miles away. This conclusion, given at that time by Mr. Hagar, has been - From these innovations and out of these proposals we have to some extent accepted the amendments; in some cases we have taken nearly the whole, finding it good; in others, but a little, ever trying and sifting, holding to that which has been practically demonstrated as of value. A large part, as you and I know, has been discarded as the vagaries of overzealous but misguided and imprudent but persistent innovators. These people are good to have about us, and may be encouraged to spend their energies like the inventor in material things who seeks for perpetual motion. Another class, however, outside of school circles is to be condemned and cast out the iconoclasts, who never plan a proposal for aught new, or for a substitute, but who thru the press, platform, and pulpit are everlastingly tearing down and demolishing and condemning. The activity of the present is unprecedented. Experiments are proposed, and that superintendent who hesitates in entering upon them is temporarily lost. One of the most pronounced of these experimental movements is the attempt to construct laws that relieve people and boards of education of not only execution of school laws, but of framing them. In haste to eliminate evils attending school supervision consequent upon interference from incompetent councils, measures are urged placing much power in the office of the superintendent, with few limitations. In reaching for the desirable, as is the custom of Americans, we are overreaching. It is not likely that any American community will for a long time submit to the administration of any public office with limitations such as are repugnant to their antecedents and training. The personal-liberty idea and the government-by-the-people idea are a part of the unwritten as well as the written constitution of Americans. Even tho government by the whole people has never been found expedient and has never been the practice, fortunately for our country the minority of the people have ever, and for safety must ever, govern. A minority of the 75,000,000 make and enforce the laws for the majority. It is unnecessary to decide whether or not the schools of a city can be most successfully conducted by one man or by a group of men; the former method is impossible, and must continue to be until the sentiments of the people become less democratic. Were an elected board of experts within reach, the outcome would have good promise. But a board of educational experts in America at present, if called together, would sit in discussion seventy-seven years and then adjourn disagreeing. There is no authority for us. Each man is bound to trek upon his own domain. The reports of the bureau do not assume to be authoritative, but to give information only. Hall, Parker, Butler, Soldan, Maxwell, Sabin, and the rest, however much they may deserve it, wear no judicial ermine. We listen to the theories of the doctors, and are compelled to discard very many of them as impracticable or extravagant. The superintendent who accepts too soon the results of an experiment trifles with the children's greatest interests and wrongs the people whom he serves. The appearance and active participation of scores of young men some of them brilliant, some scholars, some callow, but all honest — add to the educational ranks such vigor and forcefulness as were never before known. The list of names now in the pedagogical field comprises a kind of men of power and thought that never before looked toward the school and the training of children. This promises an outcome for the product of the elementary schools far better than the country has hitherto Because professors of pedagogy are made in a year, out of all sorts of material, by some institutions, and turned loose to prey upon us and preach inchoate doctrines, is no cause for anxiety. If some of them do become earnest over adolescence, and the bacteria found under pupils' finger-nails, and the curves of the lines of fatigue, and danger from common drinking-cups, and common property in pencils and books, they are sure either to learn as they follow the trail, or, what sometimes is better, fall out. Such conditions are a part of all advance movements. Without question the greatest problem today is how best to administer the public-school interests of a city. The same problem in a field but little different confronts the student of municipal government. The method of the constitution and the selection of a school-governing authority appear as the initial proposition. Shall the people elect, and how; at large or by wards? Shall the directory, as in municipal governments, be changed all at one time? Shall the board be appointed by the executive of the city as in New York and Chicago, or by the courts as in Philadelphia, or elected by the people as in Boston and St. Louis? Shall the board be subservient in financial conduct to the municipal government as in Boston, or independent of the city officials as in St. Louis and many smaller western cities? The history of the last two years or more leaves no doubt of the interest and even anxiety of the American community as to the direction of public schools. From our great metropolis down thru the secondary cities is found an agitation, an unrest, as to the conduct of this quasipublic corporation. Chicago, Detroit, and Indianapolis had their "innings" before their respective legislatures last year, with different results. New York had set the pace the preceding winter, with a result that is believed to be an advance in efficiency. The legislatures at Lansing and at Springfield looked with disfavor upon carefully prepared bills for the schools of their chief cities. The press tells us that divided counsel among the promoters was the chief cause of defeat; and yet we can scarcely say that defeat was not for the ultimate good. A prominent and, as before mentioned, objectionable feature of this proposed legislation was the increased and quite unlimited power for the superintendent. This latter was too radical a measure to be readily accepted. The Indianapolis law deserves more than passing notice; first, because it was conceived and prepared by eminent and experienced schoolmen ; second, because, led in a way not to arouse opposition by a united body of schoolmaster and superintendent promoters, the legislature passed and the governor signed the most remarkable school bill yet recorded. So quietly has this been done, and so promptly and quietly has the new régime been initiated, that little public notice outside Indiana seems to have been given to it. At present it promises far better school administration than has yet obtained in the country, and yet, as "the proof of the pudding is in the eating," we must wait and see. It is certain that Indianapolis has improved on Cleveland, the pioneer in special school laws for cities. After some study and review of the three bills for Detroit, for Chicago, and for Indianapolis, one is compelled to believe that the bill for Indianapolis is the best, and the outcome, so far, is a verification of that belief. The whole matter