey has written recently that sec- ondary schools are still either a lower college with a curriculum more advanced than that of the old-time col- lege, or they are the "rounding up of the utilities of the elementary school." ^ Education in the United States, following the English ideal, has been too severely and too narrowly classical. The classics dominated first the colleges, and through them the secondary schools. High school education came to be regarded either as the sacred portal of the classical college in which case it was considered all very well for those who had the inclination and could give the time to classical studies, but as not for the rank and file of our communities ; or high schools were a sort of blind alley, having no connection with higher education. Mr. Sadler says that with them in England commercial education means quite as much an angry cry of protest against misplaced and mechanical classical education, as it does any definite policies that those who are pleading for it wish to have carried out. Such is the feeling in many quarters in our own country. Manual training came in the form of a similar protest. Secondary commercial schools have multiplied and will continue to multiply because they are more than upper grammar schools; and because while they are broadly educational they are this without being restricted lo the classics, commercial high schools are rightly modeled with regard for the needs of our communities; they are an attempt to make universal or to democratize, the best that there is in culture. President Eliot recently spoke hope- fully of secondary schools when he said that they are 'School and Society, page 83. [121] HIGHEB COMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 75 more and more escaping from the sway of two ideas that have wrought great harm to American education; the idea of equality of powers and opportunities of those for whom they are planned ; and an attempted uniformity of school product. He, however, rightly qualifies this state- ment with the observation that while these are abandoned theoretically, they too largely obtain in practice. En- thusiasts for a fixed and unchanging education might well regard the admonition, — "lest one good custom should corrupt the world." Two generally recognized facts bear on this dis- cussion : the first is the phenomenal increase of high school attendance in recent years; and second, the still relatively small proportion of our school population now in the high schools. The first is no doubt due to the improved economic conditions, to much study of the problems of secondary schools, and to the closer correla- tion of these schools with colleges. It has been a source of great satisfaction to some who have written on this question that the proportion of those who study Latin in public high schools has increased relatively more than has been the increase in attendance at such schools. This is not without its bearing on another fact that needs ex- planation. Why are there so few pupils in the high schools ? In a paper recently prepared by Dr. Daniel Fulkomar, of the University of Chicago, on the Duration of School Attendance in Chicago and Milwaukee, the following very striking facts are set forth : Only about three per cent of those who enter school go further than the eighth grade, and about three in every thousand graduate from the high school. A press comment on the recent official report of the Department of Public Instruction of Michigan furnishes the follow- ing : Less than sixteen per cent of the total enrollment enter the high school; less than seven per cent graduate 76 MICHI&AN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [122] from high school ; about two per cent of the total enroll- ment take a college, university or professional course in the higher institytions of learning. If anything like the maximum percentages here given hold for the State of Michigan educational conditions are much more favor- able there than in the country at large, and yet this maxi- mum is much too low. The relative proportion of high school attendance to the total school attendance in half a dozen of the leading cities of the country is approxi- mately as follows : New York, slightly more than three per cent; Chi- cago, three and four-fifths per cent; Philadelphia, two and three-fourths per cent; St. Louis, two and one-half per cent; Boston, six and one-fifth per cent; and Balti- more, three and one-half per cent.^ It will thus be seen that the usual proportion of our high school attendance is about three to seven out of every hundred in attendance upon public schools. This proportion ought to be raised at least to twelve or twenty in every hundred. First, the high school should bridge the gulf separating it from the elementary school, and if so it can hand on a larger number of its students to the university. Not only have the traditional college entrance courses failed to attract students to the high schools, but many who enter are driven out because they have neither inclin- ation nor aptitude for the thing required. Those who write down such students "dull" and "stupid" very often judge themselves. Much of the so-called "dullness" is that of the educational administrators who are trying to fit "square pegs" into "round holes." It is thus seen that we are confronted with educational conditions as well as theories. Three sets of interests at 'Statistics of Cities, Bulletin Department of Labor, September, 1902, pp. 966-967. [123] HIOHER COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 17 least make demands upon the secondary schools. These are professional or literary, industrial, and commercial. If the demands of these are met, and if high schools are properly co-ordinated with elementary school and univer- sity, we shall have realized somewhat Huxley's ideal of an educational ladder reaching from the primary school to the university. Let this ladder be wide enough to accommodate all who want to ascend it, and let the mean- ing and the probable rewards of ascent be such that a larger number will ascend. Commercial high schools will add to the number who go through secondary schools, and this in turn will be a means of increasing the number who go to the higher institutions. A deduction from the experiment in the high school at Philadelphia is borne out by reports from other quarters. If the commercial work offered had not been available, many of the students would have gone to work directly from the grammar schools, or they would have entered upon the short tech- nical course at the business colleges. The constituency of the Philadelphia school is largely of the middle class, small trades-people, clerks, skilled laborers and the like whose decisions are governed by practical considerations.^ In general these people are too sensible to want their boys 'The facts as to the occupations of parents of boys in this school for four years are as follows: Independent business Clerks and salespeople Skilled laborers Public employes Unskilled laborers Professional Quasi-professional (collectors, conveyancers, etc.) Retired, or with no ascertainable occupation, 1898 1899- 1900 1901 66 35 38 7 4 2 22 174 55 39 48 7 10 6 5 15 185 77 19 59 6 10 12 i8s 51 22 48 4 3 9 16 24 177 78 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [124] put through any sort of a high school course as a party of tourists are rushed through a country, just to be able to say that they have "done" it. Those who organize and administer secondary com- mercial education must see to it that they do not offer a short or an easy way to get through the high school. It would be unfortunate for general education, and highly inimical to commercial education, should commercial high schools abbreviate or cheapen the grade of work in which they are placed. The rapidity of the introduction of commercial instruction with the dangers which it brings, led President Harper to ask in his review of the year before the last meeting of the Council of the National Educational Association, "Is this phase of sec- ondary work moving at too rapid a rate?" "We must not forget," he continues, "that years are required to develop a new subject for practical educational results. Are we throwing aside those subjects whose educational value has been tested beyond question, for the sake of introducing new subjects which, at all events, for a long period must prove to be of lesser value ?"^ Attention is called to these questions because they emphasize real diffi- culties. It would seem, however, that President Harper has failed to regard two or three important elements in the case. First, aside from any new subjects that may be in- troduced, commercial high schools will retain many of the old subjects, and though these may be given a slightly different interpretation and application, their educational value may be increased rather than diminished thereby. And then the United States has had experience with tech- nical commercial instruction for sixty years, and some of the subjects to be added are not so "new" as might appear. Besides, there is a European experience some- what different in character and for a longer period, which 'Proceedings N. E. A., 1902, p. 355. [125] HIGHER COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 79 has already given valuable aid. And finally, the training of teachers for the secondary schools in the higher schools of commerce will at once insure the educational character of the lower schools, and unite them more closely with the universities. It would not be wise to minimize the difficulties, but these are not insuperable either in the internal organiza- tion of commercial high schools or in defining their rela- tion to the universities. Certain principles are universal, and with these the problems must be worked out ; but they are individual problems, peculiar to sections, to states and communities. To recommend a rule for all cases would be educational quackery; this paper will have its largest usefulness if it has made clear the general principles only, and leaves the educational "specifics" to be supplied from a study of local conditions. HIGHER COMMERCIAL EDUCATION AND THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY. BY PROFESSOR EDWARD D. JONES^ OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. The theme to which I wish to call your attention is this : that education preparatory for business life can only be made successful by the establishment of permanent and organized forms of intercourse between the university and the business community, through which each may freely utilize the resources of the other. Every new type of education requires the use of new subject-matter, new methods of research and new methods of instruction. The rise of almost every import- ant type of education has been the occasion for an attempt, at the beginning, to hedge it about with hard and fast rules as to what constitutes research, and pre- conceived ideas as to appropriate subject-matter and methods, which ideas and rules have been gathered from other types of educational practice. Such attempts have usually failed, and it has been necessary to recognize again and again that new results require new means. When physical science was first taught in universities it was subjected to restrictions which we have now so far outgrown that we can scarcely understand the spirit which prompted them. When economic science was first cultivated it was by methods of research appropriate to metaphysics but untrustworthy in a social science. Higher commercial education must pass through a period of experimental development during which old and well- [127] HIGHER COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 81 known educational methods are being adapted to it and new methods are devised and put into operation. The problem of methodology is a large one, it is but a portion of it that I attempt to bring to your attention in discussing the principle that many of the methods of a genuine higher commercial education will be found through bringing the university and the business com- munity into close contact, establishing friendly and cor- dial relations and effecting numerous exchanges of ser- vice. The work of some departments of a university can be performed with a degree of success in cloister-like seclusion ; that of others requires contact in restricted par- ticulars only with an outside world ; but in taking up the task of arranging a course of study preparatory for busi- ness the university is entering upon a labor for which the materials are found outside itself, the criterion of value is mainly outside, the methods of instruction must often take both student and teacher outside, and the application of the knowledge and training is found entirely outside the University. To carry this work forward successfully will involve a broad definition of science, great catholicity as to methods of research and instruction : in short it will involve a broad conception of the university. It will also mean that full advantage is to be taken of certain changed conditions existing within the business community. I venture, therefore, by way of preliminary discus- sion, to call attention to some facts and ideals regarding the relations of the university and the business community which must be appreciated and acted upon if higher com- mercial education is to be put upon a practicable basis and equipped with methods appropriate to it. There was a time when universities had no wider range of purpose than those English institutions described 82 MICEI&AN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [1 28] by Adam Smith in the "Wealth of Nations," and when higher education was a preparation for leisure or the learned professions. But with the inauguration 6i agri- cultural and engineering departments, and schools of law, medicine, forestry and mining there have come new ideals and methods. This has shown itself in a new conception of the duty of the university to research and to the com- munity outside itself through university extension and the university settlement movement, while at the same time the brotherhood of letters has grown more democratic through the adoption of the system of electives and the extension of the hall-mark of culture, the B. A. degree, to all courses not of a professional character. A new and broader conception of the university is prevailing which would make of it an institution whose functions are, to gather in to itself and conserve all knowledge, to consider the interests of all classes of the community which sup- ports it, and to be as broadly useful as is possible, con- sistent with true learning, in the training of men for the various activities of life. This sentiment which charac- terizes the thought of university circles today, in contrast to the narrower and more exclusive ideal once dominant, was well expressed by President Nicholas Murray Butler, in his inaugural address at Columbia University. He said, "In these modern days the university is not apart from the activities of the world, but in them and of them. To fulfill its high calling the university must give, and give freely, to its students ; to the world of learning and of scholarship; to the development of trade, commerce and industry, to the community in which it has its home, and to the state and nation whose foster child it is." Turning our attention to the business community we have to notice that among other wonderful effects of the industrial revolution is the building up of such an intel- [129] HIQKEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 83 lectual community within the ranks of industry as was previously unknown, and which finds its precepts in the laws of commerce, its teachers in the great inventors and financiers; its service in the improved ministry of trade to human wants. This world of mental activity must not be ignored by higher commercial education. The growth of industry from the crude methods of the handworker, following the dim lights of tradition, to the organized efifort and applied science of modern times, paralleled as it has been by the evolution of com- merce from venturesome and piratical expeditions to a a world-wide and regular exchange of goods as neces- sary to modern society as the circulation of the blood is to the human body, has made of the tasks of industry an intellectual pursuit and has laid in the practices of indus- try the foundation for many new branches of economic science. This new regime which has given to industry such a character of intricacy and to its processes such continuity and to its plans such logic, has developed and is now bringing into view a body of systematized experi- ence upon which may be formulated the principles of wealth production. Every department of the activity of a modern business either rests upon a science or makes possible a science. We have to observe therefore that the chief function of the business community, in relation to higher com- mercial education is to serve as the field of observation. It is to this community that the student of commerce must go to find his material for research — to enter his laboratory. Every science which continues in growth must keep open the avenues of access to its field of ob- servation. The pursuit of physical science requires the laboratory, of medicine the hospital, of art the gallery, of letters the library ; so the endeavor to place commercial education upon a scientific basis must involve close and cordial relations with the business compiunity from 84 MICHIOAIi POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATJON. [130] whence it draws its facts. The problem is increased in importance by the fact that while the student in many lines is at liberty to devise any process by which he may wring from nature her secrets, the student of economic phenomena finds access to his facts conditioned by the volition of others. The proper building up of the branches of knowledge fundamental in higher commercial education is of the utmost concern to all interested in the field. It is to be hoped that the task of collecting material will be taken hold of vigorously and that the short cut methods of substituting for the laborious induction such airy chains of easily-spun logic as once made of political economy a dismal science, and which more recently have so afflicted sociology, will not be introduced. A very good and safe sentiment with which to begin is with respect for the accumulated mass of knowledge in the hands of the busi- ness community and a determination, by earnest pain- staking effort to collect and classify for scientific pur- poses as large a body of it as possible. Much of this valuable knowledge sadly needs preser- vation, as it is nowhere to be found in books and perishes with individuals, to be discovered again and again through painful and costly business experience. The revolutionizing of the practices of industry has wrought another result of consequence to the student of industry. It has increased the use of the sciences which university scholars have done so much to construct. This has increased the respect of the business community for science in general and has brought about a much greater understanding of and sympathy for institutions of higher education than once prevailed. I have quoted President Butler upon the spirit of service which dominates university life. Let me quote Mr. Arthur Balfour, the First Lord of the English Treas- ury, upon the relation of industry to science. He says : [131] HIGHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 85 "In the marvelously complicated phenomena of modern trade, commerce, production and manufacture there is ample scope for the most scientific minds and the most critical intellects; and if commerce is to be treated from that higher and wider viewpoint it must be approached in the broader spirit of impartial scientific investigation." This condition of things is thoroughly understood among the more progressive and representative business men. The result is that the world of affairs offers a more hos- pitable reception than ever before to the investigator and understands as never before the value of science and is demanding more education for the young men intending to enter business. It is therefore one of the logical results of the broad- ening of the conception of a university and this growth of system and science in industry that the university should undertake the preparation of young men for busi- ness pursuits by a specially adapted course of study. These are the identical conditions which make the occasion a favorable one for securing a wider range of information on business subjects than has heretofore been at the disposal of students of economics and for adopting such new methods of instruction as may be necessary to make higher commercial education fulfill both the aca- demic and the practical ideals which have been set up for it. The university should call to its aid the business com- munity in establishing higher commercial education and should sanction such means as may be necessary to secure a permanent co-operation of effort. I venture therefore to suggest some of the agencies by means of which this may be done or, at least, by which the university can make its approach to the business com- munity and open the way for reciprocal services. I shall not observe any particular order in the discussion, and I am far from thinking that the list of suggestions is a complete one. 86 MICHI&AN POLITICAL SCIBNOE ASSOGIA Tl ON. [132] SPECIAL LECTURES. The first method which has suggested itself as a means of utilizing the knowledge and experience of the business community to enrich courses in higher commer- cial education has been, for many of our universities, the use of special lectures chosen from the ranks of business men. Undoubtedly this expedient has thus far given uneven results. Probably those business men are not numerous who habitually so digest their knowledge that they are able to choose the most important facts for em- phasis in a public address or to formulate the principles which will simplify the consideration of details. Un- doubtedly also the best men are the busiest, and often the most reticent about undertaking unfamiliar tasks. When a good man is found he is wanted year after year, and a service undertaken at first from its novelty may become tedious as a recurring demand upon time and effort. Still it is worth a determined effort to fit this system into the methods of higher commercial education, for the address of the special lecturer brings together all the stu- dents from the various classes of the course and throws' a new bright light upon subjects already studied in the presentation from the practical point of view. Such ad- dresses are valuable for the wealth of accurate detail they contain, for hints dropped, perhaps incidentally, which are often the keys to class-room puzzles, and for the vig- orous insistence upon the primary virtues of honesty, tenacity of purpose, etc., which the man of affairs never fails to include in his enumeration of the essentials of business success. TRADE PUBLICATIONS. Another resource is the use of publications eminating from the business community, including trade and com- mercial papers and the publications of local and national [133] HIOREB COMMEBOIAL EDUCATION. 87 associations of business men. The trade papers of the United States are the best in the world. I have no hesi- tancy in classing them, collectively, as the best single source of published information, next to government doc- uments, which is within the reach of the student of com- merce and industry. This class of publications should be plentifully supplied in the reading rooms of depart- ments of commerce in our universities. They can be used for collateral readings and in the preparation of topic work. The student should be accustomed to their use, for as a business man he should be their patron. They are one of the strongest influences at work for the general introduction of scientific business methods. Where there are so many publications that are good it is invidious to select a few for mention, but if any stu- dent of economic phenomena, unfamiliar with the trade papers of this country, will follow for a brief space the files of a number of them, let us say, The American Agri- culturist, Northwestern Miller, Iron Age, Engineering and Mining Journal, The Manufacturer's Record, The Textile Record, Scientific American Supplement, Dry Goods Economist, The World's Work, The Commercial and Financial Chronicle, he will realize how infinite is the variety of the conditions of the economic life of man and how varied the combinations into which the economic forces enter in the productive industries. To make this mass of information available there is much needed in our university libraries an efficient sys- tem of cataloging the contents of these publications, topi- cally, like that in use in the Philapelphia Commercial Museum. Another important source of commercial literature is to be found in the publications of local associations of business men, such as the Chicago Board of Trade, the New York and Cincinnati Chambers of Commerce, the Philadelphia Trades League and the Rhode Island Busi- 88 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [134] ness Men's Association. Also there are to mention the proceedings of national associations such as The National Association of Wool Manufacturers, The New England Cotton Manufacturers' Association, The National As- sociation of Manufacturers, The National Association of Retail Grocers, The American Mining Congress, The Silk Association of America and the Southern Industrial Association. In the aggregate these publications amount to a considerable library of trade literature annually. It is to be hoped that the leading ones of these organi- zations will authorize the preparation and publication of more extended and general studies in commerce than they have heretofore done, following such an example as was recently set by the Chamber of Commerce of Lyons, France, in sending an expedition to China and publishing the results in a magnificent volume, or following the example of the Merchant's Association of New York City in the study of the resources and industries of Texas. COMMERCIAL MUSEUMS. Another instrumentality which has received some consideration is the commercial museum, — or at least a special form of it connected with a university. There is probably no portion of the equipment of the average university so utterly useless from the point of view of instruction as the museum. Located often in a separate building or on a top floor, open only for a few hours a day, composed often of monotonous collections, the facili- ties for really understanding which are never present in the museum, and this supplemented by a miscellaneous assortment of curiosities, the place is a veritable junk- shop of science, seldom visited except by strangers "doing the sights." It is needless to say that this is not the sort of thing which departments of commerce are anxious to secure. [135] HIGHEB COMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 89 A museum can be made of use, but it must be built for service and then linked up with the other machinery of a school and be put to work. It should be located con- veniently to class rooms. Apparatus is necessary within the class room as well as in the store rooms. The museum must be chiefly composed of things which can be used in class rooms. It should include collections of raw materi- als, so sorted as to show all commercial grades, and the typical defects and excellencies on which systems of grades are based. It should include materials in the various stages of manufacture, to illustrate the technical processes involved, from step to step. And it should give a place to examples of finished products to show the various qualities made and the styles of finish and the application of art. These collections of material must be complete enough, as far as they go, to permit of comparative study, before they become of much value. Photographs, maps and charts, models and plans can be made to show much of the organization and processes of industry and to put statistics into attractive form. Collections made with a view of illustrating the history of industry may also be justified. Materials for such a collection as the student requires can be secured, for the most part, through con- tributions from establishments connected with the branches of trade concerned. Having secured such a collection the secret of its value depends upon taking it into account in the class room work of the appropriate subjects. It was once said in this country regarding specie payments that "the way to resume is to resume." So the way to use a collection and get the use out of it is to use it. It is easy to conceive of the extension of the useful- ness of a successful commercial museum beyond the uni- versity. It may be made of value to manufacturers as a depository illustrating art and technique, or as a place for the study of new raw materials. From the museum 90 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [136] of a state university boxes of specimens could be sent out to the secondary schools of a state, illustrating certain subjects, and these boxes could be handled after the fashion of a traveling library. It is a suggestion worthy of consideration, that some plan may be possible whereby the various universities could avail themselves of some of the great resources of the Philadelphia Commercial Museums. A remoter possibility is a Federal appropria- tion whereby the universities could secure raw material exhibits, through the State Department, from our con- sular officers abroad, and perhaps also from our new island dependencies. VISITS TO INDUSTRIAL ESTABLISHMENTS. The visiting of industrial establishments on the part of bodies of students accompanied by their instructors is not an entirely new practice in educational institutions, as it has been in use in departments of applied science, particularly schools of engineering. It is doubtful whether it can be made as useful in connection with higher commercial education as it is for students of science and engineering, because of the fact that the dif- ference between a right and wrong physical process is much more easily observed by visiting a plant than is the difference between a right and wrong financial policy, or administrative organization or system of cost account- ing or system of selling. The visiting of industrial estab- lishments undoubtedly has its place in supplementing other methods of instruction. It trains the powers of observation and comparison and independent judgment. It stimulates the interest of the student and imparts a sense of reality to his studies. An unusual degree of attention, however, is required on the part of the instructor, to make visits to establish- ments remunerative. In the first place, the establishments [137] HIGHER COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 91 themselves must be carefuly chosen by previous visits so that both ideal and defective systems of large and small establishments in various lines of industry will be shown. It is almost useless to go through an establishment with- out intelligent guidance from some person connected with the business and thoroughly conversant with all of its operations. The students also before the beginning of the trip should be provided with ^ list of points to which attention is to be directed, and after the visit there should be some sort of comparison of results. These visits entail some expense, unless they are to points in the immediate neighborhood, and they cannot be made compulsory. Nevertheless they would seem to be richer in results, and cheaper than ordinary travel which has for centuries held a high place as a means of education and which is specifically mentioned by Presi- dent Eliot as a training suitable for a captain of industry. It is a very natural thing that students of commerce should visit the establishments in the neighborhoods where they live during the summer vacations. And this brings us to the use of the summer vacation. SUMMER SCHOOLS OF COMMERCE. There is a noticeable tendency on the part of some of our universities and the technical departments of others to fill in the long intermission with college work. It seems to me undesirable from every point of view, except that of shortening the period of university resi- dence, that a student of commerce should remain at col- lege during the summer season engaged in the kind of work usually given in summer schools. It would be better for him to seek employment in some well managed establishment or spend the time in travel, or in any other manner seek contact with the world of action in which he is eventually to find his life work. 92 MICHI&AN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [138] Is it not possible, however, to construct a special form of summer school which shall mediate between regular college work and active service in some business ? Might not the summer school of the department of commerce of a university be located in some large city convenient to a number of industries? It could there be domiciled in temporary quarters, including a couple of lecture rooms and a small working library transferred from the uni- versity library. Such a school could offer courses of study conducted by the professors in charge. To these it could add as a special feature daily lectures from business men. Such exercises could be supplemented by a systematic program of visits to the industrial establishments in the locality. A school of this kind should remain under the control of a university and credits be given for work done in the ordinary manner, but it might gain many advantages from also being under the patronage of the local chamber of commerce or other commercial body willing perhaps to share the expenses in consideration of the advantage which would be given to suitably prepared young men of the locality to pursue a course of study in the school. BUSINESS TRAINING IN ABSENTIA. The last suggestion to which I shall venture to call your attention is the crediting of work done in absentia. I wish merely to raise the question. Will it ever be pos- sible or profit^be for departments of commerce to be allowed to make arrangements with carefully selected large and well-managed business concerns by means of which a young man at a certain point in his college work may be entered for six months' or a years' service in the general offices of a great corporation, railroad or indus- trial, or in a bank or insurance company, and that there he should be classed as a student employee, given a nomi- [139] MIOHEB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 93 nal remuneration, and granted some special privileges, such as a frequent change of tasks by means of which his experience would yield the greatest results in acquaintance with the business ? Would it be advisable under any cir- cumstances to allow such experience to count for a bache- lor's or masters' degree? A small percentage of students now drop out during their college course for financial reasons and engage in some remunerative occupation, returning to resume their studies. Although in these cases employment is un- doubtedly chosen much more for the immediate remuner- ation than for the experience to be gained the result is usually increased power on the part of the student, and greater earnestness and steadiness in college work. The reverse arrangement of this is not unfamiliar, namely, scholarships established by commercial organ- izations, or even individual business concerns, and en- titling the holder to a period of training in some technical school. If higher commercial education wins the confi- dence of the business community, as it should do, the next few years ought to see the establishment of scholar- ships by chambers of commerce, trade associations and individuals which shall enable promising young men to take advantage of a type of training which should fit them to make return to the business community in a more valuable form of service. There are other topics which naturally arise in con- sidering the relation of higher commercial education to the business community, such as university extension, instruction by correspondence and the placing of grad- uates, but I forbear to consider them in detail. In conclusion, permit me to say that no more delicate and yet fundamental problem could confront an educa- tional movement than this which lies on the threshold of higher commercial education, namely, the problem of preserving all that is reasonable and worthy in academic 94 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [140] traditions, and at the same time efficiently organizing this new type of education so that it will be able to demon- strate its usefulness in practice and win the confidence of the business community. WHAT CAN A UNIVERSITY CONTRIBUTE TO PREPARATION FOR BUSINESS LIFE? I. THE REPLY OF THE MANUFACTURER^ BY DAVID M. PARRY^ OF INDIANAPOLIS. The subject of commercial education has had an honored place in the discussions at every convention of the National Association of Manufacturers for years. The chief interest of the association in this matter has arisen from the poor efficiency of our consular service and the scarcity of good men for the foreign trade. In late years the manufacturers of the country have been looking across the seas for new