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N the commercial treaty negotiated some months since between China and Japan it was provided that, when doubt should arise concerning the meaning of any article of said treaty, the English version should be authoritative. When the nations of the East proclaim the fact, need we doubt longer that the English speech is to be the world medium for trade and diplomacy? And trade will follow speech. The clearing house for the world has long been in London. Whether the signs forecast its passage to Wall Street may be questioned, but no one doubts that our business enterprises are fast losing their local or provincial character. As the little red schoolhouse has been displaced by the city high school, so the business schools of the past must change to meet the needs of our broadening commerce.

To you as representatives of the commercial teachers of the East is committed the task of developing the system and content of that American education which shall equip our business men for their life amid the currents of world traffic since these will henceforth encompass them whether their desks be in city or village, or in the centres of foreign trade. In the presence of such a task the old problems in the pedagogy of instruction for business sink to their proper place as questions concerning the preparation necessary before the youth can begin his training for manhood. Of course the child must spell, must compose sentences grammatically correct, must count and add correctly, must write a legible hand. When these accomplishments are his, the grammar school tasks may end; the specialist now undertakes to equip him for service in the marts of trade.

ing are yours to devise. At the present moment we ask what scope in such training should be given to instruction in English. The subject termed English is the most complex in modern pedagogy. It is a body of knowledge, a discipline, a medium for instruction in ethics and aesthetics. The constant debate concerning it reveals the growing sense of its importance. The frequent and confident proclamations of shortcuts to proficiency in English reveal no less clearly our imperfect comprehension of the nature and complexity of the subject with which we have to do. What shall the school for business teach under the term English? What knowledge and power does the business man need that he can most directly gain through this means? Let us see.

The business man should possess certain acquirements characteristic of the successful journalist. He should have a reporter's command of rapid, clear, and condensed statement. It is not enough that he should write grammatically and avoid misspelling. He must present his proposition clearly and without unnecessary words.

Secondly, the business man should have something of the legal habit of mind. It should be second nature with him to weigh phrasings and detect ambiguous terms that his letters and contracts may not appear against him in a day of judgment.

Thirdly, the business man should have certain habitudes of thought which we are wont to expect in the politician. He must take personal bias into account, must trace ulterior motives, and eliminate his own personal likes and dislikes that he may play the game.

Lastly, the business man should be anchored to some faith or philosophy that

*Read before the Eastern Association of Business Men April, 1904.

run high and his life bark rides alone. The act of the suicide too often marks the

floundering of a life that lacked the ballast of a faith that would enable the spirit to outride the day's emergency.

And your course in English, gentlemen, should satisfy these needs. It is through the study of English that your pupils must acquire this knowledge of language and the desired skill in its use. Stevenson has truly said that "the business of life is mainly carried on by the difficult art of literature, and according to a man's proficiency in that art shall be the freedom and fullness of his intercourse with other men." We see, then, the goal we desire, let us examine the means at our command for the attainment of our goal.

First as an imperative necessity is the training in expression, both oral and written. Recitation by topic, where clear and adequate exposition of a complex theme is required in limited time, is of great value as oral composition. Clear-cut, exact, and vivid phrasing is a priceless acquisition for a business man. Training in written composition will give clear and compact expression if it be rightly conducted. To this end the writing of first-draft essays or paragraphs should be a daily exercise. These need not differ from college daily themes except in the choice of subjects. Faculty in felicitous phrasings has a money value in every office where clerks write letters, and I think no other exercise will impart this ability so directly as daily drill in first-draft writing. But more than this is necessary. Propositions are often complex, and a trained business man reads with impatience a confused presentation of your purpose. An orderly discussion of a plan involving many details is not a matter of accident, but the result of training in grouping, outlining, and massing the items. presented. This is not a question of felicitous phrasing and demands a different discipline. Able reports on kindred themes should be studied, outlined, and imitated. Instruction should be given in the collection of data, in grouping by natural or logical

dependence, in cumulative effects, and in the various elements of effective presentation in the long essay. By such means facility and orderly exposition may be taught.

But there is such a thing as fatal fluency. Caution must sit at his elbow when a business man puts pen to paper; he must weigh phrase and term when he makes an offer. This habit of watching the details of statements cannot be acquired through the study of commercial law since the time. given to that study is brief and the mind is busy with data instead of phrasings. Possibly it might be gained through the study of constitutional history, by tracing developments that often take their rise in a single phrase of a constitution or law, but this study would carry the pupil far afield. This discipline can be most rapidly acquired through the close study of thoughtful prose, the prose of criticism, argument or exposition. A scrutiny that reveals the full thought of an essay by Macaulay or Huxley and the method of structure by which that thought is made effective, trains the pupil better for the examination of statements, his own or another's, than aught else known to me.

