tions and bias in maturity. Can one ever fully escape their influence? Parents intuitively apprehend that in this period the beginnings in sense training must be made and stimuli are willingly supplied, but their indifference towards the stimulation of the auditory sense is incomprehensible.

Sight is universally considered the pre-eminent sense, but surely the sense of hearing is a close second. The assertion has been made that sight and hearing are the same in substance, only different in manifestation of the phenomenon vibration.

My purpose is to urge not the neglect of eye-training, but careful systematic ear-training from birth and the giving of special attention to those children who are, or seem, defective in this direction.

A most potent factor for music development is school music. In the North and East this subject has established its right as an important school subject, but statistics indicate that in the Southern States it is in many places still a novelty, and in others yet in the experimental stage.

The attitude of musicians towards this branch of musical effort has been, as a rule, if not actually unfriendly and hostile at least indifferent and neglectful. This may be due to a lack on their part of a knowledge of educational principles and pedagogy and also to the inadequate qualifications of supervisors.

Personal observation is the basis for my conclusion that in the past the training of musicians was mainly mechanical, to secure technical skill in the use of some instrument, intellectual and cultured exercise being, if not totally unconsidered, a mere incident. This training produced skillful executants, sometimes virtuosi, but was not calculated to develop teachers capable of handling the subject scientifically, or of comprehending its power as an educational force.

The supervisor, new in name and function, called suddenly, sometimes by a mere accident, to operate in an unfamiliar field, has naturally seldom measured up to the exacting requirements of a most difficult position, for he must be a composite of ability in the various branches of the art in addition to possessing educational qualifications and personal endowments, such as magnetism, leadership, etc.

Likewise the efforts of the grade teacher, upon whom suddenly developed the new task of teaching an intangible, elusive

subject, without grasp of the subject matter or an understanding of its value in the school, its relation to the other subjects and inter-relation to pedagogical method, were naturally unable to command the respect of professional musicians.

These causes and the isolated self-centered, unorganized activity of musicians have retarded growth and perhaps influenced educators to withhold their interest and assistance.

The function of school music is educational involving sense training, mental development, the æsthetic unfoldment in the fostering of a love for the best music and the highest ideals, the acquisition of music as an emotional language and stimulation for self-expression of the creative powers, and in this scheme of development, in this period of life with its foundation of the first six years' accumulation of sound experience, lie the germs of growth and power, the hope of music's future. Child nature is wonderful. What potentialities are imbedded in their direct, inquiring minds, awaiting the influences that shall quicken them into expression. Children are absolutely fearless and confident of inherent power to do when the teacher's attitude is positive, optimistic, expressing a real faith in them.

The time seems ripe when we should discourage the wholesale borrowing of foreign song material and stimulate original output. We violate psychological law when we use songs and music based on facts unknown to our children's experience. We need American music, American song writers who can deal with our own conditions and give them noble musical form.

In summarizing what I consider dominating forces for the advancement of Southern music the following points are emphasized:

1. Organization of professional musicians. The uniting of isolated forces and the substitution of coöperative action for narrowness, self-interest, and unfriendly criticism.

2. A recognition of the value of good music in the homes. Listening to music is one of the greatest factors in musical training. Kindergarten teachers, librarians, etc., are very active in organizing mothers' clubs in which the mothers are taught the importance of coöperating with these institutions. Professional musicians, supervisors, and educators should use

the same means of teaching mothers the value of early training through musical practice and intelligent listening.

3. The adequate training in music of grade teachers in Normal schools.

4. Supervisors trained to meet all the requirements of a position demanding broad general culture, educational and musical qualifications of a high order and the ability to be a musical leader in the community. Heretofore the training of supervisors has been done mainly by summer schools instituted by publishing houses interested in a certain system of music books. A supervisor's department is needed in our colleges and universities.

