It encourages a love of work in the children.

It inspires respect for the rougher kind of work.

It cultivates spontaneous activity.

It habituates to order, accuracy, cleanliness, and neatness.

It accustoms to attention, industry, and perseverance.

It develops the physical strength.

It acts as a counterpoise to too much sitting.

It trains the eye, and cultivates the sense of form.

It leads the child to the conception of harmony and beauty.

It stimulates a love for intellectual honesty.

The United States takes a just pride in its common school system as sustained by the States, and Mr. Atkinson, in summing up the elements that have contributed to the vast gain in the conditions of material welfare in the United States, naues seven, and assigns the third position in the seven to the "systems of common schools which are now extending throughout the land." But there is a complaint that the education given at the public expense is not practical enough. That our schools send too many boys into trading, teaching, the professions, or "living by their wits." That the children of that class constituting so large a majority with us who must depend on manual labor, are taught to despise and shun what are called humble callings, and to crowd at starvation wages the occupations of the counter and the desk.

There is no doubt that in the laudable desire to obtain for our children a high standard of general culture, and in omitting to teach the masses the use of the tools by which so many of them will have to earn their living, we are unintentionally leading them to believe that the bread which has been gained by the sweat of the brow is less honorably earned than that which is the result of mechanical quill-driving. Our schools send out too many men "learned, so called, who know the whole gamut of classical learning, who have sounded the depths of mathematical and speculative philosophy, and yet who could not harness a horse, or make out a bill of sale, if their lives depended on it," was the opinion of the late President Garfield. We want a popular education which fits for the heat and task of active life in an age which knows no rest an education which gives to the mind fleet and safe modes of reasoning, and at the same time in a corresponding degree a clear sight, a firm arm, and training suitable for the various trades and occupations which are essential elements of a prosperous national life.

It is predicted that the closing years of this century are to be distinguished by a great industrial war of far more reaching and serious import than mere military wars. All through our country scientifically and technically trained foreigners are pushing classically educated Americans from their stools and desks. Our competitors in the markets of the world are the most systematically instructed and best informed in Europe, and we must confront a most serious struggle to hold our own. It is only in the matter of technical education that we are deficient as compared with our foreign competitors-in the training which fits men for business; our system seems to be planned too much for a life of leisure. American spirit and energy are unequaled and need but proper training and education to give an earnest of unbounded success in maintaining the future eminence of our country in the world's great field of humay art and human industry. The question of manual and industrial instruction which, at first sight, might seem of interest only to those more nearly connected with the organization of our schools, may, if further examined, be found to involve such far-reaching issues that the statesman cannot afford to treat it with neglect. Might not the spirit of cheerful domestic industry which the cultivation of handiwork is calculated to promote do much to banish those evils of intemperance, violence, and social discontent which of late have shown such alarming symptoms? The moral influence it exerts might prove the proper and effective antidote to these evils. There can be no doubt that the ranks of the unemployed and misery and crime are largely swelled by the want of proper training in youth in industrial handicrafts and technical arts; that with a general dissemination of the rudiments of useful trades and employments there would be won a larger share to productive labor, for it would be shown how to put brains into it, and make it more honorable. Thus workshop teaching in the elementary schools would not only give a superior equipment to the children, but might furnish a remedy, an easy, popular, cheap, and healthful remedy for some of the social ills that threaten us. In the words of Mr. James Blake, "Let us head-train the hand-worker, and hand-train the head-worker. For manual training and head training together form the only whole education." Apart from the practical advantages, it has an ethical value in enabling men and women to use all their faculties, for "no man can distort himself by exclusive attention to one order of faculties and especially by neglecting to keep good balance between the two fundamental coordinates of his being-body and mind-without finding the distortion repeating itself in moral obtuseness and disorder."

AMERICAN COLLEGES IN ASIA MINOR.

REPORT TO THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE BY H. M. JEWETT, U. s. consul AT SIVAS, TURKEY.

The leading educational institutions of Turkey are American-that is, are founded by American societies, taught by Americau teachers, and supported in large part by American money.

The provincial schools supported by the Turkish Government are of a most inferior grade. They teach little besides reading and writing and the memorizing of large portions of the Koran. Much attention is paid to the last. Even in the large cities the Turkish schools are of inferior quality, and but a small proportion of the children attend them. In Sivas, for instance, a city of some 40,000 or 50,000 inhabitants and the capital of a province of 850,000 population, there are but five Turkish common schools, with a total attendance of 937 pupils. The higher institutions consist of a normal school with 60 students, a military school with 202 students, and a high school with 104 students.

There is, on the other hand, a growing aspiration among the people for the dignity and advantages of Western civilization, a desire, especially among the Armenians, for liberal education, and a struggle for institutions affording it. the struggle, however, without help from abroad, is nearly futile. There is neither the necessary experience nor the pecuniary ability. The help indispensably necessary to educational interests in Turkey has been extended by American hands.

The cooperation of American benevolence and native desire for better means of culture has resulted in the establishment, under American auspices, of primary schools, high schools, and colleges in every part of Asia Minor. These schools have already accomplished great good, not only as relates to their own pupils, but as a pattern for the native schools, forcing them to raise their standard and improve their methods.

