Decembek 15, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



831 



high-school work in preparation of gradu- 

 ation themes and debates may be used to 

 awaken interest among boys and girls in 

 current questions. It will be found that 

 high-school teachers are glad to divert their 

 students from the old stereotyped subjects 

 to live modern ones, when it is not too diffi- 

 cult to obtain reliable and timely infor- 

 mation. 



The wisdom of the establishment of a 

 municipal reference bureau as a imiversity 

 charge will not be questioned when it is 

 remembered that in a little over one hun- 

 dred years urban population in the United 

 States has increased from two per cent, of 

 the total population to nearly fifty per 

 cent. So rapid a growth as this must tax 

 the powers of the legislator to the utmost, 

 and is sure to be accompanied by an 

 amount of groping in the dark and experi- 

 mentation that may be disastrous. Large 

 cities can well afford to establish bureaus 

 of their own, manned with experts in 

 municipal government, but such a course 

 is absolutely impossible for the smaller 

 municipalities and rural districts. 



There is a general awakening to the need 

 for better urban government, and recog- 

 nition that this country is far behind many 

 foreign countries in city administration. 

 But it is seldom that the council of a town 

 or small city will Hake the trouble to gain 

 or even feels the need for information 

 regarding practises and results in other 

 places. 



A university offers exceptional facilities 

 for carrying on this work. Ordinances 

 collected and filed for reference, together 

 with data relating to their effectiveness as 

 working measures, will be conveniently 

 available through extension division chan- 

 nels.' And the same instrumentality will 

 connect the municipality with the service 

 in a purely advisory capacity of the uni- 

 versity specialist in such departments as 



sanitation, hygiene, street lighting or 

 paving, and all matters affecting the gen- 

 eral welfare of the people. 



Frequently, in great movements, much 

 effort is wasted in the creation of interest 

 and enthusiasm, which is not sustained be- 

 cause no agent is at hand to keep the im- 

 pulse alive until it is crystallized into per- 

 manent form. The crusade against tu- 

 berculosis, the schoolhouse social center 

 movement, and many other similar under- 

 takings of vital and far-reaching effect 

 upon large numbers, would be much more 

 surely advanced if controlled by such or- 

 ganization as belongs to university exten- 

 sion, than is possible under the ordinary 

 conditions of inertia or spasmodic attack, 

 which characterize the average community. 



The experiment of cooperation between 

 the Anti-tuberculosis Association and the 

 university has been tried with marked suc- 

 cess, and the social center movement is also 

 recognized as a suitable work for university 

 promotion. 



The bringing together in united interests 

 of groups, diversified in racial, political, 

 religious and social affiliations is a step 

 tending toward a more genuine democrat- 

 ization of the American people than has yet 

 been experienced in their life or their in- 

 stitutions. The use of the schoolhouse out 

 of school hours and of the public play- 

 grounds for the work and play of people of 

 all ages appeals strongly to the wide-awake 

 educator as an economical, sane and health- 

 ful measure, one that provides a remedy 

 for evils that exist both in urban and rural 

 communities. As an educational means, 

 it probably needs, for the present at least, 

 the fostering care of a strong organiza- 

 tion, quite as much as any other field of 

 extension endeavor. University extension 

 should find in this civic and social center 

 a suitable vehicle for its operations. 



The machinery of university extension 



