enrolled attended school each day that our public schools were in session. This improvement in regularity of attendance has been due to better teaching, to better supervision, to more suitable courses of study, to transportation of country school children at public expense, to compulsory attendance laws, and to a prevailing desire by parents that their children shall receive all the advantages of a good education. There is still room for improvement, however, in many ways. One child out of four of school age is still out of the public school, and only approximately three children out of every four enrolled attend daily.

The tax payers of this country put more than a billion dollars every year into our public schools of all kinds. This is a very large sum of money. And yet the women of this country spend each year just about that much for lotions and face powders. Some of our tax payers complain of the heavy taxes levied on their property to support the schools, yet many of these same men spend as much for tobacco every year as they pay in school taxes. Including private normal schools, our tax payers put about twenty million dollars each year into the normal schools, which are devoted to the training of teachers. This, too, is a large sum. And yet the people of this country spend fifty million dollars every year for chewing gum.

Requirements of Teachers. As the schools themselves developed, the people began to demand teachers that were better prepared. The early colorial school was taught by almost any one who knew the "Three R's." Today state governments by law set high standards for their teachers. Most states now require that their teachers have certain certificates, which are granted them only if they have had at least a high-school and a normal-school education, or if they have successfully passed examinations showing that they have at least something like the education essential for the work of a teacher.

Salaries of teachers have advanced with these added

requirements. This is due partly to the increased expense to the teacher who must obtain the necessary education and partly to the decreased purchasing power of the dollar. Thus the average annual salary of all teachers in this country was $187 in 1870, $195 in 1880, $252 in 1890, $325 in 1900, $515 in 1913, $635 in 1918, and $837 in 1920. This is still

TESTING LEATHER AT THE BUREAU OF STANDARDS

The United States Government maintains splendid laboratories where materials for both government and private use are tested for strength and other qualities.

a very low salary as compared with the earnings of other classes of workers. Therefore many capable men and women are leaving the teaching profession for other work that pays them better and thus permits them to secure the advantages they desire.

Public Researches. Our national government, our state governments, and our universities support and conduct

scientific investigations, the results of which have made for the betterment of all and for the progress of business and of society. Thus the experts employed by our national Bureau of Standards have made researches to improve glass blowing, cotton weaving, the telephone, the tanning of leather, the refining of sugar, the making of better steel.

Studies have been made to determine which of our wild birds are the friends and which are the enemies of man. By examining the contents of the stomachs of thousands of individual birds of a certain species, scientists have discovered whether that particular bird destroys other valuable birds or devours the farmer's crops, or whether, on the other hand, it eats millions of the insects that destroy crops. The discoveries and other results of these researches are open to all.

Libraries. Education and reading for pleasure and recreation should not stop with school life. But few indeed are the people who can afford a library big enough to keep all the books and magazines required nowadays for pleasure and professional work, for the world is rich in books and magazines. Hence libraries are kept at public expense, open to all on equal terms. In these libraries one can get biographies of the great men, histories of nations and races, scientific books, and the best in literature; as well as books and magazines for recreation, for aiding in one's occupation, and for enabling one to keep abreast of the times. Many states provide from public funds traveling libraries that can be sent around to rural schools and to small communities.

Museums and Zoölogical Gardens. In books and magazines authors may tell in words and in pictures about the arts, clothing, homes, and products of peoples in the past, or of the peoples of today in other lands. But there is need for the object as well as for the description. Hence cities and states and the national government maintain natural, commercial, and historical museums. In these are kept

specimens of animal life, of the products of the fields, mines, and forests, and emblems and objects of historical interest of the different lands and races. So, too, zoölogical gardens

Harris & Ewing, Washington, D. C.

IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM AT WASHINGTON

The room devoted to natural history is of great value to students in tracing the development of present-day animals.

are maintained that the people may see birds and animals from all parts of the world.

The amount of money put into these museums and gardens is not large relatively. There are only fifty zoological gardens of considerable size in this country.

Art. Human beings are endowed with a love for the

beautiful in art. This love for the artistic can find expression in the home no matter how humble that home may be. But few even of the most wealthy can afford to own objects of art-vases, and pictures, and rugs, and statuary-in a quantity at all sufficient to satisfy this appreciation of the best in art. Hence the larger cities maintain art museums, in which can be found illustrations of the work of artists. Our School Systems. The administration of the schools is in the hands of the state and local governments. Each town or city has its local Board of Education, elected from the prominent men and women of that locality. This Board of Education usually appoints a Superintendent of Schools to organize and supervise the school work, and itself acts as a legislative body. The Board controls the spending of the school money, approves the teachers and textbooks suggested by the Superintendent, and supervises the construction of new school buildings. The Superintendent organizes the school schedules, supervises the work of the teachers, and with the advice of his teachers suggests textbooks. In the larger cities some of this work is often delegated to specially trained supervisors, who are directly under the control of the Superintendent.

In the one-room country schools the School Board, elected by the voters, chooses the school-teacher. Much of the supervising work done in the city schools by the City Superintendent is done for the rural schools by the County Superintendent and his assistants. The County Superintendent advises with the School Boards and teachers in his county on all educational matters. He sees to it that the teachers in the county have the qualifications required by law. In order to give all the children in the county an equal chance for a good education, the laws are uniting rural schools more and more into effective county units of taxation and administration.

To assure equal standards in the schools, each state has a State Superintendent of Schools. This State Superin