must have a place in every scheme of instruction. Instruction can proceed only when the extent and quality of the learner's knowledge is definitely understood. Every recitation, every review, is such an examination; further examinations of a formal sort are often desirable for the sake both of the teacher and of the pupil. But such examinations are given by teachers within the school or school system and primarily for the purpose of instruction. Examinations by those outside the school, especially when given for the purpose of determining a pupil's ability to undertake an entirely new course of instruction, have no educational value for the pupil which cannot be secured equally well in some less reprehensible way. Such examinations, however, are practically necessary when intellectual attainment is not the only aim of school instruction, and both necessary and inevitable when that instruction is inefficient. Outside examinations are imperative whenever the secondary schools are unable or unwilling to assume the responsibility of meeting the requirements for admission to colleges and universities. Until a norm of secondary instruction is established and generally recognized, college entrance examinations cannot be dispensed with. The sole object of this paper is to show that such examinations have no especial educational value for those who are examined; they do have a distinct value in our school system and must be retained until some better plan is found for keeping weak schools up to grade and for the elimination of bad teaching. The scheme of college entrance examinations is altogether a matter of temporary expediency. It tests merely the candidate's store of learning and to some extent his ability

while it is our duty to find some way of assuring the intellectual ability which students must have on admission to college and at the same time of encouraging the preparatory schools to emphasize in their course of training the manly virtues and the liberal culture which all men need in life.

THE OPPORTUNITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF

A

QUERY and a criticism. "How is it that the
United States can afford to pay a half dollar

in wages when we pay a shilling, and yet compete with us in the markets of the world?" This is a question that was addressed to industrial England by an English business man whose knowledge of industrial conditions in three continents qualifies him as an expert. When Mr. Mosely put that question he thought the answers could be found in American education. Accordingly, he invited a score or more of the leading teachers, ablest scholars, and keenest investigators of Great Britain to help him study American schools and methods of teaching.

some

What was the result? In the report of the Mosely Commission we can see ourselves as others see us others, at any rate critics who tell us some unpleasant truths. These English experts, to a man, declare that it is not because of our schools that we succeed; some of them insist that if we keep up the pace it will be in spite of our schools and schooling. What is it, then, that gives us such advantage of our old-world neighbors? One answer is as follows:

"America's industry is what it is primarily because of the boundless energy, the restless enterprise, and the

1The Commencement Address delivered at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, 1906.

61

capacity for strenuous work with which her people are endowed; and because these powers are stimulated to action by the marvelous opportunities for wealth production which the country offers. These conditions have determined the character of all American institutions the schools included. The schools have not made the people what they are, but the people, being what they are, have made the schools."

Moreover, it is pointed out that our present schools are too young to have had any perceptible influence on our industrial activity or social life. Our leaders of to-day were trained under the old régime or have come to us from abroad, some with good schooling, others with little of any kind. Our workmen, the best of them, are self-trained or imported ready-made. The only native quality that we apparently have or exercise is, as Professor Armstrong says, "cuteness." And in this respect schooling is of little account. He says:

"In point of fact, American cuteness would seem to be conditioned by environment rather than by school education. The country was settled by adventurous, high-minded men; the adventurous and restless spirits of Europe have been attracted there for generations past; the conditions have always been such as to develop enterprise and to stimulate individuality and inventiveness: so that, during the whole period in which the continent has been gradually acquired and settled on, there has been a constant and invigorating struggle going on against nature in one form or another, the Indian probably having played no mean part in the education of the race. Such being the case, it is important to remember that some at

least of these influences are now withdrawn and that development may, in consequence, be along different lines in future, especially as the enervating influence of machinery is also coming into play more and more."

The causes of success. - In the introduction to this report Mr. Mosely discounts some of the findings of his experts. He points out that South Africa is a land of great opportunity, that it possesses enormous resources, that it has been settled by as brave a people as can be found anywhere, and that in all essential respects it is not unlike the United States or any other new country. Despite all this, he maintains, South Africa has not begotten great industrial leaders and that but for the trained American engineer South Africa would still be undeveloped and unproductive. He finds the secret of American success, therefore, in the American system of education.

Here are three reasons given by keen men bent on finding the causes of American industrial success: (1) A golden opportunity in a new country marvelously rich in natural resources, (2) the disposition of the typical American to take chances, to play the game to the end whatever the odds; and (3) professional training directed to practical ends.

No one can deny that these three causes have been potent factors in all our past. But what of the future? Is the opportunity what it once was? Will American shrewdness still find free scope? Shall we still have need of professional training?

The period of rapid development. - Seventy-five years ago we had a population of 17,000,000, the great West virgin soil, our forests scarcely touched, our mines