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Now, I want to say that I have great respect for the board of education of the District of Columbia, and I believe it ought to be retained; but I am sorry to have to admit that I fear, in their haste to get their action before you, these gentlemen did not give the matter due consideration. I have been informed, and I think reliably informed, that only five members of the nine met, and that they stayed in session only about five minutes. When the question came up, some man produced a typewritten resolution stating what the board wanted, and the whole thing was passed and they had adjourned certainly in less than ten minutes. I say that does not show due consideration. I know they are busy men and women, and realize that, serving as they do without compensation, they render a great service to the District of Columbia.

But I think, however, that such an important matter as this should have more consideration, and I hope you gentlemen will take the same view of the matter. This board of education says that they will let George Washington University have the fund temporarily. I hold that if it is wrong to have it at all it is wrong to have it temporarily. I hold that. And then, if George Washington University gets it George Washington University is going to have grit enough to hold onto it, and we shall have to go to expense and trouble time after time and year after year to get that back from George Washington. I do not believe we ought to be put to that trouble. I do not believe the citizens of this District ought to be put to that

trouble.

Just appropriate the money and just let it be known to the District of Columbia that there is $45,000 a year, or $50,000, to be used in training these boys here, white and black, in the District of Columbia, in a properly equipped college of agriculture and mechanic arts, and you will not have to wait very long before the money will be gotten, and the money will be used, and used wisely, and used for all the people. I thank you for this hearing.

I want, in conclusion, to say that my people as a whole-there are some exceptions are loyal citizens of this country and propose to stand by America. This is our home, and we propose to stand by the good men in this country for everything that is just; and it won't be long, if we have your continued good wishes and your broadened sympathies, before many of the undesirable people among us will be done away with and be made into desirable citizens. But the rights and privileges which have already been accorded to us must not be taken away from us. Therefore, I could not allow this measure to come before you without coming here as a representative of my people and making a protest, because we do not want to have a precedent set up that will reflect upon us.

I thank you.

ADDITIONAL STATEMENT OF DR. M. PAGE SMITH.

Doctor SMITH. There is one word in addition I would like to say. I desire to correct myself. I stated at the beginning of the hearing that the board met after seeing Mr. Justice Harlan. I should have said Mr. Richard D. Harlan. I should also like to present to you Doctor Meyers, who is the principal of the McKinley Manual Train

ing School. In view of his position, he is not able to speak to you, but he will be glad to answer any questions you may have to ask him. The CHAIRMAN. Have you anything else?

Doctor SMITH. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Does any member of the committee desire to ask Doctor Meyers any questions?

Mr. MCLAUGHLIN. I would like to ask with regard to this equipment now in the McKinley Manual Training School is it largely furnished for and suitable only for the boys of the ages that attend it?

Doctor MEYERS. The equipment of the shops is such equipment as is used in the colleges of mechanic arts. For instance, the boys who go from our institution to engineering schools of higher grade are given credit for shopwork, and are given credit for mechanical drawing. They use the same equipment. To be sure there is some work in advanced years in engineering in the colleges for which we are not equipped. But most of the equipment is such as can be used for the earlier years of college work.

Mr. HAWLEY. When they go from the high school to the colleges how much credit is given to them? Is it the same amount as you credit them here or is a reduction made?

Doctor MEYERS. It varies with different institutions. Some institutions give them full credit for shopwork and some reduce it considerably. Yet the equipment is even better-I know from some who have visited engineering schools-than most of the engineering schools have.

The CHAIRMAN. I think, perhaps, I should submit, to go into the hearing, a letter from Mr. James F. Oyster, president of the board of education, transmitting the resolution of the board to which reference has been made here this morning. When it was decided by the committee to give this hearing, it occurred to me that the board of education should have notice of it, and I therefore addressed a letter to President Oyster advising him of the date and purpose of the hearing, and suggesting that the committee would be very glad to have any representative of the board present who might desire to come; if that was not practicable, the committee would like to have an expression of the board's sentiment in the matter. It was in response to that letter that President Oyster wrote the letter which I have in my hand. It will go into the hearing, and is, in substance, as reported in the morning papers and referred to here. (The letter from Mr. Oyster, referred to by the chairman, is as follows:)

BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,

Hon. CHARLES F. SCOTT,

FRANKLIN SCHOOL BUILDING, Washington, D. C., March 28, 1910.

Chairman Committee on Agriculture,

House of Representatives.

