e "Intermediate schools," comprising the seventh and eighth years. f"District schools," comprising the first six years of the course. g Colored high and normal school. SUNDAY SCHOOL STATISTICS FOR THE UNITED STATES AND BRITISH AMERICAN PROVINCES. [Compiled for the Eighth International Convention, Boston, June 23-26, 1896. M. D. Byers, acting statistical secretary, Atwood Building, Chicago, Ill.] *DELAWARE *DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA * Florida. + Idaho *ILLINOIS * INDIANA IOWA *Kansas. + Louisiana *MASSACHUSETTS. + Minnesota + Mississippi. + Montana... R. O. Sams, Gaffney, S. C. 1 1 5 200 4 50 2,500 3.907 43.531 283,335 326,867 1,100 7.000 58,450 65,450 1 17 2.024 20,545 132,400 152,945 ! 55 13 2 Rev. C. J. Kephart, Annville, Pa. C. R. Fisher, Redfield, S. Dak. Isaac Emory, Knoxville, Tenn. J. A. Smith, Ogden, Utah. Rev. J. H. Babbitt, W. Brattleboro, Vt. H. L. Sizer, Seattle, Wash. G. Ruttencutter, St. Marys, W. Va. Rev. A. J. Benjamin, Oshkosh, Wis. G. H. Smith, Carbon, Wyo. *Accurate reports made by State, Provincial, or Territorial association to the Eighth International Convention, Boston, Mass., June 23-26, 1896. + Estimated reports made by State, Provincial, or Territorial association to the Eighth International Convention, Boston, Mass., June 23-26, 1896. (20.) Reports made to the Seventh International Convention, St. Louis, Mo., August 31-September 2, 1893. (12.) NOTE. The report of the home department is mostly estimated by W. A. Duncan, Ph. D., although it is believed by the States and Provinces reporting that the figures here given are conservative. The report of the primary unions is compiled from the report of the secretary of the international primary union. ORGANIZATION. 56 organized States, Provinces, and Territories (United States and Canada), printed in roman. 4 unorganized States, Provinces, and Territories, printed in italics. 19 States, Territories, and Provinces, where organization is thorough, printed in SMALL CAPS. 15 States, Territories, and Provinces, where organization is good, printed in full-face roman. 22 States, Territories, and Provinces, where organization is partial, printed in small roman. SUPPLEMENTARY AND INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN GERMANY. Continuation or supplementary schools (Fortbildungsschulen) in Germany are either day or evening schools; few are secular Sunday schools. Their object is to supplement the elementary education acquired in the common schools, and to bridge over the time from the fourteenth to the seventeenth year of age of boys who do not attend a high school or a secondary industrial or technological school, the law prohibiting factory or shop labor of children under 17 years. The continuation schools are essentially elementary schools, for as a rule they teach no foreign languages and no higher mathematics, hence can not be classed among secondary institutions. There is very little, if any, uniformity in the courses of study in these schools. They adapt themselves readily to local needs, some being designed to aid agricultural, others industrial, communities. Nor are the educational authorities desirous of subjecting these schools to a uniformity such as is necessary for common schools, because, if anywhere, it is in these supplementary agencies of the people's education that the individuality of the pupils should be fostered and attempts be made to meet local needs. There were in 1897 altogether 13,665 of such supplementary schools in the German Empire, attended by 484,644 pupils. The Kingdom of Prussia alone had 2,989 such schools, with 219,490 pupils. The necessity of maintaining supplementary schools varies in the different States. Thus, for instance, in Bavaria, where the school age is from 6 to 13 years, such supplementary schools are more necessary than in other States which keep the children in school a whole year longer. The number of pupils in supplementary schools to every 1,000 inhabitants varies from 57 in Bavaria and 50 in Würtemberg to 2 in Schaumburg-Lippe. Several communities in German minor States have decreed compulsory attendance for pupils of continuation schools, which is enforced only where children are employed in factory and shop labor. There has grown out of this system of supplementary schools a system of industrial and trade schools which is exerting a most beneficial influence upon the industrial development of the Empire. They are chiefly schools for the building trades, the weaving and dyeing trades, schools for metal workers, and all are more or less schools of design as well as schools for practical work. The State of Prussia has increased its appropriations for the maintenance of these trade schools from $213,484 in 1892 to $340,050 in 1897. Besides these sums the communities pay equal amounts, and private donations and contributions from trade unions swell the income to fully $1,000,000 a year. Austria also maintains a large number of special schools of industrial character, as does Switzerland; but while in Austria and Germany the State governments support trade schools, the Federal Government in Switzerland can not do so, being prohibited by the Federal Government, which reserves education to the cantons. TEACHERS' PENSIONS AND MUTUAL AID SOCIETIES. In European countries in which the State supervises and directs the common schools and regulates the appointment of teachers, laws are in existence which provide for the teachers' support in old age, and even offer relief in cases of breakdown. But while in former years the pensions paid were to a large extent the result of premiums contributed annually by the teachers themselves, recent legislation in inost States has done away with the teachers' contributions and laid the burden of paying pensions entirely upon the State. The argument advanced was that teachers, as servants or officers of the State, are entitled to pensions the same as all other civil or military officers. Furthermore, that teachers, among all the State's officers, are the ones who deserve the highest consideration, being the best of the State's agencies of conservation and the ones who are more likely to sacrifice their health in the discharge of their duties. Mutual aid societies and annuity funds established by teachers are therefore declining. The following summary gives the facts as far as known to this office: |