Wind," "Mr. Rain," "Mr. Thunder," etc. Wind and rain are thus made to sing a lullaby, while the thunder's roar and the lightning's flash have no terrors. I do not believe that these children will continue to personify forces, but at present forces are real persons. Nor do I believe that we should go on holding blindly to the childhood traditions of Greeks and other peoples. Neither should these traditions be dismissed as foolish. The personality in them embodied tendencies and influences of a period of development. The interests of recent years are enabling us to retain the traditions and discern their real meaning by resolving the personalities into the forces which lay back of them and which they typify.

What has preceded in this paper can but give emphasis to its closing statements: the new in our system of education should include much that has been long established; and the so-called old finds new interest and added value from having regard for present life. Thus the new education and the old education tend to come together. There is much less of difference than is supposed between what has been termed "cultural education" and the education for which this department stands. We are, after all, dealing with the same fundamental problems, and as it would be lamentable for those promoting commercial education to cut themselves off from the influences of culture, so those fostering cultural education will find their task easier and more effective by increased regard for the conditions and requirements of the times in which we live. Much of the wine of our historic culture can and should be handed on in the new bottles of economic thought, and life.

THE WORK OF THE PRIVATE COMMERCIAL SCHOOLS, AS ILLUSTRATED IN THE EXHIBITS AT THE

ST. LOUIS EXPOSITION

CARL C. MARSHALL, AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER, CEDAR RAPIDS, IA.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:

My opportunities for observing and reporting accurately the exhibits of private commercial schools have been somewhat restricted, as I reached the Exposition but a few hours ago. Considering the fact that there are over sixteen hundred commercial schools in the United States, besides numerous commercial departments in seminaries, colleges, etc., it is very remarkable, and somewhat discouraging, to note that there are but a dozen or so of commercial schools represented in the exhibits of the Educational Building. It is gratifying, however, to me to be able to report that these exhibits are, as a whole, of an exceptionally high character. Perhaps I cannot perform a better service to those present than to indicate briefly the location and nature of these exhibits.

Commencing at the southwest corner of the Educational Building, we

have the unique and remarkable exhibit of the Brown's Business Colleges. These schools, sixteen in number, and located in various cities of Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, are represented by an active working school, fully equipped with the most modern appliances for business education; the pupils being instructed daily in public, by a corps of competent teachers. The branches include shorthand, typewriting, business arithmetic, bookkeeping, and penmanship. This exhibition attracts crowds of interested teachers during every hour of its continuance, and will well repay your careful consideration. In the same part of the building occupied by the Brown Schools are a number of special exhibits of business-school text-book publishers, and some private schools. Among the latter is a small, but very creditable, exhibit by the Salem Business College, of Salem, Mass., conducted by Mr. George P. Lord.

In Section 6 is a remarkable exhibit by the Jones Commercial College, of St. Louis. Bookkeeping, shorthand, typewriting, penmanship, and telegraphy are here illustrated, and some exceptionally fine examples of ornamental pendrawing. Among the latter is a reproduction of a well-known painting, "The Crucifixion," which is said to be the largest drawing of its class in the world. This work was executed by Mr. S. M. Falder, of the Jones Commercial College. Another small, but creditable, exhibit is that of the Spencerian Business College, of Louisville, Ky., illustrating school work in type-writing, shorthand, penmanship, and bookkeeping. In the Kentucky section is another excellent exhibit by the Bowling Green Business College. In this collection may be seen some very fine ornamental penmanship.

Other creditable exhibits which may be seen in the respective state sections are those of the St. Mary's Academy, Sturgis, S. D.; Harris Business College, Jackson, Miss.; the Albany Business College, Albany, N. Y.; the Henley Business School, Syracuse, N. Y.; and the Spencerian Business College, Cleveland, O. In the exhibit of the Albany Business College are some fine pen-drawings, the most notable being copies of Rose Bonheur's "Horse Fair," and the "Chariot Race from Ben Hur." A very notable exhibit, from the educational point of view, is to be found in the Iowa section, organized by Mr. A. N. Palmer, and representing the penmanship work done in a large number of the grade schools that are using Mr. Palmer's system of muscular writing. This exhibit appears to be the only one of its class in the Educational Building, and shows, in a convincing way, what may be accomplished in elementary schools by teaching penmanship rationally.

