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The custodians naturally feel that they are entitled to relief from the pinch of high prices. They believe they have waited in patience long enough. They want relief right now. They prefer it in the form of salaries for themselves figured on a 1917 basis, instead of on 1907 conditions, and release from their responsibility as subemployers. They would have the board of education hire the assistant janitors and take its own chances with the labor market.

Seemingly the school authorities have no objection to granting these requests. Indeed, the school director is quoted as pronouncing the custodians' demands fair and just and as reproaching himself for not having taken action sooner toward remedying the unjust conditions. It is said the desired relief will be provided immediately, perhaps before the next weekly meeting of the board.

But it is to be noticed that this prompt and substantial justice was not promised, that nothing whatever was done toward correcting the ten-year-old injustice, until the business agent of a labor union and a deputation of custodians threatened the school director with a strike likely to close many of the schools!

The school janitors are not the only public employees who are trying to live in 1917 on salaries that may or may not have been adequate in 1907. The pay of the teaching force, though somewhat increased in some cases, is admittedly inadequate. The same is true of city government employees, such as policemen and firemen, of federal employees, such as letter carriers and postal clerks, as of many classes of salaried workers in many kinds of public and private employ. In some instances wage increases more or less adequate have been granted, more or less voluntarily. But employers, whether public or private, have a great many increased costs to meet

without raising salaries until they are obliged to. Perhaps it may be stated as the rule that salaried persons in general are laboring under more or less economic injustice, resulting from world developments, which will not be corrected unless they force a correction--as by organizing a strike, like the school janitors.

To be sure, any who may feel unable or unwilling to get justice by getting up strikes are free to quit their jobs and go elsewhere. We are told that twenty-one patrolmen have resigned from the Cleveland force within a week, on the ground that they cannot live on their city pay and can do better somewhere else. Thus a police force notoriously small to begin with, and so greatly depleted by the army draft that the authorities are at their wits' end to find new material, is being rapidly stripped of experienced-and presumably exceptionally enterprising-men because the public fails to treat its employees justly unless they can force it to do so.

The public could-and should-set private employers a good example instead of a bad one, but it evidently will not do so unless people in general interest themselves in demanding equitable 1917 salaries for teachers, mail carriers, policemen, firemen and other public employees who are not entirely free to strike for their rights.

DAILY BIBLE READINGS FOR SCHOOL
AND HOME—(X)

13. THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN.
(Second Week in December.)

M. Joshua iii, 14-17; iv, 1-7, 13, 14; v, 13-15; vi, 12-16, 20; Zechariah iv, 6, 7. Crossing the Jordan and Capture of Jericho.

T. Joshua x, 1-15; Judges v, 13, 20, 21. Battle of Bethhoron.

W. Joshua xiv, 5-14; xv, 14-19; Psalms xviii, 30-35. Caleb, Israel's "Grand Old Man."

COUNTRY LIFE READERS. Third Book. By Cola Wilson Stewart. Richmond, Virginia: B. F. Johnson Publishing Company. Cloth. 285 pp.

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Mrs. Cora Wilson Stewart, Frankfort, Kentucky, president Kentucky Illiteracy Commission, founder of Moonlight Schools, through which thousands of adult illiterates have learned to read who else would never have had their eyes open to the information and inspiration of printed page, found it necessary to create School Readers especially adapted to her need in achieving their enlightenment, and this is the Third and last book of that series.

The former books have been primarily focused for frontier work in pioneering them into a new world. Nɔ books made for children were in any sense adapted to their needs. They had no interest in "I See a Cat," or "See My Doll," or "Little Boy Blue." Mrs. Stewart made books for men and women who read their first phrases and sentences. In so doing she revealed genius and developed mastery.

