pride and self-respect that make the management of such pupils easy. Sympathy and interest that make each individual feel that he is worth while, and that he has a fair chance if he will do his best, bring results with these former waste products of society which are of great credit to modern pedagogy.

DEFECTIVES AS A MENACE TO SOCIETY.-Doctor Henry H. Goddard, of the New Jersey School for Feeble-minded children, Vineland, N. J., has ventured the statement that at least 2 per cent of the children in any school system are mental-defectives and that some of the people we meet on the streets, who are not idiots or imbeciles, are mentally defective. These people, he says, can only be detected by psychological test, and yet it is dangerous for them to be at large, because they can no more resist temptation_than can the child whose stage of development they have never outgrown. The vice problem which is now so acutely before the public mind, he says, will never be solved until we approach it from the viewpoint of defective mentality. "A big percentage of the girls of the segregated district are simply mental defectives. At least 25 per cent of all criminals are feeble-minded and commit crimes because they can no more resist temptation than can your own child of 5 or 8 or 10 years. One in every two habitual drunkards is feeble-minded. We are not sure that drunkenness causes feeble-mindedness, but we are certain that feeble-mindedness causes drunkenness.

"We must learn to locate the feeble-minded early in life, by psychological test at school, and treat them kindly, withdrawing them from the dangers and temptations of the streets. We must realize that the feeble-minded are seldom criminal, sullen, and dangerous when properly treated. They are merely persons whose mind has stopped growth at an early age, while their body has developed. It is possible to discover the age at which their mentality has halted and to train them to be splendid examples of the full, unrestricted, and uncontaminated mental development possible to that age. There is no more stigma attaching to the state of feeble-mindedness than should attach to your own child who is mentally at the age of the afflicted

person. Both should be kept off the streets and away from dangers for the same reason. Both are incapable of resisting certain temptations at times."

Cost of Education.

COST PER PUPIL IN 1851.-The following extract from the Pennsylvania Freeman of April 10, 1851, is interesting as a basis of comparison: "Philadelphia educates in her public schools 45,000 children at $6.46 yearly. The expense of the system in Boston is about $8 per scholar. In Cincinnati we believe that the expense is about $15; in Baltimore, $14." This paper was published in Philadelphia and was edited for a time by Whittier, who during that period lived in Philadelphia. His connection with the paper, however, terminated in 1840.

NEED OF MORE FUNDS.-State Superintendent Evans, in an address early in the year, called attention in a forcible manner to the great need of a more stable teaching force for the public schools. "Hundreds of classes," he said, "suffer from a too frequent change of teachers, many of them having two teachers during the same term." In his own State, Missouri, he found only 76 teachers, out of 8000 whose experience was investigated, who were teaching for the fifth term in the same school. He also found a number of school-districts in which the income from school taxes was ridiculously small and entirely inadequate. To remedy this condition he urged that the Missouri State school rate should be increased from 17 cents to 27 cents17 cents of the tax to be devoted entirely to public schools and the remainder to be apportioned to the State University, the Normal School, and various supplementary educational interests. Superintendent Evans indicated a condition which is but too prevalent elsewhere, especially in rural and semi-rural districts. This is particularly noticeable since the scope and importance of education have been so greatly extended in recent years.

MONEY VALUE OF AN EDUCATION.-The Massachusetts Commission for Industrial and Technical Education has prepared figures, based on a study of 2000 actual workers, to demonstrate the actual money value of an education,

As the results of this study are valuable in the comparison of the money cost of education with its money value, some of the main conclusions are here given. The average results reduced to individual cases would be something like this: "Two boys, age 14, are both interested in mechanics. One goes into the shops, the other into a technical school. The boy in the shops starts at $4 a week, and by the time he is 18 he is getting $7. At that age the other boy is leaving school and starting work at $10 a week. At 20 the shop-trained young fellow is getting $9.50 and the technical graduate $15; at 22 the former's weekly wage is $11.50 and the latter's $20; and by the time they both are 25 the shop-worker finds $12.75 in his pay envelope, while the technically trained man draws a salary of $31." As was stated, these figures are based on a study of 2000 actual workers in the field of industry, and, no doubt, are as representative as they are significant of the disadvantages of starting the life work with inadequate preparation. They also furnish one of the strongest possible arguments for adequate provision for making the schools as efficient as possible, both in their appeal and in their accomplishments.

