402 EXPERIMENT STATION EECOED. 



quite detailed accounts of the status of vocational education in Can- 

 ada, and the others similar data pertaining to the remaining countries. 



The United States commission was appointed by President "Wilson 

 in response to a joint resolution of Congress authorizing a com- 

 mission of nine to consider the subject of national aid for vocational 

 education. Its personnel consisted of the following : Senators Hoke 

 Smith, of Georgia, and Carroll S. Page, of Vermont; Representa- 

 tives D. M. Hughes, of Georgia, and S. D. Fess, of Ohio; John A. 

 Lapp, director of the Indiana Bureau of Legislative Information 

 and secretary of the Indiana Commission on Industrial Education 

 in 1912; Miss Florence M. Marshall, director of the Manhattan 

 Trade School for Girls of New York City; Miss Agnes Nestor, of 

 Chicago, president of the International Glove Workers' Union; 

 Charles A. Prosser, secretary of the National Society for the Pro- 

 motion of Industrial Education; and Charles H. Winslow, of the 

 United States Bureau of Labor Statistics and a member of the Massa- 

 chusetts Commission on Industrial Education, 1906-1909. This com- 

 mission organized as the Commission on National Aid to Vocational 

 Education on April 2, 1914, by the election of Senator Smith as 

 chairman, and Ernest A. Wreidt, director of the Public Education 

 Association of New York City, was subsequently appointed secretary. 



Inasmuch as the law establishing the commission required it to 

 submit its report not later than June 1, a period of less than two 

 months was available. This time, however, was utilized as fully as 

 possible in meetings of the commission and subcommittees, hearings 

 given to representatives of the Federal Departments and national 

 organizations interested as well as to individuals, questionnaires sent 

 out to superintendents of public instruction, national labor organiza- 

 tions, and others, and the preparation of a bibliography of the sub- 

 ject. A considerable amount of useful data was thereby accumu- 

 lated, and the two-volume report covers about 500 pages. Much of 

 the time and attention of the commission were necessarily devoted 

 to the specific question of national grants to the States for vocational 

 education and to the drafting of a bill embodying these recommenda- 

 tions, but much information is also contained in the report as to the 

 general subject of secondary agricultural education. 



The reports of the two commissions are in most significant agree- 

 ment as regards the need of developing the vocational aspects of 

 agricultural education at this time. Thus from the economic side, 

 the Federal Commission points out that " a virgin fertility of soil 

 is no longer available for unintelligent exploitation over any consid- 

 erable area in the United States, and in the future a permanent and 

 increasingly productive and profitable agriculture can be achieved 

 throughout the country only by scientific culture. In agriculture, 

 science has advanced far beyond practice, and it has become essential 



