the system of popular teaching is agriculture and its allied branches, especially dairying. Here again the foresight of the authorities has proved itself, for dairying was an undeveloped latent resource of the State. Courses in the selection, breeding and care of cattle, buttermaking, cheese-making, and the by-products of the creamery, have been offered and have steadily grown in value and importance until Wisconsin already ranks second in the Union as a dairy State. To reach this end a special short course of six weeks was established to which all farmers are admitted, and which offers in condensed form the most practical sides of the subject only, and is given at a time of the year when the largest numbers can attend. Great tracts of land formerly unused, are now devoted to dairying and in effect a new industry has been created which adds no little to the prosperity of the State. In other branches of farming, a large number of new crops have been introduced both by the scientific researches of the Faculty and by the practical treatment of the subject in the class room; new methods of cultivation and of marketing have been worked up, the correspondence courses have been supplemented by frequent tours by members of the Faculty, all sections of the State are covered and the work of informing, stimulating and educating the agricultural interests of the community is so systematically and thoroughly done that the Wisconsin farmer looks as naturally and habitually to the University for scientific guidance as does a steel mill to its testing department. Similar efforts are being made to open up the University's facilities to the commercial and industrial interests of the State; the correspondence division offers a large number of business courses while in the general College studies such as literature, history, current events, the physical sciences, etc., the student is provided with correspondence work and local classes under University direction.

In short what the University possesses has been made available to all who can use it. In line with this same tendency is the low tuition fee now charged to residents of the State in all the Western State institutions, which makes it easy for those who can afford the time to pursue a course of study in residence. The same desire has led many municipalities in all sections to provide city colleges in which the needs of the larger number of students will be better served, both by lower rates of tuition and by new courses of greater practical benefit. Two excellent examples of this are seen in the University of Cincinnati and City College in New York. The success which these local institutions are winning is rapidly changing our views of the possibilities of higher education.

3. The active participation of university men in the public service of the State. The State of Wisconsin makes extensive use of scientific services of experts. From the University alone it has drawn forty-six men who are employed both by the State government and as members of the faculty, while it has taken very many more into the permanent public service. This has meant much to

both University and State administration, it has increased the practical knowledge and breadth of vision of the teacher and enabled the public administration to attack and successfully solve problems that would otherwise have defied solution. The gain has been mutual, but the State has profited more. The work of the experts, both in law making and administration has been constructive. Whether it be the framing of a just tax measure, the regulation of the services of public utilities, or the drafting of a safety act, the aim of the expert is always to secure a practical, workable plan; he has no desire to punish anyone, no political vengeance to satisfy; his concern is to find and use the experience of other legislatures and adapt it, with all the skill at his command, to local conditions. Accordingly the popular confidence in, and public use of scientific help are growing in those commonwealths where it has been tried. In Germany for several decades this plan has been followed with such success that it is now an established feature of both the imperial and State governments.

University Funds.-In order to carry on an extensive plan of popular education, an institution must be backed by ample resources. All the Western colleges have been fortunate in having a part of the public land fund reserved for their use, and, as a part of the State government each receives a goodly appropriation from the legislature. Several have gone even further and have had set aside for them by the State constitution a certain portion of the State taxes. This has been done in Illinois with marked improvement of the University's usefulness. In Wisconsin the threeeighths mill tax which is permanently devoted to the University from the proceeds of general property taxation in the State by the Act of 1905, is not changed from session to session of the legislature, but is a permanent continuing appropriation. Seven-tenths of a mill are devoted to the common school maintenance and one-sixth to normal schools. Such a method places at the disposal of the University a large income which can be relied upon for its future plans. Of this system Dr. McCarthy in the Wisconsin Idea, says, "This does not mean that the legislature cannot modify the plans of the University at any time, but it does mean established continuity. The wisdom of this is shown by the fact that some of the universities and educational institutions of the country have been in a turmoil of strife because under the so-called budget system their appropriations end every two years. They are helpless under the attacks of politicians and have no way to plan ahead. Freedom of speech in the university might have been seriously impaired recently had a minority of the legislature had the power to withhold appropriations for the university. It is evident that, if the legislature every two years passes upon the entire appropriation for an existing institution, a small minority of one house is able to threaten or block an institution so that it cannot extend to its fullest usefulness."

We have dwelt with emphasis upon the work of a particular University, because it has been a pioneer type, opening up new vistas and possibilities from which all can profit. The service rendered by the University to the people of Wisconsin is inestimable. The institution has served as the center of intellectual life as a matter of course, but its influence has gone far beyond this, it has become a prime means of guiding business and social progress along feasible, practical channels. Much of the energy usually devoted to progress in all lines is wasted because of chimerical plans which are worked out, propagated and abandoned, and because of the useless friction and conflicts between forces which would be harmonious if properly guided. The University has been a leader in the preparation and dissemination of scientific methods, and more than any other single force, it has guided the development of the State into constructive channels rather than mere destructive agitations. Yet even constructive progress means a change, and necessarily this has aroused searching criticism and at times violent opposition from those who were opposed to all change, of no matter what nature.1

Vocational Training.-The more we use machines in industry the more we create a sharp difference between skilled and unskilled work. This is true from the humblest manual laborer to the highest business executive. The machine intensifies a thousand times the natural differences between men, in intelligence, education, skill, foresight, and opportunities. It not only makes the modern distinction between employer and workman but it also creates strong differences and even conflicts of interest between different classes of workmen and raises new questions of policy and divisions of opinion among the laborers themselves. One of the most noticeable of these distinctions is between those who are expert in some craft and those

