The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-05-03
A BUSINESS TRAINING
The Methods That Are Used In
the Schools Of Germany.
CLASS ROOMS As OFFICES.

That Carry on an imaginary trade
With Each Other-The Course From a
Office Boy to Director. n
No one will deny the fact that Ger
mans are among the keenest business
men In the world. And undoubtedly +
one of the secrets Of their success lies
In the fact that In German schools
boys are taught the practical details
Of business. The writer recently re-
turned from Hamburg after a years
course of education, and an outline of {
the system of training boys In business
may be interesting.
| On my first days attendance l was
handed a time table on which appear
ed. set out In formidable array, such
| subjects as commercial correspond
ence, laws of bills Of exchange, cur
rency, political economy and CONNER
cial law, none Of which at the time
conveyed much to me and raised seri-
GUS doubts in my mind as to whether
l should be able to understand and APP
preciate what appeared to be most |
abstruse subjects.
Alto a. m. sharp on the following day |
the course began, prefaced by cou-
pie of hours hard study, for the Ger
mans are gluttons to work and think
nothing of twelve hour day. The
first course was called business train
ing" We worked In two spacious
rooms furnished as offices, each room
, representing Il different business house.
These two firms carried on an imagi-
, nary trade with each other, and the
routine adhered to was modelled exact
, ly on the lines Of first class business
l establishment.
{ Each firm had a director. and these
. two were the most eminent students in
=. the academy They had subject to
t their management and control COM
$ pete staff of correspondents, short
@ hand writer's, typists, boOkkeepers, etc.
), The whole was supervised by mas
f ter. to whom reference was made in
n case of dispute or difficulty.
e On making my appearance | was in
It formed that my services were in re-
5 quest as an Office boy. | was some
what taken back, not to say a little
s Inundated. by the lowly position as
b. signed to me. and gave the master to
n qualified to occupy a much better post
d. than that which he had chosen for me.
id He did not seem in the least perturbed
mr. by my remarks, but said: You have
q already made a mistake-a mistake OF
nj diplomacy One of the great maxims
or of business as taught here is to dc
%. what you are told. to do it at once and
10 do it we'll"
re With that he handed me a pile Of
n envelopes and loug list of addresses
and told me to set to work addressing
-, them | did so, but not with very
10. good grace, the master coming rount
~ from time to time to inspect my work
81, For two solid hours plodded on unit
,ie II a. M, when the course came to al
-, end. Then took the opportunity O
nd going up to the master again and ask
~ ing him if he did not really think
- had been wasting my time in what
ra had been doing
~. mot in the least" said he. al
everything. no matter how simple o
how difficult. there is always a goot
nv deal to learn. If you have paid atten
u" ton while you were working you wi
nc have learned something about the &c
u" ography of the German empire, 70
81 each address contains the name o
us some important town and province Il
VIZ which it is situated and the name o
some firm celebrated for some particr
" lar class of goods"
This gave me food for reelection. A
ny a matter of fact, | had not paid tn
IFS least attention to what | had bee
OF writing; consequently had failed
derive the benefit which it was til
lor masters intention | should obtain froI
ces what seemed to me at the outset
tte most senseless task On the followin
Is day | resolved to follow out the ma
oily ter's instructions to the letter. and
the was surprised to find how interestin
ass the work became
led continued addressing envelopes IL
for two hours IL day for whole week. an
the next week | received promotion
ost In this way went through the who
e." routine, from office boy to directo
sh and the experience which obtaine
ark IN the various capacities has prove
ich Invaluable to me In business.
ext AS director had to sign checks, di
VS. tate letters, enter into agreements VII
at the other firm with reference to Il
ies. sale and purchase of goods, keep 6
ltly eve on the money market. work out a
hes; bitrage calculations, draw up and
of dorse bills of exchange and bills
the lading, make out periodical statemen
cen of affairs. allow or dispute amour
ssly placed TO the debit of the firm on a
count of general average losses al
the generally supervise everything.
he'd While we were thus drilled in prac
lin cal work the theoretical side of bu
4 ness was not neglected Lectures we
are given at fixed hours. bookkeeping a
red mercantile law Thus we enjoyed t
inestimable advantage of acquiring t