school, it is applied alike in the elementary and the secondary schools of America.

I would like to give you an idea of the arrangements in connection with the secondary schools in New York, which, in this respect, are typical except with regard to the size of the school. New York, being built on a tongue of land, has to be erected towards the heavens. I think I am right in saying that there is not a single secondary school in New York which has less than 5000 pupils. That is not because they believe in a school of 5000, but because the physical difficulties of living in New York are such that they are obliged to have schools containing that enormous number of children. I visited many secondary schools in New York, and found certain common features in them. There is a much greater variety in the curriculum, there are greater facilities than in this country for practical work. You have frequently your forge, your printing room, your casting room, and all kinds of rooms devoted to arts and crafts and technical processes. You find an equipment in some respects that you would look for in an up-to-date university. A secondary school of 5000 boys in New York is a picture of efficiency and organisation. So far as I could observe in frequent visits, the machinery of these boys' schools worked with great precision. You go

into a large interesting room which is covered with a series of charts. You think, first of all, that you have come into a room where an attempt is being made to show the history of the world in the form of charts on the walls; but it is simply a list of the classes. The faculty comprises over 250 persons, and the work of the school is organised by subjects. There will be an English department, a French department, and so on. You are shown what can be done by the application of science to a school, and by no niggardliness in the spending of money. You see a machinery which is as good as machinery can be made. And the picture you get in New York is repeated in other towns and cities throughout America, but not on the same size, because, happily, the same physical difficulties do not exist in other cities on the same scale as in New York.

If I had time I could tell you many details about the secondary schools. I was interested by a book which is issued every term and is given to every boy or girl in the school. This book contains about a hundred pages. It gives a list of clubs and societies covering every form of intellectual and physical activity; it gives rules of health; information as to how to proceed to your university; it gives a bibliography of books on various subjects which are essential

to the student. It presents a picture of the working of this vast machinery of the school in the clearest way, and this book itself is a tribute to efficiency, revealing the extraordinary activities of the school. It is also written in very good, clear English.

Before coming to detailed experiments, I want to say something about the university system in the United States.

There are, I suppose, about 1000 universities in the United States. These universities are common universities in the sense that the schools are common schools, and, of course, they are used to a far greater extent than the universities are in this country. I should like to give you an account of my experience at one of the universities in America-the University of Syracuse. I was a guest of that university for some time, and had many opportunities of studying and informing myself with regard to its working by direct consultation with the faculty which is responsible for its government and all details in connection with it.

Syracuse is an unlovely town and offers no features of special interest, but the university, which stands on high ground on the borders of the city, is a singularly beautiful place. It has some hundreds of acres; it has a great amphitheatre for sports and games; it has a swimming

bath, art galleries, and the equipment of a modern university. Its buildings and equipment are splendid. Yet I am Yet I am speaking of something which is typical of hundreds of universities.

The question I put to the authorities was: How far is this university, with its splendid equipment, the university of the whole of the city? Do the poor come here? Or is it attended only by men of the middle or well-to-do classes? I asked, because it was not a wholly free university like the city of New York. I was assured by the professors, and by the governing body, that the poorest came, and that it was a university which contained every one; no one had been kept out by reason of poverty.

What I heard made me realise something of the love for learning which the educational system of America calls forth in the youth of the nation. The Professor of History said: "Let me give you an instance of the kind of spirit in the university and of the kind of students we get. I went down to-day to the town and left an order for my wife at the butcher's (for in America they speak of these things without any shame), where I thought I recognised the young man who took my order. I found he was one of the students in the history department, who spent two hours daily serving in the butcher's

shop in order to get the necessary money to maintain himself at the university." The professor said further: "Many of our students today, in the long vacation, take posts as waiters, and even as trolley conductors, in order, during the vacation, to get money to pay for their university residence."

Another professor, speaking again before his colleagues without any embarrassment, said: "Let me now give you an instance. As a youth I was a member of this university. I paid my way through the university and graduated here by spending an hour or two each day removing the ashes and cleaning the garden paths of one of the professors of the university." And, he added, "This very day one of my students is removing my ashes and keeping my garden paths in order." I think we shall look in vain, in other places, for a parallel to such popular zeal for education. Yet the same story can be told of any other university in a typical American town.

The results of the common educational system of America are, in the first place, a united feeling with regard to education. We find it very difficult to convene a conference in this country at which educational leaders and representatives of education would have a common interest. Here there are public schools, private schools, council schools, continuation schools, and so on. We

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