that bill and to this bill as I am myself. There is something for you gentlemen to think of. There is meat in the consideration of that thing. Why should it be that way? I am an uneducated man, never went to school an hour in my life, and know none of the blessings of all this, and some will say that I am an enemy of education. I hasten to say with Thomas Carlyle, "That one man should die ignorant, this I call tragedy." Mr. BLACK. Is there anything vitally wrong with the rural education system? Mr. TRUEMAN. Yes; there is as much wrong with our rural education system as there is with our farms and homes. This committee of 21 went to work with $75,000 in New York and made a survey of the State of New York, the State where I live, and dragged the Empire State in the dirt. They appraised the rural schools. They treated the trustees with obloquy and contempt. There was nothing that was bad enough for them to say about them, and after having done what I have done for my school, it got me hot under the collar, and I started in on an investigation. What do you suppose, gentlemen, has happened since then? A year ago when we had a hearing in Albany this committee of 21 was lined up with the Senate committee that heard the bill. It was with difficulty that we could decide which was in it. This time, on the 19th of last April, the committee of 21 was out and on making inquiries as to where they were. I found that Dr. George A. Works, chairman of the whole thing, had gone into Texas and got $50,000 from the Texas Legislature to perform the same operation in Texas. The residents of Texas have my sincere sympathy. Opposed to this scheme we find two distinct classes. These are the ones I have just described to you; that is, the really educated men represented by Dr. A. T. Hadley, Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, and Dr. Charles Elliot. Then there are the common working people on whom the burden must fall. The first of these are fully alive to the menace confronting us but are prevented by professional courtesy from coming out in the open and denouncing it. The second intuitively know it is all wrong but are largely unable to express themselves. I do not usually take another man for my guide. I believe in getting at things for myself, but if I am to take the authority of any individual I like to get the authority of a man like Hadley or Pritchett rather than George A. Works. Here is another thing I am reminded of at the same time. Here is Doctor Ferrand, at Cornell at the present time. The very last thing he has suggested is this, that a law should be passed that every American citizen should spend three years in Europe before he is 25 years of age, and I can go down in my jeans and supply the money. That is the president of the college that has fathered George A. Works, who is now in Texas working on the same thing, of the committee of 21. Mr. BLACK. It must be an agricultural college. Mr. TRUEMAN. Yes; it is an agricultural college, and the crocodile tears those people have wept over us farmers would make a donkey laugh. The only reason they have been able to get away with it is that the people in our districts are so scattered that we are unable to meet them. I have done my best, and it has cost me a lot of money I have no business to spend, but once in the fight I can not help but stick to it. The second class of people are the farmers, the ones who have to pay for all this. The really educated people are opposed to it. The farmers, who are supposed to be the beneficiaries, are opposed to it, and the only ones who are in favor of it are those people who have fallen down on their job. Mr. BLACK. You judge that by the results? Mr. TRUEMAN. I judge that by the results. If you knew the trouble I have had to get from these highfaluting gentlemen a standard by which they judge their works you would be amazed. You would never credit it because you have been too busy, as we all are, to go into these things. But eventually I did get a reply from the commissioner of education of the State of Illinois. That was splendid. He said the real test, the real standard, is results. Now, that is so simple that he who runs may read, and I being a man like Doctor Finegan said, with some horse sense, I was able to grasp that thing, and did not need any dictionary to help me out. Results are the things. I said, now, where are those results? I am here to represent this large mass of rural people who have ever been the backbone of our country, and we feel the time has arrived for us to state the case in plain terms. The plea put forward by the proponents of this bill is that the rural child shall have as good an opportunity for education as the city child, and the unthinking swallow the bait, while the superstitious believe work will be no longer necessary. It is an exquisite piece of irony that at the moment that this plea was being urged in New York State by our commissioner of education he had in his possession a petition signed by every civic organization in New York City asking the governor to call for appropriations for a commission to investigate the New York City schools, which were unable to function, and that the merit system. was inoperative through political favoritism. Our professional educationists promised to educate us, and to make sure none escaped