Text
From Suffolk University
20 Derno Stroot
(Bo.ck of tho Sta to House)
Boston, Muss.
For furthor informn.tion please fool free to telephone
the University at CAPitol 0555
and ask for Dr. Millel:'"
or for Miss Bryant ••• or come in.
DO NOT RELEASE BEFORE TEE
-MORNING OF JUNE l 7TH-.-
----------
·tljt:>··
DESK COPY
. EXl:CUTIVE SECRETARY
ANO REGISTRAR
Address given by C. o. Ruggles, Professor of Public Utility
Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, at the Annual Conunencement Exercises, Suffolk University,
Bes.con Hill, Boston, June 16th at 8:00 P.M.
"THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN M.IBRICAN EDUCATION"
Recent events throughout the world have brought forcibly to the fore the
need for a better understanding of the social sciences. This lack of appreciation
of' the workings of economic laws applies not only to t,he leaders and the would-be
leaders of many important countries, but to tho people who endorse their programs.
In other words, tho wholo world is in nocd of a better understanding of the social
sciences if we arc to make substantial progress in tho improvement of economic and
social conditions.
The failure of unsound government programs often sots a good cause back
many years. And while a better understanding of the social sciences is important
for the countries of the old world, it is especially important for a country as
large as the United States •. Moreover, what might be a sound policy for smaller
countries might not be workable in a country the size of ours. Some one has said
and apparently without exaggeration, that if Texas were a lake and France an island.
France could be dropped into Texas and there would bo room enough to sail out of
sight of land on every side. Montana is almost as largo as the Gorman empire before
Hitler annexed Austria.
Our forefathers broke away from Europe because they objected to the control
over almost every aspect of their lives inaluding their religious beliefs and American
government and institutions represented an experiment on their part based upon the
assumption that universal education would produce a high general level of intelligence that would, in turn, provide a sound basis for democracy. This philosophy is
well expressed in the inscription upon the Boston Public Library which is to the
effect that tho Conunon~roalth requires the education of a people as the safeguard
of order and liberty. Th~ truth of this statement would bo generally accepted but
it is not so ·fully appreciated that tho nood for emphasis on various aspocts of
education changes from one generation to another.
It is probaoly not a reflection on educational institutions to say that
they.are always behind the times, at least in their general programs of instruction.
In research and in extending the borders of knowledge, they are often far ahead of
their time; but before an endowed institution can secure gifts or a state supported
institution can secure appropriations for instruction in a given field, the need
for such instruction must have boon rather generally appreciated. By that time,
the needed instruction may be at least one generation late.
In considering tho need for more emphasis on the social sciences in .American education, lot us first trace certain aspects of education in this country;
second, consider tho extent to which changes in the economic and social conditions
in tho Uni tod States have,. in turn, created new educational needs; and finally. the
.,necessity for widening the opportunity for adult educatio;n in general, and especial;;;.
ly in the study of the social sciences •.
The Social Sciences in .American Education
-2-
The second war with Great Britain created a great interest in technical
education in the United States. After tho battle of Waterloo, it was evident that
markets for manufactured products would bo sought in tho United States both by
England and by the continental countries. Yfo at once passed our first protective
tariff and focussed our attention on manufacturing industries. Tho first school to
offer a substantial toch..nical curriculum was Ronssolacr Polytechnic Insti tuto
ostnblishcd in 1824. It was patterned after the French technical schools. While
Harvard had been established as curly as 1636., it was more than 200 years before that
university organized its engineering school. Both Yale and Harvard organized
engineering schools in 1847. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was about to
open when the Civil War broke out and hence its beginnings were postponed until 1865.
During the Civil War Congress, through the Morrill Act, gave a great stimulus to
technical education in the field of agriculture and engineering by providing subsidies for tho so-called land grant collcgos. These began to develop on a grand
scale, ospocially in the Middlo West, :Michigan and Illinois being outstanding early
examples. Indeed, tho University of Illinois was known as the Illinois Industrial
University until tho yoar 1885.
This skutch of tho dovolopmont of technical education is presented not as
a criticism of what our country was doing at that time, but rather to point out that
it was a logical development. Young .America had many bridges to build, many factories
to erect, and numerous railway lines to be laid. Hence, it was natural that emphasis
should have been placed on the physical sciences.
It is not an exaggeration to s~y that the success of all this period of
technical education created some of tho most difficult problems which we now face.