markets, and they have found that one of the most serious obstacles to commer- cial expansion abroad is the lack of intelligent men to represent them. It is now often said with great truth that this is the age of commercialism. Ecclesiastical and dynastic ques- tions have given way to the economic problem of trade and industry, and a nation is great now according as its commerce is great. How to enlarge its markets and stimulate its industries is the constant study of the states- men of every civilized country. But in respect to the United States the question of finding new markets abroad has not pressed so closely upon its government or people as the same question has in other countries, for the reason that this nation already has the most extended market for its goods of any country in the world — ^the market of the United States itself. The people of this country on ac- count of the prevailing high standard of life are the great- 96 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [142] est consumers in the world, and much of their energies have heretofore been devoted to supplying their own needs. But the rapid increase in exports in recent years shows that the nation is steadily advancing toward the goal which it is its ultimate destiny to attain — that of being the workshop of the world and the ruler of the world's markets. In order to accelerate the growth of our commercial importance abroad, and in fact in order to open the doors of many foreign markets at all, it is essential that there be a class of men specially equipped for this particular work, men who understand business and tinderstand languages, who are at once tactful, culti- vated, observant and gifted with business sagacity. Where are we to get such men ? Germany is credited with advancing her commercial interests by training young men at her seats of learning for commercial pursuits and sending them into foreign fields. Thus the German representatives speak Italian in Italy, Spanish in Spain and South America and Eng- lish in the colonies of Great Britain. Correspondence is conducted in the language of the customer, and the great- est barrier to foreign trade, that of difference in language is eliminaed. The example set by Germany is being fol- lowed by other countries, but the United States appears to be the slowest to avail itself of any adequate plan to meet the situation. In this age of commercial rivalry and keen competition, the ability to furnish the best goods at the cheapest price will count for little unless there are bright well-equipped men to sell them. The foreign field thus appears to offer an excellent chance for a truly pro- fessional class in commerce. The consular service ought also to offer a field for such a commercially educated class. This service ought to be a valuable aid to the advancement of the commerce of any country, but it would be stretching the truth too severely to claim any notable merit in this direction for [143] HIGHEB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 97 the consular service of this country. Beyond being a convenient dumping ground for political derelicts and a means of saddling off on the government those who are charges upon men in power, it does not appear to serve any particularly valuable end. It is true that here and there is to be found an excellent representative, but under the system of appointment of these ofificials it is only an accident that a man properly qualified gets a position. The government also apparently often fails to pay these men sufficient to enable them to represent their govern- ment with dignity. I saw a consul at Seville, Spain, last year who was eking out his salary by selling curios to tourists. Perhaps if there were a system of education for men desiring to enter the foreign trade it might be easier to bring about the needed reformation of the consular system. The National Association of Manufacturers has con- sidered several plans for training a corps of men for the foreign fields. My predecessor as president of the organi- zation, Theodore P. Search, suggested at one time that the Association establish a bureau of subsidary organization which should devise a curriculum and hold examinations at stated periods for young men who took up the line of studies stipulated. He also suggested an alternative plan of founding a correspondence school. The London Chamber of Commerce performs a work along the lines suggested and issues certificates to those who pass its examinations, which certificates are a passport to many young men in business establishments. The Manufac- turers' Association has thus far taken no definite steps toward branching out into the educational field, and it would appear that educational institutions could properly undertake to supply the demand for commercial education. The purpose of these institutions is to educate young men, and if they fail to carry out this purpose in respect to any large class in the community, they are not performing 98 MICHIGAN POLIIICAL SOLEMJE ASSOCIATION. [Hi] that full measure of usefulness which should be their mis- sion. It is gratifying to note the number of colleges and universities that are now taking up commercial education, and it may not be too visionary to hope to see a science of business developed and taught in all our hig-her schools of learning. Law and medicine are now established branches of college work, and why not commercial edu- cation ? There was a time when it was thought that the only way to study law was to become a lawyer's office boy, and the only way to obtain a proper knowledge of the healing art was to become a doctor's body servant. There was also a time when a young man could learn the busi- ness of his employer 'by beginning as an apprentice, but with the consolidation of capital and the subdivision of labor it is now next to impossible for the average young man to learn anything more of the business of the great establishments in which he seeks work than if he stayed out of it. It is true that he can advance himself within certain limits, but he has little hope of reaching the higher posts of responsibility unless he obtains a fund of knowl- edge that his employer has no time to impart, and a kind that is not to be picked up in the factory or mercantile establishment in which he wopks. It follows that the better equipped in business knowledge a young man is when he seeks employment, the better are his chances of advancement. The commercial world needs educated young men not only in the foreign field, but also here at home. They are needed in the counting room, in the factory and in the •legislative halls. Knowledge is power, not only in the professions but also in business. In the long run the men of the highest intelligence will rule, no matter what the field of activity. It is a mistaken notion that the best business man is not necessarily an educated man. The time has gone, if it ever existed, when uncouth shrewd- ness alone means the best %usiness success. The high [145] HIGHER GOMJifEBCIAL EDUCATION. 99 Standard of intelligence displayed by the leaders of busi- ness in nearly every city of the country testifies to the truth of this statement. These men are men of knowledge — perhaps not of the knowledge of sciences, but never- theless of knowledge. I do not refer to the technical knowledge they possess of their own business but to their general knowledge of the world, its industries, its customs, its laws, — in a word, of their knowledge of the forces of activity and the^ questions affecting progress. The in- terests of commerce and industry which are so closely identified with the interests of civilization require the display of the best intelligence, and it appears to be of the ■first importance to educate young men along lines which will best fit them for the commercial career. In this con- nection I will specially mention the subject of political economy. A young man ought to be given a well rounded education in the questions afifecting production, distribu- tion, the laws of trade, finance, etc., not only from a theo- iretical standpoint but also from the practical one. The riddles of the age are economic ones. With every nation striving for commercial advancement it is essential that a young man should acquire a knowledge of this great conflict, so that he can look with understanding upon the questions which beset us. Our government being a gov- ernment by public opinion it is important that prevailing ideas should be those that will tell for the greatest ad- vancement of the nation. Many of us have a lively sense of alarm, for instance, at the growth of socialistic thought, as shown in trades unionism as now conducted. A thor- ough knowledge of the relations of capital and labor would not be amiss in equipping a young man for busi- ness pursuits, and he should in fact be given a basic knowledge which will enable him to investigate and dis- cuss all of the questions that arise for public sokition. If the business world sent more men to congress and the legislatures than it does, and did not leave law making so 100 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [146] much to the lawyers the results might be better for the interests of everybody. I do not wish to reflect on the legal profession, for it is composed of an excellent class of gentlemen in the main, but I do wish to say that I think there is room for the display of more practical knowledge and business training in our legislative halls. To sum up, there is need of educated men in the busi- ness world as there is in every other field of human effort. They should have a general education, and in addition thereto an education that will be of direct practical value to them. They ought to have knowledge of commercial law, business principles, modern languages, bank func- tions, powers of corporations, international and marine law, commercial geography, transportation, the mechani- cal means of production, political economy, and other subjects that will perhaps occur to those who study the question of commercial education. Above all they should be taught to observe and to think. If colleges could only train men to use their own brains they would perform a great service. They should also be taught how to talk and debate, how to gather information and how to use it after they gather it. The chemist and the metallurgist have their place to-day in many industries, and some industries have become so great as to warrant special training in knowledge pertaining particularly to them. In conclusion, it is well enough to say perhaps that it is not expected that any college can produce a business man, but it can furnish him with a certain amount of basic knowledge and develop lines of thought that will greatly assist him in after life. Lawyers and doctors are not made by colleges, either, for that matter. They are only given the foundation. It is upon their own natural gifts and energy that they must at last rely, and the same is true to perhaps even a greater extent in regard to those who have been trained for commercial life. [147] HIGHER COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 101 II THE REPLY OF THE TRANSPORTER^ BY EDWIN H. ABBOTT, OF BOSTON. I am asked to state my views upon the value of col- lege education for preparing men to engage in the busi- ness of transportation. That education which teaches a man to do best vfrhat he has to do, in the shortest time, with the least loss of force and the smallest consumption of material, is the best for him. Unless college training stand this test, men of affairs will not accept college as the best place for young men to prepare themselves for a railroad career. The scholar undoubtedly discovers facts and principles which open for the next generation new realms of human energy, but under the conditions of modern life, practical men, as they are called, send their .sons to college, not to train their faculties for research and abstract scholarship, but to learn those things which most help the boy to satisfy the exacting requirements of human activity in a thousand ways never dreamed of a century ago. Harvard College was founded, in 1636, to provide the churches with a learned ministry. It is crowded to-day because it increases the power of its stu- dents to accomplish results, in their special occupations, more effectively than the factory or mine or office would do. The college must, in short, teach the boy to hit the nail on the head at every blow, and drive it into the board with fewest possible strokes, and not to dent the board while he does it. It has been my fortune during the last thirty years to observe in different departments of the business of transportation the practical worth of such training. Mr. Charles Francis Adams, when he was president of the Union Pacific Railroad, used to urge college men to adopt "railroading" as if it were in itself a single pro- fession. It is rather forty different professions rolled 102 MIGHI&AN POLITICAL 8CIENCM ASSOCIATION. L148]; into one, each of them requiring a lifetime to learn well ; an aggregation of many occupations quite diverse, yet all combining together to effect one thing, viz., the move- ment of persons and property from one place to another for hire. Its instrumentalities since Stephenson led men to sub- stitute steam for animal power have grown into the largest, voluntary, business-associations used by civilized man. They employ in the United States nearly one- quarter of the population, using numberless devices which stimulate invention to its highest activity, and costing billions of dollars. It is simple truth to say they have made our Union possible, and bind its states together into one nation. A railroad is what lawyers call a "going concern." Its value resides not in its land or machines, but in their intangible product, transportation, which its departments all combine to create. A railroad corporation is an artificial person,, a creat- ure of law, which unites in one hand a thousand energies and resources, all working together for a single object under legal guidance. It uses vast moneys and has finan- cial servants, bankers and treasurers. When it begins to construct its surveyors lay out its route and negotiate its purchases of roadway, yards and terminals ; and what cannot be bought its lawyers condemn in the courts by power of eminent domain. Its contractors hire huge gangs of navies to make roadbed and lay track.' The roll- ing mill supplies its rail. The carmaker builds its cars. The bridgemaker erects its bridges. Every sort of com- mercial, financial and mechanical industry is invoked before it can run its first train. As soon as construction ends and operation begins many new and entirely distinct departments for permanent labor are organized. To pro- vide each customer with the kind and quantity of trans- port he needs ; and each shipper with the cars he requires ; [149] HIGMEB COMMEBjUIAL HDUCATION. 103 and to adjust passenger fares and freight rates propor- tionately and fairly between stations in the wholesale and retail sale of transportation, involves numberless details, each of which affects all the rest. To enumerate all the separate departments and de- scribe what they do is out of the question. A few will sufiSce for suggestion of the whole system. The law department applies the law in almost all its forms, constructive, executive, punitive, remedial and legislative. Every transaction of importance involves mixed issues of law and fact. The layman, however bright, is not familiar with law, but must take advice, while the lawyer, if he has clear common sense as well as legal knowledge, can decide an issue of fact as well as the layman. Consequently, no path leads more directly to the president's chair than through the law department. Its engineering department must understand topo- graphical, geological, physical, mathematical and elec- trical science, as well as hydraulics, mechanics, the pro- perties of materials, their strength and their chemical behavior. Its auditor's department compels the most varied and complex analysis and synthesis of countless items of receipt and expenditure. The auditor must account for every cent received and spent, and classify every item in the carriage of billions of tons and billions of persons over billions of track-mileage, constantly repairing, in order to determine at last to the fraction of a mill the net cost of hauling one single ton one single mile by cars and engines constantly wearing out over tracks steadily depreciating. Its mechanical construction includes the building of a wire fence along the right of way ; and the bridging of the Mississippi ; and the ferriage of a train of thirty-two cars on a steamboat across Lake Michigan on a winter's night; and the building of terminal stations like the 104 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [150] Grand Central stations in New York and St. Louis and Chicago. The mechanical maintenance of its motive power, and rolling stock, obliges the installation and operation of repair shops, which cover acres of ground and use every variety of machine employed in the manufacture of en- gines and cars. The operating department, with its general and di- vision superintendents, conductors, train-hands, brake- men, track-masters, and section-hands, has an almost military organization. It moves trains and keeps them steadily moving all along the line, delivering to each shipper the empty cars he wants, and hauling loaded cars to their destination. To keep all these men, scattered over a thousand miles, busy, good-natured and in pro- ductive motion, night and day; to meet the stress and sudden emergency of storm and snow and accident, de- mands skill in handling men and alert powers of combina- tion and leadership. The traffic department attends to the daily sale, in quantities to suit the buyer, of the only article from which railroads derive their revenue, viz., transportation. The station agent is a merchant, dealing wholesale and retail. A farmer's wife may buy a ticket to the next village, or a manufacturer ship a hundred carloads of furniture to Coronado Beach, or a miller forward one hundred thou- sand ( 100,000) bags of flour to Liverpool via New York. Each must be supplied, just when and as he needs, with the sort of transportation required. The general traffic manager of a large corporation, through his passenger agents and freight agents, stationed along thousands of miles of road, handles a bigger business than A. T. Stewart ever dreamed of, and his transactions make the dealings of Wanamaker and Field seem small afifairs. The train dispatcher orders every movement of trains and locomotives throughout the entire division. Night [151] HIGHEB COMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 105 and day at every station a telegraph operator is on the watch to transmit reports to him and to receive from him an order, without which no conductor or engineer is per- mitted to start a train. The chief dispatcher's office is the brain-center of motion on his division. The telegraph wires are the nervous system of the railroad, for the dis- patcher himself must know each moment where every moving locomotive is over the whole line. This description will serve to indicate how numerous and complicated are the parts of the organism which produces transportation for sale. All the departments are in charge of the general manager, who keeps them acting in harmony, and inspects and controls the entire combination through the corps of assistants and clerks. The physical care of motive power and rolling stock, and all mechanical operation, and all traffic arrangements for the whole "going concern" are in his hands. The treasurer is the financial hand of the corporation, which receives all moneys and makes all disbursements, and holds all funds and securities. The president is the head of the corporation. ' He maintains in behalf of the directors, general supervision, and exercises over the whole business and property the final authority of the owner. His function cannot be defined in words. He is the commander-in-chief, and must do with the entire property and each constituent part that he would do for himself if he owned the whole concern. His duty is to see that the whole enormous machinery works right. His jurisdiction, like that of the captain of a vessel, is co-extensive with his duty and is necessarily indefinable. Subject to the authority of the board of directors, he plans and executes every large scheme, administers the finances, settles the policy of the railroad. He represents the corporation in its outside rela- tions with connecting and competing lines, and in its do- mestic dealings with its own stockholders and bondholders. 106 MICHI9AN POLITICAL SCIENCE A880CIATI0N. [152] He speaks for the property in all its relations with railroad commissions and with the government of the state and of the United States. New complications and relations and perils may suddenly show themselves any day and he, as captain of the ship, must deal with them. Its welfare, and even its safety, may depend at any moment on the quality of his knowledge, the soundness of his judgment, his courage, his patience, and his Belf-control. Strikes of employes, panics in the money market, interference of politicians and bosses, unreasonable legislation and the fluctuation of political parties, — ten thousand possibili- ties growing out of the unstable equilibrium in modern life, may show him to be a leader of men and of priceless value in his office ; or they may disclose the reverse. Bis- marck said the telegraph had tremendously increased his own labors. The heavy burdens which in recent years through the invention and use of the telegraph, the tele- phone, and the marine cable, devolve upon him who sits at the center of public functions, press with increasing weight upon the men who control great railroad corpor- ations. They shorten their career and their lives. Few men can long endure the strain. I have tried to outline the business of transportation. Many distinct professions and vocations, each ofifering an attractive career, and all converging toward the com- mon center, are avenues leading to the president's office. Consequently, eminent success in his own special profes- sion ofifers to the successful man in any of these depart- ments, in addition to his own strict professional reward, the additional chance of promotion, if he desires it, to executive duties of large responsibility and importance in the corporation. The public weal, of course, demands skillful men in those offices, and it seems superfluous to argue, from the side of public welfare, the advantage of having the men who will fill these offices receive the most thorough and complete education for their duties. But 11153] HI9HMR OOMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 107 we must also look at the subject from the point of the individual, and also from the point of view of the ordi- nary man. While every boy has the chance of becoming President of the United States, there are only twenty-five presidents regularly chosen in a century ; and railroad presidents are few, in the multitude of railroad men. How far, then, does college education specially fit the average man for the business of transportation ? In the first place, its departments all include large groups of men working together. However small his own group may be, the leader in each ought to know how to deal with and work with men and, as he rises in re- sponsible service, how to guide and lead parties of men. For this preparation college life furnishes important op- portunities. College is a little world of its own. The boy begins his work in the company of many other boys and, as they grow together into young men, he soon finds his own level. This knowledge of human nature which is gained in this miniature world during four years of constant association in common pursuits, experience has proved to be most valuable training for the business of transportation. In the second place, the boy learns methods of work ; how to find out whatever he needs to know, and how to get at the heart of things. College is an intellectual gym- nasium, where the acquiring of knowledge of processes and methods of doing work is far more important than the actual facts which are learned. The venerable Presi- dent Walker, of Harvard College, in his inaugural ad- dress in 1853, declared that the chief use of college edu- cation was to get a bird^s eye view of the whole realm of knowledge, and to learn how to learn whatever cir- cumstances should hereafter require a man to know. To reach the heart of the tree by the fewest strokes of the axe and with the cleanest cuts, is the sum of college edu- cation. It is true, men do not swing on the rings, and 108 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [154] play the grasshopper on parallel bars, and wield Indian clubs, and pull up weights in active life ; but their practice with these implements in youth develops muscle. A boy gains strength, and knowledge how to apply that strength to the uses of his manhood, from his gymnastic practice ; and he learns how to use his mind and intellectual powers from college training. In the third place, the boy does not merely grow in power and sense and intelligence by association with other boys. He has constantly before him in college lofty ideals of conduct and action among his teachers. It is a great good for a boy to look up to and watch and ad- mire an able man doing his work. College life helps him to form ideals, set up high standards for all sorts of service, and to take large views of things. When the class of i860 was coming into active life the black clouds of the great Civil War were darkening the horizon. The words which Dr. Walker then said to them express what is the fruit of college education: — "We have no right to expect that you shall belong to any particular party in Church or State, but we have a right to expect that, in whatsoever party you do belong, you shall belong to the liberal part of that party." The training to broad ideas, and to high standards for work and action, and how to work well in harness, is precisely that knowledge which no man who enters the business of transportation can afford to lack. This little world of college life is also an experimental world, where mistake is instructive, but is not final fail- ure and downfall. The boy who gets experience there in a small way ; first, in dealing with him ; second, in dealing with facts and learning sound methods of intellectual life; and third, in forming high standards of excellence, is in the best possible school for his future needs on a railroad. The man of inborn genius can break his own way and invent his own methods. But ordinary men, how- [155] HIGHEB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 109 ever, who may never rise to the top, cannot afford to dis- pense with instruction, and ought to go to the very best school. The actual experience of mankind has proved that college education tends to success in the affairs of life by enabling men to perform their duty better, when they possess it, than they can do without it. The record of West Point graduates well illustrates the advantage which comes from entrusting responsible duties to those men only who have been highly traine'd to perform them. West Point cadets, during the past century, have fairly represented the ordinary type of man in our country. One cadet has, for three-quarters of a century at least, been appointed from each congressional district. The cadets are a fair sample of raw material as it exists throughout the country, year after year, from Maine to Mexico. Now military critics and historians agree in saying that our victory in the Mexican War was not obtained through any phenomenal military genius of the commanders. General Taylor or General Scott. It was due and must be credited to the highly trained West Point officers who, from highest to lowest, were thor- oughly prepared for their work as officers. Again, to the same effect, the last chapter in the his- tory of our Civil War tells a similar story, though it is even more remarkable. It has been the rule from time immemorial, under the West Point system, to give com- missions in the engineer corps to those cadets only who are highest in rank on the general roll of each class as it graduates. The next set is commissioned in the artil- lery," and the next in the cavalry, and the next in the infantry. Our best educated soldiers in the whole art of war, according to academic standards, were, in 1861, officers of engineers, because that corps, in successive years, contained those men only in each class who had at the academy in four years' study worked up to its head. 110 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [1561 Now what was the record made by those West Point officers in the four years of our Civil War? When the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James cap- tured Richmond and Lee's army, in April, 1865, General Meade, the commander of the Army of the Potomac; General Humphries; General Wright; General Parke; General Warren, and General Abbot in the Army of the Potomac; and General Weitzell, in the Army of the James, who each commanded a corps or a corps organiza- tion, were all engineer officers ; while General Hunt, the chief of artillery, and General Ord and General Gibbon were officers of artillery, the second in academic honors ; and General Grant and General Sheridan were also West Point graduates, although not of the engineer corps. In other words, the four years of stern competition in war had carried the same men who liad led their classes in their academic life at West Point up to the front rank in service. Civilian generals had gradually fallen to the rear. The management of the campaign had finally come into the hands of those who, at graduation, had been ad- judged to possess the highest training for it. Crowning success, in fad;, did not come to our arms in our Civil War until soldiers educated at West Point had been put in command. But it may be said few men ever can be officers and the bulk of the army consists of private soldiers. It is true that the privates in the ranks are more numerous than the officers. Yet it is certainly worth while for the private to make himself fit to become a corporal ; and for the corporal to try to become a sergeant. It is of public interest, as well as of personal import, that every soldier should strive to win the epaulet and to wear it with credit. The prosperity of our cottntry depends upon the effort of every parent to give his child better opportunities, and to help him to a larger place, and greater success, than ' has been his own lot. [157] HIGHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. Ill But what is success ? If we measure it by bags of dollars and wreaths of laurel, I submit that it is no longer an open question that university training assists an intell- gent man in almost any vocation to gain that sort of suc- cess. Some very interesting statistics illustrate this. You are doubtless familiar with the book called "Who's Who in America,". a clever compilation of Amer- ican biographies of living persons who have attained more than local prominence in all sorts of respectable and use- ful occupations. Its accomplished editor, Mr. Leonard, made two noteworthy tables from the statistics which are gathered in his editions of 1899 and 1901. In 1899, 3,508 out of 6,029 of his successful persons from whom he had educational data, were college graduates, and 733 were collegians but not graduated, making a total of 4,241 successful persons who had received, more or less, college training. This was a percentage of .70343, or more than seventy and three-tenths per cent of the whole number of his successful persons in 1899. His book for 1 90 1 contained 8,141 names from whom he had educa- tional data, of whom 4,810 were college graduates and 865 collegians but not graduated. This made a total of 5,775 collegians who had received more or less col- lege training. This was ;a percentage of .70937, or nearly seventy-one per cent of the entire number of his successful people in 1901. His figures also showed that those who had received a common school education merely, or had been privately taught, or were self-taught, amounted to less than fourteen per cent of the whole number of his 11,551 successful people in 1901. College educatioJi, therefore, appears to pay weH in all occupa- tions. The acts of men who have amassed great wealth are equally significant in showing what they think about col- leges. It rarely happens that such a man travels through Europe and passes by its attractions in art and history 112 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIJENCE ASSOCIATION. [158] and architecture and beauty in order to amuse himself at Monte Carlo and seek excitement in scattering dollars along his path. Adverse criticism of the worth of col- leges from such sources may be passed in silence. It is not surprising that Mr. Morgan by his great gift founds the Harvard Medical School anew, for Mr. Mor- gan is himself a Heidelberg man. Mr. Cecil Rhodes also, as an Oxford man, did what we might perhaps expect when, in his remarkable will he framed his unique scheme for scholarships at Oxford and proffers university train- ing to selected boys of all English-speaking nations. But it is worthy of special note, that, when he tries to secure unity in the growth of civilization, he designates university training at Oxford as the most efficient means to prepare chosen young men to affect this high purpose. Mr. John D. Rockefeller, who had not himself the opportunity for collegiate education, not only sends his son to Brown University in order to prepare him for the use of enor- mous wealth, but when he selects his own special monu- mental charity, he founds the University of Chicago. Mr. Carnegie, in like manner, though not a college grad- uate, first takes counsel with university presidents how best to aid higher education, and then creates an institu- tion, absolutely unique, for original investigation into the laws of Nature and science yet undiscovered. He endows what is to become a university of universities, in order to extend the scope of all collegiate education and increase the sum of human knowledge. It is needless to multiply examples. These gentlemen only follow in the steps of Mr. George Peabody and Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt and Mr. Slater in giving aid to collegiate education. But, once more, how shall we define success? Shall we in appraising colleges and universities stoop to the level and adopt the standards of the uneducated? Col- lege training has surely done little for those graduates who have not learned from their Alma Mater that success 1159] HIOHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 113 cannot be expressed in terms of money or of the rewards of political ambition. University training is worth hav- ing because of the aid it gives to a life of service ; and because it elevates the standard of ideal excellence in every department of labor; and because it brings justice and order into human life. The problems for reconciling labor and capital are so many, and so hard to solve, that the very science of political economy has taken a new form. It is no longer, as in the day of Adam Smith, the technical science of making one dollar into two, but it has grown to embrace the science of human happiness and of schemes for the amelioration of human slavery. I maintain, therefore, that a man must, in fitting him- self to follow the business of transportation learn much more than to carry persons and property safely for hire, or to make profits for his stockholders. He must be trained in leadership. The employes in every department of a railroad are dependent, not only in the quality of their work but also for welfare and happiness, upon the intellect and character of the men under whom they serve. Whoever is a leader among men, even if his squad be only a corporal's guard or a section-gang, is bound to be educated in leadership. He must know how to get effective work from those under him ; and he cannot do this unless he knows how to render the doing of their labor beneficial and improving to the laborers themselves. The best product is always the fruit of willing, enthusi- astic, interested effort. That kind of effort never fails to succeed. Strife and dissension and jealousy among employes mean bad leadership. I could name great en- terprises carried on by an army of employes where the labor is cheerfully done and the laborers are contented, and there are no strikes, because the manager is intelli- gent, right-minded,, and well educated in his function. Nothing but trained intelligence will achieve this result, and therefore I maintain that success in any undertaking, 114 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION.