accomplished. The law looking to such schools as a part of the public school system, authorizing the certificating of teachers and the approval of courses for them by the State Education Department, and assuring them the definite financial aid of the State, went into operation a year and a half ago. Before schools could actually be opened the sentiment in each city or large town had to concentrate, the funds had to be provided through the ordinary financial machinery, teachers had to be secured and buildings and equipment had to be arranged. But we have schools operating under this law in Albany, Buffalo, Gloversville, Hudson, New York, Rochester, Schenectady and Yonkers. The public opinion of the state is strongly in favor of the movement, and it seems very certain to gather in volume and force very rapidly. Another year will see the organization of many more schools.

This is a matter of first concern to the United States, and doubtless it is not too much to say that among the states it concerns Massachusetts and New York preeminently. When New York was only thinking about it, Massachusetts created her state commissions to deal with it, and those commissions gave it serious study and published their luminous reports. That work, in 1905-1906-1907, placed all of the states, and New York in a special degree, under obligations to her. It at least accelerated our action and lighted our way. The fact that it seemed to me that at one or two points the commission had made a mistaken turn in laying out a pioneer road reduced the obligation not a whit. It is easier to criticize, or even correct, than it is to construct. And an error in itself is often illuminating.

Speaking and publishing in 1907, I made this comment upon the attitude of Massachusetts: "The report of the two Massachusetts commissions are substantial contributions to the literature of the subject. It seems to me that a serious mistake is made in committing the organization and administration of industrial schools to a special commission and not to the public school authorities of the state and of the subdivisions thereof; and it seems to me also that the commission falls into fundamental error in looking to higher technical schools, teaching no one trade, to the exclusion of vocational trades schools. It is obviously because of the prevalent industrial situation in the state."

From the course of this address it is clear to you that the opinion then expressed has been confirmed rather than shaken, and from the course of events in Massachusetts it is clear to me

that Massachusetts has gone back to the point of digression from the best route and has entered upon the building of a broader and better educational highway than would have been undertaken if the byway started upon had not led into a thicket. It reinforces my thinking, which grows stronger with the passing years, that the honest mistakes of men and women trying to accomplish desirable ends are often the means of wholly unexpected good. Without of course intending to express an opinion in commendation of one man or in opposition to another, I entertain no doubt that the consolidation of organization, and the enlargement of the legal powers of the Massachusetts school system, which was occasioned by the division and the inevitable conflict of authority over this matter, will be of more advantage to the state than it yet realizes, and therefore of no little moment to educational progress in the nation. This consolidation and enlargement of function is peculiarly fortunate at this time because it is made to coordinate industrial education with all the other education of the state, while the whole is to be guided by serious students of industries as well as of education. And quite possibly it may turn out that the recent appointment of Dr David S. Snedden as State Commissioner of Education is the most important factor in the whole proceeding because of his rank as a scholar, his serious study of plans and processes in education, his experience as a teacher and writer, and his grasp of the great fact that education and vocation must be very vitally related if civilization is to be aggressive.

But let us not underestimate the imperative character of our undertaking or the largeness of its difficulties. This undertaking is imperative to the balance and soundness of our education, to the prosperity of our manufactures, and to the moral health of our people. A system of education which, no matter what its intent, in fact results in a liberal education for a class and only a partial or an indifferent education for the mass, is not the normal and logical educational system of a democracy. Commercial prosperity and preeminence are more dependent upon the skill and industry of the mass than upon the scientific knowledge or the philosophic thinking of a class. And the moral sense of the multitude is more dependent upon reducing the percentage of illiteracy to the vanishing point, as is done in many of the European nations, and upon training all of the people to efficiency or at least up to their opportunities in some kind of work, as is also done in many European nations, than upon the gifts of millionaires or the benevolent purposes of

the pure in heart. The thing will have to be worked out: let us hope that it will be worked out soon.

The movement will not only have to be grounded upon foundations that will stand, but it will have to be projected upon lines that are very exact as well as very large. We are a sincere, enthusiastic, hilarious, and indifferent people. We are as profligate in our education and as wasteful of the children of the mass, as we are indifferent about the natural resources of which we have lately heard so much. If we are to go on in our reckless disregard of things which are of the most worth, misapprehending the true basis of real culture, offering everything and enforcing nothing, evolving an educational system with more towers than foundations to it, we will surely come to a time when the sufficiency of democracy may be tested and the progress of the nation may be menaced and arrested by it.

