Education
COMMERCIAL.
Shortly before the Civil War private business colleges were established in the United States. Their purpose was to train men for active business work, but it was some time before their curriculums eliminated many of the subjects more properly belonging to an academic education. About 1884 the Wharton School of Finance and Economy was founded as a part of the University of Pennsylvania, and a regular four-years' course leading to a baccalaureate degree was instituted.
While other colleges, notably Harvard, Dartmouth, Columbia, and the various State universities, have established courses in commercial education, the University of Wisconsin is the only one of a few to follow the examples of the University of Pennsylvania and make the business course one on the completion of which the degree of Bachelor of Science can be secured. The high schools followed suit and began to give courses similar to those offered in the private business colleges. In a few of the universities commercial education is offered as a graduate professional course. This is the case at the Harvard School of Business Administration and the Tuck School at Dartmouth. Some colleges have organized evening courses in business education; cation; those situated in large cities particularly. Columbia University now has a three-years' evening course preparing students to take the State examination for the certificate of Certified Public Accountant.
Teachers of business law and administration are now members of the National Education Association, and there are many societies organized to further and improve the work of commercial education. The most prominent of these are the Eastern Commercial Teachers' Association and the National Federation of Commercial Teachers.
Commercial education was well developed in Europe before it was begun in the United States. Saxony in the 18th century and Paris in 1820 had founded schools of commerce. Germany quickly seized upon the idea and developed it until, in the 19th century, she led the world in this as in other forms of education. Higher schools of commerce, the equivalent of our university courses, were founded in Leipzig, Cologne, Frankfort, and Berlin, while many schools for the education of those between the ages of fourteen and eighteen were established. Antwerp, Venice, and Vienna also have higher schools of commerce. In England the task of training in business law and administration was taken up by the new universities established in the great industrial centers, such as Bir- EDWARD THE CONFESSOR mingham, Leeds, Manchester, and Liverpool. It was not until after the Great War that any provision for such education was made at the ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge. A notable contrast between the secondary schools of commercial education in Europe and those in the United States has been that in the former the leading business men organized in the various chambers of commerce have had a leading part in establishing and directing the schools. In the United States the business men have held aloof and allowed the work to be carried on by teachers equipped with more or less traditional academic training. This has not always been to the advantage of the subject.