position is that history has no right to be partisan. It is true or untrue.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Are you in favor of the textbooks on history in the public schools of Washington?

Miss BORCHARDT. I personally do not teach history, but

Mr. BLACK. Do you use Muzzey?

Miss BORCHARDT. We use Muzzey in the District schools. I know there has been an attack on Muzzey's histories, but

Mr. BLACK. Have you read the report of the commissioner of New York City on Muzzey's history?

Miss BORCHARDT. I have not read that.

Mr. BLACK. Do you think it would be possible now to get a textbook that would teach the pupils in the schools of this country English grammar?

Miss BORCHARDT. As a teacher, I will say that I wish there was some way of doing that.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Do you still compel the boys and girls to study a little French and German and Spanish?

Miss BORCHARDT. I think that is one of the most unfortunate tendencies to-day in our schools, that our education still dates back to the humanities, whereas our culture is practical; we are not adapting ourselves, or adapting our studies, to meet the growing social needs of the community.

Mr. BLACK. If we are teaching the humanities, do you not think it would be well to teach the boys and girls a little about English grammar?

Miss BORCHARDT. As a teacher of English, I yearn for it.

Mr. BLACK. With reference to the labor movement, you said that the American Federation of Labor were for you in that case. They have not changed their position on the Federal injunction?

Miss BORCHARDT. We are very definite on that. It is our major issue. But although we are most emphatically for the principleMr. ROBSION. This is very interesting, but there are three or four more witnesses here to be heard. We can not try out the injuction here.

Miss BORCHARDT. No; I am not going into the injunction. That is not my field. But while we did indorse this legislation

Mr. ROBSION. We will have to invoke the injunction here. Miss BORCHARDT. We do not support every part of this bill. We are opposed to section 10 of the bill. That is the section which provides for a national council on education to advise and consult with the secretary of education. The people placed on that are to be the administrative heads of the several States. Our position is that if a council of education is to be purely advisory, then the classroom teacher should be on it because we feel that the classroom teacher knows something about teaching, or else has no right to be a teacher, and if there is to be this advisory council the classroom teachers should be represented. We feel that the council would be purely administrative.

The other section to which we object is the one that several speakers here have spoken of as one of the finest in the bill, and that is section 7. Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Do you object to that?

Miss BORCHARDT. We object, for this reason. We believe in bringing under one head, as a natural thing, the educational func

tions of the Government, but we do not feel that an interdepartmental conference should be established by statute, for this reason. If the conference is merely to meet as a clearing house and not to serve as a sort of propaganda, then it is not necessary that it be incorporated in the actual statutes.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. You are speaking now for your organization? Miss BORCHARDT. For my organization, and the American Federation of Labor.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Does your organization determine its own policy?

Miss BORCHARDT. Yes, wholly.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Without any interference from any other organization or affiliated organization?

Miss BORCHARDT. We determine our own policy; and it is referred back to the locals.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. It is a fact that you are affiliated with another organization. By that affiliation you have not surrendered your right to determine your own policy?

Miss BORCHARDT. No; we have merely furnished ourselves with the opportunity to present our view to a larger organization. But we feel that this would serve as a very definite source of propaganda, and if it is simply to be in an advisory capacity then it is not necessary that it be created by statute.

The committee on citizenship is a clearing house but was never created by statute. A number of interdepartmental conferences are held but are not authorized by statute. We feel that every

statutory provision for their creation makes them a source of more or less official report. Even though the representatives report back to their own department and not to the departments in general, a statement made in the conference would be given publicity as coming from the department of education, and as such could well be used as a source of propaganda, and hence we do oppose it. I may say that the Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Labor at the Detroit convention went on record as opposed to section 7. Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Are you opposed to propaganda generally? Miss BORCHARDT. Very positively, and I may say that the American Federation of Teachers are now engaged in a study of propaganda in the schools. We object to any propaganda.

Mr. ROBSION. Do you folks employ it yourselves? Of course you would object to it for somebody else, but do you use it for yourselves? Miss BORCHARDT. It depends on what you mean by propaganda. agree that it was a very respectable word before the war.

