parts adjusted to each other. Or, better yet, since every institution should be in a proper sense such a tree, the assemblage of institutions forming the great system would be a magnificently planted grove, made up of a variety of trees, each the best of its kind, each contributing to the happiness and maintenance of mankind. The educational grove of America to-day consists for the most part of dismembered trunks, and these largely of the same species; most of them stunted in growth, a few here and there giving evidence of what might be under a different condition of things.

A vital mistake in the history of education in New England has been the isolation of the academy from the college. A vital mistake in the history of education in the West and South has been the too close identification of the preparatory school and the college. The New England schools have been right in not permitting the academy to be joined closely with the college. They have erred in not securing direct control of the academies, in order that the step from the academy to the college might be taken without embarrassment and loss. Western and Southern institutions have done the right thing in recognizing the necessity of a close connection between the preparatory schools and the college, but have made the mistake of bringing the life of the preparatory school into too close connection with that of the college. There can not be a university without colleges. Nor can there be colleges without academies. The ideal institution will, therefore, cultivate the academic work as assiduously as any other, and will see to it that the connection between it and the college work is close and that the step from one to the other may be taken easily. The same principle would apply to the higher work. The future will see an adjustment made by which, after the first two years of a college course, the remaining work of the college shall be so closely connected with that of the professional school that the line between them will be drawn only with difficulty. Such an adjustment will be attended with two advantages. It will make all the more difficult any attempt to do professional work without an adequate training, and it will do much toward lessening the friction and loss of time which now invariably attend the passing from the college to the university. The more my mind dwells upon it the more adequately do I find the figure of the tree to express my conception of our educational work. The roots running out in the various directions constitute the earlier and preparatory stage of work. Students of every condition of life and mental attainments are brought together in this period. The stock of the tree is the central or college period. The work of all students in this stage runs along much the same lines. It is here that the final testing takes place. Typical subjects are brought forward and the student led to grapple with them. The variety here is not great, nor should it be; but where this process has been complete, selection begins and division takes place. These divisions, as they move forward in a multitude of departments, make the branches of the great tree. Here is infinite variety, infinite possibility of development, yet everywhere the same characteristics. Because of the infinite variety, and because of the sameness of characteristics, adjustment of the parts is all the more necessary.

ASSOCIATION.

Finally, with your permission, I desire to present as an important characteristic of any adequate system, as a leading feature of the future work, the principle of association. This is a necessary concomitant of individualism and coordination. Association or combination is possible in case the student or instructor is treated as an individual, and in case an institution, of whatever grade, has aimed to develop individuality. It is a remark of frequent occurrence that one of the common features of our present civilization is the emphasis laid upon specialism in every line of work. It is also to be noted that, side by side with specialism,

and because of specialism, another prominent feature of our modern civilization exists, namely, that of combinations and trusts, for it is only the specialists who combine. It was not until the day of specialism that combinations could occur. It is true that until individualism prevails association to any considerable extent must be postponed. Association implies coordination in both senses of the word. In order that men, either as students or professors, may come together, in order that institutions may cooperate, there must be a rigid classification according to the purpose, scope, and rank. It is here, probably, that the first radical steps in any educational reform must be taken. So long as institutions doing really the work of high schools call themselves colleges and universities there can be no association other than a merely nominal one. The high schools of some of our Northern and Western States do a work vastly superior in quality and greater in quantity than many of the so-called colleges and universities.

Granting that these two principles have begun to operate at least slightly (and I think that every forward step taken during the past twenty-five years has been taken in accordance with these principles), there is opportunity-I may say there is necessity for the working out of the principles of association or union of effort or combination, by whatever name we may decide to designate. Naturally it must first come in the form of institutional association.

The applications of this principle are so numerous that time will permit the mention of but a very few examples taken from a narrow field. As before, I pass over the lower grades.

