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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 83

I.—As to its History

I.—As to its History.

This Office had its rise in the need long felt by leading educators of some central agency by which the general educational statistics of the country could be collected, preserved, condensed, and properly arranged for distribution. The sense of this need found expression finally in the action taken at a convention of the superintendence-department of the National Educational Association, held at Washington, February, 1866, when it was resolved to memoralize Congress in favor of a National Bureau of Education. The following memorial was accordingly prepared, containing substantially the arguments for the establishment of such an Office by the Government, which had been submitted to the convention in a paper by Hon. E. E. White, of Ohio :

Memorial.

Memorial to the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

At a meeting of the National Association of State and City School-Super-intendents, recently held in the city of Washington, D. C., the undersigned were appointed a committee to memorialize Congress for the establishment of a National Bureau of Education.

It was the unanimous opinion of the association that the interests of education would be greatly promoted by the organization of such a Bureau at the present time; that it would render needed assistance in the establishment of school-systems where they do not now exist, and that it would also prove a potent means for improving and vitalizing existing systems. This it could accomplish :
1.By securing greater uniformity and accuracy in school-statistics, and so interpreting them that they may be more widely available and reliable as educational tests and measures.
2.By bringing together the results of school-systems in different communities, States, and countries, and determining their comparative value.
3.By collecting the results of all important experiments in new and special methods of school-instruction and management, and making them the common property of school-officers and teachers throughout the country.
4.By diffusing among the people information respecting the school-laws page 2 of the different States; the various inodes of providing and disbursing school-funds; the different classes of school-officers and their relative duties; the qualifications required of teachers, the inodes of their examination, and the agencies provided for their special training; the best methods of classify-and grading schools, improved plans of school-houses, together with inodes of heating and ventilation, &c.—information now obtained only by a few persons and at great expense, but which is of the highest value to all intrusted with the management of schools.
5.By aiding communities and States in the organization of school-systems in which mischievous errors shall be avoided and vital agencies and well-tried improvements be included.
6.By the general diffusion of correct ideas respecting the value of education as a quickener of intellectual activities, as a moral renovator, as a multiplier of industry and a consequent producer of wealth, and, finally, as the strength and shield of civil liberty.

In the opinion of your memorialists, it is not possible to measure the influence which the faithful performance of these duties by a National Bureau would exert upon the cause of education throughout the country, and few persons who have not been intrusted with the management of school-systems can fully realize how wide-spread and urgent is the demand for such assistance. Indeed, the very existence of the association which your memorialists represent is itself positive proof of a demand for a national channel of communication between the school-officer of the different States. Millions of dollars have been thrown away in fruitless experiments, or in stolid plodding, for the want of it.

Your memorialists would also submit that the assistance and encouragement of the General Government are needed to secure the adoption of school-systems throughout the country. An ignorant people have no inward impulse to lead them to self-education. Just where education is most needed, there it is always least appreciated and valued. It is, indeed, a law of educational progress that its impulse and stimulus come from without. Hence it is that Adam Smith and other writers on political economy expressly except education from the operation of the general law of supply and demand. They teach, correctly, that the demand for education must be awakened by external influence and agencies.

This law is illustrated by the fact that entire school-systems, both in this and in other countries, have been lifted up, as it were bodily, by just such influences as a National Bureau of Education would exert upon the schools of the several States; and this, too, without its being invested with any official control of the school-authorities therein. Indeed, the highest value of such a Bureau would be its quickening and informing influence, rather than its authoritative and directive control. The true function of such a Bureau is not to direct officially in the school-affairs in the States, but rather to co-operate with and assist them in the great work of establishing and maintaining systems of public instruction. All experience teaches that the nearer the responsibility of supporting and directing schools is brought to those immediately benefited by them, the greater their vital power and efficiency.

Your memorialists beg permission to suggest one other special duty which should be intrusted to the National Bureau, and which of itself will justify its creation, viz: an investigation of the management and results of the frequent munificent grants of land made by Congress for the promotion of general and special education. It is estimated that these grants, if they had been properly managed, would now present an aggregate educational fund of about live hundred millions of dollars. If your memorialists are not misinformed, Congress has no official information whatever respecting the manner in which these trusts have been managed.

In conclusion, "your memorialists beg leave to express their earnest belief that universal education, next to universal liberty, is a matter of deep national concern. Our experiment of republican institutions is not upon the scale of a petty municipality or state, but it covers half a continent and embraces peoples of widely diverse interests and conditions, but who are to continue "one and inseparable." Every condition of our perpetuity and progress as a nation adds emphasis to the remark of Montesquieu, that "it is in a republican government that the whole power of education is required."

