PHILADELPHIA 
Social Science Association. 
INSTRUCTION 
IN 
Political and Social Science. 
(Read at a Meeting of the Association, 
NOVEMBER 12TJ1, 1885, 
\/ 
Prof. E. J. JAMES. 
Published by the 
PHILADELPHIA SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, 
j20 Locust Street, Philadelphia. PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 
Papers out of Print sre not included in this List. 
The work of the Constitutional Convention. By A. Sydney Biddle. 
What shall Philadelphia do with its Paupers ? By Ur. Isaac Ray. 
Proportional Representation. By S Dana Horton. 
Statistics Relating to Births, Deaths, Marriages, etc., in Philadelphia. By John 
Stockton Hough, M. D. 
On the Value of Original Scientific Research. By Dr. Ruschenberger. 
On the Relative Influence of City and Country Life on Morality, Health, Fecun- 
dity, Longevity, and Morality. By John Stockton Hough, M. D. 
The Public School System of Philadelphia. By James S. Whitney. 
The Utility of Government Geological Surveys. By Prof. J. 1*. Lesley. 
The Law of Partnership. By J. G. Rosengarten. 
A/ethods of Valuation of Real Estate for Taxation. By Thomas Cochran. 
I he Aterits of Cremation. By Persifor Frazer, Jr. 
Outlines of Penology. By Joseph R. Chandler. 
Hygiene of the Eye, Considered with Reference to the Children in our Schools. By 
Dr. F. D. Castle. 
The Relative Morals of City and Country. By William S. Pierce. 
Silk Culture and Home Industry. By Dr. Samuel Chamberlaine. 
Mind Reading, etc. By Persifor Frazer, Jr. 
Legal Status of Married Women in Pennsylvania. By N. D. Miller. 
The Revised Statutes of the United States. By Lorin Blodget. 
Training of Nurses for the Sick. By John H. Packard, M. D. 
The Advantages of the Co-operative Feature of Building Associations. By E. 
Wrigley. 
The Operations of our Building Associations. By Joseph I. Doran. 
Free Coinage and a Self Adjusting Ratio. By Thomas Balch. 
Building System for Great Cities. By Lorin Blodget. 
Metric System. By Persifor Frazer, Jr. 
Cause and Cure of Hard limes. By R. J. Wright. 
House Drainage and Sewerage. By George E. Waring, Jr. 
A Plea for a State Board of Health. By Benjamin Lee, M. D. 
The Germ- Theory of Disease, and its Present Bearing upon Public and Personal 
Hygiene. By Joseph G. Richardson, M. D. 
Technical Education. By A. C. Rembaugh, M. D. 
The English Methods of Legislation Compared with the American. By S. Sterne. 
Thoughts on the Labor Question. By Rev. D. O. Kellogg. 
On the Isolation of Persons in Hospitals for the Insane. By Dr. Isaac Ray. 
Philadelphia Charity Organization. By Rev. Wm. H. Hodge. 
Public Schools in their Relations to the Community. By James S. Whitney. 
Industrial and Decorative Art in Public Schools. By Charles G. Iceland. 
Penal and Reformatory Institutions. By J. G. Rosengarten. 
Nominations for Public Office. By Mayer Sulzberger. 
Municipal Government. By John C. Bullitt. 
Apprenticeship as it Was and Is. By Addison B. Burk. 
7he American Aristocracy. By Lincoln L. Eyre. 
A Plea for a New City Hospital. By Thomas W. Barlow. 
The Pending School Problems. By Professor M. B. Snyder. 
Municipal Government. By Wm. Righter Fisher. 
Social Condition of the Industrial Classes. By Lorin Blodget. 
Progress of Industrial Education. By Philip C. Garrett. 
A Plea for Better Distribution. By Charles M. Du Puy. 
Milk Supply of our Large Cities, etc., etc. By J. Cheston Morris, M. D. 
Alcohol. By A. C. Rembaugh 
Outline of a Proposed School of Political and Social Science. By Edmund J. 
James, Ph. D. OUTLINE OF A PROPOSED SCHOOL OF 
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE. 
In few countries in the world is the study of Political Sci- 
ence so universal as in America. It is represented in some of 
its branches in all grades of educational institutions, from the 
elementary school of the rural district to the college and univer- 
sity. It is studied not only by those boys who expect to make 
a profession of law and politics, but by those who intend to fol- 
low other professions and callings as well. The future clergy- 
man, physician, merchant, college professor—of whatever branch 
—have all studied Political Economy and Constitutional Law, if 
they finished a college course before taking up their professional 
study. The future civil engineer, chemist, geologist and mining 
engineer have all given more or less attention to these subjects 
if they prepared themselves for their work in a higher technical 
school or college. The artisan, carpenter, mason, cabinet-maker 
and clerk, so far as they have finished the average high school 
course in our towns and cities, are also acquainted with the ele- 
ments of the same subjects, and in some of our states even the 
ungraded country schools offer a certain amount of instruction 
in these branches. Nor do our schools rest content with offer- 
ing such instruction to the boys, but, so far as they are mixed 
schools, the same advantages are open to the girls, and even the 
schools exclusively for girls nearly all incorporate these subjects 
in their curricula. 
The study of such subjects is not by any means confined to 
the schools. Besides those individuals, to be found in every 
society, who take up the study of Political Science merely from 
love for it, there are several organizations in the United States 
which have been formed for the special purpose of encouraging 
3 4 
such study in the mass of the people, and several other organiza- 
tions which give more or less attention to the same general end. 
The newspapers, debating clubs and lyceums all contribute 
powerfully toward exciting and maintaining a general interest 
in Political Science. 
The reason for such wide-spread interest is, of course, not 
far to seek. In a republic based upon universal suffrage, it is 
but fair to demand that every voter should possess at least an 
elementary knowledge of the institutions and laws under which 
he lives, and it is still more important that the schools should 
contribute their share towards the spread of such knowledge 
among the pupils attending them. 
