One-Man Power.

The feature of the Illinois state meeting at Springfield, December 27, that has been most talked about is an address by Graham H. Harris, president of the Chicago board of education. His subject was "One-Man Power in School Administration." The general feeling is that the address was designed to create sentiment against Superintendent E. B. Andrews, who has attempted to exercise certain powers which Mr. Harris claims should not be placed in the hands of any one man. It is but fair to say, however, that Dr. Andrews' name was not mentioned in the address. From the standpoint of a teacher Mr. Harris's position seems unreasonable. He assumes that no one man's judgment is nearly enough infallible to be trusted in such

matters as the selection and appointment of teachers, and the choice of text-books. He assumes, too, that the temptations to dishonesty are almost too great to be resisted. "Thousands of dollars are spent each year by the board for school books, and hundreds of thousands each year by the parents of pupils attending schools for books selected by the board. Give one man the power of selecting these books, and a four or six-year term, and if he proves dishonest, or even listens to the blandishments of book agents, he can retire at the end of his term with a very fat competency, which he did not save out of his salary." Such a theory consistently followed out is a practical refusal to put confidence in anybody, and in the commercial world would mean the stagnation of business. Most superintendents have some regard for a fair name. Where one here and there lacks self-respect and principle and honor he soon finds himself without a place, or else holds his place by virtue of a board of spoilsmen. But the average superintendent is honest and honorable, and there are some things which he can necessarily decide more wisely than any school board. And is it not true, as a matter of history, that school boards are more easily corrupted than superintendents, just exactly as city councils have shown themselves more susceptible to bribery than mayors? Both superintendent and school board are in the end, indeed, answerable to the people, but Mr. Harris confuses absolutism with representative government. His argument against placing power in the hands of a superintendent is an argument against placing it in the hands of a school board.

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Brief Items of Current History.

Two items are to be recorded relating to Cuba. One is the appointment of Major-General Leonard Wood to succeed General Brooke, as governor-general of Cuba. General Wood has demonstrated his peculiar fitness for the position by the way in which he has administered the affairs of Santiago since the close of the war with Spain. The fact that considerable political pressure was brought to bear against him makes the appointment all the more gratifying. The other item is the selection of Alexis E. Frye to organize a

system of education for Cuba. Professor Frye is best known as the author of Frye's geographies, but the fact that he has had several years' experience as a normal school instructor, being associated in that work with Colonel Parker, makes it reasonable to think that the work will be well done. The Cubans are displeased because the appointment went to a foreigner.

Affairs in South Africa have been watched with deep interest by all the world. To those who were not familiar with the strength and equipment of the Boers their decisive victories at Stormberg, Magersfontein and Colenso, were most surprising. Generals Buller and Methuen were not only too confident but were entirely outwitted. The depression produced in London by the succession of reverses was followed by immediate steps to increase the English army until it will reach 150,000. General Roberts, who is sixty-seven years old, and who has never known defeat, is now chief in command, and General Kitchener who lately won fame in Khartoum, accompanies him. President Kruger is reported to have said, "If Great Britain gets the Boer states I will make her pay a price that will stagger humanity." It begins to look as if Kruger knew what he was talking about. There was hard fighting at Ladysmith and other points early in January, but up to the time of closing this record no decisive results were announced. . . An act of Great Britain that awakened vigorous protest at Washington was the seizure of a cargo of American flour at Delagoa bay. The American minister at London, Mr. Choate, made representations to the British government and the seized vessel was ordered released. The protest was made on two grounds, namely, that no proclamation of a blockade had been made, and that flour is not contraband of war. In the partition

of the Samoan islands by the United States, Great Britain and Germany, the island which falls to the United States is Tutuila. The value of this island, being but fifty-four square miles in area, lies in the fact that it contains Pango Pango, the best harbor in the south Pacific ocean. Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian group is said to be the next best harbor. . . . It is said that Pope Leo has designated as his successor Cardinal Gotti, a Genoese monk who has always lived a stern and rigorous life, sleeping in his cell on a hard mattress. He is about sixty-four years old.

