Miss. CHARL WILLIAMS,

AUGUSTA, KANS., February 5, 1924.

National Education Association, Washington, D. C.

DEAR MISS WILLIAMS: I have just been informed that the United States Senate has commenced hearings on the education bill now pending in Congress. To say that I am in favor of this bill being passed by this Congress would be putting it mildly. I am for this measure or any other measure along similar lines. I only wish I were able to do something to help get this bill passed.

Yours truly,

HENRY E. CEASE.

INDEPENDENCE, KANS., February 6, 1924.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

National Education Association, Washingon, D. C.:

You are respectfully authorized to use my name as heartily indorsing the education bill now pending in Congress.

M. L. TRUBY.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

WICHITA, KANS., February 6, 1924.

Field Secretary National Education Association, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MISS WILLIAMS: Beg to be added to the list of the many who have either wired or written to you in the interest of the education bill which is to be presented to the House of Representatives and Senate. Trust every effort will be made by your splendid association and the many other similar institutions to bring about the passage of this bill, which, in my humble opinion, would be helpful in destroying the illiteracy in our country. Believe it is the duty of every American citizen to do everything in his power to protect the public-school system of our country. With kindest wishes, I am,

Very respectfully yours,

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

HENRY WALLENSTEIN.

IOLA, KANS., February 7, 1924.

Field Secretary National Education Association, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MISS WILLIAMS: I desire to take this opportunity to advise you that I am heartily in accord with the Sterling-Reed educational bill now before Congress, S. 1337 and H. R. 3923.

Yours very truly,

J. B. KIRK.

ELLSWORTH, KANS., February 9, 1924.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

Field Secretary National Education Association, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MISS WILLIAMS: I am delighted to hear that you have started the education bill moving and I wish for every success for the bill.

Very truly yours,

EDWARD W. WELLINGTON.

HOISINGTON, KANS., February 9, 1924.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

Field Secretary National Education Association, Washington, D. C. DEAR MISS WILLIAMS: I am writing you in regard to the education bill now before Congress. I am heartily in favor of any legislation that will enlarge the scope and efficiency of the public school system, as I think this bill is designed to do. I spent 16 years in educational work, the last five in a State school in Oklahoma. If there is any influence that I can bring to bear to help in this matter I will be only too glad to give the necessary time and effort.

Wishing you all the success that your efforts merit in this campaign for better schools, I am,

Very truly yours,

A. L. PEER.

MY DEAR MISS WILLIAMS: I am a member of the Kansas Educational League and am interested in the passage of the Towner-Sterling bill. I believe this bill should be passed by Congress, and in my opinion any Senator offering protest against the bill is not a good American citizen.

We want America for Americans, and we want all of its activities conducted along lines that will be indorsed by every true American citizen

It is not necessary for me to enter into any discussion of this. subject, as you, perhaps, are more conversant with it than I am. It is enough to say that I am heartily in accord with the provisions of this bill and trust that Congress will do the right thing and pass it.

Yours very truly,

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

W. L. WOOD.

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH., February 16, 1924.

Washington, D. C.:

This wire will serve as my hearty indorsement of the education bill now pending in Congress. May I ask you to use this indorsement to urge the passage of the education bill by Congress.

FLOYD W. HUNT.

LONG BEACH, CALIF., February 18, 1924.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

Field Secretary National Education Association,

Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR MISS WILLIAMS: I am very much in favor of the passage of the Towner-Sterling education bill and hope for its early passage and that it becomes a law of our United States of America.

Yours truly,

W. W. DILLWORTH.

Miss WILLIAMS. There is another organization not committed to all the phases of this bill, but unequivocally committed to the department of education, and that is the American Council on Education. The members of that council are made up of presidents of privately-endowed institutions largely, and of public institutions as well, who went on record on a vote of seven out of nine in favor of a department of education, but I will not make Doctor Mann's speech for him.

I will now introduce to you Dr. C. R. Mann, who is the director of the American Council on Education.

STATEMENT OF DR. C. R. MANN, DIRECTOR OF THE AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION, SECRETARY OF THE FEDERAL COUNCIL ON CITIZENSHIP, TRAINING, AND CHAIRMAN OF THE CIVILIAN ADVISORY BOARD FOR THE WAR DEPARTMENT

Doctor MANN. I am director of the American Council on Education and also secretary of the Federal Council on Citizenship Training, and chairman of the civilian advisory board for the War Department.

Miss Williams introduced me as representing an organization that has indorsed the department of education. I would say that that indorsement was taken some two years before I had any connection with the American Council on Education. I have considered whether it is possible to get a vote of that organization that would have any significance, and have decided that it is practically impossible, because it is composed of 14 associations, of which the National Education Association is one, and the Catholic Educational Association is another, and it seems very difficult to get a vote of that organization which would have any significance; therefore I have not attempted to get in a vote of the organizations, and I disclaim representing the organizations who are representing any number of voters who are back of this proposition. In a position of the sort that is involved in the American Council on Education, I have endeavored to find out what are the things that everyone is agreed to with reference to this bill, because it seems to me we might find some ground of progress if we could discover what are the things that everyone agrees on. Many of those have been brought out this morning, and in the previous hearings we are all agreed education is not what it should be and there is need of action.

