Farmers, business men, and school workers will meet to discuss rural schools, agricultural Conference for credits, marketing Education in the South methods and other pressing problems of country life at the Conference for Education in the South, to be held at Richmond, Va., April 16-18. Each group will have special conferences on its own particular work, and then all will come together in a general session to discuss fundamental points in the upbuilding of rural life.

In response to the invitation of Governor Mann, of Virginia, the governors of nearly all the Southern States have appointed delegations of farmers and business men to attend the Richmond meeting and take part in the discussion of such important topics as: Lack of capital in farming and how it may be remedied; the tenant evil, its extent and influence; why business men are concerned with the rural problem; how to organize and conduct cooperative market associations; how to make the rural schools educate more effectively for the demands of country life; and how to make the country a better place to live in.

At the farmers' conference it is expected that a definite plan for organiz

ing and managing cooperative marketing associations will be worked out. Before the business conference the facts about the farming situation in the South will be presented by men who have made a special study of its possibilities and needs; and bankers, merchants, and manufacturers will discuss how they may aid in the development of agricultural resources.

One of the features of the conference will be an interstate meeting of State and county superintendents, teachers of agriculture, and other educators, at which the subject for discussion will be "The Most Effective Means for Developing the Rural School." A. C. Monahan, rural-school specialist in the United States Bureau of Education, will urge the necessity for a well-defined, constructive county plan in rural education. Typical rural-school problems will be discussed by county supervisors and others who are keenly interested in improving the country school, such as: Albert S. Cook, of Baltimore County, Md.; Zebulon Judd, Wake County, N. C.; Miss Rhea C. Scott and L. J. Hanifan, supervisors in Virginia and West Virginia, respectively; Miss Jessie Yancy, Mason Co., Ky., A. R. Jones, Equality, Ala.; J. S. Stewart, Athens, Ga.; and many others.

The Harvard Mutual Foundation

With a view to helping people who want to leave money to Harvard to carry out their intentions with the least trouble to themselves and with the greatest benefit to the University, a new holding trust has just been formed under the laws of Massachusetts, called the Harvard Mutual Foundation. The Foundation will receive gifts of persons desiring to leave money to Harvard, pay 5 per cent. interest to the donor or his immediate heirs during their lives, and at their death turn over the principal to the University. The fund starts with $250,000, and with probabilities of an early increase by new gifts.

While the Foundation is a distinct entity, it will have a connection with the University, in that its trustees will be named by the Corporation, and that body will have a certain voice in the management of the trust. One of the trustees interpreted the plan of the foundation as follows:

"John Doe wants to give $100,000 to Harvard, but he expects to live for a number of years and wants assurance that he and his immediate generations will be benefited in the interim. The foundation arranges to receive the $100,000, invest it and pay the donor five per cent and one-half of additional income made through the investment of the $100,000. The second half of the income over five per cent accruing will go to Harvard.

"In this way the donor enjoys a sure income. So do his children. So do the succeeding generations of his family for a period of nearly 100 years. The average man in caring for his descendants does not look beyond 100 years. If the money was to remain in the family it would be scattered about or perhaps lost through poor investment. By means of the plan of the foundation the fortune is saved, the interest is paid to John Doe's heirs and 21 years after the death of the last of the 15 young persons named in the deed, the $100,000 goes to Harvard University. It is a good investment and a sure one. Few

realize how many bad investments lie about them until they put forth their money and try them out. Their donations to the foundation become a part of a big whole, of which the $250,000 now assured is but a nucleus."

Harvard now, according to the report just issued, is a corporation worth over $26,000,000, with an income from investments alone of over $1,000,000 a year. That seems a large sum, but Harvard is entirely willing to double the capitalization, and offers an attractive program to those who desire to give while living.

learning, the president is expected not only to look after the educational work of the institution, but to supervise the business as well. That he must often neglect one or the other of these branches under the circumstances is inevitable.

On the recommendation of President Nichols, the trustees of Dartmouth have decided to divorce the business management of the college from the educational management and have appointed a business director who will devote his entire time to the new office. This will not only give President Nichols much more time to attend to the proper work of a college president, but will relieve him from many disagreeable duties he has heretofore been expected to perform. Only a short time ago some surprise was caused by the resignation of the president of one of the smaller American colleges. Pressed for an explanation, he said that when he accepted the position he supposed it was as an educator solely, but that he had found that he was expected by the trustees to beg funds for the institution and to take care of its finances. He said he was unfitted for such work and that in endeavoring to do it he had necessarily neglected what he consid

ered his higher duties. Many other college and university heads have felt the same, but rather than give up their positions have endured the humiliation of soliciting funds and endowments from rich men.

Under the system Dartmouth has adopted, a college must certainly show not only better results financially, but educationally. A good business director can reduce the expenses of a college and make the most of its resources.

Illiteracy in Our Rural Communities

Not immigration, but the lack of educational opportunities in rural districts, is chiefly responsible for the relatively high rate of illiteracy in the United States, according to a bulletin by A. C. Monahan of the Bureau of Education. The rate of rural illiteracy is twice the urban rate, despite the fact that approximately three-fourths of the immigrants are in the cities. Still more significant is a comparison between children born in this country of foreign parents with those born of native parents. "The illiteracy among nativeborn children of native parentage is more than three times as great as among native children of foreign parentage," says Mr. Monahan, "largely on account of the lack of opportunities for education in rural America." The bulletin is of special value at this time because it is a brief, clear, non-sensational statement of the rural-school problem. It does not attempt to gloss over unpleasant facts. It gives full recognition to the positive advance that has been made in many rural districts, and to improvements now under way, but in general finds conditions far from satisfactory.

Among other things, Mr. Monahan finds 226,000 one-teacher schoolhouses in the United States, of which 5,000 are log buildings still in active use. Although more than 60 per cent of the children in the United States are enrolled in country schools, the rural aggregate attendance is only 51 per cent. The school buildings and grounds in

most country districts are in a condition that is only approached by "homes of the most shiftless residents of the district," and the average teaching in these one-teacher schools is of very low grade.

The bulletin is illustrated with photographs of good and bad rural schools, from the log schoolhouse to the consolidated school; right and wrong heating in a country school; a canning factory and school garden connected with a Louisiana school; and a map showing the system of local school supervision as it prevails in the several States. The purpose of the map is to show how real the need is for the kind of business-like supervision of the country schools that has led to such efficient results in the city. With the help of recent appropriations made by Congress the Bureau of Education has undertaken to make a careful study of the needs of the rural schools, and the bulletin just issued is one of the first definite results of the work. "It is in no way either complete or exhaustive," says Commissioner Claxton, "but it is the best possible under the circumstances and with facilities now at our disposal. Incomplete as it is, this bulletin makes a very valuable contribution to a clear understanding of the rural schools as they actually are."

A vigorous "methods of the

Criticizes Shop Methods of Our Colleges

protest against the shop" applied to colleges is uttered by Professor John J. Stevenson of New York University in The Popular Science Monthly. "The only evidence of success, apparently, is increased enrollment, more funds, more houses, more low-priced teachers. Quantity, not quality." Students are besought to come to certain colleges, "professional canvassers hawk their wares as blatantly as criers at a fair,” the students are to made to feel that they confer a favor on the faculty by consenting to sit under them, and as a result discipline is weakened and "young Americans at college are grow