The sun., 1916-11-25
SCHOOLROOM TACTICS AND BUSINESS
OFFICE STRATEGY.
How Much Can the Pesasesuss Contribute 70 the Commercial suesss
Of America?

Its colonial universities were modelled
after the medieval universities Of
Spain. educating men for letters. the
priesthood, the law and. later. medi.
cine: and the secondary schools were
regulated to ht this end. But with
the commercial development Of the
latter half Of the nineteenth century
new needs were recognized and Latin
America began to develop a system in
which liberal and technical education
were combined. In Latin America IL
has been found advantageous To con.
duct commercial education separately.
but for reasons Of economy the work
Is oeen done in a Commercial sec.
tion" In the regular high school.
What Germany does in this line 10
pretty well known. and must he pretty
generally held in respect. The Ger
man system produces results. In
England the distinctive modern do.
velopment Is seen in the commercial
departments Of the newer universities
and colleges. Manchester. Liverpool.
Birmingham. London School of Eco
Monies, Nottingham, Reading and
Southampton. In these schools the
courses are organized In connection
with the faculties Of and with
consideration for the advice OF local
chambers of commerce. The subjects
Of study include modern languages.
statistics, accounting, banking and en-
change, commercial geography and
history. economics. organization Of
commerce and industry and CONNER
cial law.
Bulletin No. % does this. I. AZ
sembles a vas and various collection
Of facts and opinions. From these II
falls to evolve. through logically pro-
gressive criticism Of what is. any
clear. positive statement Of what alsh,
to be. 1t leaves US no nearer a pro.
gramme Of commercial and educational
cooperation than we were before. The
commercial programme will not come
out Of any college faculty room. The
educational programme is thus far
divergent from the older one that
while We still have academic theorists
mumbling ove industrial economics
and commercial economies" and "po-
litical economy and graduating with
honor students who could not hold a
shipping clerks job. there are avail.
able to-day surprisingly many means
Of learning business methods and the
principles OF commercial strategy
through instruction not clouded by
pedagogic theory.
Certain deficiencies stand out plain
ly. Stories OF loss Of trade by Ameri-
a exporters. due to ignorance or
neglect Of buyers requirements. ny
about. They have just that combina-
ton of truth and falsehood. or mac
curacy. which assures long life and a
ready audience What American trad
ers want seriously enough to go
after" they are pretty likely TO get.
On the other side. an equally common
allegation against the educators 10
failure to teach languages in a COM
mercially useful way. II a bachelor
Of arts knows German at all II IL
literary. not industrial or scientific,
German. He knows the speech ~
Schiller and Goethe. not that OF the
Krupps. Could he sell "Schweineisen"'
Not unless his stom knew Eng.
lish pig" in at least two varieties
The schoolmen are always urging
business men. chambers Of commerce
and boards OF trade to cooperate with
educational systems. Business men
cooperate willingly enough-perhaps
because they think IL will make the
educators happy and do business no
harm. But while the educators con.
tinue to lose sight III the end in Their
debate over means their contrihut'o on
is a negative quality. II the schools
arc earnest in their effort To- prepare
boys for business and m they