APPENDIX XI.

PAPERS ON EDUCATIONAL SUBJECTS.

I. THE PROMOTION OF HIGHER POLITICAL EDUCATION.

II.-UNIVERSITY EXTENSION IN ENGLAND.

III.-SCHOOLS IN ALASKA

THE PROMOTION OF HIGHER POLITICAL EDUCATION.

BY HERBERT B. ADAMS,

Ph. D. Heidelberg, Associate Professor of History in the Johns Hopkins University.

The time for a national university in Washington is either past or not yet come. Such an institution is not desirable in the present state of national politics and civio administration, nor is it needed by the country with its present supply of universities, already pervaded not only by a State spirit but by a growing national, if not a truly cosmopolitan idea. What is needed, however, in all our States and in the nation's capital is the promotion of the higher political education in practical ways.

The representative or merit system in academic training should be made to connect not only, on the one hand, with the people, but, on the other, with practical politics and the civil service. Universities which recognize meritorious sons of the people or the principle of student election from legislative districts should themselves be recognized by representatives of the people as at least one influential factor in shaping civil-service examinations, and also as a proper source of supply whenever special scientific service is required. Such service has been frequently sought from the Johns Hopkins University by the city of Baltimore, by the State of Maryland, and by the United States Government; but the principle should be fostered throughout the whole country in connection with the State universities, and it should be extended to the improvement of the civil service, methods of taxation, schools, boards of education, State examinations, &c.

Universities should encourage their own graduates to enter the civil-service examinations of the higher grades in their respective States. Practical experience in a Government office for two or three years would afford the best kind of post-graduate course, especially if the State capitol and the State university should happen to be in the same city, so that further academic study might go hand in hand with practical work in an official bureau. Such an experience, as a subordinate under strict discipline, would prove a far better training for good and useful citizenship than does autocratic teaching in a country high school. The writer knows of several Baltimore students who have entered the Patent Office at Washington, one a Hopkins Ph. D., who received from the civil service board the highest mark on competitive examination. He is now pursuing law studies, in connection with his Government work, with a view to becoming a patent lawyer. If one can understand how such practical training will prove helpful professionally to this young man it will be readily seen that similar experience in other branches of the public service may not be without a wholesome influence upon sensible students.

There are to-day scores of young men employed in Government offices in Washington, many of them college graduates, who are also pursuing law studies in evening classes in some one of the three flourishing law schools in that city, viz, (1) Columbian University (Baptist); (2) Georgetown College (Roman Catholic); and (3) the so-called National University. Soon there will be a richly endowed Roman Catholic university in the nation's capital, and doubtless that institution will also take an important share in the legal or special training of some of the nation's public servants. Men of sound sense in Government employ will seek such opportunities morə and more, on the one hand as a means of preparing for higher professional work, and, on the other, in the hope of improving their chances for promotion or influence in the public service.

The Government is compelled to patronize institutions of learning from self-interest, for the reputation of its departments and its scientific bureaus, some of which are constantly turning to colleges and universities for special work. The War and Navy

1 During the current year this Office published a circular of information by Prof. Herbert B. Adams, of the Johns Hopkins University, upon William and Mary College, the writing of which led him to investigate the origin and growth of the higher education in the South and its significance to the country. Among the ideas which this study suggested to him was the possibility of reviving, on a larger scale, in the city of Washington and throughout the whole country that higher political edu cation which was once so well represented at Williamsburgh in a political environment. The accom panying remarks of Professor Adams on this subject are taken from the circular referred to.

2 The writer is informed by President James C. Welling, of the Columbian University, that of the 190 students in the law school of that institution about 40 per cent. are in Government service; of the 100 medical students, 45 per cent.; of the 80 scientific students, 50 per cent. From Georgetown Col. lege and the National University" the writer has not succeeded in obtaining returns, but in the opinion of good judges of the Washington situation, from 40 to 50 per cent. of the student class in these three professional schools are Government employés. There is a decided demand for special education on the part of our existing civil service. The tendency should be encouraged in every legitimate way.

