THEORY AND PRACTICE

Ever since universities have left the field of pure scholarship and entered into the realm of practical matters, there has been a difference, amounting almost to a hostility, between academic theorists and actual practitioners. Especially has this condition been true in the subject of economics. Professors in Economics and business men, instead of co-operating for their mutual advantage, have been inclined to frown on each others ideas. Such a thing as the Business School, which tries to combine the two, is looked down upon by both.

That Yale should start a course on Railroads which will work in co-operation with the New York Central, The New York, New Haven, and Hartford, and the Boston and Maine Railroads is a step in the right direction. Practical knowledge will thus be combined with theory in the best possible way. The student will become acquainted with actual problems, with the difficulties of the business. The theorist will be able to understand the practical point of view, and the business man, the theorist's. The course will be able to trainmen for Railroads, not with outworn ideas, but with specific knowledge of the most modern problems. This type of thing may bring about the much needed co-operation between the university economist and the man practicing economy.