MY DEAR MR. SCOTT: In reply to your inquiry as to the attitude of the board of education with reference to the proposed extension of the benefits of the Morrill acts to the District of Columbia, I have the honor to inclose a resolution of the board adopted at a special meeting held this day.

The board can not urge too strongly the claim of the District of Columbia to its rightful share of the money appropriated under these acts for the education of the children of our citizens in those practical branches of learning which are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts. Certainly no good reasons exist for withholding from the 350,000 inhabitants of this District educational

advantages that are not denied to any similar community in the entire United States or any of its insular possessions.

Inasmuch as the proposition is pending in your committee to extend these benefits to one of our local universities, which has been closely affiliated with the public schools, and has from time to time offered and maintained many free scholarships for pupils and teachers—another university, we understand, having for the present waived its claims-the board deems it wise to defer for the present the submission of any plan for the addition of college work in mechanic arts to the existing curriculum of the McKinley Manual Training School for white pupils and the Armstrong Manual Training School for colored pupils. The board has concerned itself earnestly during the past few years with the effort to secure larger appropriations for the continuation work of the night schools along industrial lines, hoping also for the ultimate establishment of day schools of a vocational character for children who would otherwise leave school at an early age and before reaching the high school. This extension of industrial education has not included the question of the establishment of college courses in our minual training schools, which is one demanding the most careful consideration.

The board regrets that the necessity of an immediate reply to your inquiry makes it impossible for it to examine the proposal to institute college courses in the manual training schools as thoroughly as the importance of the subject requires and with due regard to the conservation of the various interests connected with primary and secondary education in the District of Columbia. Very respectfully,

JAS. F. OYSTER, President Board of Education.

Resolved, That the board of education is heartily in favor of the District of Columbia sharing the benefits of the acts of Congress known as the Morrill acts;

That it is the sense of the board of education that neither the McKinley Manual Training School nor the Armstrong Manual Training School, nor any other high school in the public-school system of the District of Columbia, is at present such an institution as would entitle it to receive an appropriation under said Morill acts, for the reason that none is a college;

That the board of education as the representative of the public-school system of the District of Columbia has no objection to the passage by the Congress of the United States of the bill now pending therein, known as the GallingerBoutell bill, provided the appropriation made by that bill is temporary only, to the end that future appropriations under the Morrill acts, in favor of the District of Columbia, may be asked for in behalf of the public-school system of said District, should it be deemed advisable so to do at any time hereafter. WM. D. HOOVER.

(Thereupon, at 11.55 o'clock a. m., the hearing was adjourned.)

INSPECTION OF NURSERY STOCK.

COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE,

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

Wednesday, April 27, 1910.

The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. Charles F. Scott (chairman) presiding.

The committee had under consideration the following bill:

[H. R. 23252, Sixty-first Congress, second session.]

A BILL To provide for the introduction of foreign nursery stock by permit only, and to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a quarantine against the importation and against the transportation in interstate commerce of diseased nursery stock or nursery stock infested with injurious insects, and making an appropriation to carry the same into effect.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever in this bill the term "nursery stock" is used it shall be construed as including field-grown florists' stock, trees, shrubs, plants, vines, cuttings, grafts, scions, buds, fruit pits or seeds of fruit, and ornamental trees or shrubs.

SEC. 2. That it shall be unlawful for any person or persons to import into the United States any nursery stock except under special permit from the United States Department of Agriculture. Such permit shall be issued by the Secretary of Agriculture to the importer on the receipt of an application stating the number and kind of nursery stock to be imported, the country and district where grown, name and address of the shipper, the port of entry, approximate date of the arrival of such nursery stock, and the name of importer or consignee and destination.

SEC. 3. That all such nursery stock shall be subject to inspection by official experts of the Department of Agriculture at final destination on the premises of the owner or consignee. The Secretary of Agriculture may, at any time, extend the provisions of this act to fruits and vegetables or bulbs or to other plants or seeds not specified in this act and imported from foreign countries whenever he shall deem such action necessary to prevent the entry with such products or stock of dangerous insects or plant diseases. SEC. 4. That it shall be unlawful for any transportation company, person, or persons after July first, nineteen hundred and ten, to offer for entry at any port in the United States any nursery stock unless accompanied by a certificate of inspection by an official expert of the country from which the importation is made, which certificate shall be made in the manner and form prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture, certifying that the contents have been examined and found to be apparently free from all dangerously injurious insect pests or plant diseases: Provided, That any nursery stock or other described articles offered for entry without such certificate shall be held in quarantine, either at final destination on the premises of the owner or consignee, or at port of entry or other designated place, at the option of the Secretary of Agriculture, and shall not be released by the official expert until its or their freedom from dangerous insect pests or plant diseases shall have been fully established by inspection or treatment.

