Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-21

iEGrAAH ana C0fnlncTcldl StiOolS ol tiie
IkY RfSll United States met recently in
ID 49, Louisville for the purpose of
II getting closer together in the
Ik.NmaD work of training young men
and women for the market
| the counting house, and the other in
| Vulnerable activities in which the stu
dent of the business school must be
| fitted to engage. Omitting the large
number of teachers who are connected
with the business departments of
/ schools that teach other things besides
! commercial courses, there are some $500
| teachers in schools that give instruction
in nothing except business arts. There
are nearly 600 such schools, and their
annual enrolment of pupils aggregates
| 1000 young men and women.
There never was such a demand for
/ young men trained in the art of busi-
ness record keeping as there is today
The same applies with equal force to
young women, except that the demand
| is more nearly met by the supply than
in the case of young men. In eighteen
years the number of pupils enrolled in
schools teaching nothing but CONNER
! cial courses and shorthand and type
| writing has practically doubled. In a
| single year the gain amounted to more
| than 17,000 There are about one-sev-
| enth more men in the commercial
! schools of the country than there are
women, though when it comes to short
| hand and typewriting the girls are de-
! cidedly in the majority. In the last
| fiscal year there We're two girls learning
| shorthand and typewriting for every
| boy who was taking a similar course
! 3S. 900 girls as compared with $4,000 boys.
This dsproportion of women in the
study of the amanuensis course obtains
also in the number of graduates turned
out More than $4,000 women were sent
out into the world of business last year,
and only 5000 men. Form this it will
be seen that the women still hold
safe grip on this kind of work, al
though they have been losing ground to
certain degree during the past dec
ade. Ten years ago there were nearly
three women stenographers to each
man amanuensis. Gradually the de-
mand for male stenographerS has in
creased, and it is still increasing. The
government service affords q notable
example of this increase in the demand
for the man stenographer. a decade
ago the woman was always favored for
such positions, but there has been such
shift of sentiment among govern
ment officials that now a man is pre-
ferred in three cases out of four. This
preference has reached such a stage
that to become a proficient stenograph-
er now almost insures man a life po-
sition under the civil service. The sup
ply of male stenographers for the gov
crnment far from equals the demand,
while thousands of women are on the
civil service waiting list, hoping that
they will be called to a position.
While the women have marked taste
for shorthand and typewriting, they
show comparatively little inclination to
take up the regular commercial course,
of which bookkeeping is the central
study Here the ratio is changed and
there are two man students of book
keeping and allied arts to one woman
student. OF the $4,000 pupils taking
commercial courses in exclusive busi-
ness colleges 10000 graduated last year.
The figures of the bureau of educa-
ton show that there are now approXi-
mately n quarter of a million young
men and women fitting themselves for
service in the commercial world. In
addition to the business schools, about
which data is given above, there are
1910 public high schools which now
teach business courses and about 800
other institutions which give similar
instruction.
1t is said that the first business
school in the United States was estab-
Bennett. He was succeeded in the
management of this school by James
Gordon Bennett, founder of the Newe
York Herald, who indulged in much
publicity for his institution and built
1t up to no mean success But he soon
decided that journalism was the pro-
fession to which he was called, and
the New York Herald is the result of
that decision
The next exposition of business
equipment is to be held in Berlin.
Every known appliance for the reduc-
tion of detail work, the enhancement
of the capacity of the worker and the
elimination of error is exhibited at
these business eXpositions, and the
whole world acknowledges the supe-
riority of American ingenuity in hand
ling large business transactions with
easy clerical work. The tendency of
the time in business record keeping
seems to be exactly summarized in the
motto OF one of the big establish
ments engaged in office outfitting-
business with the drudgery cut out"
The American export trade in modern