ment; the amounts are not stated. Forty-eight chambers of commerce voted the sum of $13,030 to 102 commercial schools, which were more or less controlled by these chambers. Eight chambers of commerce paid part of the deficits of 18 commercial schools, which were partially under their management. Twenty-four chambers of commerce gave small sums to 31 commercial schools for the purpose of buying prizes, books, etc. Four chambers devoted $1697 to independent lectures on commerce and industry. Further, it appears that 12 chambers of commerce give prizes in the shape of books, money, or stipends; in 24 the members take part in the examination; in 6 districts the secretary of the chamber makes tours of inspection among the schools; 63 chambers have members on the school board of directors; 8 have arranged lectures for clerks and others holding minor positions in business houses; 3 have arranged for teachers' conferences; one has appointed a commission to examine all important school subjects; and another has established an industrial exhibition. The consul says that this sketch of the work of German chambers of commerce in commercial education cannot be looked upon as exhausting the subject. He is informed by German merchants and manufacturers that they are only beginning to take an interest in the matter of education. He states, as an example, that 8 chambers of commerce are at present busy with reorganizing and extending the commercial schools in their districts; 13 are agitating in favor of such schools; 6 have declared their willingness to give pecuniary assistance to the schools in their districts, if certain conditions are complied with; 6 are contemplating assuming the management of the schools in their districts; and several wish to appoint directors at the chamber's expense to introduce lectures, establish libraries, and grant prizes. The consul's conclusion is that Germany pays almost as much attention to trade education as she does to any other branch of instruction.

Instruction in

The EDUCATIONAL REVIEW for June last so-called Temper- printed in full the preliminary report on ance Physiology school instruction in the effects of stimulants

and narcotics submitted a few weeks previously to the New York State Science Teachers' Association by a committee of that body. We are now in receipt of a long reply to that report issued by the New York State Central Committee for Scientific Temperance Instruction. It should be obtained and read by all who are truly interested in the question which it discusses. For ourselves, we are so completely out of sympathy with the so-called scientific temperance movement and so weary of the reiteration by its representatives of dogmas which are at most matters of opinion, that we are not entirely an unbiased judge of the value of this reply. The notion that the use of alcohol is immoral is to us perfectly incomprehensible, in the strictest sense of the term.

The SummerSchool of the South

One of the most gratifying and satisfactory of recent events has been the unqualified success of the first session of the Summer School of the South, held at Knoxville, Tenn., under the auspices of the Southern Education Board. President Dabney of the University of Tennessee and Mr. P. P. Claxton, formerly of Greensboro, N. C., were the men upon whose shoulders fell the task of organization and direction, and they are to be heartily congratulated upon the result. The total registration was 2019, including 687 men and 1332 women.

Of the number enrolled about 1500 were teachers in actual service. Twenty-nine States were represented. Tennessee sent 1003, Georgia 248, Alabama 180, North Carolina 169, Mississippi 109, South Carolina 50, Texas 29, and Virginia 22. The splendid success of this undertaking shows that the new educational movement in the Southern States is under full headway.

The Boston Advertiser has published several The Washington Schools Again articles charging that ground for a serious scandal exists in connection with the public schools of Washington, D. C. Under date of August 2, General H. V. Boynton, president of the Washington board of school commissioners, wrote to the Advertiser a letter

which appears to admit the truth of the newspaper's allegations and to hold that it is incumbent upon the Commissioners of the District of Columbia to make a searching investigation. General Boynton forcibly adds that he disclaims "any desire or purpose to tolerate, excuse, or condone such conditions as the Advertiser alleges to exist."

Since the success of the intrigue which displaced Superintendent Powell and threw the Washington schools, then among the very best in the country, into chaos, well-informed observers have been prepared for anything. When a little group of self-seeking politicians, newspaper men, and committee clerks can overturn the school system of a great city for purely personal reasons, there is something radically wrong somewhere. Dr. Francis R. Lane, who leaves Washington for the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute after years of successful service, gives as one of his reasons for the change, the utterly unsatisfactory character of the present school conditions in Washington.

Mr. John Adams, formerly rector of the United Free Church Training College at Glasgow, and lecturer on education in the University of Glasgow, has been appointed to the professorship of education in the University of London.

Mr. John Edgar, a classical teacher in the Royal High School at Edinburgh, has been chosen to succeed Professor Meiklejohn in the chair of education in the University of St. Andrews.

The newspaper reports of the Commencement season of 1902 contained the following instances of the conferring of the degree of Ph. D., honoris causa:

EDUCATIONAL REVIEW

NOVEMBER, 1902

I

TWO YEARS' PROGRESS IN THE CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

For three years past the eyes of the educational world have been upon Chicago. The second city in the Union, with nearly six thousand teachers and twenty-one members of the school board, with a public-school administration permeated by political pull and demoralized by diffusion of responsibility, has been making rapid strides toward twentieth-century ideals in school management. It is doubtful indeed if any city on the continent has made such marked progress in two years toward the realization of those aims that are regarded by advanced educators as essential to efficient school administration, and to the attainment of the highest standards in popular education.

This progress has been made without any change in the municipal machinery by which the schools are maintained. No change in the city charter was necessary to inaugurate the reforms by which the teaching corps was placed beyond the reach of the politicians and greater authority and responsibility centered in the superintendent of schools. If Chicago followed the trend of educational progress and desired to completely divorce its schools from politics it would fall in line with Indianapolis, in reducing the school-board membership to a compact, businesslike body, elected by the people instead of appointed by the Mayor, and responsible only to the electorate for the proper and intelligent discharge of the important duties intrusted to it.

The strides that have been made in the Chicago schools have been made in spite of this archaic system. Realizing the futility of attempting to change the system under which the school board was responsible only to the City Hall, Mr. Edwin G. Cooley, the present superintendent, who was elected in June, 1900, immediately set about, thru the exercise of that unusual tact and administrative diplomacy which originally suggested him for the place, bringing systematic order out of chaos and co-ordinating the entire system on a plan that recognized but one responsible executive head in the educational affairs of the schools and yet contemplated the assent of the board to every recommendation for appointment. It is not known whether Superintendent Cooley favors a large board or a small board of trustees, an elective or an appointive board. Seeing the failure of a rather formidable civic organization to impress the legislature with the necessity for changing the plan of administration, he did not stop to discuss this phase of the school question, but entered quickly and energetically upon the task of persuading the board to recognize the inefficiency of the old system and the necessity for relieving the superintendent of embarrassment in the selection and appointment of teachers thru the personal solicitation and influence of board members and politicians.

Strange to say, the new superintendent found the board more hospitable toward his ideas than he had reason to expect. Instead of twenty-one rebellious trustees, insistent upon the privileges which they had apparently acquired thru years of administration in which politics was allowed to dominate in school affairs, he found a board quite receptive and responsive, ready to acquiesce in every measure he advanced for the betterment of the school system.

How much of this disposition to yield to the recommendations of the superintendent was due to the pressure of the press and public sentiment, is not for me to decide. Suffice it to say the superintendent did not encounter as much opposition as he had been led to fear thru the experiences of his predecessors. Being an old schoolmaster as well as an administrative strategist, he had no rainbow theories about school boards. He knew that a board of twenty-one members, appointed by a