Although the study of Political Science is thus wide-spread, 
yet it has never been very detailed and thorough. Extension 
and intension have been in this case as in so many others in 
inverse ratio While nearly every one has learned something 
about such subjects in school, no one has learned very much. 
The work done in the average schools and colleges, so far as it 
is anything more than a mere presentation of the facts of our 
political system, is extremely superficial. 
There is a reason for this fact which is not far to seek. In a 
new country where social and economic conditions are still of a 
somewhat primitive type ; where there is an abundance of fertile 
land ; where the population is still mainly agricultural and widely 
scattered, there is not likely to be any great pressure upon the 
people to study the methods and principles of public administra- 
tion. A loose, unscientific, wasteful method of doing public 
business can be easily borne where the total amount of wealth to 
be wasted by public officers is very small, and where it is much 
more lucrative for the average citizen to attend to his business 
and let some one else who has no business of his own attend 
to that of the public. Under such circumstances few can see 
any advantage in studying problems of government and society 
which seem to be solving themselves as society progresses. 
Of late years, however, a demand has arisen for better 
opportunities for the study of Political Science. This has been 
met to a partial extent by our higher schools. Nearly all the 
colleges have tried to add something to their curricula in this 
direction. The most marked advance, however, has been made 5 
as might be fairly expected by those institutions which were 
able to adopt elective systems of study. These elective systems 
are of two types: that of elective studies which is characteristic 
of Harvard, and that of elective courses which is characteristic 
of Cornell. At both these institutions of late years marked ad- 
vance has been made in the opportunities offered in these 
branches, and the large number of students entering the classes 
in these subjects, gives evidence of the increasing interest in 
their pursuit. 
Three institutions have gone still further in the cultivation 
of these subjects. The University of Pennsylvania, Columbia 
College and the University of Michigan have established special 
departments of Political Science, with what practically amounts 
to prescribed courses of study. The increasing number of 
students at all these centers, gives added evidence of public in- 
terest in these branches. 
The reasons for this great advance are to be found in the 
changing character of our national economy. The last twenty- 
five years have brought a great and growing complication into 
the political and social problems of our national existence. We 
have become a great manufacturing people of enormous wealth 
and of growing poverty, with an exceedingly mixed population, 
of which a large per cent, dwell in cities. Our political institu- 
tions which took their shape when the country contained a fairly 
homogeneous population, mostly engaged in agriculture, and 
with no great extremes of wealth or poverty, have proved them- 
selves no longer adequate to satisfy the complicated conditions 
of our present life. A form of government well suited to a 
small community of farmers of equal wealth, of the same origin, 
of similar education, possessing the same traditions, has broken 
down completely when applied to the crowded population of a 
great city, composed of the very wealthy and of the wretchedly 
poor, of Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Celt, Chinese, Hungarian, White, 
Black and Yellow ; of men of high education and of no educa- 
tion ; of Roman Catholic, of Protestant, of Heathen. The no- 
torious failure of our political system when applied to large 
cities, has excited the gravest apprehensions and wide-spread 
attention, which could not but result in a wider and deeper study 
of our social problems. The growing complexity of national and 6 
local administration has contributed to the same result. The 
enormous increase in the burden of public taxation as well as the 
rapidly growing amount of public indebtedness, have also set men 
to thinking along these lines. It is now beginning to pay better 
for the average American to give a little attention to efficiency 
and economy in public administration, than to devote all his 
time to his own business, that is to say, he can make more 
by saving than earning—a very new state of affairs in the 
United States of America. All these things have co-operated 
to direct the attention of college authorities to the necessity of 
favoring those studies bearing directly on such questions, and 
the attention of the public to the necessity of furnishing college 
authorities with the funds indispensable to this work. The 
result has been the great extension above described in the 
facilities offered for such study. 
Great, however, as this increase has been, it has not kept 
pace with the growing needs of our society. We stand face to 
face to-day with a vast number of social and economic problems 
which are almost vital in their nature ; which, for their proper 
solution, demand the most detailed and patient investigation of 
facts and principles. And yet, in all this broad country, we 
have no center where such questions arc the leading objects of 
investigation. When we are obliged to act, as at times act we 
must, the lack of knowledge is painfully apparent, and as such 
knowledge is not acquired in a day or an hour, the blindest kind 
of experimentation takes the place of intelligent and thoughtful 
action. 
Take for example the subject of education. The last census 
revealed the astonishing fact that there were in 1880, nearly 
5,000,000 of persons over ten years of age who were unable to 
read. Now comparatively few children who have not learned to 
read by the age of ten years, ever acquire the facility afterwards, 
so that we may say in general that thirteen out of every hun- 
dred voters in the United States, confessed in 1880, that they 
could not read the ballots which they were entitled to cast. 
When we consider further, that every one was classed as able to 
read who could spell b-a ba; b-i bi; b-o bo, we can get some 
idea what vast numbers of our fellow citizens are practically shut 
off from any intercourse with the intelligence of the modern 7 
world. It would not be too much to say that twenty-five per 
cent, of the legal voters of this country should be classed as 
illiterate. If we regard moreover the fact that almost none of 
our large centres of population provide adequate school-room 
and fairly good teachers even for the children who wish to at- 
tend school, while thousands and tens of thousands of children 
in our great industrial centres are growing up without ever see- 
ing the inside of a school-house, we must surely acknowledge 
that we are front to front with one of the greatest problems of 
the time. Now, where in this country is there a centre at which 
this problem is being investigated ? Where are there men who 
are giving any great amount of time and thought to ascertaining 
the fact or to considering the remedy ? Numerous proposals 
have been made in Congress to grant aid from the national 
treasury for the support of elementary schools. But it is very 
evident that many of them have been made by men who never 
gave any great attention to investigation of the problem. 
