and sacrifices and deaths. The blood of our ancestors is in it. The blood of dear ones, into whose faces we have looked, whose hands we have clasped and with whom we have walked in loving fellowship, is a part of this glorious entity that we call our country. We put value on possessions according to their cost. Can we put too high a value on that which has come to us at the cost of so much unselfish suffering? Tennyson, in one of his poems, has expressed a doubt as to whether elevated sentiments and heroic living can be long maintained without the shock of war-whether in times of peace men do not become mercantile in their habits and selfish in their feelings, and leave the more manly virtues to stagnate and rot into decay. We have lived through one century of government, and the record made is a magnificent one. To the challenge sent out to us from our revolutionary sires and the framers of the Constitution, "Watchman, what of the night?" we have answered back, "All is well."

But is it certain that this liberty of ours, for which men but a few years since carried muskets and died carrying them, for which they forded streams and waded through swamps and climbed mountains, and met all the exposure of the picket lines, and stormed forts and faced the belching mouth of cannon, and made the last sacrifice that it is possible for even the most devoted to make for their country-is it certain that this liberty, which has cost so much, is to go on in a kind of inevitable perpetuation? that these free institutions are to remain free institutions through their own inherent virtue? that this cherished self-government is to need no looking after, in order to keep it moving along the lines on which our fathers projected it? Are not the conditions even now somewhat changed? Look at the large part played in the management of political affairs by the selfish and disreputable elements of society! See how those ignorant of our country's language, of its history, of its true spirit, of its great purpose, were welded into one mass and thrown against the progress of American civilization, as was done in Illinois and Wisconsin in November! Shall we not insist that virtue, diligently promoted, that right laws, administered and legally obeyed, that intelligence, universally diffused, are essential to the prosperity and perpetuity of our nation? For three-quarters of a century everybody could see just the point of peril to national unity and national life, and when the shock came it was not a surprise. With the existing condition. which I have attempted to point out this morning, can we not see wherein the future strain is likely to become excessive; and shall we not, as a wise people, strive to make strong that which within us is weak-to raise and illumine that which is dark?

The principle on which the compulsory legislation of Wisconsin and Illinois is based-the right of a child to an elementary education in the language of the nation, and the duty of the State to secure him that rightis not dead. It lives in the Declaration of Independence, it lives in every

page of our country's history, and, having within it the germ of undying vigor, will continue to live

Till the sun grows cold,

And the stars are old,

And the leaves of the judgment-book unfold.

DISCUSSION.

[REPORTED BY SUPT. J. M. GREENWOOD, KANSAS CITY, Mo.]

MR. HANCOCK, of Ohio, said: When he reflected on the fact that his State had no State Normal Schools, nor any kind of supervision for her ungraded, schools, he felt abashed in the presence of educational representatives of States more happily situated. But in the matter of compulsory education he believed the State was entitled to some credit. She has a compulsory law that compels; and this law was passed in 1889 by the unanimous vote of both branches of the General Assembly, having, consequently, both the great political parties at its back. And better still, in its enforcement there has been no division of sentiment on religious lines, all denominations, with rare individual exceptions, giving it a hearty support.

The age for compulsory attendance, in the law as originally passed, was of youth between eight and fourteen years, including those between fourteen and sixteen who cannot read and write; and the time for each year, sixteen weeks in the country schools and twenty weeks in the city and village schools. But at the meeting of the Legislature in 1890, an advance step was taken scarcely less important than the passage of the original law itself. This makes attendance compulsory on the part of all youth between eight and sixteen years, not engaged in some regular employment, for the whole time the schools of the several districts may be in session.. Under this provision youth must, after the original compulsory period has been completed, either continue in school or go to work. The moral results of this new feature of the law will undoubtedly be great.

All amendments to the law, as weak places have manifested themselves in its execution, have been made with the purpose of strengthening these weak places, and with the greatest unanimity among our law-makers.

The act is not yet perfect, for it requires time to perfect a law of such large application; but if public opinion continues to hold as now-and there are no indications of a change-we shall experience no great difficulty in securing the needed amendatory legislation.

The law provides for the supply of the necessary clothing for the children of parents too poor to make the provision themselves. But the authority to do this is now vested in the trustees of townships, and their slowness to act or neglect to act at all-leads to great embarrassment in

the execution of the law. It has, therefore, been concluded that it is best to have this authority transferred to the boards of education, and this is likely to be done by the present Legislature.

Ohio has before had compulsory laws, but they failed because no one was specially charged with their execution. The truant officer of the present law is its essential factor; upon him are imposed grave duties, the discharge of which requires qualifications above those required of the ordinary policeman. He must be possessed of a fair intelligence; his heart must be in his work; he must have an abundance of tact, and must be humane, patient, and courageous. And it may be truthfully added that the school boards of our State, as a rule, have acted in the full light of their responsibilities, and have in most cases appointed men well fitted for their places.

This law means, in Ohio, as we believe, that no boy or girl hereafter born within her borders shall ever be permitted to grow up without having received at least an elementary education, or without the advantages of a definite moral training, which, more than intellectual culture, will serve to save to good citizenship the waifs and outcasts of society.

