OCTOBEE 11, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



471 



support of the newspaper press, as a whole, 

 for this professional preparation. This pub- 

 lic verdict has quickened the interest, both of 

 the public and the universities in this field. 

 The question is no longer, as it was half a 

 year ago, whether journalists shall be trained, 

 but how they shall be trained so as to become 

 efficient journalists better able to serve the 

 public. 



Under the foundation men of experience, 

 ability and maturity are admitted to the 

 school without an examination and after two 

 years of adequate work are eligible to the de- 

 gree offered by the university on the com- 

 pletion of the course. This opportunity to 

 gain a college degree without the usual re- 

 quirements for matriculation has attracted a 

 large number of applicants, but they have 

 been rigorously sifted, none accepted unless 

 they showed a special capacity for journalism, 

 and lY have been admitted. 



The training of the School of Journalism 

 in Columbia University through its four years' 

 course divides itself between studies on his- 

 tory, law, government, party organization, 

 economics, unions, trusts and literature, train- 

 ing in reporting and training in writing. The 

 first two years are devoted to the fundamental 

 studies whose knowledge is necessary to the 

 journalist in his work. Men intending to be 

 journalists who have not had a college edu- 

 cation are strongly advised to take these two 

 years, if they are unable to take the full 

 course. They are crowded with the studies 

 which will aid' a man's future work in jour- 

 nalism. These studies are immediate and deal 

 with the issues and events of to-day. The en- 

 tire course is made up after consultation with 

 and the approval of a group of the ablest 

 journalists in the country. 



Nearly one third of the time in the course 

 is given to training in writing. The students 

 will do nearly as much writing each week as 

 the average man in a newspaper office. This 

 work will be rigorously corrected and required 

 to be punctual as on a newspaper and will be 

 done under a time limit, as, in service condi- 

 tion. Training in writing in the school looks 

 to accuracy, presentation and a vivid style. 



In this training, the customary place in col- 

 lege "English" of "themes" and subjects, 

 created for the occasion, is laid aside and the 

 subjects on which men write spring either 

 from their studies or from their work as re- 

 porters. Political science at the opening of the 

 present year, in the first-year class, is devoted 

 to the presidential election. In the second 

 year, economics will be studied in the usual 

 beginning course; but weekly, the pupils will 

 write under direction a " business article " re- 

 viewing the business and financial week, siich 

 as many newspapers publish Saturday, Sun- 

 day or Monday. History will furnish subjects 

 cast in newspaper form in the shape of de- 

 spatches from historic battlefields, reports of 

 historic events and estimates of public men 

 and measures, treated in the editorial spirit. 

 Throughout all the studies this plan will be 

 adopted and both science and literature will 

 be used to supply subjects training men in 

 treatment and presentation. 



The news of New York will be employed in 

 the last two years to train men in reporting, 

 to school them in writing and to acquaint 

 them with the life of a great city. Trials, the 

 visit of the battleships, the election, where the 

 returns will be handled, large events and 

 small will be used as assignments. The mani- 

 fold copy (" tissue ") furnished newspapers 

 win be employed in editing copy and in 

 building head lines. The presidential cam- 

 paign will furnish a text for editorial writing, 

 new plays will be the subject of notices, the 

 exhibition of the Academy of Design of art 

 criticism and new books of book reviewing. 



When the women who have now entered for 

 the first year reach the third and fourth year 

 in this course, those who desire to prepare for 

 the woman's page wiU be given the opportun- 

 ity in connection with the School of House- 

 hold Arts in Columbia University. Already 

 students in the fourth year in the school are 

 selecting studies in sociology intended to lead 

 to special fields of writing, but of all students 

 reporting is required, as the basis of the news- 

 paper man's training. 



This combination of exact study in the 

 structure of the state and its action in his- 