Take another example—the railroad question. We are 
rapidly getting to a point where action of some kind is sure to 
be taken by the National Government. And yet even now, 
there is scarcely an important question of theory or fact in rail- 
road economy which may fairly be regarded as settled. Does it 
cost more relatively for a short haul than a long one ? For a 
small shipment than a large one ? Or if it does, do our railroads 
as at present managed recognize this difference and act consist- 
ently in regard to it ? What would be the probable effect of a 
general law, if it could be enforced, which should absolutely for- 
bid discrimination between the large and small shipper, and be- 
tween the long and short haul ? Would the fixing of tolls by 
the government tend to discourage the investment of capital in 
railroad enterprises ? Would the elimination of discrimination 
tend to favor unduly the growth of small industries ? Would it 
allow a more natural development of our national industry ? 
And a score of similar questions all of immense importance in 
this connection, and yet none receiving to-day any adequate at- 
tention on the part of anybody. There is a large and valuable 
continental experience in this subject which is to us almost a 
sealed book. There is no place in this country where a man 
who wishes to study in detail the relation of the railway to the 8 
State can find such advantages as will repay him for a year’s 
residence. The railway question itself is only one of a large 
class relating to corporations and their functions, all of which 
stand very much in need of close and careful study. 
Take still another question. The relations of labor and 
capital—factory laws, strikes, arbitration, etc. We have already 
arrived at a point where the industry of the country is subject 
to periodical attacks of the worst kind, from the positive conflict 
of laborers and employers. Mobs and riots are becoming a 
matter of almost daily occurrence in our industrial centres. 
Here a laborer is killed, and there an employer is almost beaten 
to death. Now the travel of a large city is almost entirely sus- 
pended owing to a strike of street car employes ; and again the 
traffic of a whole section or of a whole country is suspended by 
the strike of locomotive engineers and brakemen. Are not these 
serious enough symptoms to satisfy even the most skeptical 
that there is a social problem, and that no amount of crying 
“ away with it! away with it! ” will solve it ? And yet where is 
this subject receiving the attention which it deserves? He 
must be blind, indeed, to the lessons of history and to the facts 
of our daily life, who believes that any amount of proving to a 
laborer by Political Economy that he loses by a strike, is going 
to do away with the difficulty. Optimistic beyond reason is he, 
who having proved to his own satisfaction, that the laborer is 
getting an increased share of the product, supposes that the 
social problem will solve itself. Suppose the laborer uses this 
increased share to keep up the fight, will that tend to solve the 
issue satisfactorily ? Now, at what educational or other centre 
is this question being investigated on a large scale by such 
methods as promise to throw light upon it; and where can one 
go who desires to study it and be reasonably sure of finding the 
literature on the subject which is necessary to give him a 
broad view of the labor movement of to-day, which has long 
since ceased to be of merely local and even of national import- 
ance. 
Thus I might go on and pick out one problem after another, 
which is pressing upon us for solution, and for the study of 
which we have as yet but few facilities. But these will illustrate 
sufficiently the point I have in mind. Now, wherever such 9 
problems exist, (and they exist in every old society and in some 
new ones), there is a need of encouragement to the study of 
such problems. Such encouragement in some form or other, is 
given in every European country. In France, for example, 
prizes are offered by the government for special studies on these 
topics, and certain positions in the civil service are open only 
to those who have achieved distinction in the investigation of 
these problems. In Germany, Austria and Italy the universities 
admirably organized are the centres of such study and social 
distinction, and official preferment are the reward of those who 
excel in it. 
In view of these facts then, we may surely claim that in a 
society like ours; where every sound minded man is allowed to 
participate in the making and execution of the laws, not only 
indirectly by being permitted to vote for legislative and adminis- 
trative officials, but also very often directly by being personally 
chosen to such important posts himself, where public opinion is 
largely moulded by the press, and where the higher schools and 
colleges attempt to instruct in the duties and privileges of citi- 
zenship, it is fitting and proper there should be some centre 
where the subject-matter of society and its government should 
become the object of special and thorough study and investi- 
gation. 
Such a centre may be created in a properly organized school 
of Political Science. I believe that the time has come in the 
evolution of our society, when there is a demand for such a 
school upon a broader and more generous basis, than any which 
have as yet been established. Educational progress is measured 
by the rise and development of new varieties of schools. There 
is no more striking characteristic of modern as distinguished 
from ancient times, than this vast increase in the kinds of 
schools. Antiquity knew practically of only one or two where 
we have established a score or more. Even as late as one hun- 
dred and twenty-five years ago, we had only one kind of school 
in this country—the old-fashioned college with its Latin, Greek, 
Mathematics and New Testament study. No Law school ; no 
Medical school; no Dental school; no Veterinary school; no 
Agricultural school; no school of Pharmacy ; no Business col- 
lege ; no Normal school ; no school of Mining or of Engineer- 10 
ing ; of Design; of Industrial Arts; no special school of any 
kind with the exception of Theological Seminaries. Every step 
of our educational progress has been marked by the rise of one 
of these kinds of schools. Every one of these advances was 
met by incredulity; by ridicule ; by confident declarations on 
the part of the many, that there was no demand for such a 
thing; that you couldn’t teach Medicine or Law or Dentistry or 
Agriculture. They were all arts, and had to be acquired, so to 
speak, by hand. 
Perhaps the greatest single stride was made not so very 
long ago, when a breach was finally made in the Chinese wall, 
which had been built up about the old-fashioned college. The 
proposed establishment of the scientific course in connection 
with the classical, the farther proposition to introduce the mod- 
ern studies as elective with the antiquities, were met by a most 
determined opposition, justifying its action on the ground, that 
the introduction of these new studies, would be the death-knell 
of the old. What was the result of the inevitable victory of the 
progressive party—a diminution in the numbers attending the 
old courses ? By no means. Simply an immensely larger num- 
ber of young men and women was attracted by these new 
courses, who would never have been reached by the old. 
