N AUGUST or September, with the beginning of active operations of the twelve Federal Reserve banks, a wholly novel influence will be projected into the financial situation. The Federal Reserve Act is a revolutionary innovation, declares The Bankers Magazine. It marks for the first time in our history the assumption of Governmental control of the banking business of the country, "or at least that part of it which is embraced by the banks operating under national charters." For the voluntary action of bankers, the reserve banks will substitute the arbitrary control of the federal government. The value of this control by the regional banks, declares the New York Evening Post, will be put to the test in the immediate future. In September-if the opening is not delayed— the value of their facilities for helping the "harvest movement" will be discovered. The present gold export movement may call for the exercise of another power the regional banks will have.

"Should the outflow be long continued, the New York regional bank might properly advance the rate at which it will rediscount. That, in an active money market, should pull up the general rate for loans; with the result that foreign exchange would be kept down and the gold export movement checked. No such expedient would have done much service, if applied in the market of this month. Gold is now going out mainly because of the great abundance of idle bank funds in this country. If a regional bank, under such conditions, were to advance its own

official discount rate, it would simply get no more business from the banks."

"The Most Influential Financial Body in the World."

F THE financial press as a whole is not expressing great faith as to the certain benefits to be derived from the operations of the reserve banks, the personnel of the Federal Reserve Board recently appointed by the President has inspired confidence. One of the chief points of criticism in the framing of the act was the power and discretion lodged in this board. "The degree of control of direction over the reserve banks," notes the New York Journal of Commerce, "which may be exercised by this board, together with its relation to the Treasury Department of the Government, will make it perhaps the most influential financial body in the world." The wisdom of the President has been generally

praised, the Springfield Republican declaring the business world will benefit by the appointment of men, who, tho not in all cases bankers, are of "ample business experience, comprehensive grasp of financial movements and a national reputation for sound views and strength of character." In this respect, as in other provisions of the new banking system, the Government is following precedents set by the great banking systems of Europe. The governor of the Bank of England is a wholesale merchant. The Governor of the Bank of France was formerly of the Custom House. The head of the Imperial Bank of Germany for many years, Dr. Koch, had been a lawyer and a magistrate before he became a national banker. Herr Havenstein, the present head of the Reichsbank, altho at one time the president of a private bank, had previously been a jurist and later Minister of Finance. Thus, says the Evening Post, it cannot be said that the Administration has discriminated against practical and competent bankers because of the "Money Trust" controversy.

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Must Wall Street Abdicate?

ILL the new Federal Reserve banks despoil Wall Street of its power as a banking and financial center? The Bankers Magazine asks this question, and answers it as follows:

"For a decade the banks and business of the country have been brandeised, untermyered, pujoed and tomlawsoned until

a

storm of hysterical fury has been aroused against Wall Street. The drastic anti-trust bills and the Federal Reserve Act are some of the fruits of this hysteria. If people had been less excited they might have been made to see that what may properly be termed 'Wall Street' is but a small part of New York banking, and even that a very large share of the transactions of the New York Stock Exchange are non-speculative and of actual benefit to the country. But the public mind was cunningly inflamed against 'Wall Street,' and it was made to appear that the centralization of bank reserves in New York, under the control of bankers, was the main support of the money power. Legislation was devised to take these bank reserves away from New York and out of the hands of bankers and to scatter them throughout a number of newlycreated Government-controlled banking institutions."

With the withdrawal of the country

bank reserves, the same writer continues, Wall Street will lose some of its relative banking importance, but the real reason for the threatened decline in New York's banking power lies deeper. The dilatoriness of the New York Clearing House to assist in securing efficiency and safety of banking operations is suggested as one reason. "Had the New York Clearing-House been more ready to devise a system of clearing country checks, much of the irritation which gradually developed against the banks of that city would have been avoided."

