try to make it appear that the public schools produce crime, because in some communities where they have flourished crime has not decreased, or perhaps has increased. They are not mindful of the fact that, if in such communities crime has increased, as shown by the number of arrests, there has also been a large increase of criminal statutes which may account for them. Courses of conduct are now often criminal under statute laws which were not criminal before their enactment. They are not mindful of the fact that any increase of crime might be accounted for by a number of causes consequent upon the ever changing conditions of the population of such communities.

"The facts are that if there is real increase of crime in such communities, which is to be doubted, figures to the contrary notwithstanding, it occurs in spite of all remedial agencies and not because of any one of them. It may be true, and doubtless is, that the public schools have not done as much as they might have done, but this is no reason for wholesale condemnation. It is rather a reason why all good people should lend their active influence to make them come up to the full measure of usefulness.

"If those who complain of poor results would actively join the public school workers and help to manage the schools, better results would everywhere be attained. The public schools are here to stay, and they will gradually be improved-so improved as more and more to command the respect and patronage of our people. It is the part of wisdom for all good people to recognize these things as facts, and take an active interest in making the schools better. Let us have a better sentiment in favor of public education, to the end that the money we do pay may have the best possible application and results.

"It is a common complaint that the public school terms are so short that they do not do much good. Of course all the friends of public education very much regret that we can not have longer terms; but how easy it would be for almost any neighborhood in the State to supplement the public funds by private subscriptions and have longer terms. Many districts are now doing this, and more will do it as sentiment in favor of educating the people improves. Legislation that tends to improve the teachers and lengthen the sessions will help to create favorable sentiment."

What shall be taught in the public schools?-Superintendent Draper, of New York State: "What shall be taught in the schools is a question of no small importance, and it is a difficult one to answer. The law leaves it to each locality to settle for itself. The tendency of the times, particularly in the larger places, is to undertake too much. It ought to be remembered that it does not devolve upon the public schools to put into a child's head all that he will ever be expected to know. It is useless to tax the memory with multitudinous pieces of mere information, no matter how worthy of note such information may be. Of course some facts must be remembered, but the remembering of too many mere facts is now being insisted upon. It is better to create a desire for knowledge, and supply the implements with which to gain it. When searched out through effort, it will be retained without difficulty. The fact is, that the manner in which the school education is started, is of more consequence than the manner in which it is finished out. The people are not generally unwilling that the State should foster and support advanced education, but they will insist that it shall not be done at the expense of elementary work, well knowing that it is of far greater importance that the masses be thoroughly grounded in fundamentals than that the few shall be elaborately topped out and polished off. If school work is not well commenced, it never will be well finished.

**More than 90 per cent. of all the children who ever come into the public schools never get beyond the study of the elementary branches, and there is a wide-spread feeling that the schools do not accomplish the results for this great mass of pupils which they ought to produce. A wide-spread feeling usually rests upon some foundation. It seems to me that a State which is spending $15,000,000 a year for general education, can well afford to enter upon a full inquiry which will determine whether the mass of children in this country of a given age can read and write and spell and figure as well as the mass of children of the same age in the monarchical governments of Europe, and if not, why not? My reading and observation, confessedly not large, raise grave doubts upon this question. A republican state can not afford to have any doubts about such a question as this.

"There has been much discussion during the year relative to the introduction of manual training as a regular branch of public school work, and several cities, notably New York and Albany, have undertaken a thorough trial of the experiment. It is much to be hoped that it may prove a wise undertaking. There will hardly be two opinions as to the advantages of industrial training, but it must be demonstrated, upon actual trial, that it can be made a part of our common school work with advantage to pupils, withant detracting from the old-fashioned and essential work, to which reference has just ben made, before it should be generally taken in hand by the school authorities. experiments which have been entered upon will be watched with much interest.

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test will be a severe one, but it must be met successfully, by a trial in good faith, before the already over-full courses of study in the schools should everywhere be opened to admit what is commonly called industrial training.

"There is a common misapprehension in this connection. Manual training need not be confined to carpentry work with boys, or making aprons or dresses with girls. Freehand or industrial drawing may train the hand and the eye more effectually than handling a saw or a needle. It is easily taught, it is inexpensive, and it is practicable. It is the best possible preparation for further manual work. Every school in the State may undertake this without difficulty, and with good promise of excellent results, and then safely wait for the verdict of those who are further experimenting upon the subject. "The schools must not only educate the mind but the heart as well. Schools are maintained for the purpose of turning out good citizens. Character is forming while the intellectuality is being educated, and the influence of the schools should be exercised to form and shape it rightly. We have had much discussion in this country in reference to the reading of the Bible and the observance of religious exercises in the schools, and it has been determined that these must be omitted because of the likelihood of their being used for the propagation of sectarianism. But this must not be deemed to prevent all moral training in the public schools. On the contrary, there should be a strong moral influence exerted at all times, in every school-room, which will go continually to the sound training and preparation of boys and girls for the social duties and obligations of life and for the responsibilities of citizenship in a republic where the will of the people is the law of the land.'

