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 educa tion. 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 vari ous 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 fol lowed suit and began to give courses sim ilar to those offered in the private busi ness colleges. In a few of the universi ties commercial education is offered as a graduate professional course. This is the case at the Harvard School of Busi ness Administration and the Tuck School at Dartmouth. Some colleges have or ganized evening courses in business edu cation; those situated in large cities par ticularly. Columbia University now has a three-years' evening course preparing students to take the State examination for the certificate of Certified Public Ac countant.
Teachers of business law and adminis tration are now members of the National Education Association, and there are many societies organized to further and improve the work of commercial educa tion. The most prominent of these are the Eastern Commercial Teachers' Asso ciation and the National Federation of Commercial Teachers.
Commercial education was well de veloped 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 edu cation. Higher schools of commerce, the equivalent of our university courses, were founded in Leipzig, Cologne, Frank fort, and Berlin, while many schools for the education of those between the ages of fourteen and eighteen were estab lished. 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 mingham, Leeds, Manchester, and Liver pool. It was not until after the Great War that any provision for such educa tion was made at the ancient universi ties of Oxford and Cambridge. A nota ble contrast between the secondary schools of commercial education in Eu rope and those in the United States has been that in the former the leading busi ness men organized in the various cham bers of commerce have had a leading part in establishing and directing the schools. In the United States the busi ness 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.