The San Angelo press. (San Angelo, Tex.) 1897-1907, 1902-07-02
THE NECESSITY OF BUSINESS
EDUCATION.

Inc proper consideration OF this
subject requires that two conditions
be imagined-one with a healthy COM
merce conducted by we'll trained busi-
moss men, the other with every posi-
BILE commercial advantage, yet denied
the discernment and caution of prac.
teal minds and the def fingers OF
experience. With everything else
equal IL would not be difficult to mag
Inc which of these two would attract
the swift-winged angels OF prosperity,
and which languish and become the
victim OF the others cunning opera
tions. The same will apply to two
boys who, being equally intelligent,
follow the different courses outlined
in the foregoing. One will become
master while the other will become
his servant.
The term business education is not
used here in its primary sense, but in
its broader application which recog-
nizes masters in every art and skilled
labor in every industry. The world
pays a premium for brain effort, and
calls upon every individual to enter
the list for the prizes. Business edu-
cation does not mean merely a super
fetal understanding OF debit and
credit, but that deeper insight into
the affairs which more nearly affect
the individual welfare OF the student.
For instance it Is not necessary for
the merchant to study medicine to
successfully conduct his business, but
it is necessary for him to give his
best thought to the honorable man.
agement OF his own affairs, and his
clerks must likewise possess sufficient
judgment to familarize themselves
with their employers interests. To
do this 1t Is necessary TO employ such
spare moments as they may snatch
from the hours allotted to them for
recreation. The employer should
never be satisfied with subordinate
place, but should ever be- working for
promo ion.
Business education, according to
It's general usage, applies to the study
OF book keeping. There are none who
will deny the Importance OF this pri-
mary step toward business educa-
ton, but he Is a poor man OF business
who gets no farther in commercial
lore than the fragmentary elements OF
such scholarship. The beginning Is
right, but the study is for lifetime,
and not few dull months.
In the middle OF the seventeenth
century there was In England a
schoolmaster who was the most
notable, perhaps, who ever kept a
school. His name was John Milton,
the accomplished scholar whose Latin
works we're known throughout Europe,
and whose fame will live as long as
language lives as the author Of
Paradise Lost" His ideas on edu-
cation, like everything else connected
with him, are OF heroic mold. The
teacher gasps at the mere enumeration
OF the subjects to be learned and the
books to be read. His idea of lam
guage was that sit was not to be
studied for itself, but merely. as an
instrument conveying to US things
useful to be known"
The Innovators, who had become
disguised with the Jesuit, who taught
grammar, logic and rhetoric as the
encyclopaedia OF knowledge" object
ed to the language bondage, and de-
manded that the study Of things
should precede the study OF words. t"
They insisted that ''only the boys
who would be likely to complete a
learned education should be taught
Latin and Greek" The great au-
thority Of Milton may be claimed by
the Innovators, and protest against
a purely literary education comes
with tremendous force from the
student who sacrificed his sight to
reading.
The idea which these practical re-
formers were endeavoring to inculcate
was the absurdity of making a lum-
berroom of the mind, burdening it
with useless, impractical materials
which would be sooner forgotten than
learned.
Education should mean something,
and the young man who fails to quail
ify himself for place Of usefulness
should not complain If he is forgotten
in the rush for promotions. Business
men require assistants to possess
business ability, and how can one
ever hope to become partner
who will not take the pains to qualify
himself for an efficient clerkship?