are we losing ground. We have laid the foundation upon which to erect an educational edifice of more varied beauty and usefulness than has ever yet been erected, and the strength of the pillars which shall support the final dome of this intensely, artistically, characteristically American structure will be based upon public-school music work, which shall include mind, voice, and soul culture; a knowledge of combinations as well as successions of tones; and an interest in what has gone before, what is, and what will be, with the regular teacher amply prepared to direct the music work as intelligently as she directs the work in other branches. The next step? Well, what shall it be?

DISCUSSION

MISS SARAH L. ARNOLD, Boston, Mass.-The question asked by Mrs. Adams has been answered by the singing of the pupils this afternoon.

The theory needed to put music in the right place is to make the regular teacher believe that music is essential. What does it do for children? One hard task is to secure the habit of attention; to see the note, to fix its position in pitch and its length, requires intense attention. When things go wrong in school, music brings sympathy and a willing spirit more readily than scolding. When they sing together, a sweet unity is secured, a forgetting of self, a merging into one under the control of the teacher. This oneness is higher than unity. Harmony is higher-means a broader musical conception, a blending in one beautiful whole. The task of the twentieth century is to learn how to live together in peace and happiness, and music is one of the most potent agencies in bringing this about.

DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS EDUCATION

SECRETARY'S MINUTES

FIRST SESSION.-FRIDAY, JULY 8, 1898

The department convened in the Academy of Music Friday afternoon, July 8, at 3 o'clock, and was called to order by the president, D. W. Springer, of Ann Arbor, Mich., who gave the annual address.

Following this, Hon. Lyman J. Gage, secretary of the treasury, Washington, D. C., gave an address on "Reasonable Expectations in Business Education."

J. M. Mehan, of Des Moines, Ia., chairman of the Committee of Nine, presented a model business-college course.

Professor Emory R. Johnson, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, read a paper on "Business Education in the High School."

M. A. Grove, of Harrisburg, Pa., was chosen secretary pro tempore.

The department adjourned to meet July 11.

SECOND SESSION.-- MONDAY, JULY 11

The second session of the department convened in the rooms of the Spencerian Business College at 3 o'clock P. M., President Springer in the chair. The meeting was a round-table discussion of the papers presented at Friday afternoon's session. Owing to the sickness of Mr. Mehan, most of the meeting was devoted to the consideration of the course of study as submitted in the president's address.

The matter of a uniform course of study for business colleges, which has been in the hands of the Committee of Nine, was referred to a committee, consisting of J. M. Mehan, Des Moines, Ia.; J. E. King, Rochester, N. Y., and J. W. Warr, Moline, Ill., to prepare the same for publication, and report to the department at the meeting in 1899.

The election of officers for the ensuing year resulted as follows:

President-Allan Davis, Washington, D. C.

First Vice-President-I. O. Crissy, Albany, N. Y.

Second Vice-President-Court F. Wood, Washington, D. C.

Secretary-W. C. Stevenson, Emporia, Kan.

Chairman Executive Committee-Carl C. Marshall, Battle Creek, Mich.

A resolution was passed thanking Mrs. Spencer for the use of her rooms for the sessions of the section, and the local committee for the efforts made in behalf of the department.

Adjourned to meet July 12.

THIRD SESSION.- TUESDAY, JULY 12

The third session of the business section convened in the rooms of the Spencerian Business College, Tuesday afternoon, July 12, at 3 o'clock. George M. Coffin, deputy controller of the United States treasury, Washington, D. C., gave a paper on the "Administration and Bookkeeping of a National Bank, and the Qualifications and Training of a Bank Accountant."

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A. O. Kittredge, editor of Accountics, New York city, presented a paper entitled Bookkeeping and Accounting of the Periodical Publishing Business."

I. O. Crissy, examiner of business schools for the state of New York, read a paper on Business Education in the State of New York."

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Mr. David Wolfe Brown, chief reporter of the United States House of Representatives, presented a paper on the “Qualifications and Training of the Congressional Reporter."

The president-elect was introduced, and, after he had expressed his thanks to the section, the meeting adjourned.

M. A. GROVE,

Secretary pro tempore.

PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS

BUSINESS EDUCATION

BY DURAND W. SPRINGER, ANN ARBOR, MICH.

