第 48 节
作者:青涩春天      更新:2021-02-27 02:38      字数:9321
  profession; and it is doubtless believed by its apologists to be
  a useful profession; on the whole; but a body of lawyers somewhat
  less numerous; and with a lower average proficiency in legal
  subtleties and expedients; would unquestionably be quite as
  serviceable to the community at large as a larger number of such
  men with a higher efficiency; at the same time they would be less
  costly; both as to initial cost and as to the expenses of
  maintenance that come of that excessive volume and retardation of
  litigation due to an extreme facility in legal technique on the
  part of the members of the bar。
  It will also be found true that both the schools of law and
  those of commerce; and in a less degree the other vocational
  schools; serve the advantage of one class as against another。 In
  the measure in which these schools accomplish what they aim at;
  they increase the advantage of such men as already have some
  advantage over the common run。 The instruction is half…way
  gratuitous; that is the purpose of placing these schools on a
  foundation or maintaining them at the public expense。 It is
  presumed to be worth more than its cost to the students。 The fees
  and other incidental expenses do not nearly cover the cost of the
  schools; otherwise no foundation or support from the public funds
  would be required; and the universities would have no colourable
  excuse for going into this field。 But even if the instruction and
  facilities offered by these schools are virtually gratuitous; yet
  the fees and incidental expenses; together with the expenditure
  of time and the cost of living required for a residence at the
  schools; make up so considerable an item of expense as
  effectually to exclude the majority of those young men who might
  otherwise be inclined to avail themselves of these advantages。 In
  effect; none can afford the time and expense of this business
  training; whether in Commerce; Law; or the other professions;
  except those who are already possessed of something more than the
  average wealth or average income; and none; presumably; take
  kindly to this training; in commerce or law; e。g。; except those
  who already have something more than the average taste and
  aptitude for business traffic; or who have a promising 〃opening〃
  of this character in sight。 So that this training that is desired
  to serve the private advantage of commercial students is; for the
  greater part; extended to a select body of young men; only such
  applicants being eligible; in effect; as do not on any showing
  need this gratuity。
  In proportion to the work which it undertakes; the College of
  Commerce is  or it would be if it lived up to its professions
  the most expensive branch of the university corporation。 In
  this connection the case of the law school offers a significant
  object…lesson of what to expect in the further growth of the
  schools of commerce。 The law school is of older standing and
  maturer growth; at the same time that its aims and circumstances
  are of much the same general character as those that condition
  the schools of commerce; and it is therefore to be taken as
  indicating something of what must be looked for in the college of
  commerce if it is to do the work for which it is established。 The
  indications; then; are (a) that the instruction in the field of
  commercial training may be expected gradually to fall into a more
  rigidly drawn curriculum; which will discard all irrelevant
  theoretical excursions and will diverge more and more widely from
  the ways of scientific inquiry; in proportion as experience and
  tactful organization bring the school to a maturer insight into
  its purposes and a more consistent adherence to its chief purpose
  of training expert men for the higher business practice; and (b)
  that the personnel of its staff must increasingly be drawn from
  among the successful businessmen; rather than from men of
  academic training。
  Among the immediate consequences of this latter feature; as
  shown in the example of the law schools; is a relatively high
  cost。 The schedule of salaries in the law schools attached to the
  universities; e。 g。; runs appreciably higher than in the
  university proper。 the reason being; of course; that men suitable
  efficiently to serve as instructors and directive officials in a
  school of law are almost necessarily men whose services in the
  practice of the law would command a high rate of pay。 What is
  needed in the law school (as in the school of commerce) is men
  who are practically conversant with the ways and means of earning
  large fees;  that being the point of it all。 Indeed; the scale
  of pay which their services will command in the open market is
  the chief and ordinary test of their fitness for the work of
  instruction。 The salaries paid these men of affairs; who have so
  been diverted to the service of the schools; is commonly some
  multiple of the salary assigned to men of a comparable ability
  and attainments in the academic work proper。 The academic rank
  assigned them is also necessarily; and for the like reason;
  commensurate with their higher scale of pay; all of which throws
  an undue preponderance of discretion and authority into the hands
  of these men of affairs; and so introduces a disproportionate
  bias in favour of unscientific and unscholarly aims and ideals in
  the university at large。
  Judged by the example of the law schools; then; the college
  of commerce; if it is to live and thrive; may be counted on to
  divert a much larger body of funds from legitimate university
  uses; and to create more of a bias hostile to scholarly and
  scientific work in the academic body; than the mere numerical
  showing of its staff would suggest。 It is fairly to be expected
  that capable men of affairs; drawn from the traffic of successful
  business for this service; will require even a higher rate of
  pay; at the same time that they will be even more cordially out
  of sympathy with the ideals of scholarship; than the personnel of
  the law schools。 Such will necessarily be the outcome; if these
  schools are at all effectually to serve the purpose for which
  they are created。
  But for the present; as matters stand now; near the inception
  of this enterprise in training masters of gain; such an outcome
  has not been reached。 Neither have the schools of commerce yet
  been placed on such a footing of expensiveness and authoritative
  discretion as the high sanction of the quest of gain would seem
  properly to assign them; nor are they; as at present organized
  and equipped; at all eminently fit to carry out the work
  entrusted to their care。 Commonly; it is to be admitted; the men
  selected for the staff are men of some academic training; rather
  than men of affairs who have shown evidence of fitness to give
  counsel and instruction; by eminently gainful success in
  business。 They are; indeed; commonly men of moderate rating in
  the academic community; and are vested with a moderate rank and
  authority; and the emoluments of these offices are also such as
  attach to positions of a middling grade in academic work; instead
  of being comparable with the gains that come to capable men
  engaged in the large business outside。 Yet it is from among these
  higher grades of expert businessmen outside that the schools of
  commerce must draw their staff of instructors and their
  administrative officers if they are to accomplish the task
  proposed to them。 A movement in this direction is already visibly
  setting in。
  It is reasonably to be expected that one or the other result
  should follow: either the college of commerce must remain;
  somewhat as in practice it now is; something in the way of an
  academic division; with an academic routine and standards; and
  with an unfulfilled ambition to serve the higher needs of
  business training; with a poorly paid staff of nondescript
  academic men; not peculiarly fitted to lead their students into
  the straight and narrow way of business success; nor yet
  eminently equipped for a theoretical inquiry into the phenomena
  of business traffic and their underlying causes so that the
  school will continue to stand; in effect; as a more or less
  pedantic and equivocal adjunct of a department of economics; or
  the schools must be endowed and organized with a larger and
  stricter regard to the needs of the higher business traffic; with
  a personnel composed of men of the highest business talent and
  attainments; tempted from such