I

Mr. ROBSION. If we took out section 7, there would not be much left of the bill.

Miss BORCHARDT. No; I differ with you, because we feel that the main part of the bill is the research part. That is why we support it. Doctor DAVIDSON. The next speaker, Mr. Chairman, is Mrs. Kate Trenholm Abrams, representing the General Federation of Women's Clubs, with headquarters in Washington, D. C.

(At this point the chairman entered the committee room and assumed the chair.)

STATEMENT OF MRS. KATE TRENHOLM ABRAMS, VICE CHAIRMAN LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT, GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS

Mrs. ABRAMS. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I bring to-day Mrs. John D. Sherman's very sincere regrets that, due to not being very well, she is not able to appear here in person, and she has asked me to represent her in so far as bringing this statement that is signed by herself, and also asking that it should be placed in the record. I am sorry to say that I am rather blind to-day, and I am going to ask Miss Williams to read this statement, with the permission of the committee.

The CHAIRMAN. Unless the committee wishes it to be read, I would be very glad to have it inserted in the record in order to save the time that it would take to read it.

Mrs. ABRAMS. I feel that that would be satisfactory.
The CHAIRMAN. If there is no objection it will go into the record.
(The paper referred to is here printed in the record as follows:)
GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS,

Washington, D. C., April 26, 1928.

To the Members of the Education Committee of the House of Representatives: The General Federation of Women's Clubs has always been greatly interested in education. Our organization has stood squarely behind every educational movement that we have believed would improve the status of oncoming generations. In line with this policy, the General Federation has for 10 years given its active support to the movement for the establishment of a department of education with a secretary in the President's Cabinet.

The Curtis-Reed bill is one of the major legislative measures in which this great body of women is interested. Not only has the bill been indorsed at biennial conventions of the General Federation, but it has been studied and indorsed by State federations and local clubs, so that there is a widespread information among the individual members of our organization regarding the provisions of the measure.

The number of children to be educated in this country is increasing every year, and likewise the cost of education is growing steadily. In order to give the best possible training to these millions of school children and to administer the schools most effectively and economically, we believe that it is necessary to have scientific research, study, and experimentation in education. To be most beneficial, such investigations would necessarily be conducted on a national scale, such as only a Federal department of education could direct.

We believe firmly in the constitutional safeguard of State rights in education, and have not the least fear of Federal domination of education. Nor do we see any possibility of interference with private or parochial schools by the new Federal department, but, rather, we believe that such schools will benefit equally with the public schools.

Because of our convictions as to the need for a department of education, because of the study which we have given to education and intend to give to it in the months and years to come, we urge the members of the Education Committee of the House of Representatives to report this bill (H. R. 7) favorably to Congress in order that it may have full and free consideration by the Members of that body.

Respectfully,

MARY SHERMAN, President General Federation of Women's Clubs.

Doctor DAVIDSON. The next speaker is Miss Margaret Germond, who I believe is secretary of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs.

STATEMENT OF MISS MARGARET GERMOND, REPRESENTING THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL WOMEN'S CLUBS, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Miss GERMOND. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am not legislative chairman of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs. I am simply the representative of the legislative chairman in Washington. She is in Illinois and I am here. I simply wish to present this brief statement. This federation has presented its arguments before this committee and its various. indorsements of the bill, and this is merely a reindorsement.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you not let us file it, to save time?
Miss GERMOND. Yes.

(The statement referred to is here printed in the record as follows:)

As the representative before your committee of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, I beg to present this statement of indorsement of the bill to create a United States department of education with a secretary in the President's Cabinet, which bill is this day being discussed in hearing by your committee.

The National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, comprising a membership of nearly 50,000 women engaged in business and the professions, has consistently indorsed in its consecutive annual conventions the proposed legislation to create a department of education such as that provided for in the bill now under consideration. During the nine years of its existence this organization has devoted itself diligently to efforts to better the educational conditions and advantages in 47 of the 48 States of this country, as well as in the nearly 900 cities and towns in which local clubs are functioning.