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It is an imperative necessity of the American Republic that the common school be planted on every square mile of its peopled territory and that the instruction therein imparted be carried to the highest point of efficiency. The creation of a Bureau of Education by Congress would be a practical recognition of this great truth. It would impart to the cause of education a dignity and importance which would surely widen its influence and enhance its success.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

E. E. White

, State-Commissioner of Common Schools of Ohio.

Newton Bateman

, State-Superintendent of Public Instruction, Illinois.

J.S. Adams

, Secretary of State-Board of Education, Vermont. Washington, D. C.,

The above memorial was presented in the House of Representatives by General Garfield, February 14, 1866, with a bill for the establishment of a National Bureau on essentially the basis the school superintendents had proposed. Memorial and bill were both referred to a committee from seven of the States.* On the 15th of June following the bill was reported back from the committee, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute, providing for the creation of a department of education, instead of the bureau originally proposed. Thus altered, it was put upon its passage, and, after some frank opposition on one side and very able advocacy on the other, it received, June 19, 80 votes in favor to 44 against it. In the Senate it was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, with a view to determining whether there were any legal or constitutional obstacles to the approval of it. This committee, after holding it till the winter-session, reported it back without amendment and with a recommendation that it pass; and, having been discussed, February 26, 1867, on a motion to restore the title of Bureau, it went through, without division, on the 1st of March, receiving on the next day the approval of the President.

The person selected as the first incumbent of the office of Commissioner of Education was Hon. Henry Barnard, LL. D., of Connecticut, distinguished for his labors on behalf of education in his native State, for five years commissioner of public schools in Rhode Island, for some time chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, and also eminent for his efforts in behalf of education. page 4 literature. He was nominated for the post by President Johnson, March 11, 1807, and confirmed by the Senate March 16. Holding the office for three years, he had the task, at once honorable and arduous, of starting a scheme of operation and of getting the yet rough wheels of the organized machine at work. As he failed to receive the congressional co-operation that was hoped for, the National Superintendents' Association came to his aid, and, in a meeting held at Trenton, N. J., August, 1869, passed, unanimously, the following preamble and resolutions:

Whereas it was in consequence of the earnest and often-repeated recommendation of the State and National Teachers' Associations, and especially as the action taken at the session of the Association of School-Superintendents, held February 6, 1866, in the city of Washington, that Congress finally established the Department of Education; and whereas the more recent action of the Senate and House of Representatives seems to indicate a want of confidence in such a department as a useful agency in the promotion of education : Therefore,

Be it resoled, That this association appoint a committee of three to act in conjunction with a like committee of the National Teachers' Association, with instructions to confer with the authorities at Washington in regard to the best interests of the National Bureau, or Office, of Education.

Resolved, That the joint committee appointed as above be instructed to represent to Congress that it is the unanimous opinion of the members of this association that such a Department, at the seat of the General Government, clothed with all the powers and having all the facilities contemplated in the law by which it was originally established, would be of almost incalculable utility in collecting and disseminating information for the use of the great multitude of school-officers of every rank, who are now or who may hereafter be concerned in the organization and management of schools and school-systems in scores of States and thousands of cities and towns throughout the length and breadth of a territory which already covers almost a continent.

Resolved, That the said committee be further instructed to urge upon Congress that the causes which have impaired the present usefulness of said Department—whatsoever they may be—be not permitted to weigh against the continuance and liberal support of the Department itself.

The "liberal support" thus asked for was not given, and on the 17th of March, 1870, Dr. Barnard retired and was succeeded by the present Commissioner. He found the Office shorn of honors and emoluments, the original Department having been reduced to a Bureau, the salary of Commissioner cut down from 84,000 to 83,000, and the appropriation for the work from 820,000 to 86,000, while only two clerks, at 81,200 each, were employed in collecting from all quarters of the world the information upon school-matters to be circulated throughout all our country. This exceedingly inadequate force he has, with the cordial aid of the President, of the Secretary of the Interior, and of Congress, succeeded in increasing to something nearer an approximation to the work to be performed, though it remains still greatly short of what the wide range of the duties of the Bureau calls for.

* The committee of Representatives consisted of Messrs. Garfield of Ohio, Patterson of New Hampshire, Boutwell of Massachusetts, Donnelly of Minnesota, Moulton of Illinois, Goodyear of New York, and Randall of Pennsylvania, Mr. Randall, however, not acting with the others, us he observed on the floor of the House.

Messrs. Trumbull, Harris, Clark, Poland, Stewart, and Hendricks.