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* PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION. 432 PROFIT. sioiial and teel.nical departments Pre^<'nt ^ '' another form of State assistance. The tnited States Government lias no jurisdiction over the practice of professions in the several fetates, but owin^ to the efTorts of the organizations m the several professions within the last tlurty years, much has been done by State Legislatures toward protecting the public against incompe- tencv State supervision now extends to pre- liminary education, length of courses, degrees and the power to confer them, and entrance to practice, and is effected by means of regis- tration, examination and license. By registra- tion the status of schools and colleges and the value of their credentials receive State approval, and their graduates are admitted to examination for license. The tendency of special schools to become connected with some recognized university has also had a very salutary eflect on professional education. Bibliography: Taylor and Parsons, Profes- simial Education in the Vnitcd .V(«ffs (Albany, 1900) • Butler. Monographs m Education i» the Vnitcd mates (Albany. 1900) ; Reports of the V. S Commissioner of Education (Washington); Eliot. Educational Reform ( Xew York, 1898); Harriman "Educational Franchises," Report of American Bar Association (Philadelphia, 1898) ; Rogers, Address Before Sational Edu- cational Association (Washington, 1897): Toner. "Contributions to the Annals of Medical Progress and iledical Education in the United States Before :md During the War of Independ- ence." in U. >S", Education Report (Washington. 1874) ; Davis, "Contributions to the History of Medical Education and iledi<'al Institutions in the United States of America," in V. .S'. Educa- tion Report (Washington, 1877) ; Shepard, "In- au'Tiral Address," Transactions of the World's Columbian Dental Congress (Chicago, 1894); Proceedings of the American Pharmaceutical ■ "■ (Philadelphia, 1851 et seq.). Sec TECIIXIC.4L Education ; Legal Medical Edication: Theological Association Education ; Education : Education, PROFESSIONAL WOMEN'S LEAGUE, The. An organization in New York City, incor- porated in February. 1893. The aims of the League are to l)ring' together women engaged in dramatic, musical, literary, artistic, and .scientific pursuits for mutual hel]) and encouragement, to assist them financially when in need, to provide class in.struction in literature, art, language, music, and other studies at lowest possible rates, and to assist members to obtain outfits neces- sary to securing employment. Active member- ship in the League is confined to women engaged in dramatic, musical, or literary pursuits. The dues for active and associate members alike are .t.'5..50 per annum, and in addition each member, U])on being admitted to membership, pledges her- .self to contribute two articles yearly which can be either sold in the bazaar, or utilized in the costume department. PROFESSOR, The. A novel by Charlotte Bronte (185, written in 1840. William Crims- wortb. the hero, is a professor in a school in Brussels where he meets Frances Henri, whom he marries. Several characters in the storv^ are among the best of Miss Bronte's work. PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST TABLE, The. A series of sketches and verses by Oliver Wendell Holmes, contributed to the Atlantic Monthly and published in IStiO. The plan is the same as in The Autocrat of the Break- fast Table, but the tone is more serious. PROFIT (OF., Fr. profit, from Lat. profcctus, progress, increase, profit, from proficere, to ad- vance, make progress, be advantageous, from pro, before, for + facere, to make) . The excess in the selling price of goods above their cost of produc- tion. "The term has been variously used, both in common speech and in economic writings, ac- cording to the conception of the elements enter- inf into cost. Many of the earlier economists did not regard interest as a 'cost,' and hence included it under the term profit. The rent of land, however, though not regarded as an ele- ment in cost, has not usually been classed with profit, although the term 'agricultural profit is not infrequently applied to it in popular writings, ilodern economists usually exclude from profit the normal or average return to capital, which is classed as interest (q.v.). Whatever an enter- prise earns above interest, rent, and wages (in- cluding normal wages of management) is profit. If tliis net income is due to an artificial raising of prices through manipulation of sujiplv, it i.a known as monopoly profit, or monopoly return. Various theories have been advanced to explain the nature and causes of non-monopolistic profit. The oldest of these is the 'risk theory.' defended by Von Thiinen and many later Oernian and some American writers. A business undertaker necessarily incurs a large number of risks w iicli are of tob indefinite a nature to be covered l)y insurance. Since the chance of losing a certain sum is not compensated for by an equal chance of gaining the same sum. no one would under- take the management of business unless it nor_ mallv afi'orded a greater volume of gains than of losses. The net gain, in this view, constitutes profit., , T^ -A A second view, represented by Francis A. Walker, regards profit as a differential gain, im- putable to superior management. Prices, it 18 held, are fixed in the long run by the cost to the least ellicient managers who are able to continue production. All managers of greater efficiency produce at lower cost, thus securing a surplus analogous to rent (q.v.). A third theory not differing from this in essence, ascribes profit to the scarcity of managers of the better grades This theory sometimes confuses simjile profit with monopoly return, through failure to dis- tinguish Ijetween scarcity and monopoly values. Finally, profit has been explained with refer- ence to 'the dynamic elements that prevent m- dustrv from reaching an equilibrium. In this view " which is in the main that of .J. B. t lark. labor and capital tend toward a state of uniform productivity, but. owing to friction and to teu.i- nieal improvements, may at any moment varj' considerably in i>roductiye power. Since the pay of ca<-h unit of labor or of capital tends to equal the product of the unit least advantageously situ- ated, those units which happen to be on the more productive situations yield a surplus o'" P™" which the entrepreneur secures for himself, would appear that the theories given are not inutu- allv exclusive, but merely describe diflerent ele- ments in a composite form of '"fO""-, """' commonly termed profit. See Interest; Monop- oly.