December 15, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



825 



corporations, communities and municipal- 

 ities — such agency to report through the 

 executive annually and at such other times 

 and in such modes as the congress may re- 

 quire. It should be among the first duties 

 of the federal agency to confer with officers 

 or other competent representatives of 

 states concerning water-power and other 

 uses of water with a view to determining 

 means of effective cooperation, equitable 

 sharing of rights and responsibilities, esti- 

 mates of cost of works required for state 

 and federal use, reasonable rates for do- 

 mestic and irrigation water supply and for 

 power, and all other matters of common 

 concern to the state and federal govern- 

 ments — the determinations to be reported 

 to the state legislatures and to the congress 

 as a basis for further action in the public 

 interest in accordance with the righteous 

 principles of the greatest good to the 

 greatest number for the longest time. 



38. While it is not necessary and might 

 be inexpedient for current federal legisla- 

 tion to specifically declare the principle 

 that all the water of the country belongs to 

 all the people of the country, the enact- 

 ments may not equitably, nor judiciously 

 in view of the trend of that public senti- 

 ment in which lies the power of the nation, 

 be open to construction as dissenting from 

 or denying that principle ; for already this 

 has become part of the body of ethical con- 

 viction underlying American character 

 and constituting its strength. 



W J McGee 



UNIVEBSITT EXTENSION AND THE STATE 

 UNIVESSIT¥ ^ 



The state university is a public service 

 corporation. It is supported by the public 

 presumably for the public. Until within 



'■ Presented before Section L, American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, at the 

 Minneapolis meeting. 



comparatively recent years, few questions 

 have been asked as to the quality and com- 

 prehensiveness of the service offered by the 

 university to this constituency, but the time 

 has arrived when not only educators, but 

 intelligent laymen, including both employer 

 and employed, are asking to what degree 

 the relation of the people as a whole to the 

 educational system has been recognized. 



What proportion of the young folk who 

 become high school students are served in 

 future years by the university? What 

 proportion of those who remain in school 

 for elementary training only, reap more 

 than the most meager benefits from our so- 

 called popular education? 



The high average percentage of illiteracy 

 in the United States, the low comparative 

 degree of efficiency in the industries and 

 the avidity with which opportunities for 

 further training are embraced by persons 

 who have completed their formal educa- 

 tion, all point to a fault in the existing 

 system, for which there is at present no 

 generally adopted remedy. 



It is not my purpose to dwell upon the 

 shortcomings of our public education, nor 

 to enlarge upon the fact that statistics 

 relating to school attendance would give 

 less cause for discouragement if we recog- 

 nized in our public schools the value of 

 training for efficiency. A radical change 

 in the curriculum, aimed at retaining the 

 interest of the pupil by showing him the 

 value of his education as a usable asset, 

 would tend to lengthen the term of school 

 life for both boys and girls and, in many 

 cases, would prolong it into and through 

 the university. 



In view of this lack of what may be 

 called vocational applications in school 

 training, it is not difficult to understand 

 the reason for the almost overwhelming 

 demand from persons engaged in business 

 pursuits for an opportunity to enter, how- 



