eral subjects. Foreign trade "from the standpoint of a trader" was discussed by Ch. K. Flint of the firm Flint, Eddy & Co., of New York; Wall street was discussed by Y. P. Townsend, president of the Bowery Savings Bank; Advertising in America, by F. W. Ayer, of Philadelphia, of the firm N. W. Ayer & Son; the telephone received attention from the president of the American Bell Telephone Company, Y. E. Hudson, of Boston; W. Lawrence, president of the National Wool Growers' Association, wrote on American wool production.

Without pronouncing upon the average value of these contributions, it must be acknowledged that there is in them a great deal of information which one would look for in vain in the scientific writings of theoretical men. I had been assured that there was no literature in America on American boards of trade which would give me as much as an entering wedge for further investigations. In the memorial mentioned, however, I found this wedge. At any rate, this literature shows that the business profession is itself beginning to use the pen concerning its own affairs. In Germany such a book as the one mentioned would be written almost exclusively by secretaries of boards of commerce and university teachers, among whom a merchant as author would feel like Saul among the prophets.

That part of the American business world is interested in higher commercial educa tion, is anxious to guide scholarly investigations toward subjects of interest to business men, in order to show by discussing them what significance theoretical knowledge possesses for practical life. The means to this end is the prize contest. In Chicago the wholesale clothing firm of Hart, Schaffner & Marx has offered four prizes, one each of $1,000, $500, $300, and $150, for essays on the following seven themes:

1. Causes and extention of the modern industrial progress in Germany,

2. To what causes may be attributed the late success of American competition in European markets.

3. Influence of trusts and combinations upon the condition of American laborers. 4. Economic advantages and disadvantages of the present colonies for their mother countries.

5. Causes of the panic of 1893.

6. What form of education can be recommended for the industrial uplift of the American wage-earners?

7. What educational method is best suited to future business men?

This competition is open, as it seems, to scientific investigators as well as to students as an exercise; the first two prizes are intended for persons who have graduated from a college within the last ten years, the other two for students.

Participation of business men in the movement for higher commercial education is, however, active in a still stronger sense of the word. Distinguished representatives of the American business world have ascended the lecture platform, in order themselves to teach the young men what they thought they ought to know. The University of Chicago has printed the lectures which were delivered in its College of Commerce and Administration by practical business men on their own profession. These lectures form the first volume of the publications of the college in 1904. [The author here quotes the list of contents, giving names, positions, and subjects of the lecturers. --TRANSLATOR.]

Almost equally significant with the participation of these business men in college work is their reception by the representatives of the learned world. The editing of this collection of lectures was done by Prof. H. B. Hatfield, the introductory essay was written by Prof. J. L. Laughlin. Professor Hatfield in his preface admits that he is in no wise an enthusiastic adherent of the opinion that the university should make it its mission to educate for business. "But," he continues, "though the university can not undertake to educate for business, it can itself be educated by business men, who bring to it new points of view, an intellect of refreshing vivacity, helpful criticism, and activity of mind, even-suggestive errors, all of which is adapted to shake the

faith of the man of academic learning in dogmas, or at least induce him to examine anew the claims of his dogmas to sovereign authority." Reaching back into the history of political economy, he reminds us of what this science owes to Ricardo, the stock broker, to the banker Newmarch, the manufacturer Montchrétien, the merchant Gresham, etc. Among American economists, Professor Laughlin certainly belongs to those who most decidedly adhere to the demand for exact definition, and it is by no means an accident that the representative of this tendency has taken the leadership, as it would seem, in drawing practical men into the debate. Cooperation of abstract thinkers and men of concrete business practice is certainly a union creditable to both parties.

In consequence of the active and widespread interest in higher commercial education, it was but natural that the great associations in the American business world should begin to move in the matter. That the American banking interests advocated higher education, and that the American Bankers' Association expressed itself in this sense, is well known even in Germany. In 1904, during its annual meeting, the National Board of Trade passed unanimously a resolution for the establishment of commercial departments in universities. Here also was shown how far academic education has already extended among business men. The mover of the resolution, Doctor Holland (Pittsburg) could state the case briefly, by saying: "A large number of you gentlemen are college men yourselves." The present attempts at establishing in Columbia University a department of higher commercial education are aided by the New York Board of Trade.

