The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-08-05
STATE BANKERS WILL
APPEAL TO THE S0L0NS
NEW EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IS
TO BE REQUESTED.
Propose to Ask Legislature to Appro-
pirate Money and Arrange for
Commission That Can Devise Plan;
Present Methods Regarded as Su-
perfcial and Impractical; Would
Send Experts to Other Countries.

Minneapolis, August 2.-The Journal
says: The Minnesota Bankers asso-
citation will go before the next legis-
lature 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 session in
which the question of education and a
discussion of the disposition of the
$l4000,000 so expended annually in
Minnesota will be feature.
The system of education now in
vogue in the state will be attacked.
The attack will be made with the con-
structive idea uppermost and with the
plea for general reorganization and for
obtaining, by the aid of experts, in
formation that will enable intelligent
action.
The Chicago Association of Com
merce, probably the strongest organi-
zation of business interests in the
United States, recently attacked the
Chicago school system, charging that
the system is wrong, that it educates
specifically and not practically.
Work of Investigation.
That association now has in Europe,
under salary, an expert who is study
| ing the educational systems of Ger
many and France. He has been in
structed to ascertain by what manner
the young people of these countries are
given more practical education than
those of the United States.
Minnesota was the first state in the
union to take up the matter in he
form of an investigation by men who
are not professional educators but
practical business men, and the report
of the committee on agricultural de-
velOpment and education of the Min
nesota Bankers association made at
the recent annual gathering of the as
ISOLATION in st. Paul has attracted
wide attention. The committee is
known to desire that Minnesota re-
tain its leadership and be the first
state in the union to work out, if pos
sible, more practical general educa-
tional plan.
| 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,
and Joseph Chapman, Jr., Minneapo-
lis, constitute the committee. Mr.. Chap
man is chairman.
The calling of the conference OH
agricultural education by DIR. 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 committee
as evidence that the educators them
selves are not satisfied with the pres
ent system.
Commission Will Do Some Studying.
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 a compre-
hensive study of 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 being
given, we believe, to the purely in
| tellectual and not enough to the prac-
teal side. We are, in fact, turning
out educated loafers. 1t is not so in
Germany. The statistics that show
how small a proportion of our boys
and girls follow the course, which is
| planned to fit them for the university,
and how great proportion have to
! 90 out into the world and earn liv
ing, without such training as would
/ help them to do it, are well known.
The way to bring about change, we
believe, is for the legislature to au-
! thnrize q thnrounh inrestinatian g