\l&(S\ like transportation, which inevitably involves correlation and co-ordination and subordination of great numbers of human beings, depend upon the skill with which the commander combines the workers in accordance with ethics and the principles of applied justice among men. Is it not worth while for him to walk in the light of education, and not blindly follow his own path to dis- covery ? It is folly to say that this is mere altruistic talk. There is an old saying in the army that the colonel is half the regiment. I therefore contend that the highest moral and ethical training which can be got in colleges is good business, just as honesty is the best policy. It is assuredly a large element of success in railroad affairs, and the man is ignorant and foolish, as well as unchris- tian, who undertakes to deny it. Cain did not deny that he was his brother's keeper until he had already mur- dered his brother. Hitherto, we have been looking at the business of transportation from the outside and considering mere success in that work. What rewards college education brings to the individual himself engaged in this work is not my topic today. Yet I trust you will pardon me if I add a word on this point, for the effect of education, or the want of it, influences powerfully every man's suc- cess from the personal point of view. "There is some- thing mysterious about what we call personality," says the Spectator, "but it is the strongest force in the world. The most moving ideas, the greatest revolutions, refor- mations and religious revivals come to the world through great personalities." It is true that you cannot make a Damascus sword-blade out of a shingle, but the personal- ity of each individual determines what kind and amount of education will make him best and happiest, and there- fore what he is wise to attempt. In his own education for his own advantage, the purely intellectual and spirit- ual element in every man is the first to be considered. [161] HIOHEU GOMMEBGIAL EBVGATION. 115 because the happy life is to him his own heaven on earth. How far is it worth while for him who contemplates a railroad career to seek this happy life through college education, although he may never attain high position in railroad service? One of the most prominent railroad men on this con- tinent, who had worked his way up from the bottom by his own native capacity without collegiate help sought his own delight in making himself one of the best paleon- tologists of our time, and in gaining a knowledge of geol- ogy which filled his whole life with flavor. What would he not have enjoyed if his intellectual horizon had been widened by college studies; and if he had been able to listen to the great voices which still call to us down the ages ? Any man is unfortunate who has not learned to make books (not magazines and newspapers, but hooks) friends and companions. Mere money by itself alone is poor pay. A rich old banker once said to me, "If I were to ask you to take care of three millions of dollars and offer to pay for your care by giving you board, lodging, food and clothing, would you accept my offer? Yet what more do I myself get for taking care of my property?" He might have been answered that, while the chief per- sonal convenience which a rich man gains from wealth is freedom of motion, physical and intellectual, the rest of its benefit is power. His real happiness will depend on how he uses that power; and how to use power well is what college teaches. Mr. Justice Holmes, during his recent visit at the Northwestern University, spoke of a happy life as being the best personal reward from university training, be- cause it opened so many doors to an intelligent man in the way of mental growth and development. More than sixty years ago an old sea-captain told a little boy how he had once been wrecked in the mid- 116 MICHI&AN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [1621 Atlantic. He had sailed the seas for many years early in the last century, in the days of the Berlin decrees and the British orders in Council, when the United States was the weak neutral nation. His own ship had been captured by the French and confiscated and he was sent home from Italy as a passenger with many other American seamen. Their vessel was wrecked ofif Newfoundland. For thir- teen days the dismantled and water-logged hulk drifted southward, before he could induce anybody to take the little boat and row northward into the path of vessels from Europe. At last four sailors consented to join him. Then they spent twenty-seven days in that open boat. They had nothing to drink, and they could not eat the salt junk which was the only eatable thing in the boat. Two of the four sailors died. Seven vessels passed them, but at last the eighth saw them and picked them up. So, at last, he came home to his wife and little girl. The venerable old man told the story with reluctance, for it stirred painful memories ; but when the boy with the piti- less curiosity of childhood, asked : "Didn't you suffer a great deal?" his answer was, "I don't think I suffered so much as the rest of them. / had something to think about." Something to think about! Every individual gains that from college education. To think what is worth thinking, and to love what is worth loving, and to do what is worth doing, makes the happy life. College adds so much to the range of thought that I think any man wise to go through college first, even if he is to earn his living afterward by sawing wood. [163] HIGHEB GOMMBBCIAL EDUCATION. 117 III THE REPLY OF THE WHOLESALE DEALER, BY A. C. BART- LETT, OF CHICAGO. If the life of a merchant or manufacturer must neces- sarily be confined to mere money getting and hoarding, the less education that is wasted upon him, and the fewer cultured minds which are sacrificed to a mercantile life, the better for mankind. If, on the other hand, an ability to manufacture, to buy and sell, export and import, solve the questions intervening between those of supply and demand, with profit to himself; — appreciate, make use of and enjoy a liberal education, cultivate the higher fac- ulties of the mind and know something of philosophy, science, literature, are not incongruous attainments in the life of an individual, intelligence and education do not demean themselves by an alliance with trade and com- merce. The professions cannot open their doors to all the intelligent and ambitious young men which this age is developing. Neither does intelligence and education fit men for positions that nature did not intend them to fill. Artificially bending the twig to incline the tree, produces some very weak timber. Trade and commerce can boast of no aristocratic blue blood of idleness, but of an ancient and honorable record for usefulness. There are no shadows upon their fair fame, except those cast by the misdirection, treachery, greed or dishonesty of their representatives. The prin- ciples upon which they are founded are universally pro- nounced correct, and there is no indication of inherent weakness in the past which mark them as unworthy of adoption by the intelligence of the present day. The intercourse of nations through the medium of commerce ; the acquirement of knowledge, the growth of civilization. 118 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [164] the interchange of ideas, the development of natural re- sources, are as certainly promoted by trafific to-day as they were a thousand years ago. Greater facilities have produced greater results ; new inventions and discoveries have broadened the fields, and a better civilization has opened new channels of usefulness. The encouragement recently given to trade and com- merce by colleges and universities is due to this record and to these facts, and from the seat of this great Univer- sity of Michigan comes the questionj "What can a uni- versity contribute to prepare for business life?" I answer first negatively, that the institutions for higher education should not engage in elementary work, or the teaching of mere forms. It is not the province of a college of commerce to teach how to write a railroad receipt, fill out a bank check or keep a set of mercantile books simply because a student may eventually become a railroad man, a banker or a merchant, any more than it is the province of a school of medicine, as such, to teach dentistry; because a country doctor may wish to know how to extract teeth. Attempting to briefly answer affirmatively the ques- tion which is propounded, I say, first ; that the university should admit to itself, as well as the public, that it is as surely contributing to the preparation for business, as for professional life, when it teaches the arts, literature and science. While the doors of the American univer- sity are by no means closed to the prospective business man; while in fact, encouragement is given to every one who is seeking knowledge to enter its portals, never- theless, the atmosphere which was early charged at such universities as those of Oxford, Cambridge and Heidel- berg, with elements of the professions only, is still heavy with the perfumes of pulpit flowers, the smell of musty law libraries and the pungency of disinfectants. If study of the Greek language sufficiently disciplines [165] HIQHEB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 119 the mind of one who shall devote his life to teaching goodness, love, humility, and to leading men to the Cross of Christ; or of one who shall legally adjust dififerences between his fellow men, assist in punishing criminals and in defending the innocent; or of one who shall relieve physical suffering and disease; if, I repeat- the study of Greek sufficiently disciplines the minds of these students to compensate for the time and labor expended, by all means recommend this course to a man who hopes to use his brains upon problems, the right solution of which will assist in determining the prosperity and happiness of his fellow men, tlie growth of nations and the peace and har- mony existing between the governments of the earth. If conic sections and the calculus are requisites to a pro- fessional career in which, practically, mathematics beyond fractions are not in use, is the knowledge of higher math- ematics altogether wasted upon a business career? If ancient and mediaeval history are desirable in the curricu- lum of a would-be doctor of medicine (some of the suf- fering laymen, presumably dyspeptics, are unjust enough to say that doctors never arrive this side of ancient his- tory) are they less desirable in the course of a man who is to predicate much of his prophetic understanding of future conditions in the business world upon his knowl- edge of the evolutions which have been in progress since Adam made his unfortunate trade in the Garden of Eden ? What pursuit in life can receive greater benefit from a study of psychology, ethics, or the evolution of moral- ity than that of a business man ? Has not the department of sociology as much value and practical knowledge to impart to the business as to the professional man,? Do the seeds of English literature necessarily fall upon stony and barren ground when they are sown in the gray matter of a would-be business man? The university can contribute very directly to the preparation of young men for business lives by establish- 120 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [166] ing a department of commerce, in which the prescribed curriculum for a degree shall include the practical (and the disciplinary, — in moderation) courses in the lan- guages, in history, in mathematics, physics, political econ- omy and science, sociology and in elementary law. In the senior year there should be courses relating especially to the different branches of commerce, as for example, those in banking, transportation, trade, etc. The elective courses need be limited only by the appreciation, judg- ment and liberality of the faculty. Referring to modern languages, there is less necessity for a knowledge of French in ordinary business transac- tions in our own country than there is in polite social intercourse or general reading. As our common schools are constantly putting more emphasis upon English and there are fewer of those schools in which the study of German is even elective, a knowledge of the latter lan- guage is year by year growing less valuable as a means for doing business. However, in this country we have not yet reached that stage in the journey of the human family toward the universality of English where a knowl- edge of German is not, to say the least, very convenient in the business world. Our new relations with the former dependants and protegees of Spain have rendered a knowledge of the Spanish language very essential to a thoroughly educated business man. Before the late war our transactions with Cuba, and more particularly with the Republic of Mexico and the Southwestern states and territories of our own country, rendered the ability to read and speak the Span- ish language exceedingly desirable to every business man who was brought into direct contact with the rep- resentatives of those countries and divisions of our own commonwealth. The desirability is measurably increased by a closer relationship with Cuba and the other West India Islands, and our exceedingly close [167] HIGHER COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 121 relationship with the Phihppines (which as regards close- ness, some of us are devoutly hoping will prove tem- porary). Our business men who have been engaged in great enterprises for developing the natural resources of Mexico, New Mexico and Arizona have felt that our institutions of higher learning have heretofore put the teaching of the Spanish language too far in the back- ground. The limit placed upon the study of English in an ideal school of commerce should be coextensive with that of the university to which the department belongs. In history the university can assist in preparation for a business life by making the student conversant with the recorded occurrences from the early days of Greece and Rome, down to the time of railroad mergers, the existence of the United States Steel Trust and the waging of recent wars, which have made marked changes in the world's commerce. Modern European history, with spe- cial reference to the English branch, together with the history of our own country, including its economic his- tory, are the immediate and positive essentials of a com- mercial education. It is needless to enumerate in detail. By offering courses in mathematics, physics, political economy and science, sociology, etc., which shall discipline and equip an intelligent, earnest young man for any of the ordinary pursuits of life, and for contact with educated men and women, professional or otherwise, and by further offering special courses in banking, transportation and trade, which shall include finance, trusts, capital and labor, traffic, constitutional law, and law of corporations and contracts with the incidental minor studies belonging to these courses, the university through its college of com- merce, can contribute very much toward preparing a young man for a busines life. The teacher, editor, literary man, doctor, lawyer, 122 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [168] preacher each fills his respective place in the world, per- forming his share of the world's tasks, developing, as far as his work goes, only those functions of the brain and body which are required in the performance of his prescribed duties. Whether the field of employment be that of a professor, of agriculture, trade mechanics, or ordinary manual labor, it will assuredly be narrow unless the workman goes beyond the boundary of his chosen vocation. The "one idea" men are not confined to any particular walk in life. Breadth and versatility can only be acquired outside the little workshops of profession and business in which men are individually employed. Study that is recreation, contact with intelligence that is real society, thought that is distinct from vocation, are the influences which broaden. Must we not look to our universities for that liberal education of our young men which shall insure them against narrowness, whether they choose professional lives? Does the business life of a tradesman necessarily circumscribe his intellectual life? Does it, per se, make a "one idea" man of him? Is there no help for him in education and culture? It must be admitted that oppor- tunities for comparison of educated marchants with pro- fessional men are none too frequent. Have merchants no time to devote to literature, a technical study of music and art; a knowledge of history, an acquaintance with public questions outside of those relating to business and politics? Do the comparative analysis of the daily lives of professional and business men show any wide margin of leisure for general mental development and pleasure in favor of the professions? Has riot the merchant, the detail of whose business can be delegated, a better and more certain command of his time than has the profes- sional man of his? Let our universities open their doors a little wider to those who are destined to be "men of affairs" and more [169] HIGHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 123 fully recognize the possibilities for intellectual enjoyment and usefulness in a commercial life. Because some teachers in their work never rise above the first reader intelligent people do not condemn the vocation of the educator as unworthy the best efforts of the great men arid women who are leaders in the world of thought and research. Neither should intelligent peo- ple place the commercial life upon the list of impossibili- ties because some men never get beyond the peanut stand on the street corner, and the life which that involves. You who are the members of university faculties will repeatedly be called upon to give your advice to the young who are approaching that point in life from which the diverging roads of the future take their beginning. I beg of you that the advice which shall influence a choice between trade and profession be given upon the score of special fitness, rather than upon that of general intelli- gence. If a boy has brains and a desire to use them do not insist that a profession is his only career; that eminent success in life must be predicated or dependent upon the spiritual disease, moral obliquity, bodily ailments or men- tal poverty of his fellow men. Encourage the acquisition of the broadest, most liberal education, and then if his tastes incline him toward a mercantile life, assure him that following his inclination, his talents and education will not be wasted ; that his life can be made a useful one, and that it will not, necessarily, be deprived of the keenest and highest of intellectual pleasures. The university is the only institution in which the best preparation can be made for a successful business life. 124 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [170] IV. THE REPLY OF THE CORPORATION LAWYER^ BY JAMES B. DILL, OF NEW YORK. In Opening his address the speaker said that the lawyer of to-day is not the theorist of yesterday. The business lawyer of to-day is a business man, specialized along legal lines. As his first point he combated the theory that the university education does not prepare for business life. Upon this he said : "Not so long ago it was considered even by thinking men that a university education was worth while only for the intending lawyer, clergyman or physician. It used to be seriously maintained that the spending of four years in a university was not only a grievous waste of time but was even a positive detriment to the business man; that the close of the college course found him four years or more behind the man who had not gone to the university; more than this, that the uni- versity graduate was filled with theories based upon Latin blank verse, Greek roots and facts and dates of ancient history — learning impossible of application to the con- ditions and problems of the work-a-day world, — that it would take from two to four years for him to get rid of the knowledge of this sort which he had absorbed. "Some who dissent from the view that a university education handicaps and delays a youth intending to be- come a business man do not hesitate to say, however, that they have observed that great corporations which prefer to employ college men seek men who have been at least two years out of college, out of whose eyes, they say, has faded the dazzling halo of the senior year, — out of whose ears has gone the echo of the baccalaureate sermon and the music of the valedictory address." He said that the conception of college faculties as to [171] HIQHEB GOMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 125 what should be included in the university education has within the last twenty-five years undergone important modifications, a growing recognition being accorded by the faculties to what he termed "commercialism in the best sense of the word;" and he referred to the increasing frequency of the election of laymen to college presiden- cies always previously filled by clergymen as another sig- nificant mark of the recognition of commercialism by the universities. To-day the president of a great university is not always chosen because he is a clergyman. He is often chosen for his business qualities, and even some- times, it is said, for his ability to raise money. We hear of the presidents of great universities publicly devoting themselves not wholly to the task of preparing the young prospective clergyman, doctor and lawyer, but largely to the more practical and intensely earthly question of rais- ing for the university sums of money varying from one to ten millions of dollars. Mr. Dill made as his third point that, while the uni- versities were meeting the demand of the business world in preparing educated business men, on the other hand the businss world was meeting the universities more than half way in the recognition of the value of a university training as preparatory to a business career. "The situa- tion of the modern business world is summarized in the proposition that there never was a time in the history of this country when the individual dollar was as weak as at the present time, and when the individual man has been as potent an element as he is to-day. Money is plenty, and genuine men are in demand. Twenty-five years ago, if a young man had ofifered to him as a choice for a start in business a university education or $100,000, popular opin- ion would have pronounced him a fool if he had chosen an education. To-day, education, as compared to riches, is stronger and vastly more potential to the man who desires to succeed in business. It is becoming recognized more 126 MIGHIOAN POLITICAL SCLENGE ASSOCIATION. [172] and more generally that the combination of knowledge gained and habits of accurate thinking acquired as a result of a faithfully spent college course is of the highest value to the young man who intends to enter business Hfe." Speaking of the requirements of modern business, Mr. Dill said: "The corporation movement has tended to create a demand for educated men. It has rearranged men, — not crowded them out. This arrangement tends to prevent misplacement of men, to check early in their careers those who may have been misplaced and set them in the proper path. The corporation movement tends to eliminate the rich man's son and relative whose only claim to recognition is his wealth, as a controlling factor in great business companies. In case there are twenty di- rectors and one director desires a sinecure for his son, two phases of the matter are presented. The first is that the young man is the son of the twentieth director and there are nineteen directors whose son he is not. In the second place, the executives know well that there may be nineteen other sons who would like nineteen several sine- cures and if the executive has twenty places filled with favored relatives that the whole business enterprise will be imperiled. "In the case of one of the large combinations lately effected in this country one man, the owner of a promi- nent and long-established business house, assigned as his reason for declining to join in the combination that he desired to preserve the business for his two sons; this man added frankly that if he should go into the combina- tion he was afraid that his sons would hot be able to stand, in competition with others who would seek to obtain the posts which his sons would otherwise hold in the business — a tacit acknowledgment that the order of things to-day in the concentration of power tended to arrange men strictly according to their ability, rather than with refer- [173] HIQEEB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 127 ence to their relationship with the heads of the business." As a further point Mr. Dill affirmed that the learned professions recognize the new order of aifairs and bow to the business element. "The learned professions have come down to earth and in none of them has there been a greater change than in the profession of the law." He said that the question was often asked whether the law to-day is a profession or a business. He asserted that it is both and that the successful lawyer to-day is a special partner of the business man. "The successful lawyer of to-day is not one who is the last resort of the business man, and to whom the business man appeals when he is on the verge of destruction. On the contrary, he is con- sulted at the outset and throughout the progress of every enterprise of magnitude that by reason of his special legal experience along business lines he may primarily make the undertakings of the business man more profitable than without his assistance, and secondai;ily may enable him to avoid attack and litigation. "The lawyer of to-day who reaps the greatest profit is not he who only wins in court, but is he who succeeds in avoiding litigation, in bringing about the desired busi- ness results smoothly, quickly and safely without expos- ing his client to litigation. That lawyer who, upon the advent of a client views him with an eye to determining only how much he can charge him is on the way leading from and not on the road toward success. That lawyer is most successful whose charges may frequently appear on the profit side of his client's ledger ; who has been paid $i,ooo because his services have brought his client a profit of $10,000. "The law office of to-day is not the office of a few years ago. It is said that the modern law office more or less closely suggests the modern department store. How- ever this may be, it is true that business is largely coming into the affairs of the lawyer. As business is combining 128 MIGHIQAN POLITICAL SCIENCE AS80CIATION.[17i] various undertakings under one firm or corporaite name, so to-day the large law firm is made up of a number of men, each engaged in his own specialty, each with his own corps of assistants, each with his own department, and as the head of that department endeavoring under the supervision of the head of the firm to turn out the best work and at the least cost to the client consistent with a profit. The more nearly the lawyer brings his profes- sion into touch with business methods, the greater will be his success, and the profession is to-day beginning to realize this fact and to act upon it." Analyzing the conditions which have created the pres- ent demand for corporation lawyers, Mr. Dill said : "The trend of business is unmistakably toward combination, involving a heavy individual responsibility — a broader sweep of vision, covering the markets of the world — a more complex organization of the business, and prompt solution of or decision upon intricate problems, Ihan was ever required of the business man of the past. So complicated has become the conduct of business affairs and so large the volume of business of corporations that the corporation lawyer has been evolved, complementing the corporation manager. Not less than the corporation executive — more rather, than the corporation executive — does the corporation lawyer benefit from a collegiate edu- cation. To his task he must bring all the resources of a highly trained intelligence, capable of solving new prob- lems, foiling attacks by competitors, and of originating new paths by which the corporation may make progress in a desired direction. That training and strengthening of the intellect is in no way so rapidly and surely achieved as through the discipline of a well-spent college course, a course which also lays broad foundations of solid knowledge of history, of mathematics, of political econ- ony, of modern languages — including the English Ian- ri75] HIGHEB COMMEBCIAL EBUCATION. 129 guage — and of logic, supplemented by the technical and specialized instruction of the law school course. "The corporation lawyer is to-day the right hand of the corporation management, an integral part of the body corporate. In a great corporation — and the tendency of the times is toward the formation of great corporations — there is perpetual need of a legal mind. The modern corporation transact its business largely through con- tracts, and every contract must be drafted or approved by counsel. The great corporation is engaged in inter- state, and frequently in international commerce, and the corporation lawyer must therefore have a knowledge of the law as it relates to transportation -companies. The corporation is especially fortunate if at some time it shall not become involved in labor troubles, and when these troubles come the lawyer takes an active and leading part in their adjustment. As the corporation grows, absorb- ing other companies and extending its operations, its counsel finds his talents and his attainments as a financier called into service, and as new securities are put forth it is only after his inspection and approval that the applica- tion for their listing is presented to the stock exchange, with the requirements and the procedure of which insti- tution he must be familiar. And so it is becoming the rule to find the general counsel an executive officer of the corporation, often vice-president and general counsel, or chairman of the board and general counsel." The man who essays to be a successful corporation lawyer, whose ability is limited to telling people what they cannot do is a failure; the successful corporation lawyer must not be a negative critic, but a positive and affirmative man, not only showing the way to accomplish a business purpose, but often leading the way. He added that no man was fitted to become a good corporation lawyer unless he had good business common sense and business perception coupled with a training 130 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [176] acquired either in the university or elsewhere along busi- ness lines; that he m,ust be a practical man first and a theoretical man secondarily. Finally, taking up the question as to what a university could do in preparing its young men for business life, Mr. Dill said that he had no doubt disappointed his audience, but was conscious that he had escaped a diffi- cult position when he avoided any attempt to dictate to the faculties of universities as to what they should teach. He disclaimed any attempt to instruct instructors. He would leave it to the educators to say what particular branches they would teach in order to fit the young men to meet business requirements. In closing, Mr. Dill said: "The real problem is the influence of the instructor upon the business success of the pupil in after life. Not whether the student has ab- sorbed much Greek, Latin and mathematics, but what impress the instructor has made upon the character, men- tal and moral, of the pupil. The need is not more educa- tion, but more educators in the true sense of the word, — character makers rather than lecturers on theory. The demand of the present generation is not so much polished scientists or literateurs, as more young men of rugged individuality, mental and moral strength. Not more polish on the blade, but more temper in the steel is the demand of the business world." THE FUNCTIONS OF TECHNICAL SCIENCE IN EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS AND THE PROFESSIONS. BY R. H. THURSTON, OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY. The most remackable and impressive movement of a period which has been well named the "wonderful cen- tury," is one which, from early and feeble beginnings, has been for generations slowly developing, and in rate of motion accelerating, until we to-day see it, in tremendous magnitude and power, affecting every department of human life. This movement causes progressive and cumulative changes in the methods and the product of the labors of the scholar and of the unskilled laborer, of the professional and of the mechanic, of the agriculturist and of the merchant; it changes the views and the ways of the historian, of the philosopher and psychologist, of the business man and of the educator. It is the advance of the scientific spirit and method into all the fields of human learning and exertion. Scientific method is domi- nant in all branches of human life. This great change commenced with the earliest en- deavors of thoughtful men to acquire knowledge by di- rect appeal to nature and experience. It acquired impetus as the experimental method and the spirit of research began to sensibly enrich our stores of learning and to yield rich returns in the natural sciences. It assumed its firm grasp upon men's thought and controlled their work when invention and discovery and the upbuilding of new sciences impressed upon the minds of all sorts and condi- tions of men the fact that its methods were the only 132 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIEJSrGH ASSOCIATION. [178] direct and sure ways to achievement, — ^that, wherever work is to be accomplished the facts are the first require- ments preliminary to action and the controlling law is next to be discovered, in order that it and every other agency of Nature as well as of art may be directed to the furtherance of the subject held in view. That need for exact scientific knowledge as a basis for efficient action even in the mechanical arts and busi- ness, as no invention of the mere theorist is perhaps most clearly established from the recent industrial history of Germany. In spite of many natural disadvantages and of perhaps no less serious political and social obstacles, Germany has rapidly forged to the front industrially, and in so doing has demonstrated the wisdom of her course in introducing science into the curriculum of her lower, as well as of her higher, schools, and colleges. It has increased the yield of the sugar-beet for her from five to nearly fifteen per cent, raised the output of sugar from that vegetable to nearly a hundred times its value in the year 1840, made her independent of the world in that article with an enormous exported excess. She has re- placed the indigo of the fields throughout the world by the indigo of the laboratory. She has produced an ex- port trade in coal-tar products of about $20,000,000 ; and. these are but samples of the results of a wise, a brave and a statesmanlike policy in bringing to the aid of industry the latent fruits of science. Germany is profiting by the statesmanship of her political leaders of two generations and more ago; her lead will be maintained two generations ahead of her industrial rivals indefinitely and just as long as she main- tains and profits by her long-established policy. Germany has a national and well-administered system, schools in which the learning of modern times is utilized for the benefit of every class in the community. The administra- tion is assigned, from bottom to top, to learned and wise [179] HIGHER COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 133 men who appreciate the importance of their task and understand the best methods of its prosecution. As a natural result, she leads the world in many of the indus- tries and is far ahead in all those which depend upon scientific developments for their progress. Even in ship- building that nation is in the van. The fundamental prin- ciple of her evolution of a modern and scientific industrial system may be stated in a phrase : — Germany has substi- tuted for the now obsolete apprenticeship system, system- atic, scientific, methods of preparing her youth for the future of their lives in all departments of instruction and of industry, from the brewing of beer to the making of the practitioner in a "learned profession." The functions of technical science in education for business and the professions are now obvious and may be readily discribed. Evidently their introduction should come at the point where the scholar commences his formal preparation for a business life. Yet it is gen- erally the fact that something should be done in this di- rection in advance of the actual beginning of the business- school work. There is a certain amount of scientific in- struction and something of technical, or applied, science needed by all ; whether the future is to be a life of schol- arly leisure or one of strenuous endeavor in whatever de- partment of industry. Such are, for example, physics and chemistry. These should be taught in the general course, irrespective of the plans of the scholar for the future of his life. Certain other sciences also, botany, for example, have interest for all and are essential parts of the educa- tion of the man whose vocation is to be that of the scholar, as well as of the technical training of the natural- ist. This class of subjects is, or should be, taught as elective when the curriculum becomes easy of enlarge- ment in that manner, after the pressure for necessary pri- mary instruction has been relieved. Thus, through all the earlier stages of the education of the citizen, the' cur- 134 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [180] riculum is mainly a fixed one, given form by necessity. Presently, however, the pupil becomes older and his plans for life more definite, the