I wish to call your attention particularly to the extensive use of photography in the business-school exhibits. By this method the work of the classroom may be shown, and a very realistic idea of the actual equipment of the school may be obtained.

Altho I am not conversant with the work that has been exhibited by business schools in former expositions, I am reliably informed that the exhibits at the present Exposition far exceed, both in quantity and merit, those of any

previous one; and that the schools, few in number tho they be, that have shown the enterprise to place such exhibits in the Educational Building deserve the highest commendation from all who are interested in the progress of business education.

DISCUSSION

ROBERT C. SPENCER, president Spencerian Business College, Milwaukee, Wis.—All the interests of life are reciprocal; and whatever is reciprocal and social is commercial. We are approaching a recognition of this broad principle in human life. I congratulate the age on the extension of commercial education into the public schools—a movement instituted by the pioneers and founders of the private schools of America. When an analysis shall be made of educational forces, we shall find that high honors are due these men. Cordial relationship should exist between the private commercial schools and commercial high schools.

GEORGE W. BROWN, Jacksonville, Ill., expressed himself as both surprised and gratified at the interest shown by the general public in his model school exhibit. He has a brief program presented each hour, which takes about twenty minutes. The work is necessarily somewhat superficial, but it is illustrative. At the beginning of each lesson there are often but a few people present, but before the end, the pavilion is generally full.

Mr. Brown extended a cordial invitation to those present to inspect the school, and closed by mentioning the several firms whose co-operation had made the exhibition interesting and valuable.

PELEG R. WALKER, superintendent of schools, Rockford, Ill.-The interest in commercial work has been steadily gaining. Beginning with the introduction of bookkeeping some five or six years ago, other subjects have been added in the schools under my control, until now the commercial department is well defined and business men are asking for graduates from that department.

EDMUND J. JAMES, president of Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.-When I was preparing for college I became acquainted with a young man who was very much interested in commercial subjects, and I absorbed some of his ideas; so much so that I took commercial education as the subject of my graduation thesis. The principal expressed himself as very much disappointed that a pupil who had been so carefully prepared in the classics should take such a subject, and as a result of this pressure I gave up the subject of my choice and took instead "The Scholar in Politics." But later I have drawn some of my thunder from that early essay which marked the beginning of my interest in commercial education.

This, like many of the valuable things in education, has come to us from the outside. The community at large was making demands which the private schools were trying to supply. The public schools would not consider the matter, and when I first began to appeal for recognition for commercial work, it was with little success. But now all this is changed. We are face to face with a crisis. We have won the public. Everybody says: "What shall we do, and how shall we do it ?" I am not so ready to answer that question as I was ten years ago, but there are some things we can agree upon.

The work must be practical enough to meet the requirements of business men; it should be disciplinary enough to enable the student to take up the broader training of the college, for the colleges are beginning to recognize the value of the commercial subjects.

We are making text-books, and the first text-books will probably not be successful. Those of you who remember such books as Steele's Fourteen Weeks in Physics, and compare it with the splendid text-books we now have, will realize the advancement we have made in the matter of text-books; and yet these were valuable books in their day, and I

imagine that the first text-books in commercial subjects will be as immature as the Fourteen Weeks in Science.

But there is no reason why we should not get out of the preliminary stages. The future is assured, if we can solve the problems of the present.

THE RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES, AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION

MISS MINNIE BRONSON, SUPERINTENDENT OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY
EDUCATION AT THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION,
ST. LOUIS, MO.

