NoreiiBEB 12, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



675 



that it be given autonomy to solve its prob- 

 lems in cooperation with, but not under the 

 control of, the college. 



The cause of knowledge would be advanced 

 by the establishment of schools of research in 

 connection with our great colleges, and by 

 permitting them, as in Germany, to elect their 

 own faculties from among those college teach- 

 ers whose genius is for discovery rather than 

 for exposition of knowledge. 



Alfred G. Mayer 



national educational responsibilities 

 " Out of a full heart the mouth speaketh." 

 The hour will come when valiant Dr. E. C. 

 Moore will clearly recognize as blessings in 

 disguise the great obstacles he has overcome 

 in one of the most dastardly and malicious 

 attacks the school system of an American city 

 has yet encountered. Full endorsement of his 

 general views, as expressed in a recent issue 

 of Science,' is given freely and from some- 

 what varied experience of the most convincing 

 character. The questions catalogued in the 

 article cited are such as insistently demand 

 settlement, and it would be a large step for- 

 ward to realize, in some way, authoritative 

 answers to these queries and to many others 

 of equivalent importance in education, which 

 now can not reach a final bar of judgment, 

 except by tortuous indirection. Perhaps the 

 dignifying of the TJ. S. Commissioner of Edu- 

 cation with title and prestige of a member of 

 the president's cabinet might go far to accom- 

 plish this end. And there is, no doubt, greater 

 need and greater reason for such action than 

 for certain similar schemes promulgated for 

 advancing less vital and more selfish interests. 

 While thus completely in accord with Pro- 

 fessor Moore in his advocacy of increasing 

 the powers and responsibilities of the national 

 commissioner, it is difficult to understand how 

 this measure, of itself, can rectify the evils 

 outlined in the aforesaid article, and those 

 especially which have been heretofore the chief 

 obstacles in the pathway of the superintendent 

 of schools of Los Angeles and his coworkers. 

 The poorly devised {sic) system in California, 

 'October 8, 1909, p. 470. 



which almost invites conflict of city council 

 and board of education in financial estimates, 

 might be deprecated by a national secretary, 

 but state legislatures are bomb-proof and 

 whoUy invulnerable, save by one kind of am- 

 munition, viz., the ballots of the voters. Mr. 

 Moore's own recent victory in Los Angeles 

 illustrates this fact conclusively, and it is 

 difficult to understand how any added power 

 within practicable bounds could have ren- 

 dered even an official of the president's council 

 more effective in meeting this unseemly at- 

 tack than was the aroused public opinion at 

 the most critical juncture. 



Li so far as the strengthening and enlarg- 

 ing of the power and scope of the national 

 department of education may be effective in 

 the unbiased study of many complicated prob- 

 lems and in the wider dissemination of facts 

 and comparisons among the people, no obstacle 

 should be thrown in the way of this proposi- 

 tion. But the fact remains that the machinery 

 by means of which reforms must be introduced 

 will not be changed materially by any such 

 method. Undoubtedly there are serious limi- 

 tations now to the possibility of desired ac- 

 complishment — ^limitations which the sug- 

 gested plan might overcome to a great extent. 

 The history of the administration of the Hatch 

 and Morrill funds under the department of 

 agriculture encourages the belief that revolu- 

 tionary results might be expected to follow 

 the judicious institution of similar bounties 

 with more general application to primary and 

 secondary education. And the reactionary in- 

 fluence of this same agricultural department 

 upon the school systems of rural districts is a 

 telling argument indeed. We certainly have 

 no quarrel with the advocates of a strong de- 

 partment of education at Washington. 



What the present writer aims to emphasize 

 here is the paramount importance of more 

 closely relating the general public to the 

 school system. Dr. Moore asks with feeling 

 born of bitter experience (but crowned with 

 fresh laurels of victory won in this very con- 

 troversy) : " Shall the city board of edu- 

 cation fix the amount of money required 

 for school purposes each year, or shall the 



