The sorrow of the South did not end with slavery, which was itself only an aspect of the permanent struggle for racial adjustment. Bismarck found the solution of Germany's problem in "blood and iron." Cavour through diplomacy wrought out the unification of Italy. A parliament will satisfy the aspiration for freedom of the Russian people. China, by adopting Western civilization, is emerging from the isolation of centuries and entering, perhaps, upon a future of influence among modern nations. But in the solution of the South's problem, no ready remedy such as these is applicable. The malady is chronic, and the swift stroke of the surgeon's knife will not avail.

In the tedious process of racial adjustment spirit holds the chief place. The uniqueness of our situation lies in this fact. We must rely upon the efficacy of social forces, such as the sense of justice and the desire of mutual helpfulness, which are slow in their growth and subtle in their influence. Every agency, therefore, which energizes reason and conscience in our people is a factor in working out our distinctive task of racial adjustment. The school is the genesis of such mental and moral forces. Regarded in this light, the South is subjecting the school to the supremest test of social efficiency to which it was ever put. Can we so enlighten and moralize the masses of our people as to insure the supremacy of law over mob violence, to allay prejudice and make reason regnant, to put humanity above self-interest? To accomplish these things is the specific mission of the school in the South. It is to enforce the Golden Rule, and to embody the spirit of the Good Samaritan.

Industrialism and democracy are twins. Not until machinery released the masses from the stunting effect of continual toil for bread did they have a margin of time and a surplus of energy to devote to mental improvement, social service and political initiative. Three men can now raise enough food to feed a thousand. Steam and electricity have been reduced to serfdom, and man has been emancipated. Volcanic was the French Revolution, but more potent by far was the industrial revolution which was silently taking place at the same time across the channel in England.

This industrial awakening is now sweeping through the

South, which under the old order was given over almost wholly to agriculture. The factory and farm stand to-day side by side. How to convert the raw materials of ore, timber and cotton into finished products for the use of man is the standing challenge to the skill and organizing ability of the South. It is the business of the school to develop the practical intelligence and technical skill necessary to exploit the natural resources in this extensive domain. Education here is addressing itself to the recovery of exhausted soils and to the diffusion of sound economic ideas.

These industrial changes are bringing social crises. The community about the cotton mill attracts, as a magnet, families from the stagnant life of the backward districts. Old social bonds are broken and new ones must be formed. Often the condition of these transplanted families is bettered at the expense of the children, who are put to work for long hours amid the roar of machinery in the mills. Here, again, the school stands face to face with a new set of problems that press for solution.

Such are the motive forces working in the Southern school today. It is at once the exponent of economic efficiency, racial adjustment, and national spirit. Wrestling with gigantic difficulties, the South has summoned to its aid the genii of skill, intelligence, national conciliation, and human brotherhood, and has found with joyous surprise all of these beneficient agencies operative in the school.

Richmond College, Virginia.

S. C. MITCHELL.

II. COMPULSORY EDUCATION And the Southern States

Even in a cursory examination of the subject it will be necessary to sketch the experiences of European countries and American States. Statistics will necessarily occupy a prominent place in such a sketch, as these are essential to an intelligent understanding of this important educational question. These may appear prolix, yet they are the meat of the subject.

First, as to European countries: The Germans were the earliest to institute a system of general education, and the wonder

ful progress of Germany in every respect is now largely attributed to the thoroughness of national education. Especially in the last twenty years has the aspect of the nation been greatly changed. Some attribute this to the large number of special technical schools, which are also undoubtedly potent factors, but some more organic reason in the national life must be discovered. The English consul, Mr. Powell, in an interesting report on these conditions, says that this (commercial and industrial) success is due less to superior commercial education than to the high state of general education that Germany has enjoyed for many years, which was formerly lacking, and is even now lacking in several essential points in Great Britain.

The fact that in Germany elementary education has been generally compulsory and, to a large extent, also gratuitous, for more than one hundred and fifty years, is recognized to be an essential element in recent political, industrial and commercial successes of the nation. Nothing short of a general uplifting of the mass of the people will raise a nation to a higher level in all respects. In England and in the United States, until the middle of the nineteenth century, compulsory school attendance was justly considered an infringement of civil liberty, and this view prevented the passage and successful execution of such compulsory school laws. In Germany, since Luther, the fact has frequently been dwelt upon that parents are not always the most pious, conscientious and far-sighted educators.