is an evidence of great activity thruout the country in the determination of the people to place the control and government of schools as far as possible beyond the reach of the baneful practices of the municipal governments of America. Earnest men, enthusiastic to right a wrong, usually go too far and ask too much. One feature usually presented — absolute government by one man-must be a mistake when carried to its ultimate extent. It is unlikely that any one man is competent to direct, control, and be the complete manager of a city school system. However great his ability, accurate his judgment, quick his apprehension, long his experience, and extensive his general scholarship, he is still one, and only one; the wisdom of the one needs to be supplemented by the counsel of others. On the other hand, it must be conceded that a material difference lies between the practical administration of the affairs of a public and of a private corporation. In the case of the latter, often immense financial considerations, the manipulation of vast machinery, the necessity of effective and prompt action—sometimes approaching the heroic, as in great labor strikes-demand eminent organizing and executive power; while the accountability of the superintendent, as well as his responsibility, is always to a small, intelligent, and interested directory; one constituted only for the single object of financial gain, totally free from political or social issues. Interference by individual stockholders is not tolerated. The efficiency of the administration depends upon the superintendent himself, under such limitations as his board prescribes. Prompt action is always, not only possible, but obligatory. His forces are the press, all concentrated upon the matter in hand; episodes, side issues, the public, and the owners are impotent to dissipate his powers or hamper his plans. But the school superintendent who, with competent counsel added to his own expert ability, constructs a course of study, condemns the work of a poor teacher, objects to the engagement of inferior talent, frowns upon the purchase of unnecessary apparatus, or, what is even more threatening, recommends the substitution of a better text-book for a poor one, understands full well that, however unanimous may be the support of his board, many taxpayers, as well as mercantile and commercial interests, are sure to take a hand either to forward or prevent the execution of whatever plans he may devise. The inevitable letter to the press, over the anonymous signature of "Taxpayer," is a reminder that the people propose to allow their representatives on the school board to act their will only when it coincides with that of the individual opinion-a condition, of course, over which the superintendent of private corporations has never to worry. And so one has a right to assume that, in addition to the power and skill of the superintendent of great industries, the superintendent of schools needs another qualification-that of mollifying and educating a great and not always prudent or well-informed constituency. The title of the office, "superintendent of schools," is no misnomer, but it is submitted that the term "assistant superintendent of schools" does not sufficiently indicate the duties of that office, and is an unfortunate designation. Our Canadian neighbors have a better name, "inspector." An assistant superintendent of schools is not needed in any administration; one superintendent is enough, and all that can perform the proper duties of the place. The office needs assistants who inspect; in fact, that is what assistant superintendents now do, or ought to do. I know there is not much in a name, but I would establish a superintendent with a corps of inspectors whose reports would be the basis for changes, appointments, and conduct of the entire system— men appointed for expert ability along different lines, who would do their work along that line, whose office would be in dignity second to none, and whose counsel would be the controlling counsel, while the superintendent would do the directing and executing. The trail of the city superintendent of schools has been narrow and crooked. Today it is wide, and is to be fairly straight, so that the recruits need have little doubt by day or by night as to where the trail lies. The throng on the trail will stay there, and wild-eyed reformers with their, to them original, discoveries, altho resurrected from the last century, will fail to decoy the prudent superintendent. Sticking to what one knows, avoiding experiment and the chasing of brightly colored willo'wisps, will make those who stick to the trail carry themselves well to the end, and the monument shall be erected in sight of all who pass thereafter. THE SUPERINTENDENT IN SMALL CITIES CHARLES E. GORTON, SUPERINTENDENT OF CITY SCHOOLS, YONKERS, N. y. This topic has been discussed frequently in the meetings of the department and in other educational gatherings. It has been the subject of many articles in magazines and educational reviews. So much has been said and written on it that I dare not hope to present anything original in this paper. Perhaps, however, the importance of the subject may pardon the reiteration of permanently valuable principles, and a review of the requirements, powers, and duties of an office whose dignity and responsibility are growing daily. The superintendent of schools was practically unknown fifty years ago, and sixty years ago was non-existent. His office has been logically evolved with the quite original system of American public-school education. Now almost every city and a large proportion of the villages have such an officer. The earlier superintendents were often chosen without reference to educational qualification or fitness, being selected for personal or political reasons, and being agents or executive officers of their respective boards or committees. Many of those who eventually became efficient officers succeeded at the expense of the pupils who formed subjects of experiment. The term of office was usually short, and the records of many cities show a list of early superintendents of schools who held office one or two years each. The mode of election has become settled, so that a superintendent is now chosen by a board of education and very rarely by general election. The term of office has been lengthened. Many of the city and village superintendents now in office have occupied their positions a long term of years. The duties of the office were very indefinite, but have become fairly established by practice, and fixed by formulated rules or by legisla tion. It appears, furthermore, that most of the present incumbents were professional teachers of large experience before they were elected to the higher position. This certainly indicates a movement in the right direction, for a superintendent of schools ought to be a teacher primarily, and to have had the experience and knowledge which can only come from actual work in the class-room. I do not know that the statutes of any state prescribe the qualifications which a superintendent of schools must possess. But such |