"There is, unfortunately, but little done to stimulate patriotism among children in the public schools, or outside of them. A generation ago it was common to use the masterpieces of our national oratory for the purposes of recitation and declamation in the schools, and the resultant influences were of no small consequence in arousing and cultivating patriotic ardor in the rising generation. Then every child was required to take part in these exercises. But even this is no longer common. The modern fashion is to take pupils who give promise of special success as orators and readers and train them elaborately for show upon public occasions. The older custom might be revived with profit. The setting apart of an occasional hour for exercises which would lead children to revere and love their country, and the requiring of every child to take part in such exercises, is a thing which may properly and profitably be done in every public school. "The mission of the public schools is to best prepare the greatest possible number of children for the activities of life, for social and industrial relations, and for the responsibilities of citizenship under such a Government as ours. The few must not be favored at the expense of the many. The beginners must have the most care and the best work. What is done must be practical. A philosophy is of small use unless it materializes. Children must be evenly educated in all directions. Just what shall be taught, in detail, must depend upon what, in a practical way, promotes the end for which the schools are maintained at public and general expense.

Necessity of public schools.—Hon. John W. Dickinson, secretary of Massachusetts board of education: The ends to be accomplished by a free state are the development of the people and protection in the enjoyment of their natural rights. The effectual means to be employed for the accomplishment of these ends are public educational_institutions and a popular government, neither of which can exist without the other. For the existence of a free state a common education of the people is necessary, that they may be trained to think alike and to exercise that common sympathy through which alone it is possible for human individuals to become a people. Burke says that 'in a state of rude nature there is no such thing as a people. A number of men in themselves have no collective capacity. The idea of a people is the idea of a corporation. It is wholly artificial, and made, like other legal fictions, by common agreement.' A common agreement is the result of common thinking and common sympathy. The conditions of unity in thinking and feeling are public educational institutions where the young may be trained by common courses of study pursued in accordance with a common method.

"Public schools, therefore, are necessary to the existence of a people in the true sense of that term, and especially to the existence of a free people who must labor together for common ends. But the existence of these institutions is impossible unless they are organized, controlled, and supported by the state. For in no other way can a plan of instruction be made common and in harmony with the constitution of the state, nor universal and regular study be compelled, nor constant and ample means of support be provided.

"The right, duty, and necessity of establishing public schools, and making the use of them universal and compulsory under the direction of the state, become evident by the same mode of reasoning as would be employed to prove the right, duty, and necessity of establishing the state itself.

"The dissolution of a State has began when any considerable portion of its citizens refuses to be educated into the spirit of its constitution and into sympathy with its important provisions. Loyalty to the State is shown in fidelity to those institutions which are adapted to make intelligent, loyal, and virtuous citizens."

XII.-RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TRAINING.

The teacher who neglects it a signal failure.-Superintendent Finger, of North Carolina: "Besides practical intellectual training, we insist upon moral and religious development. Of course we cannot give religious instruction except in a general way, all denominational or sectarian teaching being excluded. But there is common and undisputed ground for all to stand upon. No person rises to the full stature of manhood until he chooses to model his life according to the eternal principles of right, and this is only tantamount to saying, until he chooses to please God. Love and fear of Him must be made to result in reverence for Him and in obedience to His will.

"In proper training at home, the child is brought to love and, in a sense, to fear its parents, the two principles of action working together to produce reverence and obedience. So, too, when at school the pupil has proper treatment, he will love and fear his teacher and will choose, habitually, to obey him.

"But all obedience in the family, the school, or the state should be insisted upon, because such obedience is in accordance with the fundamental principles of right. I do not mean to discuss the foundation of obligation-whether a given course of conduct is right because it results in good, or whether it is right because commanded by the great Creator of all things. The ten commandments embody great principles, obedience to which results in good to those who obey and to all men, and at the same time they have the divine approval.

"If it be said that these principles were eternal truth, binding upon men before they were commanded by God from Mount Sinai, yet He did sanction them because, as the Creator of all things, He did so constitute the relations between all men and their fellows and between all men and Himself, that these principles always result in good. And so we come back to the will of God as the foundation of all obligation and of obedience to all proper authority.