"But the loss of a few millions of country bank deposits will probably have little appreciable effect upon New York as a banking center. In fact, altho there will be in the next two or three years a considerable withdrawal of out-of-town bank reserves from New York, it by no means follows that in the long run that city will really lose any out-of-town bank deposits, because under the new law, with its rediscounting features, many banks may provide for their reserves through rediscounting operations, making little change in their New York balances.

"It would be far from correct to conclude that New York will lose any of its real banking power under the Federal Reserve Act. In fact, the law is just as likely as not to have precisely the opposite effect, whatever may have been the intention of its framers."

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Foreign Trade and the Federal Reserve.

N DISCUSSING the possible effect of the Federal Reserve law on foreign trade, at the recent National Foreign Trade Convention in Washington, Hon. Charles A. Conant declared that "there is no magic in new laws to create capital or to make people transfer their accounts from an old bank to a new one." Even governments like Germany, which go so far in aiding large business enterprises at home and abroad, might build up a resolute and constructive policy in vain "but for the enterprise, ingenuity, adaptability and hard work of individual Germans." "If extravagant hopes have been held out in some quarters," continued the speaker, "regarding the benefits of the new federal reserve law in promoting foreign trade, they are likely to be seriously tempered by examination of the chief factors." Further:

"There are several provisions of the federal reserve act which bear more or less directly upon the extension of our foreign trade; but carefully analyzed, they are in the nature of setting free commerce

(Continued on page 61.)

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It is not my purpose to offer any article or commodity for sale. What I am writing now to the intelligent American public has no commercial or financial end in view. One of the most remarkable educational and sociological institutions in the world's history has grown to international fame and power in our midst and while multitudes of men have been benefited by it, the leaders of national thought and enterprise have so far failed to realize its importance as a national asset.

An institution that has become a big factor in enhancing industrial efficiency, that has increased the earning power of hundreds of thousands of men and has become a social and moral lever to innumerable families is worthy of being understood.

Entirely free from the taint of charity and without adding a mill of taxation to the over-burdened taxpayer, the International Correspondence Schools have succeeded in realizing many of the hopes and ideals of political economists and humanitarians. No thoughtful man should be willing to remain ignorant of the purpose, methods, and achievements of this institution.

A Fruitful Humanitarian Impulse

With the help of competent engineers Mr. Foster prepared a course of correspondence instruction in coal mining and his first group of students began serious work 22 years ago. That successful beginning stimulated not only the humanitarian but the educational confidence of the editor of The Mining Herald, and from that day to this Mr. Foster has been constantly adding new courses of correspondence instruction, until now the International Correspondence Schools offer 275 courses of study-a far greater number and variety than any university in the world.

The International Correspondence Schools had their birth in a humanitarian impulse. Twenty-five years ago Mr. Thomas J. Foster, then proprietor and editor of The Mining Herald, of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, was appalled by the number of mine tragedies in the anthracite coal regions. He believed they were due chiefly to ignorance on the part of the mine owners, superintendents, and workmen. In order to furnish information to those engaged in the hazardous occupation of mining, Mr. Foster began a series of "Questions and Answers" in his paper. At that time the only practical textbooks on the subject were published in England and by means of their contents Mr. Foster answered the questions that soon flooded his columns. It was quickly discovered that miners, mine foremen, and superintendents were willing to pay for a more extended course of study if such were available.

Sound Educational Basis

If the International Correspondence Schools had been an ordinary educational institution they could have adopted textbooks prepared by class-room experts; but it quickly developed that to teach by correspondence required an entirely new method. The institutions that have tried to carry on instruction by mail based on the ordinary textbook have failed. The I.C.S. textbooks are designed to meet the need of the student studying at home. They take practically no previous knowledge for granted; they proceed by easy stages and lead the student forward by natural and carefully graded steps; they foresee and meet the difficulties of the student by copious explanations, demonstrations, and illustrations; they eliminate all irrelevant matter, giving only such instruction as is essential to the mastering of the subject; the lessons are in brief units so arranged that the

student is relieved from overstrain.