Now, in the Third Reader they have learned to read, and according to her vision, they need to be directed, lifted, ennobled into the life and thought of men and women who have been reading for years; and yet, what they read must be within their comprehension. There must be no trace of artificiality. It must be their real thought better expressed than they or their associates could state it. Literature is really the ennobling and glorifying of the thought of the reader. Nothing is literature to any reader who does not actually think the author's thought through his own life, but in a higher vocabulary and phrasing. That has been Mrs. Cora Wilson Stewart's vision in the making of this book. She gives these country folks, recently emancipated from illiteracy, something which they can think, which they want to think, but in the phrasing of men and women masters in literature. These country subjects are the Forest, Birds, Grasses, Insects, Farm Plants, Flowers, Fruits, Animals, The Farmer and his Wife, Thrift, Civics, and the Scriptures.

Among her writers for these country folk are: William Cullen Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, Keats, Irving, Emerson, Trowbridge, Washington, Samuel Smiles, Louisa M. Alcott, Ruskin, Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Hood, Edwin Markham, George P. Morris, John Burroughs, Mary Rogers Miller, James Lane Allen, Bolton Hall, Hamlin Garland, Liberty H. Bailey, Frank L. Stanton, David Felmley, Enoch A. Bryan, W. K. Tate, Ralph Connor, Paul Hamilton Hague, Wilbur D. Nesbit, and Henry W. Grady.

COLLEGE ALGEBRA. By Ernest Brown Skinner, University of Wisconsin. New York: The Macmillan Company. Cloth. 263 pp. Price, $1.50.

Of making Algebras there is no end and there will be no end as long as the work of modification and transformation of methods goes on.

The shortening of the time given to algebra in the secondary school, together with the great extension of the elective system and the consequent placing of mathematics in competition with a score of new subjects, has made a modification of the traditional college algebra absolutely

necessary.

Whether the colleges like it or not, they must recognize the fact that a large number of freshmen come to college with a single year of algebra, and that that year is of little help to the college teacher. The college teacher is obliged to exert every effort to make his work of interest to students. To this end the subject has been made more concrete, applications to the affairs of every-day life have been emphasized, processes have been made more direct, and the road to the mathematics of the sophomore year has been shortened.

This latest book introduces enough elementary material to meet the needs of students who have had the minimum training of the secondary schools, and at the same time recognizes the growth in mental capacity that normally takes place between the first year of the high school and the freshman year of the college. It emphasizes the immediately practical side of algebra by drawing freely upon geometry, physics, the theory of investment, and other branches of pure and applied science for illustrative examples. An amount of space greater than usual is devoted to the study of the functions which occur most frequently in practical work.

STANDARDS IN ENGLISH. A Course of Study in Oral and Written Composition for Elementary Schools. By John J. Mahoney, principal of State Normal School

at Lowell, Massachusetts. One of the School Efficiency Monographs. Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York: World Book Company. 198 pp. Price, 90 cents.

No course of study in English is likely to be permanently satisfactory to all teachers of English, but the best results will be attained when, one after another, teacher of English or group of teachers of English prepares a course of study in the subject and gives it a fair trial. There will always be a residuum of progress upon which others will build.

A few years ago a committee of teachers made an intensive study of the English work in the schools of a representative eastern city, as a result of which it was decided that the great need in elementary schools is a course of study in English which shall be definite in its aim, clear and simple in its requirements, carefully worked out grade by grade, and suggestive and economical as to its methods.

John J. Mahoney, assistant superintendent of schools in the city at the time, now principal of the State Normal School at Lowell, Massachusetts, undertook, with the hel of other educational experts, the making of a course which should fulfill these requirements. After he had completed his work, the course was tried out with notable success. This coursed study is that which eventuated from those experiments and demonstrations.

MY COUNTRY, MY CONGRESS. By John O. Yeiser, Omaha. Published by the National Magazine Company of Omaha.

Mr. Yeiser is one of the most interesting writers we know. He puts his facts graphically, as the following sentences will suggest :

"Germany and her associates have 140,000,000 people. The Allies combined have 1,000,000,000.

"Yet the Allies and their friends are panic-stricken over a suggestion that Germany may conquer them all and force a despicable military authority upon the world.

"How could this thousand million be conquered by a miserable handful of German madmen?

