The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-02-06
THE PRES S.
SATURDAY MORNING., FEB. 6, 1873
National Bureau Of Education.

NdbiOuul DuFedu OI EuucdGIOu.
The Bureau of Education, a division OF
the Department of the Interior, is mystery
to many people. Perhaps the majority of us
have dim idea that it is quite useless affair,
established with view to make provision in
the way of salaries and perquisites for a few
favored ones. Men of the "strict construc-
zion" school look upon it as a step toward
the centralization which they dread so much
An investigation however of the purposes
and work of the Bureau will show that it is
neither an extravaganza nor revolutionary
institution. As regards the degree of its use
fulness opinions will differ.
At the time of the establishment of the
Bureau it was urged that there was need of
some central agency by which the general ed
ucational statistics of the country could be
collected, preserved, condensed, and proper
ly arranged for distribution; by which the re-
suits ofall important experiments in new and
special methods of school instruction and
management could be gathered; and by
which information respecting the school laws
of the different states could be dilfused among
the people. On these representations the
Bureau was established. A Commissioner
OF Education was appointed at salary of
$4,000, and an appropriation of $4,000 was
made. subsequently the salary was cut
down to $4,000, and the appropriation TO
$4,000, while the clerical force was reduced
to two men, at salaries of $1200 This, as
will be readily acknowledged, is not an ex-
t.avagant outlay.
The Bureau was at once set to work. In
furtherance of the object of the collection of
information as to the condition and progress
Of education in the country it at once put it.
self in correspondence with educational insti-
tutions. The list of institutions with which
it is now in correspondence reaches 1900, and
embraces 1872 normal schools. IA business
colleges, 1,455 academies, 1888 colleges and
universities, 73 schools ofscience, lis of the
ology, 81 oflaw, 9S of medicine, 103 prepara-
tory schools, 40 schools for the instruction of
deaf mutes, % for the blind, for the feeble
minded, As for the reformation of youth, and
many museums of natural history and art.
The amount of intelligence thus collected in
respect to systems, school-laws and impor-
tant institutions is such as no other agency
has ever gathered or possibly could gather
without vast labor and great expense. The
results, in view of the small expenditures, are
surprising. The collection of statistics thus
obtained, and the conclusions drawn from
researches made, will, if carefully studied,
save the wasting of millions of money in use
less experiments.
The second object of the Bureau is the
diffusion Of the information collected. This
branch of its duties has been discharged by
the printing of annual reports, by the send
ing out of circulars of information, and by
the answering of inquiries on school matters
addressed to the commissioners. The great
mass of information obtained as to school
systems in this country and in Europe, has
been carefully digested, and the value of diff
ferent methods of instruction and manage
ment fully set forth. There is strong testi-
mony that the intelligence thus spread abroad
has materially aided in harmonizing the
school systems OF the states and in i'm
proving the methods of instruction.
Perhaps one of the most important features
of the Bureau is its library, which is of un-
exampled richness in its special line. In ad-
dition to works bearing on education as
science or an art, it has the whole periodical
educational literature Of the country. This
is bound, classified and properly arranged, so
as to be Immediately available for any line of
educational research to be attempted,
whether it refers to state and city systems of
instruction or to the condition of academic,
collegiate, professional, or special training in
any recent period or year.
1t will be noticed that no power whatever
is given the Bureau but that of gathering
and disseminating information upon school
affairs. No authority over the school sys-
TENS of the states is conferred. Information,
and not direction, is its line Of work. Its
strongest supporters have been from the first
opposed to national control of education.
The Bureau is simply, to use the language of
one ofits friends, "a clearing house for edu-
cational information.''