to bring the youthful vigor of the colonies into touch with the experience and culture of the Mother Land, in the belief that both would thereby be benefited. As time went on, his advancing thought led him to conceive that still higher ends could be served by the coöperation of the United States with his own country in carrying forward the work of civilization, and still further that the increasing influence of Germany made its support and sympathy for the same purpose of the utmost importance. He believed that great good would result to the world from a mutual understanding between these various peoples, and, using the means which he had in his hand, he took the step that seemed to him most likely to promote such an understanding. His plan was very simple. He would secure as the agents of his purpose picked young men of these nations. For these he believed that the strongest bond of sympathy would be created by a common education. He therefore arranged that for all time to come nearly 200 scholars of these countries should be educated together at the most ancient and famous seat of English learning and training."

The Kahn Foundation.

M. Albert Kahn, at present a resident of Paris, has arranged a gift which provides a year of free travel for college or university teachers, with a view not simply of their seeing the world but of broadening their intellectual outlook and widening their understanding and sympathies concerning alien peoples. The present fund provides for two of these Kahn Travelling Fellowships each year, and the appointments are made by the Trustees of the Foundation, who may be addressed in regard to the matter at Columbia University.

Commercial Education.

COMMERCIAL EDUCATION IN NEW YORK.-The Chamber of Commerce of New York City has appointed a committee, of which Mr. George P. Brettis is chairman, to endeavor to secure better commercial training in the elementary schools for boys and girls who are obliged to leave

school at the age of 14; to obtain better facilities for commercial education in the secondary schools of the city; to establish evening schools, both elementary and high, for commercial training; and to establish a well-equipped and thoroughly organized college of commerce. The great need of the latter is felt because of the demand for experts in dealing with the city's rapidly growing export trade and because of the demand for well-trained teachers of commercial courses. This college would be expected to train men for such positions as bank managers, directors of large enterprises, and all similar positions demanding extended expert knowledge. Especially should it educate men in the use of foreign languages and make them familiar with the customs, history, and economic conditions of foreign people.

The purpose is also to establish a free employment bureau for the use of all students of commercial education who shall secure the Chamber of Commerce certificate of proficiency in commercial subjects. The plan also includes à Commercial Museum, which shall contain a well-equipped library bearing on subjects which are of value in a commercial Education. To carry out the plan the Chamber has decided to form a Commercial Education Council, to consist of some of their own members and of other residents of the city who are interested in the subject. Whatever this Educational Council does, it is to be hoped that they will coöperate with the public-school system of the city, with its well-equipped educational leaders, its well-organized working force, and its long years of educational experience on which to build sanely and safely.

SAFE INVESTMENTS.-A new form of training is being added to the curriculum in many of our schools of commerce that have departments of economics. In the University of Wisconsin and a number of other colleges and universities these departments are now including instruction in what constitutes a safe investment. When it is remembered that the Post-Office Department of our National Government estimates that approximately $77,000,000 were taken, in 1911, from the pockets of credulous investors by the promoters of fake investments, and that this takes no account of the money lost in legitimate but poor investments, the need of such education is apparent.

A practical course of this sort has been opened in the School of Commerce of the Northwestern University, and it is has met with so much favor among the business men of Chicago that they have contributed liberally to its support. The course gives not only the usual training in professional accounting, commercial law, business organization, and railway rate making, but also a full course in finance. In this course a full description of financial institutions and of financial methods is supplemented by a description of monetary and banking systems and the proper relation of banks to speculations, panics, and financial crises. To this is added a study of the function of business organizations and the methods of organizing and promoting them, the use of bonds and stocks, the administration of corporate funds, the establishment of credit, and the relations of corporations to the public.

It is because unscrupulous sharpers prey upon the ignorance in money matters of so many victims that such investment-training is needed. But it has the additional advantage of giving the community experts to turn to for advice and assurance in matters of investment.

PART IV

CHAPTER VI

MATTERS PERTAINING TO THE EMOLUMENTS

AND PROFESSIONAL STANDING

OF TEACHERS.

Salaries.

THE Committee on Teachers' Salaries and Cost of Living, appointed at the 1911 meeting of the N. E. A., has rendered a very complete report of the results of what appears to be a most careful although limited study of the subject. As expert economists and statisticians collected and collated all the important data and as five typical communities are represented in the study of economic and social conditions, the report possesses exceptional value as a scientific study of the whole subject. Some of the most valuable parts of the report follow.

INCREASED COST OF LIVING.-In the case of 15 staple articles of food the Bureau of Labor finds that, from 1896 to 1911, retail prices increased 50.2 per cent. This upward flight continued in 1912, so that, by June, retail food prices averaged 61.7 per cent higher than in 1896. This means that, as compared with 1896, a $1000 salary possessed a purchasing power of only $624.61 in 1912. In other words, to be as well off economically the teacher who received a salary of $1000 in 1896 should have been paid a salary of $1617 in 1912. And this takes no account whatever of raised standards of preparation for teaching or of the increased money calls of the position in 1912. This great increase in the cost of living, and the teacher's relatively poorer position because of it wherever increases of salary have not kept pace with this growing cost of living, is one of the important factors to keep in mind in every consideration of the salary question.

OTHER DATA. Five cities, representing four distinct geographical sections of the country, were chosen for the

investigation. In one of these cities it was found that 40 per cent of the teachers were under 25 years of age, and, including all five, 13.1 per cent of the teachers were men. Of the women teachers of the group, 93.2 per cent were single, and the average number of children in the families of the married male teachers was approximately 2, thus making an average of 4 persons to be wholly supported by the salary of the male teacher. Approximately 60 per cent of the female teachers of two of the cities had others wholly or in part dependent upon them; but in the other cities this percentage was lower, owing to the lower average age of the teachers. The average weekly commercial rate paid for board and room varied from $7.15 in Denver to $4.90 in Atlanta.

"More than half of all the teachers in the five cities belong to groups adding less than 22 per cent and nearly 90 per cent belong to groups adding less than 5 per cent. to their salaries from extra teaching or other outside work. In practice, therefore, the opportunities open to teachers to supplement their salaries in this way are not very largely productive." The amount of savings for the year 1911 were small-from $30 to $90 was the average for those whose salaries ranged between $550 and $900. "The larger percentages saved as salaries are advanced toward the prevailing maximum indicate a provident spirit among teachers "; but "Under existing conditions it is clear that the great majority of teachers are so situated that they cannot save enough from salaries to enable them to retire at their own expense."

The report is very specific on the length of the teacher's working day, which it considers under the three headings: (a) The number of hours required to be in the schoolroom; (b) the number of hours spent in grading papers, preparing lessons, and other work directly connected with teaching; (c) the time spent in meeting other professional demands. "Due to the habit of taking the first of these items only into account, it has long been a fallacy that the teacher's working day is a very short one." Whereas, considering all three of these items, the reverse is known to be true. The daily averages in these respects approximate 534 hours in the class-room, 2 hours in school work done