Departments have detailed no less than ten men for further scientific training, or for the conduct of necessary Government investigations at the Johns Hopkins University. Various members of the university staff have been employed upon special commissions in the interest of the Geological and Coast Surveys, Bureau of Education, &c. This comity between science and the Government ought not only to continue, but to be promoted, especially with reference to political science.

IDEA OF A CIVIL ACADEMY IN WASHINGTON.

While the National Government will continue to seek special service wherever it can best be found, and while its public servants will continue to seek special training wherever they prefer, it is not inexpedient to suggest that the Government might easily secure for the civil service what West Point and Annapolis have so long provided for the Army and Navy, viz, well-trained men for administrative positions requiring expert service. There is in these times as great need of special knowledge in civil science as in military or naval science. A civil academy for the training of representative American youth would be as great a boon to the American people as the Military and Naval Academies have already proved.

The West Point and Annapolis idea of educating representative young men from political districts is already abroad in nearly every State in the American Union. A combination of this idea with the merit system in appointment is frequently made by Congressmen in the institution of a competitive examination to discover whom they shall appoint as cadets. The joint system has long been established in the State of New York, the centre of political gravity in these United States. The system should be taken up by the present administration, which sprang from New York and which represents the New York idea in administrative reform. The West Point plan of taking student appointees from Congressional districts, and the Cornell University plan of student appointment for merit, should be transplanted together to the city of Washington. From each of the three hundred and twenty-five Congressional districts there should be appointed by the respective Congressmen, upon competitive examination held by the State or leading university, or by some other impartial examining board, one student of the grade of bachelor of arts, to enjoy Government tuition in Washington for two years at a civil academy, as hereafter described, with an allowance of $600 a year for necessary expenses, as is now done for cadets at West Point and Annapolis. As at these two Government academies, so in the civil academy, if properly constituted, undoubtedly a large proportion of the appointees would be "found deficient;" many would resign for professional reasons or from dissatisfaction with the civil service, but a choice remnant would surely be saved to the state; the fittest would survive. Even if all returned to their own homes after two years' public training the cause of good citizenship would be greatly promoted.

These student appointees, or Government" fellows," should not be required to herd in barracks or dormitories, but allowed to live like frugal citizens in Washington. They should not be under martial law or even scholastic discipline of the juvenile sort. They should be treated as responsible men under contract, as Government employés, with special or assigned duties, under the general direction of an educational commission, appointed by the President for the specific purpose of managing the civil academy or Government college, which would require no very elaborate or costly equipment. A few lecture-rooms and a working library would suffice. The students should be instructed in physical, historical, and economic geography; in political, constitutional, and diplomatic history; in the modern languages; and in all branches of political science, including political economy, statistics, forestry, administration, international law, comparative methods of legislation, and comparative politics. Instruction should be given in class sections (as at West Point) and in public lectures by Government experts and university specialists, who might be engaged from time to time from different institutions for such services. The best talent of this country and of any other, whether university men or professional politicians, could be conmanded for such occasional work.

In addition, the students should be distributed through the various Government departments, at first in very subordinate and not too exacting positions, where they should be held accountable daily for a moderate amount of routine work or for certain practical tasks. Upon the daily record of such work and upon the results of occasional examinations, set by authority of the educational commission in specified fields, should depend the tenure of office as Government students and the promotion to more advanced privileges of practical work, such as special investigations in the interest of branches of the administration. As a reward of merit, certain picked men might be detailed for special graduate work in different American universities or even in European universities, at the École Libre in Paris or, possibly, in the Statistical Bureau at Berlin, both of which institutions are practical training schools in the art

For the fellowship and scholarship system in American colleges, see annual report of Cornell University, 1883, pp. 63-65. For a complete survey of the subject of fellowships in England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and the United States, see proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada, Appendix for 885, "Report on Fellowships."

