The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15
WHY HIGHER EDUCATION SHOULD INCLUDE
VARIOUS BRANCHES OF BUSINESS TRAINING
BY GEORGE III. DENNY, LII. ID.
President University of Alabama


,iation of State Universities in Washin
excel them. The last decade has wit
messed a remarkable expansion and
advance in the teaching of law and
medicine. On the other hand, the high
er commercial training as a function
of the university system has been
given comparatively small attention.
This situation is due to several out
standing causes. Perhaps the chief ex-
PLANTATION Is that the need of such train
| ing has not until now been generally rec
| ognized. Even within recent years lead
| ing business men have on occasion come
/ forward to declare that business expert
ence is the only great teacher in the
| business world. OF course, experience is
| a great teacher in every calling. Ii IL Is
/ the great teacher in business. SO ike
wise 1t is the great teacher In law, IN
engineering, in medicine. Yet no one rails
| to recognize the essential value or train
| ing lawyers, engineers and doctors. Some
of these professionals have gone so FAR as
| to declare that college training Is posi-
/ tive handicap. They have argued that
without such training our business leaders
| have developed a powerful business or
| ganization. These men. of course, ignore
the fact that had these leaders enjoyed
/ initial training, they would have been
still more effective leaders in the great
| struggle for commercial supremacy. They
IGNORE the fact that things have changed;
/ that old conditions have definitely passed
away; that we are now engaged in a
| world contest. Moreover. 1t ia undoubt-
i edly true that the business mans crit
icism of college training is largely, II
not entirely, directed at the conventional,
and, in the main, the classical curriculum.
The great mass of business men will rally
to tho new, practical training that we
are now discussing.
| Still another explanation for this state
of affairs is that there has been wide
difference of opinion concerning the pre-
ciso kind of training that is required
There has been disposition to empha-
size the mere technique of business. Ac-
cording to this theory the great desidera-
tum is training In bookkeeping, in Ste
biography, in the elements of banking, in
the details of office work, and In various
other phases of commercial usage. The
higher training has, therefore, been large
ly neglected. To meet this view hundreds
of so-called business colleges" have beer
established and many of them have great
1y prospered. Few of them have beer
really effective agencies in developing
business leaders.
In More Scientific Way
During recent years there has been de-
veloping more decided sentiment In
favor of dealing with the problem of com.
mercial education in a more scientific
and comprehensive way. Some of oul
leading universities have brought to 6
plane of high efficiency training schools
which provide the kind of business train
ing that has long been available to tht
young men of Europe and long needed
by our American youth. The University
of Pennsylvania, the University of Chi
cago, the University of California, tho
Northwestern university, the Universit,
| nf racfy he mi.
versity have been particularly energetic
in developing departments. or schools o.
commerce and business administration.
Harvard university has put the work
on a distinctly graduate basis. The
need of such training Is now widely
recognized. 1t may, I think, be taker
for granted that there Is among uni
versity men a growing conviction thai
such training is entitled to the same
consideration in the university system
that has been accorded law, engineer
ing and medicine. So far as the state
university is concerned, there is a
growing conviction that such training
| should perhaps be provided even II
advance of professional training sine,
the number of men who enter bust
, ness Is larger than the number of mel
r who enter professional life. Surely tn
|. need of training for business is equal
e ! ly as important and indeed vital to tn
! state as professional training, when w,
: consider that the higher civilization
rests so largely on the foundation o.
, an efficient industrial life. The famil
lar advice once given to young men
4 begin at the bottom and work up
, carries with 1t no necessary deduction
. that the university trained man, ever
though ne starts later, will not e.
faster and get further. The function
of the school of commerce in the uni
versity system is to release talents
that are fitted for great business ven
Z tures-talents which, without sucl
. training, would be devoted to blind al
ley Jobs. The function of the schoo
: of commerce in the university system
is to prepare the youth of the nation
[ | to meet the radically changed condi
/ tions that have taken place in oul
business life within the last quarter
Z of a century.
Our colleges are getting ready II
. meet the situation. The time has passed
when loose business methods can wiz
success. The age of Apprenticeship
r without college training seems like
t wise to be definitely yielding to an ag.
1 that demands college training in add
ton to apprenticeship. We live in al
era of fierce competition, of intens'
! energy, of difficult and intricate com
mercial relationships. We live In al
/, era of international striving for com
mercial supremacy. Particularly at thi
! time the American youth Is interestet
, as never before in problems affecting
foreign trade 1t is felt that tn
, American business man should b.
i given a chance to meet on equal term
his European competitor; that h
, should be given an equal chance t