"It is therefore the divine will that all teachers should strive to know and make the foundation of all moral teaching. A child may, at home and at school, be compelled by fear to keep himself within certain rules of action, but this course will afford him but a poor preparation for the duties of life as a citizen. If he is not taught continually to choose his lines of conduct in accordance with what is right-right in this highest senseso that he may grow up into the habit of choosing to do right, he will most probably be unit to meet the duties and temptations of active life when they confront him.

"It is the will that determines what any intellectual being shall do and what he shall not do, and hence the will must be so trained that what is right shall be habitually followed. The teacher who neglects to emphasize moral and religious training to this extent makes a signal failure.

"If it be said that this requirement excludes from the school-room the atheist and all whose lives are not directed in the love and fear of God, the ready reply is, for the children's sakes so let it be; for the country's sake so let it be.

"If it be said that we cannot apply religious tests, the ready reply is that the employment of teachers is a matter of contract, and no committee is compelled to employ any particular person, no matter what his intellectual qualifications may be, if not satisfied with his character in this highest sense.

"If it be said that this line of training involves the use of the Bible, the ready reply is that scarcely any one will be found to object to its use in the schools if used without sectarian teaching; and no one will object to the teaching of the grand and eternal principles of truth which it contains, that all religious people in this country hold in common."

Should never be omitted nor postponed. -Superintendent Welcker, of California: "The one great want in the public schools is a greater attention on the part of teachers and other authorities to moral instruction-to character building. To turn out good, honest, elean-living men and women, is that which should be, not merely acknowledged, but felt to be the principal end and aim of the public schools; that nothing should come before or be allowed to interfere with this good design; that intellectual education should be subordinated to it, and that this instruction should be not merely incidental, coming to the front on all suitable occasions, but that it should have its regular and frequent place on the programme of exercises. It should never be omitted or postponed in favor of anything else."

The highest end of education.-The following resolution, among others, was adopted at a State convention of the county superintendents of Colorado:

"Resolved, That we consider the development of character as the highest end of education and the only safe basis of American citizenship, and we urge upon superintendents the duty of doing all in their power to purify the moral atmosphere of the schools and all their surroundings."

XIII. REVENUE.

Remedy for inequality of school term.-Superintendent Finger, of North Carolina, also calls the attention of the General Assembly to the need of a State tax for the purpose of equalizing the school term throughout the State: "While an increase of the rate in the school law could be made to provide an average of four months in the State, that would not afford all the counties that length of term. Some would have more and some less than four months, according to their respective valuation of property and density of population. There is no way to remedy this inequality other than to have legislation that would distribute all or a part of the school money direct from the State treasury to the counties on a per capita basis. Our system as it now stands contemplates that each county shall furnish its own school funds. The State board of education has essentially no funds to distribute to the counties other than such as may be derived from the entry of public lands and from the sale of swamp lands, from which the receipts are very small. Under our statutes, our system is a county system."

The State should provide facilities.-Superintendent Young, of Nevada: "I would renew my recommendation of two years ago that the rate of State school tax be increased. Experience demonstrates that it is not satisfactory to leave this question of education so largely to the counties. The State should provide adequate school facilities for all of its children. Under the existing laws some counties have an average school year of ten months, while other counties have an average of less than five months. By increasing the State tax the terms of school might be made more uniform and the schools be made more efficient."

Object of State appropriation.-Superintendent Higbee, of Pennsylvania: "The purpose of all State appropriation to the schools is to help the children of the Commonwealth, that they all may have every opportunity of securing that culture without which the possibilities of their personal being can not be realized. Any movement, therefore, upon the part of directors to weaken the autonomy of their districts by making them dependent upon the State appropriation, or to lessen, in any way, their sense of the necessity of vigorous self-supporting work, violates the very spirit and intent of the act of appropriation. Let the increased fund be used in granting better salaries to teachers now underpaid, in securing better teachers by a general advance of salaries, in lengthening the school term, and in increasing apparatus and libraries."

A State tax recommended for Minnesota. -Superintendent Kiehle, after showing how much shorter school terms some districts have than others, notwithstanding they tax themselves at a heavier rate and expend more per pupil, recommends a State tax, to be uniformly distributed. He says: "We have no State tax for the aid of common schools. The one mill tax is only a compulsory local tax, and what is called the State appropriation is only a distribution by the State of a government fund, just as the university receives aid from the university and agricultural college land grants. The State is aiding by direct tax all departments of education,-university, normal schools, high schools, reform school, institutions for deaf, blind, and imbeciles,-all, except the common schools, the schools of the people. Still more, these districts are not allowed even the full local tax for the support of their schools. The railroads pay an income tax to the State, and are therefore exempt from all local taxation. This tax, which amounts to over $600,000 annually, is used for the support of every department of government, and is distributed to every educational institution except the common schools. The necessities of the situation compel me to urge upon the attention of the Legislature the important interests of these schools, which care for nine-tenths of the children of the State.”

