great plants, however much it may cost the public for maintenance, that is being conducted efficiently or effectively, simply because the public does not yet appreciate the worth of the work it is doing or realize that the greatest economy in operation is impossible when defective machines and ill-paid workmen are put to a task that demands the best in everything — the best of equipment, the best of men, and the best of service. Some day, I hope, the American public will realize that our school system, from kindergarten to university professional school, is an engine so expensive that we cannot afford to keep it idle a part of the time, or run it except with its maximum load; an engine so expensive, too, that we cannot afford to intrust it to the hands of inexperienced or half-trained engineers. No business man would for a moment tolerate the waste and inefficiency in his affairs that we all know exists in education to-day.

I wish to push the indictment one step farther. Our educational system is not only wasteful and inefficient because it is operated at "low pressure," but it is unfair in that it does not do what the founders of this republic meant that it should do. It does not give equality of opportunity to all. This may seem surprising, particularly as we have been boasting for a century of our American liberty, fraternity, and equality. It is the boast, too, of most Americans that our great public-school system — the greatest thing on earth-provides alike for every boy and girl taking advantage of it. This is half true dangerous, as all half-truths are. The fact is, the American system of education grants equality of opportunity only to those who can go on to the college and the uni

and

versity. It takes little account of the boy and less still of the girl who cannot or does not wish for a higher education. Those who "drop out" at the age of twelve or fourteen, compelled to earn a livelihood, have missed their opportunity. But why? Do we in America have need only of professional men and "men of affairs?" Are those who pay the taxes and do the rougher work of life to be denied opportunity for self-improvement? Are only those who can afford to stay in school to reap the advantages of education? In a word, what are we doing to help the average man better to do his life work and better to realize the wealth of his inheritance as an American citizen? These questions raise the problem of vocational training for those who must begin early to earn . their living. It is, in my judgment, the greatest problem of the future, and one which we may not longer disregard if we are to maintain our standing as a nation.

A start in life. Although we have consciously done next to nothing to give the average man a fair start in his life work, unconsciously we have been putting forth efforts to meet his needs. A century ago the elementary school was the first step in the way to college. So it is to-day, but with this important difference: the curriculum of the old-time school was religion and the three R's. The time came when religion had to be put aside. That left the three R's an impossible curriculum, notwithstanding the praises of some good people who do not think for themselves, but have an unquenchable desire to think for other people. You cannot read without reading something; and you cannot reckon without problems in something. The colonial schoolmaster, like the modern paro

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chial schoolmaster, made religion the substance of his instruction. The modern advocates of the simple curriculum of the three R's must choose between the "three R's" directed to something and nothing at all.

The fact is, the moment religion was put aside something else had to come in. We put in English literature, history, civics, science, and music-in a word, the course was enriched. Yet the common sense of our American public insisted on further enrichment for the sake of those who needed a more practical training. Hence the introduction of drawing, manual training, cooking, and sewing- fads and frills, if you please, but nevertheless an honest (if unintentional) effort to accord to the great mass of our children vocational advantages similar to those enjoyed by the few who could go on to higher grades of· vocational training. It is precisely the same sort of development (from the simple to the more complex; from the general to the specific; from the purely disciplinary to the practical and vocational) that we have observed in the field of higher education.

But the end is not yet. The movement is only begun. The trend is unmistakably toward still further differentiation and still more complete adaptation to the needs of every-day life. The distinctive peculiarity of American education from the beginning almost to the present day is its selective character. Like the Scottish schoolmaster, we have rejoiced more over the one "lad of pairts" who somehow gets ahead, despite our instruction, perhaps, than over the ninety and nine who need our help. We boast of an educational ladder that reaches from the gutter to the university, and we see nothing amiss in making our

elementary schools preparatory to the high school, and the high school preparatory to the college and university. In other words, that which few need all must take.

Support of education in Europe. — My conviction is that, instead of being satisfied with our school system in this country, we should be thoroughly ashamed of it - ashamed not of our good schools and the good work that is being done, but ashamed that we as a people are being contented with so restricted a system of public education and so narrow a curriculum. We accept the politician's dictum that we are too poor to spend more than we do on education, when the fact is we are too poor to spend so little. More, much more than we now spend on education would be money in our pockets if only we knew how to spend it aright.

France, although heavily burdened for years, maintained in addition to her great system of elementary, secondary, and higher schools (including universities, professional schools, and schools of science) the following institutions for teaching the industrial arts:

I National Institute of Arts and Trades.

I Central School of Arts and Manufactures.

8 High Schools of Commerce.

I Advanced School of Commerce.

I Commercial Institute.

4 National Schools of Arts and Trades.

I National School for Training Superintendents and Foremen. 2 National Schools of Watchmaking.

4

National Professional Schools.

26 Commercial and Industrial Schools for Boys.

6 Commercial and Industrial Schools for Girls.

In addition to the foregoing the municipal bodies of

towns of any importance have opened professional schools for the elementary teaching of trades, industries, or arts (design, weaving, lacemaking, dressmaking, dyeing, electricity, bookkeeping, and stenography). There were also numerous private schools and societies for the improvement of the artisan, which were well attended.

What France has done has also been done- and done better in some respects - by Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and England.

American policies in education. There are two sufficient reasons for our not following Europe's lead: (1) we don't want to, and (2) we don't need to. We don't need to because life in this country is still easy. It isn't half settled yet. Some day we shall have five hundred millions here. I suppose we have land enough, and land good enough if tilled properly, to support a population ten times as great as that we now have. But even fifty years from now, at our present rate of increase, we shall begin to appreciate what competition means. What will it mean when necessity compels us to use at its best every square foot of land we own? Then the man who will not work surely may not eat. And if he would preserve American traditions of decency and competence, he must work harder and more effectively than the man of to-day has to work.

It must be obvious to any fair-minded student of our educational system that we are doing next to nothing either to ward off threatened dangers or to prepare for those which are bound to come in future. Instead of doing the practical thing we, a so-called "practical people, are content to produce "cuteness." The business world expects every man to do his duty — but it is very