These textbooks form a library of 250 volumes and cost more than two million dollars ($2,000,000) to prepare. They are kept under constant revision with a view to meeting the difficulties of the student and to convey the newest knowledge or the latest methods of application. The costs of preparing a few of the courses are here given: Architectural, $98,178.06; Civil Engineering, $88,887.19; Textiles, $76,532.09; Coal Mining, $74,075.06. This expenditure upon textbooks certainly points to a solid and permanent foun

dation for the International Correspondence Schools. The value of these textbooks is attested by the fact that they have been purchased and are being used for class-room work or for reference purposes in 167 universities, colleges, government schools, institutes of technology and vocational schools in America. The University of California has just discarded its textbooks dealing with the strength of materials and has had the International Correspondence Schools instruction papers on that subject bound into volumes, and has adopted them exclusively for the use of its students. The U. S. Navy Department has ordered 15,000 I.C.S. pamphlet textbooks for use in the new naval ship-board

for each grade of work and no scholar is permitted to go on with his next lesson until the one upon which he is engaged is entirely satisfactory.

In order to prepare the student for serious work upon his Course, he is required first to pass an examination upon a preliminary pamphlet, entitled "The Art of Study," in which he is taught how to study to the best advantage.

Finding and Inspiring Students

While it may be acknowledged that advertising is one of the most important factors in modern life, it has been demonstrated that the International Correspondence Schools cannot secure enough students, even by means of the most elaborate and costly advertising, to insure the success of their enterprise, either upon humanitarian ог commercial grounds. More than 20 years ago President Foster realized the force of Professor Huxley's statement: "I conceive that two things are needful. On the one hand, a machinery for gathering information and providing instruction; on the other hand, a machinery for catching capable men wherever they

schools. This is about one-fifth of what will be required when the schools are in full operation. Several of the largest industrial corporations of the country are using I.C.S. textbooks and instruction papers in the classes they have formed for the training of their apprentices and employes.

The Universal University

Has this outlay been justified? The answer is that the International Correspondence Schools have enrolled 1,651,765 students in the United States and Canada during the past 22 years and are now enrolling new students at the rate of 100,000 a year. These figures are not given simply because they form an impressive total but for the reason that such an institution can only provide high-grade and efficient instruction when working on a large scale. For example, one of the courses of study-Electro-therapeutics-has a small enrolment because it is an advanced study for medical practitioners. The cost of conveying the instruction and correcting the papers results in a considerable loss each year to the institution. Salaries and overhead charges are just as great whether five or fifty papers are corrected per day. On the other hand, the Electrical Engineering Course has been taken by 224,188 students and so it is possible to handle the students' work at the mini

are to be found, and turning them to account." One of the chief differences between the regular college or university and the International Correspondence Schools lies in this: men who want an education seek the university, whereas the International Correspondence Schools find the men who need an education. No less than 1,346 agents of the Schools are scattered through the United States and Canada, whose one business it is to go into the homes, mills, factories and workshops to persuade men that they can be benefited by a course of instruction. These agents create ambition, stimulate hope, and preach self-reliance. They tell men, and they prove their point by innumerable examples, that they can make themselves more efficient in their present occupations or qualify themselves for other and more congenial and more remunerative occupations by a course of study at home and in their spare time. In this way they have personal interviews with tens of thousands of persons each week and the contact thus established results in inspiration and encouragement to multitudes who have lost hope in the hard battle for existence amid modern conditions. The International Correspondence Schools, as a part of their student enlistment work, also run instruction cars on a number of the most important railroads of the United States and Canada.

The cost of establishing and developing these agencies has been enormous, but the results have amply justified the investment from every standpoint. Up to the present the International Correspondence Schools have spent $1,703,965.20 in agency establishment, but the money thus invested must be regarded as necessary equipment just as much as the right of way cost of a railroad.