The National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs believes that the sound education of all its people is essential to a vital and enduring democracy. It recognizes that the United States has provided public schools for educating its citizens, and it hereby declares its faith in the public schools as now constituted. But it also recognizes that these public schools as now provided are not everywhere adequate to the needs of all the people, and it now urges a favorable report by this committee upon the bill which it believes will further the normal development of the public schools by Federal recognition for public education without Federal interference in any way with State or local control.

The National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs believes that no nation can be greater, economically or politically, than the intelligence and intellect of its citizens, and we are convinced that national leadership in education and the efficient administration of the educational activities of the Federal Government will be greatly promoted by the creation of a department of education with a secretary in the President's Cabinet.

Education, agriculture, and commerce are, we believe, the three greatest factors in the economic soundness of our Nation, and in urging a favorable report upon this bill it is in the belief that a department of education, with a secretary in the President's Cabinet, is as necessary to the intelligent administration of the educational system of the United States as the Department of Agriculture is to farming and the Department of Commerce is to trade.

The CHAIRMAN. Representative Hammer is unable to be here on account of other governmental business, and he has sent a short statement, as follows:

STATEMENT OF HON. WILLIAM C. HAMMER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

Mr. HAMMER. I am sincerely interested in seeing this measure enacted for it would help the plain folks very much. I am a southerner, and as such, of course I would look out for safeguarding of the principle of State rights, but I can not see where this measure,

which would give the States the help of the Federal Government and leave the actual administration of education strictly to the States, would interfere with State autonomy any more than the good roads act or the Volstead Act, and I am for both of them. Let's be consistent!

Most of all I am for this bill because I want the people of the rural communities to have the same advantages as those in the big cities. Most of the experimental schools, now, are conducted either in connection with big city school systems or else in high-priced private schools. I want some of the results of all this extensive research to be made available for the poorer people in the rural districts too. That's why I am for this measure.

Doctor DAVIDSON. The final speaker is Dr. Milton Fairchild. Doctor Fairchild is president of the Character Education Institution, of Washington, D. Ĉ.

STATEMENT OF DR. MILTON FAIRCHILD, PRESIDENT CHARACTER EDUCATION INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Doctor FAIRCHILD. I have a statement to make about educational research, and also a circular to submit. May I insert that in the record?

The CHAIRMAN. Hand it to the reporter and it will go into the record.

(The paper referred to is here printed in the record, as follows:)

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

In its evolvement, this statement has gone through many revisions. Its present form is approved by so many who have done successful research work that its acceptance as a true description of the scientific method is justified.

This statement will be of utility in all departments of science in high schools and in colleges as a means of instruction. Students can place copies in their science note books for frequent reference. It will be useful to graduate students as a guide in self-training in the fulfillment of the scientific method, and to all research workers in planning and carrying through experiments, also in evaluating the scientific quality of the researches of others.

May 10, 1926.

MILTON FAIRCHILD.

The scientific method necessitates intensive, systematic and persistent brain work under control against misunderstandings, superficiality and bias, and in complete loyalty to reality and the truth.

None but those having aptitude, instruction and training can be successful in the use of the scientific method of thinking.

DESCRIPTION OF THE METHOD

(1) Gather data on the problem or within a selected field according to some adequate, sound plan by means of numerous and accurate observations made with the human senses, assisted and corrected by instruments of precision. The observations are usually with a well-defined purpose but sometimes for information according to opportunity. Observations must be recorded in definite terms and measurements and in specific statements. Many observers may collaborate in gathering data.

(2) Classify and organize data on the basis of similarities, variations, activities, processes, causes, results. Distinguish between essential and superficial characters.

(3) Generalize to get principles and theories into tentative form. Use constructive imagination, discernment, known principles to formulate reasonable generalizations that solve the problem or explain the known facts in the selected field. Many researches accept a mass of classified data and verified generalizations and then proceed to solve some problem by formulating hypotheses thereon and verifying these without including general gathering of data and classification work.