pelled to refuse many urgent requests from superintendents to have their teachers put on the list to receive this material. Many superintendents report that they are filing or binding these letters; others reprint them for distribution to teachers; still others save their copies and print them together in a bulletin for their communities at the close of the year.

The bureau's experience with these duplicated articles, usually only two pages in length, emphasizes the need for a type of pamphlet material supplied now only in part-leaflets of three or four printed pages on current educational topics. The present supply of bulletins, often wholly inadequate for even the most important demands, might be made to go much farther if we could print leaflets in large quantities to answer the general inquiries that come in constantly increasing volume. It is hoped that the printing laws may soon be so amended as to permit the printing of such leaflets in large numbers. Some idea of the extent of the statistical work of the bureau may be gained from the statement that the bureau collected and tabulated in the fiscal year statistics of

48 State school systems.

1,158 city school systems.

596 universities and colleges.

69 agricultural and mechanical colleges.

556 professional schools.

1,094 training schools for nurses.

284 normal schools.

673 summer schools.

11,277 public high schools.

2,168 private high schools and academies.

1,167 public high schools having courses in agriculture, domestic economy, etc.

51 public manual-training schools.

103 schools of agriculture.

200 technical and industrial-training schools.

618 commercial schools.

426 schools for negroes.

106 State industrial schools and reformatories.

64 institutions for the blind.

147 institutions for the deaf.

59 institutions for the feeble-minded.

13,595 public, county, and school libraries.

Attention is here called to the fact that the educational directory, which formerly was included in this volume of the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Education, is now issued as a separate publication. This directory for the current year contains the names of—

Officers of the United States Bureau of Education.

Principal State school officers.

Officers of State boards of education.

Executive officers of State library commissions.

Superintendents of cities and towns of 4,000 population and over.

County superintendents.

Division, township, and district superintendents.

Officers of boards of trustees of universities and colleges.

University and college presidents.

Professors of pedagogy and heads of departments of pedagogy in universities and colleges.

Presidents and deans of professional schools.

Principals of normal and kindergarten training schools.

Superintendents of schools for the blind.

Superintendents of schools for the deaf.

Superintendents of schools for the feeble-minded.

Directors of schools of art.

Summer school directors.

Directors of library schools.

Directors of museums.

Educational boards and foundations.

Church educational boards and societies.
Superintendents of Catholic parochial schools.
Jewish educational organizations.

International associations of education.

Learned and civic organizations.

American educational associations.

State federations of women's clubs.

Mothers' congresses.

Educational periodicals.

Foreign countries-chief officers of education.

The accessions to the library during the year were: Bound volumes, 4,893; serial publications, 8,482 numbers; periodicals, 8,745 numbers. This is now one of the most important libraries on education in the world and should be so housed as to make it of the largest possible use to all who are interested in this subject. An important part of the work of the library division is the compilation of bibliographies upon request of teachers and school officers. The division compiled during the year 223 bibliographies. Lists of references on 15 subjects were separately printed in leaflet form, and 5 of these lists, the original edition having become exhausted, were thoroughly revised and reprinted. The division also prepares for publication a monthly record of all educational publications.

The library continued its service to students of education in universities, colleges, normal schools, and to teachers' associations and individual students by lending upon request books on various subjects of education. The library also had prepared a permanent traveling exhibit illustrating the work of school libraries. This exhibit was first displayed at the 1914 meeting of the American Library Association, and it has since been put on exhibition at the St. Paul meeting of the National Education Association, at various State and sectional teachers' associations, and at summer schools.

The increase in the correspondence of the bureau is indicated by the fact that within the fiscal year 84,332 letters, not including returns

to blank forms of inquiry, were received at the Washington office. If the letters received at the Seattle office, at substations of the bureau, and by agents in the field be counted, the total exceeded 100,000. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910, the total number of letters received was only 18,463.

The introduction to the report of the Commissioner of Education for the year ended June 30, 1913, contains a fairly complete account of conditions and needs of education among the natives of Alaska, and the purposes and aims of this bureau in regard to them. In its proper place in the present volume is contained a full account of the work for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1914; it is not, therefore, necessary to make further reference to it in this introduction.

The efforts of the commissioner to bring the Bureau of Education into closer touch with the many interests and agencies of education in all parts of the country and to obtain a fuller cooperation of school officers and teachers were continued through the year with gratifying success. The National Education Association, the International Kindergarten Union, and several other important associations appointed committees to cooperate with the bureau in its work. One of the most important cooperating committees is the committee on standards, appointed by the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association and consisting of 16 members of the association, who are undertaking to investigate, in cooperation with the Bureau of Education, standards of teaching and attainment. in all the more important subjects taught in our public schools. The National Committee on Standards is cooperating with the bureau in defining new and uncertain terms used in writings on education. This policy of cooperation has been further extended within the current fiscal year and will be still further extended as opportunity offers. It has been found very helpful in many important ways.

RECOMMENDATIONS.

In the Statement of the Commissioner of Education to the Secretary of the Interior for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1914, I submitted the following recommendations for the extension and improvement of the work of the bureau:

(1) An increase in the salaries of chief clerk, editor, statistician, specialist in landgrant colleges statistics, specialist in higher education and other specialties, and the removal of the limit on amount of salaries which may be paid from the lump-sum appropriation for rural school education and industrial education. The duties of these positions require the services of men and women of such kind and degree of ability as demand salaries considerably higher than are now paid in this bureau. I can only repeat what I said in my statement for 1913, that work of this kind had better not be attempted than not done well.