The association of academies in relation to a college: Each college should have in the district tributary to it as many academies as the constituency will support. These academies should be under a local management distinct from that of the college, and yet there should be such a connection as would permit the college in large measure to direct the work of the academy. This is what has actually taken place between the high schools and the State university in certain States. But it must be recognized sooner or later that the high schools do not make preparation for college their chief work. It must be remembered that only 10 per cent of those who finish the high-school course ever enter college. The high school, therefore, has other work to do. The time will come when two-thirds of the present colleges and universities should, for lack of funds to do properly the work they are now trying to do, be made colleges of this same rank.

When additional funds are secured, higher work may be undertaken; but not till then. The larger the number of colleges we can have, the better, so long as they are equipped to do the work of a college; but to make students believe that they are receiving a college education, to give them the degree which is supposed to stand for such an education, is a species of dishonesty and imposture for which there is no excuse and which our legislatures should take in hand. There will be, then, the academies and high schools, brought into vital relationship with the colleges which are nearest to them; the colleges of lower rank and of higher rank-the two classes sharply distinguished. These in turn will be associated in relation to the university. The university of the future will make a clear distinction between its college work and its university work. There is room to-day for ten or fifteen universities. The colleges, remaining colleges and doing college work, will sustain to the university the relation sustained by the academies to the colleges. The association of colleges may be either that of a State, as is already true of the State of New York, or that of a denomination (the bond in this case being very close), or that of a district, such as New England, or the valley of the Mississippi. No one can fail to see the immense advantages of such an association. I may be permitted to go one step further. The universities, supposing the number to be ten, fifteen, or twenty, should, let me say, unite in a federation. This federation will be like that of the States of the Union. Through this federation of universi

ties will come the crowning feature of our American system-a national university. We do not need a national university as an institution, distinct from other institutions and their rival. The existing universities will never consent to a national university organized upon such a basis. The history of the movement since the days of Washington demonstrates this.

Let the institutions doing real university work unite, and let great scholars and investigators be delegated by each university to go to Washington, and, with governmental assistance, make proper use of the great scientific treasures of all kinds which have been there collected; these professors all the while being members of the university which has thus delegated them, and yet, as a body, constituting the faculty of the national university. Let the students of all universities study at Washington whenever it is to their advantage to do so, remaining, however, students of their own university. This plan is simple; it removes the whole matter from the field of politics; it can be introduced at a minimum of expense; it will lead to unity of effort; it will secure a system in our work, the lack of which all concede; it will not excite the rivalry of universities already established; it will permit the students to move about; it will set a standard by which institutions may judge themselves; it will secure an association of interests and a recognition of scientific work which will lift the work of education in this country to the place it occupies in Germany.

Individualism, coordination, and association are the keynotes to future progress along educational lines.

CHAPTER XXX.

CURRENT QUESTIONS.

Contents.-Teachers' mutual benefit associations and pension laws-CoeducationCompulsory school attendance-Transportation of children to school-Temperance instruction.

TEACHERS' MUTUAL-BENEFIT ASSOCIATIONS AND PENSION LAWS.

This subject was treated extensively in the Annual Report of 1894-95, in an article entitled "Pensions to teachers." The pension laws passed by some State legislatures, and the provisions made by municipal authorities for annuities, as well as the results of some mutual-benefit associations among the teachers in the large cities of this country, were quoted in that article. Since the printing of the report, Prof. John M. Pierce, of Boston, has published a summary of what is being done in this direction, which summary contains tables of interest to teachers in search of such information. That article appeared in the New England Journal of Education and is here reprinted:

"The beginnings of this institution lie farther back than any organization, beyond the reach of statistical inquiry. Members of the same vocation, while so often competitors for place and power, are at the same time most ready to sympathize with and aid each other. What begins as brotherly charity, where the material benefit is all on one side and the spiritual benefit all on the other, develops into a business organization, where the benefits are mutual.

