New-York tribune., 1878-04-26
DIR BUPEdU or EDUC1TTON.

the Commissioner of Education in addition to
the regular junk shop supply OF this dropslcal
document which has already been issued. In
recommending this extra edition, the Commit
tee on Printing, which seems to have been
OppOItunely smttcn with a paroxysm of
common sense, improved the occa-
sion to cxpostulatc against the yearly
growth of this report in voluminousness
and expense, to speak disrespectiully of its
most cunnngly devised statistics and to de-
monstrate the general emptiness OF its pre-
tensions. No "fricnd of education in the
House arose to take exception, general or
special, to this caustic criticism. and it was
the evident intention of the House to remind
this bureau, and other funguses upon the va
rous departments, that they were agents and
not principals that they should restrict them
selves to the exercise of their legitimate
functions. and that desperate efforts to aug
mcnt the gross weight of their reports
and the corresponding burdens OF expense for
printing, would not be imputed to them for
righteousness. A very cheerful commcGdation
of this temper of the House by TIE TRIBUNE
seems to have occasioned some nervous excite
mcnt i'm the Bureau of EducatiOn, which in
vites attention to itself in a communication to
he found in another column. This effort OF
Mr.. Eaton's avcngcr does not seem to demand
any notice in detail. although some OF
its logic and arithmetic will be incident
ally alluded To in the course of few
general observations upon the bureau and Its
works which it may be as well to make row
as at any other time. II may not be improper,
however in passing, to advise Alr. Eaton ana
his apologists that that portion of the Ameri-
can people not now in Office have not yet
been made aware of the existence of any
statute compelling all citizens, who think they
have occasion TO critcisc the work Of a depart
mental bureau to "hand III their names"
In the first place. then, Congress would rem
der signal service to Mr.. Commissioner Eaton
if il would pass Joint resolution defining the
intent and meaning Of the loosely wordcd act
which created him. Year after year he quotes
the provisions of this act to show that 1t Is
his mission 10 "collcct statistics and " di!use
"iDformaton,r but he is possessed with alarm
ipgly inflated notions of what is required OF
him as a collector and diil'user. In one place he
holds that his report, if fabricated in accordance
with legal requirements, would he "a record
"of the Nations growth in intelligence and
"yirtuc.n Again hc sings; Vigorously limit
"ing all the Bureau undertakes TO do, by the
claw under which ii was established, il touches
"cycrv spring in the welfare of the people, and
"cvcry interest Of each individual i'll the
"Nation.n Many passages of the same tenor
arc scattered throughout his reports, which are
written in tumcfcd kind Of blank verse, and
they all 90 to show how large a space
in the moral economy of the universe
Mr.. Eaton feels that he is called upon
to fiji. He is plainly burdening himself with
an undue responsibility for the sins and dan
gers of the Nation and if Congress would
sharply circumscribe his sphere of activity.
and give him, as it gives other public sery-
ants, something definite TO do, he might tIlk
like a man of this world who is driving at
something, instead of being rapt into an
ecstacy or thrown into rhetorical commissions
whenever he has anything to say. At all
events, if relieved Of his imaginary burdens
he might manage to worry along without Civ
ing vent to his annual cry for more money
and more clerks and he might be content to
"dlffusen q report which sprawled over less
than 1900 pages
In the report for 1876, lately published, Mr.
his language, although its opening pages are
lurid with conGagrations, explosions, earth
makcs, knives, bullets, halters, blood and
general tendency to catastrOphism. At page
23 there is fine example Of the Commits
sioner's dismal style Of prophecy, based on the
assumption that no American youth is enjoying
private instruction, and that therefore, all
those not enrolled upon the public school lists
are growing up in ignorance and vice. Mr..
Eaton dspOrts himself through 213 pages, and
then follow 4G5 pages OF extracts from re-
ports Of school officers. making an unedited
and undigested mass of information and
misinformatiOn which may be of III
terest to the wOrthics whose names
are embalmed therein, but which the
remainder of the human race Will never be
likely to consult. Why should the country be
told on page 247, for instance, that Mr.. G..
b. Gripper, of Weeping Water, was superin-
tendent of Cass County, Neb, especially since
that estimable gentleman retired from
Office long before the report was pub
lished7 And yet there are yards of
such personals" and other matter
equally irrelevant and antiquated, in this will
derness of abstracts. After the dsquisitions
on Anglo-SaxOn and Greek pronunciation.
which would be valuable if "dIlfI1sed in
pathological journal, and some account of the
transactions of educational societies in which
gushing resolutions of confidence in the Com
missioner aud his bureau are spread at large
and by the way, Americans who are in the
habit of going to meeting are aware how easily
spontaneous resolutions arc generated-come
the spacious tables which demonstrate
the expansive powers of tho statistical
mind. One of these is carried out under 12l
headings, and it has been remarked by eds
"creet person" at the head Of the educational
system of neigbboriDg State, that school