There is a profoundly philosophic reason underlying this pro- 
cess. Opening new lines of study which reach down into the 
mass of the people, is like sinking new shafts in a mining dis- 
trict. It opens up entirely new veins of unsuspected wealth, 
which might have remained concealed forever if this particular 
shaft had not been sunk. There is an infinite variety of tastes 
and types of mind, and an infinite variety of science. The 
infinitude of the one corresponds to the infinitude of the other, 
and we shall achieve the highest results in utilizing all the va- 
riety of talent, only when we have placed within its reach all the 
variety of Art and Science. Just as in a mining district, if 
you were to sink a single shaft and insist that all minerals mined 
should be gotten at through that alone, you would inevitably 
limit your production; so in the wider field of national intellect 
you will inevitably bind and cramp and smother intellectual life 
and energy, if you insist that it shall all come to light through 
one or two or even three channels. I believe that the explana- 11 
tion of the wonderful material progress of modern free com- 
munities lies, to a large extent, in the simple fact that we have 
begun at last, for the first time in the history of the world, to 
utilize a small part of the infinite intellectual power of the race. 
A boy who is a dunce at his Latin and Greek, may, in the field 
of electricity, revolutionize the future conditions of life for the 
race, just as another who is a dunce in the laboratory may guide 
a great nation through times of storm and stress into the harbor 
of peace and safety. This means that in the field of education, 
we must have new schools and new courses of study to call forth 
the tastes and abilities which have not and never will respond 
to efforts along the old lines. And I believe that the time has 
now come, when a school of Political Science can fill a great 
want in calling forth a type of mind which we have not yet util- 
ized, and which we shall greatly need in our future history. 
A school of this kind to be a success, must do one or both 
of two things. It must offer liberal courses of study which shall 
be of more or less interest to all liberally educated men, or else 
it must offer a practical training, which is directly or indirectly 
a preparation for some recognized calling ; or better yet, com- 
bine the two. That is to say it must be either liberal or profes- 
sional in its character. 
A school of Political and Historical Science, properly or- 
ganized, may be both. It would offer courses which would be 
of interest and value to the man who is looking forward to teach 
these subjects in our seminaries and colleges ; to the future 
journalist who is to discuss these questions every day in the 
columns of his newspaper; to the future lawyer who will be 
called to legislate on these subjects in our assemblies ; to the 
business man whose interest is affected at every point by gov- 
ernmental policy in regard to these subjects, and to the liberally 
minded man of whatever calling, who wishes to perform his 
duties as a citizen, intelligently, and who may be called upon at 
any time to legislate and administer upon all the matters. 
There is a common body of knowledge necessary to the 
highest type of work in all these directions which properly falls 
within the scope of such a school. A course of study embrac- 
ing : 12 
(a) Political Economy.—The science which treats of the 
relations of man in society to the physical world about him, and 
of the conditions which determine the production and distribu- 
tion of material wealth. 
(b) Social Science.—That wider branch which discusses all 
the social forces and institutions which affect the material and 
moral well-being of society. 
(c) Constitutional and Administrative Law.—So-called civil 
government, with sets forth the facts and principles of govern- 
ment in general, and of that form in particular under which we 
live. 
(d) History.—Political and constitutional which describes 
to us how we have become what we are, and thus furnishes us 
grounds for a judgment as to our future course such a curri- 
culum must lie at the basis of the highest form of work in 
teaching the duties of citizenship, either in our elementary or 
higher schools, or in practicing the professions of law and 
journalism, or in taking part as a legislator in the making of our 
laws or even in the preparation of every citizen who would take 
a prominent part in politics in the best sense of the term. 
A school of Historical and Political Science which is to do 
the best possible work for the community, must be built up on 
the solid foundation of this common body of knowledge. It 
should than add to this nucleus special courses looking directly 
toward the particular callings which its students intend to fol- 
low. 
Now, let us see what a school of this kind could do for the 
community. To those boys who expect to take up the study of 
the law, it could offer a valuable preparation or supplement to 
that work. Besides the courses mentioned above, it should pro- 
vide for this class additional courses in Roman Law, in the 
general principles of Jurisprudence, and in International Law ; 
also more detailed courses in public law—both constitutional 
and administrative, i. e.f in those branches which our Law 
Schools, as at present organized, almost utterly neglect, 
and yet which are very necessary if the student would 
get a real insight into the broad principles underlying 
all systems of Jurisprudence. The place for the thorough 
study of this class of subjects is not in a Law School— 13 
at least in any Law School now in existence. The legal 
point of view and the politico-scientific point of view, are as 
widely different as the East is from the West, even where the 
subject matter is the same. The Law School, the world over, is 
engaged in preparing its students for a state examination, which 
is made the condition of entering a legal career. This examina- 
tion, at present conducted, is mainly directed toward ascertain- 
ing whether the applicant possesses such a knowledge of private 
law—statute, common or judicial law as will enable him to 
take the conduct of cases before the courts. The law student 
as a law student wishes to know the law as it is for the purpose 
of utilizing his immediate knowledge in his immediate practice. 
