Paris in the Twentieth Century Read Free Page B

scheme, in 1937, of Baron de Vercampin, notorious for his far-flung
financial dealings: it was his notion to establish a single vast institution,
in which every branch of the tree of knowledge might flourish, it being the
State's responsibility, moreover, to pollard, prune, and patrol such growth to
the best of its ability.
    The
Baron merged the lycées of Paris and of the provinces, Sainte-Barbe and Rollin,
as well as the various private institutions, into a single establishment,
thereby centralizing the education of all France; investors responded to his
appeal, for he presented the enterprise as an industrial operation. The Baron's
skill was a guarantee in financial matters. Money flowed in. The Union was
founded.
    It was
in 1937, during the reign of Napoleon V, that he had launched the enterprise;
forty million copies of its prospectus were printed, on stationery that read:
    ACADEMIC CREDIT UNION
    Incorporated by law and testified to
by Maître Mocquart and Colleague, Notaries in Paris, on April 6, 1937, and approved
by the Imperial Decree of May 19, 1937. Capitalized at one hundred million
francs divided into one hundred thousand shares of one thousand francs each
    Board
of Directors:
    Baron de Vercampin, C., President
    De Montaut, O., Manager of the
Orleans Railroad
     
    Vice Presidents
    Garassu, Banker
    Marquis d'Amphisbon, G. O., Senator
    Roquamon, Colonel, Police Corps, G.
C.
    Dermangent, Deputy
    Frappeloup, General Manager of the
Academic Credit Union
    The
Union statutes followed, carefully expressed in financial terms. As is apparent,
no scholar's or professor's name appeared on the Board of Directors, a matter
of some reassurance with regard to the commercial prospects of the enterprise.
    A
Government Inspector supervised the Union's operations and reported on them to
the Minister of Improvements of the City of Paris.
    The
Baron's notion was a good one, and singularly practical, hence it succeeded
above and beyond all expectations. In 1960, the Academic Union included no
fewer than 157, 342 students, to whom knowledge was imparted by mechanical
means.
    It must
be confessed that the study of belles lettres and of ancient languages
(including French) was at this time virtually obsolete; Latin and Greek were
not only dead languages but buried as well; for form's sake, some classes in
literature were still taught, though these were sparsely attended and
inappreciable—indeed anything but appreciated. Dictionaries, manuals,
grammars, study guides and topic notes, classical authors and the entire book
trade in de Viris, Quintus-Curtius, Sallust, and Livy
peacefully crumbled to dust on the shelves of the old Hachette publishing
house; but introductions to mathematics, textbooks on civil engineering,
mechanics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, courses in commerce, finance,
industrial arts—whatever concerned the market tendencies of the day—sold by
the millions of copies.
    In
short, shares in the Union, which had multiplied tenfold in twenty-two years,
were now worth ten thousand francs apiece.
    We shall
insist no further upon the flourishing condition of the Academic Union; the
figures, as an old banking proverb has it, say it all.
    Toward
the end of the last century, the École Normale was in evident decline; few
among those young people whose vocation inclined them toward a literary career
sought instruction here; the best among these had already discarded their
academic gowns and flung themselves into the free-for-all of authorship and
journalism; but even this distressing spectacle was no longer in evidence, for
in the last ten years only scientific studies had posted candidates for the
entrance examinations.
    Yet if
the last pedagogues of Greek and Latin were vanishing from their deserted
classrooms, what splendid kudos, on the contrary, were awarded the science
professors—and what eminence was theirs when it came to drawing a salary!
    The
sciences were now divided into six branches: under the main Division