72 8 UNITED STATES EDUCATION 



protected cruisers, 22; unprotected cruisers, 3; scout cruisers, 3; single-turret harbour defence 

 monitors, 4; double-turret monitors, 6; gunboats, 13; light draught gunboats, 3; composite 

 gunboats, 8; torpedo boat destroyers, 56; steel torpedo boats, 28; submarine torpedo boats, 

 49 (8 authorised); tugs, 45; auxiliary cruisers, 5; converted yachts, 17; colliers, 25; transports 

 and supply ships, 15. For technical 'details see under SHIPS AND SHIPPING and THE 

 WORLD'S NAVIES. There are three fleets: Atlantic, with four divisions; Asiatic, with four 

 divisions; and Pacific. In 1912 there was a naval militia in each of 22 states and in the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia, with a total of 558 commissioned officers, 29 warrant officers, 1,361 petty 

 officers and 5,372 men. Thirty-two vessels of the U.S. Navy are assigned to state naval 

 militias. The navy active list of officers includes 2,796 commissioned, 273 warrant officers 

 and 768 at the Naval Academy. The maximum number of enlisted men by law is 51,500. 



In Congress there was a long struggle over an appropriation for battleships; on May 28, 

 1912 the House passed an appropriation bill with no provision for battleships; the Senate 

 voted for two on July 5; and the conference report for one battleship was adopted by the 

 Senate, August 19, 1912. 



The secretary of the navy since March 6, 1909, was George von Lengerke Meyer (b. 1858) 

 of Massachusetts. In 1912 Admiral George Dewey was president of the general board, and 

 the administrative bureaus with their heads were: navigation, Rear Admiral Philip Andrews; 

 yards and docks, Civil Engineer Homer R. Stanford; ordnance, Rear Admiral Nathan C. 

 Twining; construction and repair, Chief Constructor Richard M. Watt; steam engineering, 

 Engineer-in-Chief Hutchinson I. Cone; supplies and accounts, Paymaster General Thomas 

 J. Cowie; medicine and surgery, Surgeon-General Charles F. Stokes; marine corps, Major- 

 General William Phillip Diddle. 



EDUCATION 



At the close of the first decade of the 2oth century there were in the United States 

 about 25,000,000 children of school age, and about 20,000,000 enrolled in public and 

 private schools, with an average daily attendance of about 14,000,000. The average 

 school year was about 8 months of 20 days each. In the decade 1900-10 the school 

 population increased at a much smaller rate than the entire population, as the birth 

 rate has continually decreased. But this decrease has been much larger in the North 

 than in the South or West, and, in general in the older parts of the country than in the 

 newer. It is equally true that all averages for the entire country are misleading, be- 

 cause there is so great a variation between different states, and even between different 

 parts of the same state. Less than two-thirds of the school population was enrolled 

 in 1910 in ten states; and, in the same year, less than two-thirds of the enrolled number 

 was in average daily attendance in 17 states. With an average of 160 days for the 

 country's school term, 26 states fell below the average and several had only about 

 loo days of school a year. The average attendance of the total school population was 

 less than 100 days in 42 states, less than 75 days in 19 of these, less than 50 in 5 states, 

 and not more than 114 in any state; of the total enrollment it was less than 100 days 

 in 19 states and less than 75 in 5 states. 



For similar comparisons in regard to illiteracy see Population above. But it must be 

 borne in mind that, even if such averages are misleading in many respects, they are approxi- 

 mately correct for purposes of comparison with previous years. The percentage of enroll- 

 ment to total school population was 68.6% in 1900 and 72.5% in 1909. The length of the 

 average school term increased from 144.3 to 155.3 days in the same period, and the average 

 attendance of each pupil from 99 to 112.6 days. In spite of a steady tendency during the 

 ast part of the decade to consolidate small country districts, the number of public school- 

 houses increased from 248,279 to 257,851, and the value of public school property increased 

 from $550,531,217 to 8967,775,587. The cost of public schools increased from $214,964,618 

 to $401,397,747, or 86%; and the cost per pupil increased from $20.21 to $31.65. The per- 

 centage of the total cost expended for teachers' salaries was 64% at the beginning and only 

 59.2% at the end of the decade. The average monthly salary of men teachers increased 

 about 35 % and of women teachers about 25 %. Because the school year is longer the average 

 yearly salary shows an even greater increase. Even thus the increase is probably less than 

 the average increase in cost of living and scale of prices during the decade. This is no doubt 

 one reason for the decreased proportion of men teachers: in 1900 they were about 30% and 

 in 1909 about 21 % of the total. What effect the growing tendency to pay women teachers 

 as much as men will have upon the proportion of men to women is a question on which experts 

 disagree and which the next decade may decide. 



The public school system has been growing up and down. In the decade the number of 

 children in public kindergartens increased 40% (from 131,657 to 185,471) in cities with 