A uniform State and county tax needed.-Superintendent Pearsall, of Cameron County, Pa.: "Many of our districts are paying a high rate of school tax, yet are unable to provide first-class school-houses, furniture or apparatus and keep the schools in session over six months.

"I do not know as this can be remedied. But if the common schools were founded on the benevolent plan-that the taxes of the rich might aid in educating the poor-why not extend the plan and let the taxes of the rich districts aid the poor districts. In other words make the school-tax uniform through the county or State.

"Again, we deem the present plan of distributing the State appropriation as clearly favoring the thickly-settled portions of the Commonwealth; were the distribution rated upon the number of schools, or the number of pupils, instead of the number of tax

ables, it would direct the appropriation where most needed-that is, to the poor and thinly-settled districts."

The strong should help the weak.-Superintendent Buchanan, of Virginia: "They do in the matter of school funds. Upwards of $800,000 of State funds were apportioned during the present year. The school population is the basis of apportionment. To the poor child, therefore, is allotted the same amount as to the rich. Some counties, and the cities as well, pay into the public treasury more State school money than is returned to them by apportionment. The excess goes to the weaker counties. For illustration, county A pays $8,000 State school tax, county B only $1,000. But suppose the school population of the two counties to be the same. Then each is entitled to the same apportionment, say, $6,000. Therefore A helps B to the extent of $2,000. Furthermore, the State fund, when apportioned to the counties, is distributed just as is the county school money among the magisterial districts on the basis of the school population. So the stronger magisterial districts help the weaker in the matter of county school funds." Apportionment should be based on attendance.-Superintendent Holcombe, of Indiana: "The State's school revenues are apportioned among the several counties and the several school corporations in each county, on the basis of the entire number of persons of school age residing within the counties and corporations, respectively, without considering how many of these actually attend the schools. The variation in the attendance upon the public schools in different counties is very great. In a number of towns and cities, and in the rural districts of several counties, there are many private schools which receive a liberal patronage. Yet all the resident children attending these are enumerated, public revenue is apportioned for them and drawn by the corporations in which they live. Such a corporation, it is evident, maintains schools for only a part of its children; yet it receives revenue for the tuition of all. In other counties the people depend entirely upon the public schools, and must, therefore, provide accommodations for all the children who desire to attend. Thus the communities that have to educate only a part of their children are placed at an unfair advantage compared with those that must provide for all. The former receive from the State enough money to maintain their schools for as long a term as is desired, and sometimes even to accumulate a surplus from year to year; the latter can not keep their schools open a reasonable length of time without heavy local taxation. This establishes a kind of premium upon a small attendance in the public schools."

"I think, therefore, that the revenues ought to be apportioned upon the actual attendance of children in the schools, as nearly as it can be ascertained. Such is the practice in several States. This attendance could be reported by the teachers directly to the county superintendent, and by the county superintendent to the State superintendent." "The enumeration is now taken every year. It is the work of not less than one man, for several days, in each of fifteen hundred or more corporations. The expense of this work is considerable. I think $15,000 a year a low estimate. This expense would be saved by the plan I have suggested. But as that plan involves a radical change in the system of apportioning our revenues, it may not commend itself to the approval of the Assembly. Should such be the case, I suggest that a biennial enumeration of the school children would be sufficient to secure a proper apportionment of revenue on the present basis."

Apportionment of township school revenue; where compulsory charity should stop.-Superintendent Jones, of Dakota: "The tuition fund of the township should be apportioned by the board in equal amounts to the various subdistricts, whenever the amounts to be apportioned do not exceed the sum of $180 per annum to each subdistrict. This admits of hiring a teacher for six months each year for each school in the township at the rate of $30 per month. If there is a balance in the tuition fund of the township after the above division is made, such balance should be apportioned to the several subdistricts in proportion to their assessed valuation. If any subdistrict fails to use its share of the funds for any year, the amount should be withdrawn from such subdistrict and divided among those subdistricts in which the fund has been used and six months' school taught, as provided for in the apportionment. This provision would assist the weaker settlements in maintaining a reasonably fair school for a reasonable time each year and admit of hiring, at least, an average teacher. Further than this compulsory charity should not be required to extend, even from an educational standpoint. After this generous provision is made the remainder of the public funds should be divided secording to the assessed valuation. This will admit of the maintenance of a better school for a longer time in the stronger subdistricts, and in many cases it will admit of the support of graded schools in small towns and villages where they are as much needed as are the primaries in the rural settlements. Another benefit to be derived from sch provision is the compulsory payment of fair wages to teachers, thereby inducing qualified teachers to seek and remain in the profession. Let it once be understood that