With the abundant natural resources in this country, and an increase in technical
proficiency, the country grew by leaps and bounds and its sieplo colonial life was
soon being transformed into a complex industrial civilization. Those changes wore
in part brought about by the fact that we adopted a constitution that prohibited
nny to.riff among our states. This., in turn, mount that wo wore to sec in .America
some of tho largest business units tho world hn.d known. Tho markets for those huge
industries wore far flung. Free trudo within tho bountl~rics of .America made it
inovitablo that the production unit should have boon un enormous one •
.America's early emphasis upon the physical sciences provided inventors
with ample outlets for their talents and inventions multiplied at a rapid rate.
The development and utilization of the resources of a country the size of the United
States created many of our difficult economic and social problems., "Which, in turn,
called for national legislation. The frontier West, for example, was suspicious of
the industrial East and those feelings have boon registered in much of our national
legislation at different periods in our history. Indeed., the economic, business,
and social problmns that were tho natural outgrowth of our technical achiovomonts
wore upon us so suddenly that we had not had adequate opportunity to study and understand them. This is made clear if we glance at the character of educational institutions in this country during our early history and in moro recent years. It is a
fair assumption that the educational institutions of a country reflect what the
people believe tho rising generation should understand.
Departments of economics, for oxa~ple, are not very old. There are still
a few instances where older members of the faculty are still living who at one time
taught all the economics., political science, and history that some of the important
institutions offered. In fact, when economics ~us first introduced into the curriculum., it was often taught by tho president of tho university along with moral philosophy. If vro check the devclopmont of such institutions as schools of business, we see
this same lag in tho study of the problems of the social sciences. Not until the
1880's was thcro a school of business organized in this country and indeod, up to
a'.'.bout 1900, one could count all tho business schools in the country on his fingers.
It was almost throe centuries after Harvard wa. e ostablishod before its business
school was organized.
Tho Social Scioncos in Amorican Education
3
It is not an accident that tho social sciences and tho schools of business
lagged far behind tho technical schools. Ono might say that the physical sciences
and technical schools vrere represented by a sixteen-cylinder motor car traveling at
such a high rate of speed that the social sciences, represented by a one-cylinder
motorcycle, were sputtering along so far in tho roar, that it was not possible for
the social sciontists to determine at which corner the physical sciences had turned.
Fortunately, there has boon in rccont years a recognition of tho fact that
the technical schools and tho physical scicncos have created problems to which the
social scioncos must now give serious consideration. This is a very vital matter
because an intelligent understanding of tho social sciences is tho koy to tho socalled fuller life and a bettor social order.
To illustrate tho extent to which legislators arc often unprepared to meet
urgont economic and social problems, let mo refer to the comment of a Chicago editor
made during the time I was in college. The Chicago editor in pointing out the lack
of vision on the part of the Illinois legislators in framing child labor legislation
said his first impulse was to criticize these legislators for their lack of underatanding of' such a vital problem; but on second thought, it occurred to the editor
that the men in tho Illinois legislature were tho legitimate product of the American
public school system. He pointod out that if he had gono to Springfield and sclectec
a dozen men at random, and asked thom how many of them had ever hoard of Shaftsbury
and what they know of tho strong and weak points of English child labor legislation,
he would probably not have obtained much enljghtmcnt; but that if he had gone down
the same line of mon mo.king inquiries ~bout the wives of Henry VIII, ho would probably
have secured quite a little information.
In other words, our educational system changes so slowly that it fails to
meet our needs. It is natural and inevitable that teachers will teach what they know.
Indeed, after college catalogues have described a new vision, it is not always true
that the instruction is in line with the description in the catalogue. No stream
can rise higher than its source and no teacher can bo effective, for example, in
the social scicncos who does not know the social sciences. If that teacher has boon
educated in tho old lino subjects such as history, economic history, and government,
the course is likoly to bo one dealing with those subjects.
But a bettor understanding of tho social sciences must not be limited to
legislators and loaders of public opinion. This statement leads mo to the final
point of my discussion, viz: tho need for widening the opportunity for adult education. This must be done simply bocauso able leadership is of little significance
without intolligont followorship. The fields of the social sciences arc so dynamic
that they change even from decade to decade and it is essential that we appreciate
that our education, especially in these fields, is something that cannot be completed
in a formal program of four years. In other words, even the people who have had tho
advantagos of a formal education should have opportunities to keep abreast of tho
times and to obtain some understanding of rapidly changing economic issuos. Moreover, there is another group of our people who aro sometimes denied tho opportunities
of pursuing fulltimc formal training. They must secure their education along with
their daily duties in oarning a livelihood.