MR. JOHN MACDONALD, of Topeka, Kansas: The question now before the American people is clearly defined, and we may as well meet it. Has the State the right to insist that the instruction given in its schools must be in the English language? Bands of foreigners in Wisconsin and elsewhere are making the unpatriotic demand that the language in which instruction shall be given must be determined by the community for itself. This un-American demand must and will be resisted. We have thrown wide open the doors of the Republic, and have invited all who thirst for political freedom to accept citizenship; but it is for the nation. to lay down the conditions of citizenship, and the foreign-born citizen should accept these conditions in good faith. Politicians may be deluded by temporary victories, but educational philosophers can afford to wait for the right to prevail, for the people will surely on this question be again clothed and in their right mind.

In Kansas we have had for many years a general compulsory law, but when large numbers of Mennonites settled in our State some years ago, and began to use their native language exclusively in schools organized under the laws of the State, the Legislature passed a law requiring that all the instruction given in the public schools should be in the English language. That part of our compulsory law is well enforced, and has led to no discontent or mutiny, but has been accepted as a reasonable requirement.

You have doubtless observed that in European countries the tendency is to disintegration; in our own country, to centralization. In educational matters I believe in centralization to this extent, that the federal govern

ment should have something to say as to what is taught or not taught in the schools of the land. The State is greater than the individual, and the nation is greater than the State.

State Superintendent WELLS, of Madison, Wisconsin, addressed the chair for the purpose of raising the issue, namely, whether it be not a legitimate question to discuss the educational results accomplished under the compulsory and the non-compulsory systems.

He challenged the arguments used to prove the inefficiency of the school system of Wisconsin, claiming that the situation had been exaggerated to prove the necessity of drastic measures. He said that the apparent discrepancy between the total school population and the annual enrolment was accounted for by the extreme limits of enumeration, the legal school age including all persons between the ages of four and twenty. The majority of pupils leave school at fourteen or fifteen, while the average age of all high-school graduates was probably under seventeen. If these did not thereafter enter school, they were counted until they were twenty-one among those not reached by the schools. More than one-half of those under the age of six were not enrolled. The records show that seveneighths of those between seven and fourteen attend school a portion of the year. Again, the number reported attending private and parochial schools is known to be less than one-fourth of the actual attendance. Considering these facts it was evident that the schools were reasonably efficient.

He affirmed that the effect of the Bennett law upon attendance had been greatly overstated. The reported increase was not so much due to a larger attendance as to greater care and thoroughness in securing the returns. One county, widely quoted as having increased its attendance 1,099 under the influence of the Bennett law, had instead an actual decrease in the enrolment of 123, and more than 23,000 days' attendance, as shown by the superintendent's report on file in the Department.

At this point the speaker was interrupted by a sharp cross-fire of questions relating to the effect of the Bennett law as an issue in the late political campaign. While admitting that it was a large factor, he claimed that it was only one of several which contributed powerfully to the result.

COMPULSORY EDUCATION IN MASSACHUSETTS.

BY GEORGE H. MARTIN, AGENT MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF EDUCATION.

Compulsory education began under more favorable conditions and has had a more continuous, natural, and successful development in Massachusetts than in any other State of the Union, or in any other country in the world.

The conditions were the following:

A homogeneous and well-to-do people, coming in considerable numbers and settling somewhat close together;

This people, by a pious indirection, self-governing from the beginning, subject to no proprietor, patroon, foreign corporation, or royal governor, scarcely subject even to a king;

A central representative government having original and supreme jurisdiction, by which local autonomy was rigidly circumscribed;

A considerable body of university educated men, clergymen, and others;

A suffrage restriction of such a character as to give to this body controlling influence. Had there been a property qualification for suffrage instead of an ecclesiastical one, the free school system would have been as long in coming in Massachusetts as it was in the other colonies

s;

Civil units for all local purposes instead of ecclesiastical ones, towns and not parishes;

A form of church polity democratic, corresponding to the civil polity. Under these conditions the foundations of an educational system were laid in the world-renowned law of 1642, which decreed that all the children should be brought up to learning and labor, that they should be taught to read and understand the principles of religion and the capital laws of the country.

If there was at that time any such law in existence anywhere I have found no evidence of it. Other nations, drawing their inspiration from the same source, the letters and sermons of Luther, had aimed, at most, only at universal opportunity for education. This law aimed at universal education, and it made specific provision for its own execution. And it was executed. The quaintly curious records of the towns tell of the appointment of special officers to go from house to house and see that the children were put to learning and labor, or they prescribed days when all the children and apprentices should appear at the minister's to be measured as to their attainments.

The more we study this law the more it impresses us. The position those early legislators took was broad, logical, tenable, wise, whether we view it as churchmen or statesmen. The men who made the law were both. It dealt directly with parents. It prescribed no means nor methods, and so neither restricted parental rights nor interfered with parental choices. It put no new obligation on the parent, but, for social and political ends, sought to enforce a preëxisting and natural obligation.

Thus it appealed to the judgment and the conscience of all thinking and right-minded men; and most of the early settlers were such men. So the law went out to do its work among a people largely in sympathy with it, and under controlling influences in church and state wholly in sympathy with it.