COMMERCIAL EDUCATION.

1. PRIVATE "COMMERCIAL COLLEGES.”

Special courses for the higher education of persons desiring to enter upon business careers are of comparatively recent date in this country. For many years the only provision made for business training was to be found in private commercial or business colleges, many of which have rendered and are still rendering excellent service in their special field. Their work, however, cannot be called higher training, as it is confined mostly to preparing young persons for clerical positions, and includes such subjects as writing, arithmetic, and bookkeeping, to which are added a little commercial geography and commercial law. The requirements for admission are very meager, and there is given only a very limited amount of general culture. In 1904 there were reported to this Office 499 business colleges with an attendance of 138,363 students.

The instruction given by this class of schools is fairly represented by the subjects included in the courses of study of the two institutions following:

Eastman School, Poughkeepsie, N. Y.-Arithmetic, accounting, bookkeeping, banking, commercial law, commercial geography, business practice and office methods, stenography, typewriting, economics, and government.

Peirce School, Philadelphia, Pa.-Bookkeeping, business practice, auditing, commercial arithmetic commercial law, commercial geography, business forms and customs, stenography, and typewriting. In addition to the above studies, instruction is given in penmanship and English, and some of the institutions of this grade make provision for instruction in modern languages. The courses of study vary in length from three to thirty months.

2. HIGH SCHOOL BUSINESS COURSES

BUSINESS HIGH SCHOOLS.

In 1904 there were reported 717 public high schools maintaining regular business courses, in which there were enrolled 42,213 students, while 3,192 schools gave instruction in bookkeeping to 85,313 students. The number of pupils in business courses in public high schools has increased so rapidly that it has been found necessary in a number of the larger cities to provide separate business high schools. The courses of study maintained by these business high schools vary in length from two to four years. The courses in San Francisco and Washington require two years of work; those in Louisville, Brooklyn, Philadelphia (schools for girls), and Pittsburg require three years; and those in Los Angeles, New York, and Syracuse require four years. The dates when the separate schools were established are as follows: Washington, 1890; Los Angeles, 1895; Louisville, 1898; Brooklyn, 1899; San Francisco and Philadelphia, 1900; New York, 1902; Syracuse, 1903.

The regular course in the high school of commerce of the borough of Manhattan, New York City, extends through four years, and is as follows:

First year.-Required: English (4 periods), German, French, or Spanish (4), algebra (4), biology with special reference to materials of commerce (4), business knowledge and practice (6), drawing (second half year, 2), physical training (2), music (1).

Second year. Required: English (3), German, French, or Spanish (4), plane geometry (3), chemistry with special reference to materials of commerce (4), history with special reference to economic history and geography (3), stenography (3), drawing and art study (2), physical training (2). Electives: German, French, or Spanish (4), bookkeeping and business forms (3), business arithmetic (1), commercial geography (1).

Third year. Required: English (3), German, French, or Spanish (4), geometry and algebra (3), physics (5), history with special reference to materials of commerce (3), drawing and art study (1), physical training (2). Electives: German, French, or Spanish (4), bookkeeping and business arithmetic (3), stenography and typewriting (3), drawing and art study (2), commercial geography (1).

Fourth year.-Required: English (3), German, French, or Spanish (4), economics and economic geography (4), history of United States with special reference to industrial and constitutional aspects (4), physical training (2). Electives: A foreign language (4), advanced chemistry (4), economic biology (4), trigonometry and solid geometry (4), elementary law and commercial law (4), advanced bookkeeping, business correspondence and office practice (4), stenography and typewriting (4), drawing and art study (4), modern industrialism (1).

There is offered also a fifth year which is open to all students who have graduated from a high school course of four years. The studies of the fifth year are as follows: Required: English (3), logic (3), physical training (2). Electives: A foreign language (4), advanced mathematics (4), advanced physics (4), industrial chemistry (4), economic geography (4), history (4), banking and finance, transportation and communication (4), administrative law and international law (4), accounting and auditing (4), business organization and management (4), drawing (4), advanced economics (3).

3. HIGHER COMMERCIAL EDUCATION.

For some time a large number of universities and colleges have maintained business courses modeled more or less after those of the business colleges mentioned above. The number of such institutions in 1904 reporting students in business courses below college grade was 173. Included in this number are Roman Catholic and other institutions whose commercial courses extend through a number of years and include a considerable number of general culture studies of secondary grade.

