M. R. A.

In the profession of teaching, an advanced degree has become almost a prerequisite. This passion for the mere letters of a degree is what William James once dubbed the "Ph.D. Octopus". Since his remark was written, a saner view has come into practice, but preference in filling professional positions still goes to the men who can boast of this advanced training.

In another field of education, the struggle has taken the opposite direction. The degree "Master of Business Administration" had been considered not worth the effort to earn. The only approach to a business career was to begin at the beginning and work up. Carnegie and Rockefeller were pointed out as poor boys who, by sheer ability and enthuslasm, had reached the heights of business success. But recently, -especially since the introduction of the "case system" of teaching in the Harvard Business School three years ago,-the regard of business executives for postgraduate training has increased rapidly; and a short time ago an officer of one of the largest Boston banks was so impressed that he wrote: "On the basis of our experience with your graduates, I estimate that you are saving them five years net. Six months after they come to us, your men are as well fitted to assume responsibility as the typical college man of 30. You are training men to think-and to think along business lines".

But the attitude of business leaders has not as yet noticeably affected Harvard College graduates. The graph shows that the percentage of these in the Business Scho I has declined steadily until at present the cycle has reached the depression point. With the continuous and successful development of the case system as applied to business, however, there will inevitably be an upward swing. Just as when Professor Langdell applied the case system to legal teaching fifty years ago, men from College will gradually turn from office apprenticeship to graduate school training.

Some college men are inclined to believe that a course such as this, regardless of its utility, has no place in an insititution of higher education. They think of the training as necessarily mechanical; they see no more advantage to be had from the School of Business Administration, here than from a common business school. What they forget is the comprehensive vision that is superimposed on the strictly practical groundwork. "Big Business", that overgrown bully of the modern world, will never be reformed until taken in hand by a few men with something better than personal motives. Only when theory is understood, as well as pratices and recognition made of the philosophy that underlies all commercial relations, can business be raised from an occupation to a profession.