CROESUS AND THE TIGER

The announcement that Princeton has established a department of world finance is another blow to the venerable sentiment that the college exists only to instill the spirit of humanism. The introduction of the study of international commercial relations clearly indicates to what extent the demand for practical education has developed. Princeton's project is to bring theory and reality into conjunction by dealing with such problems as the collection of international debts, American foreign trade expansion, international tariff, and the need of a world-wide system of currency. Such a proposition lends impetus to the already popular theory of solving world problems through the medium of economics in that it proposes to educate many young men to make practical use of the theories of international business.

Despite the many cynical impressions that are prevalent concerning the ability of a college to teach the application of theory, the fact remains that there is no other place where there can be acquired such a true perspective of events in the light of speculative thought. The university man is one of the few who can formulate ideas without having the question of earning a living predominating his ideas. On the other hand, the objection that the college is merely a catalogue of theories, is disproved by this Princeton plan, for it proposes an appeal to actual conditions as the final proof of the validity of its conclusions.

This innovation is to supplement, not replace the old system of collegiate education. To merely recognizes the fact that it should not exclude the arts but join with them in reducing collegiate thought to a mean of common sense. Any sentimental traditions, no matter how venerable, that exclude from the college curriculum, all but scholastic abstractions untainted by the leprous touch of realism, should never stand in the way of such additions as this.