It would be an easy matter, tho perhaps a little tedious, to enumerate all the thousands of resources here presented by the United States, and to show you where they are exhibited; but I cannot insult your intelligence by telling you that our exhibit in cereals, cotton and tobacco will be found in the Agricultural Palace, or that the pomological exhibit contains plums, pears, peaches, cherries, and grapes. Neither can I question the efficiency of our bureau of exploitation by assuming that you are any more ignorant than I of what is here or where it is to be found.

The problem of exhibiting the resources of any country is a difficult one, for the resources of a country are not all natural or industrial; there are also social and economic resources. The former lend themselves readily to exposition work. In fact, until this time expositions have been chiefly a comparative display of commercial products, significant only of material progress, illustrative only of the ways in which money may be earned and spent. Any exposition is necessarily something of an advertising medium. It is the outgrowth of the old week's end market in the country village, where in a vacant lot stalls were erected for a display of the various products of the country around. The potatoes and other vegetables of the farm occupied one tier of stalls; the chickens and ducks, another. The knitting and needlework of the farm women were displayed for sale or emulation.

From these small beginnings, up thru the county fair and national display, developed the great international competition, conceived of fifty odd years ago by Prince Albert, which had for its object the bringing together of men and things, whereby it was held that they would reveal the chief industrial and scientific gains made thruout the world, and would enable men of action and friends of progress everywhere to understand one another better than mere correspondence or the reciprocal notoriety of their achievements could render possible. From that time and little by little the true character of expositions has been modified. The effort has been constantly to give these exhibitions a form less badly material. Gradually it was deemed inadequate and unreasonable merely to heap together masses of people and things, and it became the aim of exposition organizers to display ideas rather than things. These gatherings nevertheless continue to compose their chief display of the natural

resources, and the implements and materials used in the practice and support of the industries of the world. The reason is readily found in the difficulty of displaying what may be termed the social and economic resources of the country, and no nation is adequately represented which does not supplement its material display by revealing the sources of its progress or the causes of its failures.

For example, to the St. Louis Exposition have come the nations of the world, bearing the fruits of their soil and the products of their manufactories. These nations do not differ materially in the character of their exhibits or the effectiveness of their displays. If there is a difference, it is due chiefly to the amount of money appropriated by their various governments. Yet these countries are not equal either in productiveness or effective life, and in so much is the story of the Exposition untrue.

The nations of the globe are rich or poor in natural resources. One country needs but a turn of the plow to produce a harvest, while another was won from the sea foot by foot with great toil and fighting. To these soils came a people, in one case a lazy, indolent, or inferior race, which was content to take the bread that nature so abundantly furnished; in the other, a sturdy, intelligent, enduring man, capable of making the desert to bloom. It is apparent that the richest resources are insufficient to place a nation in the van of progress. On the other hand, a sturdy and independent race hampered by an inhospitable climate and an impoverished soil will likewise fail to achieve the highest national ideals. But there are still other forces which determine the effectiveness of nations and influence production. In my mind is the picture of a land of fair delight, its soil the richest in the world, its mountains abounding in valuable minerals deposits, and its sparkling streams carrying fertility to every foot of its broad domain. The perpetual sun and equable cl mate make this the garden of the gods. Its people are strong mentally and physically. It has given to the world the best in poetry and song, in art and science. Its sculptures adorn our palaces, and its music enchants our ears; but a continual warfare between church and state has stifled the spirit of progress, destroyed its ambition, and put it out of the race for supremacy.

This, then, is the problem of an exposition: How can it adequately represent those forces which have made nations powerful, or those which have proved their undoing? What are the resources of a country natural and social, and how are they made effective?

Upon America more than any other country are the eyes of the world centered as to the focus of contemporary life. We are ruling in men's thoughts as no other nation of the world. What has won for us our rank and influence? We are a youthful people; we possess but little art of our own, and but little history. What is the source of our extraordinary development? We have proved, by the implacable logic of our conceptions and acts, that we possess a practical spirit. What are our resources, physical and social, which have produced this spirit? These are the questions which the nations of the world are asking, and in the hope that a comparison might be produced which