The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-12-08

system on all the rural routes would
amount to many million dollars.
| Education.
The share that the national govern
ment should take in the broad work of
education has not received the atten-
ton and the care it rightly deserves.
The immediate responsibility for the
support and improvement of our edu-
cational systems ana institutions rests
and should always rest with the people
of the several states acting through.
their state and local governments, but
the nation has an opportunity in edu-
cational work which must not be lost
and a duty which should no longer be
neglected.
The national bureau of education
was established more than forty years
ago. Its purpose is to collect and diff
fuse such information "as shall aid
the people of the United States in the
establishment and maintenance of elf
cient school systems and otherwise pro-
mote the cause of education through
out the country This purpose in no
way conflicts with the educational
work of the states, but may be made
of great advantage to the states by
giving them the fullest, most accurate
and hence the most helpful informa-
ton and suggestion regarding the best
educational systems. The nation,
through its broader field of activities,
it's wider opportunity for obtaining in
formation from all the states and from
foreign countries, is able to do that
which not even the richest states can
do and with the distinct additional adj
vantage that the information thus OBJ
tanned is used for the immediate ben
eft of all our people.
With the limited means hitherto pro-
vided the bureau of education has rem
dered efficient service, but the con-
gress has neglected to adequately sup
ply the bureau with means to meet
the educational growth of the country.
The appropriations for the general
work of the bureau, outside education
in Alaska, for the year 1909 are but
$S7 800, an amount less than they
were ten years ago, and some of the
important items in these appropria-
lions are less than they were thirty
years ago. 1t is an inexcusable waste
of public money to appropriate an
amount which is so inadequate as to
make it impossible properly to do the
work authorized, and it is unfair to
the great educational interests of the
country to deprive them of the value
of the results which can be obtained
by proper appropriations.
/ earnestly recommend that this I'M
fortunate state of affairs as regards the
national educational Office be remedied
by adequate appropriations. This rec
ommendation is urged by the repre-
sentativeS of our common schools and
great state universities and the leading
educators, who all unite in requesting
favorable consideration and action by
the congress upon this subject
Census.
/ strongly urge that the request of
the director of the census in connection
with the decennial work so soon to be
begun be complied with and that the
appointments to the census force be
placed under the civil service law,
wafving the geographical requirements
as requested by the director of the CEN
sus. The supervisors and enumerators
should not be appointed under the civil
service law for the reasons given by
the director. I commend to the con-
admirable report of the director of the
census, and 1 trust that his recon-
mendations will be adopted and imme-
date action thereon taken
Redistribution of Bureaus.
1t is highly advisable that there
should be intelligent action on the
part of the nation on the question of
preserving the health of the country.
Through the practical determination
in San Francisco of disease bearing
rodents our country has thus far es-
capped the bubonic plague. This is but
one of the many achievements of
American health officers, and it shows
what can be accomplished with a bet
ter organization than at present exists.
Public Health.
The dangers to public health from
food adulteration and from many
other sources, such as the menace to
the physical, mental and moral deveI-
opment of children from child labor,
should be met and overcome There
are numerous diseases which are now
known to be preventable which are
nevertheless not prevented. The re-
cent international congress on tuber-
culOsis has made us painfully aware
of the inadequaey of American public
| health legislation. This nation can
not afford to lag behind in the world
wide battle now being ,waged by all
civilized people with the microscopic
foes of mankind, nor ought we longer
to ignore the reproach that this gov
eminent takes more pains to protect
| the lives of hogs and of cattle than
of human beings. The first legisla-