It is heartening to see the extent to which many institutions have developed in metropolitan centers, thus giving an opportunity to people to learn while
they earn. Indeed, in many ways, the combination of learning while earning is an
excellent one. It is, in a sense, the laboratory method. At one time, we taught
tho physical sciences by moans of textbooks and formulae. No institution is considered properly oquippod today if it docs not teach tho physical scionccs by tho
laboratory method. Tho medical student is not p0rmittcd to enter into tho practice
of modicino until ho has had certain clinical oxpcricnco.
It is probably not an exaggeration to say that much of our education in
tho social sciences has been, o.nd still is, somewhat like teaching swimming by corrcspondonce. We need to combine tho process of education with the actual activities ,-.-"
The Social Sciences in American Educntion
4
economic and social life. President Dykstra of the University of Wisconsin pointed
out recently that even dictators have a way of rounding people up and running them
through tho voting booth, tlms ;;iving a rubber stamp approval to their programs.
Unfortunately, tho social scioncos seem to the average individual as a field which
noods no careful study and mi1.r1.:r mon in our logisln.tive halls arc ready to concoct
new luvrs on short notico tho..t v: tally affect tho li vos of tho people. Half truths
and half bakod philosophies grr:ri;r 1 uxuriantly in tho field of tho social sciences.
Not until we havo a bvt:tor undcrstur...ding of tho vital economic problems of our complex civilization cD.n 1!ro ho~c tc mr::..ko ro2..l progress. Uany simple punacacas being
1
offered throughout -~hc i.~rorl'i today ci ·U·.. cr w:10Ey ignore or fail to m1derstand fundamental principle~: oI" the Gocial sc:Le:J.r.os. Unt5.J. the situation is changed by a better
understanding of t!:1.ese fi,=,lds vve car.i'1.ot r::rr:pect our government programs to be productive of worth while long-_:_"etn~8 rosul ts.
JMC-6/5/38-250
20 Derno Stroot
(Bo.ck of tho Sta to House)
Boston, Muss.
For furthor informn.tion please fool free to telephone
the University at CAPitol 0555
and ask for Dr. Millel:'"
or for Miss Bryant ••• or come in.
DO NOT RELEASE BEFORE TEE
-MORNING OF JUNE l 7TH-.-
----------
·tljt:>··
DESK COPY
. EXl:CUTIVE SECRETARY
ANO REGISTRAR
Address given by C. o. Ruggles, Professor of Public Utility
Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, at the Annual Conunencement Exercises, Suffolk University,
Bes.con Hill, Boston, June 16th at 8:00 P.M.
"THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN M.IBRICAN EDUCATION"
Recent events throughout the world have brought forcibly to the fore the
need for a better understanding of the social sciences. This lack of appreciation
of' the workings of economic laws applies not only to t,he leaders and the would-be
leaders of many important countries, but to tho people who endorse their programs.
In other words, tho wholo world is in nocd of a better understanding of the social
sciences if we arc to make substantial progress in tho improvement of economic and
social conditions.
The failure of unsound government programs often sots a good cause back
many years. And while a better understanding of the social sciences is important
for the countries of the old world, it is especially important for a country as
large as the United States •. Moreover, what might be a sound policy for smaller
countries might not be workable in a country the size of ours. Some one has said
and apparently without exaggeration, that if Texas were a lake and France an island.
France could be dropped into Texas and there would bo room enough to sail out of
sight of land on every side. Montana is almost as largo as the Gorman empire before
Hitler annexed Austria.
Our forefathers broke away from Europe because they objected to the control
over almost every aspect of their lives inaluding their religious beliefs and American
government and institutions represented an experiment on their part based upon the
assumption that universal education would produce a high general level of intelligence that would, in turn, provide a sound basis for democracy. This philosophy is
well expressed in the inscription upon the Boston Public Library which is to the
effect that tho Conunon~roalth requires the education of a people as the safeguard
of order and liberty. Th~ truth of this statement would bo generally accepted but
it is not so ·fully appreciated that tho nood for emphasis on various aspocts of
education changes from one generation to another.
