The work of excavating for the new and greater Santa Clara College at the new site near Mountain View, in California, is being pushed onward rapidly and thirty teams are now engaged in the work. The excavation must be completed according to the contract, inside of four months. The excavation will cover an area of 800 feet long and 600 feet wide, and it is estimated that 100,000 cubic yards of ground will be removed, as from three to seventeen feet of earth will be excavated to level the site.

000 to Coe College at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. These are the colleges which on July I had completed their endowment quotas, meeting the conditions imposed by Dr. Pearsons. Seven additional colleges still are working on their endowments.

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The Jesuit College at Grand Coteau, La., was destroyed by fire last month, and the loss on the building alone is estimated at $25,000. The library contained priceless books and records. The building was erected in 1842, and in it were educated some of the most prominent Louisianians. About ten priests lived in the college, and they had a small number of pupils. The fire started in one of the living rooms, and its progress could not be checked. The cause is not known. Rain saved the other buildings.

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A contract has been let for the erection of a new building for the Turner Normal College, a negro institution located at Shelbyville, Tenn., and operated by the African M. E. Church. The Board of Control purchased the ground two years ago, consisting of about twenty acres of land, well watered and dotted with many beautiful, shady oak

trees.

ago upon the stipualtion that an equal amount would be raised by the University. This has been done, and the entire sum will be used as an endowment fund.

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The late Basil McCrea's experience as a large employer of skilled labor showed him the great need of higher technical education in Ireland, and he has left $1,125,000 to Magee College on the condition that is shall be used for endowing chairs in modern science and general education, and in making the scientific and technical equipment of the college equal to that of any in the world.

Mr. McCrea, who was a very successful contractor, and carried out large works all thru Ireland, had long been convinced that racial and religious differences were the curse of the country, and that it was the duty of all Irishmen to work together for the industrial and commercial progress of Ireland.

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Work is progressing rapidly on the new boys' dormitory, Luckett hall, at Austin College, Sherman, Texas. The building consists of two stories and a basement. Around the entire building there is a four-foot concrete wall, which insures light and air and freedom from dampness.

In the basement there will be the dining hall of sufficient size to seat 300 young men, a large kitchen and pantry, store rooms, furnace room, electric light plant, laundry, barber shop, pressing club, and several student rooms. The first floor will have the reception hall, parlor, superintendent's rooms, office and students' rooms. On the floor, all the room will be taken up with students' rooms, with the exception of part of one wing, which will be used as a hospital.

second

The entire building is 110 by 150 feet. The building will be kept warm with hot water pipes and radiators and each section is fitted with bath rooms and all accommodations. Total accommodations are offered for 114 men.

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Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has completed a fund of $280,000, including $45,000 from Andrew Carnegie, for a

Examination of the will of Mrs. Martha Ranney shows that all of her property except an insignificant bequest goes to the state university of Iowa. The estate amounts in all to $100,000. The property is given to the state of Iowa to be used by the university and includes a large tract of city property and a valuable library and art collection. The only provision made in the will, besides the payment of debts and the care of a lot in the cemetery, outside of the gift to the university, is to provide for the future support of Miss Bertha Stinner, who has been a faithful servant during the last years of the deceased.

After providing for the payment of debts Mrs. Ranney states in her will that all her property shall revert to the state of Iowa for the use of the university, to be held in trust by the board of regents, and the income shall be used to maintain what shall be known as the "Mark Ran

ney memorial fund," the sole ambition of deceased seeming to be to commemorate the name of her husband, who preceded her in death in the year 1892.

The city property given to the university consists of the homestead, which is situated upon lots 1, 2, 7 and 8, in block 21, upon which the family home is situated.

The will stipulates that Miss Bertha Stinner, the servant of the house, shall be employed as caretaker of the large library and art collection bequeathed to the university at a salary of $30 per month, and that after her services there and during the remainder of her life she shall be given a life pension of $25 per month. The remainder of the income is to be used in the establishment of the "Mark Ranney Memorial Institute," which shall be the foundation for a college of fine arts in connection with the state university of Iowa.

all part of the Northwest. The site is ideal for the purpose, overlooking the Columbia River and the mountains eastward. It will be completed and ready for the faculty and students about February 1, 1908.

At a meeting of the trustees of the George Sykes Manual Training School, Rockville, Conn., a communication was read from Mrs. George Sykes, announcing a gift of $50,000, without condition of restriction, to be added to the fund for the erection of the building to be used for the institution. This amount of money in the form of mortgage bonds and securities, which were delivered to the board. The fund now amounts to $160,000, as the original fund of $100,000 left by the late George Sykes, has increased $10,000 since his death. The trustees had previously been presented with a site by Mrs. Elsie Sykes Phelps, wife of Hon. Charles Phelps and daughter of the late George Sykes.

The trustees of the college of the city of New York are said to look with favor on the suggestion that a night college be added to the present work of the institution, for the assistance of the young men and women who cannot afford attendance at the regular college. The new $6,000,000 college on Washington Heights offers excellent facilities for nightwork. It is so well equipped that the expense would be chiefly the instruction itself. There are now three institutions in New York that offer advanced instruction, but not a complete college course, and Cooper Union, the only one that is free, is filled and turning away students it would gladly take.

The Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education, on the last day of its meeting at Cleveland, appointed at committee to act with the four largest scientific societies of the country to promote elementary technical education. The societies invited to join in the movement are the American Mining Institute, American Society of Chemical Industry, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and American Society of Civil Engineers.

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A piece of property in Glen Ridge, N. J., valued at $15,000, has been deeded to the Moravian College and Theological Seminary of Bethlehem, Pa., by Charles E. W. Harvey. A provision in the gift is that Mr. Harvey is to have the privilege to live in the house for life, or to rent it if he so desires.

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The Swedish Methodists have decided to establish a school in Texas. The location of the school has not been decided, as several places are under consideration. Many of those at the meeting expressed a preference for Austin, but other places are making efforts for it. One of the delegates from El Campo brought an offer from there of twentytwo acres of land and $5,000 in cash.

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There is to be a Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Cuba, for the preparation of Cubans for the ministry, for quiet though the Church advance. has been, there are thirty-five stations in that missionary district, three congregations in Havana, one of them Englishspeaking, and Bishop Albion W. Knight has confirmed a class of fourteen, more than half males, and the majority Spaniards, not Cubans.

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William H. Crocker, of San Francisco, has given $4,500 to the University of

California for the purpose of defraying the expenses of an expedition to observe the next total solar eclipse, which will occur on January 3, 1908. The eclipse. will be visible all over the Pacific Coast. The astronomers of the University of California will also make observations in South America, the precise points not having been selected yet. The University of California has an excellent collection of astronomical instruments, some of which were presented by William H. Crocker. The work done with the photographic apparatus has been particularly successful. The University has received large donations for astronomical purposes from William H. Crocker and D. O. Mills, at whose expense parties were sent out to Labrador and Spain for the purpose of studying an eclipse of the sun.

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The number of matriculations in the Brazilian State of Minas Geraes has doubled this year. It is now about 100,000. In previous years it has never touched 50,000. The great increase is

said to be due to the wise laws which have reformed education in the State.

New short courses in agriculture have opened at the new Agricutural College at the College Farm, New Brunswick, N. J. Unusual interest has been aroused by the enrolling of two women students

Mrs. R. Jones and Miss L. M. Alden of Passaic, who are registered for the course in husbandry as well as in market gardening and fruit growing. Forty students have been enrolled for the twelve weeks of study. Dr. Edward B. Voorhees of Rutgers College is at the head of the department. One of the interesting features of the course will be the study of different specimens of Western cattle and horses which have been ordered.

All that we call progress in civilization is but obedience to the deepest and divinest instinct of the race. Its command to society is to repeat and improve itself. Modern society has organized no agency to insure fidelity to this law of growth toward manliness and godliness that is at all comparable in its opportunity with the school. The home, the church, the whole social body has turned over to the school the largest and most important share of the work of training to meet the command, obedience to which spells social uplift, and disobedience to which means degeneracy. The character of our schools, then, must determine the fate of society. They should be what the true training of childhood and youth demand. They should be organized and administered for this service and not primarily for the convenience of the teacher, or the comfort of the taxpayer. Under this view of the function of the school, I submit that economic prudence and social wisdom demand that provision shall be made for adequate and honorable pensions for teachers.

From this point of view it will be no argument to urge pensions because teachers want them, or because teachers need them, or because teachers deserve thm. I desire to justify my thesis on the ground that such a policy is demanded by the schools themselves. Parents

and taxpayers, and patrons of our schools-not school teachers-have the prime interest in enacting pensions for worthy teachers. There are five cogent reasons why pensions should be provided for the teachers of the schools to which you are intrusting the education of your children.

First: That is the best teaching which emanates from a soul that devotes itself with a singleness of purpose to the guidance, the training, and the inspiration of youth. No teacher can do the best work for our children while at the same time compelled to be busy with plans for securing a livelihood when the

days of service in the schoolroom are over. No teacher can fitly train children by day, and worry by night over the question of raiment and food and shelter for the days that come too soon. Your children deserve a happy childhood of hard work and healthful play. Give them a cheerful, joy-inspiring teacher, who can give all the best that is in her to her school.

There can be no teaching worth while from a worried woman or a care-burdened man. Working, planning, and worrying to make provision for old age take too much of the time and thought that belongs to the children. I submit, therefore, that it is to our interest to secure the enactment of laws that will provide for the teacher in her old age.

Second: Teachers of the largest ability are every year being drawn away from the school service in which they have proven their high capacity, to enter on more remunerative fields of endeavor. To continne serving our children is to accept an old age of dependence or privation. To enter upon the new field of work is to receive rewards large enough to enable them to make provision for their declining years. The teacher does not receive, nor is she ever likely to receive compensation ample enough to permit such provision. Unless we

would see the education of our children turned over to second-rate women and to third-rate men, we must provide the. rewards that would permit our ablest teachers to consecrate their lives to the service of our schools. service of our schools. I submit that for this reason alone it is the duty and interest of every parent and every patriot to aid in securing honorable and adequate pensions for teachers.

Third: The efficiency of an army always depends upon the character of the recruiting department. The great army of teachers should always attract many of the brightest and ablest young men and women who, year by year, are graduated from our leading educational insti