The New Student's Reference Work/Schools of Commerce

Schools of Com′merce. Commercial education in the United States is conducted by four classes of institutions: private business and commercial schools; public high schools; endowed schools, which often have an industrial as well as a commercial bias; and colleges and universities. The need for special commercial education increases with the complexity of modern business methods. It is felt in the secondary more than the primary school. Elementary education is much the same for all, but the secondary school may tend to prepare exclusively for the college and not for a business vocation. The need of secondary commercial schools was met by their establishment in Vienna as early as 1754, in Brussels in 1834, Trieste 1877, Leipzig 1898, Aix-la-Chapelle 1900, Cologne 1901, Frankfort 1901, Milan and Lorraine 1902. In 1904 the enrollment at Cologne showed 778 students, at Frankfort 546 and at Leipzig 395. A higher commercial school opened at Tokio, Japan, in 1885; and another at Kobe in April, 1903. Japan also has commercial schools graded A and B according to the difficulty of the curriculum. In 1904 there were 48 of these schools, at which children of an age of not less than ten years, provided that they have finished a four-years' course in the ordinary primary schools, are allowed to attend. In Germany there not only are commercial schools, such as have been mentioned, and realgymnasien in which modern subjects are emphasized but even commercial universities at Aix-la-Chapelle, Frankfort, Cologne and Leipzig. These universities have 2,841 students, of whom 1,015 are matriculated. In American colleges and universities in 1904 there were 1,537 regular students of commerce in all. Courses in commerce were attended by 6,835 men and 5,430 women. The report of the Commissioner for Education in the United States in 1904, founded upon information received from 4,602 different institutions, shows that for the scholastic year 1903-04 there were enrolled 250,231 students in business or commercial studies. This was an increase of 6,710 over the preceding year. The regular business-schools had an enrollment of 138,363; the public high schools had 85,313 in business-studies; the private high schools and academies had 13,479; the normal schools 3,255; and the universities 9,821 students in commercial branches. These numbers may give an exaggerated impression of the efficiency of commercial education in the United States, for it is to be recollected that many of the students included may have studied one business or commercial subject only, and that as an extra. American private business and commercial schools were in the field early in the 19th century; they, however, are generally small and utilitarian in their aim. Public high schools endeavor to maintain broader educational aims; and are usually content to offer courses in bookkeeping, typewriting and stenography as electives. Separate high schools of commerce exist and are successful in New York City and Washington, D. C. Several high schools offer a commercial course which may extend over one, two, three or four years; for example, some of the high schools of Boston, Pittsburgh, Omaha and Philadelphia. Among the more important, endowed, secondary institutions which carry on commercial education should be mentioned Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, and Drexel Institute, Philadelphia. About one hundred normal schools invite commercial students. Colleges of commerce have been established in the universities of Pennsylvania, California, Chicago, Dartmouth, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Vermont, West Virginia, Nevada and Wyoming. See Dexter's History of Education in the United States, pp. 415-23.