of administration. Men thus educated would prove of great service to the Bureau of Labor or to the Bureau of Statistics. They would be capable of doing much of the special work now required in the taking or elaboration of the United States census. At present special economic or statistical work is sometimes done by men selected upon political recommendation and not always thoroughly fitted for the task required. That this idea is in the air of Washington and is not deemed impracticable by practical politicians is seen in the recent remark of Mr. Trenholm, Comptroller of the Currency, who is reported to have said: "It is my intention to take young men from various parts of the country and give them a preliminary training in this office; fit them for bank examiners, and then appoint them. By this arrangement I think I will be able to have in these positions men who have excellent qualifications for their duties, and thus make a most efficient force of bank examiners. Besides it will be the best kind of civil-service reform."1

The system might be applied also to the training of picked young men for the consular, diplomatic, and other branches of the public service which require special knowledge. European governments foster their civil and diplomatic services by systematic training in connection with government offices and schools of administration. The practice is already beginning to evolve in connection with the State Department and the training of consular clerks. It might easily be extended in connection with other departments and the various scientific bureaus.

The Government commission for the civil-service academy or Government college should not be appointed in the interest of party, but of scientific politics and good administration. It should be as trustworthy as the three commissioners for the gov ernment of the District of Columbia, and it should work in perfect harmony with the administrative offices of the Government.

The necessary elements for the beginning of a civil academy are, for the most part, already existing in the city of Washington, and only need to be properly co-ordinated. The practical appliances for a unique American experiment in the promotion of political education of the highest sort for the sons of American citizens are already at hand in the Government offices and various scientific bureaus. Foundations for the institutional or scholastic side of the proposed civil academy also exist in Washington. It is, perhaps, not generally known that the federal city already contains one of the very best systems of public education in these United States. The high school of Washington is already a virtual seminary of history and political science. These subjects form a special department of instruction, employing one teacher and three assistants. The entire faculty is so thoroughly specialized in the teaching of natural science, mathematics, languages, &c., that in almost any other city, save Washington, this high school would be called a college. The institution, like the entire school system of the federal city, has been under the sovereign control of Congress, and is largely supported by Government appropriations. It is high time that this excellent system of public education should be carried one step higher, for Washington is not as other cities. The existing high school should be developed into a free Government college, supported by Congress, governed by the proposed commission, and supplying such further scholastic training in the arts and sciences as members of the existing civil service or future appointees to the civil academy might require. Upon these scholastic or purely academic foundations should be superimposed a system of lectures by Government experts and university specialists, as already described.

Suggestive information respecting European methods of promoting political education for Governmental purposes may be found in the report of the Paris Exposition of 1878. That portion of the commissioners' report relating to the subject of political education was written by Hon. Andrew D. White, and contains a most instructive résumé of what has been done in this regard in every great modern state. A part of this report was given as a public address on "Education in political science," by President White before the Johns Hopkins University, on its third anniversary, February 22, 1879. The address was published in pamphlet form in Baltimore, but the original detailed report is more serviceable for the purpose here suggested.

"The Civil-Service Commission and the Heads of Bureaus." Baltimore American, January 16, 1887. 2The consular-clerk system was inaugurated by act of Congress approved June 20, 1864 (see 15 Statntes at Large, page 139; Revised Statutes, sections 1704 and 1705). Consular clerks, not exceeding thirteen in number at any one time, are appointed by the President. They are assigned to such consulates as the President shall direct. At present they are assigned to the consulates at Havana, Paris, Rome, Kanagawa, Bordeaux, Turin, Liverpool, Berlin, London, Cairo, Chemnitz, and Honolulu. Be. fore appointment it must be satisfactorily shown to the Secretary of State, after examination and report by an examining board, that the applicant is qualified for the duties to which he may be assigned. A consular clerk cannot be removed, except by cause stated in writing, which must be submitted to Congress at the session first following such removal. Consular clerks hold office during good behavior They usually receive instruction at the Department of State before going to their poste. The idea underlying this system is that of training young men for consular positions of the higher grade. One consular clerk, not now in the service, was promoted to a consulship; many of them have been made vice-consuls, and some of the present incumbents fill the vice-consular office in addition to the consular clerkship.