ability, resourcefulness, and gracious courtesy with which President Eliot, his capable and devoted official associates, and the great city of Boston handled the unprecedented crowd, and attended to the minutest details of the meeting. Certainly, they excelled even their own splendid record of wisdom and hospitality, and their praises were constantly in the mouths of visitors from Maine to California, from Michigan to Texas, and from New York to Florida. Never has there been set for a democratic gathering a higher standard of manners or morals. The refinements and amenities of true culture were everywhere manifest. Opportunities for mental and moral expansion, for historical and literary inspiration, and for the highest social and intellectual pleasures were never so abundant. There is no doubt, moreover, that the Convention was as much a beneficial object lesson to Boston and New England, as Boston and New England were to the attendants from other sections of the country. Our citizens were most agreeably impressed by the personal appearance, fine behavior, and high grade of intelligence of that portion of the vast army of American teachers who were in attendance: Aside from the hot weather of convention week, the one regret was that every teacher and school officer in the land were not present. Though the enrollment was so large, many far and near who should have been there stayed away. For many years past the writer, in an official capacity, annually urged the teaching staff in a large city within sixty miles of Boston to attend the National Educational Association. Their excuse for absence uniformly was that it was held too far away; but when this year the meeting was in Boston, their excuse for staying at home was that it was too Of this staff less than a dozen were present, including but two members of the school committee, who attended but one or two days. Alas, what can be done when the heart is dead and the will paralyzed? If the habitual absentees, who are not infrequently distressingly narrow-minded, provincial, and prejudiced, could but appreciate their opportunity to attain breadth of view and more intelligent opinions by contact with large numbers of the best people and by listening to inspiring and instructive addresses at N. E. A. Conventions, they would

near.

count few sacrifices too great to make that they might attend. Often the papers with which one most disagrees are the most helpful. Every intelligent, able, and worthy teacher desires familiarity with every form and phase of educational opinion. and activity. Moreover, it is absolutely essential that every teacher shall be lifted above and beyond the fatal routine of his every-day life and environment by the contemplation of the largest themes, by the most impressive units of thought and feeling, and by personal acquaintance with the greater men and women who are molding professional opinion and heading advanced educational movements.

Let us now come a little closer to the Convention itself. Often the most interesting and instructive features of a Convention are the conversations between the sessions, wherein one learns the mental reactions of able men after they have heard some of the addresses and papers announced on the program. "What do you think," said one gentleman in my hearing to the head of one of the best academies in the country, "of Stanley Hall's educational propaganda and influence?" The rather inelegant answer was, "His views are all Tommy Rot.' They are sentimental vagaries which are a menace to all sound and substantial education. He indoctrinates a lot of school superintendents and professors of pedagogy in colleges and normal schools, who in turn shape courses of study and influence the rank and file of teachers, to the detriment of thousands of American pupils. Dr. Hall's influence, conjoined with that of President Eliot and his elective system, has done untold injury to sound mental discipline in the schools. Why, sir, even conservative Yale will now graduate a young man without a knowledge of geometry. It is absurd and disgraceful. What are we coming to? Put a boy through a Stanley Hall or a John Dewey course of study, and what will he know? He can't stand fire' in geometry or Latin, the elements of which every schoolboy and schoolgirl should be compelled to master." Another of this group said, Stanley Hall and John Dewey ought to be shut up in an iron cage with Lady H. J. Bok, and kept from doing farther harm to American schools." Another remarked that this "sentimental gush and bosh" would soon run its course, and common sense

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would reassert itself. A fourth gentleman said, "I beg your pardon, my friends. There is much sound sense and enduring truth in the doctrines of Stanley Hall and John Dewey. Let us no longer be slaves to tradition; let us save the boys, and keep them longer in school by more rational and reasonable treatment; let us protect the girls by a more discriminating course of study, better adapted to their nature and needs; in short, let us more intelligently study human nature and practical life, and fit the school to our youth rather than our youth to the school."

