tion was appalling and its cost prohibitive, and here, to quote Dr. Reigart, "there was at hand a ready-made plan, remarkably cheap in operation, and, with all its faults, apparently superior in method and discipline to the schools of the day." One teacher for a thousand children! No wonder they "bit," especially since few knew of anything better, for it was way back in 1806 that the system was introduced -a half century before Dewey was born, a generation before Colonel Parker saw the light, and years before Froebel began his work at Keilhau. Even "Father Pestalozzi" had but just gone to Yverdon. He had not yet "psychologized education." All the work that these men and others have done for the improvement of education was yet in the future. Subtract all this from what we have today and it leaves but a barren field. No wonder that Governor DeWitt Clinton looked upon the system as “a blessing sent down from "a Heaven," and that he regarded Lancaster as a "benefactor of the human race."

The work is described in detail. The author has quoted freely from old records and reports with accurate footnote references. By illustrations, he has shown us schoolhouses and floor plans, likewise the little men (there were no children there) seriously at work in their odd surroundings and their quaint attire. He has minutely described the methods of teaching and told us how religious and moral education were attempted. He has told the truth about their so-called "normal schools." He has been eminently fair, and in the closing pages summed up "the beneficial results" as well as "the evil effects" of the system.

The book is made up of eight chapters with the contents of each carefully analyzed. It has an extended bibliography with helpful descriptive comments. It will render the reader intelligent on an important phase of educational history and cheer him up without causing him to relax his efforts for present-day improvement.

A. J. LADD

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA

A capital textbook in economic geography which high school principals will find it worth their while to look into, is Elementary economic geography, by Charles Redway Dryer, formerly of the Indiana State Normal School. The book deals largely with American conditions and is well adapted to classroom use. (New York: American Book Company. 1917. 415 p.)

There is nothing new to be said about plane trigonometry and one can not help wondering why new textbooks on this subject continue to appear. An examination of Plane trigonometry, by Eugene H. Barker of the Polytechnic High School of Los Angeles, California, supplies the reason, at least for this particular book. It is exceedingly well arranged, is well printed and abounds in well chosen and well ordered practical exercises. (Philadelphia: T. Blakiston's Son & Company. 1917. 172 p. $1.00.)

The teacher who purposes to take pupils out-of-doors to collect insects will not overlook The field book of insects, by Frank E. Lutz of the American Museum of Natural History. It is arranged for quick and ready reference and has many plates and illustrations. (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1918. 508 p. $2.50.)

It is a pleasure to call attention to a unique collection of verse entitled Fifty years and other poems, by James Weldon Johnson. Mr. Johnson, who is of negro blood, has genuine poetical feeling and real poetical skill. Professor Brander Matthews has provided the book with a charming introduction. (Boston: Corn Hill Company. 1918. 93 p.)

One result of the war is the discontinuance of Minerva, that most valuable book of reference for everything relating to university organization and personnel. So far as the British Empire is concerned, its place is well taken by the Year book of the Universities of the Empire, the volume of which for 1917 has just appeared. It contains a wealth of well-organized and well-printed information, both general and personal, regarding the universities, not only of the United Kingdom, but of the dominions and colonies as well. (London. Herbert Jenkins. 1917. 412 p. 7s. 6d.)

Rural and Urban Superintendents of Schools

NOTES AND NEWS

Bulletin 33, Series of 1917, of the United States Bureau of Education, contains "A comparison of the salaries of rural and urban superintendents of Schools," compiled by A. C. Monahan and C. H. Dye of the Bureau staff. The bulletin has been prepared for the laudable purpose of showing how inadequate are the salaries of county superintendents in most states, if persons properly qualified for the position are to be secured. The pamphlet gives in many pages of tables the salaries of county and other rural superintendents and of city superintendents in the forty-eight states. The salaries of the county superintendents in thirtynine states with such officers, the division superintendents of Virginia, the deputy state superintendents of New York, and the union district superintendents of New England, were furnished by the state departments of education, or, when fixt by statute, were obtained from the state school laws. The salaries of city superintendents were obtained directly from the cities.

