TABLE X.-PART 2.- Summary of statistics of schools of science. Total 5, 240 208 300 105, 166 4, 422 20,000 20,000 1,200 8,000 30,000 98, 817 61,000 The schools reported in Table X show but little change since the date of my last report. In Part 1, which includes the schools endowed with the national land grant of 1862, one new school is noted, viz, the Florida State Agricultural College. This is not yet thoroughly organized. In Part 2 of the table, 7 new schools or departments are reported, while 2 tabulated in 1882 no longer appear. A total increase of 6 in the number of schools reported in Table X is thus shown, as compared with 1882. Nearly all the schools that appear this year for the first time in the table have been mentioned in my previous reports as either contemplated or about to be organized. Since 1882, the number of instructors in the schools of Table X has increased, while the number of students shows a slight falling off. The schools of the class here presented have been fully described in my previous annual reports and in the special report published by the Office in 1882. Moreover, they have been the subject of recent examination and report by foreign commissions deputed to inquire into the condition of industrial and technical education in the leading nations. Their general status is, therefore, well understood both at home and abroad. Table X, in summary and appendix, and the notices of the individual schools under the head of Scientific and Professional Instruction, in the abstracts of the appendix, set forth with sufficient clearness the present condition of these institutions and the slight changes that have occurred since my last report. I shall, therefore, confine myself to the notice of a very few particulars. As a nation, we have reason to be gratified with our record in respect to scientific and technical instruction. As early as 1824 provision was made in this direction by the organization of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, N. Y. The same year witnessed the foundation of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. These were followed at intervals of a few years by the scientific department of Virginia University, the Ohio Mechanics' Institute, the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College, and the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, all organized before the close of 1848. The significance of these dates is the more apparent when we recall that the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, Paris, was not founded until 1829 and that the school of design, from which has developed the Science and Art Department of Great Britain, with its system of schools, museums, and grants, was not in operation before 1837. The department itself was formally created in 1856, or 6 years prior to the land grant by our Federal Government which made the movement in the United States toward special training for the arts and industries truly national. The completeness with which certain of the schools have been equipped and the wisdom manifested in their adaptation to special conditions indicate that we have had in our midst men well qualified to direct this new development in education. A few of the many favorable comments of foreign authorities on this subject will suffice to show how thoroughly these provisions are appreciated abroad: Dr. Kerr, one of Her Majesty's senior inspectors of schools, in a public address delivered in November, 1883, after an account of the leading institutions of Germany, which he had just visited, added that he believed the finest science school of the world was at St. Louis, Mo. In the following December, on the occasion of the distribution of prizes to the students of Finsbury Technical College, Professor Huxley called attention to the fact that on the American side of the Atlantic there was a people of the same stock, blood, race, and power as the English, who would run them harder than any competitors ha hitherto done. At a meeting held in Sheffield the same month with reference to forming plans f a proposed technical department in connection with Firth College, Mr. Mundella stated twat a friend of Ele who had just visited the United States and inspected the meat for set uinta; elueat on els is there, Lac forme the ot that there js tuote skin and integ nice in American indati Enguan industrial parasite." trvalte than there is in our In his report on Technical Education in the United States, Mr. Mather says: The meeminence of the Americans in many branches of mechanical industry renders it necessary to give a general view of the character and scope of the education in the pubie wchoos ge mola as to discover what provisor has beer and is being made for technical and industrai trading. The provisior made for science teaching in the many universities and colleges not directly technical in their character, in the varions States, bas also required my attention, for the reason that a large proportion of the graduates of these institutions pass at once into the industrial arts after leaving college. The act of Congress in conservating forever a large portion of the territorial wealth of the nation for the purposes of industrial and Scientific education is a sagacions chemes of statesmanship. There is provided in every State at least one centre from which all the knowledge necessary to instruct the youth of the State in scientific industry may radiate. That many of these colleges have orified from the orginal intention of the authors of the act is only a temporary evil. The tide has set in the other direction now and the marked success of those colleges, such as in New York State, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, &c., in the direction of technical instruction, is gradually leading to the conversion of all. It will be seen from the foregoing description of the technical and science schools that there exists in America a certain number of high class institutions for technical and scientific training in mining, civil, and mechanical engineering. I am of opinion that in these branches, judging from my own observation, there is nothing better of the kind, though such institutions are more numerous at present in Europe. The advantage in the training in the best of them is its practicalness. The students feel that careers are open to them if only they have acquired the art of applying their knowledge; hence their ambition is excited and every one of them appears to be working for a definite purpose. There is nothing pretentious about these students. Some of them are poor, but they must have shown marked ability in order to get the advantages of the free or partially free instruction. Thus a limited number of clever sons of workingmen have the road opened up for a thorough scientific training, if they can afford to give the time. There can be