governor in others. Again, nearly all of our states have a board of education, of which the state superintendent is a member. These officials have general supervision over all teachers and public schools of the state. Under these are county superintendents, and county boards of education, who generally supervise the work in the counties. The lowest units are the township and the district, which look after the employment of teachers, the equipment of schools, and minor details. All incorporated towns and cities have a supervising force in school boards, which employ superintendents or principals to manage the schools, a high school principal, and the other teachers. Experience shows that efficient supervision comes by close organization, and that it is expedient and profitable to centralize authority and responsibility in school affairs.

Support of the Public Schools. The federal government is under no direct obligation to aid the school system of the United States, but it promoted the general welfare in aiding the new states (beginning with Ohio in 1802) by giving every sixteenth section of land in a congressional township for the use of public schools. Since 1848, the new states admitted have each received two sections; and Utah received four. Nearly 70,000,000 acres have been thus turned over to the states and sold for a school fund, which fund may ever be increased, but it is inviolate; only the interest may be used. Besides this large amount of land, nearly 12,000,000 acres additional have been granted by the government for the establishment and support of universities and agricultural and industrial colleges in all the states; while more than half the states, to which public funds were distributed during Jackson's administration, gave their share to their school fund. Through the sale of swamp

and salt lands, a per cent of the proceeds of which in some states went to the support of schools, the permanent fund has also been increased. Dr. Guitteau, in his excellent discussion of this subject, has a diagram showing whence the school revenues come, and how they are raised. It is shown that nearly $400,000,000 is now spent annually on the common schools of the United States. Of this sum local taxation raises 68 per cent; state taxation yields 15 per cent; miscellaneous sources (in many states this is composed of poll taxes, fines, and sales of liquor licenses) yield about 11 per cent; and the income from permanent funds furnishes about 6 per cent. Local taxation brings in the larger part of the educational funds for most of the states, but some states, particularly in the South, raise all or nearly all of their school funds by state taxation. This seems a poor policy, for it does not stimulate local interest in schools, nor does it awaken the best general school spirit. Also, it puts progressive and nonprogressive communities on the same basis.

Efficiency Needed. - Quietly a revolution is going on in educational methods and the subject matter taught. The schools must get rid of fads and nonessentials, and teach those things effectively which the people most need in order to live well and prosper. Care must be taken, however, in educating pupils to earn a living, not to swing over to a purely material basis by making our work wholly practical, and forgetting that the pupil must also be taught ideals those finer things in life to which no money value can be attached.

Schools should be taught in attractive houses; the state should compel attendance, as most states do now, so that it should not have to support and perhaps punish the igno

rant later; rural schools should be consolidated and graded, and high schools should become more numerous in rural sections, so that the poorest children may have access to them. Many states now pay for the hauling of the rural children to common centers where a graded school and a high school are provided, and they find it a profitable investment, since it makes for better sanitation, better health, and far better instruction. A higher qualification is demanded of the teacher, and the day is past when mediocrity has any place in the schoolroom. Everywhere it is beginning to be recognized that progressive school work can be done only by an efficient, well-trained, and well-paid teacher.

Cabinet Officer Needed. Since 1867 we have had a bureau of education connected with the interior department. The head officer is called the commissioner of education, whose duty it is to publish statistics concerning the schools of the United States and issue annual reports. His work is important and valuable, but considering the importance of education, lying as it does at the very foundation of our national life, there should be, it would appear, a department of education, the secretary of which should be a member of the President's cabinet. Many foreign countries have long ago found this advisable and necessary. With the department of education might be joined a department of health, since these two go hand in hand. An arrangement of this sort would make for better organization and much more effective work all over the nation. No work is more sacred and vital than the training of our youth for future citizenship, and a cabinet department of education and health would add a dignity to the teaching profession that nothing else can give.

LIBRARY REFERENCES

Chancellor Our Schools, Their Administration and Supervision, ch. XII.

Eliot

Educational Reform, chs. X, XIII, XIV.

Fish: The Development of American Nationality, ch. XXVIII. Forman: Advanced Civics, 351–358.

Giddings: Democracy and Empire, ch. CIII.

Guitteau: Government and Politics in the United States, ch. XVI. Hinsdale American Government (4th ed.), ch. LVI.

Reports of your city

Kemp: History of Education, ch. XXVI. The Independent: August 3, 1911, 234-243. The World's Work: April, 1911, 14282–14290. Source Material and Supplementary Aids. school board and city superintendent of schools. Reports of and bulletins of your county superintendent and state superintendent of schools. Reports of state normal schools, and state colleges and universities, all show the progress of education in your city and state in education.

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS

1. Why must the city, county, and state provide schools and educate their youth?

2. What is the function of the public school? If enough money does not come from the state to have a long term and a good school, can the district afford to pay a tax? Why?

3. How are high schools supported in your state?

4. What is the purpose of a normal school? Why should the state support normal schools?

5. Why should the state support colleges and universities?

6. Why should a sane, compulsory education law be rigidly enforced?

QUESTION FOR DEBATE

Resolved, That rural and city communities alike should, through local taxation added to state aid, be compelled to have at least an eight months' school term.

CHAPTER XXVI

POLITICAL PARTIES OF TO-DAY AND THEIR ORGANIZATION

Why have Parties? The history of all nations shows that it is practically impossible to get along without political parties in government. Greece and Rome, when republics, had parties which differed on social and economic questions. People differ on ideas of government as to what is best for a local community, state, or nation. Whenever political and social questions arouse such interest that two or more plausible methods of solution present themselves, men organize political parties. These groups give themselves certain names, or sometimes are named by their opponents. They are voluntary associations, which begin organizing, agitating the questions involved, and appealing to the public at large for support. Parties adopt a platform of principles, which seems to them to be a correct interpretation of the leading issues before the people, of what the people want, and how to secure it. In republics there seems to be no way of conducting government except through parties. The framers of the Constitution hoped to keep down party spirit, but in vain. Parties furnish a method by which public sentiment can crystallize. They arouse interest, and educate the masses on matters of government, wrongly sometimes, even to the point of civil strife, but yet they educate. They develop a machinery for electing certain men to office, and when they are elected, the party and the public expect them to carry out