be subservient to the highest aim—and that highest aim is the development of right

character.

The second point I wish to make is this that we should train the pupils in our public schools in right habits of living and morality. Precept is not enough. The teachers in the public schools will have to solve the problem of how this is to be done. We must train the pupils, train them to speak the truth; train them to act justly; train them to obedience; train them to respect the law; train them in the simple elementary virtues that are the very foundation of society.

Now, how is that to be done? Members of the Council, I believe that the working out of a workable scheme of teaching the principles of morality, of laying the foundation for morality in the lives of the children in our public schools, would be the highest work that this Council could undertake!

I believe that the course of study should contribute its part to this end. I believe that the course in reading should contribute a part; I believe that the playground has a place in the work; I believe that the association of the children should have a part; I believe that the public has a part; I believe that the American home has a part. And, while I plead for the public school, I want the public school to do its full share, and at the same time we should never forget that the home must do its share, and the pulpit its share, and society its share. We must have less dogmatic, and more practical teaching. We must have fewer billboards in our cities that contaminate and inflame the minds of youths. We must do away with gambling dens in the rear of cigar stores. There must not be so many kindergartens of vice in this country, and there must be more agencies for the upbuilding of righteousness. And I believe, Mr. Chairman, that the public school teachers of our country should band together and work out this problem, as we would work not a course in literature or in nature-study, or in any other subject, and see if we cannot evolve a workable plan for the moral upbuilding of the children in our schools.

And I believe with the gentleman who has previously spoken, that after all has been said and done, that the personality of the teacher is the most important thing to be considered; that all the other things that I have mentioned are not to be compared with the influence of the teacher whose heart is in her work, and who sees in her child the image of God.

With that kind of teachers in the schoolrooms, the age of miracles is not yet past. She speaks to dumb lips and they break forth in song; she speaks to deaf ears, and they hear wonderful harmonies; she unfetters shackled hands and they perform deeds of mercy and kindness.

She, by her magnetic power, can even exorcise evil spirits, she can command the demon of stubbornness to come out, and it comes forth; she can rebuke the devil of lying, and it is gone. With such teachers in the schoolroom, the good in every child will blossom and bear fruit. She will be the idol and inspiration of the children. She will lure them to brighter worlds and point the way.

I wish to say, that while some of the children may not have the advantage of moral and cultured homes, while some of them do not have the Christianizing influence and uplift of the church, yet it should be the privilege of every American child to be taught by a noble Christian teacher.

J. L. MCBRIEN, state superintendent of public instruction, Lincoln, Neb.---Instruction in moral education must take into consideration that knowledge does not comprise all that is contained in the broad term Education. The feelings are to be disciplined, the passions restrained, true and worthy motives inspired; a profound religious sentiment must be instilled and pure morality inculcated under all circumstances. Let us, therefore, teach our pupils that integrity and industry are the best possessions that can ever come to young men and young women in this life. Teach them that obedience to established law is a typical American virtue, and that every true American will always lend a hand to the proper enforcement of the laws of the school-district, the city, the county, the state,

and the nation. Teach them the difference between the consent of the governed and the dissent of the ungovernable. Teach them that liberty is not license, and that a republic is not anarchy. Teach our boys that

every man who falls below his highest harms not only himself, but lowers the standard of his country; that every man who values wealth more than honesty, rank more than character, amusement more than improvement, ease more than reform, to that extent falls short of the perfect citizen.

Teach them that manhood means more than gold, and that the man who sells his vote and the man who buys the vote are equally undesirable citizens. Yes, teach them that such men are scoundrels, that they should be prosecuted as scoundrels and punished as scoundrels. Teach our girls that

every woman who abuses the freedom of American womanhood by unfaithfulness lends the powerful incitement of her personality to the slavery of the past and to the failure of the republic; that every woman who leaves the duty and decorum of her native land and prostitutes her American home to the scandals, the vices, the social immoralities and moral impurities of foreign cities, not only compasses her own shame, but mars the fair fame and name of all Columbia's daughters.

Teach our boys and girls that it will sometimes be hard to know what is best to do, and that the best thing to do will oftentimes be the hardest. Teach them that a life of ease means nothing done; that no labor, no sacrifice, no anxiety, means no burdens raised or carried. Teach them that those who do things must always meet responsibilities that never come to those who fail to see their obligations as doers. Teach them that grave problems come in the life of every individual as well as in the life of every nation; that they come without being sought, and cannot be avoided; that the person, the generation, the nation on whom these problems are forced must strive honestly and earnestly for their right solution. We must teach our boys and girls that

it is only by surpassing the world in all chivalry and dignity, in all modesty and purity, in the integrity of our business, in the virtue of our homes, in the rectitude of our intelligence, in the aspiration of our intellectual life under the absolute control of moral righteousness, that we can meet the responsibilities of American citizenship.

