EDITORIAL. 6 



the essentials of organization and procedure, and in bringing to 

 light some of the problems for future consideration. This committee 

 has a highly important field from now on, and the kind of study 

 which it should be able to give will be most profitable in perfecting 

 the system for extension operations. 



Another conference, broader in representation because it included 

 the directors of extension in the several States, was held immediately 

 after the close of the convention, and was called at the suggestion of 

 the Director of this Office. It dealt particularly with certain require- 

 ments growing out of the law, about which there had been consider- 

 able imcertainty, but it took up also the cooperative relations with 

 the Department under its own funds, and brought about a fuller 

 understanding as to other features. 



Frequent conferences of this sort, or devoted to special features of 

 the w^ork, will be found highly profitable in securing a broad view 

 of the situation and in working out the best means of accomplishing 

 the desired results. Not that it will be feasible or wise to standardize 

 methods or conceptions, or to make rigid rules to apply to all the 

 varied conditions afforded by this broad country. But rather that 

 there may be opportunity for the interchange of opinion and experi- 

 ence, and especially for the kind of study which committees of the 

 association have in the past given to various matters relating to 

 college instruction. After determining what is contemplated by the 

 law and what specifically is excluded, the vital question is as to what 

 it is wise and most profitable to do, and what means are most effective 

 in attaining the results. For the extension movement must be first 

 of all an organized effort, and it must have an orderly plan or pro- 

 gram. It affords the greatest opportunity ever presented in our col- 

 lege work for errors in judgment or faults due to improper organi- 

 zation, which would reflect upon the colleges and upon the success of 

 the work as a whole. 



It is no longer a propaganda, as some have seemed to conceive it, or 

 essentially a publicity agency for the scattering of facts and infor- 

 mation broadcast. It has a more serious purpose, and seeks a more 

 permanent and farreaching end. Ultimately it is to develop the 

 people themselves and their initiative for the improvement of con- 

 ditions surrounding them, as well as to teach definite facts and prac- 

 tices. As has been said, the people need more than pieces of informa- 

 tion. They need stimulation and guidance; they need to be made 

 themselves a vital part of the movement, and to be encouraged to 

 organize to receive the help. 



In other words, the problem of extension is, as President "\\lieeler 

 of California expressed it, a human problem. The human element 

 enters into both the imparting and the receiving of the information. 