The study of predilections, of the interplay of motive and interest, of conditions and sources of action, is best pursued through biography, the novel, and the drama, though much can be learned from the thoughtful study of history. A good biography is a faithful transcript of a single life; it does not report fully the opposing currents or the causes for action, but it does lay down the chart of a life and mark the location of reefs and havens. A good novel or a Shakespearian drama reveals the clash of circumstances, and sketches the influences that lead to decision and action under assumed conditions. Through this study of life in books, so far as human foresight can provide, we should teach our pupils how they may avoid those bitter chapters in the book of experience which most of us have

conned in the darkest hours of life. This phase of the business man's training has been sadly neglected in our schools, and this neglect has brought frequent censure from the men in active affairs. They say that the young graduate of the business school becomes a source of anxiety as soon as he mounts the office stool. He has no sense of the differences between persons in the discharge of his duties. Every dunning letter he writes may offend a valued patron. He cannot exercise prudence, for to him office routine is more tangible than individualities. A well-meaning marplot is often more dangerous than a confessed enemy. Men grow old in learning the hidden springs of action, and all we can do through literature to season the young man falls within the scope of our duty.

Further, no man can or should live wholly in the round of daily business. He must have diversion for his leisure hours; he should have occupation for the days that must be spent in travel. All employers understand that the diversions which their employees seek are matters of concern to them. To-day the skilled artisans frequent the libraries. Where are the clerks? The desires that books will satisfy lie dormant in the lad or he needs pilotage to sources of which he has no knowledge. It is our duty to quicken desire, cultivate taste, and acquaint the youth with the books that will meet this need. It is no slight matter when the young man declares that the study of a good novel years ago has made all trash distasteful to him. During his school life. the youth should discover his own bent and the books that will give most lasting pleasure and should learn how to use these as tools for the furtherance of his desires.

Lastly, what shall it profit a man to heap up riches if wealth becomes the only stay of his soul? If life is bound up in business and possessions, when these are lost all is lost, and life goes out with the pistol shot or lingers on, aimless, adrift. In its inner citadel the spirit should repose on verities

more enduring than these. Our fathers found such in religion. With what faith or philosophy do the young men of to-day guard their lives? With all of thy getting get riches, is the beginning and the end of doctrine with many of them. Traditional customs and standards, inherited from days of quickening faith, are observed by many until new conditions make old customs obsolete; then, because the root of the matter is not in them, the appeal of the present impulse becomes their guide. This is particularly unfortunate in our day. The froth of life is thrust upon us in the newspaper, in the posters of the theatre, and low standards for living find frequent expression and advocacy. Then, many young men must lead a detached life during their apprenticeship in affairs. They are commercial travelers or representatives in foreign lands. Under these circumstances inherited customs can have but slight influence on life and habits. In what can we trust for that sobriety of living which every reputable firm demands of its representatives? The puritan faith is a thing of the past. Our young men no longer frequent the churches or hear morality lauded by its chosen advocates. The doctrines of mercantile honor seldom find expression, defalcations increase, and there is danger that suicide will become an approved way of escape when riches take wings or business standing is lost. It is not enough that the elder generation shall cherish ideas of probity, the young must be taught. Our young men must possess an inner strength that will withstand temptation and endure adversity. Such strength can lie only in a religion that restrains and regulates life or in a philosophy that commands allegiance for principles more powerful than the chance accidents of the day. It is our duty to acquaint the youth with such principles as have ruled the lives of the men of power in the past. The sayings of Socrates, the maxims of Marcus Aurelius, the thoughts of Wadsworth, the words of Washington, are part

of the literature that merits careful study. For some reason our boys and girls have come to believe that alertness, shrewdness, are worth more in the battle of life than infinite pains, well-considered plans, or devotion to a single purpose; they need the larger view that such men as Darwin, Gladstone or Franklin teach and this they can acquire through class discussion of life and doctrines as gleaned from books, and thus build within themselves a knowledge and love which shall lead them to emulate the lives of worthy men.

