HONORS TO AMUXDSEX AXD TEARY 



121 



.MR. KKDFIKI,!), OX TllK NKKD OF GEOGRAPH- 

 ICAL TEACHING 



Mr. President, Mr. Toast master, ladies 

 and yentlemen: If we may follow the 

 geographical parallel, the position in 

 which I find myself this evening is that 

 of the English Channel, which separates 

 Great Britain from France. It has a 

 somewhat unsavory reputation, but I 

 venture to hope it may not add tonight 

 to the evils which it has visited hereto- 

 fore upon suffering humanity. 



I am but a voice this evening to men- 

 tion a need and to offer a suggestion, 

 neither more nor less. It is somewhat 

 embarrassing, when one has tried faith- 

 fully to teach a Avorking force of sup- 

 posedly intelligent young Americans 

 something as to where some places are 

 on this globe, to be told by one of them, 

 in answer to a question, "Where is Ja- 

 maica?" that it is an American island in 

 the Pacific Ocean. It is almost as bad 

 to be told in Manila that a large Boston 

 firm wrote to a house there on the 8th 

 of June demanding payment of an ac- 

 count, and wrote again on the 25th of 

 June wondering why they had not re- 

 ceived a response. It is also equally 

 bad to be told that a large Xew York 

 concern referred an actual inquiry from 

 Panama to its agent in the Philippine 

 Islands. 



I have, unfortunately, been obliged to 

 make an eff'ort to employ young Amer- 

 ican men and women who were sup- 

 posed to have some elementary knowl- 

 edge of geography. I have never found 

 it possible to get one with those qualifi- 

 cations. I think that statement, if you 

 mean by "elementary" the fact that there 

 are continents, is not correct, but if it 

 means any sort of useftil knowledge that 

 was available at call as to where the im- 

 portant countries and cities of the world 

 were, I believe it is correct. That is to 

 say, if you attempt to employ young peo- 

 ple of from 16 to 25 years of age at any 

 pay running from $10 to $20 a week, you 

 will not find it practicable to obtain from 

 any of them a ready, ordinary common 

 knowledge of the chief cities of the 

 globe. I think that statement is well 

 within the fact. 



I doubt very much if a graduating 

 class in our universities could answeV 

 correctly 20 out of 25 rather ordinary 

 geographical questions. For example, let 

 us take a practical illustration out of 

 every-day office life. 



THE LACK OF GEOGRAPHIC K.NOWLEDGE IN 

 CO. M MERGE 



A shipment of machinery is to go to 

 the town of Bandoeng, in the center of 

 Java, and we will call our clerk or tell 

 our stenographer to find out whether this 

 shipment should go by way of Rotterdam 

 and by Dutch steamer to Batavia and 

 thence by rail, or whether it should go 

 to London and thence by P. and O. 

 steamer to Colombo and then via Sing- 

 apore to Batavia and thence by rail, or 

 whether it should go west by wav of San 

 Francisco and Manila and Hongkong, on 

 a chance of catching the steamer for 

 Soerabaja or Semarang and by rail from 

 either point. 



I imagine, ]\Ir. Toastmaster, that some 

 of them are caught now, and yet, ladies 

 and gentlemen, with the exception of 

 Bandoeng, there is not one place men- 

 tioned that is not a large seaport of prime 

 commercial importance. X'ot one of those 

 cities but has daily in its harbor many 

 large commercial vessels. There is not 

 one of the towns mentioned with which 

 this country is not in daily, if not hourly, 

 communication by mail and wire, and the 

 statements I have made are taken from 

 facts out of the ordinary commonplace 

 work of a business office. 



Our clerks do not know, and there is 

 no place in America today where our 

 young people can get the thorough teach- 

 ing that will give them a working knowl- 

 edge of where these places are. 



Every day young women as stenog- 

 raphers and young men as clerks are 

 called upon for this knowledge, and their 

 employers are keeping kindergartens to 

 instruct them because the schools do not. 

 It is not the fault of our young people, 

 but their misfortune. 



That is a very plain statement of a 

 commonplace fact that every business 

 man who is engaged in foreign coiu- 

 merce knows all about. It is a very seri- 

 ous handicap. 



