The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-20

NdinoIiuBe, hdSs., NOV. IS.-The 0ls- cussion as to the advisability of ally ing Harvard University aud the Mas sachusetts Institute of Technology in certain branches of their work has brought out very strikingly the fact that educational institutions are bacom- ing more and more business concerns. Nowadays ability to conduct q college Is supposed to include something more than book learning in the old fashioned sense, and the man who directs a great university must be more than a scholar. which was once considered the only qualification necessary. The so-calied academic course has been modified to meet the demand not only for men who can read Greek and Latin. solve prob lens in higher mathematics. discuss literature and talk in foreign lam guages, but for men whose general intelligence has been sharpened and who have been taught to use their faculties beyond the mere application of classroom and laboratory knowledge.
 One of the chief supporters of this modern idea of education has been President Charles W. Eliot of Harvard and the further Harvard progressed toward turning out men well-trained for any branch of the worlds busi- ness, as distinguished from one of the professions. the palmer 1t became that the college itself must adopt new methods in the conduct of its own af- fairs. While it was introducing courses in finance and banking. for ex- ample. 1t was keeping its archives in practically the same old way that has been in vogue for 250 years. and with the growth of the institution, which haa fin ta ntar rfAasa danorknnAnfa and schools more than 5000 young men, there came a time when an up-to-date business system for keeping track of them was imperativeIy required.
 President Eliot appreciated that for such a reorganization of ofilce machi- merry as he had in mind the trained business man was needed. and Mir. Montague Chamberlain, an expert ac- countant and commercial organzer, was selected for the task. Mir. Chamberlain not only was not "collegs bred" but at that time he was not even an American citizen: in fact, he made his start in life as a messenger boy in a Canadian telegraph ofice. Having taken up expert accounting when most lads of his age were going to school, however, and risen by de- grees to have large industrial interests of his own. he had a special sort of training that would enable him to see defects in an academic system which the professional collegian would not be likely to detect.
 MT. Chamberlain was probably the first business man to have share in the executive administration of & great university. The wisdom of the policy that selected such person for the somewhat peculiar task that was set tVra- prtv oyfIx hA al a< the method of keeping the records of students--soon appeared. MT. Cham berlain stipulated at the outset that he should be allowed three months for investigation of the feasibility of de- vising such system as was desired be- fore taking up the work more perma- nently; in the end he stayed eleven years.
 When he undertook his work the newly created recorder, as he was call- ed, found that in order to get at q Har- yard mans college record 1t was neces- sary to search at least ten large volumes and to pick out the informa- ton about the individual in question from the whole mass of statistics. There were the books covering the en- trance examinations and those for each of the. four years in the regular course for degree. If & student went be- yond that to the graduate school. or to one of the professional schools. several move thick tonnes were added to those through which his name was scattered.
 These archives, containing the sum mary not only of a mans scholarship but of his behavior so far as it con- cerned the college authorities. had to be referred to constantly. of course, and the labor involved in their use was enormous. The unacademic. but very practical solution of the dificulty was little more or less than a huge card catalogue in which every indi- vidual had his own card and but one card. The cards themselves were of unusual size, necessarily, but every item of a students account with either disciplinary or teaching officers could be entered on the same sheet, both sides of which were employed in