The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1910-08-03
BANKERS TO ASK FOR
new EDUCATION SYSTEM
Want Legislature to Appoint Commits
sion to Investigate Conditions
in Minnesota.

The Minnesota Bankers associa-
ton will 20 before the next legisla-
ture and ask the appointment of a
paid state commission to investigate
educational conditions in Minnesota.
The authoritative statement that
this will be done foreshadows a ses-
sion in which the question of educa-
ticn and discussion of the DISPOSE
ton of the s14,OOO.OOO so expended
annually in Minnesota will be a
feature.
The system of education now in
vogue in the state will be attacked.
The attack will be made with the
constructive idea upper most and
with the plea for general reorganiz-
alton and for obtaining, by the aid
of experts, information that will en-
able intelligent action.
The Chicago Association OF Com.
merce, probably the strongest organ
cation of business interests in the
United States, recently attracked
the Chicago school system, charg-
ing that the system is wrong, that it
educates specifically and not practi-
cally.
Investigators at Work.
The association now has in
Europe, under salary, an expert who
is studying the educational systems
of Germany and France. He has
been instructed to ascertain by what
manner the young people of these
countries are given a more nSeta(
education than those of the United
States.
Minnesota was the: first state ~
the union to take up the matter in
the form of an investigation by men
who are not professional educators
but practical business men, and the
report of the committee on agricul-
tural development and education of
the Minnesota Bankers association
made at the recent annual gathering
of the association in St. Paul has
attracted wide attention. The CON-
mittee is known to desire that
Minnesota retain its leadership and
be the first state in the union to
work out, if possible. more practic-
al general educational plan.
Wedge on Committee.
w. I. Prince of Duluth, L. A. Hun
toon, Moorhead; A. G.. Wedge, Jr.,
Bemidji; William E. Lee, Long
Prairie; George c. Power, St. Paul,
constitute the committee. Mr.. Chap
man is chairman.
The calling of the conference on
agricultural education by DR.. Cyrus
Northrop of the University and Dean
A. F. Woods of the farm school,
which met last Friday and Saturday,
has been taken by the bankers com.
mittee as evidence that the educators
themselves are not satisfied with the
present system.
Commission to Study Plans.
The way to arrive at a workable
change for the better, it is believed,
is for the legislature to authorize the
governor to appoint a commission of
competent men, not necessarily edu-
Gators, on salary, to make compre.
hensive study the present system
eve believe that the present
system is not bringing returns for
the money expended" said Joseph
Chapman, Jr., today. "Too much
attention is given, we believe, to
the purely intellectual and not
enough to the practical side. We
are, in fact, turning out educated
loafers. 1t is not so in Germany.
The statistics that show how
small proportion of our boys and
girls follow the course, which is
planned to fit them for the univer-
sity, and how great a proportion
- have to 60 out into the world and
earn living, without such training
as would help them to do it, are
we'll known The way to bring
a change, we believe, is for the
legislature to authorize a thorough
investigation"
Announcement For County Auditor.