CHAPTER XXV.

APPLIED (OR ECONOMIC), GEOGRAPHY.

INTRODUCTION.

The enormous expansion of American, English, and German international trade; the acquisition of vast transoceanic possessions, especially on the part of Great Britain; the sleepless instinct of gain that opens up markets in the most remote countries for the products of labor in farm and factory, quickened by ever increasing speed through the aid of mechanical power; the annihilation of distance by contrivances never dreamed of a few generations ago, all these factors have combined to change both matter and methods of the study of geography in the schools, and to give this study a new character.

Time was when a mere description of the earth's surface, and memorizing of names of States, cities, mountains, lakes, and rivers constituted the sum total of what the child of the elementary school derived from the study of geography. In secondary schools the study was rarely more than a mere foil to history.

Then followed the wonderful development of the natural sciences during the middle of the nineteenth century, which gave a new impetus to geography. It became the common focus of many of the natural sciences, and under the name of "nature study" the subject of geography almost lost its identity, at least its former vassalage to history changed to servitude to the new trend of thought. Physical geography, or rather topography, was considered the only part of geography worthy of study, and to some extent it is so still.

But recent historical events have called for a change louder than the wise counsel of farseeing men, who had from time to time urged the advisability of emphasizing the human element more than was done. To-day it is made clear to us that geography deserves to be more than a handmaid of history on the one hand, or a mere drudge in the service of nature study on the other hand. It demands a place and dignity of its own, combining the objects of the two methods, the historical and the scientific, and besides, offering to the student a useful agency in bringing him in contact with commercial elements. Advocates in Europe and America eloquently press the claims of geography to a separate and independent position in the curricula of schools of every kind. But among the educational institutions which call for a new departure in the teaching of geography, the commercial and other technical schools in Europe are the most insistent, as will be seen from a report of Prof. A. J. Herbertson, of Edinburgh, Scotland, reprinted in this chapter.

Before the paper of this eminent authority is presented, it seems proper to show that in the United States the necessity of a change has also been foreseen.

OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS IN THE UNITED STATES.

The three special reports issued by authority of the National Educational Association: The report of the committee of ten on secondary school studies, dated 1893; the report of the committee of fifteen on elementary studies, dated 1895; and the report