After all that has been said the question may arise among us whether or not higher commercial education in America is not on the road to become altogether too theoretical. To settle this we may be reminded, in the first place, of the fact that college students who contemplate entering on a business career often establish a certain connection with business life by using their vacation to work in business houses. In the Wharton School of Finance in Philadelphia an employment committee arranges for such employment. Not only for the purpose of preparation for future employment, but also for the purpose of present support, the earning of money plays an important rôle with many students. The Americans themselves are not quite agreed in judging this part of college life. Generally the college is considered an aristocratic institution, and the young dandy, as in England, is often looked upon as the typical student, who goes to Harvard or Yale simply to enjoy college life, or, as we say, "sich dort Studien halber aufhält." Indigent students who get through their college life by working hard and wrestling with poverty are thought to be exceptions. But one hears the opposite view frequently, namely, that the combination of study and earning one's livelihood is characteristic of America; that the great number of students who earn their own support is the most convincing proof of the general accessibility of the college, and gives to the college a downright democratic character. During the year 1904 Prof. Orlando F. Lewis, of the University of Maine, made the attempt through an inquiry to ascertain what proportion of students earned their own support. The answers differed greatly. For some colleges the percentage was 60, 70, and even 90; Chicago estimates it at over 50, and even universities of a certain aristocratic tradition, like Cornell and Yale, reported estimates of 25 and 10 per cent. That in this regard America entertains different social views from ours is beyond all doubt. I have not been satisfied with listening to stories of students earning their livelihood as waiters, and this even in dining rooms of universities where they serve their own fellow-students. I have seen with my own eyes that this is true, and hence have no occasion to distrust the often made statement that outside of the time of serving meals the intercourse between servitor and served shows no trace of this relation. However, I believe the assertion that this earning one's living does not affect the social position of the students rests upon an optical illusion of the Americans. For from the highest social stratum of American students, the fraternities, are already excluded so many strata

standing socially high that the exclusion of the poorest, and especially the exclusion of waiter students, is not noticeable.

Above all, there acts as a mighty counterweight to making the higher education too theoretical the whole American life. America is, despite all, the business continent. He who there grows up is reared in a commercial atmosphere. Hence, what I have said concerning the estimation in which theoretical knowledge is held there, is not to be understood to mean that I intended to call in question that characteristic of American life. But the statement that in America the dollar is king is made so often that it would seem quite proper for the observer to designate the limits within which it is true. In the sense in which such statements are made concerning America to-day, they are untrue in two particulars: First, they create the impression that the land of the dollar hunters values only immediate gain, and has no mind for a scientific education which, though not offering immediate returns, guarantees future business success. This neglect of culture, it may be said, is found here and there, but it is neither as general nor as great as is believed in Germany.a The contrary opinion, it seems to me, is spreading throughout the country. Aside from that, in the second place, it is not correct to say that in American life the possession of material things alone is valued. The worth of the ideal possessions of mankind is recognized also on the other side of the ocean. And in the American movement in favor of higher commercial education the moving force is not only the desire for better equipment for making money (although this desire is quite praiseworthy), but also the fact that the representatives of the business world wish to secure their share of the ideal possessions of the nation.

In briefly summarizing my observations concerning commercial education, I may say that I left America with other views than those I had when I landed. I had come to hear what disadvantages the practical Americans apprehended from such higher education for business men as had been planned for Germany, and I found that the most essential difference between American and German commercial education consisted in one thing only, namely, that we have practical preparation in the form of commercial apprenticeship, while in America there is no such arrangement. In emphasizing this point, I mark the chief result of my investigations in America. Furthermore, that this circumstance does not play a rôle in the hitherto existing literature on the subject, is owing to the fact that theoretical instruction and the system of apprenticeship belong to two separate branches of literature, while to the observer who travels from place to place in order to learn the conditions prevailing, and not to write a book, the whole subject unfolds itself in all its aspects.

If this difference between American and German commercial education be recognized as fundamental, and considered as vital, it follows that the highest principle governing the movement for higher commercial education in Germany must be not to repress, even indirectly, the system of apprenticeship. Then we may, with reference to any apprehended injurious effects of theoretical instruction, quietly proceed in our plans, being sure of the backbone of practical preparation.

The second result of my journey is the recognition of the fact, that the higher educa tion of the American business man depends primarily not on attending higher commercial institutions, but on his participation in college life in general. This fact places the problem of higher commercial education even for Germany in quite another light. The question is, for what purpose is an academic education demanded in Germany for members of the business class? I do not believe that the chief purpose is to fur

a In Germany, Andrew Carnegie's utterances in this regard are considered as characteristic of public opinion in the American business world. But Thwing has shown us (pp. 29-42 of his book) that not even Carnegie's views are as consistently antiacademic as is commonly believed. Furthermore, Carnegie stands alone among his associates in his views, so far as they refer to higher commercial education. The speaker during the commercial congress who advocated so warmly and so successfully the establishment of higher commercial colleges, came from Pittsburg, and claimed to be a personal friend of Carnegie. That persons who are his intimate friends do not share his opinion in this regard, is quite in accord with my own observations.

