Agricultural Finance & Co-operation 136 



[Auoust, 1910. 



conviction that the solution would 

 be found in the organisation of the 

 societies into local unions. Further ex- 

 perience has confirmed them in this 

 opinion, and they repeat it in the present 

 Resolution, adding that the ideal to aim 

 at is that the unions should not only 

 finance their own societies, but also 

 supervise them and encourage the fur- 

 ther growth of the movement in definite 

 areas. This is the view which com- 

 mends itself to Mr. Wolff, who observes 

 that " sooner or lat er unions should be 

 formed to take the conduct of affairs 

 into their own hands, and leave the 

 Registrars to carry out only their pro- 

 per official supervision within set limits." 

 The Government, it will be noted, do 

 not propose to issue orders on the re- 

 commendations of the Calcutta Con- 

 ference of November last, except as 

 regards the amendment of the Co-oper- 

 ative Credit Societies Act. The other 

 matters will be left to the discretion of 

 the Local Governments. In the new 



edition of People's Banks, " Mr. Wolff in 

 discussing the proceedings at the Con- 

 ference mildly censures the Government 

 for allowing the Registrars an inade- 

 quate staff to assist them in setting the 

 movement on foot, pinching at the 

 very point at which it might without 

 danger have practised a little generosity." 

 His aonclusions on some of the matters 

 he discusses may not meet with the 

 assent of all those who have been asso- 

 ciated with the initiation of co-operative 

 credit in India, but his wide knowledge 

 of the subject will command for him a 

 respectful hearing, especially as events 

 have shown that certain of his criticisms 

 of the Act of 1904 were well founded. In 

 a concluding chapter the writer laments 

 the absence of co-operative credit associ- 

 ations in England, although among the 

 peasantry of Ireland they have proved 

 a distinct success. A movement is now 

 on foot to make good the deficiency, and 

 if wisely directed, it should turn out to 

 be of great value to the community. 



EDUCATION. 



THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSO- 

 CIATION AT DENVER. 



(From the Experiment Station Record, 

 U. S. Department of Agrieulttire, 



Vol. XXL, No. 2, August, 1909.) 

 The programme of the recent Conven- 

 tion of the National Education Associa- 

 tion at Denver was remarkable for the 

 attention given to industrial education. 

 Nearly one-half of all the papers, 

 addresses, and reports presented at the 

 Convention dealt in some direct way 

 with one or more phases of industrial 

 education. So decidedly did thissubjeat 

 dominate all others in the papers and 

 discussions of the general sessions and 

 the different department meetings that 

 it shows clearly the almost universal 

 demand for the reorganization of public 

 sahool curricula along lines giving greater 

 emphasis to local industrial and domestic 

 affairs — agriculture, manual arts, and 

 home economics. It might also be said 

 that the desirability of introducing such 

 work as rapidly as possible into the 

 regular work of the public schools was 

 taken for granted, and that the pro- 

 blems troubliug those who attended the 

 Denver Convention related to methods, 

 administration and the training of 

 teachers. 



There was also considerable discussion 

 on the purpose and value of industrial 

 teaching, The purpose, it was quite 



generally agreed, is not so much to 

 uplift agriculture or manufacturing 

 business, as it is to 'raise the level and 

 increase the efficiency and happiness of 

 those engaged in these pursuits. This 

 was brought out by L. D. Harvey in his 

 presidential address, in which* he main- 

 tained that industrial education is much 

 more than education for skill in in- 

 dustrial processes. "Industrial educa- 

 tion," he said, *' has for its purpose the 

 acquiring of a body of usable knowledge 

 of greater or less extent related to in- 

 dustrial conditions, processes, organiza- 

 tion, and to the admiration of indus- 

 trial affairs, involving the gaining of 

 some skill in the use of such knowledge 

 and the securing of mental, aesthetic and 

 ethical training through the acquisition 

 and use of the knowledge indicated." 



This interpretation of the purpose of 

 industrial education was also adopted 

 by James W. Robertson, president of 

 Macdonald College, in his address on 

 " Education for the Improvement of 

 Rural Conditions." He maintained that 

 the purpose of education in rural schools 

 is not primarily to make a bigger steer 

 or a bigger ear of corn, but " to make a 

 better home for a better child." "The 

 whole idea of education," in his opinion, 

 "is to make the earth an ideal home for 

 the race," and this will not be accom- 

 plished by training for culture, the kind 

 of culture popularly defined by the words 