Keeping the Students Studying

No graver mistake can be made than to imagine that the International Correspondence Schools make a profit

from lapsed students. Lapsing of students does not appreciably reduce the costs of the institution. As most of the enrolled students pay for their courses of instruction on the instalment plan, the profits of the enterprise come from the instalment payments of the students. A student will not continue to pay unless he continues to study, therefore it is the best business policy of the Schools to establish the study habit. Once a month, at least, the representative or agent of the Schools calls upon the student, not simply to collect the instalment due, but to offer encouragement, advice, and even assistance with his studies. This constant contact of the International Correspondence Schools with the studentbody makes the institution a bona fide educational agency rather than a merely commercial enterprise and insures a permanent future.

Indeed, no effort is spared to keep the student at his studies without intermission. Beside instructing the students in the most approved methods of acquiring knowledge prior to the first lesson of their course, and the periodic calls of the representative, a special department of encouragement and inspiration has been established by which sluggish or discouraged men are stimulated in their work. During the year 1913 no less than 805,079 individual letters were sent out to such persons, over and above 205,813 special letters dealing with particular difficulties encountered in the progress of their study. This resulted in an increase of 45 per cent. more study than was achieved before the department was put into force..

The International Correspondence Schools are faithfully, earnestly, and persistently trying to convey instruction by every method known to pedagogy and psychology and they are sparing no money in the effort.

Do the Students Profit?

Beyond a doubt. Every day the evidence accumulates and can be placed before

any one who wishes to investigate. The International Correspondence Schools recently published a book giving the life history of 1,000 of their students, in each case furnishing the reader with the name, address, and occupation of the example cited. These were simply a cross-section taken from 26,000 letters, voluntarily sent to the institution, gratefully acknowledging the benefits received from the instruction of the Schools. It is no exaggeration to state that every city and fair-sized town, and almost every village in America,

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No one can possibly estimate the economic and social and moral part that the International Correspondence Schools have played in our complex national organism during the last two decades. Behind all statistics there are visions of a new and healthier and happier environment for multitudes of families. World-Wide Extension

Fortunately the International Correspondence Schools are on a firm financial foundation. They have done a gross business amounting to $85,753,140, and have distributed cash dividends amounting to $7,025,372, and stock dividends of $1,875,000. Besides this they own buildings valued at $1,159,280.29, copyrights and plates estimated to be worth $1,864,404.25, and behind it all a substantial surplus. This has enabled the International Correspondence Schools to become genuinely international. Added to their 3,400 employes in America, they have started a branch school in London which promises soon to rival its parent in this land. Already there is a staff of 400 instructors, textbook writers, and clerical employes in London, with 700 men engaged in selling scholarships in the British Isles. More than 100 men represent the I.C.S. in the British Colonies and the movement has the indorsement and cooperation of prominent English officials and educationalists. Branches are being organized in Central and Southern America, Mexico, France, Spain and China, for which special textbooks are now being prepared.

The Man Who Feels, Sees and Does

President Foster is a man of deep feeling, clear vision, and prompt action. From his office in the Administration Building in Scranton, Pennsylvania, he directs the energies of nearly 5,000 persons who are dedicated to conveying education and technical training to those who need it in any part of the world-even to the remotest corners of the earth, to places where the name of

can furnish examples of men who have been lifted by this one institution from penury to comparative affluence, from obscure drudgery to honor and influence, from the precarious ranks of unskilled and ill-paid labor to positions as skilled mechanics, foremen, superintendents, manufacturers, and men of large financial affairs. In fact many very successful and well-known heads of big industries, engineers, architects, and corporation managers have been International Correspondence students and have reached their positions of eminence by means of the instruction and training provided by this institution.

America is hardly known. He is pouring out thousands of tons of educational and inspirational literature every year, every page of which he hopes will open the door of opportunity to some one who now feels doomed to poverty and obscurity for the lack of adequate educational training. When men awaken to the facts and all of their far-reaching consequences in the advance of civilization and social progress, Thomas J. Foster, Founder and President of the International Correspondence Schools, will be hailed as one of the greatest and most honored of modern benefactors and educationalists.