16 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



the general subject of agricultural education and to be able to 

 furnish information and advice concerning that subject. 



The Commissioner of Education holds an important advisory 

 position with reference to any proposed national legislation con- 

 cerning education, particularly agricultural education. During 

 the sixtieth session of Congress several bills were introduced 

 providing for national aid to education in agriculture and other 

 industrial subjects. Of these the most important were the 

 Burkett bill (S. 3,392) providing for "the advancement of in- 

 struction in agriculture, manual training, and home economics 

 in the state normal schools of the United States," and the Davis 

 bill (H.R. 534) providing in a similar way for national aid to 

 agricultural and industrial education in the secondary schools 

 only. The latter was finally revised (H.R. 18,204) so as to 

 include the provisions of the Burkett bill (S. 3,392). 



The Davis bill provides for annual appropriation of "ten 

 cents per capita of the population of each state and territory and 

 the District of Columbia" for aid to maintain instruction in 

 agriculture and home economics in agricultural schools of sec- 

 ondary grade, and an appropriation of one cent per capita to 

 maintain similar instruction in state and territorial normal 

 schools (24, pp. 85-87). 



The large amount of money concerned, and the establishment 

 of separate schools not already a part of our national system of 

 education called for careful study and deliberation. The Bureau 

 of Education was freely consulted in the matter. No one had 

 a clearer insight into the far-reaching influence of the bill, a 

 clearer understanding of its importance upon the economic and 

 educational welfare of the nation, or a greater appreciation of 

 the principles involved in such legislation, than the Commissioner 

 of Education. In a letter dated September 26, 1907, to Mr. 

 Davis he says : 



One strong argument in favor of such national aid, when extended to 

 special forms of education which are in special need of encouragement, may 

 be drawn from the workings of the appropriation for support of land-grant 

 colleges, contained in the second Morrill Act of August 30, 1890. The recent 