I. C. MCNEILL, superintendent of city schools, Memphis, Tenn.-It seems this morning as tho there is much for us to hope for in the moral education of the boys and girls of this great country of ours. I see, in the international movement that has recently been inaugurated, an opportunity for men and women to formulate some simple things that may be brought down to the boys and girls to cause them to follow moral ideals so that they may grow to be like them. The organization headed by our distinguished friend who read the paper a few moments ago has for one of its principal objects the assembling of certain simple, fundamental, ethical truths, that may be brought within the comprehension of boys and girls, so that they may realize them and, therefore, habitually act upon them.

Now, I have in mind, suggested by the presence of one man in this room, the teaching of ethics in a practical way in the Normal University of Illinois. The principal ethical teaching that has been handed down in that school from year to year is the multiplication rule, Kant's multiplication rule-"Make each act worthy to be a universal act." Professor Wilkinson, who sits here, could tell you that this is tested by the number of acts possible in the school. I hold in mind now the picture of the president of that school coming before the students one day with a simple illustration. That illustration went home to the hearts of every person there. The moral idea that seemed to impress students most as being of the highest value was this one thing-put the test of the universal to the individual act.

The author of the paper just read suggested another thing that has come into the experience of many. We have heard of "group psychology;" we have heard of 'mass psychology;" we have heard of "mob psychology." In some way we are now comprehending that there are masterful spirits whose wills dominate the group, and that

when we can put into the minds of the ones who are to lead the groups the right ideals, then the groups will become right also.

JOSEPH SWAIN, president of Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania.-I accept the doctrine of those who say that formal religion cannot be taught in our public schools, but I believe the things which are essential in religion should be taught at least by example by every true teacher everywhere. The finest fruit of religion is morality and high character. What the world needs now and ever will need is more men and women of high character. The question is how to secure them.

One way to secure them is thru the cultivation of the scientific spirit. This spirit assumes that there is such a thing as truth; that it is the duty of every human being to search out the truth; that he approach every problem with an open mind; that he be not satisfied short of the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and, knowing the truth, he adjusts his life to it. A greater gain to the world perhaps than all the gain of scientific knowledge is the growth of the scientific spirit, with its courage and serenity, its discipline of conscience, its intellectual morality and its habitual response to any disclosure of the truth. This spirit can be acquired in the study of any subject taught in the schools or in any of the relations of the life of the pupil, whether it be in the classroom or on the playground or elsewhere. I am confident that the process by which we ascertain the truth in science is the same by which we ascertain the truth in morals. Science says to those who love her: "Know the truth and follow it." What can morals say more? Moral truth is only one phase of truth. If our teaching is such that we inspire a love of truth and hatred of error, character will be cultivated, which is the goal to be reached. OLIVER S. WESTCOTT, principal of Robert A. Waller High School, Chicago, Ill.— The statement that example is vastly more powerful than precept will never lose its truth by persistent repetition. You lady teachers will have far less trouble in convincing the boys in your charge of the harmful effects of tobacco upon the human system when the principal will practice more self-denial and forsake the error of his ways. The boys know full well that even though the law says smoking on the school premises is strictly forbidden, the principal instead of lunch takes his quiet smoke in the schoolhouse basement. The same difficulty exists in inculcating the truth with regard to the use of alcoholic beverages. If the boys see a principal or male teacher stop at his favorite saloon daily on his way to school the precepts of all the lady teachers in the faculty will be unavailing.

The application of the Golden Rule, not a mere rehearsing of its form, the words and phrases of which are already familiar, will go far toward influencing youth in the direction of morality and uprightness.

The doctrine of meum and tuum, so well illustrated and elaborated by Dr. Harris in his description of the growth of the community, is also a fundamental element in moral education. The individual must be made to realize that he is but a unit of a whole and that he must be on his guard lest even inadvertently he may be trespassing upon the rights of his fellow-units. This doctrine, the Golden Rule, and a wider self-denial constitute a foundation of moral instruction on which a superstructure can more philosophically and successfully be raised than upon any compilation of moral precepts that ever has been or ever will be devised.

THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS OF TWO YEARS, 1905-1907

ELLA FLAGG YOUNG, PRINCIPAL, CHICAGO NORMAL SCHOOL The two years just ended present much that is suggestive of the present trend in education. To report all the material aright is in the nature of things impossible; for to report accurately is to interpret, to judge the intent, and to predict the outcome of events. Each one who stands before you, as the

years go by, with the report of educational progress makes some misinterpretations. Doubtless I shall pass judgments in which you will not concur, but I must give judgment on my own behoof.