"One of the least systematic and organized ways of giving aid is through associations formed for other purposes. Teachers' clubs and societies for general professional purposes sometimes apply a part of their funds to the aid of sick and needy teachers, and, in case of death, to bury them. Louisville, Ky., has no aid association. Two-thirds of the teachers belong to the Louisville Educational Association; the annual fee is $1; this furnishes a fund of $300 annually, with which assistance is given to such teachers as may be confined to their homes by serious illness when they have no other means and call for aid. This work is managed by a board of control, who report in a general way, without giving names. The teachers of Louisville have discussed many plans for a better system, but have reached nothing definite.

"While such a method is commendable from a charitable point of view, it puts the giving of aid on such a basis that it must often defeat its purpose. Many teachers would suffer the most extreme need rather than call for assistance under such circumstances.

"The Teachers' Club of Jersey City, N. J., maintains a fund out of which members who are incapacitated through illness receive a weekly benefit.

"The Teachers' Aid Association of Chicago, which was organized after the great fire, aids those who through sickness or other causes become needy and without the means of support; whenever necessary, the teachers have voluntarily contributed a certain fractional percentage of their salaries for one month to this

relief fund. It is four years since any contribution has been made to this fund, and during that time $1,000 has been paid out to teachers in need.

"There are doubtless other cities where work like this is done; these things are not always considered worthy of being reported. But in most of our large cities there is some more elaborate and systematic method of teachers' aid.

"Table I embraces the associations that pay sick and death benefits to members without waiting for them to plead inability. The beneficiary receives aid as insurance for which he has paid.

"The tendency in this kind of association is to furnish a number of benefits, and to multiply the dues accordingly. The oldest of these, that of Baltimore, is a good illustration of this. Besides the sick benefit, a stipend is paid to the family or heirs; if there is no one to claim this, it is to be applied in paying the funeral expenses. To raise this amount, a special assessment of $1.10, besides the initiation and annual dues, is made upon each member, the 10 cents to cover expense of notification. When the amount in the treasury falls below $500, an extra assessment of $1 is levied on each member.

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These associations for sick and death benefits do not usually accumulate large funds, since they pay out frequently in small sums. They generally aim to pay about $1 per day to teachers who are sick long enough to lose their salary. Managed as they are, these associations could not afford to have a large, continuous list of beneficiaries, and so the time during which sick benefits will be paid, or the amount of benefit, is limited.

"The idea of retiring teachers on an annuity is a later thought. It arises only where the profession is more fixed. In some cities, both kinds of associations exist side by side. But where an association for temporary aid only already exists, it is more common for the teachers in such city to apply to the State legislature to have a retirement fund established by law. Experience with a voluntary association is likely to lead to the demand for something more uniform and universal.

"Of Table II the Boston association was incited by the example of New York, and was in general modeled after this. The Teachers' Annuity Guild of Massachusetts was in turn copied in essentials from the Boston plan. The guild is in some features an improvement over the other associations, having their experience to begin with. The guild is composed of teachers in cities and towns near Boston. Cambridge, Haverhill, Lowell, and Somerville are the cities having the largest numbers of members.

"When an association is organized, it is found advisable for a few well-known and reliable persons to associate themselves, make their plan, and then invite members on that basis. In this way the Boston association and the annuity guild were formed. In Providence the matter was discussed in town-meeting style, and so many were the wants to be satisfied that several years were lost in coming to any agreement.

"The chief diversity of object is between temporary aid or sick benefits, and permanent aid or annuity. The difference is a relative one, for a spell of sickness may be prolonged into permanent incapacity. Most of the associations in Table II might be put into Table III, since they permit one who has been retired on account of disability to be taken off the list of annuitants when restored to health, and to become an annuitant again if again incapacitated. The annuity system could be worked to cover sick benefits, but in most cases this is not the intention of its promoters. In Cincinnati and Philadelphia the annuity may be enjoyed temporarily during prolonged sickness. New York, Boston, and Baltimore have not been put into this table, not because their organization is essentially different from that of Cincinnati and Philadelphia, but rather on account of a difference in the spirit of working. Those in Table II do not appear to favor the use of annuities to include sick benefits.