“Our thousand million people have 100 square miles of land to every one square mile of the enemy. Our soils, blessed with all climates, produce every known necessity of conflict, food and clothing. We have forests, minerals and oil-nothing is denied us by nature. With men and natural resources what is there but our own lack of efficiency that could hinder success? The only drawback is a banking monopoly of money.

"Give us a scientific money that will set the world to work and the German militia will vanish as did the yellow fever when we discovered the source of the scourge.

"Should this war last, as it will if we are not early victors, we should adjust our finances so as to put our combined millions to work among themselves and fill the granaries of the civilized world; turn out food and clothing and manufactured products in super-abundance and stop all panic from further fear of a crazy monarch."

THE HOUSE OF LANDELL. By Gertrude Capen Whitney, author of "Yet Speaketh He," "Roses from My Garden," "Above the Shame of Circumstance." etc. New York: R. F. Fenno & Company. Price, $1.35, net. The growth and development of the wonderfully beautiful soul of a woman is the chief theme of this unusual book. Supersensitive to spirit environment, the psychic forces that beset and sadden her are gradually subordinated to those of her Creator, and consequent poise, certainty and health follow naturally, Unselfish in motive as she is, the results of her experiences cause such selfcentredness that the human love growing in her heart is ignored until nearly the close of the book. The pretty love story of the brother takes him into the life of the Southland and brings a touch of lightness to the serious. philosophic characters who live in an old New England town among the hills. Each of the story people is a carefully wrought influence upon Agnes, each has his or her part to play, from the tiny little boy of obsessed and weakened mind. to the noble, but melancholy man, who finally makes of his despair, a power of good in the service of others. The control of the Creator of all, His allpower of good over the minds and hodies of His children are beautifully made the Power of our lives, no matter what the inheritance. environment or association with others may be. The dissolution of fear-mental and nhvsical: the power of reasoning that real religion in right thinking and living may give; all this and much more is

brought to bear upon each character and its influence for good made apparent and lasting.

"The House of Landell, or Follow and Find," is of unusual interest to thinking, religious, analytic or philosophical minds.

THE FIRST YEAR OF GREEK. By James Turney Allen, Ph.D. New York: The Macmillan Company. Price, $1.30.

The author is Associate Professor of Greek in the California University and has produced this book after a long experiment upon 300 students and a thorough test by five teachers in high school and college. For students of this age it is primarily intended and for the more mature mind which desires the study for only a year or two. Thus the content of the first year must be richer, the course more compressed, and opportunity given for the reading of the choice portions of Greek literature. With recitations three times a week the classes complete the work in a year; with five a shorter time would be required.

The book consists of two parts, followed by a vocabulary. Part I contains lessons and exercises; Part II, a grammar. The lessons commence with a numeral followed by a quotation to be committed to memory. Following these are grammatical references (to Part II), a Vocabulary, one or more selections for reading, and notes -all chosen with care and of intrinsic merit. There are also supplements which may be used for sight reading or additional lessons.

CLEMATIS. By Bertha B. and Ernest Cobb, authors of "Arlo." With illustrations by A. G. Cram and Willis Lewis. Boston: Riverdale Press, Brookline. Cloth.

"Arlo" is a beautiful school-story or story for schools and the same authors have written "Clematis," a charming story of a real-life little girl in a city, in an orphan's home, on a "Country Two Weeks," with a fidgety woman and a good natured man, ending with a glorious experience in being found by her grandfather, with whom she lived happy ever after. The real virtue of the story, aside from its being a good story, is the true-to-life interpretation of the good and not-quite good features neglectful city life, city police life, orphan's-home life, country-week philanthropy, and the lonely life of a good man alone in the world because his only daughter ran away and got married and had never been heard from.

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THE AGE OF FABLE. By Thomas Bulfinch. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company. 12mo. Sixteen illustrations. Price, $1, net.