I do not believe that we shall go over a brink or come out against a stone wall, because I am sure we shall cure difficulties and take the correct turn in the road just before we get to such a place.

Possibly these labor unions which many of us have doubted and some of us have feared, are to help us do it now. All great combinations of either capital or labor do things at times which those who are not in the combination, and some who are in, dislike and disapprove. It is often so where the matter excepted to is without the sanction of the general authority, and it is sometimes so when it is with that sanction. In this regard honors are easy as between capital and labor. But none can be so blind as to fail to see the need and the desirability of labor being organized. No more can one who is intelligent fail to see that the labor organizations must be rational and just in order to be vital; or one who is honest and a good citizen fail to wish them well. Now if, with its well known steadfastness and aggressiveness, the organized labor of the United States will insist upon reestablishing the balance in our education, and upon setting up a class of schools which will give an uplift to work, who can estimate the great service the workingmen will render to a nation which they love quite as sincerely as do any of us, and particularly, who can realize the great advantage they may gain to themselves and their children for many generations? Let us try to act in cooperation with them to have it so. That which improves work uplifts the workman more than his work.

Democracy has its difficulties as well as its advantages. When we discover that our educational system is one-sided, and out of

balance, and turning out too many "professionals" and too few "industrials," we can not cure it by a speech as the German Emperor could and did when he discovered the same thing in Germany fifteen years ago, but we will not doubt that there are forces in our democracy which are equal to its salvation. This is the land of opportunity: it is the land of sagacity, of resourcefulness, and of common honesty as well.

Our Uncle Samuel is a hard-headed character. He may seem a little indifferent about some matters until he realizes the importance of them, and when he comes to know that something must be done it takes a little time to get his people together and agree about doing it. He dislikes to compel his own flesh and blood. With his people reason accomplishes when force fails. Things which have to be done are done. We have been dealing with a question which will have to be met. It is infinitely more fundamental than tariffs, and much more far-reaching than interstate trade or the greed of corporations. It goes to the balance, and strength, and moral sense, and permanency, and happiness of the nation. The educational people have brought it up and discussed it rather thoroughly. The labor people are becoming much interested in it. The manufacturers, and the tradesmen, and the transporters, and the statesmen, and all the rest, will in time give their great support to the movement which seems to us so vitally important and which promises so much.

THE LAY INFLUENCE IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT

There is no officer in the United States so common as the school trustee or director. He is even more common than the justice of the peace or the police magistrate who settles petty controversies and punishes petty offenses. He is found not only in every city, town and village, but on almost every second or third mile of all the highways of the nation. In the cities and towns he is generally one of a board of education and acts with others in providing for and managing the schools for hundreds or thousands of children, but in the country he very commonly acts individually and alone as the representative of his neighbors in providing school accommodations for the few children of his neighborhood. Under very different circumstances and confronted by widely differing burdens of responsibility, his functions are everywhere essentially the same. He must provide the necessary buildings and appliances, and employ and pay the proper teachers for the training of the children.

He is not expected to teach. Indeed, it is not required that he be able to teach. He is not bound to supervise the teaching. That is provided for in other ways. But it is necessary that he be a man of ordinary business sagacity and that he manage the business affairs of the schools in the interests of the people who have authorized him to represent them in doing so. This forbids his having any pecuniary or other personal interest in any of the business which he transacts. He must be wholly unselfish, and exercise ordinary sense, and show a genuine interest in universal education in all the transactions of his office. He must provide for as many schools, and for schools of as many grades, as the people authorize. He must employ the best teachers he can get for the compensation he is authorized to pay; he must treat such teachers justly; he must leave them free to teach in their own way, remembering that there are other officers whose duty it is to certify the qualifications of the teachers and supervise the teaching. He must advise with the officers who supervise the teaching, with reference to the employment and continuance of teachers. He must do whatever he can to give opportunity to the most enlightened intelligence and the highest expectations of his constituents concerning their schools. He must not only do things that need to be done but he must also

Address before a convention of school directors of Allegheny county, at Pittsburg, Pa., December 11, 1909.