As the departments of economics of our well-equipped universities were developed, there was introduced gradually instruction in subjects of special value to persons looking forward to business careers. While for a long time no formal courses for business training were offered, it was possible, through the system of elective studies in vogue, for students to select studies that would assist them in preparing for business life. The first step in the organization of business courses of college grade was made by the University of Pennsylvania in 1881, when the Wharton School of Finance and Economy was opened for instruction. During the past ten years the movement for the establishment of courses of study in commerce of college grade has made marked progress, and such courses are now offered by the universities of California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin, Dartmouth College, New York University, and others.

In nearly all cases the requirements for admission are the same as those for admission to general culture courses leading to degrees. The first two years of the courses are usually made up of general culture studies, such as English, modern languages, mathematics, history, and theoretical economics, while the studies of a technical nature, with few exceptions, are placed in the last two years of the course. Very few of the institutions have laid down hard and fast courses of study, but the principle of allowing students to select studies suitable for their purposes is followed in most cases.

The University of California has established a college of commerce whose curriculum "is intended to afford an opportunity for the scientific study of commerce in all its relations, and for the higher education of business men and of the higher officers of the civil service." The course leads to the B. S. degree and requires the completion of 129 units, of which number elementary or general culture studies comprise 69 units; 34 units are devoted to technical studies in practical economics, 12 units to studies in law, and 14 units to electives in a special field. The students have the use of the collection of the Pacific Commercial Museum.

The college of commerce and administration of the University of Chicago has been created "to provide professional training for the practical work of business in various branches." The work of the college is on the same plane as that of the other undergraduate colleges of the university and leads to the Ph. B. degree. The work of the junior college (the first two years of the course) is the same for all students in the college. On entering the senior college the student will elect one of the four groups into which the work is divided, namely, (a) banking, (b) transportation, (c) trade and industry, (d) journalism.

The James Millikin University at Decatur, Ill., offers a course in commerce and finance extending through four years of preparatory work and four years of college work leading

to the A. B. degree. The purpose is "to furnish a scientific training of college grade for that rapidly increasing class of prospective business men who realize the growing complexity and rapidly changing character of modern commercial life and the necessity for thorough preparation for it." The commercial museum of the institution contains a considerable number of the materials of commerce.

The University of Illinois has arranged courses of study to furnish training for (1) general business, (2) commerce and the consular service, (3) banking, (4) transportation, (5) insurance, (6) journalistic work. The courses extend through four years and lead to the A. B. degree. A considerable collection of commercial products, raw and finished, has been made in the various departments of the university and is used by students in the business courses. At various times, especially during the senior year, classes in the business courses are required to make visits of inspection to industrial and mercantile establish

ments.

The commercial course of the Indiana University extends through four years and leads to the A. B. degree. It includes fifteen hours of English (hour meaning one recitation per week during a university term), fifteen hours of mathematics, fifteen hours of science, thirty hours of language, sixty-two hours under the direction of the department of economics and social science, of which forty-eight hours must be in that department, twenty-eight hours of optional studies selected from groups of designated electives, and fifteen hours of free electives.

In the school of political and social science of the University of Iowa there is a course in commerce and a course in government and administration, each extending through four years and leading to the A. B. degree. To provide practical instruction a commercial museum has been founded.

The University of Kansas has organized courses in business extending through four years and leading to the degree of A. B. The courses are (a) general business, (b) banking, (c) insurance, (d) journalism, and comprise elective studies open to all students. The first two years of the courses are the same as the other courses of the university leading to the A. B. degree, specialization beginning with the junior year.

The University of Michigan has organized a course in commerce in the department of literature, science, and the arts. In the case of candidates for a degree enrollment in the course in commerce takes place at the beginning of the third year of residence in the university and may be continued either for two years, leading to the bachelor's degree; or for three years, leading to the master's degree. Undergraduates are expected to elect ten hours per semester and graduate students thirteen hours per semester from the special or technical courses in commerce and industry.

The Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance of Dartmouth College comprises two years of work. The first year of the school requires for admission three years of college work and is coordinate with the senior year of the college. On the completion of the work of the second year of the school the degree of master of commercial science is conferred. It is the purpose of the school to direct its work not only toward first giving the man a broad basis of business education, but more and more toward imposing upon this broad basis a training that will meet the demand for men in specific businesses. There is offered instruction of particular value in preparation for banking, brokerage and investments, transportation, insurance, commerce, and journalism. The commercial museum contains exhibits of domestic industries, comprising samples of raw materials, partly finished and finished products and by-products, lantern slides, photographs, maps, charts, and other illustrative matter.

New York University has a school of commerce, accounts, and finance, giving instruction in both day and evening classes. To obtain the degree of bachelor of commercial science requires an attendance of two years at the day sessions or of three years at the evening sessions. Its courses of study are intended to lay the groundwork for successful careers in the following vocations: General business (manufacturing and mercantile), expert public accountant, banker, stock and bond broker, credit man, insurance, real estate business,

advertising manager, teacher in high schools and colleges of commerce, and consular service. There have been added recently five one-year special courses requiring an attendance of four evenings a week for the benefit of men engaged in business. These special courses are one each in accounting, banking, general business, real estate, and insurance.

The course in commerce and administration of the Ohio State University extends through four years and leads to the A. B. degree. The selection of studies is left largely to the student.

The Wharton School of Finance and Commerce of the University of Pennsylvania offers several courses of study. The four-year course leads to the B. S. degree. The work of the first two years of the course is largely prescribed, while that of the last two years is elective and is specialized along the lines selected by the student for his chosen career. The special two-year course in business practice and banking consists of prescribed studies, and upon its completion a certificate of proficiency is granted. The evening school of accounts and finance was established in 1904, and the regular course offered in it extends through three years.

The University of Texas in its school of political science has arranged groups of studies in preparation for work in commerce, journalism, administration, diplomatic and consular service. The groups are not open to freshmen nor to sophomores unless they are of high rank, and are intended to extend over two to three years of the student's work. These groups may be counted as regular work for the A. B. degree.

The University of Vermont maintains a course in commerce and economics extending through four years and leading to the A. B. degree, which aims to give training for business in general rather than for any particular business.

The University of Wisconsin offers courses in commerce extending through four years and leading to the A. B. degree. Required studies comprise nearly all the work of the first two years, and with the exception of elementary economics and commercial geography consist of those which have long been considered as fundamental and necessary in a liberal education. The required work of the junior and senior years includes continuation courses in modern languages, money and banking, transportation, commercial law, and business administration. In addition, the student is required to select one of the elective groups and a certain number of free electives. The elective groups now available are in banking and finance, transportation, manufacturing industries, agricultural industries, and consular service. Others may be arranged on consultation with the director.

In the following pages are given the topics under which instruction in commercial branches of study is given by the several universities and colleges, including such instruction offered in the departments of economics of a number of institutions where no definite courses in commerce are announced. The general culture studies that are prescribed or that may be elected in the several courses are not included.

Instruction in commercial branches by universities and colleges (including higher institutions giving elementary and secondary instruction in commercial branches).

Howard College, Birmingham, Ala.-Bookkeeping, business forms, commercial arithmetic.
St. Bernard College, St. Bernard, Ala.-Bookkeeping, commercial law.

Spring Hill College, Spring Hill, Ala.-Bookkeeping, stenography and typewriting.

University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.-Bookkeeping, commercial law, business forms, stenography and typewriting.

Ouachita College, Arkadelphia, Ark.-Bookkeeping, commercial law, business forms, stenography and typewriting.

Arkansas Cumberland College, Clarksville, Ark.-Bookkeeping, commercial law, stenography and typewriting.

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Ark.-Commercial law, banking, transportation, tariff history and problems, industrial history of the United States, trusts, labor problem.

Philander Smith College, Little Rock, Ark.-Stenography, typewriting, bookkeeping, commercial law. University of California.-Introduction to commercial geography, lectures on commerce, introduction to economics, economics of industry, materials of commerce, geography of international trade, American agriculture, history of commerce, modern industrialism, theory and history of banking, practical banking, money, international exchanges, statistics, insurance, economic factors in American history,

industrial and commercial development of the United States, labor, principles of accounting, investment market, financial history of the United States, modern industrial processes, mechanism and technic of trade, business forms and practice, economic position of the great powers, consular service, customs tariffs and regulations, modern colonial economics, communication and transportation, commercial resources of the Spanish-American countries, history and theory of prices, commerce of China and Japan, commercial law, elementary law and jurisprudence.

