DIAGRAM 7.-Showing number of college students each year since 1872. 140,000 year. School College 130,000 1872... 23,392 1873... 30, 900 1874. 32, 175 1875. 32, 540 1876. 32, 107 1877. 32,728 120,000 1878. 37,442 1879. 38, 227 DIAGRAM 8.-Showing what per cent of the total population was enrolled as college students during each year since 1872. PER CENT 1872 1873 1875 1882-83 1877 1883-84 1884-85 1881 1899-1900 1898-99 1900-1901 1890-91 1901-1902 1891-92 1902-1903 1903-1904 1904-1905 1894-95 1895-96 1896-97 1897-98 COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 1. PRIVATE "COMMERCIAL COLLEGES." Special courses for the higher education of persons desiring to enter upon business careers are of comparatively recent date in this country. For many years the only provision made for business training was to be found in private commercial or business colleges, many of which have rendered and are still rendering excellent service in their special field. Their work, however, cannot be called higher training, as it is confined mostly to preparing young persons for clerical positions, and includes such subjects as writing, arithmetic, and bookkeeping, to which are added a little commercial geography and commercial law. The requirements for admission are very meager, and there is given only a very limited amount of general culture. In 1904 there were reported to this Office 499 business colleges with an attendance of 138,363 students. The instruction given by this class of schools is fairly represented by the subjects included in the courses of study of the two institutions following: Eastman School, Poughkeepsie, N. Y.-Arithmetic, accounting, bookkeeping, banking, commercial law, commercial geography, business practice and office methods, stenography, typewriting, economics, and government. Peirce School, Philadelphia, Pa.-Bookkeeping, business practice, auditing, commercial arithmetic commercial law, commercial geography, business forms and customs, stenography, and typewriting. In addition to the above studies, instruction is given in penmanship and English, and some of the institutions of this grade make provision for instruction in modern languages. The courses of study vary in length from three to thirty months. 2. HIGH SCHOOL BUSINESS COURSES-BUSINESS HIGH SCHOOLS. In 1904 there were reported 717 public high schools maintaining regular business courses, in which there were enrolled 42,213 students, while 3,192 schools gave instruction in bookkeeping to 85,313 students. The number of pupils in business courses in public high schools has increased so rapidly that it has been found necessary in a number of the larger cities to provide separate business high schools. The courses of study maintained by these business high schools vary in length from two to four years. The courses in San Francisco and Washington require two years of work; those in Louisville, Brooklyn, Philadelphia (schools for girls), and Pittsburg require three years; and those in Los Angeles, New York, and Syracuse require four years. The dates when the separate schools were established are as follows: Washington, 1890; Los Angeles, 1895; Louisville, 1898; Brooklyn, 1899; San Francisco and Philadelphia, 1900; New York, 1902; Syracuse, 1903. The regular course in the high school of commerce of the borough of Manhattan, New York City, extends through four years, and is as follows: First year.-Required: English (4 periods), German, French, or Spanish (4), algebra (4), biology with special reference to materials of commerce (4), business knowledge and practice (6), drawing (second half year, 2), physical training (2), music (1). Second year. Required: English (3), German, French, or Spanish (4), plane geometry (3), chemistry with special reference to materials of commerce (4), history with special reference to economic history and geography (3), stenography (3), drawing and art study (2), physical training (2). Electives: German, French, or Spanish (4), bookkeeping and business forms (3), business arithmetic (1), commercial geography (1). Third year.-Required: English (3), German, French, or Spanish (4), geometry and algebra (3), physics (5), history with special reference to materials of commerce (3), drawing and art study (1), physical training (2). Electives: German, French, or Spanish (4), bookkeeping and business arithmetic (3), stenography and typewriting (3), drawing and art study (2), commercial geography (1). Fourth year.-Required: English (3), German, French, or Spanish (4), economics and economic geography (4), history of United States with special reference to industrial and constitutional aspects (4), physical training (2). Electives: A foreign language (4), advanced chemistry (4), economic biology (4), trigonometry and solid geometry (4), elementary law and commercial law (4), advanced bookkeeping, business correspondence and office practice (4), stenography and typewriting (4), drawing and art study (4), modern industrialism (1). There is offered also a fifth year which is open to all students who have graduated from a high school course of four years. The studies of the fifth year are as follows: Required: English (3), logic (3), physical training (2). Electives: A foreign language (4), advanced mathematics (4), advanced physics (4), industrial chemistry (4), economic geography (4), history (4), banking and finance, transportation and communication (4), administrative law and international law (4), accounting and auditing (4), business organization and management (4), drawing (4), advanced economics (3). 3. HIGHER COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. For some time a large number of universities and colleges have maintained business courses modeled more or less after those of the business colleges mentioned above. The number of such institutions in 1904 reporting students in business courses below college grade was 173. Included in this number are Roman Catholic and other institutions whose commercial courses extend through a number of years and include a considerable number of general culture studies of secondary grade. As the departments of economics of our well-equipped universities were developed, there was introduced gradually instruction in subjects of special value to persons looking forward to business careers. While for a long time no formal courses for business training were offered, it was possible, through the system of elective studies in vogue, for students to select studies that would assist them in preparing for business life. The first step in the organization of business courses of college grade was made by the University of Pennsylvania in 1881, when the Wharton School of Finance and Economy was opened for