The public-school system of a utopian state should enroll the entire population of the country between the ages of five and eighteen. In the United States we are confronted with different conditions. In the year 1870, 61.45 per cent. of the school population was enrolled. This percentage has increased to 69.85 per cent. in the year 1895. Of this enrollment 50.48 per cent. are boys. This total enrollment is divided among the various branches of education as follows: the elementary schools, 95 per cent.; the secondary schools, 3.6 per cent.; the higher schools, 1.4 per cent. The secondary schools contain our youth between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, and it is with this branch of the system that we are particularly interested. Up to the year 1887 private secondary schools enrolled a larger number of students than did the public secondary schools. The growth of enrollment in the private secondary schools has been but one-hundredth of 1 per cent. in the last twenty-five years, whereas the enrollment in the high schools has increased tenfold in the same time. While there has been this marked increase in attendance upon the high school, it is a noticeable fact that the boys form but 45 per cent. of the secondary enrollment. In addition to the students found in these distinctive secondary schools, there are one hundred thousand students of the same age pursuing courses in the business colleges of this country. This is a number equal to the total attendance on all the various higher institutions of learning. This large attendance upon business colleges indicates a feeling in the minds of a large number of people that the public schools are not furnishing the education they desire for their children. It was this same feeling that caused three students to attend the private secondary schools twenty-five years ago where

one attended the high school. When our high schools shall meet the demand for education along business lines, as they did along preparatory lines, another corresponding ratio of increase in attendance upon the public schools will be noticed.

The public secondary schools were primarily established for the purpose of fitting the student to pursue a higher education. The course of study was originally a rigid one, but from time to time changes have been made and new studies added, till now hardly any high school offers less than three distinct courses of study. As has been indicated, these changed conditions have greatly increased the attendance. In the high schools of the United States the graduating class of 1896 contained but 12.05 per cent. of the enrolled students for that year. Of those who graduated 29.28 per cent. went to college. But 13.82 per cent. of our high-school students are preparing for a higher education. The old idea that the secondary school was a preparatory school has been outgrown, and the secondary schools have become the finishing schools for over 85 per cent. of the attendants. The high school, in order to benefit the many, which it should, must be adapted to the needs of those who can go no farther along educational lines. The larger percentage of those who leave school prior to completing their secondary education are boys. The largest number of them drift into various occupations, and yet, of the boys in the United States between the ages of fifteen and nineteen, there were over a million, according to the census of 1890, who could not be located in any of the gainful pursuits or in any of the schools.

What as to the education that has been offered in our secondary schools? It is probably as thoro, as far as it goes, as is any. It has been an evolution, and a rapid one at that. It is not in a spirit of fault-finding that the suggestions of this paper are made, but rather with the idea in mind that we have now reached a point where we can broaden the work and be of benefit to a larger number and a different class of persons than have the schools of the last twenty years. As has been suggested, many students have left school at about the age of fourteen, because the opportunity was not offered them in the public schools along the lines that they wished to pursue. Being designed as a preparatory education, it has failed to benefit, to as large a degree as it should, the class of children that needed it the most—namely, the children of the poorer classes. While theoretically the education that is best for those who go to college may be best for those who do not, practically it is hard to convince the masses of the truth of that statement. The tendency of higher general or culture courses has been to breathe a spirit of contempt for business and labor. This has usually been the outgrowth of the feeling on the part of our teachers of largest culture that the ambitions of the average business man were purely mercenary, and the impractical methods of many of these same educators have developed in the minds of the busi

ness community the idea that the predominating education was too theoretical. The modern classical course affords a special as well as a general education, and is pursued by a majority of those taking it for purely utilitarian reasons. The present classical and Latin courses are the natural preparation for the intellectual, professional vocations; as such, they have a right to exist. Society needs them.

The education of democratic people, provided at public expense, should prepare them for intelligent citizenship. It should aim to adapt every citizen to the civilization of his time. Conditions change, and so must systems of education. The student should be put in touch with what is taking place, rather than with what has occurred. The past should be studied for the lessons it gives as to how the present should be lived. Education has been recognized in our laws as one of the necessities of life. From the standpoint of the individual, it is as valuable to the poor as to the rich; and from the standpoint of the state, much more valuable. It should develop the powers of the individual to their fullest state of usefulness, for the individual is the foundation of society. The main purpose of our secondary schools should be to fit the students for honorable and useful lives. Power concerning the everyday events of life is the one thing to be obtained. The most important accomplishment which any. person can possess is the ability to support himself and those dependent upon him. His next aim should be to benefit those with whom he comes in contact. What spare energy remains he may use in indulging in those lines of work in which he is especially interested and which minister to his personal gratification. That is the best education which not only disciplines the mind and gives to us pleasure in its pursuit, but which at the same time fits us to mingle in society and the business world to its and our own betterment.

This is essentially a business age. With twelve million voters in this country, there are nine million depositors in banks, and over one million persons so engaged in business as to have credit ratings in the commercial directories. According to the census of 1890, 47.95 per cent. of our total population over the age of ten was engaged in some gainful occupation. These were divided as follows: agriculture, fisheries, and mining, 39.65 per cent.; manufacturing and mechanical industries, 22.39 per cent.; domestic and personal services, 19.18 per cent.; trade and transportation, 14.63 per cent.; professional classes, 4.15 per cent. Between the years 1880 and 1890 there was a marked decrease in the percentage of those engaged in agriculture, a corresponding increase in the percentages of those engaged in trade and manufacture, while the percentages of the professional and domestic classes remained about stationary. There are more persons engaged as bookkeepers, clerks, and salesmen than in all the professional classes combined. In the professional and domestic classes we find two males employed for every female; in the manufacturing