asked for a policeman and a club to drive us to it, and at this time, several generations after, we still appear a long way from the desired goal, and I am here to-day to ask the pointed question: In what department of human activity are we to look for the results of the glorious opportunities that have been denied the rural people? Where are the results? Are they to be found in the church? In the pulpit we have an unseemly wrangle between modernism and fundamentalism, while in the basement cigarette smoking and fox trotting are the order of the day. Are they to be found in music? Let jazz answer. Are they to be found in the home? Read "Main Street," and "Babbit." Are they to be found in our youth? An army of flappers and joy riders supplies an eloquent negative. Mr. BLACK. They might use these very reasons that you give for this bill. Mr. TRUEMAN. I will come to that later. Are they in the movies? Not according to the censorship. Are they in literature? The front covers of the magazines and jackets of new books does not indicate it, while the ability to discuss the latest adventure of Percy and Ferdie is the high sign of intelligence in modern education. Are they in politics? Veterans' Bureau! Are they in statesmanship? Teapot Dome! The only reply to this terrific arraignment is this, not a denial of facts, but a denial of responsibility for this state of affairs. One hundred and fifty years ago William Cowper wrote this: From education as the ruling cause The public character its color draws. That answers your question. These people were assuming the responsibility. These people who have been heard to-day assumed the responsibility to educate our children. They took the pay for it, and they have utterly failed to produce the goods. Now, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, in this orgy of materialism, this saturnalia of politics, in which our professional educationists are involved, the handwriting has already appeared upon the wall, and again we see the ominous words, "Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting." Instead of a chair in the President's Cabinet, as this bill calls for, a cloister with garments of sackcloth and ashes is indicated until their arrogance is abated and they give evidence of a broken and contrite heart. I thank you. Mr. BLACK. I think this gentleman ought to be heard by the full committee at some time convenient for him. STATEMENT OF MR. MILTON FAIRCHILD, A. B., WASHINGTON, D. C. The CHAIRMAN. Proceed. Mr. FAIRCHILD. My interest is chiefly in the State departments of education. I am chairman of what is called the Character Education Institution, and most of the State superintendents and State commissioners are members of that institution. For the information of the gentleman who has just closed, I will say that we have 20 sets of State committees already appointed determined to solve the problems of getting character results from the public school work, so that what he speaks of will be taken care of in due time. Mr. BLACK. You mean you hope it will. Mr. FAIRCHILD. Yes. That is faith in human nature. Mr. FAIRCHILD. I have given to some members of the committee an article which I have written outlining in some detail the research work that needs to be done, the basic research work that needs to be done under a department of education or in any form. I myself am not committed to the immediate realization of the full program of the Sterling-Reed bill. These matters are very difficult to work out and it is necessary to develop them and to realize them step by step, feeling our way through to something that will work. I would like to distribute these to members of the committee. The CHAIRMAN. Would you like to have it in the record? (The statement referred to is as follows:) [Reprinted from School and Society, Vol. XIX, No. 485, April 12, 1924] A FEDERAL EDUCATION BUILDING The Federal Constitution recognizes State control of education. This policy is justified and necessary in view of the impossibility of adequate understanding of the local State education problems by any Federal staff of educationists. The States have created State departments of education with legal powers of leadership and these are rapidly gaining in quality of personnel and in breadth of experience. But it is necessary to arrange ways and means by which this State leadership may be federated so that there will be collaboration between the State departments of education, assisted by teachers colleges, schools of education, and normal colleges, in working out plans for American education and for cooperation between the States, to the end that our education work may be national as well as State in its characteristics. President Coolidge said to a committee of the National Education Association which consulted him seeking his interest in the Federal education bill: "We have worked on the problem of education in this country for nearly 300 ** * We have never solved it. * * years. * It is a matter of the utmost importance to arrive at a system of education that will be what an American citizen should have. * * * Education is an appropriate remedy for very many of our evils, and the support of all good citizenship. "WHITE HOUSE, November 13, 1923.” "CALVIN COOLIDGE, "President of the United States. His statement shows that