extent and character of the technical science to be taught him now becomes more ob^ vious and more completely known. But at this stage the desirable course is to transfer him to the school of his trade, or to that which most easily supplies its place, where expert instruction in every department may con- tribute with maximum efficiency to the proposed end. If the "business" to be pursued is commercial, it would seem that the youth should remain in the academic schools just as long as time and money and natural capacity permit and then take up the work of the business or the commer- cial school. The science taught, meantime, in the aca- demic, and in the public, schools should usually be that which may fairly be assigned to a general course, as valu- able to all citizens. Specialization implied by technical science should be deferred as long as practicable. When the vocation of the profession is finally chosen the pupil will demand preparation for the technical or the professional school and, where the demand is sufficiently large to justify it, special arrangement should be made ior meeting its requirements. This may mean the estab- lishment in the schools of electives for pupils preparing for the academic college, the law-school, or the school of engineering. It may mean some substitution of scien- tific for the usual educational courses, where the latter may safely be thus displaced. Those requirements deter- mine the nature and extent of scientific and of technical instruction to be introduced. Where the pupil is to go directly into business, and his precise line of work is not settled, or where it is evident that he is of that large class in this country, liable to pass from one vocation to another, the technical science of the curriculum should be, in general, the mathematics and the sciences of phys- ics and, particularly, of chemistry. The constant en- [181] HIGHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 135 deavor of our school boards and committees to crowd the whole pantology of an extensive liberal education into a common school system can never succeed and the at- tempt only embarrasses and renders inefficient the work actually squeezed in. If the school is large enough, as often in the cities, it may be practicable to arrange a sys- tem of electives, as is done in the colleges, wherever it appears that a sufficient number may be classed together to compensate the specialist who is employed as teacher. In smaller schools this course is usually impracticable. A "business education" being the leading object of a school, its curriculum properly involves those subjects which contribute directly to, and are essential to, its purpose. General education has no place, as such, here, and the student should clearly understand that his educa- tion, in the ordinary sense of the term, should be obtained, and as fully and liberally as practicable, elsewhere, usually previously to taking up the scientific apprenticeship. The curriculum of the school should include the essential stud- ies, the sciences, and technical information regarding materials and products, processes and apparatus, which contribute to accurate and efficient work, and to economi- cal production. The sciences taught are all, necessarily, taken as ap- plied sciences. There is no time, and no expenditure to spare, for the acquisition of abstract knowledge, when so much is to be learned which is to be directly utilized — so much more, in fact, than can be either offered by the school or acquired by the pupil. It is thus essential to complete success that the teacher be entirely familiar, as an expert, if possible, with the applied science. Thus experience shows that in the engineering colleges and schools, thoroughly satisfactory work in the sciences is usually best insured by the selection as teachers of talented and interested scientific men who have given sufificient time to the business for which it is proposed to fit the 136 MICHI9AN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [182] Student to become practically familiar with it and its applications of his science. The curriculum should be as obviously constructed by experts in the business to which the school acts as feeder. Only the expert in the business can say what branches of instruction properly constitute the technical plan of in- struction. The determination of the character and extent of the technical work in turn settles the question : What sciences and what general instruction must be supplied as a basis for the technical work? But perhaps the question implied in the caption of this paper is somewhat different from the one I have considered, — is in fact the following: What should be the amount of academic and other instruction in science involved in the construction of a curriculum for the com- mon type of so-called "business school?" This is a less definite matter and can be answered with less complete- ness. Every business, even purely commercial, involves some connection with the producing industries and the commercial man should evidently, in each case, have suffi- cient familiarity with the industry to be able to buy and sell intelligently and to discuss details involving financial interests with his correspondent. It would seem that, in the individual case, only the student himself can say precisely what kind, and approxi- mately what extent, of scientific and technical instruction is required by him. The school should be prepared to meet the demands of as large a variety of business inter- ests as may prove practicable after sufficient experience has been had to permit decision. Probably some knowl- edge of mathematics, chemistry and physics will prove useful to all. Those intending to go into lines of business connected with the iron and steel industries will demand some instruction in the chemistry of metallurgy; those expecting to deal in products of the machine-making arts will need instruction in applied mechanics and machine- [1831 HIGHEB COMMEEGIAL EDUCATION. 137 design ; those about to enter upon commercial work relat- ing to transportation will need some knowledge of the principles of conduct of shipment and construction of invoices. The whole case, so far as relates to curriculum build- ing, may be put in a few words thus : The practitioner in the vocation, professional or other, for which educa- tional apprenticeship is to be provided in the curriculum to be established, should decide what and how much tech- nical instruction is needed on entrance into that branch of industry. The final form and extent of this curriculum must necessarily be determined by experience and the prelimin- ary outline must be accepted as only provisional; but it is probable that a year or two, in any one field, will furnish the needed experimental knowledge and the school will soon settle down to fruitful work. Its curriculum, how- ever, will even then be subject to constant change, ampli- fication, and improvement in detail, as time and the for- ward progress of the profession of business permits or compels; and thus the adjustment of the school work to the requirements becomes more and more perfect. Ulti- mately, the practitioner will find that the institution is doing all that can be fairly asked of it and the novice entering into business will find himself as well outfitted as is possible in the time and at the expense permissable, and the youth proposing to take up the line of work in view will find his progress out of the common school, into the business school, and out of the latter into business, a smooth and continuous and clearly defined movement. Once in business, thus prepared, his success will depend upon his own talent, industry, tact and judgment. This development of our system of general education is the great work of our day and generation. The wis- dom and foresight of our statesmen as well as of our educators is to be tested, is to be measured by the prompt- 138 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [184] ness and effectiveness with which they adapt their own ideas, and fit the educational system to the requirements of a modern industrial organization. On these our pro- gress as a nation depends. Working hand in hand with wise leadership, our own nation may stand beside the leaders of the world and our country permanenely move onward in the van of modern progress. At the moment, what is most needed is the awakening of our legislative and executive officials to the duties and the opportunities of the times. It is the fossilized educator and the ignor- ant and unpatriotic politician, and the damagogue who aspires to lead "labor," and the scientific man with his head in the clouds who are most dangerous as obstacles to the progress of education, of our industries and of the nation, toward higher and better things. These classes being either educated and purified, or extinguished, wc may trust the American people to take full advantage of their opportunities and to hold a foremost place in the peaceful rivalry of the nations. DISCUSSION OF DR. THURSTON'S PAPER. BY PROF. HENRY S. CARHART OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. The question under discussion is the broad one relat- ing to the study of science as a preparation for commer- cial life. By commerce I understand not merely the dis- tribution of the products of the farm, the factory and the mine, but what may be comprehensively expressed by the broader term business. It comprises production, manu- facture, promotion, and construction, as well as the dis- tribution of the products of labor by transportation by land and sea. It includes the development of industries, the discovery and the utilization of natural resources, considered as the chief sources of the wealth and well- being of the nation. We have arrived at the age of the unification of great business interests belonging under the same descriptive title, or involving related and mutually dependent indus- tries. The application of this idea to production, to the wholesale supply of many necessaries of life, to trans- portation of materials and finished products with max- imum economy and profit, and the promotion of great plans of development, their inception, elaboration, and financiering, require the services of the best minds, the best training and the highest order of executive ability. The question is, then, in what way and to what extent can science contribute to the training of men, whether for leading or subordinate positions, in the complex and extensive operations of commerce, or business life of the highest order? 140 MICHmAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [186] I wish to remark, first, that the sciences which bear most directly on business life are those which have the, widest application in our national industries, and have contributed most to national prosperity and development. They are the fundamental sciences of Chemistry and Physics. Next in importance in a system of business education for higher commercial purposes are economic geology and metallurgy. It is quite unnecessary to enlarge on the importance of these subjects to our national industries. Modern engineering is largely applied physics and chemistry. The whole fabric of modern civilization rests on discoveries and inventions made possible by the intensive study of physics and chem- istry on the part of men devoted to these sciences. The business methods of the twentieth century would be altogether impossible without the telegraph, the sub- marine cable, the telephone, and the railway. The chem- ical industries are also no less essential to the conduct of affairs and to the maintenance of the present grade of civilization than those characteristically physical. It has been said that the amount of iron used by a nation is a criterion of its rank in civilization. The consumption of sulphuric acid is an equally good index of progress in the arts and of the employment of all those agencies that make for social well-being and comfort. It is indispens- , able in numerous manufacturing processes, such for example as the toaking of beet sugar. We are just now at the inception of a new age of combined physical and chemical applications in the comparatively new field of electrochemical industry. Already water powers are utilized in the manufacture of chemical products new and old on a gigantic scale. Just after Sir William Crookes, himself a distinguished chemist, had alarmed the world three years ago by calling attention to the impending exhaustion of fixed nitrogen in the soil and in available nitrates, which is absolutely indispensable to the growth [187] HIGHER COMMUBGIAL EDUCATION. 141 of food plants, there came from Niagara Falls the quiet- ing announcement that the fixation of nitrogen from the air had been accomplished electrically in a promising manner and suitable for use on a commercial scale. So long as the rains descend and the waters flow back to the sea, we may now hope that food for man will not fail, though his patient beasts of burden may become atrophied and possibly extinct from disuse. The present age is notable for what it obtains from the interior of the earth rather than from what it gathers from its surface or absorbs from the atmosphere. Just now we are feeling keenly how dependent society is on the coal product alone. If a similar condition should obtain with respect to iron, copper, zinc, or even gold and silver, the derangement of business would be scarcely less profound, though the famine would not be so quickly felt in every household. So much relative to the importance in business afifairs of the sciences which I have mentioned as essential com- ponents of a commercial education. I should like to remark, further, that students of com- merce should study these sciences themselves, and not merely something about them. The difiference is as great as betweeen successs and failure. The man who rescues the drowning is not he who stands on the bank afraid to have the starch taken out of his linen, but the strong swimmer, who plunges in and strikes out boldly for the helpless. One may be charmed by reading a description of Westminster Abbey; but to feel its power and to be awed by the solemn grandeur of the place, one must stand within its historic walls and tread the stones beneath which rest the ashes of the distinguished dead. The ideas obtained from lectures only, or even from books on sci- ence, are often as confused and ridiculous as the boy's notion of the equator, who defined it as "a menagerie lion running around the earth"; or as little like the truth as 142 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [188] that other boy's conception of an ascent of Vesuvius — "to see the creator smoke." Popular science is well enough for those who can do no more than take it as a condiment, or as dessert; but if science is to be assim- ilated and converted into intellectual fiber, or stored as surplus energy against the day of strenuous endeavor, it must be taken, for a time at least, as one of the chief articles of diet. I would have students of commerce include in their curriculum laboratory work in science, and learn the real essence of it by actual contact and by testing it for them- selves. It is one thing to know something about how a watch is made; it is quite another thing to know how to make a watch for oneself. The former skill is something like that attributed by a farmer to his son, whom he con- sidered very ingenious. His remark was, "If William had the tools and knew how, he could make a watch." It's the knowing how that must be insisted on in the serious study of science, if it is to prove of any use. We are all familiar With what science has already accomplished for the industries of commerce in a large sense. But up to the present we have not been duly im- pressed with the fact that we are just entering an age of the broadest application of science to practical affairs. It will readily be admitted that the physical sciences have already originated entirely new industries of the greatest magnitude. Dr. Thurston has alluded to Germany's ex- port trade of $20,000,000 annually in coal-tar products. This whole industry sprung from the researches of Pro- fessor Hoffmann in the University of Berlin. The beet sugar industry is a still moi'e striking example of the enormous development of a small product by means of sci- entific treatment. Germany, with wise prevision, trains and employs a larger body of scientific experts than any other country in the world. A graduate of the University of Michigan of German descent, who is now in the employ [189] HIGHER GOMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 143 of a great company on the Rhine, which manufactures dyestufifs, acids, and caustic soda, said to me recently that there are seventy-five Doctors of Philosophy in the em- ploy of this one company. In addition to these, the scien- tific staff includes many others of less conspicuous training. Germany is rapidly moving toward industrial suprem- acy in Europe. One of the most potent factors in this notable advance is the perfected alliance between science and commerce existing there. Germany has come to regard science as a commercial factor. Science there no longer seeks court and cloister, but is in open and helpful alliance with commerce and industry. In our own country the most promising work to be done consists in the more perfect adaptation of known physical laws to the production of useful results. It is precisely this field which has not been extensively culti- vated as yet in the United States. For future pre-emi- nence, the more intensive and exhaustive study of the scientific conditions for the utilization of physical laws and natural resources will be required. This study demands the best talent of our technical schools, aided and supported on the business side by the graduates of schools of commerce. The wise statesman and patriot looks at these ques- tions not alone from the point of view of immediate pecuniary returns for himself and his compatriots. He can now see some large problems for immediate consid- eration. The anthractite coal deposits of Pennsylvania will be exhausted within the present century. The failure of fuel would be a calamity only less fatal for the human race than the failure of food. Any invention or discovery or process that will not only cheapen fuel for the present generation, but will perpetuate the blessing of it for our descendants, should be hailed with glad acclaim. Great beds of lignite in the Northwest await proper treatment 144 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [190] to make it serve the highest purposes as fuel. The lignite area of North Dakota covers 31,500 square miles; that of Montana, 25,000 square miles; of Wyoming, 9,000 square miles, and of South Dakota, 4,500 square miles. Ten years ago these deposits were considered worthless; to-day "the lignite is the salvation of this region." It is the Braunkohlen of Germany, and the lignite of the Northwest has a higher fuel value than the European varieties. The percentage of fixed carbon ranges from 40 to 60, but the content of moisture is about 32 per cent. If dried in the open air, lignite crumbles, and then special appliances are required to insure good combustion. Here is a field for the German "briquette" industry. We have already imported the highly important industry of making Portland cement, and Michigan is fast becoming one of its greatest producers. We have improved and cheapened the processes of manufacture by substituting electric motor power for mechanical transmission by belts and shafting; we have introduced economy of fuel by utilizing some of the waste heat from the "rotaries" to evaporate water from the "slurry." Many of the small lakes and marshes of Michigan have become ver- itable mines of wealth because of the beds of marl under- lying them. In a similar manner the peat beds of Mich- igan and the vast lignite deposits of North Dakota and Montana offer attractive fields for the importation and improvement of the "briquette" industry. The coal ques- tion, too, is closely connected with the problem of irriga- tion, which is assuming vast proportions and afifects great continental areas. Problems of this kind on so vast a scale suggest the question whether the training of the engineer is not after all the very best one for business and the higher commer- cial interests of the nation. At all events, the student of commerce should have the same kind of scientific train- ing that the engineer gets. It may not be practicable for [191] HI9HEB COMMEBCIAL JEDUGATION. 146 him to pursue science so far, nor to take up so many of its applications; but he should be familiar with natural laws, with the great applied principles of physics and chemistry ; the important doctrines and facts of economic geology and metallurgy, and with as much as possible of their applications to the development of our national resources. TRAINING NEEDED FOR CONSULAR SERVICE. BY PROF. GEORGE M. FISK, OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. In the treatment of the subject of this paper, "The Training Needed for Consular Service," a three-fold division suggests itself : ( i ) The general duties of con- sular offices. (2) The requirements needed to meet these duties; and (3) What the government, the universities, and the business men have done, are doing, and can do to meet these requirements. The first division will be treated very briefly. The general duties of consular offices are set forth with more or less detail in every treatise on international law. The special duties of American consular officers are consid- ered in a volume of nearly nine hundred pages issued by our government, under the title "United States Consular Regulations." The President of this University, in an article a few years ago in the Century, describes the functions of our consular officers in the following lan- guage : "The duties of consuls may be described as, first, notarial — certifying to the genuineness of papers, espe- cially of invoices of goods to b€ shipped to this country ; second, judicial — settling controversies between officers and crews of our vessels in foreign parts, and trying civil and criminal 'cases in oriental lands; third, protection — caring for our destitute seamen, and sending them home ; and fourth, collecting and reporting information of value to our merchants and manufacturers. It needs no argu- ment to show that men who are to discharge such duties should have some natural aptitude for them and should [193] HIOHEB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 147 have some special preparation for them. They should have a familiarity with our business methods in manu- factures and commerce. Some knowledge of law, a com- mand of the language of the country in which they serve ■ and the faculty of making themselves agreeable and wel- come to the society in that country, are obviously desir- able. That these qualifications are best secured by having a permanent body of trained men is the conclusion to which most nations have been broug-ht by long experi- ence. That the conclusion is sound, I have no doubt." It is apparent ft-om this quotation that the duties which our consular officers are called upon to perform are exceedingly complex, and necessitate special training. In any preparation for the service, considerable latitude must be given because the duties in one part of the world are quite different from those in another. For instance, in the cities of Munich and Dresden, commercial matters, as far as the United States is concerned, play, relatively, a much smaller role than social matters, there being at both of these cities a large American colony as well as two very important courts. The fact that the American consul plays such important social functions of a diplo- matic character, and is a member of the court, makes it very plain that certain qualities, especially of a social nature, are very desirous in our consular representatives at these cities. In another place we may find the predom- inating factor commercial, and this argues for special abilities in another direction, while in certain semi-civ- ilized countries of the East, where consular officers exer- cise judicial or quasi-judicial functions, emphasis should be laid upon the legal ability of the Consul. Any laws, therefore, which we pass regulating these matters should not be so rigid that account cannot be taken of such variations. Now, what training is necessary to fit one for the complex duties of a consular officer? First of all, aside 148 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [194] from the technical requirements, let us be sure that the man we send abroad as our representative is a good American. By "good American" I do not mean one of the braggadocio order, but such a one as our citizens, travelling abroad, take pleasure in pointing to and say- ing, "He is an American." In other words, let us be sure that he is a gentleman. Personality counts for much in all of life's activities. The university president may be perfectly satisfied as regards the scholarship of a candi- date for professional honors, but if he be wise, he will never call him to a chair in his university without a per- sonal interview, to satisfy himself as to the personality of the would-be teacher. Business men representing large interests act upon this principle, if they act intelligently. The same principle should apply in the selection of con- sular officers. As bearing on this point, I can do no better than quote from a recent article in the Forum, by Honorable W. W. Rockhill, which reads as follows : "As Mr. Albert Washburn remarks, 'Tact, discretion, sound judgment and good manners cannot be scientifically measured by any scale of percentages, and I am distinctly in favor of giving to the Secretary of State, or to the Board of Consular Examiners, much more latitude in choosing consular officers than they could possibly have if a purely competitive system of examinations were adopted." In the Chicago Record-Herald for January i6, 1903, Mr. W. E. Curtis quotes from an eminent authority the following list of persons considered as undesirable con- sular material: "i. Young men who come abroad with the intention of using their consular position as a convenient foothold while they complete their education as artists, musicians, lawyers, physicians, chemists, etc., by study and attend- ance at lectures in some neighboring art school, polytech- nicum or university. [195] HIQHEB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 149 "2. Aged professional men who seek consular ap- pointments to obtain rest from their work as lawyers, clergymen and physicians, for which they are not quali- fied by education or experience. "3. Invalids, who choose a special consulate on account of its benign climate or proximity to a desirable physician, health resort or sanitarium. 4. Fathers who wish to reside abroad for the educa- tion of their children. "5. Men who have special interests in consular dis- tricts to which they ask to be assigned, in order that they may have the support and influence of a consular position while working for their own profit and interest. "6. Young men of unformed character and dissolute, idle habits, whose families seek to place thfem in public positions abroad in order to escape the responsibility and embarrassment of their presence at home. "7. Men who are so confident of having preferment by political services that they will treat their four years' residence abroad as the simple discharge of a debt by the United States government, in payment for services which they have already performed at home." After satisfying ourselves as to the personality of the candidate, let us be sure that we satisfy the government of the country to which we send the consular officer. This second requirement which I suggest may appear to some as unimportant, but my experience in the foreign service justifies me in giving it a prominent place. A consul can- not properly fulfill the duties required of him unless he be personna gratissima to the foreign government. We should make it our business to learn the attitude of the foreign government before requesting the granting of the exequatur. There are certain classes of citizens who belong to this category of the undesirable. Mr. Henry White, our efficient secretary of embassy at London, ex- pressed in the Forum for December, 1894, what the 150 MICEIQAN POLITICAL SCISNeS ASSOCIATION. [196] writer has in mind, in the following language: "The efficiency of a consul cannot be otherwise than seriously irnpaired when there exists a strong local prejudice against him. For this reason it is a great mistake, as has been pointed out by others, to send, as we often do, nat- uralized citizens as consuls to countries from which they originally emanated. It is even more objectionable, how- ever, to appoint members of the Jewish religion to con- sular posts in countries in which public opinion is strongly anti-semitic, as the latter involves social, and to a considerable extent, political ostracism. The same man sent elsewhere might prove a very useful consul, but under the above conditions it is impossible." W. D. Howfells, in the first volume of the Nation, tells us of certain prejudices possessed by the Chinese, a lack of regard for which have handicapped the efficiency of our consular officers in that part of the world. He says : "It seems that the Chinese have come to hold us in slight esteem because our consuls in their parts have been chosen from the mercantile class, or from the mission- aries there. The Chinese have a noble scorn for both traders and priests, and their scorn has not always been abated by the persons chosen for office, for they have sel- dom dropped the shop in assuming the -consular dignity; the merchants have continued in trade and the mission- aries have occasionally sought to say a few words on the atonement during their interviews with the Chinese officials." Having referred to one class of representatives desired by us, and a second class undesired by the foreign govern- ment, it is fitting in this connection to mention a third class which is undesirable to both countries, and this is the foreigner employed by the American government as a consular officer in the land of his birth. This policy has been persisted in by the American government from the first, although it has been repeatedly objected to by [197] HIGKEJR COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 151 American statesmen since the organization of our gov- ernment. Jay, in Writing to Livingstone from Paris in 1783, said: "Numberkss applications for consulships con- tinue to be made, and some will probably reach you. In my opinion Americans only should be employed to serve America." Franklin expressed himself in the same strain, but the question of economy decided the government in its employment of foreigners as consuls. This condition was modified somewhat by the law of 1856, which ex- cluded foreigners from the more important classes of American consular officers, but the principle is still applied in the case of a large number of consular agents who use their office as a shield to defraud their own com- petitors as well as the United States treasury by falsely certifying in regard to consular invoices. One remedy for this and other abuses would be the abolition of the antiquated system of certifying to invoices — a system which has long outlived its usefulness. The fourth requirement needed for the training of our consuls is linguistic in character. The consular officer ought to know how to read, write and speak two foreign languages. One of these should be French, because this language, although less important now than in former years, is still the official language of the court and is quite necessary, or at least convenient, in most parts of the world. Besides French a consul should know thor- oughly the language of the country to which he is accred- ited. It may be claimed, although I do not think the objection well founded, that to require an American cit- izen to speak Chinese, Japanese, or other Eastern lan- guages is unreasonable. England does this through her schools at home and in the East; Germany, by means of the "Oriental Seminary" at the Berlin University, and other countries have followed suit. We have made a beginning at Pekin, but more efficient preparation in this direction is not only desirable but necessary, if we are 15^ MICHI9AN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASaOCIATION. [198] to play our full role in the Pacific. John Russell Young, our former minister at Pekin, writes eloquently on this point in the Century for June, 1894, as follows : "No one can study our El Dorado empire on the Paci- fic, with its impending, imminent future, and what may be achieved with wisdom and courage, without feeling that our influence should be paramount at all points be- tween San Francisco and Singapore. The definite step toward this will be found in a consular and diplomatic service carefully educated for the work, its members familiar with the language, customs, superstitions, tra- ditions and history of extraordinary races of men. This service should be a permanent one, for the reason that the qualities and attainments requisite in oriental coun- tries would impair usefulness at other posts I am persuaded that civil service reform would have made America paramount in the East. I am afraid we have lost the opportunity, and that in the course of greedy lust for patronage we have, like the bare Indian, thrown a pearl away richer than all his tribe." Another very important requirement needed for the consular service, is international law, especially that phase of it which has to do with the duties of consular and diplomatic officers. More especially, the consul should be familiar with the treaties regulating the con- sular duties and privileges in the country where he re- sides. If the consular post be in one of those semi-civi- lized countries where American consular officers exercise very important judicial functions, a thorough knowledge of American law is absolutely essential. Still another line of subjects necessary for a consul is that of modern commerce and industry. This includes such subjects as the geography, history, and statistics of the commerce of the United States ; the commercial rela- tions between the United States and the country to which he is accredited. The possibilities of extending American [199] HIGHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 153 markets, and the subjects of transportation, banking, finance, etc., a knowledge of applied science, such as in- dustrial chemistry and economic botany, is especially desirable. When one examines the almost peurile re- quirements for admission into our consular service embodied during the past twelve to fifteen years in bills presented in Congress for the reform of the consular service, the requirements here mentioned may appear very unreasonable. I shall indicate in the final part of this paper how these requirements may be met, but may say in this connection that they are no more exacting than are the educational qualifications required of every intel- ligent lawyer, school teacher, journalist, and, I might almost say, business man, in this country. Finally, how are all these demands to be met ? The answer to this will be found in the consideration of the third and final part of this paper, viz., "What the government, the universi- ties, and the business men have done, are doing, and can do to meet these requirements." First, as regards the educational side of the question, it has been proposed by some that the government organ- ize a special school at Washington for the preparation of consular and diplomatic officers. In fact, a bill embody- ing this idea was not long since introduced in Congress. The aim of such a school would be to do for the foreign service of the United States what West Point and An- napolis have done for the army and navy of our country. Such a scheme, though ideally very luring, has never been seriously considered by our best educators and statesmen, and is not likely to be realized, for many reasons, among ihem being, that the ground has been pre-empted by American universities. A study of the courses in our modern universities will reveal a very marked tendency in the direction of commercialism, using that term in its very best sense. The universities have in the past, and must in the future, be the best reflectors of the tendency 154 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [200] of their times. Along with the enormous industrial development in this country there has been an increasing emphasis in our higher schools on economic studies, espe- cially those running along the lines of commerce, indus- try, transportation, banking, etc. Science also has become more empirical and expresses itself in this line of work under such heads as economic geology, .economic bot- any, industrial chemistry. Even languages and law show effects of a similar influence. The mass of inform- ation along these lines has so increased that special departments in universities have been organized under such captions as "Schools of Commerce," "Colleges of Commerce and Politics," "Training for Business," etc. It is in this department of the university where the future consul can and, I am optimistic enough to believe, will receive his inspiration. Almost any requirement which the government would make, whether