ED 1905 VOL 1- -11

nish them with the positive technical knowledge needed in the prosecution of their business. According to my ideas, the movement has arisen primarily from the desire to open the portals of higher institutions to business men for a general higher education. Our time is groping in the dark for a new ideal of culture, which will of course include the traditional group of learned men of the nation, but will not permit them to pass for the exclusive possessors of culture. The commercial class in Germany, intending to establish commercial universities, demands with us (as is very clearly the case in America) its part in the highest national culture, the essence of which consists in this, that in aspiring to the highest it recognizes no scholastic restrictions. If this be considered the essential aim of the German commercial university movement, the question with which this report began-namely, whether in practical America injurious effects are apprehended from the introduction of academic education for business men--can not be put. For as circumstances now are in America, academic education of business men, that is, fellowship of highly educated business men with cultured men, is already an accomplished fact. And however paradoxical it may sound, I can not formulate the impression I am bringing away from America in any other way than by saying that for prominent German business men also a university education is needed, because otherwise they will fall behind their American colleagues, especially in the estimation in which they are held by other members of the nation, an estimation which conditions their vital power and spirit of enterprise. But whether in particular for the future German commercial university, especially for that in Berlin, much may be borrowed from the American system of education, is difficult to say, owing to the great differences between the two systems. America has especially favorable conditions for the solution of this problem. On the one hand, it has the college, which offers general culture to all professional men in a form adapted to the commercial class. On the other hand, the premium which in the social life in America is set upon fellowship with the educated classes, is not high enough to justify apprehensions of educated business men being designated, as in Germany, "Latin merchants." Of the intensity of that fellowship we have no clear conception in Germany. Whoever is a graduate of Harvard remains a voting member of the university for life. He has a vote five years after his graduation upon all decisive questions submitted to the alumni. He always remains the classmate of all the members of his date found in the pulpits and the courts of the country. Everywhere in American cities university clubs are formed, to which only A. B. men have admittance, and in which merchants with a college education are as well represented as the members of professions in respect to which, by tradition or necessity, an academic education is taken for granted.

This is an end which we can not reach with our German commercial university movement. As for America, the existence of the college is the starting point for all academic education of business men, so for us in Germany there is the negative fact, that every institution for general culture which goes beyond the gymnasium, formerly existent in the universities, has been lost to us. The highest culture is, with us, connected with professional schools, and the commercial universities will have to be professional schools also. Hence these schools will be obliged to offer a high commercial education which includes as many elements of general culture as possible and place that culture in the foreground. The consciousness of belonging to the scholarly classes, which may be comparatively harmless under American circumstances, would lead in Germany to an embittering division of the mercantile class into two sections, which would change into its opposite any advantage derived from the movement for higher commercial education.

Otherwise expressed, I believe that one of the essential objects of the German movement for higher commercial education has been secured already in America; that we, however, can not reach that object in the same way, but must strive after it in an opposite way.

CHAPTER VII.

EDUCATION IN LIBERIA.

By GEORGE W. ELLIS,

Secretary of U. S. Legation at Monrovia.

The great drift of economic effort is toward the Tropics. The indications are that the Tropics will furnish the battlefield upon which the future is to witness the struggle of the nations for the industrial mastery of the world. There is little doubt but that this economic effort will be accompanied by an intellectual movement that will work mighty changes upon the mind and heart of Africans. With the passing of the years the control and development of tropical peoples and the utilizing and exploitation of tropical resources will grow in increasing importance to the civilized nations of the earth.a

I. IMPORTANCE OF WEST AFRICA.

The growing congestion of economic and population centers in western nations is demanding more and more the services of the lands and resources of tropical peoples. Africa is the continent of the future, and West Africa is the most inviting commercial field of our time. It is populated by millions born to trade. Unrivaled in the productivity of its soil and unsurpassed in the variety and abundance of its products, West Africa is the home of much that may be utilized for the sustenance, comfort, and delight of man.

Tropical nature is wont to sustain the idle and the indolent without the dint of labor. The tendency of the Tropics is toward extravagance. In West Africa the tropical area is so vast that this extravagance is on the largest scale. For these reasons, with the the exception of Liberia, the nations of Europe divided West Africa among themselves. Every effort is being put forth to minimize the dangers of the climate, to commercialize the country, and to harmonize its people with the laws of civilization. And with all the difficulties encountered, West Africa is slowly but surely progressing.

II. NATURAL IMPORTANCE OF LIBERIA.

Liberia possesses about 5 per cent of the West African coast line. It is an independent negro republic, dominated and ruled entirely by black men. It has maintained unimpaired its sovereignty for fifty-seven years. Strategetic in position, and with an area of 48,000 square miles, it is so rich in natural resources that travelers have called it the "garden spot of West Africa." With thirteen ports of entry, it extends 350 miles a Benjamin Kidd, The Independent, September 8, 1894. Hand Book of Liberia, by S. D. Ferguson, jr.