5. A more general use of the educational journals for exploitation of ideas relative to musical facts and pedagogical practice by musical authorities. An examination of these periodicals shows practically no suggestions to grade teachers in giving music lessons, no discussions which would show the relation between educational principles and music study. Songs for occasional use are the main contributions. Often these are of the most trivial character, mere jingle and clap-trap of no enduring value. Often, too, a beautiful melody familiar as an expression of sentiment of a certain type has been crudely applied to words entirely different in character from that implied by the melody with no thought for fitness. These are musical falsehoods, most harmful and disintegrating in their influence. Space devoted to musical discussion could be made of incalculable benefit if used to meet the needs of teachers.

6. The furtherance of school music by all educators and professional musicians who should understand that any improvement in this field means increased power and activity in the musical life of the community. Children should hear much good music, the best artists, if possible, in the various branches of the art, and musicians should not be unwilling to assist in all projects looking to bringing children into contact with music.

7. The music department of the S. E. A. can become an active force in promoting discussions which shall formulate the best thoughts as to methods, usages and to fix standards.

[ABSTRACT OF PAPER.]

MANUAL ARTS IN RELATION TO HOME LIFE IN RURAL COMMUNITIES.

MISS MAGGIE GARLINGTON, LAURENS, S. C.

Mr. President—I would like to treat the subject of "Manual Arts in Relation to Home Life in Rural Communities” in a way that is needed in many of our South Carolina rural districts.

In out-of-way corners of the country and elsewhere are oldfashioned schoolhouses of uncertain ages. Often you see begrimed and falling ceilings, dingy walls, destitute of pictures, unpolished stove, tattered shades, forked sticks nailed to the walls for hat hangers, a dark spot on the wall for a blackboard, and one lonely eraser. Can we expect the rural homes of the present and the future to be much better than this dark picture? A healthful and a beautiful schoolroom will lead to more beautiful results in the home.

How can our unsightly little schoolhouses be changed when the school funds are so limited? If the teacher is energetic and much interested in her work, she can conceive many plans by which needed funds can be obtained. Entertainments may be given during the year, sometimes several dollars can be gotten by private subscription, and in many ways during the year small amounts may be obtained.

One South Carolina teacher changed the dingy walls of her schoolroom to snowy whiteness by the use of Alabastine. Much of the work was done by her own hands. She put in window panes, hung the new pictures, which were the reproductions of famous paintings and were neatly framed, and the shades she placed at the windows. Later she purchased blackboards, erasers, a table cover, vase, soap, towels, a dust pan, a hoe, and a rake. For the yard she purchased flower seeds, and as the funds were so meager, she requested the Congressman from her district to send grass seed, which added much to the surroundings.

It seems useless to say that no slovenly results will come from children accustomed to such an atmosphere of order and beauty. Such schoolrooms are none too good for the most outof-the-way corners. The children will imbibe this spirit, this

love for the beautiful, and in a very short time you will find many improvements in their homes; the parents will catch the spirit and later it will add pleasure, beauty, and refinement to the rural communities.

[ABSTRACT OF PAPER.]

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM OF TEXAS.

CARLOS BEE, ESQ., SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS.

ON March 2, 1836, sixty patriotic and brave pioneers, far from the ennobling influences of civilization, but imbued with the spirit of their ancestors of 1776, assembled at the small village of Washington, on the Brazos River, in the then Mexican province of Texas, and again emulating their patriotic ancestors, declared that, when a government ceased to protect the lives, liberty, and property of its people, for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, the first law of nature, the right of self-preservation, and a sacred obligation to society enjoined upon the people the right to abolish such government, create another calculated to rescue them from impending dangers and secure to them their welfare and happiness; and that the necessity of self-preservation decreed eternal political separation. They, fearlessly and confidently, committing the issue to the decision of the Supreme Arbiter of the destinies of nations, declared the present imperial commonwealth of Texas to be a free, sovereign and independent Republic, and at the point of the sword and through the dark valley of the Alamo and of Goliad, established their declaration on the plains of San Jacinto, and for nine long, dark years maintained among the powers of the earth, a sovereign, free and independent republic, to be finally merged in the galaxy of States, where in the providence of God it is destined to shine with effulgence and glory through the life of our great Republic. With prophetic ken these men declared that “it is an axiom in political science, that unless a people are educated and enlightened, it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty or the capacity for self-government."

That declaration, promulgated in times of struggle and hardship, became the basis and the cornerstone of that system of