SEC. 5. That any transportation company, person, or persons who shall receive, bring, or cause to be brought into the United States any nursery stock shall, within twenty-four hours after the arrival thereof, notify the official expert of their arrival and delivery to consignee. The latter shall hold the same, without unnecessarily moving or placing such articles where they may be harmful, for the immediate inspection of such official expert. The official expert or his representative is hereby authorized and empowered to enter into any warehouse or premises of consignee or owner, or any other place where such nursery stock or other described articles are received, for the purpose of making the inspection or examination herein provided for, and such

examination shall be begun, and, if possible, completed within ten days of such arrival thereof.

SEC. 6. That each case, box, package, crate, bale, or bundle of nursery stock imported or brought into the United States shall have plainly and legibly marked thereon the name and address of the shipper, owner, or person forwarding or shipping the same, and also the name of the person, firm, or corporation to whom the same is forwarded or shipped, or his or its responsible agent; also the name of the country and district where the contents were grown.

SEC. 7. That when any shipment of nursery stock imported or brought into the United States is found to be infested with injurious insects or their eggs, larvæ, or pupæ, or there is reason to believe that it is infested with tree, plant, or fruit disease or diseases, the entire shipment, or so much thereof as the official expert shall deem necessary, shall be disinfected at the expense of the owner, owners, or agent. After such disinfection it shall be detained in quarantine a necessary time to determine the result of such disinfection. If the disinfection has been so performed as to destroy all insects or their eggs, and so as to eradicate all disease and prevent contagion, and in a manner satisfactory to the official expert, the trees, vines, or other articles shall then be released. If it be not practicable to fully disinfect such stock, it or such portion of it shall remain infested shall be destroyed.

SEC. 8. That whenever it shall appear to the Secretary of Agriculture that any nursery stock or other described articles or variety of fruit grown in an infested district outside of the United States is being, or is about to be, imported into the United States or the District of Columbia, and such nursery stock or such variety of fruit is infested by any seriously injurious insect or disease, and which insect or disease is liable to become established in the United States, he shall have authority to quarantine against any importations from said district and prevent the same until such time as it may appear to him that any such insect or disease has become exterminated in the country or district from which such nursery stock or variety of fruit is being, or is about to be, imported, when he may withdraw the quarantine.

SEC. 9. That upon complaint or reasonable ground on the part of the Secretary of Agriculture to believe that any nursery stock grown within the United States and likely to become the subject of interstate commerce is infested with injurious insects or diseases new to the United States, the Secretary of Agriculture shall cause the same to be inspected by a qualified expert, and, if need be, placed under quarantine until such infestation is removed.

SEC. 10. That it shall be unlawful for any person, persons, or corporation to deliver to any other person, persons, or corporation, or to the postal service of the United States (except for scientific purposes, and by permission of the Secretary of Agriculture), for transportation from one State or Territory or the District of Columbia to any other State or Territory or the District of Columbia, or for exportation to any foreign country, any trees, plants, shrubs, vines, or other nursery stock which are under quarantine in accordance with the provisions of section seven of this act, or which, on said examination, have been declared by the inspector to be infested with dangerously injurious insects or diseases. Any person, persons, firm, or corporation who shall forge, counterfeit, or knowingly alter, deface, or destroy any certificate or copy thereof, as provided for in this act and in the regulations of the Secretary of Agriculture, or shall in any way violate the provisions of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not to exceed five hundred dollars nor less than two hundred dollars or by imprisonment not to exceed one year, or both, at the discretion of the court.

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SEC. 11. That the rules and regulations herein provided for shall be promulgated on or before the first day of June of each year. SEC. 12. That the sum of nineteen hundred and ten, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any moneys in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, to carry into effect the provisions of this act. SEC. 13. That this act shall take effect on and after the hundred and ten.

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SEC. 14. That the provisions of this act shall not prevent the inspection of any nursery stock or other described articles by the authorized inspector of any State or Territory at the final point of destination in accordance with the laws of such State or Territory.

The CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to an order made some time ago, the committee has met this morning to consider the bill introduced by Mr. Simmons, H. R. 23252, a bill "to provide for the introduction of foreign nursery stock by permit only, and to authorize the Secretary

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