instruction. During the past ten years the movement for the establishment of courses of study in commerce of college grade has made marked progress, and such courses are now offered by the universities of California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin, Dartmouth College, New York University, and others. In nearly all cases the requirements for admission are the same as those for admission to general culture courses leading to degrees. The first two years of the courses are usually made up of general culture studies, such as English, modern languages, mathematics, history, and theoretical economics, while the studies of a technical nature, with few exceptions, are placed in the last two years of the course. Very few of the institutions have laid down hard and fast courses of study, but the principle of allowing students to select studies suitable for their purposes is followed in most cases. The University of California has established a college of commerce whose curriculum "is intended to afford an opportunity for the scientific study of commerce in all its relations, and for the higher education of business men and of the higher officers of the civil service." The course leads to the B. S. degree and requires the completion of 129 units, of which number elementary or general culture studies comprise 69 units; 34 units are devoted to technical studies in practical economics, 12 units to studies in law, and 14 units to electives in a special field. The students have the use of the collection of the Pacific Commercial Museum. The college of commerce and administration of the University of Chicago has been created "to provide professional training for the practical work of business in various branches." The work of the college is on the same plane as that of the other undergraduate colleges of the university and leads to the Ph. B. degree. The work of the junior college (the first two years of the course) is the same for all students in the college. On entering the senior college the student will elect one of the four groups into which the work is divided, namely, (a) banking, (b) transportation, (c) trade and industry, (d) journalism. The James Millikin University at Decatur, Ill., offers a course in commerce and finance extending through four years of preparatory work and four years of college work leading to the A. B. degree. The purpose is "to furnish a scientific training of college grade for that rapidly increasing class of prospective business men who realize the growing complexity and rapidly changing character of modern commercial life and the necessity for thorough preparation for it." The commercial museum of the institution contains a considerable number of the materials of commerce. The University of Illinois has arranged courses of study to furnish training for (1) general business, (2) commerce and the consular service, (3) banking, (4) transportation, (5) insurance, (6) journalistic work. The courses extend through four years and lead to the A. B. degree. A considerable collection of commercial products, raw and finished, has been made in the various departments of the university and is used by students in the business courses. At various times, especially during the senior year, classes in the business courses are required to make visits of inspection to industrial and mercantile establish ments. The commercial course of the Indiana University extends through four years and leads to the A. B. degree. It includes fifteen hours of English (hour meaning one recitation per week during a university term), fifteen hours of mathematics, fifteen hours of science, thirty hours of language, sixty-two hours under the direction of the department of economics and social science, of which forty-eight hours must be in that department, twenty-eight hours of optional studies selected from groups of designated electives, and fifteen hours of free electives. In the school of political and social science of the University of Iowa there is a course in commerce and a course in government and administration, each extending through four years and leading to the A. B. degree. To provide practical instruction a commercial museum has been founded. The University of Kansas has organized courses in business extending through four years and leading to the degree of A. B. The courses are (a) general business, (b) banking, (c) insurance, (d) journalism, and comprise elective studies open to all students. The first two years of the courses are the same as the other courses of the university leading to the A. B. degree, specialization beginning with the junior year. The University of Michigan has organized a course in commerce in the department of literature, science, and the arts. In the case of candidates for a degree enrollment in the course in commerce takes place at the beginning of the third year of residence in the university and may be continued either for two years, leading to the bachelor's degree; or for three years, leading to the master's degree. Undergraduates are expected to elect ten hours per semester and graduate students thirteen hours per semester from the special or technical courses in commerce and industry. The Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance of Dartmouth College comprises two years of work. The first year of the school requires for admission three years of college work and is coordinate with the senior year of the college. On the completion of the work of the second year of the school the degree of master of commercial science is conferred. It is the purpose of the school to direct its work not only toward first giving the man a broad basis of business education, but more and more toward imposing upon this broad basis a training that will meet the demand for men in specific businesses. There is offered instruction of particular value in preparation for banking, brokerage and investments, transportation, insurance, commerce, and journalism. The commercial museum contains exhibits of domestic industries, comprising samples of raw materials, partly finished and finished products and by-products, lantern slides, photographs, maps, charts, and other illustrative matter. New York University has a school of commerce, accounts, and finance, giving instruction in both day and evening classes. To obtain the degree of bachelor of commercial science requires an attendance of two years at the day sessions or of three years at the evening sessions. Its courses of study are intended to lay the groundwork for successful careers in the following vocations: General business (manufacturing and mercantile), expert public accountant, banker, stock and bond broker, credit man, insurance, real estate business, |