Ever since it first appeared, Bulfinch's "Age of Fable" has been one of those indispensable desk books for the careful reader and writer. For this reason a compact and handy volume such as the present is doubly welcome. It is printed in clear type, on good paper, a trifle smaller than novel size, but including thirty-eight chapters, covering the Greek and Latin gods and heroes, and also Oriental mythology. And what a fund of rich legend and story these chapters suggest! Prometheus and Pandora, Midas, whose touch of gold was fatal, Venus and Adonis, Cupid and Psyche, the quest of the Golden Fleece, the labors of Hercules, Orpheus and Eurydice, the fall of Troy, the adventures of Ulysses, the wanderings of Æneas -all these and many more favorites of song, story, and picture are here. Beyond the inherent interest of subject, they are necessary to one's education, since succeeding literature is honeycombed with allusions to them. The Bulfinch version is itself a classic, and has undoubtedly done much to preserve and popularize these fables.

THE BOOK OF SEVEN WISHES. Written and illustrated by Gertrude Alice Kay. New York: Moffat, Yard & Co. Price, $1.50.

Every child-lover knows that wishing is one of their main occupations and pleasures. Miss Kay, who made such a hit in "When the Sandman Comes" because of her keen understanding of and sympathy with the children's viewpoint, presents in this new book a group of seven unique stories based on wishes which are bound to appeal to every normal child. Miss Kay's ability to illustrate her work is demonstrated still further in her attractive drawings in color and in line. The book is surely one of the most attractive children's books of the season.

TALES FROM THE ALHAMBRA. By Washington Irving. Adapted by Josephine V. Brower. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Price, 44 cents. For young people, these well known tales are charmingly told with an introduction by the author which causes the land of Spain to live again and describes the life of Irving in the palace of the Moors. There are six of these legends

with a pronouncing vocabulary at the close of the book. It is good material for reading, English or composition work.

TEN AMERICAN GIRLS FROM HISTORY. By Kate Dickinson Sweetser. Illustrated by George Alfred Williams. New York: Harper and Brothers. Price, $1.50/ Tales of heroism in many different fields, of American women who have served their country or their age. Miss Sweetser, who is also author of "Ten Boys from History," writes in a most charming style and makes these chapters of absorbing interest.

The characters treated herein are Pocahontas, Dorothy Quincy, Molly Pitcher, Virginia Reed Murphy, Elizabeth Van Lew, Ida Lewis, Clara Barton, Clara Morris, Louisa M. Alcott, and Anna Dickinson.

BOYHOOD DREAMS. By Joe Lee Davis, youngest poet in America. Published by J. L. Richardson & Co., Lexington, Ky. Paper. Price, 50 cents.

The author of these fifty-five rhymes is only twelve years of age and two of them he wrote when he was seven. They all have the boy-life flavor, as, for instance, "Daddy's Tales," "My Teddy Bear," "A Glimpse at Santa Claus," "When I'm Good," "Curly Locks," "My Two Chickens," "When Daddy Comes from Town,' "The Bright Side of School," "When I was Sick," "Playing Soldier," Recess at School," "When Daddy Goes to Work," "In the Nursery Nook," "My Pet Cat," "My Chum and I," and "The Best Time I Ever Had." The two written at seven years of age are: "The Bedtime March" and "After Supper."

THE SUPERINTENDENT'S GUIDE FOR 1918. By Harry Edwards Bartow. Philadelphia: American Sunday School Union. Price, 25 cents.

This pocket manual, bound in imitation leather, contains a complete list of lessons for the year, outlines of the books from which they are taken, maps, prayers and special features for special occasions. Each month is giver a seasonable order of service, conduct of the school and hints for the workers' meeting. The book is full of suggestions that will give new life to the school, and help many a superintendent with fresh inspiration and new ideas for development.

Mil

By Kenneth

"The Rural School Plant." By S. A. Challman. waukee: The Bruce Publishing Company. "The Permanent Values in Education." Richmond. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. "Scott's Quentin Durward." Edited by M. J. Herzberg. Price, 50c. New York: Charles E. Merrill Company. "The Greek Genius" (Essays). Edited by Lane Cooper. Price, $3.50. New York: Yale University Press. "The Book of Seven Wishes." By G. A. Kay. $1.50. New York: Moffat, Yard & Co. "Poets of the Democracy." By G. C. Martin. London: Headley Brothers.