I am aware that in this brief sketch of the desired function of composition and literature in education I am claiming for the study of English a field and importance not hitherto accorded it in schools of business. Indeed, I am persuaded that the pupil to-day leaves the business school so weak in the technique of ordinary composition that he cannot use to advantage the other gifts he may possess. Of what use is a

shorthand amanuensis if she has so little knowledge of vocabulary, or of sentence and paragraph structure that she cannot correct the slips of hurried dictation or confuses words of similar sound? How can I

use the man whose letters are childish in content and phrasing, even if accurate? Immaturity in thought and expression is a notable weakness with many graduates of business schools. The study of literature is necessary to correct this; it will define and enrich thought, and teach variety in phrasing. But I cannot stop for details of method or attempt to sketch a syllabus of

work. Let me in closing state briefly one or two thoughts. I would have in every course for business, whether it be long or short, one hour a day devoted to systematic study of English. The subject deserves that consideration. Much incidental instruction in English will, necessarily, be given in other courses, but one hour a day should be set apart for the systematic study of composition and literature. A carefully planned syllabus is necessary that the purpose of each exercise in composition, of each text selected for study, may be clearly defined and all closely adjusted to the known needs of the business man. Desirable habits should be established. Among these may be instanced the habit of correct speech, of accurate expression in writing, of home reading with definite purpose; these are as important for the business man. as are those which the best business schools now SO conscientiously inculcate. Το accomplish this, English must become as serious a study as bookkeeping or business. arithmetic. This may seem an extreme position, but we shall then give no more emphasis to the mother tongue than is now given in the best commercial schools of France and Germany. The quality of our training must equal that acquired in their schools, for our young men must compete with theirs in the world's markets, and the better man, better in that he is broader in knowledge and sympathy, more the gentleman in the best meaning of that word,— the better man will get the trade.

be one step in advance of the manners or etiquette as taught in the average home. I make this statement having in mind the ideal school as nearly as has been reached with respect to the teaching of etiquette.

It is not my intention to criticise the etiquette of the home, although there is good and sufficient reason for so doing. There is foundation enough in the subject itself without straying to other pastures.

Teaching etiquette in the school-room is no easy task. It is herculean. The minds are so dissimilar-the training each receives at home so diversified, the environment so morally low in instances, high planed infrequently with many different grades between the former and the latter that the teacher finds herself at a loss to know just how to bring these discordant elements together into an harmonious, peaceful, gentlemanly, and ladylike gathering.

Beginning the school year teacher and pupils find new conditions. Let us suppose the teacher a woman and the school rural, no etiquette has ever been taught here and teacher and pupils are strangers. If the teacher has had experience, if she has ever undertaken to bring out of chaos an harmonious, well-minded. school, she reads a task before her. There are bashful ones. They shy into the schoolroom rubbing the wall and decorating their pinafores with the whitewash. The bold ones tumble into the room like the hustling

rabble at a ward caucus. These are the two

extremes; there are any number of degrees

between.

The teacher must give confidence to Miss Bashfulness. She must tame Mr. Cyclone. But first of all she must impress the pupils with her sympathy, her earnestness, her interest in their every school endeavor.

Truth and strength must mark every part

of her character. The outward and visible

dress, a gentle grace, a firm step, and a spotless white linen handerchief.

When the pupils know of what the battery before them is composed, it does not take long to establish a station in each child's heart. And now must come the messages-messages which will enable the gardeners to get ready the soil for the planting of precious seeds which will bloom into courtesy and thoughts for others.

Use fifteen minutes at the beginning of each morning session to sip from noble lives the dews of truth which will aid in fixing ambition, the great fertilizer of character. Study the pupils and their homes to enable you to send proper messages on cultivation. Study faces so that you may gather secrets.

John's father is a drinker-John needs a message. Tell the story of Poe. Tell of the beautiful thoughts in his writings, how he mourned for the lost Lenore, of the strength that we may gain by listening to the "rare and radiant maiden." Tell how you think Edgar Allen Poe wasted his life by not giving himself a careful study. He should have taken time to correct himself. He should have turned on the light inside, and searched out the dark corners and then tried and tried and grown strong in trying to make himself light within. Teach how we build a bit here, a bit there-and then a beam is formed a strength against every adversity. Give the good side of Poe's life. Do not make a conflict with error. Noth

ing is ever gained.

Show the picture of Poe. Study the picture. Give quotations to strengthen memory, and to aid in lighting the inner torch. Have the pupils copy the quotations in a book for the purpose, and learn them thoroughly, making an application to the life

studied.