Says Dr. McCarthy on this point:

"During many years of legislative work the writer has found the members of the legislature glad indeed to confer with the expert professor and ask his advice, be it on a question of tuberculosis, the chemistry of gas or the regulation of monopoly. Such professors are often reviled and censured as endangering the life of the university-accused of throwing it into politics-but never in all that time has the author heard a single comment involving the names of professors who were engaged as well-paid experts by private corporations. No comments were made when a man connected with the university law school, for instance, was registered as the 'counsel before the legislature for all public service corporations,' and yet at the same time other men whose advice was sought by legislators were attacked fiercely because of unpaid toil. Many attorneys and scientists of both types have been before the legislature but there has been no criticism of the former class; indeed they deserved none, as they were all men of high standing and rendered good service before the legislature, for which they were well paid by private parties.

"If the legislature may not secure expert service save that paid for by private interests, it will never reach the scientific basis of these great questions now before us, which must be solved by the aid of the expert's technical knowledge. The university should not be blamed for having men upon whom the legislature may call for advice."

who possess no such skill or training. This difference shows itself above all in the pay envelope. The unskilled laborer seldom receives more than $1.50 or $2.00 per day in spite of the most strenuous efforts of the union, because he competes with millions of his own kind, and the supply is unlimited. The Mergenthaler linotype operator in the printing trade receives from $25 to $35 weekly and even more, and the supply of skilled men is small and the demand growing. In still other industries machines reduce the men who operate them to the ranks of automatons, who can do one narrow, restricted piece of work and that only. As this operation can be learned readily and requires little intelligence the workman who performs it is easily replaceable and is necessarily paid as an unskilled laborer. So we find ordinary textile mill operatives tending machines for from $6.00 to $10.00 weekly while the highly skilled mechanics who make the machines are paid double or treble that rate. The men and girls who make yarns and thread are no better than day laborers; the weavers who make fabrics from the same yarn are skilled workmen with wages of $20 per week. Nor is the situation otherwise in the higher rounds of work. Machinery has so extended the output that the successful producer now turns out a large amount of product with a small profit on each article-making up by his immense aggregate what he loses by his lower margin of gain per unit. This means that in the factory he must have superintendent, assistant managers, foremen and skilled workmen of a higher grade of intelligence to discover and introduce new economies, while the rest of his laborers are often of low grade in both training and pay. In his sales force he must market the greater output through a well-paid travelling staff, while in the executive offices he must have as his assistants men whose vision, judgment and native ability will cover the field of State, national and even international markets. This demand for high class men has come from large output and large output is the product of the machine. All of these facts show that neither in the grimy shop nor in the brass railed office is there high reward for the unskilled "average man." The farm offers him no better chance, for it is on the farm that those remarkable new methods, the product of chemical laboratory, experiment station and scientific text-book, have made such revolutionary progress in the last two decades. The business of farming is now an applied science. Wherever we look we find the line between the skilled and the untrained being so sharply drawn in all vocations that the conclusion is clear-the community must use every means in its power to provide a vocational education for all who will take it. Such a work is needed because of the great numbers of people whose welfare is involved, while the sums expended are more than doubly returned to the community by the greater effectiveness and success of the businesses concerned. The movement for vocational schooling has advanced rapidly in the last few years and all the more progressive Commonwealths are now

taking steps to provide the groundwork for a future system of industrial and agricultural training.

The Open Road.-Such training is the only means by which we can preserve "the open road" of opportunity for all classes, so that men and women can come up out of the lowest to the highest positions in industry, business and public life. It is only this policy of "the open road" that stands between us and Socialism. When it is no longer open to the masses of the people, when in their minds an insuperable barrier has been raised to block them from the opportunities of acquiring wealth, pleasure, culture and the pursuit of happiness, the belief in Socialism as a last desperate expedient waxes strong. Industrial education provides the way to gain that knowledge which is power, in a country like our own. It is in proportion to the opportunity for securing such education that the workman and the clerk and the salesgirl, are able to escape from the routine of drudgery, by making themselves more valuable to the enterprises in which they are employed and by opening up opportunities for advancement. In doing so they escape also the discontent which surrounds the monotony of routine work. From the viewpoint of business, such education is especially needed at this time. The more the force of labor concentrates its attention upon its grievances, and attempts by artificial means to force up wages and reduce hours, the less the productivity of our business enterprises. Industrial Education is the best solution yet proposed for the difficulties which are constantly arising between employer and workman.

Industrial Education.-The two States which have led in the movement to offer a thorough technical training along industrial lines are Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Massachusetts has provided that any local board may establish an industrial school with thorough technical courses, and may secure State aid amounting to one-half its expenses, by complying with the requirements of the State Board of Education. After an inquiry into the advantages of part time instruction to persons employed in factories and shops a system of part time courses has also been tried and found to reach a large number of people with satisfactory results. The State board has helped the movement by issuing a set of uniform rules as to the organization of industrial schools, the course of study and the methods of instruction which are necessary to obtain the State appropriation. There have also been started in various parts of the State a number of elementary trade schools which offer the rudiments of technical education. At Worcester a system of part time courses has recently been established by which apprentice boys in the machine trade spend four hours weekly in school, pursuing English, shop computations, drawing and shop practice. The classes are held during a part of the working day in time paid for by the employer. The Fitchburg High School plan is especially notable and is described later.