linguistic, histor- ical, economic, or legal, could be met by our leading uni- versities, and would be met, provided the government would, by legislation, give proper incentive to young men to engage in the foreign service. I am even optimistic enough to believe that with proper governmental assur- ances of a career for young men, the latter, aided in some cases by university scholarships, would give their services gratis for a limited time in the state department itself, or in distant consulates. How can the business man help? A. A. Washburn, in the Atlantic Monthly for 1894, says: "One of the few hopeful signs visible in connection with the foreign ser- vice is that it is of late attracting the attention of solid, patriotic business men." We certainly are indebted to the business man for the present agitation in favor of consular reform, and when we get proper legislation on this point, it will be largely because of his efforts. He will also attend to it that such a law, when passed, is not made a dead letter. [201] HIGHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 155 In this connection, the relationship between the uni- versity and the"business man is interesting. Not only is the university approaching the business man, but the busi- ness man is also approaching the university. The busi- ness man's faith in the university is exemplified in the millions which he gives toward higher learning and in his sending his son to be instructed by its teachers, while the dependance of the university in its aim toward higher commercial education is shown, among other ways, by the increasing large number of lecturers which it draws from the business world and the laboratory use it is making of industrial establishments. All kinds of indus- trial and commercial undertakings are coming more and more under the leadership of the student of applied econ- omics. The danger that the consular officer educated in the university would be too academic for the practical work of the consulate could be obviated, not only by some such plan of probation as suggested above, but also by temporary apprenticeship in industrial establishments. It may be objected that such apprenticeship could not 43e undertaken by the federal government. That is not neces- sary. All the federal government needs to do is to impose the requirements. The university and the business mar will do the rest. It is, however, a cause for regret thai the government and business organizations are not in closer touch. In some of the countries of Europe, for example, an apprenticeship in chambers of commerce, and other trade boards, are required, as well as recommenda- tions from these organizations, before a man receives a position in the consular service. Now as to the federal government. What has it done in the past for the consular service, and what may we expect from it in the near future? The present con- sular system is based upon the law of 1856. Up to that time the consular offices of the United States were largely in the hands of foreigners, and no salaries were attached 156 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [202] to the positions. Time does not permit of a detailed description of this law. Let it suffice to *say that it was inadequate and frequent attempts to reorganize the serv- ice have proved fruitless. The principal evils of our pres- ent system are briefly summarized as follows by Mr. Rockhill : "i. Imperfect mode of selection of consular officers. "2. No permanency of tenure. "3. Inadequate compensation; resulting in (a) the exaction of excessive fees and (b) the creation of con- sular agencies to increase salary. "4. Excessive number of consulates and commercial agencies. "5. Imperfect enforcement of regulations, especially as regards amounts of fees and their collection." Congress, since the year 1856, has passed but one law looking in the direction of better service, but this law, although well intentioned, has in no way improved the situation. Mr. Kasson, the author of the measure, ex- plained its scope in the following words, in the Century of June, 1894 : "In 1864, Mr. Seward being Secretary of State, the administration desired authority for the ap- pointment of thirteen consular clerks, at a small com- pensation, to be assigned and transferable to different consulates at the discretion of the President. As a mem- ber of Congress from Iowa in his first term, and not yet corrupted by the spoils system then prevailing, I had some innocent and child-like conception of what was due to good government, and of the fitness of things. After some struggle, I secured the adoption of the following regulation as a part of the proposed legislation : 'Before the appointment of any such consular clerk shall be made, it shall be satisfactorily shown to the Secretary of State, after due examination and report by an examination board, that the applicant is qualified and fit for the duties to which he shall be assigned; such report shall be laid [203] HIQBEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 157 before the President, and no clerk so appointed shall be removed from ofifice except for cause stated in writing, which shall be submitted to Congress at the first session following such removal.' (Rev. Stat. U. S., Sec. 1705.) So far as I know, this was the first legislative attempt to abolish any part of the spoils system by act of Congress, and was the informal and unpretentious beginning of civil service reform through congressional action." Its results are explained by Mr. Rockhill in the following words : "And so we now have men who have been con- sular clerks at a salary of $1,200 for twenty years and more, who refuse promotion, who object to frequent transfers to other posts — on the very reasonable plea of expense, — in whom all ambition to rise is extinct, and who seek only to be undisturbed, — a condition of things certainly never dreamed of by the creators of the corps." Nor is Mr. Rockhill very optimistic as to future con- gressional action. The following are his words : "In the light of past experience we have little ground for hoping that the legislative branch of the government will soon take more interest in this subject than it has in the past." Several writers, despairing of legislation in the direc- tion of consular reform, place their hopes and expecta- tions upon the executive power of the government. The matter is well stated by Mr. Washburn in these words : "The constitution provides that the President shall nom- inate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Sen- ate shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls. Here, then, the President is vested with a con- stitutional right which no congressional action can change. Reform, at this point, if it comes at all, can come only from within the Department itself. In other words, the initiative must be left to him to prescribe the conditions under which appointment shall take place ; and no matter how excellent those conditions, his successor could of course amend them, or abolish them altogether 158 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [204] if he saw fit. It may be safely asserted, nevertheless, that if regulations governing the appointment, promotion and removal of officers in the consular service were once put in force, whether at the instance of the President himself, or at the suggestion of the law-making branch, they would be permanently retained in some form. The tide of public sentiment would set too strongly to be resisted." It was by virtue of this constitutional power that President Cleveland, on September 20, 1895, issued the executive order, at the suggestion of Secretary Olney, requiring an examination for consular officers whose sal- aries ranged from $1,000 to $2,500 per annum. This law, although lauded as a great reform, has had very little effect in remedying ■ the evils. No examination is required until after the appointment is virtually settled upon. The Secretary of the Civil Service Reform League, commenting on this measure in a recent number of the Century, said that, "From March 3, 1897, to the cor- responding date in 1898, 120 candidates for appointment were examined at the State Department, and though sev- eral were given lower posts than those they sought, there was only one who failed. It will be seen that, as a meas- ure of reform, the plan in question cannot be taken seriously." Briefly stated, the present status of the question in Congress is as follows : It is reported in the papers that the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs propose to force the consular reform project through the Senate as an amendment to the bill making appropriations for the consular and diplomatic service.^ It is reported also that the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, by a vote of seven to six, has decided to report favorably the bill introduced by Representative Adams providing for the reorganization of the consular service. The main fea- 'Since writing the above the amendment has been thrown out by the Senate. [205] HIGHER COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 159 tures of these bills are definite salaries, the turning of all fees into the United States treasury, appointment based upon examination, vacancies to be filled by promotion, and for merit and general efficiency, and no consul to be removed without good cause. We have at the present time a President who is very pronounced in favor of civil service, and we have at the same time a political party in control of both houses of Congress which is pledged in its platform to the desired reform. And yet, even under such- circumstances, prophecy is unsafe. The trend of the President's mind on this question is shown from the following extract from a speech of his made in Washington some years ago at a meeting of the National Board of Trade : "I would divide the consuls, as far as may be, into grades, according to their salaries and the importance of the duties they have to perform. Then it should be pro- vided that no man could be appointed to any higher grade save by promotion from the one immediately below it, and that before promotion he must serve a minimum period of say a year in that grade. Then, before receiving his appointment, he should be required to undergo a rigid examination — non-competitive — at the State Department, upon his- knowledge of foreign languages, and to test his fitness not merely for the low post he is seeking, but his fitness to enter a service where he may by diligence rise to the very highest positions." In conclusion, it may be rightly claimed that this paper leaves unsaid many things which should naturally be considered in any comprehensive discussion of our foreign commercial service. Nothing has been said of the practical every-day work, of the consul. An interest- ing chapter might be written upon the actual methods of appointment and recall, the value of consular reports and other services of the consul, especially to what extent he is a trade promoter, etc. It has been my observation that 160 MICHIGAN POLIIIGAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [206] the most unfavorable criticism of the German consular service comes from German writers, that English writers are the most unfavorable critics of their own service, and that Americans are apt to exaggerate the evils of our own system. We are apt to emphasize the excellent features of the consular service of our competitors, and the latter are prone to praise the redeeming features of the Amer- ican system. Some of our writers characterize our sys- tem as wholly bad, a few, — who are wedded to the spoils system, — as wholly good, while the much larger and more conservative element recognizes certain excellences in results but condemn the system. Their surprise is that the results are as favorable as they are. The good results may be said to be largely due to, ( i ) the general adapt- ability prevalent in the American character, (2) to the pressure for better work, which has been caused by com- mercial and political expansion and the greater demands made on our consular officers, and (3) the efficient work of the State Department, especially the Bureau of For- eign Commerce. The chief of this Bureau, Mr. Emory, in a paper recently read before the American Associa- tion for the Advancement of Science, after pointing out certain defects in the consular service of foreign countries and certain excellences in our own system, concludes his paper with the following words: "It has seemed to me but fair that those distinctive merits of our consular service, which sprung almost wholly from our national alertness and adaptability as a people, should be given prominence as a set-off to much of the sweeping criticism which has failed to take cogni- zance of the very marked changes in the requirements for consular perfectibility. On the other hand, they Portugal, Morocco, and South or Central America ; and should not be made the excuse for discouraging efforts to raise the general standard by measures which would secure better methods of appointment and promotion. [207] HIOEER COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 161 security of tenure during good behavior, and greater elas- ticity of control by the State Department. It is far from being my purpose to claim that the service is all it might be made. My only object has been to show that it has evolved, of itself and with but little aid from legislation, a practical usefulness as a world-wide trade agency, which has caused general remark and emulation among our great industrial rivals, and that, in seeking to improve it, we should take care to preserve the special capacities it has developed. Not to do this might be to revert to the social or intellectual exclusiveness which Europeans have found to be no longer so useful or even justified, to any great extent, by the new conditions. The logic of their experience, in other words, would seem to prove that, in any scheme of consular reorganization, the greatest weight should be given, not to academic or social qual- ifications — desirable as those may be — but to special capacity in promoting trade." While agreeing with Mr. Emory that in reorganiz- ing or improving our service we should avoid require- ments which are too academic or too social, it seems to me that the danger from this source is more apparent than real, owing to our national commercial character- istics and for other reasons already indicated in this paper. Until within recent years the practical lawyer, physician, engineer or farmer looked with suspicion upon the schools of law, medicine, technology, and agriculture, but those suspicions are relegated to the past. As above stated, the relationship between the university and the business man is becoming closer. If we cannot say that the prejudice against the college graduate entertained by the business man is past, we may at least affirm that it is "passing." Business ability of a high order is necessary for a good consular officer, but it may well be questioned whether the business man who can afford to leave his business for a four years' stay abroad possesses the high- 162 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [208] est business ability. The point I wish to emphasize is that, aided by the proper legislation, we ought to evolve a system which would not only develop high business ability but also retain it, when developed, for the benefit of the public welfare. The American government is a self -perpetuating corporation — the greatest one in the world, — and business ability ought to be attracted toward it and enlisted in its service in about the same manner as in the case of the United States Steel Corporation or of any other great industrial establishment. ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS IN THE EDUCATION OF A U. S. CONSULAR OFFICER. BY PROFESSOR JAMES C. MONAGHAN, OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. Any educational system that aims at anything like a preparation for a line in life ought to be based on a broad, deep knowledge of the needs of that line. Our present educational system is a growth. It has its roots in the past. It has been cut, pruned, and repotted so many times that some think it is as nearly perfect,^ or it ought to be, as it was possible to make it — It is still growing- It is far from perfect. In the line of consular educa- tion we are only beginning. True, others have a con- sular educational system, but it is not for us to imitate, but to emulate. There are so many analogies in the lives of consuls and great commercial agents that it will pay to try on the former the system that has proved some- what successful in the training of the latter — in business education of a certain, limited kind, we are behind no- body. I believe the best educated people in Europe, the Germans, have put us at the head of all countries in business education, in bookkeeping, banking, etc. It is in the lines of higher education that our system is leaky, lacking, or weak, and this is the line along which consular officers and all kinds of commercial agents ought to travel. It may not be out of place or profitless to pause in the very beginning long enough to look at the educational requirements of another nation, one in which we are very much interested — England. Persons selected for the con- sular service in England must be examined, whenever 164 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [210] circumstances permit — they must satisfy the Civil Ser- vice Commissioners, first, that they have a correct knowl- edge of the English language so as to be able to express themselves clearly and correctly in writing. Second, that they can write and speak French cor- rectly and fluently. Third, that they have a sufficient knowledge of the current language as far as commerce is concerned, of the port at which they are appointed to reside, to enable them . to communicate directly with the authorities and natives of the place ; a knowledge of the German language being taken to meet this requirement for ports in north- ern Europe; the Spanish or Portugese language, as may be determined by the secretary of state, for ports in Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and South or Central America, and of the Italian language for ports in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and on the Black Sea or Mediterranean, except those in Morocco and Spain. Fourth, a sufficient knowledge of the British mercan- tile and commercial law, to enable them to deal with questions arising between British ship-owners, ship- masters, and seamen. As regards this head of examina- tion, candidates must be prepared to be examined in "Smith's Compendium of Mercantile Law." If I were asked to name the best book I have seen or know for the American consular service, I would name Wilson's Inter- national Law. — It is a book which, if carefully read and studied, would be of inestimable service. Fifth, a sufficient knowledge of arithmetic for the nature 5f the duties which consuls are required to per- form in drawing up commercial tables and reports. As regards this head of examination, candidates must be prepared to be examined in "Bishop Colensos Arith- metic." Moreover, all persons on their first examination to consulships, and after having passed their examina- tions before the Civil Service Commissioners, will be required as far as practicable, to attend for at least three [211] HIQHEB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION . 165 months in the foreign office, in order that they may be- come acquainted with the forms of business as carried on there. Before we undertake to answer the question — What is the best kind of education for a person who intends to pursue a career in the consular service of the United States, we ought to find out first of all, what such a per- son is likely to be called to perform — in other words, what duties, requiring the work of an educated person, is a United States consular officer called on to perform? Once we have fairly settled this question the rest is easy. In the first place we ought to fix in our minds one or two very important facts, certainly one very important one, namely, that consular officers are commercial agents ; that their duties are, as a rule, never diplomatic, but for the most part commercial ; they are so much commercial agents that I have always regarded the high-sounding title "consul" a misnomer. To the ignorant and unin- itiated it always conveys an idea of something bigger than anything that belongs to it. I confess to considerable carelessness in regard to the title in my own case when I was a United Staes consul, but I remember with what anxiety any and every effort to put us back in the ranks of commercial agents was regarded by some of my col- leagues. I recall a case in which the consular officer had been for a long time what is known in the service as a "commercial agent." He was unhappy, very unhappy. Lucikly for him he had a big "pull." His people were connected with the Blaines and Shermans — Sherman was secretary of state. Our commercial agent went to Wash- ington, talked the matter over with his uncles and his aunts and returned to Germany a full-fledged United States consul, but with a loss of $500.00 per annum. Just to throw off the "commercial agent" and assume "con- sul" a college graduate, a highly intellectual poor young man, was willing to pay $500.00 a year. A United States 166 MICHI&AN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [212] consul is then a commercial agents nothing more and nothing less. I say nothing more and nothing less. Under what we call comity, and in certain far-off parts of the world, he exercises, at times, the functions of a diplimatic officer — of these it is hardly necessary to speak For even they, for our purposes, are after all, to be treated and trained, if we get a chance to train them, as commercial agents. If, then, as I claim and I think, had I the time to tell you all about the service, you would agree, the service is one in which the agents acting,, what- ever their official title, are commercial men you will agree with me that their education to be at all adequate to a useful and successful service, ought to be along lines that lead up to a just and quick interpretation of industrial and commercial life. As we all, I hope and take it, look forward to a time when our people are to put off, slowly perhaps, but surely finally, the robes of protection, we must urge the adop- tion of a system of technical experts for the consular service. Although not absolutely needed now, such a body would be of inestimable value ; and would have been worth millions to us in the past. A simple illustration will serve to give us a good idea of what was once possible to consular officers, and inci- dentally, will show us something of their work and ways of working. Some years ago this country was system- atically robbed of its revenues by a band of expert under- valuers who defied for a long time all our efforts to detect them. Luckily in the country where this systematic and successful deception was carried on we had some consular officers who had considerable expert knowledge. Taking two or three of the great consular districts in a bunch they began a systematic and careful investigation. The trouble we had with the prices on textiles, particularly all wool Henriettas. These consuls got their colleagues to get them samples of the yarns with which these classes [213] HIGHEB COMMJEBGIAL EDVGATION. 167 of goods were woven. These they put out in six or seveil parts of the empire to big spinners. They put them out through big, honest, German and American houses, and asked for prices on five, ten, fifteen and up to 100,000 pounds. These came in later and were arranged in paral- lel columns. They then sent out samples of the cloth to weavers and worked for prices for weaving five, ten, fifteen, and up to 100,000 yards. These came in and went down in the deadly parallels. In the same way they got prices for finishing and put these down. In a short time, a few weeks, they had the cost price, at that time, for producing German all wool Henriettas. And so perfect was the system, so safe the method, so exact the results the biggest textile manufacturer in Ger- many stood upon the floor of the Reichstag and told his colleagues that no man or firm in the empire had ever been able to get at so honest an estimate on that grade of goods as had been obtained or made by the United States consuls. I may say, in passing, that those estimates were sent to the United States, were made the basis of treasury decisions and were instrumental in breaking up a most infamous and far-reaching conspiracy to rob the United States treasury. Just a little, very little after all, expert knowledge picked up in the factories of New England had enabled our consuls to win out in a contest of skill with the ablest of the empire's technical experts. A con- sul can, and a good consul will put himself soon in the way of picking up a lot of expert information connected with the exports of his consular district just as soon as it is possible for him to do so. While admitting the inestimable value of expert knowledge, of the kind called for in the different consular districts, because of our ad valorem duties, I cannot fail to see how hard it would be, at least under our present limitations in technical education, to obtain anything like 168 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [214] an adequate or serviceable amount unless acquired in the way suggested above. The schools, colleges, universities cannot hope to furnish it. If it were possible I would favor it. Other nations recognizing this need send out expert agents and attach them to their embassies, lega- tions and consulates. The technical expert is rapidly taking his place by the side of the naval and military attache. I'm not sure that he isn't growing more important. At the present rate of progress, in the ways of peace, he seems destined to replace them. But the work wanted here to-day is as to the preliminary education, needed by those who intend to become consular officers. It is anything but easy to say something that some one hasn't said somewhere at some time on this or some similar subject. The condi- tions that obtain in our country are such as to suggest the need of an education that will fit those conditions. In as much as Europe is praising, our methods and talking of reforming her consular services for the pur- pose of introducing American methods, it might be folly for us to discard our own for the purpose of adopting any foreign system. The fact is we have much that would be beneficial to them and they have things that it would be very much to our advantage to adopt. We lead the world in writing reports; they beat us in language learning. In report writing our consuls lead all others. As Dr. Vosberg Rekow said in a monograph on the question of consular reform, written for the German Empire, "No government on earth is so well served in this respect, ex- cellent reporting, as is the United States." This brings us to a point I wish to particularly emphasize. I regard this as the best line of work for consular success — the writing of reports. This is a line of work in which by means of natural ability or aptitude we al- ready excell. An effort ought to be made to keep up the [215] HIGHEB COMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 169 character of these reports, and incidentally, to keep the lead in this line. To enable a consular officer to secure the highest kind of success in report writing he ought to be trained very early to gather statistics, to examine, study, compare, digest and assimilate them, for later, after all, this is to be his best work. The university, of course, can do much towards mak- ing him a good gatherer of facts. It can, and ought to teach him how to prepare just such reports as will be useful to the merchants, manufacturers and scholars of his own country. It should be the aim of those dealing with his education to see that he gets a certain amount of technical training in report writing. This, however, does not, should not, and need not differ from the work done by young men who have absolutely no intention of entering the consular service. It is in no way inconsis- tent with the excellent work done by young men in eco- nomic courses. As is said of poets, painters, musicians, etc., so it might be said of consuls, the best in any service are born with aptitude for it. You cannot make an artist or a journalist by what are called educational processes; but you can aid them all. A consular officer's preliminary education, if it is to fit him to fill. his position with anything like success, ought to cover the common, so-called Civil or Roman Law. International Law, History, Economics, Sociology, Internal Revenue Law, for its broadening influence and because he may have to know much about it to justly decide cases, settle problems, etc. To understand how necessary these all are to a con- sul's education one has only to go over the list of subjects with which the consular officers of the Western nations have to deal. The consular officers of pagan or non- Christian powers have even harder tasks. They, in many. 170 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [216] if not in most cases, exercise both civil and criminal juris- diction over their countrymen in foreign ports. How difificult this work is only a man who has had to deal with the hundreds of questions knows. Only a law- yer, among the world's professional men, approaches a consul in the wide range of education necessary to an ade- quate or successful filling of an important post. Between the two classes, however, there is a very wide difference. The one is able to specialize, to concentrate his efforts and energies along one or two certain lines. The lawyer may do this, the consul cannot. He is not free to choose; a judge perhaps has as wide a range to cover as a consul. The cases that come up in a consular district may range all the way from the pronounciation of either and neither the registration of a baby's birth to the drawing of a millionaire's will, or the drawing up of a contract to consolidate the concerns of two or more continents. Let us glance again along the line or lines of his labors, for they diverge into a great many different direc- tions. He picks up the morning, evening, or weekly papers; or it may be a magazine; and reads in it, or he sees placarded all over town the statement that the com- mission of experts sent out by the X. Y. Z. Export Union is to report and exhibit samples in the halls of the high school, January i, etc., etc. He is, or he ought to be inter- ested. He immediately begins an investigation. His first question is, or ought to be, What is the Y. Z. Union ? Second, Who are the members of the Y. Z. Union? and what do they do? Closer investigation reveals the fact that the Y. Z. Union is a branch only of a big system that begins away back with A and B of the alphabet to name its branches and exhausts the letters many times over- so numerous are they. It is made up of business men of all kinds ; merchants, manufacturers, expert tech- nicians, artisans, members of the nobility, teachers, etc., etc. It meets regularly once a week, once a month, or [217] HIQHEB GOMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 171 oftener. It aims to aid industrial, commercial, artistic, and even aesthetic development, and it does aid them very materially. It sends out expert commissions made up of its own members, agents or employees to study the meth- ods of manufacturing, marketing, etc., etc., in foreign ports. Provided with almost unlimited funds its envoys acquire all kinds of samples of articles of manufacture sold in the foreign fields under investigation. These they pack up and send home duly labeled, or they bring them home in their own big boxes when they return. They investigate the financial standing, the money unit, the possibilities and periods of payment that prevail among the people investigated; they inquire into the habits or tastes of the different people, etc., etc. ; they note every- thing and report it either in advance' by mail, or upon their return, both by means of written and oral reports to the parties by whom they were sent, or to those par- ticularly interested. Here, to a good consul, one with tact, is a perfect mine of wealth. If he understands his business, in other words, if he is properly or adequately educated he will get permission to see the samples, he will note as much of their character or make-up as is possible ; he will apply for admission to the meetings to which the experts report, and if admitted he will be sure to be there. Nor is that all or nearly enough. He ought to take a stenographer along, if possible, or if he is led to look upon the matter as important enough, and pay him to take down every word. This afterwards digested at his leis- ure ought to find its way, in the shape of a carefully pre- pared report, to the desk or desks of the statistical bureau of the Department of State. Another day he has to deal with the Central Union for gathering material for and preparing trade treaties — "Trade treaties?" He says to himself "Why that is one of the most important problems now up before the people of my country. I must inves- tigate." He investigates and finds a systematic arrange- 172 MICHI&AN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [218] ment of "Central Unions" in all the big cities of the empire, kingdom, or republic in which his consulate hap- pens to be situated. He finds each filled with a most energetic and eftthusiastic body of young men who work day in and day out, night after night, for weeks, months and even years on all kinds of economic, industrial and commercial problems with a view to securing exact and useful knowledge to be placed before parliament or the committees or commissions that have been appointed to prepare trade treaties for the empire, kingdom or repub- lic. An adequately educated consul will evolve methods for connecting himself with such an institution in such a way as to secure just that kind of information as enabled Mr. Wheaton in the early days of our diplomatic history, and Mr. John Kasson, only quite recently, to cope with the greatest statesmen in Europe on the questions con- nected with trade treaties of reciprocity. How very necessary such expert evidence, information, etc., etc., is at the present time is too well known for me to waste a moment talking about it. On another occasion our wide-awake consul reads a call to the citizens of his con- sular district to attend a public meeting to be held at the assembly of the Board of Trade or Commercial Club for the purpose of deciding methods and securing funds for an X. Y. or Z. bank to be established in foreign ports, in South, Central or North America, in South Central, Northeast or West Africa, in the East or in Australia, in some island of the sea. Or it may be the gathering is to establish a foreign Board of Trade, Commercial Club, or Chamber of Commerce. He goes up; he listens. In- cidentally he hears or learns in conversation that the peo- ple among whom he lives have banks in all parts of the world. They have foreign boards of trade, chambers of commerce, they have branches of the great Credit Union, an organization that is doing the same kind of work as Dun or Bradstreet, and is doing it for a merely nominal [219] HIGHER COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 173 Stipend. If adequately educated, if familiar with banking terms, if trained in the various economic problems con- nected with finance, the consul can be, and many have been of inestimable value to his country. Again he reads that a great movement is on foot to modify a kingdom's, empire's or republic's laws. If prop- erly trained, if adequately educated, he catches on to the very great importance of such a movement. He is al- ready more or less familiar with both branches of inter- national law, public and private, so-called. If thoroughly interested in his work he has read, or some one has urged him to read, Austin, Bentham, and above all, "Judge Storey's wonderful work on the Conflict of Laws." He will watch the work as it progresses and report on its more important results. Every change that in any way affects the industrial, commercial or other interests of his own country the adequately educated consul will carefully report. In his daily life, by degrees perhaps, he will dis- cover great differences in the educational system of the land in which he lives from those that prevailed or prevail in his own country. If familiar at all with industrial forces and factors, if at all acquainted with manufactur- ing methods he will note that there are industrial and in- dustrial art schools, that these are thought to be great aids to the manufacturing interests of the empire or republic in which his consulate is situated. An ade- quately educated consul will start out to investigate the entire system. He will go into the industrial, the indus- trial art, the technical and all other schools connected in any way with the commercial, financial, or industrial in- terests of the people among whom he lives. Need I add any more? He reads of canal cutting. He investigates, finds out the purpose, the methods, and probable cost of construction, the probable results and its importance, first to his own land, then to others. Tariffs are contemplated