CENSUS RETURNS AND ILLITERACY.-Preliminary figures show that in 1910 there were 47,332,277 males and 44,639,989 females in the United States, not including Alaska and its other possessions. This gives an average of 106 males to every 100 females, as against 104.4 males to every 100 females in 1900. The excess of males is mainly due to the extensive immigration, a much larger proportion of the immigrants being males. In the foreign-born white population there are 129.2 males to every 100 females. However, even the native white population shows a ratio of 102.7 males to every 100 females. In the negro population the number of females exceeds the number of males, the ratio being 98.9 to 100. Among the Indians the ratio is 103.5 to 100; among the Chinese in this country 14 to I; and among the Japanese 7 to 1. It is interesting to note that in most European countries the females outnumber the males, the ratio of males to every 100 females being as follows: In England, 93.6; in France, 96.7; in the German Empire, 96.9; in Switzerland, 96.4; in Italy, 99; in Austria, 96.7; in Hungary, 99.1; and in Russia, 98.9.

The preliminary figures also show that in 1910 there were 71,580,270 persons 10 years of age or over in the United States, of whom 5,517,608, or 7.7 per cent, were unable to read or write. The smallest percentage of illiterates was among the native whites, being only 3 per cent. Among the foreign-born whites the percentage was 12.8; while among the negroes it was 30.5 per cent. It is gratifying to learn that the total percentage of illiteracy decreased from 10.7 per cent in 1900 to 7.7 per cent in 1910; that among the native whites it diminished from 4.6 per cent to 3 per cent; and that among the colored people the decrease was from 44.5 per cent to 30.5 per cent. The foreign-born whites showed practically the same percentage of illiteracy at the two periods, being 12.9 per cent in 1900 and 12.8 in 1910.

School Administration.

The words of ex-Secretary of the Navy, George von L. Meyer, very tersely express what should be the attitude of boards of school administration toward their part of the educational work. In speaking of the development of the American Navy, he says, "Although there should be no waste either in expenditures or effort, economy is a much abused word; it is often used as a synonym for 'parsimony'; light expenditures are frequently alluded to as economical expenditures.' But no idea could be further from the truth. True economy is almost synonymous with efficiency, and as such both are essential." And this is especially true of an institution like the public school, which is so far-reaching in its effects and where anything but the best obtainable is false economy. The Secretary's policy for the American Navy is therefore an eminently appropriate policy for the administration of the schools, where expense must not be spared if adequate results are the goal. And this thought applies in the school as in the navy to expenditure of effort as well as to expediture of money.

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT OF THE SCHOOLS.-The developments in the "scientific management" of business and industry present some valuable suggestions for the administrators of school affairs. Nowhere is efficiency of management quite so fundamental as where such vital interests

as the educational and social welfare of human beings are concerned. The conservation of the time and the effort of the young is, after all, the highest type of conservation, and this can be effected if school boards, in their organization, legislation, and policies, work along such businesslike lines as the following:

1. The attention of school boards and boards of education must be confined to matters of general policy, leaving details to the expert agents of the board.

2. The natural arrangement to secure the highest efficiency is for the board to employ four experts, a superintendent of instruction, a superintendent of buildings, a superintendent of supplies, and a superintendent of finance,each to be the head of a department over which with a committee of the board he exercises general control. The members of these four committees of the board should attend each other's meeting frequently enough to get a general idea of the methods of conducting business in the respective committees. Such a course enables the entire board to act intelligently on all legislation, and all legislation and general policies should be acted upon by the entire board.

3. The Superintendent of Instruction is, under the general control of the board, the natural administrative head of the entire school system, and should be consulted in regard to all legislation and all general policies receiving consideration by the board. He should also be kept informed by the heads of the other departments of sufficient of the detail of their work to enable him to exercise a general superintendence over all matters affecting the interests of pupils and teachers. For purposes of consultation and advice and that he may also know the will of the board, he should have a seat at all the meetings of the board and in all the meetings of its respective committees, although he should have no vote.

4. A system of reporting promptly and adequately the work done in the several departments should be required. These reports should be of such a character as to reveal in a simple and direct way the educational conditions, the progress of what has been undertaken, and a forecast of probable results and needs. They should be in a form that