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a personnel composed of men of the highest business talent and



attainments; tempted from such successful business traffic by the



offer of salaries comparable with those paid the responsible



officials of large corporations engaged in banking; railroading;



and industrial enterprises;  and they must also be fitted out



with an equipment of a corresponding magnitude and liberality。



    Apart from a large and costly material equipment; such a



college would also; under current conditions; have to be provided



with a virtually unlimited fund for travelling expenses; to carry



its staff and its students to the several typical seats and



centres of business traffic and maintain them there for that



requisite personal contact with affairs that alone can contribute



to a practical comprehension of business strategy。 In short; the



schools would have to meet those requirements of training and



information which men who today aim to prepare themselves for the



larger business will commonly spend expensive years of



apprenticeship to acquire。 It is eminently true in business



training; very much as it is in military strategy; that nothing



will take the place of first…hand observation and personal



contact with the processes and procedure involved; and such



first…hand contact is to be had only at the cost of a more or



less protracted stay where the various lines of business are



carried on。



    The creation and maintenance of such a College of Commerce;



on such a scale as will make it anything more than a dubious



make…believe; would manifestly appear to be beyond the powers of



any existing university。 So that the best that can be compassed



in this way; or that has been achieved; by the means at the



disposal of any university hitherto; is a cross between a



secondary school for bank…clerks and travelling salesmen and a



subsidiary department of economics。



    All this applies with gradually lessened force to the other



vocational schools; occupied with training for occupations that



are of more substantial use to the community and less widely out



of touch with the higher learning。 In the light of their



professions on the one side and the degree of their fulfilment on



the other; it would be hazardous to guess how far the university



directorate in any given case is animated with a spontaneous zeal



for the furtherance of these 〃practical〃 aims which the



universities so pursue; and how far on the other hand it may be a



matter of politic management; to bring content to those



commercially…minded laymen whose good…will is rated as a valuable



asset。 These men of substance have a high appreciation of



business efficiency  a species of self…respect; and therefore



held as a point of honour  and are consequently inclined to



rate all education in terms of earning…capacity。 Failure to meet



the presumed wishes of the businessmen in this matter; it is



apprehended; would mean a loss of support in endowment and



enrolment。 And since endowment and enrolment; being the chief



elements of visible success; are the two main ends of current



academic policy; it is incumbent on the directorate to shape



their policy accordingly。



    So the academic authorities face the choice between scholarly



efficiency and vocational training; and hitherto the result has



been equivocal。 The directorate should presumably be in a



position to appreciate the drift of their own action; in so



diverting the university's work to ends at variance with its



legitimate purpose; and the effect of such a policy should



presumably be repugnant to their scholarly tastes; as well as to



their sense of right and honest living。 But the circumstances of



their office and tenure leave them somewhat helpless; for all



their presumed insight and their aversion to this malpractice;



and these conditions of office require them; as it is commonly



apprehended; to take active measures for the defeat of learning;



 hitherto with an equivocal outcome。 The schools of commerce;



even more than the other vocational schools; have been managed



somewhat parsimoniously; and the effectual results have



habitually fallen far short of the clever promises held out in



the prospectus。 The professed purpose of these schools is the



training of young men to a high proficiency in the larger and



more responsible affairs of business; but for the present this



purpose must apparently remain a speculative; and very



temperately ingenuous; aspiration; rather than a practicable



working programme。







NOTES:







1。 〃Our professors in the Harvard of the '50s were a set of



rather eminent scholars and highly respectable men。 They attended



to their studies with commendable assiduity and drudged along in



a dreary; humdrum sort of way in a stereotyped method of



classroom instruction。。。



    〃And that was the Harvard system。 It remains in essence the



system still  the old; outgrown; pedagogic relation of the



large class…recitation room。 The only variation has been through



Eliot's effort to replace it by the yet more pernicious system of



premature specialization。 This is a confusion of the college and



university functions and constitutes a distinct menace to all



true higher education。 The function of the college is an



all…around development; as a basis for university



specializations。 Eliot never grasped that fundamental fact; and



so he undertook to turn Harvard college into a German university



 specializing the student at 18。 He instituted a system of



one…sided contact in place of a system based on no contact at



all。 It is devoutly to be hoped that; some day; a glimmer of true



light will effect an entrance into the professional educator's



head。 It certainly hadn't done so up to 1906。〃… Charles Francis



Adams; An Autobiography。







2。 The college student's interest in his studies has shifted from



the footing of an avocation to that of a vocation。







3。 So; e。g。; in the later eighties; at the time when the



confusion of sentiments in this matter of electives and practical



academic instruction was reaching its height; one of the most



largely endowed of the late…founded universities set out avowedly



to bend its forces singly to such instruction as would make for



the material success of its students; and; moreover; to



accomplish this end by an untrammelled system of electives;



limited only by the general qualification that all instruction



offered was to be of this pragmatic character。 The establishment



in question; it may be added; has in the course of years run a



somewhat inglorious career; regard being had to its unexampled



opportunities; and has in the event come to much the same footing



of compromise between learning and vocational training; routine



and electives; as its contemporaries that have approached their



present ambiguous position from the contrary direction; except



that; possibly; scholarship as such is still held in slightly



lower esteem among the men of this faculty  selected on grounds



of their practical bias  than among the generality of academic



men。







4。 〃And why the sea is boiling hot; And whether pigs have wings。〃







5。 Cf。 Adam Smith on the 〃idle curiosity。〃 Moral Sentiments; 1st



ed。; p。 351  ; esp。 355。







6。 So; a man eminent as a scholar and in the social sciences has



said; not so long ago: 〃The first question I would ask is; has



not this learning a large part to play in supplementing those



practical powers; instincts and sympathies which can be developed



only in action; only through experience?。。。 That broader training



is just what is needed by the higher and more responsible ranks



of business; both private and public。。。。 Success in large trading



has always needed breadth of view。〃







7。 Cf。; e。g。; Report of a Conference on Commercial Education and



Business Progress; In connection with the dedication of the



Commerce Building; at the University of Illinois; 1913。 The



somewhat raucous note of self…complacency that pervades this



characteristic document should not be allowed to lessen its value



as evidence of the spirit for which it speaks。 Indeed; whatever



it may show; of effrontery and disingenuousness; is rather to be



taken as of the essence of the case。 It might prove difficult to



find an equally unabashed pronouncement of the like volume and



consistency put forth under the like academic auspices; but it



does by no means stand alone; and its perfections should not be



cou

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