He does not care particularly whether the law is good or bad; 
whether it is founded on a just principle or not. He desires to 
know simply what the law is in order to utilize it for his pur- 
poses, whether good or bad or indifferent. The student of po- 
litical science wishes to know why the law is so, and whether it 
can not be made better. He tries to ascertain the economic or 
historic or philosophical basis of a law, its relation to other laws 
and to other systems, etc. Some one has well described this 
difference by saying that the law student busies himself de legibus 
quae nunc sunt, i. e. existing laws, while the student of Political 
Science busies himself de legibus ferendis with the laws as they 
should be. This is such a fundamental difference that it will 
prevent any healthy combination of the two objects within one 
school, so that each shall receive its due weight. The standing 
of the legal profession in this country is not relatively as high 
as it once was. This is to be attributed, I believe, not only to 
the fact that other callings have risen in general intelligence, 
but also to the fact that the legal profession has not been rising, 
but has remained practically stationary. It does not seem 
probable that it will ever be practicable in this country to insist 
on a long preparatory training along the old liberal lines of study 
for admission to this profession. But it might be possible to 
demand and obtain an extensive course of preparation along the 
lines indicated above, as a condition of admission, if the efforts 
were made in the right way. Such a course would, in many re- 
spects, be of more value than the former. 
For those boys who are preparing for journalism in addition 14 
to the minimum courses prescribed above, there should be 
courses in Physical and Political Geography, in the facts relating 
to the governments and policies of other nations, international 
law and treaties, in a word along those lines which are of im- 
mediate and prime importance to a man who is expected to 
write intelligently upon all the questions of contemporary poli- 
tics at home and abroad. For such boys, the school might be 
made a professional school in a still more narrow sense by add- 
ing practical training in English composition, followed up by 
actual drill as reporters in connection with a newspaper, and 
later the art of editorial writing, with a view to developing and 
perfecting an ability to take in at a glance the salient points of 
an event or industry, and presenting them in a terse and intelli- 
gible way. Such a course could not fail to have a most healthy 
influence on the journalism of the country. 
For those wishing to prepare for business, in addition to the 
minimum courses presented above, facilities should be offered 
for the study of the theory and practice of accounting, in the 
management of property, in the principles and practice of com- 
mercial law, in the history, organization and administration of 
the great departments of business, such as banking, railroading, 
merchandising, manufacturing and other similar branches. It 
has been one of the great problems of higher education to secure 
its diffusion among the business men of a community. It used 
to be a very wide spread idea, that if a boy intended to go into 
business, there was no necessity of his going to college. As a 
consequence, only those boys went to college who expected to 
go into the so-called learned professions, and the complaint, in- 
deed, is very general nowadays that it destroys a boy’s usefulness 
for business even if he be sent through a high school. It can 
not be denied that the tendency of our so-called higher education 
is what might be called strictly professional. The fact that 
most college graduates go into the professions is, of course, not 
to be wondered at in the light of the fact mentioned above, that 
only those boys are sent who are expected from the very first to 
enter the professions and the so-called liberal courses of those old 
institutions, was originally established as a special preparation 
for the professions. Of late years with the addition of the new 
branches, a change in this respect has begun to take place. Hut 15 
we need not hope to get higher education generally diffused in 
the business community until we evolvre a higher education, 
which stands in somewhat closer relation to their actual work 
than the Latin, Greek and Mathematics of an old-fashioned col- 
lege course. It is possible to evolve such an education along 
the lines described above. Business life in any of its depart- 
ments touches at numerous points the great sphere of social and 
political science—must solve, indeed, in a practical way and for 
a given time and place, some of the most vexed questions of 
theory. The tracing out of the relations of one branch of busi- 
ness to others, and to the type of society in which it flourishes, 
and the study of the relations of employer and employe to each 
other, and to the society of which they form a part, may consti- 
tute a pursuit no less liberalizing and disciplinary in its tenden- 
cies than the study of literature and art, and a pursuit it must 
be added which, in combination with a practical course, is much 
more likely to attract boys of a business turn of mind than the 
literary or scientific courses of our present schools. 
There is still another and a very large class in the com- 
munity which would find in such a school, a professional train- 
ing for their future work, and they are the teachers of historical 
and political science in our schools and colleges. There are 
probably twenty-five hundred institutions in this country above 
the grade of an elementary school where history and political 
science in its elements at least, are taught. In a large number 
of these, special teachers for these two subjects above are em- 
ployed. Until a very recent date, these teachers had almost no 
opportunity to prepare themselves for their special work. And 
oven now the opportunities as I have shown above, are still very 
limited. These teachers would get the professional preparation 
which they need in such a school. Additional courses in meth- 
ods of historical and economic investigation, in the history and 
educational aspects of these sciences should be added for the 
benefit of this last class. It is from those who expect to devote 
their lives to the study and teaching of these subjects in our 
colleges and universities and special schools, that we must 
largely look for an advance in the methods and theories of these 
sciences, and it is mainly to the public school teacher that we 
must look for a general diffusion of this knowledge in the com- 16 
munity at large. Both classes must, themselves, however, re- 
ceive an adequate training in the methods and principles of im- 
parting this knowledge if they are to do the best work along 
these lines. There is only one institution so far as I know in 
this country, where the soundness of this view is practically 
recognized, and that is the University of Michigan. In their 
department of Political Science, a course of lectures is offered 
in the History of Education. 
There is another class which may be mentioned here. In 
the course of educational progress in this country, we have 
evolved a peculiar officer—unknown, I believe* in any other sys- 
tem—known as City Superintendent of Schools. In our edu- 
cational condition, he is a necessity, and his numbers are rapidly 
increasing. Such an officer should be rarely well equipped in 
all educational knowledge. It is only within four or five years 
that any provision has been made for his special education, and 
those provisions are still very meager. Such a man should have 
not only a special knowledge of education in its professional as- 
pects, relating to methods of teaching, school organization, etc., 
but he should have a broad view of the relation of education to 
all the departments of national life and of the connection of edu- 
cational institutions with the other institutions of a people. 
Such a view can be best attained by a comprehensive study of 
society, its basis, its growth, its institutions. A school of his- 
torical and political science, by adding to its general courses 
special courses in educational organization, could offer a most 
valuable professional preparation to this important rapidly grow- 
ing class of public officers. 