So worked the predecessor! now, my turn.

The data for this report, collected from many sources, separate into two groups: one pertaining to people, the other to movements in social institutions. Altho when an individual plays a great part in the drama of life, it is a principle that is the mainspring of his activity, yet our interest centers about his personality. We ask, what was he or she as a man or woman among men and women while doing the great things? It is because of the personality of William Torrey Harris, but recently the commissioner of education, that we speak of him as "our Doctor Harris." Nevertheless, in reviewing the conditions under which he withdrew from active participation in the conduct of a public office, we can have no feeling of regret. Dr. Harris had spent a half-century in education, filling successively the positions of teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, superintendent, lecturer in philosophy, commissioner of education. In all of these positions he was distinguished, for the reason that in addition to meeting the demands of an executive office, he never failed to follow his chosen vocation. He has always been, and will continue to be, a teacher. No other man has encouraged so many men and women to resume the student life and take up the study of psychology and philosophy while pursuing their daily round of duties. This remarkable influence upon the teaching body of this country has been due to several causes. In the fifties and sixties of the nineteenth century, the universities in this country were doing little suggestive, original thinking. They had no such brilliant independent thinkers as are some of the professors in psychology and philosophy in the American colleges and universities of today. The people's professor of philosophy, Emerson, with his transcendentalism, ennobled the thinking of those who were just beginning to ponder on the questions of life; but transcendentalism was not a definite philosophy. It did not meet the demands of mature minds ready for a discussion of the ultimate problems of nature and of life. William T. Harris, a superintendent of schools, entering in the early sixties a practically clear field, introduced that fraction of the reading public to the philosophy of Hegel and Kant. Neither the clear field nor the knowledge of German philosophy, however, would alone have sufficed to arouse the teaching body of this country to an interest in philosophy. Superintendent Harris had the qualifications necessary to make conditions effective: an abiding interest in the intellectual, social, and religious advancement of humanity; alertness in detecting indications that a mind is striving to reach higher and broader levels of thought. While attending closely to the duties. of a public office, Dr. Harris has never been so much absorbed in them as to miss any opportunity to correspond or converse with anyone who directly or indirectly reveals an interest in the larger and deeper affairs of life. One's social station in life does not concern him. Mr. Brockmeyer was at the

forge in a blacksmith shop in St. Louis when the Harris-Brockmeyer friendship in philosophy began.

At about the, date of the forming of this friendship, Dr. Harris began the publication of the Journal of Speculative Philosophy. From that time to the present day he has never ceased publishing in philosophy and education; and his many friends are now looking forward with eagerness to the use that he will make of the happy leisure brought by his retirement.

Yet it is not only as an author, a teacher, and an inspirer of men and women that Dr. Harris has been active in the educational world. Forty years ago, in the famous reports issued by him as superintendent of the public schools of St. Louis, objections were foreseen to the organization of elementary and high schools on the plan of annual graduations, and the method of semiannual' promotions was introduced into the St. Louis schools. It is a sad reflection on the slowness with which the mind pedagogic grasps social conditions that one finds today the majority of superintendents and principals still clinging to the annual plan of promotion. An organization of schools which this philosophic mind saw should be made seems to minds of less breadth a troublesome matter of detail, which, by rules and regulations, can be forced for a time into the background. The result has been, of course, that the lack of interest on the part of children who have been absent a month or two months, or who have not been quite equal to the demands of the year's work, becomes apparent thru the large number of withdrawals from the schools-withdrawals made because the obligation to repeat a year's work is felt to be a waste of a large part of the year. This is far from being the only question in the organization of the school system discussed in these reports before it had surged into the public consciousness. No others, however, can be considered, or even mentioned specifically here.

In the Bureau of Education, we find the colossal work of seventeen years permanently recorded in the annual reports that have been prepared under Dr. Harris' direction as commissioner. They consider the educational conditions thruout the world; they recognize every form of institution that contributes to the education of men. These reports have also presented from time to time groups of essays which made plain the fundamentals in the great educational movements that have today become assured accomplishments. No other man has had Dr. Harris' opportunity to make such continuous additions to the theory of education and to the practical situation in a great system of city schools and in the country at large; he made those opportunities.

The history of the severance of his connection with the Department of Education must be briefly told. In May, 1906, Dr. Harris received the following letter from the president of the Carnegie Foundation:

CARNEGIE FOUNDATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION, MAY 26, 1906. William T. Harris, 1360 Fairmont Street, Washington, D. C.:

DEAR SIR: I am sending to your address a copy of the rules adopted by the trustees of the Carnegie Foundation for the granting of retiring allowances, together with a copy