It is probaoly not a reflection on educational institutions to say that
they.are always behind the times, at least in their general programs of instruction.
In research and in extending the borders of knowledge, they are often far ahead of
their time; but before an endowed institution can secure gifts or a state supported
institution can secure appropriations for instruction in a given field, the need
for such instruction must have boon rather generally appreciated. By that time,
the needed instruction may be at least one generation late.
In considering tho need for more emphasis on the social sciences in .American education, lot us first trace certain aspects of education in this country;
second, consider tho extent to which changes in the economic and social conditions
in tho Uni tod States have,. in turn, created new educational needs; and finally. the
.,necessity for widening the opportunity for adult educatio;n in general, and especial;;;.
ly in the study of the social sciences •.
The Social Sciences in .American Education
-2-
The second war with Great Britain created a great interest in technical
education in the United States. After tho battle of Waterloo, it was evident that
markets for manufactured products would bo sought in tho United States both by
England and by the continental countries. Yfo at once passed our first protective
tariff and focussed our attention on manufacturing industries. Tho first school to
offer a substantial toch..nical curriculum was Ronssolacr Polytechnic Insti tuto
ostnblishcd in 1824. It was patterned after the French technical schools. While
Harvard had been established as curly as 1636., it was more than 200 years before that
university organized its engineering school. Both Yale and Harvard organized
engineering schools in 1847. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was about to
open when the Civil War broke out and hence its beginnings were postponed until 1865.
During the Civil War Congress, through the Morrill Act, gave a great stimulus to
technical education in the field of agriculture and engineering by providing subsidies for tho so-called land grant collcgos. These began to develop on a grand
scale, ospocially in the Middlo West, :Michigan and Illinois being outstanding early
examples. Indeed, tho University of Illinois was known as the Illinois Industrial
University until tho yoar 1885.
This skutch of tho dovolopmont of technical education is presented not as
a criticism of what our country was doing at that time, but rather to point out that
it was a logical development. Young .America had many bridges to build, many factories
to erect, and numerous railway lines to be laid. Hence, it was natural that emphasis
should have been placed on the physical sciences.
It is not an exaggeration to s~y that the success of all this period of
technical education created some of tho most difficult problems which we now face.
With the abundant natural resources in this country, and an increase in technical
proficiency, the country grew by leaps and bounds and its sieplo colonial life was
soon being transformed into a complex industrial civilization. Those changes wore
in part brought about by the fact that we adopted a constitution that prohibited
nny to.riff among our states. This., in turn, mount that wo wore to sec in .America
some of tho largest business units tho world hn.d known. Tho markets for those huge
industries wore far flung. Free trudo within tho bountl~rics of .America made it
inovitablo that the production unit should have boon un enormous one •
.America's early emphasis upon the physical sciences provided inventors
with ample outlets for their talents and inventions multiplied at a rapid rate.
The development and utilization of the resources of a country the size of the United
States created many of our difficult economic and social problems., "Which, in turn,
called for national legislation. The frontier West, for example, was suspicious of
the industrial East and those feelings have boon registered in much of our national
legislation at different periods in our history. Indeed., the economic, business,
and social problmns that were tho natural outgrowth of our technical achiovomonts
wore upon us so suddenly that we had not had adequate opportunity to study and understand them. This is made clear if we glance at the character of educational institutions in this country during our early history and in moro recent years. It is a
fair assumption that the educational institutions of a country reflect what the
people believe tho rising generation should understand.
Departments of economics, for oxa~ple, are not very old. There are still
a few instances where older members of the faculty are still living who at one time
taught all the economics., political science, and history that some of the important
institutions offered. In fact, when economics ~us first introduced into the curriculum., it was often taught by tho president of tho university along with moral philosophy. If vro check the devclopmont of such institutions as schools of business, we see
this same lag in tho study of the problems of the social sciences. Not until the
1880's was thcro a school of business organized in this country and indeod, up to
a'.'.bout 1900, one could count all tho business schools in the country on his fingers.
It was almost throe centuries after Harvard wa. e ostablishod before its business
school was organized.
Tho Social Scioncos in Amorican Education
3
It is not an accident that tho social sciences and tho schools of business
lagged far behind tho technical schools. Ono might say that the physical sciences
and technical schools vrere represented by a sixteen-cylinder motor car traveling at
such a high rate of speed that the social sciences, represented by a one-cylinder
motorcycle, were sputtering along so far in tho roar, that it was not possible for
the social sciontists to determine at which corner the physical sciences had turned.
