management. Every school board, by virtue of its independent organization, is concerned about the promotion of the special interests of its own institution and consequently overlooks the interests of other institutions which are probably as meritorious and essential as their own. The public school system of Alabama, in other words, is an incoherent patchwork, lacking co-ordination and co-operation. In order to guarantee permanent improvement, serious and exhaustive study must be made and the best genius in America should be set to work upon the problem. It would be better not to approach the undertaking at all unless those who do so are brave enough, big enough and unselfish enough to inspire confidence, to lose sight of themselves and all personalities, and to forestall the selfish activities of those who may not be patriotic enough to rise above their own environment and connection.

For such a program as this you should authorize the appointment of a special commission to conduct the investigation and to make such recommendations covering our entire scheme of public education as will put it within your power, when you reconvene after recess, to give to Alabama a complete, well-rounded, unified, and efficient school system, modern, democratic and progressive. Such a commission composed of men of highest calibre and integrity and serving without pay should be able to call to its assistance the best experts to be found in the several lines of school work in which the State engages, or should engage. The members of the commission and the experts chosen by them should have full authority to inspect all records, visit all schools and require testimony under oath from any and all persons. The members of the commission should be allowed their traveling expenses and should have such clerical assistance and equipment as will enable them to do their work efficiently and with dispatch.

The above, in my opinion, is Alabama's most needed educational undertaking. It is entirely possible that a complete reorganization of our whole system of education might be found to be necessary. Whatever the conclusion may be, the effect will be not only to inspire the confidence of the public in our schools and their machinery, to quiet the periodic unrest of the present, but also to guarantee a unity of purpose and interest that will make Alabama go forward in a way that will promote her best interests at home and at the same time challenge the admiration of the whole country. I recommend, therefore, that authority be given for the appointment of a commission to conduct the study contemplated, and that so much of an appropriation of $10,000 as may be needed be authorized from the general education fund to cover the expenses incident thereto.

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

The Smith-Hughes law for the promotion of vocational education and making appropriations for the use of the states, became a law on February 23, 1917. The specific purpose of the law is to encourage, to stimulate, and to co-operate with the states in the introduction of a practical kind of education which has hitherto been almost neglected, especially in the South. The appropriations made available for the states comprehend the following funds:

1. For the teaching, supervision and direction of agricultural subjects.

2. For the teaching of trade, home economics, and industrial subjects.

3. For the training of teachers of agricultural, trade, home economics and industrial subjects.

Each fund amounts to a little more than a half million dollars for the current year and increases annually for ten years, when a maximum continuing appropriation is reached. The fund for agricultural education is apportioned on the basis of rural population; that of trade, home economics, and industrial subjects on the basis of urban population, and that for the preparation of teachers on the total population.

For the supervision of vocational education within the State a State board must be provided. This board is charged with the responsibility of making plans for the work within the State in accordance with the terms of the Federal Act, and in a way that is adapted to meet the vocational needs of the State, in the light of its resources and possibilities. The administrative responsibilities reserved to the states are such as to safeguard the autonomy of the State in the management of its educational affairs. In order that the State board may perform its task, it is necessary that it have at its command the necessary fund to supplement in equal amount the Federal fund, including a sufficient amount to provide expert assistants, qualified to promote and supervise the work to be undertaken in the several vocational fields.

By January 1, 1918, every state in the Union had qualified for the conduct of a part, or all of the several lines of work authorized under the Federal law. Alabama was one of the six that could make only a tentative beginning because no session of the Legislature was to convene to pass the enabling act and to make the necessary appropriations. Since the Legislature, by the terms of the Federal law, must definitely accept the benefits of the Smith-Hughes statute within sixty days, it becomes necessary to make the appropriation promptly if a program of vocational education is to be undertaken in Alabama with outside aid.

After a somewhat careful examination of the Smith-Hughes law and its final adaptability to Alabama, I am convinced that you should pass an act creating a State Board for Vocational Education and matching the Federal fund, dollar for dollar, at the earliest possible moment, in order that the State may not lose the benefits that have come to it in this field of education, much needed, though hardly touched in Alabama. The other states in the Union are receiving such benefits from the Federal Treasury and Alabama should not be discriminated against.

Since the State must prepare its plan each year in order to meet the growing needs and opportunities for vocational education and in order to expand its program in keeping with the increased revenue available from the Federal Treasury, the danger of Federal interference is negligible. I would recommend, however, that the Alabama law be so worded as to make it possible to use any funds appropriated by the State for vocational education independently, so that if it should ever appear unwise to co-operate with the Government it will be entirely possible for the State to carry on its own program with the funds at its disposal.

The need for vocational education will appear upon the most casual reflection. General education properly directed and controlled is for the promotion of general intelligence. Vocational education, on the other hand, is designed to make an intelligent producer either of commodities or of service. The high schools have hitherto centered their program upon the preparation for admission to institutions of higher learning and this phase of education should be conducted without relaxation. However, the work of the schools must be broadened so as to care for the preparation of that ever larger group of boys and girls who do not enter institutions of higher learning, but who go directly into employment. According to the report of the United States Commissioner of Education for 1917, the total school enrollment for the country was 21,958,836, distributed substantially as follows: In elementary schools..