"A Parent's Job." By C. N. Millard. ton: The Pilgrim Press.

Price,

Price, $1. Bos

"Self-Surveys by Colleges and Universities." By William H. Allen. "Self-Surveys by Teacher-Training Schools." By W. H. Allen and C. G. Pearse.-"Science for Beginners." By D. Fall. Price, $1.28.-"Poco a Poco." By G. Hall. Price, $1.-"Ein Anfangsbuch." By

L.

B. Crandon.-"Citizenship." By M. Bennion. Price, $1. Yonkers, N. Y.: World Book Company.

"Golden Numbers." Chosen by K. D. Wiggin and N. A. Smith. "The Posy Ring." Chosen by K. D. Wiggin and N. A. Smith. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. "The Man Without a Country." By E. E. Hale. delphia: Henry Altemus Company.

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OFFICERS.

C.

On November 16 there was held at the City Club a dinner in honor of Henry Whittemore, principal of the Framingham Normal School. Principal Arthur C. Boyden presided at that meeting, and, in behalf of those present, presented Mr. Whittemore with a solid silver loving cup, engraved as follows: "Greetings Henry Whittemore from Officials of the Board of Education, Normal School Principals, and the Whittemore Club, November 16, 1917."

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Commissioner of Education Payson Smith has just appointed an advisory committee of school superintendents to act with him in considering public education and war activities. The members are: Francis McSherry of Holyoke, John R. Fausey of West Springfield, Charles S. Clark of Somerville, John De Meyer of Abington, Clarence A. Dempsey of Haverhill and John S. Scully of Brockton. The purpose which Commissioner Smith has in view in this move is to hoid the public schools to a high standard of efficiency, to protect them from unwise inroads, and to draw from the war lessons of benefit to the schools.

Three immediate things call for careful consideration. One is the pressure for the introduction in the schools of campaigns for the raising of funds, or for the spreading of information regarding the undertakings of the government or various organizations doing work for the war :

or

"There are over ninety separate organizations doing war work of one kind or another aside from the government itself, which has more less work to be done through the schools. Then there are the various organizations which are strictly propagandist. If we allow one in the schools we must allow others, hence the necessity of some way of determining the wisdom of granting the privileges of schools."

The head of the state school system outlines the case when he says:

"The multiplicity of the organizations, both official and otherwise, that are now undertaking to serve the nation and that are calling upon the schools for their participation is confusing to school officers and may be demoralizing not only to the schools but to worthy enterprises as well. I desire that the schools shall at once perform their present duty to the nation and protect the interests of the children."

Commissioner Smith would have careful consideration given to the question of the withdrawal of students from school in order that they may actively participate in food production, food conservation, or other industrial matters. There will be willingness to aid in these campaigns, but such drafts need to be so managed that the educational loss will be minimized. A third important ques

tion "is the permanent modification of the school curriculum for the purposes of the better teaching of citizenship, physical education, and so on. The war has taught us that we have been deficient in our physical education, in the teaching of home economics and thrift, and that we must improve on them."

SOMERVILLE.

In the High School the sum of $10,000 was subscribed to the second Liberty Loan from among the teachers and pupils of the school. In one room twentynine bonds were taken. Many of the pupils have banded together to secure bonds and have presented them to the school.

The city recreation commission has appointed a social and civic worker. SPRINGFIELD. The Connecticut Valley Grammar Masters' Club last week elected M. E. Janes of Northampton president, Paul C. Scarborough of West Springfield, vicepresident, and A. C. Cotton of Westfield, secretary and treasurer.

RHODE ISLAND. PROVIDENCE. John L. Alger, principal of the State Normal School, is the new president of the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction.