The rural list is complete except for twenty-five county superintendents in Mississippi and four in Idaho, where the state departments were unable to give salaries; for 122 probate judges serving ex-officio as county superintendents in Texas; and for thirty-five rural supervising agents in Connecticut who pay their own expenses out of the stipend paid directly to them from the state treasury. Included under the salaries paid city superintendents are amounts paid in nineteen cities in Maryland, twenty-four in Florida, and twenty in Louisiana to officials who are in reality supervising principals, as the city schools in these states are under the management of the county boards of education and the supervision of the county superintendents.

The tables show that 3,087 rural superintendents received an average salary of $1,375, while 2,134 city superintendents

received an average of $2,260, the average county superintendent's salary being sixty-one per cent of that of the city superintendents. In three states, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, the average rural superintendent's salary is greater than that of the city superintendents. The Maryland city superintendents, with the single exception of Baltimore, are in reality supervising principals and are under the county superintendents; the New Jersey county superintendents all receive $3,000 a year, which exceeds the average paid in any other state; Pennsylvania pays several county superintendents unusually high salaries, and the average paid city superintendent is low on account of the large number of small cities which have superintendents or supervising principals. From the tables it also appears that thirty-four county superintendents in the various states receive over $3,000 a year; that fifty-two rural superintendents—some, however, on part time-receive less than $500; that eighty-seven city superintendents receive more than $4,000 a year (four of these $10,000); and that five city superintendents receive less than $1,000.

Not the least interesting phase of the present compilation is the astonishing variety of the ways of solving, or attempting to solve, the same fundamental problems of educational organization. There doubtless were reasons in the past, and in some cases there are undoubtedly still reasons, for differences in the adjustment and treatment of local conditions; but the wide diversity of attitude toward the common factors that are inevitably present in all aspects of the matter shows how far we are still away from any well recognized method of control of public education.

There has been much discussion in more countries than one as to the effect of the war on the teaching of modern European history in secondary schools and colleges. For the information of school administrators and teachers of history we are glad to reproduce the full text of Circular 869, printed in England by the Board of Education for the information of

Teaching modern
European history

teachers of history in secondary schools. This paper was issued in September, 1914:

The events now proceeding in Europe and the crisis which the nation has to face call for knowledge as well as courage and devotion. Those responsible for the teaching of history in secondary schools will be considering how this, like other subjects of instruction, may best be made to serve national purposes.

In the Memorandum (Circular 599) on the Teaching of History in Secondary Schools, it is suggested that a useful conclusion to the course in history would be a year's work on the history of Europe in the Nineteenth Century. In view of present circumstances it may be useful to add some fuller notes as to the form that such a course may profitably take.

A course of modern European history in schools might begin with the European status as settled by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, but must be prefaced by a brief explanation and summary of the results of the preceding Revolutionary and Napoleonic era, for without this the problems and events of the Nineteenth Century can not be understood. During that period there grew up the two ideals of liberty and nationality which have so profoundly influenced later developments of Europe, and it was in the years before 1815 that the modern history of nearly every European nation began. The modern institutions of France were established by the Revolution and by Napoleon. The history of Germany begins with the fall of the old Empire in 1806, and without some knowledge of the wars of liberation there can be no understanding of the ideal of German nationality. To the same period also belong the characteristic institutions of modern Prussia, compulsory education and compulsory service in the army, institutions which have been subsequently adopted thruout the Continent. The history of Belgium must be traced back to the French conquest of 1793. To the same date belongs the effacement of Poland from the map of Europe. The part taken by Russia in the overthrow of Napoleon marks the definite entry of Russia into the European system.

The history of the continent of Europe from 1871 onwards presents little that is suitable for school work, and it is doubtful how far it would be desirable to carry on the narrative in a systematic way beyond that year. In particular, there is not available so good a supply of suitable books-either books suitable as textbooks for the pupils or books of reference for use of the