hold us together; without education and general reading, these would not be strong enough to unite us. As it is even though climate and occupations differ, all are able to read the same news, sing the same songs, read the same best sellers and think the same thoughts. Where reading and travel are less general, even in small countries, there are many dialects so different that there can be little common understanding.

People

who cannot speak the same language are not likely to get along well together nor to understand and obey the same laws.

Americanization. A great educational problem is that of giving our millions of foreign immigrants an understanding of America. They may become legally naturalized citizens after five years of residence, provided they have made proper declaration, passed examination, and sworn loyalty to the United States. Sometimes thousands of them settle together

and fail to become naturalized. The act of naturalization itself is important; by it an alien becomes a citizen. But real acquaintance with the government and customs of their adopted country counts for more. Americanization schools for adult foreigners are conducted in our great cities. While parents may attend these, their children are studying our government and becoming Americans in the public schools.

Public Opinion. Another reason for the necessity of intelligent, reading citizens is that all government of the people is controlled by public opinion. What all or most of the people want will come to pass. In the modern sense there could be no free government until there was an educated public, allowed the fullest freedom in choice of its reading. Public opinion in the United States makes and unmakes laws and law makers; it brings about or prevents law enforcement. It is a more real force than armies and navies for it brings these into being and makes thern move.

Government Attitude Toward Public Opinion. Government attitudes toward the information and opinions of their citizens or subjects may be classed as suppression, control and guidance, or freedom and encouragement.

1. Despotic powers have limited education and effective opinion to a small controlling class which could itself be controlled. Such suppression was common in all the world until printing was invented.

2. With the advent of printing it was no longer possible to suppress education; books and papers could be produced for all with little expense. Governments now sought to prescribe what might or might not be read, and were especially afraid for the larger reading public to know too much about the government itself. Long after the Revolutionary War, the English government was still so afraid of too much free pub

lic opinion that it was doing nothing for popular education, taxed newspapers heavily, and by vigorous measures endeavored to dictate what should be printed about the rulers themselves.

Attitude of the United States. Almost from the first, America adopted an attitude of encouragement to public education and freedom of public opinion. No other country has sung with so much truth politically "Sweet land of liberty." Universal free, public education has been the ideal. Freedom of the press and of speech are guaranteed by the Constitution. Liberal postal laws have favored extensive circulation of magazines and newspapers. Political discussion has always been unrestricted; a people's government has not been afraid to let the "common people" know too much. The march of civilization has been steadily in the direction of universal education and freedom of discussion; the United States has taken a leading place in this advance.

Public Education in the United States. Of the three kinds of governments which Americans conduct for themselves, national, state, and local, the last two are concerned with what is called public education. The United States trains military and naval officers; controls schools in Alaska, the Philippines and other territories; educates the Indians; assists the states in supporting agricultural colleges, and co-operates with states and local communities in maintaining vocational courses in high schools.

In addition, the national government supports the great library of Congress and many bureaus or offices whose business it is to furnish free information of value in nearly every business or occupation. People who do not write for such information when it is needed are depriving their own government of opportunities to help them.

The Bureau of Education is one of these. It has no legal authority over our schools but through the collection of statistical information and publication of educational bulletins, it performs a very useful service. The importance of education has led to a movement to create a national department of education with a secretary in the President's cabinet and to set apart large sums of money to aid the states in support of schools, especially in reducing illiteracy. It has also been urged since the time of Washington's administration that a national university should be established at Washington.

The States in Education. Though there are no national laws relating to education and no United States system of schools, there is much uniformity among the individual states in the provisions for public education.

1. All states require local communities to maintain schools for all. This may be called compulsory education. Every state has also found it necessary to pass compulsory attendance laws since a few parents are so short-sighted as to keep their children out of school at work or to send them so irregularly that they make little progress and drop out of school at the earliest opportunity. Most states also have laws forbidding employment of children during school hours. All such laws are more likely to be enforced in cities than in small communities and rural districts.

2. For many years state regulation and control of educa, tion has been increasing, and local authority decreasing. Once local trustees, directors, or committeemen determined the length of school term, adopted textbooks, and examined teachers. Most of these powers are now exercised in part or altogether by the states. The result has been increased economy and higher standards. The principal school officer, usually called the superintendent or commissioner, has in many states

a group of specialists who supervise the schools and encourage the best work.

3. State support of education has likewise been increasing. State school funds consist of proceeds of the sale of lands, sections sixteen and thirty-six being devoted to education except in the older states. Fines, escheats, and other minor sources of revenue are frequently added to school funds. In addition to school funds, the interest only of which is used, several states have a general tax for school support. The advantage of state over local support is found in the fact that very poor communities which might be brought to higher standards may thus be aided, and special types of vocational education may be developed.

Aside from such regulation and support as have been mentioned most states maintain a state university or provide scholarships in universities already established. They usually provide normal schools or teachers' colleges for the training of teachers; they co-operate with the national government in support and control of vocational courses in high schools. Special schools for deaf, blind, and incorrigible are also conducted by the state.

Local Government in Relation to Education. Most of the money required to support the school you attend probably came from county, city, or district taxation. Local trustees, directors, or committeemen employ teachers, and provide buildings and supplies for operation of the schools. This board is in nearly all cases elected by the voters; in this way the people determine how their schools are to be supported and conducted. There is a tendency to reduce the number of small country districts by consolidation and by the county unit, a plan by which a single board manages all the schools of a county instead of having a separate board for each little school.