Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1915-08-13
"A NATIONAL SYSTEM
OF EDUCATION

System of Education He explained
the point of view OF the so-called
land grant colleges" sketched their
history and work since 1862, point
education founded and supported in
part By the national government, ex-
listing in every state, constituting
truly, a national system. He said:
| Since the movement was truly
national IN legislative origin, in eco
homie basis, and in educational
ideals, national Department OF
Education, who should contribute to
| the unifiCation and efficiency of the
system. and to the development of its
| ideals for the educa ton of an indus
trial democracy. There have been
| official attempts to measure the in
| stitutions OF the national system by
| the standards of the traditional col
lege OF the literary system and to dis
credit those that departed from the
| old fegime. There have been other
attempts to narrow their sprere to
the service of a single industry. AS
defense against misconception and
attack and injury, a Departm ent of
| Education would have been of the
highest order.
There would have been such de-
partment and such a secretary had
| there not been within the Depart
ment of the Interior for half cen
| fury. a rare lack OF perception of our
rare lack OF an understanding Of the
| relation of education to the internal
development of the nation, and u
| rare appreciation of the paramount
| Importance of patents, pensions and
politics.
How startling that there should
have existed, for half a century, a
| national system of education, so dis
tinctiye in its characteristics, so
closely related to the national devel-
opment, for which this department
was responsible and that it should
not have known it. The system was
| ready made to hand. 1t was the sys-
| tenn OF the land grant colleges and
| universities. There was an institu-
| ton in each state. There was a dis
tinctive ideal to be developed. There
was work of national significance to
do. New methods were to be discov-
cred; new instruments were to be
| invented; and unity in the move
| ment was to be devised Each insti-
tuition was to be accounted for in
the national budget. How rarely
strange that for more than half a
by the responsible department of
state should have been left to clerks
and underlings whose sole task was
the checking up of accounts of the
several states in the matter of Add
tion-but not always in Subtraction
and Division.
1t is almost equally amazing that
out of the same Department of the
Interior there should have emerged
under almost accidental circum-
stances a new department-that of
Northumberland to develop
with amazing rapidity, assuming not
only the legitimate functions of such
national department, but likewise
absorbing the purely educational and
pedagogical functions of the newedu-
cational system. 1t has stood spon-
sor not merely for the agricultural
side OF the system, but likewise in a
measure for all Its other industrial
phases, particularly that of Home
Economics. This vigorous young
giant, the Departm ent of Agriculture,
brought to life by reason Of the Agri-
cultural College, has easily elbowed
out of the way whatever feeble at
tempts at self-assertion may have
been made by the departments
charged with the educational func-
tion of our national government.
From time to time, feeling the throb
OF the great national movement to-
ward a rational system of education
adapted to an industrial common
wealth, the U. s. Bureau OF Educa-
ton has made attempts to break into
our local systems of secondary and
elementary schools at least with
soSnd advice. Baffled at every turn
because it is an outsider to our pure
ly local agencies, the Department
seems to be wholly ignorant or the
dictum that educational movements
are from above downward, and to be
wholly unconscious OF the fact that
1t has ready made to hand and has
had for half a century, a system for
| which 10