(2) An assistant commissioner, who should also be a specialist in secondary education and should serve as chief of a high-school division of the bureau. The duties of the

office make it necessary for the commissioner to visit distant parts of the country and to be absent from the office frequently many days at a time. There should be an assistant commissioner to carry on the work in the office. The increased work in the office demands much more of the commissioner than was demanded formerly. Probably the most important phase in public education in the United States at present is that of the secondary schools. The high school is, or should be, the heart and center of our school system. The problems of the high school are more difficult and their solution more urgent than those of any other part of the school system. The head of the high-school division of the bureau should therefore be a man of great ability. By combining the offices of assistant commissioner and of specialist in secondary education it should be possible to pay a salary sufficiently large to attract a man of such ability.

(3) Additional specialists in higher education, including education in universities, colleges, schools of technology, schools of professional education, and normal schools. There is special need of an able man, familiar with agricultural education and the problems of negro education in the South, to devote his entire time and attention to the colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts for negroes in the Southern States.

(4) An increase in the number of specialists and assistants in rural education and industrial education. The appropriation for salaries and expenses in these subjects for the current year is $30,000. With this it is impossible to obtain the services of more than eight specialists and assistants and have a sufficient amount left to pay the necessary traveling expenses. There is urgent need for not less than three times this number of men and women for this work.

(5) More adequate provision for the investigation and promotion of school sanitation and hygiene. Nearly 20,000,000 children spend a good part of their time each year in public and private schools in the United States. They come to these schools that they may gain preparation and strength for life. In many of the schools the heating, lighting, ventilation, and other means of sanitation are so poor that instead of gaining strength for life they have the seeds of disease and death sown in their systems. In many other schools the daily regimen is such as to cause the children to lose a very large per cent of that which they might gain with a better regimen. From State, county, and city school officers, in all parts of the country, thousands of requests come to the bureau for information and advice in regard to these matters. The bureau should be able to give accurate information and sound advice regarding all the various phases of this subject. The establishment of health and right health habits must be considered a most important and vital principle in any education that is to fit for life.

(6) The formation of a division, with a group of able specialists and assistants, for the investigation of problems of education and school administration in cities and towns. The drift of population to the cities and towns continues, and the proportion of urban population to rural population is increasing rapidly. Almost one-half of the children in the United States now live in cities, towns, and densely populated suburban communities. In some section of the country a very large proportion of these children are the children of foreign-born parents. All this adds to the complexity and difficulty of the problems of city school administration, especially in the larger cities. Many hundreds of requests for advice and information in regard to these problems come to the bureau every year. At present there is no one in the bureau whose special duty it is to respond to them.

(7) The establishment of a division, with specialists and assistants, for the investigation of exceptional children. There are in the United States more than a million children whose education requires means varying widely from those in common use for the education of normal children. These children are to be found in cities, towns, and rural communities alike, and all school officers and teachers have to deal with them. The Bureau of Education can not be considered as performing its duties to all the population with impartiality until it has in its service men and women who can

give accurate information and helpful advice in regard to the education of these children.

(8) Provision for the investigation of the education of adult illiterates and the dissemination of information as to the best methods of teaching illiterate men and women to read and write, and of extending the meager education of those who were denied the advantages of the schools in their childhood and youth. According to the census of 1910 there were in the United States more than 5,500,000 illiterate men and women and children over the age when they may be expected to make a beginning in the public schools, and there were many millions more barely able to read and write. This illiteracy is a burden to society and to State and Nation. Within the last few years considerable interest in the removal of this burden has developed. It is believed that States, local communities, individuals, and benevolent societies would heartily cooperate in any rational plans which might be devised and presented by this bureau for this purpose.

(9) A careful and thorough investigation as to the means of better education of children in the homes, and the dissemination of information as to the best methods for the early physical, mental, and moral education of children in the home, and for the better cooperation of home and school in the education of children of school age. Children of the United States are in school less than 4 per cent of their time from birth to 21. The home is the primary and fundamental educational institution. Schools and other agencies are only secondary. If education in the home fails, no other agency can make good the failure. With our changing civilization and social and industrial life, there is need of more careful study of education in the home. The bureau has already made a beginning in this work, but there is need of far more than it can hope to do without much larger equipment for it.

(10) A specialist in educational theory and practice, to serve as a director of investigations in education, assisting National, State, and local committees and commissions and making available for them the large collections of material in the library of the bureau and elsewhere in Washington. National, State, and local associations appoint many committees and States and cities appoint many commissions to investigate and report on various problems of education. Many of these committees and commissions fail more or less completely for want of material and intelligent assistance and direction. The library of this bureau, one of the most complete of its kind in the world, contains a large collection of material for most of these investigations. The specialist here recommended could put this collection at the service of these committees and commissions and at the same time give much-needed assistance and direction. His services would also be valuable to other specialists in the bureau and to hundreds of individual students of education upon whose investigations the country depends for most of its knowledge of education.

(11) A librarian. A library of more than 150,000 volumes, reports, and pamphlets, and an annual accession of more than 20,000 pieces is now under the direction of a clerk acting as librarian. The use of the library as a source library by students and schools in all parts of the country is increasing, and with the increase in the bureau and its work the use made of the library by employees of the bureau is also increasing rapidly. To promote the best use of the library and to avoid waste of time and money in the bureau itself, the library should have expert supervision.

(12) An assistant editor. The editorial work of the office has increased fivefold within the last four years, and it must increase still further within the next year. It is now impossible for one editor to perform satisfactorily all the required editorial work. (13) A specialist in foreign and domestic systems of education and an assistant in foreign systems of education. This bureau is undertaking to keep the people of the United States informed as to all important progress in education and in methods of teaching in all countries of the world. It must have, in order to accomplish this work with any degree of satisfaction, the additional assistance here indicated.