In my hearing the question was also asked, "What do you think of Margaret Haley and her federation movement?" The answer was, "I think that if she makes one or two more such exhibitions of her aims and animus as she has made here, she will hopelessly fall from the pinnacle of her ambition and conceit. Give her enough rope, and she will hang herself and ruin her cause all right." Said another, "Her demagogy was clearly proved by her effort to prove that Presidents Eliot and Butler intentionally tried to discriminate against women, when such was the farthest from their thoughts. While, inadvertently, President Butler's proposed amendment to the constitution of the N. E. A. was less democratic than the present clause, which gives the appointment of members of the nominating committee to the active members from the several states; and though I would not have voted for the proposed amendment, whose only purpose was to secure a complete committee on nominations and expedite business; yet Miss Haley, by confusing the issues involved with woman's rights,' enjoys a brief personal triumph in the daily press reports of chivalrous newspaper men." "If she herself be so broad and democratic in spirit," said another, "why does she not include her federation principals, superintendents, and high school teachers instead of confining its membership to grade teachers?" Said a fourth, "The war of races in the United States is not between blacks and whites, but between the Latin and Anglo-Saxon civilizations; between the ideals of authority and organization against freedom and individuality; between Rome and Plymouth Rock. Miss Haley represents the former, and her following will finally be only

those who favor the Latin ideal." A fifth gentleman answered: "I think that you are going far afield for an explanation of Miss Haley and her movement. I believe that she is unconscious of any such ideal or motive. She seems to me to be actuated by the worthy desire of elevating our profession; by securing to the rank and file of teachers the dignity and influence of higher salaries."

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"The topic which you have just now been discussing," said a gentleman from Massachusetts to a gentleman from Colorado, naturally leads me to ask how woman suffrage works in your state?" The latter answered: "It has proved no blessing, within the limits of my observation. Certainly, many of the women I know on school boards are the worst demagogues on the board." "Which exactly coincides," said the inquirer, "with my observation in Massachusetts. Several women on school committees I have known were the worst politicians and all round wire-workers connected with their respective committees. They are often hysterically impulsive, and eagerly engage in personal politics." These remarks led another to say, "Women seem naturally to live in a personal atmosphere, and often appear unable or unwilling to look at a question from an impersonal point of view." When a lady approved what had been said about both Miss Haley and woman suffrage, remarking that these movements did not represent the most thoughtful women, a gentleman said: "Time and experience will improve women in public service. Andrew Jackson lived in a 'personal' atmosphere; and there are already a considerable number of women possessing philosophic minds, with their emotions well under control."

Some of the addresses which attracted most attention were President Eliot's on a new definition of the cultivated man, his address and that of President Butler on the shortening of the baccalaureate course, Bishop Thomas F. Gailor's on the need of greater attention by universities to the morals and manners of their students, Professor L. H. Bailey's on the nature-study movement, Henry L. Clapp's on school gardens, the Rev. Charles T. Walker's on negro education in the South, and President Hall's on sex in education.

The keynotes of the Convention seemed to be that interest and pleasure in pupils' minds should be inseparably connected with school studies and occupations; hence, that there should be freedom of choice among studies as early as the seventh year of school life; that time should be economized by shortening the course of study from the kindergarten through the university; that more boys must be induced to stay in the high school and go to college or technical school; that girls should be educated with greater reference to their peculiar needs and nature; that educational progress largely depends upon women -but as mothers rather than as teachers; that a new and broader definition of culture should be formulated; that teachers' salaries should be increased throughout the country; and that negroes and Indians should be thoroughly educated-most of them industrially, and some of them professionally.

It is interesting to note that, notwithstanding the unusual attractions outside the convention halls, the attendance at every session in all departments was very large. Indeed, at many meetings, not only was every seat filled, but also every foot of floor space was occupied by persons sitting on the carpet.

Finally, it must be said, that several unique circumstances. combined to make the N. E. A. Convention in 1903 the most remarkable in the history of the Association, and probably greater than any of its future meetings, at least for many years. It is hardly necessary to mention the chief of these unusually favorable conditions: the distinguished presiding officer, President Eliot, whose name is a household word wherever progress and culture are appreciated; the place of meeting, Boston, with its historic landmarks and literary shrines; proximity to Cambridge, with its ancient university; nearness to Salem, Plymouth, Lexington, and Concord, and other scenes of colonial and Revolutionary events inseparably connected with American history and literature; and the series of receptions in the homes of old families and famous institutions.