or are being discussed. Need I say that the adequately 174 MIOam AN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [220] educated consul will watch the committees or commis- sioners at work ? That he will note the ways and means employed to obtain the very best possible information connected with such a subject? Would not a wise and adequately educated consul on an occasion of that kind be worth his weight in gold to his own people? He will note in passing, the wisdom of the people who when trade treaties, new tariffs, canal cutting, etc., are up before committees, send to foreign parts, particu- larly to the parts famous for enterprise, energy and suc- cessful methods, for their own consuls, giving them invi- tations home, leave of absence, on pay and appointment, not infrequently under extra wages, as expert counsel to the tariff, treaty or canal commissions. I might go on for an hour or two hours telling you all about lines of life and work along which the adequately educated consular officer can be of inestimable value to his own country, and incidentally, to the whole commercial and industrial world. Need I point out? Is it possible that one needs to point out the essential elements needed to produce the education adequate to a proper conception of and carry- ing out of a consul's work, when the work is along the various lines indicated? At the risk of being redundant I will repeat what in a scattered, popular, rather than academic form I have already intimated, a consular officer's education ought to fit him to find out first all the facts he can get relative to the agriculture, commerce, manufactures, mining, fishing, finance, education, and even aesthetic and social move- ments among the people of his consular district, and inci- dentally, among the people of the land to which he is accredited. Nothing human ought to be alien to his eye, ear or investigation, hence his education ought to fit him to investigate, assimilate and report what he sees, hears and finds of value along all or any of the lines indicated. On one occasion, to cite one example from many, parties 1221] BIQHEB GOMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 175 in the United States interested in Russia and looking for a chance to participate in the building- of the great Trans- Siberian railroad, wrote through the Department of State to United States consuls and got the most complete single report on Russia ever published. On another occasion some parties in the Northwest wanted to know about the world's way of working up its woods into paper pulp. The United States consuls investigated the matter and reported. A big book of five or six hundred pages, packed with valuable information, was the result. The same is true of the world's forests, of technical education and of many useful and interesting lines of industrial, economic or educational life. If you will pardon a rather homely simile, the con- sular officers work like that of the hard-working house- keqjer, is never done. His education ought to be of the very broadest possible kind. I think I have said enough to prove this. Such a course as that outlined by the School of Commerce of the University of Wisconsin gets as near giving, or is calculated to give as good an educa- tion to cover the work I have partially outlined as any with which I am familiar. It doesn't, and perhaps it shouldn't aim to make a boy a good consular officer. It should aim to make him a well-equipped candidate for any kind of a consular position or, I might add, diplo- matic position, for the training for the one field is not so very unlike that which is necessary or good in the other. Besides a consul's education, to be adequate, ought to aim to make him fit for diplomatic work should occasion or an opportunity ever offer for work in the higher, though in my opinion less fascinating field. While I am unable to endorse Admiral Sampson's dic- tum or dicta in regard to officers in the navy, I am able to understand him. Much that makes for the discipline and good form desired by the Admiral is also needed in a consul's education. What the French call savoir faire, 176 MICSIOAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [222] applicable to so many relations in life, nearly, if not quite synonymous with the broadest interpretation of our word tact, is an essential element, or ought to be in a consul's education. Society is a great fact. It is a great funda- mental, forceful fact. It is a living thing in European life. While its laws may not be as inexorable as the law of the Persians and Medes, they are very strict. A con- sul is called upon to appear in society. It isn't, of course, obligatory. It is part, however, of foreign life. It is repidly effecting recognition in this Republic. French society under its kings was never so seductive, certainly never more brilliant under the last, or perhaps any of the Louis, except perhaps the XlVth, than it has been under Perier, McMahon or Loubet. Any one and everyone who has had consular or diplomatic experience will tell you how necessary good form and good tone are to anything like complete success. DISCUSSION. The closing session of the Convention, held on Satur- day morning, February 7, was devoted to a discussion of technical questions relative to the organization of Higher Commercial Education in Universities and Colleges. HENRY R. HATFIELD. The discussion was opened by Dr. Henry R. Hatfield, Dean of the College of Commerce and Administration, University of Chicago : Mr. President: On an occasion like this it is custom- ary, I suppose, at the close of a convention, to pay compli- mentary tributes to those who have entertained us, but I have no sympathy with any such custom. We have been brought here under false pretenses, Mr. President— shamefully abused and mistreated. We were told that we were to have an opportunity to criticize and discuss the papers as they were presented, and upon the very first occasion we were choked off by the President and by Professor Adams. Each one of the speakers has in turn stepped upon each one of our ten toes. There has been going around a murmur like an earthquake, which I interpret as being the expression of the seething discon- tent at what has been said, perhaps — at the toes which have been trodden upon. And now has come the oppor- tunity for giving vent to this. The question which has come to me in the last few days is. What is this we have been talking about ? What is this wonderful higher education? One gentleman 178 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [224] informs us that it is something which is given in the high school, that it will perhaps enable one, provided he is fortunate enough to have a professor who has a pull, to get a job in the Geodetic Survey. Another one thinks it should be given only in a graduate school, and perhaps, if successfully administered, will turn out future young Napoleons of Finance in Wall Street. Another that it is an indefinite thing which succeeds in firing people at the wrong target, leaving them to be fired by dissatisfied clients. The technical people tell us that it is technical education, which will fit people to perform the work" of the world. Others — practical men — have told us that it is a consumption of the history and literature and art of classical times which is to give to us a broader and more sympathetic view of the world. And still another tells us that it is practically a training in the arts and graces of diplomacy. If this is higher commercial education I almost share the feeling of the man on the electric car at Wellesley who one day had as passenger a Wellesley girl whose father was interested in electrical companies. She had taken a practical course in physics and used to ride in the front seat with the motorman. As she got off she turned to the motorman and said to him, "The rules of the com- pany are that you shall use i6 units — you have used 17)^. I shall report you to the company." I looked, of course, aghast as this dainty, winsome Wellesley creature stepped off, and the motorman turned round and muttered, "Damn this higher education of women." We are a body of educational philosophers — -are we not? — who have met here to determine what commercial education is — no, we already know it; and I cannot find from the speeches what we mean by it ; and I think that if we are educational philosophers I am almost inclined to accept the definition which one of the settlement boys of the University of Chicago settlement, who came over to [225] HIGHEB OOMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 179 the University one day on a little excursion, gave. "Oscar," said a friend "you are quite a philosopher, aren't you?" "No, I am not a philosopher." "Oscar, do you know what a philosopher is?" "Oh, yes." "Well, what is it, Oscar?" "Well, a philosopher has got more wheels than a velocipede, but can't go as fast." Gentlemen, we have been here nearly two days, and how far we have gone! and what can be the matter with these wheels in our heads that we don't make some progress ? It seems to me, in the first discussion, as to the func- tion of commercial education, there is a different class of cases which the reader of the first paper did not present. It seems to me that there are two distinct classes of people whom the lines of division have set at right angles. There is a class of people, it seems to me, who come for higher commercial education in the idea that it will find a position for them. They have no occupation and they want to fit themselves so as to get a position. I am not at all sure that we ought to encourage that. I have too much conscience to say to a man, "Take our course and you are sure to get a position." It may be so ; I have a sort of faith that it will be so ; but I should like to have you tell me whether you or they think it is true — does a man get along better for spending four years or does he not? Of course we were told by the first speaker, "I would willingly sacrifice some of our present material prosperity and retard its progress in the future." That is a wonderful exhibition of their unselfishness, coming from a college man. But is it not a good deal like Arte- mus Ward's being willing to carry on the war as long as his wife had relatives to be sacrificed? Our salaries would not be reduced; we are perfectly willing that the person who is going into business should get a less income, provided it furnishes a better environment for us; but I am not so sure that the person who is going 180 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [226] into business is willing to get along with less income, merely to make a better environmefit for the college professors. Of course it may be that the average person will get along better for having four years of college preparation, but I think that we ought to consider very carefully whether that is the case. Suppose we have a higher type of life — does the young man find himself better off pecuniarily at the end of a given number of years, from having taken a higher commercial education? Quite a number of the people who drop out from college, or who drop out at the end of high school, drop out because they must make their living, and unless we can persuade them that they can get a befitting education by continuing with us they will still continue to drop out. Now it may be very desirable that they should drop out, but we should not at least hold up too glowing prospects before them of getting positions as Congressional reporters or in any other business occupation. But the other class of people to come to us are those who are sure of a living when they get out. I think' that is quite a different thing. We have sons of business houses who are going to step into their fathers' shoes, every now and then, and I think that there is a wonderful opportunity for making them broader men — ^taking a higher view of things and fitting them better for the positions which they are to hold, whether as business men or as governors of the country. The business men have a responsibility placed upon them as great as can be con- ceived. For such people I think that the higher commer- cial education needs no apology, but I think we should clearly distinguish them from the other class who simply want a position. In the great commercial college of Leipzig one of the professors admitted to me that his students were largely of three classes : ( i ) Drummers who came from Russia [227] HIQREB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 181 and Armenia and Greece and other countries, not so much to study as to get some knowledge of Germany and of German business life. So their studies were practical — the exchanging of German money for their own, and the practical testing of the cubic capacity of German meas- ures of quantity — ^the German liter, for instance. The other two classes were (2) those who were preparing themselves to teach in commercial schools, along the lines we already have in our schools. (3) And the third class was composed largely of sons of persons who were going to turn their business over to their sons when they got old enough. We have perhaps not a very well developed business class in this country. It is growing. I am not at all sure that the two classes — the business class and those who are seeking a position — are to be satisfied by the same edu- cation. If we are not to promise to the young man that we are to give him a sure position, I am not willing to admit that it may be unjustifiable to get him into the college nevertheless. I believe it is perfectly legitimate to spread a net in the sight of the bird and, by holding out to him that which he thinks is going to fit him better for business duties, give him the cultural education of which we have heard so much. It is a good deal like some of the restau- rants in Chicago, having a bill of fare which has not been very well patronized, which revamp it under a lot of French names which no one can understand — ^the same old hash and potatoes and bread. It seems to me that a good deal of this course is really cultural work, and we are getting people into it upon the supposition that they are merely getting something to fit them for a trade, and are really getting something more than that. Is that legitimate ? I think it is. It certainly seems to 182 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [W,] me eminently desirable. There has been a reaction against the old-time strict classical education, to which this new movement is largely a response. It is a regret- table fact that the person who had burdened his mind, as he doubtless did, by classical studies, when he got into the counting office ordinarily shut his books and did not know what they were a few years afterwards. If we can give this culture by the commercial course there is still a nexus between the practical life and the college culture. I do not believe in giving the cultural work along lines which will at times at least weaken the recollection that the party has of the entire college work, as in the case of the typical college graduate of the old days who, being asked as to Greek being hard, said at first 'No', and then said, "I don't know ; is Greek all those funny little char- acters? I believe that was hard." If we can have a cul- tural course which will have more connection with our future life, so that we will refer to the college life as something always present in our recollection, there is an immense advantage to be gained, and if by holding up that mirror to students you can get them into college and give them the same good old gospel it is quite as legiti- mate as having the tambourine and the drum in front of the Salvation Army quarters. And I have some questions as to how far we are jus- tified in going in our 'laboratory' methods at the expense of the business man who, perhaps, takes no interest therein. It is an admirable thing to take our student through the 'laboratories' and show him what is going on. Did you ever stop to think that it is an awful bore to the business man to take four or five hours of time in showing you through the factory? I doubt whether we are quite justified in working them quite so heavily. Of course they generally are polite to us; there is some obligation to be decent to a University professor ; but I hate to work that too hard. [229] HIOHEB COMMEBCIAL EBTJCATION. 183 I have seen a list of the questions prepared for the freshman class by a professor of an institution not repre- sented here. So I can state the truth freely. I found 200 questions to be filled after consultation with the foremen and superintendent of factories. It was enough to take a man a day and a half to answer all the questions. Here were a lot of crude freshmen who were not to add to the sum of human knowledge at all, but merely doing it for the advantage of these crude freshmen, and you demand that the freshmen shall take a day and a half or two days of a business man's time in order to enlighten this man of 16. It is a good thing, but I don't know — I have some conscience left. I should like to have that discussed. Another question brought up yesterday morning was that of accounting. Now we used to hear about 'book- keeping' and then we all got sick of hearing about "book- keeping', and so it changed its name to 'accounting', and then we heard of 'higher accounting', and now some of our friends in the East say it should be changed to 'ac- countacy', and there is still a fifth class who speak of 'higher accountacy.' When we see in the paper a man who changes his name every time he changes his residence, we are not too much inclined to trust him, and the oftener he changes and the longer the name, the less regard we are apt to have for his moral character. What is the difference between 'bookkeeping' and 'higher accountacy'? It is true that while bookkeeping was formerly held in poor repute no one was familiar with the subject and it was denied that it had a place in the college curriculum. I am told that there are college professors not a thousand miles from this town who would not admit bookkeeping into their curriculum unless over their dead bodies. What is the difference and what is its place? I do not know. I am teaching 'accounting' myself, and I can 184 MICHIOAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [230] say freely that I don't know what it is and I don't know where to place it. Another question: what do we mean by 'business practice'? Was there ever a more trite statement than that made yesterday morning that business practice is a 'subject which it would be impossible to discuss in the time at my disposal' ? It would be impossible to define it if I put in all my time in writing essays upon the subject. I don't know what 'business practice' is. Is it a reversal of the Squeers' type of school, where we tell a person how to do something and then send him out to do somebody ? Is it to be along the line of that beautiful commercial college described in Stephenson's Records — in Michigan — where the boys were given a large amount of token money — school money — and had their schoolroom bank and New York Stock Exchange, and whoever at the end of the season had the largest amount of school money had the honor of the school. I find of course in the higher schools in Germany — even the one of Leipzig — that often a self-regulative school like that does have a well established business ofiice — a 'practice business' — such as we are familiar with in the ordinary business college. Do we mean that is to be introduced into our colleges in this country? The difficulty of presenting business practice by peo- ple who are not practical business men is an appalling one. I saw this illustrated some years ago in an institution connected with an engineering school. There was a course on money. One of the engineering students said to one of my colleagues, "I don't understand about this. Every time I go by there, Crawford is talking about- money. If he is talking about money, why doesn't he go out and make money? I hear Brown talking steam- engine and he could make one ; but he can't make money ; why does he lecture about it" ? I think that is something which will appeal to most of the business men ; and it is [231] HIQHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 185 rather peculiar that the most typical example of business man who has spoken to us has been the one who has placed the least emphasis upon business practice. I agree with him most thoroughly as to the inefficiency of a good deal of the so-called 'practice in business methods' which has been given. I know when I myself was employed in a Chicago bank the hete noir of the manager was the man who came from the practical business course. His ac- quirements seemed to be confined almost entirely to the ability to draw one of those fine, flourishy birds and to the possession of a high, cocky spirit. The manager of one of the departments of the largest bank in the country has expressed the same opinion as we heard given by Mr. Bartlett — that he would prefer not to have a man who comes to them with some of the business practice that has been inculcated in him by some school. Here certainly is an important problem, but other questions have been suggested to me in hearing the speeches, as — what importance should be placed upon foreign trade — the development of foreign trade — in our commercial schools? We are following largely German models, of course, or European models, at least, in this commercial education. The commercial schools of Europe are 9-10 devoted to expanding foreign trade. I am not sure at all that we are going to that extent in this country. Still we do place an undue importance upon the value of export trade, I think, and I think there is a tendency that in our commercial colleges we shall place too much stress upon such subjects as deal with foreign trade, when the people who come to schools in these Western parts have no more connection with foreign trade than with operations on Mars. And the last question is suggested by the addresses of last night, and that is in regard to the training of con- sular servants. Have we a right to lure people to our schools to train them for the consular service when there 186 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIJENCH ASSOCIATION. [232] is no expectation at all of their receiving an appointrnent there? It seems to me that the hopeful spirit of youth ought not to be led astray in this way. If we had a well- developed merit system, it would be admirable. Per- sonally I would hesitate to provide education for consular servants when in reality there is no door open for them, and when we find that even the most distinguished con- sular officers give up their positions and come back to this country. I should hate to induce people to give up too much of their time preparing for an opportunity so dubious. I think the whole business is like the story of the trainman and his wire which announced the progress of his train. I think that the consular service approx- imates that a good deal. I think Mr. Monaghan would be inclined to say, "Off agin, on agin, gone agin, Finnigin." I have suggested some of the topics which h^ve ap- pealed to me. I shall not take more of your time. The subjects are before you and all of these streams of elo- quence which have been gathering up in you may now be allowed to burst forth like the geysers of the Yellow- stone. PARKE SCHOCH. The discussion was continued by Professor Parke Schoch, of Drexel Institute, who spoke as follows : The notification of my assignment to a place upon this program brought with it a request that I discuss Dr. Jones' paper on "The Function of the Business Commu- nity in Higher Commercial Education." A careful reading of the synopsis of this paper, re- ceived a week ago, left the impression that its treatment of the subject was so exhaustive and sound that there was little or no ground for discussion, at least none in the [233] EIQHEB COMMEBCIAL HDUCATION. 187 sense of argument. The few minutes allotted to me will be given, therefore, to a supplemental consideration of the main points presented by Dr. Jones. I would approach the treatment of the topic as stated above by first reversing it and asking, "What is the Func- tion of the University School of Commerce in the Busi- ness Community ?" My experience at the Drexel Institute during the past eight years, in the efforts we have there put forth to establish a liberal course in commerce and to attract young men to it, forces this question upon me. Contrary to our hopes and reasonable expectations, the business community has not very generously responded to our efforts for higher commercial education, if the ad- missions annually to our liberal course may be accepted as indicative of the popular estimate of this kind of train- ing for business. A glance at the enrollments of all uni- versities and colleges maintaining schools of commerce, reveals the same relative smallness in the number of men in attendance. Why is this so? Two reasons suggest themselves: first, the business man's inability to appre- ciate the value of what we call higher commercial educa- tion, because he does not know what these words stand for; second, the still too prevalent belief that attendance for a year or less at one of our business colleges is ample fitting for a mercantile career. In other words, the com- munity, broadly speaking, has yet to be convinced that it will pay to send its sons to college for four years to fit them for commercial pursuits, as it now does to prepare them for the professions. It is believed too generally that training for banking or manufacturing or exporting is a vastly simpler and easier process than training for law or engineering or medicine. For this state of the public mind the university, by its lateness to admit to its curricula the subjects which pre- pare for commercial activity, by the reluctance with which many of them have permitted the commercial thread to 188 MICHIBAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [234] enter their educational fabric, and by the indisposition of some even now to make way for the new education, is in no small degree responsible. It seems to me that before expecting or asking much from the world without, the university must assure itself that it means to throw its whole soul into its school of commerce as it does into its school of letters, or of law, or of medicine. There must be a general recognition of the fact that the pre- dominating element in our national life to-day is the com- mercial one, that industrially and commercially we are in the ascendendant both absolutely and relatively, that our political eminence in the family of nations depends upon our commercial achievements, and that it is worthy of the university's best effort, as it is a dignified business for it, to train the youth of the land to maintain and in- crease the nation's commercial strength. Having placed itself in this right attitude, the univer- sity should set about to familiarize the business commu- nity with the purpose, scope, and advantages of higher commercial education, with a view to securing its moral and financial support. This can best be done by the dis- semination among business men of university announce- ments relating to the work in commerce, and other litera- ture of a special and more personal nature likely to appeal to the recipient and secure his support. Enthusiasm for higher commercial education might be most directly and easily aroused through the various commercial bodies, such as boards of trade, chambers of commerce, and the numerous so-called exchanges, some one or more of which may be found in every town or city of a population of ten thousand or more. It might properly be the province of every State university, for instance, to put itself into close relationship with such bodies as they exist throughout the State for the purpose of placing the new education before the people and interesting them in it. Another helpful and important move for the univer- [235] HIGEEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 189 sity to make would be the submission of its existing or projected courses to representative business men with a view of obtaining their judgments upon the efficiency of such courses to produce the type of young merchants de- manded by the times. I do not mean by this that the manufacturer or the banker could be expected or should be asked to exercise pedagogic prerogatives in the prem- ises, but rather that he might have the privilege of ad- vising with the university and acquainting it with his ideal of a man rightly equipped for beginning mercantile life, together with suggestions for his training. I might in- stance one subject of prevailing university courses which, I believe, would be given different treatment were such expert advice solicited. I refer to the subject of account- ing, so-called. As treated in the majority of the higher schools of commerce, the work done in accounting is little more than a farce and a positive waste of the student's time. Instruction is offered in the science or theory of accounting, as the college announcements put it. This instruction is given in the form of lectures which present, for the most part, analytical studies of the public accounts of banks, railroads, and corporations; the methods em- ployed by auditors in examining accounts; the interpre- tation of balance-sheets, etc. — the understanding of all of which is conditioned certainly upon a knowledge of the principles of bookkeeping and a familiarity with business forms and methods. This knowledge is assumed on the part of some universities and is partly provided by others, but few, if any, give the student a sound course in the practice of bookkeeping, and none, so far as I know, demand it as a condition of entrance or graduation. Now, how the student can comprehend theories of higher ac- counting without a knowledge of underlying principles, is past me to say. And I may add that the young man of eighteen entering college, unless he has come from a com- mercial high school, is usually as oblivious of the simplest 190 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIUNCH ASSOCIATION. [236] business forms and customs, to say nothing of bookkeep- ing, as he is of the abstract principles of science. Yet the university plunges him into an investigation of theories and systems of accounting which require a mastery of the art to fully understand. It is education at the top, and the business man, if given the opportunity, would tell us so. He would say that the man of twenty-two or twenty-five in beginning his mercantile career should know something of these fundamental subjects, not that he is to serve as a bookkeeper necessarily, but that he may be the better equipped by their study to understand the transactions that are part and parcel of the every- day life of every mercantile and financial institution. Nor can we assume that every young man is born to a position administrative in character in which the technique of busi- ness plays no direct part. Far from it. With all the culture and learning and practical training which schools of commerce can give, the majority of young men leaving college must begin at the bottom of the ladder and justify every promotion by the quality of service previously rendered. The likelihood is, therefore, that before he wins his spurs in business, the embryo merchant will be called upon to assist in recording the transactions of his estab- lishment and perform such other duties as presuppose a knowledge of the subjects under consideration. There is only one of two things to do: Either the university or college school of commerce must impose as a condition of entrance a knowledge of practical bookkeeping or it must provide for it in its course. Until it does, it is failing in one of the main essentials of the work it has undertaken. This digression will be pardoned, I hope, when I say that it is introduced to emphasize the need of expert testi- mony in the construction of a higher commercial course. As an added means of drawing the public closer to us, as well as giving each one of us the fruits of the labors [237] HIGHER GOMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 191 of all the others, we need a monthly journal, a strong, carefully edited, dignified exponent of higher commercial education, or, better still, a journal of commerce which would interest alike business teachers and business men. This is possibly the most pressing need in the eflforts that are making for the betterment and extension of this form of education in the United States, and it is one eminently worthy of this body's attention. Having before us this statement of our province and duty as educators, we are in better mind to consider the functions of the business community in the prosecution of our plans. Dr. Jones, in his general interpretation and statement of this function, puts it admirably by saying that the business community should serve as a field for observa- tion, the source whence the university may secure facts. The manner whereby the business public is to be created an active agency in furnishing these facts is the problem to be solved. The enlisting of the services of men of affairs in the form of regular courses of lectures by them to classes in commerce, or, better still, the placing of such men upon the permanent staff of the university, would go far toward bringing active and systematic support from the business community. Comparatively little difficulty would be en- countered by the universities located in large cities, in instituting such lecture courses, but others less favored in locality would hardly find the plan feasible. For them the professor in charge must be depended upon to present to his classes the same facts. This he might do by secur- ing conferences periodically with business men represent- ing the various lines of industry and trade and creating therefrom the desired courses of lectures. In collecting materials for the construction of a series of lectures on the various exchanges, such as stock, maritime, commer- cial, etc., the writer resorted to this plan and in each in- 192 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE AS80CIATI0N.