Artists will be interested in reading what the century has done for art; the church will ask what progress it has made in the last hundred years. Agriculture, manufactures, and all the industries will ask the same question, and find on summing up that no other century of the world's history can equal the nineteenth, in progress. And this is emphatically true for education, especially in America. In 1801 only a small percent of the whole people could read and write; scholarly men were rare; we had but thirty colleges with some two or three thousand students; many homes had no books, many others had but a very few, and private libraries of even moderate size were almost unknown. We had no periodicals, and the tremendous power of the daily press had not yet begun. Now we count 500 colleges with over 150,000 students; and with facilities increased a hundred fold; public schools are not only free but attendance at them is compulsory; not only the ability to read and write but average intelligence is general; where men and women could not go to school the Chautauqua, the study club, and the university extensions have brought the schools to them; we have the kindergarten, and associations of all kinds from the district and township meeting to the N. E. A., and at the same time an enormous volume of literature-the daily press, the weekly and monthly magazine, and a plethora of good books that would educate us liberally, even if all other educating influences were withdrawn. The century is closing with a phenomenal progress in education, and it is education that in turn is aiding progress in every direction. It is a new renaissance, which in centuries to come will cast that of the fifteenth century into shadow.

With the president's address in the Janu

ary issue, an excellent

ana Teachers. paper in this issue, by W. E. Henry on libraries, and Professor Waldo's paper on Mathematics and Progress" promised for March, readers of THE EDUCATOR will have a fair sample of the good things furnished to the teachers who found it possible to attend. Notwithstanding the very commendable plan of requiring the payment of fees before admission to the general session, the attendance was large-more than the hall of representatives could comfortably accommodate. The noticeable feature of the meeting was the interest taken in it by persons not directly interested in school work. The same thing has been noticed in reading reports of meetings in other states. This is a wholesome

It is more than a mere Art in the Schools. coincidence that several of the leading periodicals have recently had articles touching the various phases of art in eduucation. The address of Superintendent W. H. Glascock as president of the Association of Indiana teachers was altogether timely. As if by common consent the schools have commenced a campaign that bids fair to create an intelligent taste for the best there is in art. The Outlook says "The instinct for art once aroused, the rest depends upon development and cultivation. From instinct to education is a long step, from education to culture a longer one, and from culture to art a far stride indeed. . . . The The special care of the artistic faculty, in training it to appreciate and apraise the values of true art, even in illustrations, has been unduly neglected in our public schools." An awakening has come, however. The Perry pictures, the Witter pictures, the Art-Study pictures, the Elson prints, are within the reach of every school. A new departure in the Riverside series brings art studies also within the means and the scope of even the rural schools. These are interesting signs of an improved taste and bespeak a large art development among all the people. We have as yet but little to boast of. We are just commencing to educate, but the commencement is so vigorous that appreciation is sure to come, and then, in due time, culture and a true art.

Teacher and Community. During the last state meeting of Indiana teachers there were not a few evidences of growing sympathy between the school and the community., Hon. John L. Griffiths and Rev. F. E. Dewhurst had prominent places on the program as laymen. Mrs. May Wright Sewall, in a paper on "The Relation of Society to the School", emphasized the importance of making these relations closer, and showed how the isolation of teacher and school from the community resulted in mutual detriment. At least three of the Indianapolis dailies, besides giving the usual generous reports of proceedings at the various sessions, printed prominent editorials emphasizing just this phase of relationship and interest. The Press said "The growth of the child's character is a constant process. It cannot be carried on during the hours at home and suspended during the hours at

are the pioneers of good citizenship, the promoters of social order. The public appreciate more and more the importance and necessity of their work.

In order to be an efficient help to the duties of life, especially those to the state, education should go far enough to measurably ripen the mind and broaden the view. It should also be moral as well as intellectual. . . As civilization advances its problems become more complex, and the right understanding of social and civic duties involves more and wider study by the young".

The News also had some editorial thoughts that seem worth quoting. Referring to the convening of the association it said "The questions to be discussed are questions in which every citizen of the state is interested. For it is of the greatest importance that every citizen should have at least the rudiments of a good education, and thus the function of the teacher can hardly be too highly esteemed. . . The work of teaching bears so intimate a relation to practical affairs and to the conduct of life, that we venture to express the hope that our teachers may gradually come to regard their work a little more from the outside point of view. They certainly should never regard themselves as constituting a class apart, for it is only when they keep in close touch with the great world forces that they are able to do their best work. It is not enough for them to know about the science of teaching-though, of course, they must know life and people, and be filled with a sympathetic interest in humanity. Education is not a matter of rules and dogmas, but of inspiration. One can imagine a good teacher practically ignorant of theories of pedagogy, but not one who is ignorant of life and of the movements of the time." ·

Now it is well understood that the daily press must and does fairly represent public sentiment. And the time has been when a paper that would devote columns to a prize fight would dismiss an educational convention with a mere paragraph. The proceedings of the teachers at their last meeting received each day more attention in the newspapers than did the republican "love feast." This is both gratifying and significant. It expresses the growing public interest in things educational, and a better appreciation of the teachers and their work. The