AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MODERN BLTSINESS COURSE AND SERVICE 1. University schools of commerce.—Only a few years ago no books were to be bad which treated busi ness subjects in a way both practical and scientific. In 1890, if a man wished to solve any of the problems of business or to get an understanding of business principles, he had to think it all out for himself.
Since that time, however, American universities have admitted business subjects into their curricula, and men of scientific training have been studying the phenomena of business. In the last century science has made clear to us many of the processes of nature. It has helped even the farmer to increase his crops. It foretells the weather. It has given us vehicles pro pelled by gas and electricity, rendering the horse al most obsolete. It has enabled man to fly thru the air. Science is at last at work in the field of business, and should accomplish there results as brilliant and valuable as any that have been achieved in physics or chemistry.
The purpose of a university school of commerce is twofold: First, to give the students a scientific knowledge of the laws or principles governing busi ness phenomena ; second, to make its instruction so practical that the student when he enters business will know something of the nature of his task as well .as of those higher up. • All professional schools have this double purpose. For example, the medical student must study the sciences of physiology, bacteriology and chemistry, and also learn by experience in the hospital how to make use of these sciences in tbe care of disease. The experience which makes a man a great physician is ob tained only by years of practice. The medical school, if it does its work well, graduates a man trained in the necessary sciences and with some skill in the ap plication of their principles. In the same way a uni versity school of commerce aims to train men in the sciences underlying business and to give them some knowledge of the practical difficulties that will con front them in actual business.
The medical school does not seek to train specialists, but rather to give that broad knowledge of funda mental principles without which a specialist would be narrow and one-sided. In the same way a university
school of commerce aims first at broad training. Spe cialization must come later.
2. Purpose of the Alexander Hamilton The Alexander Hamilton Institute was founded in 1909 for the purpose of bringing the aid of science to men who 8,re engaged in business. It puts into, their hands literature which will help them to under stand the principles underlying business phenomena. It does not aim to make them specialists, as account ants, or bankers, or credit men, or merchants ; it aims rather to help them gain such a clear understanding of all business operations that their feet shall be on a solid foundation whatever their business or their specialty.
Modern business, in a sense, is an organism com parable to the human body. The oculist who bas.not had an all-round training in medical science is a quack incapable of diagnosing correctly diseases of the eye, for many of these diseases are symptoms of disorders in other parts of the body. In somewhat the same way every business man is confronted by problems which he cannot solve correctly if Ile has only a super ficial knowledge of business in general. Business is exposed to perils which the ignorant man cannot fore see. He does not even suspect their existence. If they overwhelln him, he blames his luck, not his ig norance.
The violent readjustments made necessary in American business by the great World War fur nish an illustration showing how closely the various parts of the business world are knit together. The effects were so stupendous that any man could trace them to their cause. The causes of the higher prices of dye-stuffs and of certain drugs were obvious. It was obvious, too, that the war would bring an in creased demand and higher prices for munitions. Re sults like these everybody understands. The war was an object lesson on a large scale. But the untrained business man does not know that many events in the business world are the results of forces invisible to tbe casual observer. He fails to realize that the law of cause and effect rules in business quite as much as in nature.