[2S8] Stance received ready aid in the form of interviews and special literature from the exchange presidents and secre- taries. I question whether educational institutions can ever, for comprehensive purposes, depend upon the active business man for regular contributions in personal lecture form. Very few such men possess the education and powers of expression needed to impart their knowledge to university students, and of the number thus equipped few of the most successful merchants or financiers, the only class from which the university would care to draw, could be induced to leave their regular business posts long enough to prepare and deliver lectures on business organi- zation and management. I should say that the function of the business community will more generally be to facil- itate extraction by the university from its field of the facts and materials which it abundantly possesses and which it can and should contribute to educational ends. In endorsing what Dr. Jones says upon the value of trade periodicals, and especially government publications, I will add that I believe these, especially the former, should perform a more direct service to universities and colleges by maintaining departments in the interest of commercial education. Each trade paper should have upon its staff a university man whose duty it should be to report weekly or monthly such educational news as would be of interest and information to business men, and in exchange the journal should present in each issue facts gleaned from the business world of interest and concern to commercial educators. Such co-operation by the trade papers would be at all times valuable and especially so in the absence of a journal of commerce, such as that above suggested. The duty of the government toward higher commercial education is, well recognized by the Depart- ment at Washington, whose reports on industry and com- merce are now so carefully prepared and so admirably presented that many of the publications may be used as [2391 HIGHER COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 193 text-books. As an adjunct to a commercial course, these monthly summaries and special reports are invaluable. Every teacher of commerce should co-operate with the government bureaus to make their publications still more serviceable to instructor and student. The paper under consideration seems to present com- pletely the place of the commercial museum in schools of commerce and the methods by which their resources may be utilized. Having ideal conditions in mind, we should wish every college and university located within the shadow of a great institution like the Philadelphia Commercial Museum. Those of us so fortunate in situa- tion trouble ourselves perhaps less about this question than many of you not so favored. Personal experience with the institution mentioned leads me to say that the only function yet discharged by it is the one of oflfering itself cordially as a field for study. Beyond this, it pos- sesses great possibilities, among which may be noted the mounting of exhibits to be loaned to commercial schools and to be sent from one to the other upon the circulating library plan. This work was begun a few years ago in the interest of the public schools, and the same plan might be elaborated for universities until they succeed in install- ing museums of their own. While we are waiting for the multiplication of public museums in the United States sufficient for putting their facilities within the reach of all universities, we must pro- vide this need by establishing working collections in our lecture rooms. In accomplishing this we may ask and Fecure much valuable aid from our Philadelphia institu- tion, namely, however, by suggestion as to how to proceed rather than by the donation or sale of materials. At the present moment, however, we can the quicker and better create a working museum of domestic products by ap- pealing for aid directly to the heads of industrial and manufacturing establishments. In 1895, the Drexel In- 194 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [240] stitute succeeded by this method in installing a very sat- isfactory collection of the products most needed for every- day demonstration. The plan pursued was, so far as possible, to assign to each student the task of collecting a complete exhibit of a special industry, usually that one in which the student himself was most interested and would be most likely to succeed in securing. In each in- stance, the student was supplied with a letter of introduc- tion to the president of the concern, an exhibit of whose materials was solicited, and explanation at the same time Vt^as made of the purpose to which the exhibit was to be put, with the assurance that proper acknowledgment would be made to the donor. There was a generous response to our efforts, and in most cases the exhibits came to us handsomely mounted in bottles and cases so that they were at once available for class-room use. By the expen- diture of a little time and effort every school of commerce may in this way provide for the better teaching of com- mercial and industrial geography. The possibility of obtaining foreign commercial ex- hibits through the consular service is indeed remote, if at all likely. It is doubtful if any comprehensive collec- tion of materials can be made in this way. For such exhibits we should depend upon the public museums whose agents abroad are specialists in this work and bet- ter able than any other class of men to render this service to schools of commerce. But at best only fragmentary and unsatisfactory exhibits of this kind can ever be in- stalled in university museums. For the most part the study of foreign products must be made in the public institutions. I should like only to add emphasis to what the paper contains on the subject of visits to industrial and com- mercial establishments and financial institutions. These tours of observation should be undertaken to the extent of the facilities at hand. How the university situated [241] 3IGHEB. COMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 196 remote from industrial centers is to secure the benefits of such visits is a problem not easy of solution. Dr. Jones' suggestion that the university locate a summer school of commerce in a large city would meet the case, but the feasibility of such a plan is open to question. First, the expense both to the university and the student would necessarily be considerable, and, second, the presence in most of our large cities of permanent university schools of commerce maintaining summer sessions adds the com- petitive element in education that must be reckoned with. Would it not be better that the rural school of commerce, if I may so designate it, provide such tours of observa- tion through the city university and give the students the same credit for the work of the summer as if done di- rectly under the auspices of the home faculty ? As to the last topic of the paper, "Business Training in Absentia," I am inclined to regard it as inexpedient and perhaps unwise to send young men for six months or a year into mercantile establishments for the purpose of acquainting them with the routine of business. Such a plan if undertaken would no doubt result frequently in creating in such men a taste and inclination for the ac- tivities of business life which, in the face of a tempting offer of position and salary, might draw them away from the university before the completion of their courses, and start them on their careers insufficiently trained to meet the demands of an ever-widening and exacting field of commerce. If there is to be any "Business Training in Ab- sentia," I suggest that those universities which regard instruction in practical bookkeeping as outside their sphere or as not comporting with their dignity, send all students for six months to some business college to be instructed in this subject, and to delay their lectures on the science and theories of accounting until this has been done. If six months cannot be spared out of the college year, then students lacking this essential of a business 196 MICMIQAB POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [242] preparation should be compelled to provide it during the summer vacations. We have thus far discussed the function of the busi- ness community in the efforts to be made by the university to train men broadly for commercial activities. I think it proper before concluding to consider the question briefly of the disposition of the university's product when it is ready for the market; in other words, how may young men thus schooled best begin their careers and what can be done to assist them? It seems to me only natural and proper that deans of higher schools of com- merce should consider it their concern to direct graduates into the channels for which by education and tempera- ment they are best fitted. On the other hand, it should be the part of the business men to supplement such efforts of deans by giving preference, in their employment of young men, to the graduates of university or college schools of commerce. If the close relationship between educators and business men urged and provided for in this paper can be established, business concerns may be relied upon, not only to make way for the university- trained man, but also to go a step further and request schools of higher commercial education to recommend regularly to them their more worthy graduates. Indeed, this condition already exists in some large cities as be- tween certain prominent firms, always alert for the best clerical service, and the better type of business colleges. In closing I will say that the fimction of the business community in higher commercial education, so fully and satisfactorily stated and discussed by Dr. Jones, will be the better revealed and understood as we in our capacity of educators attack and solve the problem, first of the content of this phase of university education, and, second, of providing means for acquainting men of affairs with the meaning and value, especially to them, of this newest field of university effort. [243] HIQHEB COMMEBCIAL EDVOATION. 197 JOSEPH F. JOHNSON. The Chair announced the absence of Professor Joseph F. Johnson, of the University of New York, who was to have been the third speaker in opening the discussion. ARTHUR HILL. The discussion was then thrown open to the conven- tion, and the Chair, Hon. Arthur Hill, of Saginaw, Mich., President of the Michigan Political Science Association, spoke as follows : "Dr. Hatfield referred to the matter of a man fitting himself for the consular department of this government, and I thought in very just and sensible terms. The ten- dency of our people to seek political office certainly distin- guishes us enough now Without exciting a great deal of that ambition. At least so it appears to me. And it was a remark made by Mr. Monaghan last night that I thought had really the most important bearing on this entire question. It was this: he said that although the American consular system was the worst in the world we got the best results. And I thought of a little philosophy back of that, in this : a system which is built up, as it is on the other side, by the law of rotation, with the element of personal ambition and general educational qualifica- tion left out, is not equal to a general educational quali- fication and then a line of personal ambition running in a certain direction. So that the foundation of general edu- cation, beginning in our common schools and not neces- sarily running even into our Universities, but what comes to the average intelligent American citizen, is the best practical qualification known in the world for the con- sular service. 198 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION: [244] And I thought of another thing last night in connec- tion with Professor Monaghan's discourse. It is this: there is that school in connection with the University of Wisconsin which fits young men for this work. That may be and doubtless is a good thing to have, not in connec- tion with all Universities but one University. For there is a place where a young man can go who has a general education, to prepare himself so as to benefit the country at large. There is another thing that I thought of yesterday as Mr. Dill spoke. Of course I am talking entirely from the standpoint of the business man, who only observes without being in the educational movement at all. I see as I move around about among men that the element of personal force and personal character are certainly as important factors as education. You could see that as Mr. Dill stood here — I told him myself this morning that I likened him to one of these high-priced automobiles, painted black and then with a red head light and with a sign telling everybody to get out of the way. He goes at a court or a legislature and he gets something done, and of course education and training count ; but we must not expect everything of education. Now I am going to tell a little of my own experience, showing how educa- tion may help sometimes in a way you may not think it is going to help. It was a good many years ago I was a student here. The course was very brief. I graduated as a civil engineer. The summer between the sophomore and junior years the Department of the Lake Coast Sur- vey was courteous enough to invite the President of the University to send four men to be placed in the employ of the coast survey. So four of us were appointed by the President to go for the summer. Well, I got up there and found myself mixing in with these men who were rather old in the service and so, with my colleagues, met the contempt of these men who knew something about [245] HIGHEB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 199 this business. And the institution never called any more men from the Tjniversity until they had finished. In other words, it was not an educational institution and so we were not called any more. But when I finished with my course here I had very small means and I wondered whether or not I could earn my living, and with an asso- ciate of the class we went to St. Paul — first to Chicago — looking for a job. We saw in a St. Paul paper that there was certain work to be done on a railway there, and we went up there and asked for a job. We asked several men and some engineers, but they would not offer us anything to do. The outcome of it was finally that we found that because we had learned such engineering as we knew in a University it was a bar to getting a job in that line. They did permit us to drag a chain for a while, and at last allowed us to run a transit and a theodolite, and after staying there six months I got a job. But the very fact that I had learned that I could support myself, that I had a visible means of support in that profession that I had taken up, was a source of strength and courage to me in everything I afterward undertook ; and so there is a point to a University. If it can, without trenching on the general line of educational development, give a man something that he can go out into the world and earn his bread and butter with, it makes him stronger to push his way in almost any direction. If a man is going into business I think he ought to get out early, because he has an adaptability that he does not have later and you cannot give all of any business education inside of the walls of an educational institution. And then there is something to the habit of a man — get- ting too used to sitting down too long. You have got to have this element of personal activity. Move around among men and make yourselves felt among men. And I say leadership depends quite as much upon phy- sical capacity as upon intellectual capacity. And so the 200 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SGIUNGE ASSOCIATION. [246] university, if it is going to put men out into business, does not want to keep them too long — not until their eyes get glassy with using spectacles. There is the adaptability of the younger man for the details of business. Of course the qualities that the Uni- versity man can furnish to a business now probably are greater than they might have been a long time ago, be- cause in these great industrial enterprises there are so many fields of work that the man of business must know every part of it. I talked with a moderate banker the other day about his son going into business. He said, "I believe that a boy ought to go into a bank at a time when it is not beneath him to sweep out the bank at a venture". Now there is something in that if you are going to run a small country bank, but by and by there come these insti- tutions that are of the trust order where there is a single department of the institution that a man who takes the broadest study must fit himself for. In all these institu- tions the work is differentiated so that there is a still larger chance for the man to complete the University course and get out in time to treat the business in this larger way. D. EARLE BURCHELL. The Chair then called upon Professor Burchell, of Utah Agricultural College, who spoke as follows : The conditions I have met in Utah are to a great ex- tent different from what you have to meet here. But our schools there are improving, and this year we are reor- ganizing the work in the Agricultural College, and es- pecially that in the work of commerce. In this connec- tion we are obliged to use — so to speak — "business prac- tice" and accounting as the backbone of our work. We are obliged to use it as a means to an end. If we should [247] BIGHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 201 go to work, as you want to do in the eastern universities, and make economics and commercial geography and those subjects the backbone, our young men would not know how to analyze their future. But if we make accounting, business practice, the general business ideals of the West, the test of our work, our young men then will know more nearly what they are expected to accomplish in the pro- cess of their work. Now the problem to me is this : How can I there give the broader "culture and the helpful edu- cation with business practice as the basis ? In the discus- sions which will follow I hope that you who have had more experience along this line, you who are interested in this broader culture and helpful education, will give me help along that line. I do believe when we analyze more closely the features of business practice and accounting in the light of what has just been said by the last speaker — ^bringing the young men in contact with the business men at large — -we will find that the commercial education has more in it of business practice than we had thought it had. The trouble is, we are prejudiced against business colleges. We feel that business colleges, on account of their narrow education — well, we are inclined to think they are all bad. I do not believe it. I believe they have much that is good, and whenever in time we can pull our pride around in some way we can take hold and make use of them by giving practical university methods. And that is the thought I had in mind in connection with the laboratory method. The laboratory method is a good one. And I do believe that when we get to investigating that work thoroughly we will see in the business college thought, plan or principle — whichever you want to call it — some very wise suggestions for us in the higher edu- cational work. We will find that the nearest we can do to preparing young men for business is to give them bus- iness laboratory practice, and by giving them business 202 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [248] laboratory practice we will be able to bring them one step nearer to the ideas and the plans that Professor Jones has given us such good suggestions of in his paper. DAVIS R. DEWEY. Professor Davis R. Dewey, of the Massachusetts In- stitute of Technology, then spoke as follows : Mr President : I do not quite understand why I should be asked to continue this discussion, as I have had very little practical connection with so-called commercial education. If I understood the term aright, as I have been here during the past two days and heard the discus- sion, it seems to me that there will be great difficulty in making progress unless one or two fundamental ideas are cleared up. They have been alluded to, I think, this morning. The question is, What is an education? and secondly. What is a college ? We have heard a great deal on the part of those who have read papers as to a liberal course. We heard this morning about a higher type of education. Now if we are still in doubt as to what we mean by education, as to what we are having in our col- leges, if we have not some clear idea in mind as to what real use all our university courses have, we shall not make very much progress with one particular department of education — that dealing with men. It seems to me that a good many of our friends here are afraid of com- mercial education. They are afraid of the term ; they are afraid of swinging loose of what they call the older liberal education and taking up these new ideas. I think I may state frankly at the outset that there can be as liberal a course of education in four years of the commercial course as there can be in four years of the old-fashioned classical course. And I am a graduate of a classical course and [249] BIQHER COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 203 gave a graduating oration on the Stoic ideal. But it was the most unreal education that a young man of my kind could have. I don't know that any great harm is done. But my idea of an education is that it should be close to the realities of life from start to finish — from the gram- mar grade through the high school and through the col- lege and through the university; and if you can get it close to the realities of life you can make something out of the young man and he will never be in want of work. I have no fear whatever of the student who graduates from a college, as long as this country is as great as it is, being out of a job if he has been kept close to the realities. One great trouble with the boys who get out of college is that they are actually misfitted. They do not know any- thing about the world. They do not know how to change at any point. And they spend two or three years grub- bing at it and it is very fortunate for them if they do not get into the wrong hole. I think, as education is carried on now, we are to be congratulated that there are not more misfits than there are. But the danger of misfits is that they are going to be so much greater in the future. We have been so great a country in the past that the young man could stumble around and feel pretty sure that he might possibly fall into a job after a while. But as the country is hardening — filling up — crystallizing along definite lines, the chance for a young man to stumble into the right place is going to be less and less, just as in the old countries. Why is it that we have class distinctions existing in Europe ? Simply because the industrial opportunities do not exist that we have, and the educational opportunities do not exist as well as the industrial. And unless we can fit our young men to take their part in life, there is going to be trouble. I think it is a trifle arrogant for us educated in classi- cal colleges to try to pass judgment upon what the young 204 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [250] men of this country will be, from our own past experience. We have to recall the fact that for a very large part of the world's work there is very little college preparation being made. We have seen the blunders being made in the business world at the present time because there is not trained intelligence there to handle things. I have worked in a technical school, I have had an opportunity to discover the influence of engineering education. It seems to me that through the engineering school we can get a good many hints. In the first place, the desirability of a definite four or three years' course from start to finish. Don't wait until the junior of the senior year. A live young man must get at things at once. And just as soon as he feels that he is handling some subject which he is going to handle afterward in the world, a new set of mental capacities will be aroused. We saw that in the engineering education. That doesn't mean that the student is not to have general science. He must have general science. The professional aspect should be turned up to him at once. The student will get abundant culture through the science studies. I have hardly time to give illustrations of that, but -we all know that the teacher of the classics can use the classics so that they will be as deadening as the per- petual motion of the lathe in the tool shop. We have had botany taught so that it was as deadening as the cutting of cord wood would be; and we have seen a market gardener who would tell us more in five minutes that would get down to the vital principles of plant life than some college professors. It simply is a question of how the thing is taught, and if you get the right teachers in technical schools so that they can get the vital principles of business, so that they can see the relationship of things — which is true culture — ^then your schools of commerce will be successful. [251] HIOHEB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 205 W. Z. RIPLEY. Professor Ripley, of Harvard University, then spoke as follows: Mr. President : It seems a little bit unfair to despoil the East of its treasures all at once and also to ask a man to appear immediately after his former employer has just spoken. For a great many years Professor Dewey and I have been associated and we practically have the same idea on a great many things — or rather, I have his ideas. The main points of his speech, therefore, may sufifer a little by repetition. I think he hit the nail on the head, however, when he said that it is the way things are done and taught and not necessarily the things themselves that count. The year after I graduated and went to New York to take a pro- fessional position I was in a house with three graduates of the ordinary college. There were two men from' Amherst and a man from Harvard and a man from Johns Hop- kins. Those fellows during the first year were in a state of collapse because of the change in all their habits of life and work which was entailed. By this I mean that they were suddenly confronted with a condition of affairs in which they had to be on time. They were confronted with a state of affairs in which a mistake on their part meant dollars and cents and a revelation of the character of their work to somebody. In other words, they were under — I won't say hostile criticism, but they were exposed to criticism in all the methods of their work and life, differ- ent from that to which they had been in a measure ex- posed during four years of quiet and very happy life in retired spots in the world. And it came home to me at that time, the trouble which adaptation caused in their cases. It came home to me that our colleges have got to teach young men what you might call business habits of thought and of life, and that that is our primary task, 206 MICHI&AN POLITICAL SCIEN0E ASSOCIATION. [252j and it does not make so much diiference whether we teach Economics or Latin or Greek so long as we enforce those great lessons. I personally, it seems to me, would just as soon have my son trained by the right kind of a man in a general classical course, even if he were to go into business, if I knew that he had been held chock a block on these cardinal lines of action which go to make the successful man in whatever line he may engage. There is one advantage in the engineering education, namely, that all the parts of an engineering education interlock, so to speak. Each one in a measure checks up another. Unless a man seriously digest his thermo- dynamics and before that his calculus, he cannot go on and seriously digest steam engineering. Each course de- pends upon the course which preceded it, and a mistake anywhere along the line would just as surely run that man into a blind alley as it was possible for him to get. Now mistakes in that way in engineering work mostly mean distaster. And the man I am thinking of had a large part of his life wrecked because he made calculations for the Boston Elevated Railroad for ciertain of their trusses and forgot to divide by two, and they didn't dis- cover that error until a mile or more of the line had been supplied with trusses twice as heavy as they needed for the construction of their road. And that habit of care- fulness, of precision, of punctuality, etc., — that habit is a thing that business men demand. If, however, we can devise a scheme of courses which we shall use as the basis for inculcating such habits and methods and which shall have the added advantage of giving the man information as to the sort of work and the details of the kind of work in which he is likely to engage if he goes into business — so much the better. And I believe that can be done. But I do not believe that can be done unless we act at once, unless we cut out at once [253] HIQHER COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 207 a considerable number of courses which seem to me purely descriptive. It is not going to make a man worth a penny more in any factory or any business enterprise for him to know how many kinds of jute three are produced in some remote part of the world. What he is called to learn is the analytic and scientific habit of mind which will enable him to make relationship between things. Let me illustrate : a man who graduated with us had a notion of going into the wool business, and it occurred to us to put him to work on a thesis which had to do with recent experiences in the so-called 'terminal tops' markets of Europe. That man got interested in the work. He an- alyzed whatever he could gather, worked out certain relations between the variations of the price of wool in those exchanges and the variations of price of wool where there were no exchanges, and got certain results that were so interesting that Mr. North, of the National As- sociation of Wool Manufacturers has since asked him to work over those results for the benefit of men who have worked in the wool business all their lives. Now what made that man useful was not primarily that he was analyzing a problem in the wool business but that he was developing a habit of mind which led him to question, to analyze and to correlate. Secondly, however, while he had that habit, it probably did pay him, since he was going into the wool business, to have the advantage of some knowledge of the way in which the wool business is con- ducted. But what is the real good to him ten or fifteen years from now is not that little knowledge of the wool business, but it is the habit of work which will help him all along the line. Just another point before I close. I wonder if we have all carefully distinguished through this discussion whether we are considering the training of men for pure commerce — distributing business — or whether we are 208 MIGHIQAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [254] confusing the manufacturing industries with these things of a purely distributive character. It seems to me that these courses which have been outlined — ^and two or three of them are certainly successful — at Darmouth, at Wisconsin, at Illinois — that they are after all omitting one particular constituency, the manufacturing constit- uency. They are training men to go into banking, to be jobbers, wholesalers, I won't say second-hand dealers, but middle-hand dealers; but they are not hitting the problem of the men who are going into business who, while engaging in distributing processes, must understand the processes. And in that connection it seems to me that the engineering department of the Universities have got to render their service. I do not see how a full-fledged course in commerce, developing both sides, the develop- ing and distributing, can stand on its feet unless it makes a larger appeal to the manufacturing element. At Wis- consin, Illinois and Darmouth they do not sufficiently call in the aid of men who are technical experts in the engineering schools; and unless they do this they are going to find this to be a disadvantage with the graduates, who are up against men who know every inch of the manufacturing business from the start, and who when they work over into the business department are going to have an enormous advantage over these men who have been trained merely not to do things but to learn how they are done. The engineering students with business added are going to have an enormous advantage over the business students who get a little smattering in this way. We can very seriously consider whether there ought not to be a larger amount of engineering, and certainly of science, thrown into any one of these commercial courses than there is at the present time. [265] HIGHEB COMMUBCIAL EDUCATION. 209 ISAAC A. LOOS. Professor Loos, of the State University of Iowa, then spoke as follows : Mr. Chairman : I shall really not have very much to say on the program of to-day or yesterday or the evening before, except that I have been profited for my coming, in spite of the confusion of tongues. I feel particularly like subscribing to that note in the conference which has been restruck by the men who have presumably represented the East. I presume that some of you may infer from my own accent that I am a Westerner by adoption. It does seem to me very important to remember two things as we proceed in the development of schools of commerce, and I have no doubt on the lines marked out by Professor Scott in his paper yesterday. I told him at the conclusion of the paper, however, that though there were those among us who did not agree with him he had rendered himself impregnable by his classification of the various kinds of students whose needs are to be met. And when we get through with this development our hindsight will be clearer than our foresight is now. But we should now have more commercial high schools and industrial high schools and higher commercial education in the col- lege and university courses, or graduate courses, for high- ly specialized lines. It does seem to me that just at the present time, as to the lines along which we must proceed — ^very cautiously — there are two directions along which we are to take our steps carefully. The one is the picking of men who are to do the work, and I say that above everything else, as we elect or select or develop men to teach these special commercial courses we ought to insist upon grounding ourselves thoroughly, or rather in seeing to it that the men who are selected for the teaching of these special courses are grounded thor- oughly, in the education that now is. And it is delightful 210 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [256 to hear the papers, the sentiments that those people have heard from Mr. Ripley and Mr. Dewey and Mr. Abbott, that after all the mark of the old college must be re- spected. And in the second place, this saying to which we listened today, that the man who teaches commerce knows something. On the other hand, we do need to pick our way in the selection of the particular subjects and to correlate commerce with the co-ordinate studies which have also led the student, we will say, into the university — science on the one hand and applied mechanics, physics, engineering, on the other hand. And it is along that line that I had hoped to reach definite conclusions, but I think the conference will close without my having formed defin- ite conclusions, because I am of the opinion that other men are suspended on the subject. We are in the air as to the exact way in which sciences are to be correlated on the one hand and applied mechanics or physics on the other, with formal instructions in commerce ; but I am sure that we are looking in the right direction and that we will go forward to the light. I think that there is much evidence that August Comte's prediction that the world will be governed by and by by an Academy of Sciences, will come to fruition and be realized. PROFESSOR SISSON. Professor Sisson then spoke as follows : Mr. Chairman : I almost feel as though I do not be- long here, because I am not a teacher of commerce at all, but I am very much interested in this subject, because the school with which I am connected is considering very seriously the introduction of the work. I feel that I have nothing new to say, and yet there is one point which has [257] mOHEB GOMMEBGIAL EDUCATION. 211 been brought out which surely cannot be emphasized too much. There are very many things in the world which we have been accustomed to from our infancy up. If we had never seen them and somebody should report them to us, we should think the things impossible — incredible. And among them I believe is the statement that what is com- monly called the classical course can possibly be the best preparation for a commercial life. It seems to me that if we analyze this statement it amounts to this, to pre- pare a man to think finally in some particular line of human activity, you should train him in that line of human activity which is most widely remote therefrom. Another statement has been made which should be care- fully compared with this one. That is the idea that it is not any particular information or groups or sets of facts which make the strong and efficient man, but what we sometimes call habits or faculties, whatever they may be. Certainly we would agree that there is something in the human mind which might be called the habit of judgment, or the faculty of clear thinking, or the like. And this is developed by certain lines of training. No one ought to deny that it is developed by the old form of classical instruction. But is not the saving clause this : that where we find some subjects that will develop the right habits of thought — and that should be our first object— yet we should seek earnestly for subjects which, while producing these habits of thought, will at the same time contribute as much as possible to the practical work which is to be done. The problem is not a simple one. The answer will not be quickly found, nor shall we agree upon the answer; but we shall find in this question, as in nearly all questions of practical importance, that the answer must be a sort of compromise — that there are several aims in the analysis, and each institution and each man will find some sort of practical answer to the ques- 212 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [2681 tion, seeking all the time the subject which will give the right habit of thought and, in the second place, will give as much useftil information as possible. I do not be- lieve that the answer to this question for the commercial student can ever be the old classical course, but it cer- tainly will be a new course with many subjects in it which will give both the habit of mind and the informa- tion that we need. I rejoice very much in the sentiment expressed yester- day that the new commercial education is not in any sense to commercialize the college, but is to illuminate and ele- vate the commercial world. H. C. ADAMS. Professor Henry C. Adams, of the University of Michigan, being called for, then spoke as follows : Mr. Hargood and I were talking on this question of the degree to which culture, or as it has been called here — I think perhaps erroneously — ^the classical education, should go into the commercial work, and I was saying it seemed to me that all that discussion rested upon a mis- apprehension ; that the truth is this : in these commercial schools or courses, so far as I know, about 60 per cent of the time that is given by students to their university work is given to non-technical commercial courses. And I know that the first question that our faculty discussed here when the question of special adjustment of the work in the line of commerce presented itself, was how much time shall we allow to gentlemen who wish the commer- cial work? And the faculty said. We will allow 40 per cent four years. And I think that that is an adequate por- tion of the student's time to be given to commerce in order that he may graduate well equipped to undertake [259] SIGHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 213 a business pursuit — so far as a university can equip a man for that purpose. Therefore it seems to me that we are under a slight misapprehension and the gentlemen who read those inter- esting papers to us yesterday afternoon were addres- sing themselves rather to proving the desirability of the 60 per cent of general culture that we already have, whereas the question which really we wished that they might have ariswered was, How can we best adjust the work devoted to the 40 per cent of time that the student is giving to the commercial course so that the university can prepare the men acceptably for business ? I cannot conceive, Mr. Chairman, that there is the least controversy among those who have thought seriously on this subject of commercial education, between uni- versity culture and technical work. I confess that so far as. I was instrumental in calling this convention together it was because I — and I think the rest of us here in the University of Michigan — was up a tree. We have come to a point where there are certain questions very difficult to be answered, and among the most difficult questions, as I take it, is. What proportion of the time which we can command of a student shall be given to science, and shall we say that the demands we make upon our students for science shall be taken out of the 40 per cent or out of the 60 per cent, as I have divided the time of the student? Now I think that Professor Ripley was perfectly correct that the test of these schools in part will be determined by the competition which will inevitably be established between the students who follow our courses and the stu- dents who follow the courses offered by the mechanical and engineering schools. The managers of those schools, in our University at least, are doing what they can to add some degree of commercial education to their courses. It must result in some sort of education between the two ideas. 