IN MEMORIAM

A. WARREN EASTON

JAMES B. ASWELL, PRESIDENT, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL,
NATCHITOCHES, LA.

During twenty-five years, Warren Easton was absent but once or twice from the annual meetings of this Department of Superintendence. His place is now vacant and his voice is silent forever.

It is, then, proper and beautiful that this great gathering of the school men of the nation should pause a moment in its considerations of the practical educational problems of the day, to do honor to the memory of one who did well his part in the rich constructive educational period of this vast region of our southern country. It was a time when the South was bringing to the republic its own contributions of youthful spirit, purposeful effort, courage, and confidence, which have resulted in a new era of educational endeavor and adequate adjustment.

Warren Easton, who passed out of this life on October 17, 1910, was an actor in this period of educational opportunity and achievement. He was born in 1848, in the city of New Orleans, was educated at the state university, was a successful teacher in the public schools, state superintendent of public education in Louisiana, leader in the establishment of the State Normal School, organizer of the Louisiana state institutes and summer schools, for twenty-two years the trusted and beloved superintendent of schools in the city of New Orleans, once president, and, for a quarter of a century, an honored member of this body.

He was a teacher in the turbulent days of the Reconstruction in the early 70's, and so well was his skill as a disciplinarian recognized that he was moved from school to school to straighten out difficult situations. He believed and demonstrated that a group of apparently incorrigible boys can be controlled, inspired, civilized, under the influence of music. He was the first to advocate publicly and introduce the teaching of singing and drawing in the public schools of his native city. Hundreds of prominent men in New Orleans today speak tenderly of Warren Easton because he led them and compelled them as boys to obey. I have yet to meet a former pupil of his who does not love him and who does not say, "I am Easton's friend because he helped me when I was a boy"-and after all, this is the test and the finest asset of a teacher's life.

As superintendent, beginning with little money and an uncertain public sentiment for public education, he advanced the New Orleans schools with amazing rapidity. He increased the public funds to more than a million dollars, doubled the efficiency of the schools at every point, and established them firmly in the confidence of all the people of his city.

Easton had a princely bearing-he was always immaculately dressed, courteous, cordial, jolly. He had faith in his people and in his work-he

believed he had the best schools in all the world. He knew his eight hundred teachers personally, could call them by name, and locate the school and grade of each. It was his good-fellowship, his diplomacy, and his buoyant hopefulness that made his co-workers love him. The children liked to meet him.

To be elected six times to the chief executive school position, and hold it for twenty-two years, in a great, growing, progressive city like New Orleans, is within itself not a matter of small consideration in estimating the life of an individual. It is an achievement worthy of a man.

Warren Easton gave forty years of active, continuous service to the public schools, and he was never ashamed to be called a teacher. He joined every movement to promote the cause to which he had early consecrated his life, and few men rejoiced more in the educational advancement of our people. His devotion to this Department of Superintendence, his keen interest in educational affairs generally, and his long rich experience gave him a progressive conservatism of great value to the school forces of the country, and reveal today characteristics that give his life a high place in this memorial service.

But the quality in Easton's life that will perpetuate his memory was his unusual ability to hold his friends. To be once a friend of Easton was to be always Easton's friend. His friends never deserted him. He was largehearted and loyal-his friends knew him, trusted him, and depended upon him.

This, then, is the life we honor today, and it emphasizes the fact that in real achievement of permanent value a man may become a great leader in the nation's life as well by service to childhood as by subtlety in argument, shrewdness in business, or courage in war. It renews our hopes and gives us strength to be unafraid in consecrating ourselves anew to the sacred task of opening the way and directing the youth of this land to a wide and liberal future of service to country and to humanity.

B. WILLIAM WALLACE STETSON

PAYSON SMITH, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS,
AUGUSTA, ME.

After a lingering illness of many months William Wallace Stetson died at his home in Auburn, Me., July 2, 1910. Mr. Stetson was born in Greene, Me., June 17, 1847, and spent his boyhood in the wholesome environment of a New England farming town, attending the district school near his father's farm and later Monmouth Academy and Edward Little Institute. He began his work as a teacher, as so many of our great educational leaders have done, in the district schools, teaching his first school at the age of fifteen. In 1868 he went to Illinois, where, after attend

ing Monmouth College, he taught in district, high, and normal schools and began his experience as superintendent of schools. In 1884 Mr. Stetson returned to his native state where he was to render the notable educational service that was to win for him a far more than local reputation.

Upon returning to Maine he became principal of the Webster Grammar School of Auburn and later superintendent of schools of that city. He served as superintendent of schools of Auburn for ten years, during which his great executive ability, his broad grasp of school problems, and his intuitive skill in devising methods of teaching won increasing recognition, so that his promotion in 1895 to the chief educational office in his state came as a ready and natural consequence.

Mr. Stetson held the office of state superintendent of public schools of Maine for a period of twelve years, the longest term with one exception enjoyed by an incumbent of that office in the history of the state.

Several important educational reforms were instituted during his administration of this office. Among the more important may be named the abolition of the district system with the adoption of the present township system, a provision for the consolidation of schools and the conveyance of pupils, the adoption of the free-textbook system, the extension of freetuition privileges in secondary schools to all pupils of the state, the state certification of teachers, and the adoption of a plan of union supervision which is designed to extend the advantages of expert direction to the schools of all towns.

