The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-06-11

must learn something about it all before he comes here CT he will never be anything more than a clerk. tio home and tell the young men to study. It is their only chance today"
 Learns By Practice
 The most important feature of the method of Instruction given in the school of commerce and business as- sociation is that of learning by prac l tice. The student does not merely read books. Textbooks are used and carefully taught. They are high-c class books, too, in no case brief condensations or business primers, hut the latest and best books in the neld-the kind that are found on the desks of business ex- ecutives and In the board rooms of corporations. They are supplement- ed by lectures But the instruction does not stop there. The student must do the thing he is trying to learn, whenever that Is practicable. In the accounting courses they keep sets of books of every description, and perform over and over the operations necessary to the practice of accounting. In statistics they plot curves of bond prices taken from the daily newspapers. perform | all the operations of tabulating, averaging and showing graphically the facts used in business forecast ing and tfe statistics employed in the conduct of a business. In in- vestments the very first exercise re- quired of the students is to look up certain selected securities in the rat ing books and report on them. In commercial correspondence the stu dents not merely write letters to ha Fo of but prepare letters to meet definite business problems For example, g part of the practice Is to compose a series of half a dozen collection let ters to fit certain described case.
 In all the courses in economies special rtports are required on sub jects of importance, individually as- signed. They are always chosen with reference to the students future career. These reports increase in ] comprehensivenessa as the courses be- come more advanced. Reports of all most business ma ga zine quality have been received on such matters as the bb-Pomerene act, the Edge act, the National Retail Drygoods Mer- chants association; upon the or ganzation and system used in par
 ticular corporations-some of them in Birmngham-and many similar business topics of special interest and value to the men who prepared them.
 Men who go through the commerce school not only know how to study but also how to find out things for themselves. and how to weigh and arrange them. They have had prac- tice, too, In the typical operations of business. and in the preparation of I cf Q nj do rd nd
 Two laboratories have been equip ped to accommodate the classes in accounting. These are fitted with long and rather narrow tables and chairs on one side only so that all the students face the front of the room. Each student has ample work room and drawer to accommodate his books and papers. This squip- ment was designed by Dean Bidgood. and. while constructed from mex pensive materials. 1t is believed to be equal or superior in serviceabili- ty to that In any commercial school in the country. Two nine bank ad- ding machines and a fourteen-place calculating machine are the property of the school, and other machines have been loaned to 1t. The school !, subscribes to one of the leading business forecasting> services, and receives other less extensive service on complimentary basis. For good many years all important new books on economies. including busi- Eess organization, efficiency, com merce, barking. finance, labor and all the other subjects embraced un- der the tehm, have been added to the University library soon after their appearance.
 There Is reason to believe that, l if the school of commerce and busi- ness administration has the neces- sary financial support, it will In few years be training many times as many young business men and women as are now enrolled in It's | classes. It's value to the economic 1 future of the State is hard to eXag- gerate; but greater still is it's vc-sse to the economic future of young Ala bamians For the business possibili- ties of Alabama will be developed. but whether by outsiders or by Ala bamiams will be decided largely by the number of our young men who are equipped with higher business training Except for the few who can go to the great universities of other states. the only place where young Alabamians can get this training is the school of commerce and business administration of the University of Alabama.