Land Problems and National Welfare 



the best investment of capital and should not 

 be looked upon as merely absorbing so much 

 of our national income. The return on that 

 capital will be high if the standard of the rising 

 generation is raised, and the consequent wealth- 

 producing power increased. 



And we must not think only of the money- 

 making side of the question ; it is in itself im- 

 portant, but " we should not grudge expendi- 

 ture to secure in our children a dynasty of 

 liberty, freedom and uplift," as Dr. Robertson, 

 the Canadian commissioner of agriculture, so 

 rightly said when urging the importance of the 

 moral and ethical side of education. 



Cut-and-dried text book instruction is cheap 

 from the accountant's point of view, for teachers 

 can deal with much larger classes than is the 

 case when the instruction requires more in- 

 dividual attention, and the advocates for this 

 academic instruction put forward the formula — 

 " We must have generous general education." 

 In many cases it is neither generous nor general, 

 and it is really costly, because it turns out an 

 altogether undue proportion of children who 

 can use neither their hands nor their brains. 



Probably the most expensive elementary 

 school in the world in cost per scholar is the 

 one in connection with the University of Chicago; 

 Mr. Dewey created it and gives a full account 

 of it in his excellent work, " The School and the 



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