I have thus far spoken of classes which exist in our society, 
and which need the advantage of such a school. Let us turn to 
another class—which is not quite here, but is certainly on the road 
—the professionally educated public servant. We have begun to 
put our civil service on a sound basis. It will never be fully there 
until it is generally recognized that a man, who has had a special 
training in the study of civil society and its government, is, as a 
rule, better fitted for an important administrative position than 
one who has not had that training. A school of Historical and 
Political Science can become a professional school for certain 
branches of the public service. 17 
It has not been very long since the President of the United 
States looked the country over for a man fitted to take charge 
of a national bureau of statistics, and after long months of 
search, was finally compelled to take a man whose time was 
already fully occupied with the care of a state bureau. Now 
such a school as I have described, by adding special courses in 
the principles and methods of statistics, and in the organization 
and working of statistical bureaus, could turn out a set of stu- 
dents who would be amply able to fill the highest demands 
which we could fairly make in this respect. 
It could prepare men for other important administrative 
positions by adding courses in the principles and methods of 
public accounting, and in the organization and management of 
government departments—national, state and local. There is 
certainly need of such instruction in a country where it is almost 
impossible to make head or tail of the average financial reports 
of public bodies, and where even the accounts of the National 
Government itself can scarcely be understood by the President 
or his Cabinet officers. 
Two objections may be raised to this feature of the plan. One 
may say, what is the advantage of having educated men of this 
type for our ordinary administrative positions ? They have to 
learn the business practically, anyhow, before they can perform 
the duties of the position, and they are generally of such a character 
that every man of ordinary intelligence and fair education, can 
perform the duties satisfactorily. I would answer, that it makes 
an infinite difference to a country, as a whole, whether its ad- 
ministration is in the hands of mere routinists, such as unedu- 
cated men nearly always are, or whether it is in the hands of 
educated and thoughtful agents. The latter, it is true, may 
sometimes, though this is not generally so, not perform the routine 
duties of the position any better than the former, but the attitude 
of the two toward their work, and the result of this attitude is 
enormously different. The routinist is satisfied with things as 
they are, and as owing to his lack of intelligence, he finds it 
difficult to adapt himself to other ways of doing things, he is by 
nature, bitterly opposed to every reform, which must always be 
forced upon him from the outside. His work to him is drudgery. 18 
The collection of a particular kind of tax in a particular way, is 
to him simply the levying of a tax. 
A yellow primrose by the brink 
A yellow primrose Is to him 
And nothing more. 
The educated man, on the contrary, sees even in these dry 
details of routine work the far-reaching effects, the economic and 
social advantages and disadvantages connected with this or that 
particular mode of doing things. He is always on the lookout 
for new ways of improving his service. And it is, at this point, 
that his training in historical or political science becomes of 
immense—of untold advantage to him and to the country. An 
educated civil service means an army of professional students of 
the methods and principles of government. And this means an 
enormous contribution to the problems of civil society, a contri- 
bution which we shall not be long able to dispense with. The 
advantage of such a service we do not fully appreciate, because 
we do not fully appreciate the loss we incur from our present 
form. A man in walking through a mining region, may pass a 
nugget of gold, which would have made him rich for life if he 
had only glanced in its direction. He passes on and in utter 
unconsciousness of what an opportunity has escaped him, wan- 
ders through life a tramp and a beggar. So a community, a 
state, a nation lives on for generations with an ignorant people 
and an ignorant public service, utterly unaware of what higher 
levels are open to it, until by accident, power drifts into the 
hands of intelligence when a revelation of the possibilities first 
comes to their minds. 
Such a school would become a centre where the great prob- 
lems of government in every department would receive careful 
and continuous study, which could not but result in many valua- 
ble contributions of a theoretical and practical nature toward 
their solution. It would send forth a set of men well acquainted 
with both the practical and theoretical aspects of such questions 
as the care of the poor and of the unfortunate classes, education, 
etc., etc., from whose numbers those could be selected who 
might be best fit to assist in the practical work of managing 
our public institutions or serving as members of supervising 19 
boards. Unfit men are now too often appointed because the 
number of really well prepared candidates for such positions is 
very small, and when all are equally unprepared, there seems to 
be no reasons why political considerations shall not decide the 
question. 
But some one may say, suppose we grant the truth of these 
considerations, what students could you attract to prepare them- 
selves for the public service ? What inducements under our 
present system of civil service, can you offer to young men to 
prepare for this career ? I am sorry to say, that they are not as 
yet, very great or very numerous. But they are still very sub- 
stantial, and I believe would attract a number of young men. 
In this case, as in many others, supply not only follows demand, 
but supply creates demand. Given a number of specially educa- 
ted young men, let them come in competition with a number of 
half-educated young men, and I believe, that even with our civil 
service as it is, for very many positions, at least, the latter would 
have no chance at all, and the number of positions coming 
within this category, will increase with every advance in the 
standing of our civil service. 
Such a school should turn out many men able and skillful 
in investigating economic and social facts : men who would be 
in great demand for commissions of various kinds, such as our 
legislatures and Congress are constantly creating for the study 
of certain topics like taxation, city government, railroads, Indian 
Question and the like ; commissions whose reports seldom have 
much value, because their members seldom have much fitness 
for the work. 
Let us now, in the light of the preceding considerations, 
again briefly describe the kind of school we have in mind. It 
will be a school with a certain minimum prescribed course in 
Political Economy, Social Science, Civil Government and His- 
tory; and in addition, a number of special elective courses, look- 
ing toward the particular calling which the student expects to 
take up. Each student for graduation will be expected to take the 
minimum course, and one of the elective courses corresponding to 
his future work. The course would be three years in length ; the 
first year or more being given to the prescribed, and the last two 
years or less to the elective courses. The degree to be given, 20 
should be either Bachelor or Doctor of Political Science, accord- 
ing to the previous preparation and courses taken in the school. 