Besides Mr. Alger, the other officers chosen are: Secretary, M. Davitt Carroll, Providence; assistant secretary, William G. Vinal, Providence; treasurer, Reuben F. Randall, Providence; assistant treasurers, William O. Holden, Pawtucket; Frederick H. Read, Oaklawn.

Vice-Presidents, Mrs. Eliza H. L. Barker, Tiverton; Sarah Dyer Barnes, Johnston; Susan S. Brayton, Providence; Joseph A. Butler, Warren; Dudley E. Campbell, Newport; Sarah E. Doyle, Providence; Herbert E. Drake, Providence; S. Francis Eddy, Pawtucket; John R. Ferguson, Providence; Elmer S. Hosmer, Pawtucket; John F. Deering, West Warwick; E. Louise King, Central Falls; William F. Miner, Warwick; Sumner Mowry, South Kingston; Julian L. Noyes, Cranston; Silas T. Nye, Westerly; Miner H. Paddock, Providence; Walter H. Tabor, Scituate; Ida Thomas, Providence; Charles F. Towne, Providence; Henry M. Waldradt, Coventry; George F. Weston, Johnston.

Directors: Emerson L. Adams, Central Falls; John H. Bailey, Jr., Bristol; William A. Brady, Narragansett; Leonard H. Campbell, Providence; Clarence A. Carr, Newport; Emma M. Caufield, Cumberland; Henry W. Clarke, Newport; Charlotte E. Deming, Providence; Charles E. Dennis, Jr., Providence; W. Washington Dove, Providence; Frank O. Draper, Pawtucket; William H. Eddy, Providence; Victor Frazee, Providence; Isabel C. French, Pawtucket; Eliza F. Gorman, Providence; Catherine E. Hanley, Burrillville; Harriet E. Hopkins, Pawtucket; E. Harrison Howard, Warwick; David W. Hoyt, Providence; Walter Ballou Jacobs, Providence; Ruth W. Kibbee, Cumberland; Nathan G. Kingsley, Providence; Herbert W. Lull, Newport; Alfred J. Marvott, East Providence; Clarence H. Manchester, Providence; Roy 1. McLaughlin, Providence; Lewis H. Meader, Providence; Joseph E. Mowry, Providence; Wendell A. Mowry, Woonsocket; William Overton, Central Falls; William T. Peck, Providence; Ida I. Phillips, Lincoln;

Mrs. Ella M. Pierce, Providence; Walter E. Ranger, Providence; John A. Shea, Pawtucket; Sidney A. Sherman, Providence; Frank A. Spratt, Providence; William S. Steere, Providence; Frank E. Thompson, Newport; Wallace M. Turner, Providence; Elmira E. Whiting, Pawtucket; Florence A. Williams, Providence; Mary Williams, Providence; Isaac O. Winslow, Providence; Herrick P. Young, Providence; Willard H. Bacon, Westerly; John K. Fenner, Cranston; Howard Edwards, Kingston; Mary V. Quirk, Warren.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES.

NEW YORK.

NEW YORK CITY. More than 400 Christmas cheer boxes consigned individually to the New York University boys in active military service in France have been packed by Chancellor Elmer Ellsworth

Brown's Christmas committee, consisting of wives of members of the faculty and a sub-committee of sixty. It was through this committee that a card index with names and addresses of as many of those in military service as could be unearthed resulted in a list of over 600 New York men in army, navy and allied government work, here and in France. There are over 200 in France, but so generous were donations to the Christmas cheer fund that each boy will now receive two boxes instead of one.

Under the caption, "The Public cleaning." the New York Sun said in Schools Need a Thorough Houseits leading editorial last Saturday:

schools are not now fulfilling the pur"It is apparent that the public The pupils get much instruction and pose for which they are maintained. cal political philosophies, and little encouragement in half digested raditraining in the three R's. They learn the technic of sabotage and disrespect this fall exhibited a familiarity with for authority. The striking pupils and expertness in the milder forms of disorder highly illuminative of their training; some achieved distinction in the more adof them, indeed, vanced branches of rioting that must have given great satisfaction to their tutors in this department.

It