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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. ! 



and directness because of the close relation 

 of the citizen to the school. It was a sys- 

 tem that gave large latitude to the indi- 

 vidual development of boys and girls and 

 was far removed from the mechanisms of 

 highly concentrated systems that are in- 

 elastic and attempt to force square boys 

 and girls through round holes. While the 

 old system would not meet existing condi- 

 tions, which, for reasons of economy, re- 

 quire a closer organization and a fuller con- 

 centration of authority, we should avoid, 

 so far as possible, the dangers of bureau- 

 cracy in school administration that are by 

 no means unreal. The injection of federal 

 aid and authority into local educational 

 affairs could but increase the dangers to 

 educational freedom that always attend a 

 highly centralized administration; and, 

 above all other considerations in impor- 

 tance, such a policy is in the direction of 

 removing the citizen too far from his direct 

 responsibility, even through taxation, for 

 the maintenance of local institutions. The 

 exercise of citizenship, involving as it 

 should a discussion of public matters and a 

 sacrifice of time and money, has great 

 training value and is an essential means of 

 attaining the civic efficiency necessary to 

 our form of government. Have we any 

 reason to doubt that the states will provide 

 for advances in secondary education as 

 rapidly as public sentiment, available peda- 

 gogical tools and opportunity will justify 

 new movements? The progress already 

 made in several states indicates that we 

 have not. 



There are those who declare that the ad- 

 vance of nationalism, even in the control of 

 education, is irresistible. It is encouraging 

 to note that there are already signs of an 

 action against this movement. "Whatever 

 comes to pass, we should be warned that 

 any readjustment of the relations of gov- 



ernment to education which does not fully 

 preserve the autonomy of the states, and 

 to a reasonable degree, of localities within 

 the states, in the administration of educa- 

 tional matters, would be repugnant to the 

 spirit of our institutions, and a revolution- 

 ary and dangerous innovation. 



I shall introduce the other phases of this 

 discussion by the assertion that the chief 

 and absorbing aim of the college, whether 

 it be subsidized by private endowment or 

 by public funds, should be the training of 

 young men and women in a manner and to 

 a degree that is consistent with well-recog- 

 nized college standards. This statement, 

 regarded by many as expressing an obvious 

 truth, is given prominence in this connec- 

 tion not because there is any ambiguity in 

 the language of the first Morrill act, which 

 specifies very clearly the function of the 

 proposed institutions, but because in recent 

 years these colleges are moving with accel- 

 erated momentum towards agricultural 

 activities, costly in time and money, that 

 have only a remote relation to the train- 

 ing of their students. I refer to public 

 addresses, farmers' institutes, reading 

 courses, demonstration work, railroad-train 

 instruction, fair exhibits, secondary educa- 

 tion and similar efforts that just now seem 

 to be increasing rapidly in volume and in 

 their demands. 



Because many of these activities are more 

 or less spectacular and are popular in char- 

 acter, they certainly attract attention and 

 stimulate interest both in the agencies 

 which participate in them and in the 

 knowledge which it is sought to impart. 

 For these reasons they are very useful. 

 Doubtless many of us upon whom is laid 

 the burden of administering the affairs of 

 the colleges and stations and of securing 

 the funds necessary for their development 

 and maintenance regard extension work of 