St. Vincent's College, Los Angeles, Cal.-Bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting, commercial arithmetic, banking, commercial law.

University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Cal.-Bookkeeping, business practice, commercial arithmetic, commercial law, stenography, typewriting.

St. Mary's College, Oakland, Cal.-Business arithmetic, bookkeeping, typewriting, business practice and office methods, stenography, commercial law, commercial geography, history of commerce, insurance, statistics, transportation, trade organization.

Throop Polytechnic Institute, Pasadena, Cal.-Bookkeeping, banking, stenography, typewriting, commercial geography, commercial law, finance.

St. Ignatius College, San Francisco, Cal.-Bookkeeping, stenography.

University of the Pacific, San Jose, Cal.--Bookkeeping, commercial arithmetic, commercial law, commercial geography, stenography, typewriting.

Santa Clara College, Santa Clara, Cal.-Bookkeeping, commercial law, stenography, typewriting. Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford University, Cal.--Banking, American transportation system, railway rates and finance, corporations and trusts, commerce of the Pacific, industrial history of England and United States, labor problem, communications, law of contracts.

University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.-Money and banking, industrial history of the United States, economic and commercial geography, transportation.

College of the Sacred Hear, Denver, Colo.-Bookkeeping, commercial law, stenography, typewriting. University of Denver, University Park, Colo.--Commercial geography, history of commerce, American diplomacy in the Orient.

Connecticut Agricultural College, Storrs, Conn.-Bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting.

Yale University, New Haven, Conn.-Law of contracts, insurance, corporation economics, industrial history of the United States, commerce and commercial policy in the nineteenth century, railroads. Howard University, Washington, D. C.--Commercial law, commercial geography, bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting, commercial history, transportation, insurance, production.

St. John's College, Washington, D. C.-Bookkeeping, commercial law, commercial geography, stenography, typewriting.

John B. Stetson University, De Land, Fla.-Bookkeeping, business arithmetic, commercial law, commercial geography, stenography, typewriting.

St. Leo College, St. Leo, Fla.-Commercial arithmetic, bookkeeping, stenography, commercial law, accounting.

Rollins College, Winter Park, Fla.-Bookkeeping, banking, commercial law, commercial arithmetic, stenography, typewriting.

North Georgia Agricultural College, Dahlonega, Ga.-Bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting, commercial law, commercial geography, commercial economics.

University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho.-Bookkeeping, business forms, commercial law.

St. Viateur's College, Bourbonnais, Ill.—Bookkeeping, commercial law, business forms, commercial arithmetic, stenography, typewriting.

Carthage College, Carthage, Ill.-Bookkeeping, commercial arithmetic, business forms, commercial law, stenography, typewriting.

St. Ignatius College, Chicago, Ill.-Bookkeeping, commercial law, business forms, stenography, typewriting.

University of Chicago.-History of commerce, commercial geography, modern industries, organization of the retail market, economic geography of North America and Europe, insurance, mathematics of insurance, laws of insurance, accounting, modern business methods, commercial law. problems of American agriculture, organization of business enterprise, banking, commercial crises, railway transportation, statistics, contracts, bills, and notes.

James Millikin University, Decatur, Ill.-Commercial arithmetic, bookkeeping, accounting and office practice, stenography, typewriting, materials of commerce, history of commerce, introduction to commerce, commercial geography, auditing, commercial organization and management, elementary law, foreign commerce of the United States, industries and resources of the United States, money and banking, commercial law, corporation finance, distribution and transportation, relation of science to business, administration of corporate and public industries, insurance, international law, and diplomacy.

Eureka College, Eureka, Ill.-Bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting, commercial law, business forms, banking.

Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.-Modern industrial and commercial history, money and banking, commercial geography and international trade, financial and tariff history of the United States.

Ewing College, Ewing, Ill.-Bookkeeping, commercial arithmetic, commercial law, banking, commercial geography, stenography, typewriting.