214 MICmOAN FOLIIICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [260] I cannot understand how a business man, one of whose functions is to invest properly funds in his hands, can decide how he can invest, let us say, in manufactur- ing institutions except he understands something at least of the fundamental chemical, physical and mechanical processes that lie at the basis of manufacture. Professor Ripley was perfectly right in saying that the commercial schools have not helped the manufacturer, not because they were not interested in helping him, but because they offered merely descriptive courses. And I was especially interested in Professor Carhart's paper last night, because I conceive that is the most difficult question we have to meet, when he says that we must have science studied as science as the basis of science study as the preparation for commerce. Our plan here has been to require it within the 60 per cent rather than the 40 per cent, so as to have more time for the 40 per cent, to require two years' work in science and then, on top of the two years' work in science, to ask from our scientific men a special course for commercial students showing the history of the application of those sciences in the development of indus- try. The object being, not to show what the application of the sciences to industry must be in the future but to illustrate that application in the past so that the men may be able to judge properly of the problems of the future. Certainly no business man can hope to become sufficiently a scientific expert so that he can answer these questions without the advise of an expert, but he certainly does wish to know enough of the principles of science so that when an expert makes a report to him he can understand the expert's language. And that is the point upon which we are stumbling here — how to adjust and arrange the teach- ing of science for our commercial students. I was very much impressed, again, with the feeling that has been shown throughout these discussions, with the emphasis upon accuracy of information. I am inclined [261] HIQHEB COMMEBGIAL EBTJCATION. 215 to think that if we make a mistake anywhere we are making a mistake in not requiring sufficient preparatory mathematics. In one of the papers it was said that all that is needed of mathematics is on the common frac- tions. Certainly that is not true. As business increases in complexity the manager of a business is subject to depending more and more for information with regard to the business, and with regard to the market for which he is producing his goods, upon what we may term "com- mercial statistics." Now if there is any piece of flounder- ing in this world it is in the assertions of statistics, and I think that it is one of the functions of the university to prepare its men going into business thoroughly upon that line, and so far as discipline is concerned, that means discipline, and you will see that it means discipline when I say that it is impossible for any man to understand the rules and principles of statistics unless he has studied mathematics through calculus. And we are very seriously considering, here at least again in the 60 per cent and not in the 40 per cent, the advisability of requiring our stu- dents, before they come to us, to study calculus. Just one word further: I have been very much troubled, and I know that we all have here, on the ques- tion of organization. Where shall this work begin ? Pro- fessor Scott, Professor Dewey say with the freshrnan year. Mr. Thurston and others say with the junior year and running into the senior year. I think upon that point I have gotten considerable light, partly from the papers and partly from the talk among the men who are inter- ested in these subjects. I doubt very much whether there is any difference between those systems. Now so far as 1 can see, comparing the Wisconsin scheme with the Dartmouth scheme, they differ only in this: that there are two or three semi-commercial courses put into the first and the second year in the one case, whereas in the other case the first and second years are given to your 216 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [262] mathematics, to your language, to your science and to those things which we conceive, in the particular concep- tion of higher commercial education, as necessary for the successful prosecution of it in the last years. The whole difference then is simply this: whether it is or is not desirable to keep the man in touch from the very begin- ning with the work that he is undertaking to do. Now to my mind the strongest argument for the Wisconsin plan is the remark that Professor Scott interjected in his paper, that they found that 25 per cent of the entire enter- ing class coming to them came from high schools, and they would not have come into the university at all if they could not have begun their work with the freshman year. That, I think, is an extremely strong argument. Now with regard to the rest I think I have come to this conclusion regarding organization : that after all it is not a question of very much vital importance from the pedagogical point of view. The situation in the Univer- sity of Michigan is one thing, and is quite accidental in a certain way. And the starting our work with the junior year is because we have done practically the same thing in our Joint Law and Literary Course and the Literary and Medical course. Professor Scott tells me how they happened to drift into the other way, dividing this into schools. Now I guess if we get down to the bottom that we are practically doing the same thing, and we are a unit upon that point, and that is the point I had in mind. MAURICE H. ROBINSON. Professor Robinson, of the University of Illinois, then spoke as follows : Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : It seems to me in thinking of this question it is getting so, as I have heard the discussion here, that if we analyze the problem into [263] HIQHEB COMMUBCIAL EDUCATION. 217 its constituent parts we may not only get light but we will be more likely to agree. It seems to me that there are just five points raised by this whole discussion : ( i ) the sub- jects of instruction; (2) the method of treatment; (3) the time and the curriculum; (4) the relation of technical education ; ( 5 ) the organization within the university. If we consider those questions separately for a moment we will see that after all there is not so much dif- ference when we take into account local conditions. Upon these I assume that no general answer can be given unless it be in regard to the second, because of the difference in the conditions under which we work and the kind of young men to whom we cater. A great deal of import- ance has been given in the last few years to this question of the demand for concomitants in shaping the productive processes. We recognize that we are answering certain demands and shaping our processes to meet those demands, and those demands do differ on the part of differing young men and in different parts of the country. Taking then the first subject, the kind of subjects that shall be included. There are two separate schools, one who simply hold that the commercial courses shall be an enlargement of the old department of economics — econ- omics broadened and extended and brought down to earth ; the second that commercial education shall go into the detail work of special trades and professions. And comparing these two I think there will be substantial agreement that we must hold to the first rather than the second. We have not only our own experience but the advice of business men : "Do not try to train our young men in the details of our business, because we don't want that. We find when they come in they are worse off than without it. But if we can extend the old department of economics and bring it down to earth, then I myself am perfectly sure that the young men we send into the busi- ness world will prove more acceptable servants if there 218 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [264] really is something that we do not give them that we ought to, and that is, training them so that they get down to work. That brings me to the next subject, the method of treatment. That will depend largely upon our choice as to the first. If we take the second we haven't much choice in the mater of method of treatment, because it will simply be a detailed study of business methods — this phrase that we have heard, "business practice," which the business men say that we teachers don't know much about anyhow. Now the value of any subject, as emphasized by Professor Dewey, depends upon how it is taught, and that, it seems to me, is the point upon which we can all agree, and it is the vital question. If we teach young men so that they do their work in a business-like method, so that when they send a paper in to us we won't be afraid after reading it that they would lose their job and could not pay their rent, then our work may be of some value ; but if we allow them to do their work in a slovenly man- ner, training them in habits of uselessness rather than of usefulness — whatever education they have will be thrown away. Now the second point in this is in regard to the rela- tion of culture. Now we all know that culture is impos- sible in poverty, and the chief work that we can do in this direction, it seems to me, is to help the productive forces of this world. The productive forces of this world depend upon the technical skill in various lines, administrative skill and tact, and harmonious relations between these two. The technical school and business attend to the first and do it pretty well. It is the work of commercial educa- tion, it seems to me, to give its energies to the second and the third — administrative skill and knowledge and the harmonious relations between technical skill and admin- istrative power. If we have a high productive power, the productions may not be even distributed, and the ends L265] HIOHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 219 which we are aiming at may be defeated, through unequal distribution. Now in this the work of education seems to me of the extremest importance, because we know that the ordinary loss in distributing goods unequally is due as much to ignorance as to any other ministry that has ever obtained or that ever can obtain. If we can give some knowledge of the laws of trade or of commerce to the men who are going out into and 1 taking part in it, they will see in most cases that the products of industry are fairly well distributed. That is, I take it, what Mr. Dill means when he says that brains are so scarce. The fact that wealth is being in a good many cases brought into a few hands is because a few men possess so many brains and the rest of us have so few. Now I take it, if we can spread abroad a better brain power, higher ability in collating facts, as Professor Ripley has emphasized, so that we will understand the laws of trade and commerce and finance as some of the others do, we will not have any trouble in attracting the products of industry into our own hands. And if we understand these things better we will work better with the understanding that we have overcome the unequal distribution of wealth. I have been more im- pressed upon this subject in thinking of the actions of trade unions than of any one subject. Everyone of us knows that the reason why the men in the trade unions don't work up to their highest productive capacity is that they believe that somebody else is getting more out of it than they do, and if you can dispel this belief then you will see the productive forces of this country going on as it is almost impossible to conceive. And if we can dis- tribute some knowledge to the young men who come to us and remove all differences through the legislature — that is where the citizen comes in — through this distribution of wealth, the future of the world is not in doubt at all. This of course brings up the whole question of mod- 220 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [266] ern industrial organization, of the economics of corpora- tions, of railways, of labor organizations, trade and finance, and legislation in each one of those. All of us know that the fault of the anti-trust laws that we have on the statute books of the various states, and to a consider- able extent of the United States, is due to the fact that we did not know anything about what we were talking about. We began at the wrong end — the question of con- trol first ; while we should begin at the other end and find out what we were studying about. Also the present reac- tion in child study has taken this form — ^find out what the child is and then you will know something about how to bring him up. The old method was to say "Anything to achieve the immediate result," without knowing what the interest was. We have done that way with the trusts. Now, through the influence of men who have understood this thing, we are beginning the other way ; we are trying to find out what they are and then we may have some suc- cess in removing the evil features that have attended them. The fourth and fifth topics I will just mention. The relation of commercial courses to the technical school — in this connection the University of Illinois was men- tioned. As a matter of fact, contrary to some sugges- tions that were made, we in Illinois make the utmost use possible in our commercial course of technical men; we depend upon railway engineers, mechanical engineers, upon the science men who give our men a course in those lines that we feel under the conditions they must have in order to become successful men in modern business life. I was very much interested in an editorial in the In- dustrial Supplement in the last number of the Financial Chronicle upon "Specialties and Specialists ;" some of the chief offices in the railway organizations are filled by men who have been technically educated, such as the General [267] HIQHEB COMMEBCIAL EDVCATION. 221 Manager of the Pennsylvania Corporation, Mr. Atchison, and many others. Now the real question with us is this: can we train men upon the administrative side, give them a certain amount of instruction that is necessary upon the technical side, and vie with the technical administration plus cer- tain administrative instruction? Now, down at the Uni- versity of Illinois, the mechanical engineering school has drafted upon us to give their men instruction in economics and in labor and railway problems as a part of their tech- nical education. You have there two classes of men com- ing side by side into the industrial world — technically educated men plus some commercial education, and the commercially educated men without technical instruc- tion. The real question, it seems to me, is this : which one of these kinds of education is going to be the most economical for the world in the production of wealth; and that, I take it, can only be determined by experience. W. A. LAT^GWORTHY TAYLOR. Professor Taylor, of the University of Nebraska, then spoke as follows : It seems to me that the question that we have is not entirely a question of how best to give a commercial edu- cation, but perhaps rather how best to educate the business man as a man. How best to introduce, therefore, into a regular system of education the business man's interests and to give them some recognition. Now I have simply one contribution to make, and that is that the possibility of all this discussion that we have had and the possibility of the movement toward a more practical commercial education has been laid in the very fact of the advance 222 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [268] of theoretical knowledge, and theoretical knowledge of the most abstract sort. If it is proposed in a commercial education for the business man to exclude culture or to exclude the old conception of "the humanities," why that attempt must fail. Education — higher education — as a human deduction and as a philosophy, is founded on a rock. It is ineluctable — it is an institution whose idealb cannot be changed. The simple question is whether in the movement from the bottom to the top it is possible to make a differentiation, a gradual differentiation, so that the same apex may be reached along a little different route. Now my suggestion is this: that it is primarily in the development of the economic theory — the most theoretical and abstract sort of economics — that the pos- sibility is found for deflecting this route a little and bring- ing it a little closer to practice. For — different as this may be from popular apprehension — the higher a theory is developed, the closer it is brought to practice. The old idea was the contrary — ^that the higher you advanced in theoretical knowledge the further you were getting away from practice. Now that does not appear to be the truth. And it is in writers of the more modern school of abstract economics, for which I may mention Professor Marshall as the most pronounced instance, that we find the possi- bility of forming a continuous series of education which shall go from — beekkeeping, if you choose, up to the most transcendental thought possible as to the relation of man at his destination to the outer world. It is because Professor Marshall has developed the physical analogy of equilibrium in such a way that we are able to visualize the similar movement of business and to see the actions of the business community moving as a whole, that he is able in his book to introduce a vast quantity of illustrations directly from practical life which economists that had preceded him in the middle of the century were unable to do. HIOHEB COMMEBCIAL EDUCATION. 223 Why is it that abstract economics has never accounted for crises, has never dared to attack the subject of a busi- ness crisis ? It was simply because the kinetic conception — the conception of equilibrium and of differentiation — had not yet been introduced into theory; and it is that movement which is making possible the movement which we see here, to connect the practical business education with the complete hierarchy of thought so as to lead up to and teach the most transcendental thought possible, without which the higher commercial education is simply impossible. RALPH W. CONE. Professor Cone, of the University of Kansas, then spoke as follows: One thing has been discussed here, the attitude of the representative of classical instruction to the commercial course. It seems to me that that attitude is largely due to the question. Can these subjects be taught in such a way as to make them practically of value? I think nearly everyone will agree that it does not matter so much what is taught as how it is taught, and that question of how it is taught is of course a very difficult question in connec- tion with any new field of study, and I was very grateful to Professor Ripley for the suggestion he drew from the experience of the engineering school, that perhaps in some way we should be able to so interlace the work as to be a practical check upon other branches of the work in such a way as to bring the work up to a standard that will make it of nearly as much advantage in educational work as are the older systems that are better worked out and better fitted to the conditions. 224 MICHIGAN POLITICAL 8CIENCE ASSOCIATION. [270] EDWIN H. ABBOTT. Mr. Abbott, of Boston, then spoke as follows : Mr. President : I have listened with exceeding inter est to the several speakers this morning and am very glad to see how much agreement in substance there is, with that branch of education in universities, with the prin- ciples which seem to me to be sound. I do not care how a man learns to be accurate and to do good work ; the ques- tion is, when he gets into business of any sort, ctoes he know how to do it well ? The next thing is, in shaping the training in these commercial principles — for what period of activity are you going to shape the course of instruction? Of course the immediate prospect is, this young man is going out into life; he wonders how on earth he is going to get his living — who will want him to do anything. He will learn that the men who have things to do and who want tp find men to do them are more hungry, more eager to find men who can do the work they want done, than he is to do what he wants to do. Now it has been my fortune at periods of my life to have employed a great many men, and a great many men would come to me who thought that I could employ them when they would much better have gone to the head of the department. My first question almost always was. What do you know best ? How well do you know it ? Let me see what is the best thing you can do? It was the quality of his work. I look on the process of college train- ing — and very largely it is true of university training, that is in the high professional schools where we train up the best product of the university — after all they are, as I said yesterday, merely intellectual gymnasia. No amount of learning, nothing, in a professional school, is really to be adequate to the practice of a profession after- ward in life. He is going to get the substance that he is [271] HIGHEB COMMUBCIAL EDUCATION. 225 going to use in time afterward when he comes to apply it. Now it happened with me — I was an old Latin school boy — I was five years at the Boston Latin School — I could say the Latin grammar backward — the point was, we had learned how to learn something, and we did learii well. I then went through college and then the problems of life pressed upon me just as hardly as I suppose they do upon a young man who is looking around to see what he can do and how to get along at his living, and es- pecially if he happens to find himself at the outset of life with large responsibility and the head of a large family. I happened to find myself in a position where I wanted to coin my brains just as soon as I got out of college ; and of course teaching is the thing that a young man can coin his brains and get the most compensation for at that stage. And the result was that for seven and a half years I was engaged in that kind of work before I got into my profession. It seemed at that time as now, and I won- dered how I should ever catch up with the rest of them. Nevertheless I hadn't been in my profession two years when I found that training and practice given at Latin and Greek aiding me largely, for they are marketable commodities for others as well as the teacher. I found before I had been two years in the profession that that whole process had been a fine education for me in my pro- fession and practice of the law; so that I found no diffi- culty — I didn't care three years afterward that I had been at the bar only three years, when I came to measure swords with those that had been at it generally for a much longer period. In fact, it is the practice, the intellectual gymnastics, the learning how to hit your nail, the learning how to do what you do, well — that is what every man who employs young men wants to find out : can they do something and do it well. And I don't care what it is — if they want to do something that is entirely new and entirely different. 226 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [272] they will learn the details very quickly if they bring the trained capacity forward. There was a story they used to tell about old Bill Gray, who was the grandfather of the late Justice Gray, of the United States Supreme Court, and who was a very leading merchant in the early part of the last century. Somebody at a Board of Trade meeting said, "Oh, you were a drummer boy, weren't you, in the last war?" "Yes," said old Bill Gray, "I was a drummer boy; but didn't I drum well ?" He had got the right idea to start with. Now I have a great deal of sympathy with the young men who are facing that problem of how to work their way to get along through college, to get an education and get the best education, while they have on the other side to count dollars and cents. And I want to make a single practical suggestion which is not directly in point here, but possibly some of you will remember it: any young man who wants to get an education and get the best edu- cation, for commerce or a profession or anything else and has not a cent — let him go through college — let him get" the general education first. That is to say, the education, the studies that he follows, pursued simply for the pur- pose of training, simply for the purpose of making him- self intelligent and without the idea of turning them into dollars and cents. Let him get the best, set his standard high and be as critical as he pleases. And he can do it in this way : he can safely at that period of life discount the future with sufficient safety to borrow moriey to live on during the four years of his college life before he begins technical education. There are plenty of people in the community; he will find them; someone will turn up; they are always ready — ready to lend him the money he needs to live on — a comparatively small sum. Then let him take out an insurance on his life. If he is a minor, give his note, and then just as soon as he becomes of age [2T3] HIGHER COMMEBOIAL BBtfOATlON. 227 let him take up his honorary note and give a legal note. The insurance eliminates the contingency of loss by death, and the other contingencies he has almost wholly within his own control if he chooses to live heathily. Then when he comes out let him go right to work and earn money and pay off that debt, and he can do it in a year — two years — a very short time; even if he has a lot of people dependent upon him, he can do it within four or five years. And not undertake to earn a little money by hook or by crook, expending his intellectual vigor during that time when it is worth so much for intellectual study and culti- vation. He cannot afford to take his time then for any- thing but intellectual study and cultivation. I am merely repeating to you the advice that a wise man gave to me nearly fifty-five years ago. It is a thor- oughly practical system, it is not a burdensome system, it is a perfectly independent system — the young man is not asking a favor — he is not taking charity; he has accepted a trust. He is not a charity recipient. He is standing on his own feet and he is beginning his life by doing good business. Now nobody, therefore, at this day, need hesitate to get for himself the best education which is going to fit him to be a man^not merely to get his living, but going to make him a man. Let him make his aim toward the time when he ought to be able to stand in the front rank of his business, whatever it may be. Now if his life is a short one he can just as well spend it in fine intellectual preparation and study and work in the way I indicated as in any other way. If his life is to be a long one and he is to follow the full course of human usefulness and activity, then a course of education — that large, fine, best quality of education in every way — is not unavailing. When he does reach the point when, if he is at the bar, he ought to be equal to anything and to stand in the front rank and not need senior counsel, and be able to handle anything that comes along — then is the 228 MICHIGAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. [274] time when he will reap the advantage of the large, thor- ough, cultivated training that he got in that way. Don't go into commercial courses with the idea of running a peanut stand. No; let the college shape its commercial courses so that it shall fit a man who is going to be at the head of the largest manufacturing institution and fill the position. Let it train the man who is going into — I hate to call it the "business" of railroading — it is really forty different professions. The man who is going to follow any one of the kinds of industry that is going to enable him to stand at the head of that particular kind of labor; or if he goes into the executive functions and to work up — let him educate himself as he can see that a railroad president has got to be educated if he is going to be the best railroad president in this country. It is the intellectual forces, it is the individual train- ing, it is the quality of man that the university turns out, that is of importance to the community and of abso- lute importance to the individual. Now it is perfectly true that there is all the difference in the world between the quality of mind, the raw material, the personality. That is all true. Nevertheless let a man make himself, and you gentlemen that have charge of university studies and methods, you train him to be the best man that he is capable of becoming. Work up the raw material into that particular form and use which is the best that it is capable of performing, and make the schools of commer cial training — the schools of special training that are connected with and go to make up the whole university — make them as complete as possible on the largest lines, and aim high, and give them good stuff to eat at every one of the tables. Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, was right when he said that with most men strength of will does the work of strength of intellect; but then you will have among your students men who have not merely strength of will which has [275] HIQHEB COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 229 motive force enough to gravitate up into useful and re- sponsible and honorable positions in life, but you will have among them some of the men who are capable of doing the best work that human mind can do for its fel- lows. So that the one criticism I would make on the speeches I have heard, is: Don't run down into the de- tails. Remember after all in a university it is principles that you teach — methods — good methods — sound habits of mind ; and don't count on their paying at firsts but plan them so that they shall be the best training to develop the individual and to enable him to do the best work that God has given him power to do. (Applause.) RESOLUTION OF THANKS. On motion of Professor Gray, of Northwestern Uni- versity, the following resolution was unanimously adopted : "Resolved, That the members of this Conference ex- press their thanks and their high appreciation of the ef- forts in organizing and directing the Conference to the Political Science Association, to its ever courteous and able president, to its ever alert and genial secretary, to the University of Michigan and its ever beloved and revered President and its Board of Regents, and to the citizens of Ann Arbor, for courtesy in the use of buildings, for personal graces and for the many favors we have received at their hands." The conference then adjourned. LIST OF PUBLICATIONS. VOL. I. No. I. May, 1S93. Contents: State Bank Issues in Michigan- a Retrospect of Legislation, Thomas M. Cooley. A Sketch of the Ori- gin, Establishment and Working of the National Banking System , with special reference to Issues, Diiiight B. Waldo. Federal Taxa- tion of State Bank Issues, Thomas M. Cooley. Bank-Note Circula- tion, Theodore C. Sherwood. President's KAAxe.%%, Edward Cahill. Should United States Senators be Elected by the People ? T. E. Barkworth. The Interstate Commerce Act — Its Purpose, Partial Failiire and Reason: with suggestions for Improving it, £■. W. Med- aaugh. The Interstate Commerce Act from the Shipper's Stand- point, ya»z« 7". 5;4«w. Price, 50 Cents. No. 2. May, 1894. Contents: Penological Hints, L. C. Starrs Dissatisfaction with the Senate, Alfred Russell. Suggestions for a System of Taxation, Henry C. Adams. The Relation of the Church to Political and Social Science, A. Gay lord Slocum. The Province of Agricultural Colleges, Z. C (?ori'o«. President's Address: Cor- porations in Michigan, Alfred Russell. Publicity and Corporate Abuses, Henry C.Adams. Eminent Domain: Its growth and Lim-, itations, T. E. Barkworth. Alien Suffrage, Henry A\ Chaney. Price, 50 Cents. No. 3. December, 1894. Contents: Uniform Legislation by the Several States, 5'. M. Cutcheon. Census Bulletin No. 48 of 1891 Alfred Russell. A National Reserve for the Exigency of War, J Sumner Rogers. Competition and Organization, Charles H. Cooley, Corporations in the Light of History, John P. Davis. Suggestions. , for the Amendment of the Laws Governing Corporations in the State of Michigan,/,*)' /". Z/Ti?. Price, 25 Cents. No. 4. April, 189S. Contents: Legal Education: Its Relation to the People and the State, H. B. Hutchins. Local Self-Govemment, so-called-, as it is found in the Constitution of Michigan, Otto Kirch- ner. Social Evolution, by Benjamin Kidd — A Critical Review. William Prall. Incongruity of the Divorce Laws of the United States— A Legal Tangle, /o^« CiJiiT^fer^. Price, 25 Cents. No. 5. British Rule in Central America, or a sketch of Mosquito History, Ira D. Travis. Price, 25 Cents. No. 6. December, 1895. Contents: City Government OF Mich- igan. Some Remarks Upon the Government of Municipalities Sug- gested by the Experience, Growth and Development of the City of Grand Rapids, 7(7^ W. Champlin. City Government in Kalamazoo. Dallas Boudeman. City Government in Jackson, W. H. Withington. City Government in Saginaw, Wm. L. Webber. City Government in Detroit Charles A. Kent, Price, 25 Cents. VOL. II. No. I. Do We Want an Elastic Currency? F. M.Taylor, Ph. D. Price, 25 Cents. No. 2. The Southern and Western Boundaries of Michigan. Anna May Soule.M.L. (Out of Print.) Price, 75 Cents. No. 3. The Real Monroe Doctrine, B. A. Hinsdale. The United States and the Peace of the World. Edward Cahill. Price, 35 Cents. No. 4. Municipal Government in Europe. Richard Hudson. State Supervision of Cities, John H. Grant. Pricej 25 Cents. No. S- The Discoverers of Lake Superior. Charles Moore Price, 25 Cents. No. 6. Agricultural Depression in the United States. W. A. Coutts. Price, 50 Cents. No. 7. Industrial Prosperity and the Means for Bringing it. About. (President's Address J John IV. Champlin, Labor in Rela>- tion to the Production of Wealth. Wm. L, Webber. Price, 35 Cents. No. 8. The Binding Efiect of the Ordinance of 1787. Walter C. Haight, B. L. Price, 50 Cents. No. 9. The Relation of Corporations to the State. William L. Webber. Price, 15 Cents. VOL. m. r No. I. The History of Suffrage in Michigan. (56 pages.) Mary Joice Adams, Ph, M.. Price, 50 Cents. No. 2. The Popular Initiative and Referendum. (24 pages.) O. M. Barnes. Price, 25, Cents. No. 3. Indeterminate Sentence. (27 pages.) Levi L. Barbour. Price, 25 Cents. No. 4. The Pine Industry in Michigan. (17 pages.) Arthur Hill xaA. John Bertram. Price, 10 Cents. No. S- The Copper Industry of Northern Michigan, (15 pages.) /. N. Wright. Price, 10 Cents. No. 6. The Mining Industry of Northern Michigan. (19 pages.) Peter White. Price, lo Cents. ' No. 7. Agriculture in Michigan: A Sketch. {40 pages.) Ro- manzo Adams. Price, 50 Cents. No. 8. The History of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. (312 pages with map.) Ira D. Travis, Ph. D. Price, $1.00. VOL. IV. No. I. An Historical Sketch of Internal Improvements in Mich- igan,' 1836-1846. (48 pages.) Hannah Emily Keith, M.L. Price, 50 Cents. No. 2. The Salt Industry in Michigan. (12 pages.) S. G. Higgins. Price, 15 cents. . No. 3. Methods of Keeping the Public Money of the United States. (160 pages.) John Burton Phillips, Ph.D, Price, $1.00. No 4. Taxation in Michigan and Elsewhere. (76 pages.) Price, 50 Cents. No. 5. The Iowa Board of Control; A Centralized System of Ad- ministration for State Institutions. (26 pages.) Harold M. Bowman. Price, 20 Cents. No. 6. Social Problems of the Farmer. (159 pages.) Papers read at the joint meeting of the Michigan Political Science Associa- ' tion and th? Michigan Farmers' Institutes. Price, $i.oa. VOL. V. No. I. . The Territorial Tax.Legislation of Michigan. (46 pages.) Margaret A. Schaffner. Price, 50 Cents. Orders for Publications should be addressed to Charles H. Coolev, Treasurer, Ann Arbor fiy/y.. '^X ■'■■ m 1 w •