in an educational centre near their homes and save very large items in the cost of a college education. When it is possible for these students to live at home, the relatively large expenses for rooms and board are very much reduced. This method seems to be almost ideal for bringing the state college or university to the "doors of the people." As regards the expense to the taxpayers of the commonwealth, there is also a great saving, as by this method, if worked out successfully, many millions of dollars are saved that would otherwise be spent for elaborate college or university buildings.

CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL INSTRUCTION BY NON

ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS

BY LEE GALLOWAY, PH.D.,

Professor of Commerce and Industry, New York University.

A recent issue of a popular magazine contains the advertisements of thirty schools offering instruction by correspondence. The courses cover nearly every known human activity ranging from raising poultry to training engineers. They include instruction in accounting, law, electrical engineering, meter engineering, signal engineering, wireless operating, automobile driving and repairing, lettering and designing, drawing and cartooning, drafting, advertising and selling, public-speaking, watch repairing, executive management, English and even ventriloquism. A person may be made into a traffic inspector, a detective or a musician-all by mail.

Extent of Influence

The best measure of the influence of these schools is the number of students enrolled and the amount of money spent in preparing the courses of instruction as well as in advertising them. One school offering four main courses-accounting, law, traffic management and business administration has enrolled 90,000 students. A correspondence law school has put 40,000 enrollments upon its records within the last five years, while another school offering general business course for executives has enrolled over 40,000 within approximately the same time. Even those schools which appeal to the narrower fields of highly specialized activities such as music, credits and collections and so on, show a wide influence. Over 260,000 persons have received instruction from one school teaching music by mail since its establishment twenty years ago, while the active list that follows the weekly lessons never falls below 10,000 students.

In the same length of time, a school of design and lettering has enrolled 9,455 students, and a correspondence collection school has enrolled 7,236 in about ten years. Even a highly specialized field, that of investments, has enabled one school to keep up an average

yearly enrollment of 120. A school offering general preparatory training in college and commercial subjects has a yearly enrollment which would do credit in point of size to the entering class of the average college. That the sphere of influence is not limited to any particular class of students is shown by the records of the two most prominent schools. The well known International Correspondence Schools, which make an appeal largely to students of apprentice grade, had enrolled a grand total of 1,750,441 up to June 1, 1915. In one year alone, there were as many as 125,000 new enrollments.

In some respects, however, the growth of the Alexander Hamilton Institute is still more significant in showing the range of influence which these schools are exercising. This institution, only a little more than five years old, has developed an entirely new field of correspondence instruction in its course and service for business executives. Within five years it has enrolled over 40,000 men whose average age is 32 years and whose average income is over $2,700 a

year.

INFLUENCE OF ADVERTISING AND SALESMANSHIP

One thing stands out preeminently in favor of the reputable correspondence school-the aggressive methods of pushing the cause of education as contrasted with the passive course of academic institutions. The former does not depend upon inherited, ancestral connections or "dignity" for its reputation, nor does it expect to win students solely by the advertising route of "our loving friends." The best correspondence schools use aggressive, business-like methods, and with the exception of a few important particulars they are straightforward in their advertising, and their salesmen are clean cut, intelligent men who would look upon an instructorship in a college as offering fewer opportunities for service than their contact outside with men of the world.

Added to sincerity of purpose and high ideals is the influence which goes with the extensive advertising and continuous efforts of thousands of sales agents. A few years ago the International Schools were spending $2,000,000 annually in creating a demand for education. The total advertising appropriations today of the larger correspondence schools run between four and five million dollars. per annum. Furthermore, if we take into consideration the selling expenses of one of these schools as well as the advertising appro

priation, the influence is increased still more. For instance, one New York institution pays its salesmen an amount that closely approaches the total money income of the largest school of commerce in the world.

Contrast the influence of a univeristy advertisement, which in one inch of space announces that it offers courses in certain academic subjects from September 15 to June 1, with that of a correspondence school which makes a full page display in the Saturday Evening Post, announcing "Muscles at twenty; brains at forty!" followed by testimonials of well known men, a list of subjects and a straightforward selling talk backed up with the names of the men behind the institution. Such an advertisement cost thousands of dollars to prepare and to distribute while the university announcement was prepared by a clerk in the registrar's office. Thousands read and answered the correspondence school advertisement and they were followed up, first by expensive, carefully prepared literature urging the claims of education, and secondly, by a visit from a personal representative of the school. The university announcement inspired a few dozen to write for a catalogue, and thanks to a predisposition engendered by twelve years or more of preparatory school work and the daily reading of the sporting page of the newspapers, a few of these were induced to go to college.

Although one school sends out over 30,000,000 pieces of printed matter per year, the influence produced by printer's ink is small compared to that exerted by the body of sales agents in the field. High grade correspondence schools are as careful in selecting their sales force as colleges and high schools are in choosing their faculties. The standards may be somewhat different but those of the former are in no way inferior to the latter. The salesmen's influence is twofold. They not only spread a knowledge of certain subjects of study but they inspire thousands of men and women to undertake educational work. For instance, one school employs one hundred salesmen of whom the most are college trained and these are frequently welcomed in the offices of business men because of their wide grasp of the subjects that they are selling. Such salesmen present on an average five selling talks a day. This means that a total of about 150,000 prospects have one branch of education forced upon their attention every year by men who are able to convince them that education is worth while. By taking advantage of the prospect's