officers. Rational free will is the basis of American institutions; the citizens, taken collectively, are the sovereign power, and a sovereign can know no compulsion; one of the functions of the state is, therefore, to see that every citizen has open to him the means of ascertaining and of discharging his obligations to his sovereign, and then to exact a rigid accountability; it is ` to manage all those interests which belong to the community as a community, and whose management cannot be trusted to the uncertainties of individual effort.

The American State has an interest in education, because the results of education are essential to the continuance and perpetuity of the state itself—a necessity perceived even by those governments which disregard the wishes of the governed, but a necessity which cannot for a moment be overlooked in a country which in its government aims to reflect the will of its citizens.

The real American State is, then, the will of the whole body of citizens as distinguished from the wishes of any individual, or of any class of individuals; and it is this common will which finds expression in our laws when these are not merely legislative enactments.

For the common good, and as an expression of the common will, it deals with education as at once the right and the necessity of every citizen; it seeks to develop the individual so that he shall be educated as a citizen, and hence contribute most to the common good. The limits of this education are found in the will of the citizens; if these be possessed of the intelligence of the founders of the New England colonies, they will see the supreme interest of education and will limit its extent only by their ability to provide it, and they, like the Pilgrim Fathers, will, by early laying a generous foundation, cause their posterity to wield the influence of the land in which they live; will cause their states to rival Massachusetts in the ability and character of the men and women who determine the standing and influence of the community. If, on the contrary, the citizens narrow public interests to the possession of certain offices and insignia

of government, they will cause their community to be noted for ignorance and unthrift, and in spite of any natural advantages, will fail to realize their best interests in any direction.

The limit to public education is found in the means and the will of the community which affords it. If the community regards education as a disagreeable but necessary charity, the extent of the education will not be great, and its results will not have high value. If the community looks upon education as a right, but a right to be allowed only within the narrowest limits, its value as an instrumentality in the solution of social problems will be correspondingly small. If the community proposes to do the best by itself, it will place as large a limit as it may in justice to its other interests, and will debate the quality and fitness of the education and not its amount—it will feel that every dollar spent for education is more than a dollar gained to the one who spends it, both in the decreased need for the expenses for other common interests, and in the increased value of every educated citizen. In this country the probable limit, for local communities at least, is the high school, and no community which can afford it deprives itself of this auxilary to the district school.

The question of a high school may be considered by three classes of citizens. 1. Those who are indifferent to education in itself, and consent to public education only because it is a sociological need. 2. Those who believe in education by itself, but who look upon public education as a gift and not as a right. 3. Those who believe in education as a right as well as a political necessity.

To the first class (those who regard only the political need), the defence of a high school must rest upon the superior economy of a system of schools which includes a high school. It can be shown that equal efficiency can be secured with less expense by this organization than by a system of schools which omits this auxiliary.

A high school will in this light become an economical device. Its claims will readily be acknowledged by all who can understand that it is always cheap to spend a hundred dollars in one direction if by so doing one can save an otherwise necessary outgo of one hundred and fifty. The method of substantiating such a statement is twofold: 1st, to show that from the nature of the case the claim is valid; 2d, by showing that in actual working the mismanagement of the unskillful does not vitiate this claim. From the nature of the case, we all know that the modern discovery called the division of labor, has decreased the expense while increasing the efficiency of the work to be done; we all know that the extent to which this division is to go is determined solely by the amount of work to be done and the superior economy of distributing the labor. In a large dry goods business it is found by experience, as well as by calculation, that the work can be handled most efficiently and at the least expense by employing relatively few superior men who shall be able to use to advantage cheaper labor. If the bookkeeping should require the constant services of five men, whose average salary was $1,500, that the work would be more efficiently and more cheaply done by employing one superior man at a salary of $2,500, and by allowing him four ordinary clerks at salaries of $1,000. The whole order of business depends upon the axiom that a good head can use many hands more deftly and with less expense than many hands can work without a head. In all well organized business, therefore, the party most directly interested has merely to see to it that his subdivisions are not excessive, and that in each department the head and the hands are to justify their existence by turning out the best results at the least expense.

Upon this principle rests the various grades among school officers. 1st, the superintendent-the head of the whole organization; 2d, the principals of the various grades; 3d, the teachers other than principals. Upon this idea, known by experience to be a sound one, rests the grading in schools. As a matter of