The people of the United States send annually some $200,000 through the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions for the support of the work of that organization in Turkey. For many years the work of the board and its missionaries was devoted almost exclusively to religious teaching. Of late years, however, much attention has been devoted to secular education. This branch of missionary work has rapidly increased, until now, as stated, the schools of the highest standard throughout Asia Minor are those founded by the board, and in large part supported by American money. The people of the United States being therefore so largely interested in educational work in Turkey by large outlays of money as well as by sympathy in the work, some observations on the character of these schools may properly bo considered as within the province of a consular report.

There are three American colleges in Asia Minor, viz, Aintab College at Aintab, Euphrates College at Harpoat, and Anatolia College at Marsavan. The last named is in this vilayet, and as I can speak of it from personal observation I shall confine this report mainly to it, it being a fair representative of all.

Marsavan, the location of Anatolia College, is some 60 miles southwest of Samsoun, the nearest port on the Black Sea. It is in the main thoroughfare connecting Samsoun, Sivas, Cesarea, Yosgat, and other large cities, and is easy of access from all parts of northern and central Asia Minor, the districts for which it is intended to provide.

This institution, as it stands related to the Turkish Government and to its supporters in the United States, is one department of a more extended system of education. In 1863 an institution of learning was founded at Marsavan by missionaries of the American board. It was called a theological seminary, but aimed at the preparation of both theological and scientific instructors for the people. As time passed the scientific department grew in importance, and without change of principle or governmental relation was developed into a college, complete in itself, assisted by foreign and native contributions, but still holding its original status and becoming the nat ural development of the original broad idea. One branch of the original institution is scientific, with its constitution and administration, and is Anatolia College. The other branch is the theological department, with its own rules and administration, the former being subservient to the latter in that for those who study theology it furnishes the necessary scientific preparation and mental discipline. The distinctly scientific branch of the institution dates from 1881, being then separated in the form of a high school. The formal organization as a college dates from September, 188. While the college is not founded in the interest of any one nationality, but is open to all, its main constituency is among the Armenians and Greeks. The laws and administration of the college bar no student from the free exercise of his religion, and lay no restraint upon him beyond such a is required by pure morality and the laws of health and good order.

The attendance of the college during the year just closed was 135, of whom 108 were Armenians and 27 Greeks.

The distribution of their residences was as follows:

The college has accommodations for about 170 students, including 125 boarders. The buildings occupy a portion of a lot of four acres, finely situated in the highest part of the city. They are built in American style, and, while plain in structure, form the most attractive feature in the city.

The cost of the buildings in use for the college and theological seminary together was about $7,000, nearly all of which was contributed by the American board. The college has as endowment the income of $20,000 set aside for that purpose by the American board, and that of $4,400 from native sources. There are on hand beginnings of philosophical, astronomical, geological, and chemical apparatus. There is a library of two thousand volumes, mainly English, Armenian, and Greek, with something in French and Turkish.

The yearly charges for students are: For board, £T.64; for tuition and minor expenses, £T. 2; for French, extra, £T:1; total, £T. 94=$41. These charges indicate the cheapness of living; that for board covers the whole expense of food and cooking. Four American missionaries give the whole or a part of their time to the college. The following salaries are paid native teachers:

Per month.

Assistant pupils, $1.70 per month for one hour's teaching each day in preparatory classes. There are nine regular instructors besides five advanced pupils teaching preparatory classes. A number of the students assist in payment of board by taking care of the rooms and other work. An industrial department is begun, and will be developed as means are secured.

The language of the college is English. Most of the text books are in English, and after the freshman year the teaching of the sciences, etc., is almost entirely in that language. Besides this, a thorough course is given in classical Armenian for the Armenians, in Greek for the Greeks, and in Turkish for all.

The course of study, aside from languages as stated, is in detail as follows:

Regarding the influence the college has indirectly upon the people at large, Rev. Mr. C. C. Tracy, president of the Anatolia College, writes: Though the college is so new an institution its stimulating and formative influence upon the population seems to be very considerable. The most direct result is the wakening of aspirations in young men. There follows immediately the raising of the grade in the common schools and the establishment of higher schools preparatory to the college.

It is already shown that the college tends to lift the whole population to a higher educational level. The influence on Mohammedan schools is not slight. Indeed, the American colleges established in Turkey make it impossible for the Government to hold its own with the people without strenuous efforts in the same direction. This stimulation is healthful and beneficial. If there is some unreasonable jealousy of these institutions there is also increase of friendly relations on account of them. In Marsavan, relations (between the authorities and the missionaries) have never been so kindly as since the development of the college. The city governor has honored himself by cordially aiding the college.

"The governor-general of Sivas, Sirri Pasha, on a recent visit of inspection declared this to be the best school in the region by far, and that no teaching of the Turkish language in the highest Turkish school of the city could equal that taught in Anatolis College. It is but fair to say that the institution could never have reached its position nor could it maintain that position without the friendly offices of the American legation."