the leaders of the general public as well as of practical school work recognize weakness in American education plans. The contribution which the Federal Government can make toward American education policy lies in the field of research on the fundamental problems which ar important to the educational policy of the States. This research on fundamentals must be done on the scientific level, and the resulting generalizations must be verified by positive experiments so that the State leaders can rely on them. The State executives will utilize these verified generalizations, and thus national characteristics will be given to the school work in each State through State control. It will be necessary to get from Congress either a department of education or a greatly enlarged bureau of education in order to make this Federal research work possible. And it will also be necessary to arrange for the construction of a Federal education building in which these research undertakings can be housed. The great education library which is already a part of the Bureau of Education is now housed in a series of office rooms in the Interior Building. These rooms will soon be needed for work assigned by Congress to the Department of the Interior, and the library is likely to be stored in the basement. It will be well for educationists who are interested in giving American education national characteristics by evolving the "system of education that will be what an American citizen should have," as President Coolidge puts it, to begin the construction of plans for the utilization of a Federal education building. What should be the research undertakings of the Federal Government in the field of education? I have drawn up, with the help of others, an outline of the research work needed by the States and appropriate to the Federal Government as a contribution to American education. A large six-story building is necessary as an equipment for this Federal education work. The outline is as follows: FEDERAL EDUCATION BUILDING GROUND FLOOR Office for chief secretary and assistant secretary. Education library, books, and periodicals. Education exhibits of teaching materials and methods. SECOND FLOOR Research work in education economics-expenses, taxes, State economic conditions, etc. 94041-24-41 Research work on buildings-plans, heating, lighting, ventilation, playgrounds, fire protection, etc. Research work on background sciences-sociology, anthropology, history, Government, economics, manufacturing, engineering, the nature sciences agriculture, etc. Research work on the curriculum-civics, rural, vocational, household arts, sciences, literature, citizenship, health, character, etc., in schools, colleges, and universities. THIRD FLOOR Research work in psychology—the application of pure psychology to education methods. Research in education methods-tests, measurements, verification of the best teaching methods. Cooperation with State education-bulletins, consultations, letters of advice, school law, etc. Surveys State, city, and county applications of standards. Cooperation with Congress, State legislatures, State departments of education. Special researches for various States. FOURTH FLOOR Research work in library management-public, university, college, school, rural and special. Research work on methods of library education-continuation school work, reading clubs, rural book education, mechanical knowledge, national problems, etc. Research work on methods of library training-various types of book education work for the general public. Research work in book selection-the useful books for various groups, reading lists, private library lists, etc. FIFTH FLOOR Research on methods of education in the fine arts-painting, drawing, decorating, landscape gardening, designing, etc. Exhibit of teaching materials in the fine arts. Cooperation with the fine arts societies of the Nation. Researches on curriculum in the fine arts. SIXTH FLOOR Auditorium for use of a Federal council on education. To be used, also, for special experimental work in methods and materials; and also for consultations between State leaders of education and Congress, the President and his Cabinet, on national education problems. Secretariat for the Federal council on education. The research work in library education is included, because it is impossible to plan a complete education for all citizens without associating the library with schools and colleges and universities as a positive education institution. The Federal council on education would include the State superintendents and commissioners, educationists at large and representatives of the general public. This council would set the problems for the research work and receive reports thereon. The State superintendents and commissioners would return to their various States with this reasearch knowledge and the deliberations of the council as the background for their State leadership. The above outline of undertakings to be accommodated in a Federal education building is "according to my candlepower." Advice for its evolvement will be received with gratitude. The CHAIRMAN. Proceed. MILTON FAIRCHILD, Character Education Institution, Mr. FAIRCHILD. This is the first attempt to work out a program for research work in a department of education. I believe this has not |