THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



28 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



THE BUREAU'OF EDUCATION. 



The retiring commissioner of educa- 

 tion has been so completely identified 

 with the Bureau of Education that it 

 is difficult to imagine the institution 

 without the man. Dr. Eliot, at Har- 

 vard, and Dr. Harris, at Washington, 

 have been our two great educational 

 leaders, and when we turn to other 

 lines of service — to the church, to medi- 

 t-ine, to law, to journalism, to business, 

 to politics— it is doubtful whether we 

 can find elsewhere two men equally 

 great. This is not a time to attempt 

 an analysis of the work and limita- 

 tions of a complex personality. It is 

 better to quote the appreciation of a 

 personal friend, Dr. Canfield : " He is 

 indeed whole in himself, a common good 

 — a man of amplest influence yet clear- 

 est of ambitious crime, our greatest 

 yet with least pretense; rich in a sa- 

 ving common sense, and, as the greatest 

 only are, in his simplicity sublime. His 

 is the good gray head which all men 

 know, and his the voice from which 

 their omens all men draw. In the great 

 battle of the public schools for sound 

 and effective citizenship he is a tower 

 of strength which stands foursquare to 

 all the winds that blow." 



The commissionership of education 

 has been filled by the appointment of 

 Dr. Elmer E. Brown, professor of edu- 

 cation in the University of California. 

 We may again quote, this time from 

 the editorial pages of the Outlook: 

 " He has shown himself to be safe and 

 sane, philosophic in temper, practical 

 in choice of ends and means, witli un- 

 usual administrative ability, ready to 

 take the initiative, not carried away 

 by undue enthusiasm for novelties, yet 

 always alert for all that marks true 

 advancement, energetic and active and 



industrious, an able writer and speak- 

 er, and of a personality which makes 

 him very acceptable in the educational 

 world. In many ways and because 

 of many characteristics and qualities he 

 promises to be a worthy successor of 

 one of the most widely revered educa- 

 tors this country has ever had the good 

 fortune to enlist in its service." 



Xo one can fill the vacancy left by 

 Dr. Harris, but the new commissioner 

 has a great opportunity for useful serv- 

 I ice. It is safe to say that there is 

 ! no other country where public educa- 

 tion is such an important factor in 

 national life and at the same time no 

 I other country in which it is so com- 

 pletely neglected by the national gov- 

 ernment. This paradox is of course 

 due to the fact that public education is 

 left to state and local authorities, as 

 was doubtless intended by the federal 

 constitution. But wisely or otherwise, 

 the national government has contin- 

 ually extended its functions. If it can 

 examine banks, it can examine schools; 

 if it can cooperate with states in their 

 geological surveys, it can cooperate with 

 them in their educational systems. As 

 a matter of fact the constitution gives 

 the congress power to ' provide for the 

 common defense and general welfare 

 of the United States. 5 Under the 

 changed conditions of modern civiliza- 

 tion, education, science, health and well- 

 being are far more important for the 

 common defense and general welfare of 

 ihe nation than are the army and the 

 na vy. 



But apart from cooperation with the 

 states, such as now in fact exists in the 

 case of the Department of Agriculture 

 and the land grant colleges of agricul- 

 ture and the mechanic arts, there is 

 ample room to strengthen the Bureau 

 of Education. After a secretary of 



