ties are introduced is usually Cost Accounting, Auditing Systems, Judicial or Fiduciary Accounting, and then other special branches such as Brokers' Accounts, Public Utilities Accounting, Foreign Exchange Accounting, etc.

General Accounting is very important both as an instrument for the business man to use and as a training to insure the grasp of general business organization. It is the opinion of the writer that whether a business man expects to become an accountant or not, he should have a thorough and technical grasp of this subject. In these specialties it is necessary to depend upon lectures rather than textbooks, not only because textbooks here are few and other works are not well adapted to teaching use, but also because the subject matter must be kept up to date and in keeping with changing practice. The lecturers should be practical experts in each particular field as well as acceptable teachers.

Closely related to Accountancy is Commercial Law. Commercial Law should, of course, be understood by every business man, not because he expects to become a practitioner of law but because he wishes to avoid unnecessary disputes and to shape his course wisely from a legal standpoint in dealing with his employees, his business associates, and his customers.

There are various methods of teaching Commercial Law. The one which has been in vogue thus far has been the textbook method, in which the principles of law of interest to the business man are set forth. Lessons are assigned in the book, and recitations are held. The lecture method also is advocated. In some universities which have both law schools and schools of commerce, the commercial students receive lectures in the school of law in such subjects as contracts, agencies, insurance, etc. It seems to the writer that neither of these practices is desirable but that the proper way to teach Commercial Law to the commercial students is the case method, in which the principles of law of interest to the business man are developed from an examination of actual cases of business litigation. We may

very likely look forward to the publication of case books which can be used either alone or in conjunction with textbooks on legal principles. Lectures on law to commercial students should be reduced to a minimum, and then they should confine themselves to very broad principles which need no lengthy exposition or to fields in which the students may be expected to have a general grasp but. no very detailed knowledge. But such subjects as contracts, agency, bankruptcy, sales, insurance, negotiable instruments, and forms of business association should be taught thoroughly to the student in the classroom through the case method, in which each case is fully discussed by the class and from which discussion legal principles are evolved. It is interesting to note that the states which stand highest in the matter of Certified Public Accountancy licenses are requiring very thorough preparation in law. To meet such requirements a course in law covering at least three semesters, three hours a week, with a case method is certainly neces

sary.

The modern languages taught in schools of commerce should be by the direct method, and always with the vocational end clearly before the student. Actual business transactions, such as selling to a foreign customer in the foreign language, correspondence, newspapers, catalogues and other documents of business, should be the supplementary reading and exercise material of the class. Facility in conversation and writing should be developed as rapidly as possible, and the grasp of the methodical rules should follow. It would probably be presumptuous to take a strong position here on the question of teaching modern languages, but experience · with commercial students has clearly indicated that greatest progress can be made if the language is taught by a conversation or direct method from the very start, and if paradigms and rules of syntax are evolved after some vocabulary has been developed and some facility in speech has been acquired. We may say here, incidentally, that it seems wise to teach the spoken language for a while before taking

Relations with the business world

up the problem of the written language, especially where the foreign language assigns different phonetic values to the printed symbols from those assigned in English.

While the various technical subjects offer different problems because of differences in their character, we may say in general that the aim of the school should always be to keep in touch with the actual practice in the business world; to have the lecturer use material which is up to the minute, and, where possible, to give the students the advantage of field work or at least to take them on tours of inspection in the different houses engaged in this or that line of busi

ness.

The curriculum of any good commercial college or university department of business includes courses in Economics, Commercial Geography, Industrial History, Business Management, and similar subjects. No doubt other chapters of this book discuss methods of teaching these subjects. But it may not be out of place here to indicate that the best approach to the study of Economics is through practical business courses in Accountancy, Commercial Law, and Practical Management. Economics is the Philosophy of Business, and it cannot be understood by one who is unfamiliar with the facts of business. Certainly it cannot be related to real business life by the academic student. It would seem, therefore, best to reserve the course in Economic Theory for the senior year of a business course and precede it with courses in Accounting, Law, Industrial History, and Management. Then, when it is taught, it should be presented through practical problems from which the general principles may, by induction, be derived.

It is important that commercial education should not grow academic and remote from the real world of affairs. Therefore schools of business should keep in close contact with merchants' associations, chambers of commerce, and such other bodies of business men as may be in the neighborhood of the school. Committees from such associations should have either a voice in the conduct of the school, or

at least have very strong advisory representation on committees. In France, Germany, and in fact most European countries, colleges of commerce were directly established by chambers of commerce and associations of merchants, and the work is to a large extent conducted under their direction. Whether the college of commerce in America be a private institution or one supported by the public, it should form some sympathetic contact with the leading business organizations. Of course certain business associations have their own technical schools of training. The American Bankers' Association conducts its own courses, drawing upon various universities for lecturers in some subjects and drawing upon experts in business for other kinds of technical work. So also various corporations have their corporation schools which seek to develop business executives by progressive courses of training for those in the lower ranks.

Nevertheless, the collegiate institutions offering organized courses in commerce will do well to keep in touch with business men. Another way in which such schools and colleges can keep abreast of the times is to employ lecturers who do not make teaching their main business of life but who are expert in certain particular fields. Indeed, it is almost impossible to teach certain of the very advanced and specialized courses without employing men of this sort. They are attracted to teaching not by the pay but by the honor of being connected with an institution of learning, and by sincere desire to contribute something to the development of the work in which they are interested. These men, of course, can be scheduled only for a relatively few hours a week, and sometimes they can be had only for evening lectures, but in any event they are very much worth while. Obviously the director of studies in the college should give these men all possible assistance of a pedagogical sort, so that their advantages as experts in business will not be offset by deficiencies as teachers.

This brings us to another consideration which is very important. It seems to the writer that the ideal training for a student who has reached the stage of entrance to

Evening commercial

work in

courses

Recent developments

college and who wishes to go into business is as follows:

He should enroll in the college course which is preparatory for business training and pursue his modern languages, Mathematics, English, and the Social Sciences, and also take up such accounting and technical work as he can have the first two years of his course. Then he should enter the world of business itself, be in a business house during the day, and continue his studies at night. It seems very desirable that this parallel progress, in organized theory and instruction, on the one hand, and in actual business with "its difficulties which arise almost haphazard, should be carried on. The relationship is very helpful. Of course a substitute for this is the coöperative plan, in which the student spends a part of his time in college and a part of the time in a business house. Another alternative in institutions which have the three-term year is to put two terms in at college and one term in at business. The calendar arrangement of any institution will suggest variations of this suggested arrangement, the purpose of which will be to insure progressive development in business practice and also in collegiate instruction.

It is to be noticed that in the last few years business has become more and more intense. The developments are in two directions. The first direction is saving and efficiency through organization. This tends to keep down cost. The other direction is in the stimulation of the market and in perfecting advertising and selling methods. Naturally there have been developments in the recording, accounting, and clerical ends of the business, but scientific management in production on the one hand, and scientific selling on the other, are the two great developments. In both, engineering plays a prominent part and dictates a close correlation of the business and the engineering curricula of a college or university seeking to give most effective training either to the student of business or the student of engineering. On the selling side we are having the further developments which come with the growth of foreign trade.