Fortunately, there has boon in rccont years a recognition of tho fact that
the technical schools and tho physical scicncos have created problems to which the
social scioncos must now give serious consideration. This is a very vital matter
because an intelligent understanding of tho social sciences is tho koy to tho socalled fuller life and a bettor social order.
To illustrate tho extent to which legislators arc often unprepared to meet
urgont economic and social problems, let mo refer to the comment of a Chicago editor
made during the time I was in college. The Chicago editor in pointing out the lack
of vision on the part of the Illinois legislators in framing child labor legislation
said his first impulse was to criticize these legislators for their lack of underatanding of' such a vital problem; but on second thought, it occurred to the editor
that the men in tho Illinois legislature were tho legitimate product of the American
public school system. He pointod out that if he had gono to Springfield and sclectec
a dozen men at random, and asked thom how many of them had ever hoard of Shaftsbury
and what they know of tho strong and weak points of English child labor legislation,
he would probably not have obtained much enljghtmcnt; but that if he had gone down
the same line of mon mo.king inquiries ~bout the wives of Henry VIII, ho would probably
have secured quite a little information.
In other words, our educational system changes so slowly that it fails to
meet our needs. It is natural and inevitable that teachers will teach what they know.
Indeed, after college catalogues have described a new vision, it is not always true
that the instruction is in line with the description in the catalogue. No stream
can rise higher than its source and no teacher can bo effective, for example, in
the social scicncos who does not know the social sciences. If that teacher has boon
educated in tho old lino subjects such as history, economic history, and government,
the course is likoly to bo one dealing with those subjects.
But a bettor understanding of tho social sciences must not be limited to
legislators and loaders of public opinion. This statement leads mo to the final
point of my discussion, viz: tho need for widening the opportunity for adult education. This must be done simply bocauso able leadership is of little significance
without intolligont followorship. The fields of the social sciences arc so dynamic
that they change even from decade to decade and it is essential that we appreciate
that our education, especially in these fields, is something that cannot be completed
in a formal program of four years. In other words, even the people who have had tho
advantagos of a formal education should have opportunities to keep abreast of tho
times and to obtain some understanding of rapidly changing economic issuos. Moreover, there is another group of our people who aro sometimes denied tho opportunities
of pursuing fulltimc formal training. They must secure their education along with
their daily duties in oarning a livelihood.
It is heartening to see the extent to which many institutions have developed in metropolitan centers, thus giving an opportunity to people to learn while
they earn. Indeed, in many ways, the combination of learning while earning is an
excellent one. It is, in a sense, the laboratory method. At one time, we taught
tho physical sciences by moans of textbooks and formulae. No institution is considered properly oquippod today if it docs not teach tho physical scionccs by tho
laboratory method. Tho medical student is not p0rmittcd to enter into tho practice
of modicino until ho has had certain clinical oxpcricnco.
It is probably not an exaggeration to say that much of our education in
tho social sciences has been, o.nd still is, somewhat like teaching swimming by corrcspondonce. We need to combine tho process of education with the actual activities ,-.-"
The Social Sciences in American Educntion
4
economic and social life. President Dykstra of the University of Wisconsin pointed
out recently that even dictators have a way of rounding people up and running them
through tho voting booth, tlms ;;iving a rubber stamp approval to their programs.
Unfortunately, tho social scioncos seem to the average individual as a field which
noods no careful study and mi1.r1.:r mon in our logisln.tive halls arc ready to concoct
new luvrs on short notico tho..t v: tally affect tho li vos of tho people. Half truths
and half bakod philosophies grr:ri;r 1 uxuriantly in tho field of tho social sciences.
Not until we havo a bvt:tor undcrstur...ding of tho vital economic problems of our complex civilization cD.n 1!ro ho~c tc mr::..ko ro2..l progress. Uany simple punacacas being
1
offered throughout -~hc i.~rorl'i today ci ·U·.. cr w:10Ey ignore or fail to m1derstand fundamental principle~: oI" the Gocial sc:Le:J.r.os. Unt5.J. the situation is changed by a better
understanding of t!:1.ese fi,=,lds vve car.i'1.ot r::rr:pect our government programs to be productive of worth while long-_:_"etn~8 rosul ts.
JMC-6/5/38-250