In secondary schools.

In institutions of higher learning

91 per cent

7 per cent 2 per cent

During the year 1915, the records show that more than twofifths of the youths of the country between fifteen and seventeen years of age were not in school, and it has been further demonstrated that approximately one-half of the children of the country finish only the fifth grade and not more than one person out of twelve who enter the elementary school completes the high school course. In Alabama, it is said, school attendance begins a precipitate decline at the end of the fourth grade and at the age of fourteen years. Since intelligence is necessary in performing the duties of citizenship and since the majority of the girls and

boys in Alabama do not get the education that attracts them, or that prepares them for their life work when they leave the school, something must be done to remedy the deficiency. To state it correctly, our school system needs to become more democratic by strengthening and improving the general line of intelligence. which it is already pursuing and also adding the practical kind of education adapted to the needs of boys and girls who are not going to college, but will enter upon employment.

The need of vocational education in Alabama has been peculiarly emphasized by the war. In every field of service there has been a constant, insistent, and almost pathetic call for men trained in every species of technique, and almost without exception the deficiency of trained men in the South and the importation of skilled men from other sections of the country to carry on the work in our midst have been most patent. One instance will suffice. No braver men engaged in the war than those of the Fourth Alabama. Their heroism is proverbial, their achievements unsurpassed, and yet when the Signal Corps was to be organized, not a man among them was qualified to undertake the work and an outsider was put in charge.

The most crying need for vocational education in Alabama, however, grows out of our agricultural situation. Alabama can boast of every variety of soil that can be found on the globe and every crop known to the Temperate Zone can be grown here. We have an abundance of rainfall and the growing season is sufficiently long to make possible two or three crops. The value of leading crops in Alabama totaled $379,000,000 last year and the entire production of our crops totaled $500,000,000.

As fabulous as these amounts appear they are small when compared with our possibilities. According to the report of the Secretary of the Interior, there are fourteen million acres of land in Alabama, or slightly more than are already in cultivation, awaiting to be utilized. It is a more painful fact, however, that the fourteen million acres already in cultivation are yielding not more than one-tenth to one-third of what they might justly be expected to produce if scientific methods were followed.

The average yield of corn last year was slightly less than fifteen bushels per acre, despite the fact that by the employment of intensive and scientific principles more than two hundrd bushels have been raised on a single acre. The average yield of cotton was less than one-third of a bale to the acre, though from one to two bales might be reasonably expected if the best methods were used. The appearance of the boll weevil, the necessity of diversified crops which followed, the introduction of blooded stock and swine, indicate in a crude way something of the possibilities for Alabama when the eighty per cent of the people who live in rural districts are trained for the lives they are to lead.

What is true of agriculture is literally true in the case of mineral resources in which Alabama has been as richly favored by Providence as any country in the world. The discovery and development of these resources read like romance, but loyal Alabamians cannot overlook the fact that the greatest returns from all this native wealth have come very largely to those who lived elsewhere, and that the high-salaried men who directed these achievements have for the most part come from other sections of the country.

The value of the coal mined in Alabama last year was $25,000,000 and the derived products brought the total up to $40,000,000. The iron ore mined during the same period was $11,000,000 and the derived products, mostly pig iron, brought this total up to $50,000,000. This grand total is almost trivial when compared to the possibilities yet ahead. One of the most striking examples is the graphite industry, which ten years ago was practically unknown, but today finds approximately forty mines in Clay county alone, with investments aggregating more than $4,000,000.

As extraordinary as are the agricultural and mineral resources of the State they do not tell the whole story. Muscle Shoals has been aptly called the Niagara of the South and its possibilities for power development surpass all others east of the Mississippi, Niagara alone excepted. When it is remembered that a considerable part of the power development of Niagara has been reserved by international agreement for its scenic beauty and that more than one-half of its available power belongs to the Canadian Government, and when it is further noted that Niagara has achived its greatness despite the fact that it is situated in territory that does not begin to compare with Muscle Shoals either in the variety or abundance of its natural products, the economic value of Muscle Shoals becomes apparent and the need for vocational education unquestionable.

The argument might be drawn out indefinitely, but I do not see how it is possible to escape the conclusion that vocational education must be provided to supplement the work the schools are already doing, that we have help available from our Government for carrying on the enterprise, and that it is our duty to take advantage of it by passing the requisite legislation, carrying with it the necessary appropriations to match the Federal funds.

EXTENSION WORK IN AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS

Under the provisions of the Smith-Lever Act of Congress, Federal funds are provided for co-operative extension work in Agriculture and Home Economics. These Federal funds are conditioned on State support, on the basis of dollar for dollar, except as to the first $10,000 of the Federal fund. The present appropri