consisting of juniors and seniors. In this
plan the additional courses may be in transportation, in labor
problems, in trusts and corporations, and frequently of late, in
accounting. Ordinarily the "general" course itself involves a logical
sequence, the first term dealing with fundamental concepts and
theories, and the second term covering in a rapid survey a pretty wide
range of special problems. The majority of the students take only the
general course. Those who go on to more advanced courses retrace the
next year some of the ground of the second semester's work, but this
is probably for few of them a loss of time. Indeed, in such a subject
as economics this opportunity to let first teachings "sink in," and
strange concepts become familiar, is for most students of great value.
Yet the plan was adopted and is followed as a compromise, using one
course as a ready-made fit for the differing needs of two groups of
students. We have seen above (page 221) that preceding the general, or
systematic, course, there is in a number of colleges a simpler one. In
some cases[22] the experiment has been undertaken of studying first
for a time certain broad institutional features of our existing
society, such as property, the wage system, competition, and the
amount and distribution of wealth. The need of such a course is said
to be especially great in the women's colleges. If so, it is truly
urgent, for most young men come to college with very meager experience
in economic lines. Few, if any, teachers would deny that such an
introductory course preceding the principles is distinctly of
advantage.[23] Some would favor it even at the price of shortening
materially the more general course. But most teachers would agree that
together the introductory course and the general course should take
two full years (three hours a week, twelve college credit hours, as
usually reckoned), an amount of time which cannot be given by the
"floater" electing economics. And to accommodate both those who have
had the introductory course and those who have not, the general course
would have to be given in two divisions and in two ways. Again we come
to the thought, suggested above, that probably we are attempting too
much in too brief a time in the general course today. A longer time
for the study would permit of a sequence that would be more logically
defensible. It would begin with historical and descriptive studies,
both because they are fundamentally