HIGH SCHOOLS.

Of almost equal importance with the colleges are the American high schools in most of the larger cities of Asia Minor. Their general character may be judged from the following course of study, that of the high school at Cæsarea:

There are also high schools for girls of the same general grade in Sivas, Talas, Harpoot, and other cities.

EDUCATION IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.

from a reporT TO THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE BY EDWARD L. BAKER, U. S. CONSUL AT BUENOS AYRES.

It is generally conceded that the crowning glory of the United States is our system of free common schools, the education of the people being considered by us as the surest support, protection, and defence of our republican form of government. And it speaks well for the Argentine Republic that its rulers and statesmen generally are fully aroused to the importance of placing their country upon a higher educational level, as the necessary means of strengthening and perpetuating their own free institutions. In this respect they are not only practically imitating our example, but not content, as we have done, with leaving the education of the people to the different provinces or States, they have made it a national concern and have engrafted the sacred principle in their fundamental law and hedged it around by the safeguards of their constitution. The sixty-seventh article provides as follows:

"Congress shall have power to provide whatever may conduce to the prosperity of the country, the advancement and happiness of the provinces, and the increase of enlightenment, by decreeing plans for general and university education," etc. They

The constitution further requires (Art. V) that the constitution of each province shall provide for primary education and the administration of justice," thus making the support of common schools obligatory upon them.

have gone even further than this, a showing their appreciation of the importance of education of the people, by making education a department of the Government, under the charge of a cabinet officer.

ITS MOST EFFICIENT PROMOTERS.

While great credit is due to General Mitre, first President of the Argentine Republic under its present constitution, and to Dr. Rawson, the chief of his cabinet, as also to Dr. Eduardo Costa, to the lafe President Avellenada, and to Dr. Leguisamnon, all three of whom at different times occupied the position of minister of public instruction, for their persistent efforts in behalf of popular education, and for their services in developing and extending the system of Argentine common schools, perhaps the place of honor belongs to Dr. Domingo F. Sarmiento, LL. D. He was for 6 years Argentine minister plenipotentiary to the United States, and having been a schoolmaster in his early manhood, he was during his sojourn with us thoroughly impressed with the excellence of our public educational system. His intimacy with the late Horace Mann greatly assisted to develop his ideas on that subject; and when, having meanwhile been elected President of the Argentine Republic, he returned to take charge of the high office, he brought back with him the most advanced opinions and at once proceeded, through the influence he was able to exert, to put them in practical operation here in his own country.

DIFFICULTIES WITH WHICH EDUCATION HAS HAD TO CONTEND.

In a sparsely settled country like the Argentine Republic, in which there are widely extended regions entirely uninhabited and where the centres of population are remote from each other, of course the application of our American system has met great difflculties and inconveniences, but within the last few years the efforts of the Argentine National Government to place the education of the people upon a firm and abiding foundation, with uniform regulations for all the provinces, are beginning to produce their legitimate effects, and this country to-day stands at the head of all the nations of South America in the matter of its public schools, not excepting Chili or Brazil.1 The position has not been won without a severe struggle and great persistency; for, though the country was a republic, a large and influential portion of the inhabitants could hardly be considered as republican. There lingered with this class a very strong infusion of the old Spanish "hidalgo" exclusiveness, which would not admit or consent that their children should be placed on the same level of school equality with those of the more humble citizens. It is only within a few years that the upper classes" would permit their children to attend the public free schools, but sent them to special or private schools. With the increase of republican intelligence this feeling, however, is gradually dying out; and now quite all classes of the community, without regard to condition, are to be seen in the public schools of the several provinces.

THE NATIONAL SUPPORT.

The Argentine Government has not assumed to take the matter of public education out of the control of the different provincial governments; but, as far as possible, has left the organization and details of the schools to the districts themselves, limiting its action to a subsidy for their support in those cases where the means of the provinces may be insufficient. This subsidy consists of such an amount of pecuniary aid, each year, as Congress may provide by law. The "plans" and curriculum, however, as the constitution provides, are under the ultimate supervision of the General Government.2

"Primary education is already obligatory in some of the provinces, although in the remote districts where within a diameter of 10 leagues perhaps not five or six school children may be found, there are peculiar difficulties in the way of uniting them for the purposes of instruction. This and other local causes are obstacles to progress. Indeed, there is no other country where so many difficulties in the way of public instruction have to be combated; and if, notwithstanding all, the Argentines have placed themselves at the head of South America in respect to popular education they are really to be congratulated upon their success."-Republica Argentina por Ricardo Nap., p. 376.

The interest which is felt in the cause of education will be understood from ex-President Roca's message to the Argentine Congress. He said: "The department of public instruction has been one of the chief attentions of the Executive. I may say that the subject of free schools has become of such importance that it is a public passion, as any one may well observe by the general movement in this respect in every centre of population." And President Celman, in the address he delivered at his recent inauguration, says: "A government of the people by the people requires that the people shall be educated. The foundation of republican government is the enlightenment of the people; and one of the most important duties of statesmen is to aid and assist it," eto.