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tional facilities are lacking in 110 cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants. Now, it must be pointed out that, with respect to the number of its commercial schools and commercial courses, Switzerland is in advance of Saxony, not only relatively, but also absolutely. Although Saxony has fully half a million more inhabitants, it has only 6 public secondary commercial schools for young men; Switzerland 21. In Switzerland there are 6 such schools for young ladies; Saxony has 5. Switzerland has more than 60 apprentice schools and mercantile courses; Saxony 56. On the other hand, Saxony has a commercial university connected with the old university at Leipzig.

EFFORTS TOWARD THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMMERCIAL UNIVERSITY IN SWITZERLAND.

A few facts concerning the efforts toward the establishment of a commercial university in Switzerland may be permitted. Many attempts to found such an institution as a department of the Federal polytechnic institute proved futile. In 1891 the Federal Congress considered the question at length on the occasion of a petition presented by the Swiss Commercial Union. The motion was defeated by but a small majority in both houses. It may be considered an accepted fact that the Federal legislative authorities do not want a commercial university connected with the polytechnicum. The departments of education of the two States (or Cantons) of Zurich and Berne have therefore allowed students of their commercial secondary schools who hold a satisfactory certificate of graduation after a four years' course, the privilege of matriculation at their universities. The faculties of the political sciences at both universities are so organized that the lectures on economics and social science, and the seminars on commercial legislation or policy, finance, and commercial law, are combined with those on jurisprudence. He who is preparing himself for the higher positions in commerce or governmental administration, or is educating himself to be a commercial teacher, usually concludes his theoretical training with this university course. Of course this arrangement is only temporary, as the introduction of specifically commercial sciences into the courses of university lectures indicates the need of the establishment of a commercial university. St. Gall endeavored to meet the want of a higher commercial education by the opening of a commercial academy of first rank, and in Basel the authorities are considering a scheme for the establishment of a commercial university with a section devoted to the preparation of teachers.

GENERAL REVIEW OF THE PRESENT STATUS OF COMMERCIAL SCHOOLS.

Having traced the development of commercial education in Switzerland, and having shown that with regard to the number of its commercial schools and supplementary courses that country ranks first in order, we shall now endeavor to give a condensed statement of the purpose, condition, and organization of the existing institutions.

COMMERCIAL SCHOOLS, THEIR PURPOSE AND CONDITION.

In 1900 the 27 public commercial schools of Switzerland numbered about 1,550 male and 250 female students, besides 300 students of special branches. The city commercial school in Neuchatel had the largest attendance; the cantonal school in Zurich followed next in order, while the commercial department of the girls' high school of that city is the best attended commercial school for girls in Switzerland.

a Recently the government council of the Canton of Berne passed an ordinance according to which applicants who have taken a three years' academic course and have had at least one year's experience in business are eligible to examination for the position of commercial teachers of secondary schools. For lower schools the requirements are not so rigid.

Applicants must be 14, for some schools 15, years of age. Before entering, therefore, they will have had at least eight and often nine or more years' general instruction (in primary and grammar schools), and are ready to begin at once with technical branches and foreign languages. According to the purpose of any one institution, students receive a general secondary or a special technical education. All contemplated or proposed changes in recent times, however, tend in the latter direction, for commercial houses are willing to shorten the otherwise strict term of three years' apprenticeship for those only who have received a thorough technically mercantile education. Whether the period of this apprenticeship is abridged or not is a very important question for a young man of 18 years of age. Attendance in the higher classes is essentially influenced by such an abridgment. It is a fact easily confirmed by many proofs that merchants are recognizing to a greater extent every year the value of completing the entire course of a commercial school. Indeed, it often happens now that graduates from such schools receive at once positions as clerks with a suitable salary without any term of apprenticeship.

The commercial schools of Switzerland are, to a greater degree than those of surrounding countries, forced to take the availability of their graduates for immediate practical work into consideration. In Germany, Austria-Hungary, and France, attendance at a public secondary commercial school entitles to the privilege of abridged military service, just as does attendance at any classical high school; the commercial schools which claim this privilege, however, are obliged to give full attention to general education-that is, to culture studies. Attendance does not suffer thereby; on the contrary, the school authorities consider the privilege one of the strongest means to increase the number of students. Any father who destines his son to be a merchant, naturally prefers to send him to a school which allows him the privilege of only one year's military service, and besides gives him a more or less broad technical education. In Switzerland, like considerations carry no weight, as the Swiss army organization grants no favors to the better educated. Parents base their decision as to whether and how long their sons are to attend a commercial school on the extent to which they are fitted for a successful business career by a higher general and technical education.

course.

a

As has been said, not all Swiss commercial schools follow the same practical plan; nor are their standards equally high. The general rule is a three years' course; Berne, Freiburg, Neuenburg, and Zurich have a four, Bellinzona a five years' Most commercial schools for girls, including the mercantile department in Frauenfeld, have only a two years' course; the cantonal school in Trogen and the city school in Winterthur have only a one year's course. Formerly there were more schools with a course of one or two years; but as the federal law lays down the rule that only institutions of at least three grades are able to afford a higher commercial education, and therefore have a claim to federal support, a number of local boards have raised the standard of their commercial schools by extending the course of study.

