The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-06-11
Training Business Men And Won1enat The
 UniUersity Of Alabama
nr P P. CLAXToN

By F. r. CLAYTON
 Some years ago Harry Hodgson of Athens, Ga, then young man just succeeding his father in the large fertilizer business which the father had built up, read paper at meet ing of the conference for education in the south on the need of higher edu- cation for business men. Attempting to show the greater need of business men for ready preparation then as compared with the men of his fath- CTS day, he said his fathers orders for fertilizer came, usually for small amounts, in long hand letters through the mail These letters would lie on his fathers desk for a day or more while he gave them and the transactions involved in filling them deliberate consideration. Then he would leisurely fill the orders or begin with the writers of the letters a time consuming correspondence about them. On the other hand, the son received many of his orders, fre- quently for large shipments, over long distance telephone and had given immediately the answer his father took days for. Within the long distance conversation period of three minutes all the complex considera- tions had to be made and the con-
  This could be done safely only on the basis of comprehensive knowl- edge and by mind trained to quick and active thinking.
 And so it was and so it is. The small industries of a few decades ago with their individual management, the small domestic commerce of the country, village and city store be- fore the days of the great department store and when most American ex- porters and importers were only commission merchants doing business for feign international merchants, and the comparatively small scale on which all governmental business. city state and national, was done, made little demand for and gave lit tie opportunity for the trained busi- ness manager. the skilled accountant, the merchant of college education and instructed and learned deeply and broadly in the principles and laws of commerce, colleges and uni- versailles made little provision in their curricula for any of them.
 But this has all changed or is rap idly changing, The great industries capitalized al hundreds of millions or at billions of dollars. our rapidly expanding commerce, interstate and International. and the unprecedented magnitude and eomplexitg of the fi- 'nancial and business transactions of our national state and municipal governments have opened up new ca ireers for many thousands of college men and women trained in account ing. business management and com ,merce Within the last 10 or 15 years institutions of higher learning have responded by organizing courses of instruction and training in the prin- ,eiples and practices of these sub 'jects.
 Begun Fly University
 . True to it's tradition of enlarging and adjusting it's work to meet new and changing conditions, the Uni 'versity of Alabama in January. 1920, ,established school or college of commerce and business adminstra- ,tionl It Is the newest of the unl- lversity's schools of higher vocational education, and in only two and one- lali wears has grown to be the larg est. Durns the year just closed i it senreiled 232 students. It is al- ready giking evidence of becoming a powerful factor in the business life and development of the state
 A is preparing men and women for tNe more coui9leX and difficult task S tf our rapidly growing domestic and I reign commerce. for the manage ment of our great industrial plants, snd the direction of our ever growing 'systeAs of transnorta tion. It is pre- plrins Alabama men and women to iil the mportant positions hereto f resfilled chiefly by men and women fr.im the north. It's curriculum in- ludes those subjects know edge of ! N hi h gives ene a chance to get nut of the clerical class into the select group of executives
 The first of these subjects Is ac- counting. Knowledge of accounts is fundamental to business leadership. fll students in the unlversity's school cf commerce and business administra- sion are required to study accounting for two years. During this time they cover the general principles of ac-