46 Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science. 
How is the composition of the student body determined, or, in other 
words, how is the student body recruited? 
In the early winter of 1917 a leading weekly naively remarked that 
the criticism sometimes made that the sons of the rich and well-to-do 
were not doing their part in the war was disproved by the decreased 
university enrollments. Or, to put it bluntly, the institutions dependent 
on taxes or on endowments made valuable through the labors of society 
as a whole were attended by the children of only a portion of this soci- 
ety, parental wealth being the determining factor. High school teachers 
of experience will know exactly what I mean. The matter is as obvious 
as it is objectionable. Under unsettled social conditions it is a matter 
that might determine the very life of the institutions we all wish to see 
prosper, believing as we do that the salvation of the world is in their 
hands. 
The answer to our problem is so easy and so just that one can only 
wonder why so plain a reform has been so long delayed. It is not to 
be solved by the wholesale education of all high school graduates of a 
certain age as the government has recently undertaken as a war 
measure. Rather it is to be solved along the lines of the following 
tentative plan: 
The faculty of each commissioned and certified high school, the 
county superintendent, the superintendent of each school, and the town- 
ship trustees or board of education shall at commencement designate 
20% or 25% of the graduates of each school as beneficiaries under this 
plan. The basis of selection of beneficiaries shall be the class record of 
graduates during their high school course. Each beneficiary shall be 
permitted to select any course of study desired in any school in the State 
approved by the State Board of Education, provided that any course so 
selected must be in advance of high school work. Each beneficiary shall 
be paid for work done in any such school as follows: $325 for the first 
year, $350 for the second year, $375 for the third year, and $400 for 
the fourth year, provided that during his course he shall carry at least 
fifteen hours recitation, or its equivalent, per week. Payment shall be 
made to the beneficiary at the end of each month or term in which such 
collegiate work is done, subject to passing grades in each course of work 
pursued. Failure to make passing grades shall deprive beneficiary of 
further privileges under this plan; and in case of dismissal from his 
college for any cause all privileges are forfeited, subject to an appeal to 
the State Board of Education, which board may grant permission to 
enter another school, subject to the approval of such school, in which 
the beneficiary shall again be granted the privilege of this plan. 
The funds for carrying out this plan shall be raised by a county tax 
in those counties in which commissioned and certified high schools are 