Now, what would be the relation of such a school toward 
our existing institutions ? It has already been indicated in the 
word so frequently used above—professional. It would stand 
on the same footing as the Medical or Dental or Law schools, 
except that it should insist on a higher grade of acquirement for 
admission, than these schools. In the case of candidates for its 
degree, it might fairly enough insist upon such a degree of men- 
tal maturity and knowledge, as the average Junior in our better 
colleges possesses. The Doctor’s degree might be open only to 
those who had graduated at college or some similar institution 
before coming. But the courses should certainly be open to 
those who possess mental maturity enough to profit by them, 
whether they have been in college or not. It should cleave 
a way for itself, down into the heart of the masses, and outline 
special courses of preparation for itself, such as might attract 
the type of mind peculiarly fitted for such study. 
Two objections will be made to this plan : One will come 
from the practical man, and one from the college president. 
The practical man, upon whose munificence in the present state 
of the public mind we shall have to rely for funds to establish 
this school, will say : What is the necessity for such an institu- 
tion ? What moral obligation rests upon me, as one who desires 
to use a part of his wealth, to furnish public ends to provide a 
professional education for the journalist any more than for the 
butcher or baker ? I would answer, only the consideration of 
more imperative necessity in the case of the former. The latter 
can wait for his turn. It is to be sincerely hoped that, in course 
of time, provision will be made for the education of the butcher 
and baker also. In the meantime, the success of our present 
social order, rests upon correct views of government and its 
business in the minds of the people. As our society is at pres- 
ent constituted, the teacher, the lawyer and the journalist are 
peculiarly powerful in influencing and controlling public opinion. 
They occupy, to a certain extent, the position of moulders and 
leaders in affairs of public interest. It is doubly necessary, 
therefore, that they should be well trained in the investigation 
of all those vital problems. As matters now stand, however, 21 
they have no opportunity and but little inducement to prepare 
themselves properly for this work, and when their advice is 
sought on practical matters, it is generally of a hap-hazard and 
crude character. Let the opportunity of such education once 
be given, and let its value be clearly seen, as it undoubtedly will 
be, and then it may be trusted to take care of itself. In the 
meantime, however, in this field, as in every other department 
of reform and progress, good things do not come of themselves. 
Good wheat does not grow of itself like the tares of the field. 
It must be planted and watered and tilled. Social progress 
along the higher lines, is achieved by the efforts of the better 
class in the community ; by the far-sighted and liberal and self- 
sacrificing. And it is to them that every appeal for better 
things must be made. 
The second objection comes from a great friend of educa- 
tional advance—the progressive college president. He asks 
why organize a special school ? You are going to divorce sub- 
jects which should be kept together. Political Science belongs 
with Philosophy, and Art, and Literature and pure Science. 
Why not develop all these subjects within the limits of an ex- 
panded Faculty of Arts ? My answer is, that I should be very 
glad, indeed, to see any Faculty of Arts in this country expand 
wide enough to take in this scheme. But I see no signs of any 
leaning in that direction, and I am free to confess, that I have 
but little hope that any will develop itself in the future. Edu- 
cational progress is accompanied, as noted before, by an ever 
increasing differentiation in the kinds of schools. This fact is 
obscured, to a large extent, by the external form of certain higher 
institutions. The experience of German universities is often 
quoted as demonstrating in a striking way, the desirability of 
keeping all branches of pure science together within one close 
organization or faculty. It is well known that the typical Ger- 
man university consists of four faculties—Law, Medicine, The- 
ology and Philosophy. The latter includes all branches, not 
clearly falling within the limits of the other three. It is a wide- 
spread and, in my opinion, very erroneous idea, that the Philo- 
sophical Faculty is a faculty of liberal arts ; that its students 
are engaged in the pursuit of pure science for its own sake, and 
that every student has the opportunity to elect what branches 22 
he pleases, and divide his time as he pleases. The real fact is, 
that the Philosophical Faculty consists of a large number of 
special courses which are practically prescribed to the student, 
though in form, they are elective. Few German students enter 
the Philosophical Faculty for the purpose of obtaining a liberal 
education. They go to get a special preparation for a given ex- 
amination, which they will be tested in certain set subjects. The 
university, it is said, does not prescribe these courses. That is 
done by the State, but the result to the student is the same. 
Suppose the State of Pennsylvania were to pass a law, re- 
quiring that all persons who desire admission to any branch of 
its civil service, should spend three years at the University of 
Pennsylvania, should then prescribe a state examination in such 
a number of subjects represented in the curriculum of that in- 
stitution, as would keep the student busy for three years, and 
should appoint the university professors who instructed in those 
subjects, to be examiners in the state examination. How much 
liberty of choice would be left to the student ? He would corne 
to Philadelphia with the expectation of remaining three years, 
and then entering the civil service. He is theoretically entitled 
to study what he pleases, but practically he is limited to the 
subjects in which he must be examined. Now, nearly every 
German student enrolled in a Philosophical Faculty, is looking 
forward to entering the civil service of his country in one branch 
or another, and must consequently fit himself in the subjects 
required in the corresponding examination. In this is to be 
found the explanation of the universal complaint in Germany, 
that the students are giving themselves up to Brodstudium, and 
of the further fact that every professor is trying to get his 
particular subject required in some state examination. The 
testimony of many eminent German professors, is to the effect 
that the Philosophical Faculty is but little more than a collection 
of prescribed courses, and some of them think that the efficiency 
of these courses is greatly hindered by the fact, that they are all 
organized within one faculty, instead of being divided as they 
should be into several, as, indeed, is done in some of the institu- 
tions. I have mentioned this point, because I believe that the 
experience of the German university, rightly understood, favors 
the view underlying this paper, as to the best means of securing 23 
the highest development of any given department or knowledge, 
though it is often quoted in favor of a very different view. 