In the beginning, compulsory education is always felt to be severe, and meets with energetic contradiction and opposition. In the course of time, however, the masses become reconciled, and the law enforcing regular school attendance in elementary schools is recognized as a protection; yet its suspension would be followed by a noticeable falling off of attendance in the most advanced States. Various German States - Hesse, Württemberg, Gotha, and others had qualified educational laws in the seventeenth century. But education did not become truly compulsory in the Kingdom of Prussia until the decree of Frederick William I, September 28th, 1717. This memorable decree required that wherever schools existed, parents, under penalty of the laws, were obliged to send their children to school, paying

a tuition fee of six pence a week for each child. Frederick the Great, in 1763, defined the provisions with greater exactness. By a cabinet order of King Frederick William III, in 1825, compulsory education was extended to all parts of the kingdom, this being the basis of the present State law of Prussia, and other parts of the German Empire have similar statutes.

In practice, the child between six and fourteen is required to attend school. The number of children between six and fourteen years of age in school has increased from 12.2 per cent of the total population in 1822 to 17 per cent in 1895. The chief gain has been in bringing the proportion of girls up to that of boys. In the United States, the tendency is now the reverse, the girls getting the greater advantages of the schools.

It may be of interest to note the provisions of other European countries as to compulsory education. In the Austrian crown lands, the period during which school attendance is compulsory is from six to eight years. In Hungary, from six to twelve. In Sweden, from nine to fifteen. In Norway, from ten to fourIn Denmark, from seven to fourteen. In England, by the law of 1870, local school boards are left to pass special ordinances introducing compulsory attendance. These regulations, together with the factory laws of 1878, which require all children working in the factories to attend school at least five times a week until their thirteenth year, have made instruction virtually general and compulsory. The Netherlands have no compulsory law, but boards of teachers and college directors are supposed to establish a regular attendance of children from six to twelve years of age by means of exhortations, circulation of roll calls and indirect compulsory measures, such as the withdrawal of public support. In Belgium no compulsory education exists. France has, since 1882, required attendance from six to thirteen. In Italy, from six to ten. Russia has no compulsory education law. While in Germany, the percentage of elementary pupils in attendance, to all population, is about 17, in Belgium, it is 11.10; Denmark, 12.87; France, 14.47; Greece, 6.19; Great Britain and Ireland, 15.45; Italy, 8. 14; Netherlands, 14.25; Austria, 13.40; Hungary, 12.59; Bosnia, 2.70; Portugal,

4.60; Roumania, 4.41; Russia-in-Europe, 1.03; Finland, 18.29; Sweden, 16.37; Norway, 17.02; Switzerland, 15.73; Servia, 3.38; and Spain, 10.95.

As an example of what is being done for education in Europe, the Kingdom of Prussia alone may be cited. In addition to the elementary schools, there are about twelve general continuation schools, with 8,718 pupils; 1,320 industrial continuation schools, with 145,672 pupils; 97 trade schools, with 8,625 pupils; 217 commercial schools, with 17,029 pupils; 1,193 agricultural schools, with 23,831 pupils; a total of 2,989 continuation and technical schools, with 219,490 pupils. The German believes in education. As showing the thoroughness and zeal with which the government supplies the means of technical training in the various industries of the country, it is stated that if any paper, dealing, for example, with some department of the textile industry, is read before any foreign society and is published or appears in any journal, the communication is immediately translated and circulated throughout the textile schools of Prussia, with directions to have it dealt with as a lecture to students, and if models, illustrations or lantern slides are required by way of illustration, they are prepared and sent with the paper. The German is surveying the world for ideas.

As showing the relation of the compulsory school system in Germany and other European States to illiteracy, the following statistics of adults are suggestive: German Empire, .05 per cent are illiterate; Denmark, .02; Finland, .49; Switzerland, .13; Scotland, 2.46; Netherlands, 2.30; England, 3.00; France, 4.70; Belgium (not compulsory), 10.10; Austria, 35.60; Ireland, 7.90; Hungary, 47.80; Greece, 30.00; Italy, 32.99; Portugal, 79.20; Spain, 68.10; Russia, 61.70; Servia, 79.30; Roumania, 88.40. Our immigration is now principally from Italy, Hungary and Russia.

France offers a good illustration of the rapidity with which illiteracy may be reduced as a result of good attendance laws. In 1854, no less than 42.5 per cent of the French people were illiterate. In 1870, at the end of the Empire, 31 per cent were illiterate, and in 1880 the condition was very little improved. In 1882, the compulsory education act went into effect and as a