Miscellaneous. 



258 



[March, 1912. 



old system would not meet existing 

 conditions which, for reasons of eco- 

 nomy, require a closer organization and 

 a fuller concentration of authority, we 

 should avoid so far as possible, the 

 dangers of bureaucracy in school ad- 

 ministration that are by no means un- 

 real. The injection of federal aid and 

 authority into local educational affairs 

 could but increase the dangers to educa- 

 tional freedom that always attend a 

 highly centralized administration ; and, 

 above all other considerations in import- 

 ance, such a policy is in the direction of 

 removing the citizen too far from his 

 direct reasonability, even through tax- 

 ation, for the maintenance of local insti- 

 tutions. 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 

 pedagogical 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 

 advance 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 read- 

 justment of the relations of government 

 to education which does not fully pre- 

 serve the autonomy of the states, and to 

 a reasonable degree of localities within 

 the states, in the administration of edu- 

 cational matters, would be repugnant 

 to the spirit of our institutions, and 

 a revolutionary and dangerous inno- 

 vation, 



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-recognized college 

 standards. This statement, regarded 

 by many as expressing an obvious truth, 

 is given prominence in this connection 

 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 accelerated momentum towards 

 agricultural activities, costly in time 



and money, that have only a remote 

 relation to the training of their students. 

 I refer to public addresses, farmers' 

 institutes, reading courses, demons- 

 tration work, railroad-train instruction, 

 fair exhibits, secondary education 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 character, 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 ad- 

 ministering the affairs of the colleges and 

 stations and of securing the funds neces- 

 sary for their development and main- 

 tenance regard extension work of vari- 

 ous kinds not only as rendering a real 

 public service, but as an efficient means 

 of securing the public favour that insures 

 generous support. It would be an 

 interesting problem, psychological, ethi- 

 cal or otherwise, to determine in what 

 proportions altruism and expediency 

 enter into the motives that lie behind 

 some of our agricultural propaganda. 



But, setting aside the question of 

 motives there is every justification for 

 declaring that in so far as these popular 

 efforts and secondary education with 

 the college, minimize academic efficiency 

 through the diversion or limitation of 

 fund9, through their absorption of the 

 time and energy of teachers or through 

 their reaction upon the atmosphere of 

 the college and its standards of instruc- 

 tion, in so far the lesser is usurping the 

 greater. It is fully recognized that this 

 assertion is antagonistic to the view 

 that extension work is a function of the 

 Agricultural College co-ordinate with, 

 and of equal importance with, the train- 

 ing of young men and women, to be 

 maintained on an equal footing as to 

 development and permanence, and it is 

 so meant. It may further be said that 

 because of the strong trend towards the 

 popularization of agricultural knowledge 

 both within the college and station 

 and without, because of the sweep and 

 strength of the agricultural extension 

 movement which is taking such diverse 

 forms and is so largely occuppying the 

 thought and energy of college and 

 station leaders, there has never been a 

 more critical period in the life of the 

 colleges and stations or a time in which 

 their efficiency for the accomplishment 

 of their primal and fundamental purpose 

 should be more carefully guarded. 