I would not wish to be understood as favoring any diminu- 
tion in the amount of attention devoted to these subjects in our 
colleges. It should, and must be, very largely increased. But 
I desire to see a fuller opportunity offered for'their study, than 
any American college is now offering or is likely to offer within 
the narrow limits of a Faculty of Arts. 
There is no objection to the organization of such a school 
in connection with a college or university. There are, indeed, 
very many cogent reasons why it should be so organized. The 
other departments have many resources which would be of great 
aid to such an institution. It would prevent duplication of 
libraries and of certain courses, which might be open to students 
of other departments. And above all, the students themselves 
would derive great assistance from the scholarly atmosphere 
which should surround a great centre of learning. But the 
school should be organized on its own basis, as independent of 
the other departments, as the Medical or Law schools. 
Now, my friends, I have not sketched this outline to you, 
merely to tickle your imagination with a creature of fancy. I 
believe that there is a great want in our educational field which 
is, as yet, unfilled. I think such an institution would fill it, and 
I desire your active co-operation in securing funds for such an 
institution. It should be right here in our midst ; in this great 
centre of industry where the serious problems of modern society 
are revealing themselves in all their sharpness and terribleness ; 
and where, therefore, the data for an inductive study of society 
are close at hand. 
Philadelphia needs such a school, and it would patronize it 
liberally. The State, nay the Nation, needs such an institution, 
and if it were worthy they could fill its halls to overflowing with 
the very cream of the young talent of the country. Fifteen 
years ago there was no opportunity in Philadelphia to secure a 
higher technical education, and some people doubted whether 
there were young men enough in the community to make it 
worth while to establish a school for this purpose. In 1872 the 
University of Pennsylvania opened such a school. The attend- 
ance regularly increased, until now it has reached nearly two 24 
hundred and fifty. Such a school as I have outlined above, 
would reach a larger number than even a technical school of the 
kind just described. 
Such an institution might be started on a fairly liberal basis 
with an income aside from tuition of $25,000 per year, provided 
a suitable building were provided, and every cent of income of 
$50,000 could be wisely used from the very start. 
The University of Pennsylvania, owing to the liberality of 
Mr. Joseph Wharton, has been able to lay the foundation for 
such a school as I have above described. The income from in- 
vested funds amounts, so far, to about $7,000 per year, and it 
has been so judiciously used, that the institution is now able to 
apply wisely every cent of money given for this purpose, whether 
it be five dollars or a million. 
Who, of Philadelphia’s public-spirited citizens, will add to 
this foundation, or will lay a broader and deeper one for such a 
superstructure ? 
Appended to this paper, is a proposed curriculum, embrac- 
ing four of the special courses outlined above. This is not in- 
tended to indicate a desirable limit in any course, or even the 
most desirable form, but simply to suggest the outline of a 
practicable system, which might be varied to almost any extent, 
as circumstances might seem to make desirable. New special 
courses could be added ad libitum with every adequate increase 
of funds. 
Provision should, of course, be made fy>r the endowment of 
research in these departments by establishing resident and 
traveling fellowships, with sufficient income to enable the 
holders to devote their whole time to study and investigation 
along these lines. P'unds should also be available for defraying 
the expenses of special investigations and for the publication of 
valuable monographs, etc., which should incorporate the results 
of work done in connection with the institution. OUTLINE OF A PROPOSED COURSE. 
Required of all. 
1. Political Economy, 3 hrs. 
2. Civil Govt., 2 “ 
3. Logic, 2 “ 
4. English, 3 “ 
5. Modern Hist., 5 “ 
1st Year. 
Required of all. 
1. Sociology, 3 hrs. 
2. Administration, 3 “ 
3. American Hist., 4 “ 
And one of the following 
Optional Courses. 
Optional Courses, - looking to Teaching, Law, 
Journalism and Business. 
2flYear. 
I. —Logic and Morals, 3 hrs. 
Anct. History, 2 “ 
II. —Roman Law, 2 “ 
General Jurisprud. 3 “ 
III. —Cot. His. & Geo., 3 hrs. 
Stylistics, 2 “ 
IV. —Accounting, 3 “ 
Com. Law, 2 “ 
Required of all. 
1. Finance, 2 nrs.’ 
2. Economic Hist., 4 “ 
I 3. Const. Hist., 2 “ 
4. Internat. Law, 2 “ ) 
And one of the following 
Optional Courses. 
3(1 Year. 
I.—Pedagogics, 5 hrs. 
II—Hist. Com. Law, 5 “ 
\ 
II.—Pract. in Reporting and 
Editorial Writ., 5 hrs. 
IV.—Mercantile Prac. and 
Manag’t of Prop. 5 hrs. ROSTER. 
SUBJECT. 
First Year. 
Second Year. 
Third Year. 
*i 
t* 
+ 3it4| ’ 
*1 
It 2 
It 3 
l4l 
*1 
!f2t3il4! 
Political Economy, 
3 
Civil Government, . 
2 
Logic, ..... 
2 
English, 
3 
History, Modern, . 
5 
Sociology, .... 
3 
Administration, 
t 
3 
Anjerican History, 
£ 
4 
Finance, 
2 
Economic History, 
4 
Constitutional History, 
2 
International Law, 
2 
Ancient History, . . . 
2 
Logic and Morals, . 
3 
Roman Law, . . . . 
2 
General Jurisprudence, . 
3 
Stylistics, 
2 
Cotemp. Hist, and Geog , 
3 
Accounting 
3 
Commercial Law, 
2 
Pedagogics, 
5 
Hist. Common Law, . 
5 
Practice in Reporting and 
Editorial Writing, 
5 
Manag. Prop, and Merc. Prac. 
5 
*5 
•5 
'5 
is 
15 
1515 
1115 
* Teaching, f Law. \ Journalism. 
• 
Business.