The Alaska daily empire., 1918-10-28
Educator and Reformer of National Reputation a Victim of the Fate
 full Epidemic.
HER CAREER IN BRIEF
Mrs. Ella FIagg Young Was Best Known Woman Educator in United
 States.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2S.-Mrs. Fl la Flagg Young died of influenza. She was chairman of the National Liberty Loan Committee.
 Mrs. Ella Flagg Young was one of the best known women educators in the United States. She was d leader of progressive educational ideas to which she devoted more than fifty years of her life.
 She was chosen superintendent of Chicagos public schools in 1909 from a list of six candidates. five of whom were men educators of national repu tation She succeeded Edwin G. Cooley and was the first woman to in one of the largest American cit ies. As he1d of, the public schools of Chicago she w"s intruste1 with the eauca for If 3Ao.G0o children.
 She inaugurated many important reforms. among these heinz the teaching of sex hygiene the anllr~e ment of the l-inderg1r'er colrse. an increase in the scope of the ion al training department and simplifica- tion of the curiclum of the primary grades.
 She was aggressive and possessed great executive ability. She insist ed upon the complete divorce of politics from the public schools and fought many successive battles in support of this principle.
 In 1913 a faction of the Chicago school board planned to oust her from her position as superintendent. She anticipated the move by sudden ly resigning. Mayor Harrison was appealed to by the public to have her withdraw her resignation and re- turn to her official duties although she was nearly 70 years old at that time.
 Mrs. Young declined to return un- less her enemies on the school board retired. Mayor Harrison was ob- liged to accept the resignation of five trustees before Mrs. Young would again assume her official du- ties. She triumphed in every clash she had with the politicians in the school board affairs.
 Mrs. Young was born in Buffalo, N. Y, Jan. 15, 1845, and was brought to Chicago by her parents when a young girl. She graduated from the Chicago public schools and was ap- pointed teacher in the primary grade, in 1862, and when she was F years old.
 She was married to a Chicago mer- chant in 1868 but her husband died year later and she returned to teaching.
 "I would rather teach than do anything else in the world" Mrs. Young said on one occasion.
 President William R. Harper of the University of Chicago, who was op- posed to the appointment of women to important posts made an exception in Mrs. Young's case and appointed her professor in the department of pedagogy in 1899.
 Mrs. Young at first declined to ac cept saying: 'I haven't a doctor's degree and I don't want to be teach ing those who are working for their higher degrees when I haven't one myself"
 "It's the woman we want and no, the degree" remarked President Harper as he insisted she accept it
 Finally she consented to take the place on condition that she should first earn her degree
 She left the University of Chi cago in 1905 to become principal of the Chicago Normal School, place she retained until appointed super intendent of Chicago's public schools in 1909.
 She was president of the National Educational Association iL 1910 and