In strong contrast to the gratifying fact of the improvement of schools are the very numerous instances of students leaving before they have completed the course. It seldom happens that more than half of those admitted take the final examination and graduate. All commercial schools meet with the same experience to a greater or less degree. From the standpoint of both schools and students, this circumstance is to be regretted. An effort, not altogether unsuccessful, has been made to counteract the evil by such means as laying stronger emphasis on the purely commercial branches, giving more attention to actual counting-house practice, placing graduates in desirable positions, and maintaining closer relations between schools and homes.

a See An. Report of the Commissioner of Education of 1899-1900, Vol. I, p. 843.-Translator.

The condition of affairs can never be brought about that all students will remain to graduate; it must not be forgotten that many mercantile firms, for good reasons, insist upon a three years' apprenticeship beginning with the sixteenth year of age at the latest. Family considerations, health, etc., often require students to leave before completing the course.

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In view of these conditions, the demand could rather be made of the schools to have the curriculum so arranged as to make leaving a lower grade possible without suddenly breaking off courses hardly begun. The new order of studies for the cantonal commercial school in Zurich has been based on this principle. German, French,

Commercial School of the city of Neuenburg, Switzerland.

and English grammar, simple bookkeeping, German commercial correspondence, commercial transportation, penmanship, shorthand, and typewriting are taught exclusively in the lower grades of the school, while physics and chemistry, practical exercises in the counting-house department, banking and exchange, political economy, commercial law, Spanish, and Russian are reserved for the upper grades.

COMMERCIAL SUPPLEMENTARY SCHOOLS, THEIR ORGANIZATION AND CONDITION.

In the case of supplementary instruction, the effort toward consolidation and systematic development of formerly irregular arbitrary classes is gaining greater and greater recognition. Single courses are developing into apprentice schools with obligatory attendance, detached lectures into a unified series. A young man now does not, as was formerly too frequently the case, begin a new language one year, to take up another the next session, or perhaps not study at all during one term, and the next take up several courses, each claiming two to three hours a week, entirely too much for anyone employed in office during the whole day.

We read in the last annual report of the central committee of the Swiss Commercial Union:

The rapid extension of the courses, the steadily increasing number of students and classes, did not allow the sections to give to the internal organization of their special schools all the attention they desired. Introducing new studies and making the classes smaller were the questions first in order. One of the most encouraging results of apprentice examinations is the present conviction, and it has been attained imperceptibly, that a rational programme with obligatory studies is a pressing necessity, if any measure of success at all commensurate with the sacrifices made in behalf of education is to be attained.

Such a programme has been introduced in the supplementary schools conducted by commercial associations in Baden, Berne, Biel, Langenthal, Lucerne, St. Gall, Winterthur, Zofingen, and Zurich. Students who desire to take language or commercial courses must strictly follow the given order, which as a rule extends over six successive semester periods with four obligatory studies each, and eight lessons a week. Supplementary schools thus organized are calculated to furnish apprentices with what is wanting in their "practical experience, which, owing to the rush of present business life and the division of labor in modern industry, is not sufficient for the training of a young man for any branch of business." (This dictum must apply to conditions as they exist here [in Zurich], for it is found in the latest report of the well-informed committee on education of the commercial association of Zurich.) At all the schools mentioned there are free supplementary courses. Older students (clerks, former students) are allowed the privilege of selecting one or more studies from the language, commercial, and art branches of the catalogue. This liberty of choice must be granted to them, as they desire only to fill a gap in their education, or take up those studies which are not admitted into a regular course through lack of time, as shorthand writing in foreign languages, political economy, the Russian and Portuguese languages, etc.

The majority of commercial supplementary schools still follow the principle of a wholly optional course of study. At a conference of representatives of schools of this kind in western Switzerland, which met in Biel in the fall of 1899, a resolution was passed recognizing the advantages of obligatory courses in theory, but declining to decide upon the immediate adoption of them in practice. Most frequently nothing more is done than to advise students more or less strongly to follow a proposed programme. Besides it must not be forgotten that in many places courses are announced in only very few studies; in some places, only in the most important foreign languages. Some schools close altogether during the summer. Of course, these are confined to the smaller towns and cities with a large outside trade.

Although attendance at supplementary schools, or at supplementary courses, is compulsory in but a few Cantons, Aargau and Vaud, for instance, these schools are well patronized. Employers generally favor and facilitate school attendance for their clerks and apprentices. Young men themselves feel the necessity of knowing more, and the desire for knowledge which animates them deserves to be commended.

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That there are indifferent and lazy clerks who would apply themselves to study only under compulsion is self-evident, and hence the desirability of compulsory supplementary education is made apparent quite often. It is most gratifying to note that in many towns where all enjoy liberty of choice, far more than half the number of

Commercial Academy in St. Gall, Switzerland.

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