The Maine School Reports prepared by Mr. Stetson were among the most widely circulated and most generally quoted educational documents of the decade during which they appeared. His terse, graphic style serves to command ready attention to the clearly developed conclusions of his educational philosophy. This style, appearing not only in his written reports, but dominating likewise his expression in speech, won for him. a cordial welcome on the public platform, and his services as a lecturer on educational topics were constantly in demand. His skill as a speaker made him a powerful advocate of any cause in which he might enlist while his progressive ideals found him readily sympathetic toward any forward movement. As a result he gave generously of his time, strength, and abilities to the promotion of advanced educational plans both of his own and other states.

While Mr. Stetson held foremost his work for the public schools, he was likewise always to be found in the forefront of any movement affecting the welfare of the community in which he lived or of the state of which he was a citizen. Service was the keynote of his life and the opportunity to serve was the goal of his ambition.

Recognition of Mr. Stetson's broader educational activities is to be found in the record of his connection with such organizations as the New England Superintendents' Association, the American Institute of Instruc

tion, and the National Education Association. He served as president. of the first two and of the Department of Superintendence of the last. Mr. Stetson received the degrees of A.M. and LL.D. from Colby College, Maine, and the degree of LL.D. from Monmouth College, Illinois.

In this brief outline of the life and activities of Mr. Stetson one touches only upon his larger public acts and services. To those whose privilege it was to know him there remain the tender memories of a large, wholesouled man who loved to open his heart to friends, who found his greatest joy in the opportunity to share another's burden or to lighten another's toilsome way, and looked always for those deeds and words of other men by which he might justify his own broad and generous faith in human kind. In his passing many men and women in many walks of life feel the loss which is beyond recompense-the loss of a frank, courageous, heart-lifting, sympathetic friend. At no time did Mr. Stetson show more clearly the beautiful characteristics that dominated his whole life than in the months when, wasted and weakened by disease, he awaited the last summons. The philosophy of service which had guided his public career and his private relationships endured to the end, and even in the last days no friend left his presence who did not feel that he had himself received the strength and the blessing of the interview.

It was in these last days that Mr. Stetson wrote a greeting to his friends a greeting which was to be likewise his farewell. In this is the essence of his philosophy of life. In the "Joy of Serving," which is quoted in conclusion, he delineated an ideal which, tho high, he attained, and which he leaves, with the manifold words and deeds of a richly abundant life, to be at once the consolation and the continued inspiration of those who miss his kindly presence.

THE JOY OF SERVING

Souls grow lean if they think much of self or the recompense they should receive for exhibitions of concern for others. They are victims of a poverty no riches can relieve or conceal. They are barred from those sanctuaries where the heart sings the songs of peace. As the days loiter to their close they discover life is a sleepless torture. They refuse to learn it is not what you have that makes for happiness þut the sacrifices made and forgotten that bring joys which abide. Life yields the largest dividends when you serve as spontaneously as you breathe and with as little aftermath of reflection. Then you will walk with those who travel in lonely paths, place a lifting hand beneath wearying burdens, give unregretted dollars to carry sunshine into shadowed lives, dispense home-brewed hospitalities, and nerve the elect with your hail and God-speed. Such service will tint the dawn when your lovers are legion, shed around you "the light that never was on sea or land," sing anthems in the chancel of your soul, and let you whisper, as the canvas of the Lord slips down the west,

"I hope to see my Pilot face to face

When I have crossed the bar."

TOPIC: THE PRESENT STATUS OF EDUCATION IN AMERICA A. IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

ELLA FLAGG YOUNG, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, CHICAGO, ILL.

[Stenographic Report]

The subject before us may be viewed from several different standpoints, at several different angles. Upon first thought, in considering the present status of elementary education, one would look to the statistical side, seeking for the advance in the number of those who are being educated in the elementary schools today, in comparison with the number ten years ago. The figures for 1910 are not ready, and when they are presented in the admirable report which our Commissioner of Education sends out to us, it will be much more satisfactory to study statistics from the printed page than to attempt to take them in rapidly thru the ear.

One might also consider this question from the financial side, and it would be interesting to note the increase in the amount of money poured out by the people of this country today for the education of the children. in the elementary stage over that of ten years ago.

There is another side, however, which appeals to me more than the statistical side of the number attending or of the finances, and that is the side which deals with the change in the interpretation of the meaning of elementary education, as understood today and as understood ten years ago.

It is true that ten years ago leaders in the theory and principles of education in this country were forging ahead, discussing points which we workers in the field had scarcely touched upon; but with all their discussion, the ideas which they had grasped were not generally accepted in the elementary schools. There is nothing more wonderful in the history of this country than the remarkable strides made in the last decade by those who are in the field-superintendents, principals, and teachers in their understanding of what is meant by elementary education.

It has long been customary to say that education deals with the physical, the mental, and the moral development; but let the men and women in this room think back ten years and compare the practice of physical education in the elementary schools then with that of physical education today, and they will say that it was merely a matter of lip service that we had so short a time ago, compared with what we are doing today on the physical side for the development of children.

It is true that thirty years ago in France they had reached the point where the school medical inspector, in Paris at least, visited the school each morning to inquire whether the children were in condition to be in school and at work during the day, deciding whether this child or that child might in some way infect with disease other children in the room.