no doubt that America owes much already to the schools which exist for technical education, though not actually helping the artisan class. Many hundreds of young men have been furnished from these sources for the superintendence of railway works, mining operations, machine shops, and the textile industries, besides chemical works, glass manufactories, building operations, agriculture, &c. I have met in almost all the manufactories I have visited - from mining, iron and steel manufacturing, through all the mechanic arts, up to watch making and sewing machine manufacturing ---övidences of the influence of the technical schools. These are views upon which it is pleasant to dwell, but there is another and less flattering side to the record which it will not do for us to ignore. The schools endowed by the national land grant of 1862 are often and very appropriately designated as "colleges for the people," by which we are evidently to understand the people who are not likely to become classical scholars or scientific experts and specialists. A few of these schools are found among what Mr. Mather terms "high class institutions for technical and scientific training in mining, civil, and mechanical engineering;" but the majority must fulfil the purpose suggested in the words of Hon. Justin L. Morrill in his speech at the time of the passage of the land grant act: "They must be institutions accessible to all, but especially to the sons of toil." To this end they should be so coördinated with the common schools of the rural districts that the pupils who have finished the course in these may be ready for admission to the colleges, in which they should receive training suited to their probable careers in life. The instruction which these schools offer is at present too theoretic and follows too closely the model of the classical college. So far as science is concerned, the great datioulty is the want of the material equipment. The training in agriculture and the mechanie arts languishes from various causes. Competent men are not easily found to organise and conduct these departments, and in many States the rural population have little faith in the utility of the training, especially the agricultural training; so that the provision which the colleges are able to make for this branch is not properly appreciated. When State aid is withdrawn from an agricultural college on the plea that such colleges are not required, as has been done in one instance, and when the labor of ordinary farm hands is prized above that of the graduates from agricultural schools, young men have small inducement to pursue the courses of training. It rests chiefly with the schools themselves to remove these hindrances to their successful operation, but this can only be accomplished by gradual advances. In several of the Northwestern States, agricultural colleges or departments of colleges have passed the time of severest trial and have gained an assured position among the agencies that are deemed essential to the development of the local resources. In every such case it will be found that the colleges have had to create the sentiment that now operates for their support and progress. This has been done through the persistent efforts of men who joined to scientific knowledge practical experience in farming and through cooperation with State boards of agriculture and other associations which brought the schools into intimate relations with the farming population. In Kansas, farmers' institutes held under the auspices of the agricultural college have proved of great advantage. Experimental stations established in a few States have done much toward counteracting the low estimate in which "scientific farming" is held, and it is desirable that their number should be increased. The teaching of agriculture was a subject of earnest and prolonged discussion before the London International Conference on Education, which has been several times referred to in these pages. On the general proposition of the practicability and the valuable results of such teaching, the delegates from the various nations, with very few exceptions, were agreed. Mr. John Wrightson,1 M. R. A. C., F. C. S., called attention to the perfect unanimity with respect to the subjects which form a complete curriculum of agricultural knowledge, as shown by the syllabuses of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, of the Institution of Surveys, and of every agricultural college in Europe, in the United States, and the United Kingdom. It was in the methods by which the general scheme of instruction is carried out in the several countries represented that differences were observable, and as these methods were explained in detail and the results set forth it was impossible to resist the conviction that, where the teaching of agriculture fails, it fails not from the want of knowing what to do, but from the want of knowing how to do it or the want of the necessary relations between the teaching agencies and the agricultural system of the country. The United States was ably represented in this discussion by Prof. N. S. Townshend, of the Ohio State University, whose explanation of the work which he has conducted in that institution was received with deep interest. Commenting upon certain of the papers, the chairman, Mr. St. John Ackers, observed, as stated in the report of the proceedings, that Professor Townshend himself was evidently a practical farmer before he became a teacher; and if we could only get practical farmers to become teachers of the science of agriculture, or rather of all those sciences which went to make up the great art of agriculture, he for one should say that we had indeed arrived at à condition far in advance of anything which existed at the present time throughout the length and breadth of the land. As I have already suggested, it is not easy in this country to find men possessing such qualifications, but here, as in Great Britain, they are essential to the successful teaching of agriculture. President of the College of Agriculture, Downton; lecturer in the Normal School of Science; exc iner in agriculture for the Science and Art Departme TABLE XI.-SCHOOLS OF THEOLOGY. The following is a comparative statement of the number of schools of theology (including theological departments) reporting to this Bureau each year from 1874 to 1884, inclusive (1883 omitted), with the number of professors and number of students: The following summary shows the number of clergymen in each State and Territory, in 1880, according to the Federal census of that year. It will be observed that, in the Union as a whole, the proportion of clergymen to the whole population was 1 to 781. Next follows a summary of theological schools for 1883-'84, by religious affiliations, showing for each denomination the number of schools, professors, and students. |