We are all agreed that some action is necessary within the Federal Government. I recall to you gentlemen that this bill has been before the committee now for over five years and has received no action. I think there is a unanimous feeling throughout the country that some kind of action is desirable, if possible, in a reasonably short time. On my effort to find out what are the common grounds, and what are the things on which we all agree, I have found three large ideas, large principles, and then I have considered very carefully what are some of the practical considerations that must be taken in achieving those three principles.

The first idea which is common is that our present Federal organization of education is entirely inadequate, and that some action ought to be taken to strengthen it. On that point I would say that this bill seems to me to be weak, that if you are going to have that stronger educational agency in the Federal Government legislation department or a bureau, or what not, you want to make the organization within that bureau or department such that it can really do the job that ought

to be done.

This bill merely takes the Bureau of Education and enlarges it in the department, and makes no provision for the coordination of educational activities within the Federal Government. That coordination is the second point on which there is unanimous agreement. I refer to the letter presented, written by Mr. Smith, of Massachusetts, in which he mentions two major items, namely, coordination of activities within the Federal Government and proper stimulus

by the Federal Government of educational activities over the country. However, from the point of view of coordinated activities within the Federal Government this bill is exceedingly weak.

As I said, it merely enlarges the bureau of education to a department. It makes no provision for uniting that with the activities of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, for instance. Therefore, if I may, I would like to offer a practical amendment to the bill, which may be a step in the direction of securing coordination of Federal activities.

On the second page of the bill, section 3, lines 13 and 14, "Transferred the department of education, the bureau of education and such other offices," and so on. added, "the bureau of education, the Federal Board of Vocational I would suggest there should be Education, and some other agencies."

That idea is almost unanimously accepted everywhere. If you will refer to the hearings before the reorganization commission, joint committee, you will find that Secretary Davis, who is chairman of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, makes that same recommendation to that organization commission, and that recommendation is also embodied in the report that Mr. Brown submitted to the joint commission and is unanimously accepted.

Now, if you will make that amendment to this bill you will have a very much stronger organization of this Federal educational office, and one that is very much more likely to do the job and win the confidence of our people and of Congress in the activities of the Federal educational office.

Mr. BLACK. Does not the Federal Board of Vocational Education cooperate with the different organizations?

Doctor MANN. In some States that question of double-heading of education has been argued at length throughout some States, and in the States where a double-heading system was set up it has been abandoned, and in some States, after long debate, the legislature refused to create that double system; therefore it will tend to the strengthening of educational work, and achieving the things that we want to achieve, that everyone wants to achieve, if that step can be taken. That is the practical step that can be taken toward that end; therefore, I would like to make the suggestion that you get more support for the bill, and everyone will recognize it as a step in the right direction if we can have that amendment made.

Now the question of other educational agencies in the Federal Government is also very important, that is, such work as State relief service in the Department of Agriculture and the nationalization work mentioned this morning, the training in the War and Navy Departments, and these are important in that they are training some 60 or 70 thousand young men everywhere. There is also the Veterans' Bureau, and so on. Those also should be coordinated with the work of the department.

Mr. BACON. In what way, Doctor?

Doctor MANN. We have made a practical experiment in the past year in finding out how that can be done. A year ago in January, President Harding created by Executive order, this Federal Council of Citizenship. That was created for the purpose of seeing what could be done to achieve better training in citizenship throughout the country. That consists of one delegate and one representative

from each of the executive departments, and they are required to meet once a month. That organization has met since last January on the average of once in three weeks, and one of the first things that it did was to draw a chart showing each agency and department that has any bearing on citizenship training. I brought along one of those charts, and I would like to exhibit it.

I will show this chart to you. It will show a complicated situation that you have with merely this one factor of citizenship. I would say that this chart has been compiled by delegates to the council from the executive departments, and has been approved as accurately representing the work of the department by the head of each department. The departments are listed here, and the agencies or activities, with reference to citizenship are listed here.

Mr. BLACK. Do you not think that that should be coordinated and put in one branch of the Federal Government, whether or not this bill passes?

Doctor MANN. That should be coordinated, but I will show you how the thing practically works out. This Federal council has this peculiarity-the Executive order says that the Federal council shall shall not report as a body to any one department, but that each member of the council shall report the findings of the council to his own department for individual action. Therefore the council sits and talks over the problem, reaches a conclusion, and every member of the council takes back that conclusion to his own department for individual action.

Mr. BLACK. Who represents the War Department on that?

Doctor MANN. I represent the War Department. I am one of the delegates of the War Department.

The CHAIRMAN. You may give that to the reporter, if you want to file it.

Doctor MANN. I want to file it later on.

The important thing is that we have achieved-it is not a theorywe have achieved a large amount of coordination in educational work in citizenship by the process of meeting three times a week together, and taking up the definite problem, and they are all working on similar lines. They know what one another are doing. They are cooperating in the field, for instance, the agents of the Bureau of Naturalization and Labor did not know what the field service in the Department of Agriculture was doing. They did not know what the Public Health agents over the country were doing. They are beginning to cooperate in the field as well as here in Washington, and they understand one another. Therefore, I think it demonstrates the fact that you can produce coordination in education between the strictly educational agencies, like the Bureau of Education and the Federal Board, and the States' Relation Service, in Agriculture, for example, by this process, and I would advocate an amendment to the bill which would transfer this council on citizenship into this organization.

Mr. BACON. In other words, that executive order might be translated into law?

Doctor MANN. Yes, sir.

Mr. BACON. It is a very constructive suggestion.

Mr. BLACK. Would it take away from the Department of Agriculture its work in its field and put it in this bill?