is considered, and when the fact is recognized that in hundreds of schools the so-called music work consists of rote singing entirely.

Everyone should be intimately acquainted with the tonic, dominant and subdominant triads, and their family connections and interrelationship, if she would enter more fully into the joys of music. Why not have harmony in our foundation, since it is the essential element in our superstructure? Could not the public schools plant the seeds of harmony, at least, and in some instances even water them, trusting to providence for the increase? Suppose the boy's voice is changing and he does not care to sing, partly because there is no certainty that he will succeed if he tries, and partly because he is relegated to the too often tuneless realms of alto at the first suspicion of a croak, when he naturally prefers a tune. It is as certainly wrong to take all music study away from him at this time as it would be to force him to sing, croak or no croak.

Why not require less singing, and more study of the scientific and historical side of the subject, at this particular period in the mental life of the boy or girl, thru harmony and biography? Wouldn't the principal triads and the dominant seventh, with their progressions and resolutions, prove interesting to any mathematically inclined youth? His ability to think tones certainly need not cease with his ability to make tones that are satisfactory to himself and others.

I question the judgment of a supervisor of music who does not call to his aid the unlimited source of interest and inspiration to be found in biography- one of the most important stones in our foundation. I know a supervisor who doesn't, but he doesn't live in Indiana, and I don't know that he is present. In one schoolroom with which I am familiar a bust of Beethoven frowns down upon the children from his pedestal. "Why does he look so cross?" inquired a small boy. The teacher in charge knew just what to say, and within a week every child in the room had ransacked home and school libraries in search of points of interest in the life of Beethoven. Instead of the disagreeable expression they saw before they had read of his unhappy life, they found an element of sadness that aroused their sympathies every time their roving eyes rested upon his face.

Another stone that our builders are using freely is good music, whether written by the old masters or by modern composers of skill, and it is a most gratifying thing to note the purity of style and form to be found in the exercises and songs in the various courses in music for use in the public schools. It is not enough that the children sing good music, however. It isn't the music we ourselves are able to make that influences us most; else music's power would be decidedly limited, in some cases. Why not brighten our structure with bits of color in the form of illustrated sketches of various composers, including American writers?

Any of the simpler forms of the classics in an appropriate biographical setting may be invested with great interest for a roomful of children, if intelligently interpreted. The masses will sing and play good music when they have been shown where to find it in the simplicity adapted to their needs, and it is thru the door of the little red schoolhouse, or the stately portals of the city school building, or of the yet more dignified normal-training-school entrance, whether controlled by state or private means, that this artistic touch must come.

If we cannot have trained supervisors of music in every school in every county in every state, then, in all justice, give those who prepare for the work of school-teaching in our normal schools better opportunity to learn the fundamental things in music, before they are expected to comprehend this (to them) almost unknown subject and teach it to their helpless pupils As well expect a teacher ignorant of Greek to study methods of presenting the subject for a term, and then be able to do successful work with a class of beginners! Not all students who attend normal schools are destined to become shining lights in the teaching profession, but a large number will be engaged as teachers, and many of them will be obliged to teach with but little time spent in preparation, for financial or other reasons. It isn't to be expected that the subject of music will receive the time and attention its newness and importance deserve, but the training for teaching that does not aid in presenting a music lesson is not all it should be. A good teacher is often more successful with the music work than a good musician-and therein lies our hope.

The thing most teachers need is an actual working knowledge of the subject-matter of music first, and the ability to use the formal side subjectively next. It is absolutely necessary for a teacher to know about the means of representing tones, else how can she know when not to teach signs? Even special music teachers need to be reminded occasionally of the fact that music does not consist of notes, bars, lines, spaces, etc., and what wonder if the regular teacher falls into the rut of sign teaching alone, when her training includes little more than sign work, frequently? The special teacher must have the intelligent assistance of the regular teacher, if music is to be used to the fullest advantage in the schools; and today, as never before, we look to the fountain head, the normal school, for the training that will make this possible. The teachers will gladly take all of the instruction in music that the required course of study will permit, and I confidently expect to see such changes in the requirements as will give them the opportunity to prepare fully for this work, which is soon to be a part of every teacher's daily program in the common schools and in the grades.

Our builders are, in the main, honest. Our architects are planning according to the needs of the masses. We are not standing still, neither

are we losing ground. We have laid the foundation upon which to erect an educational edifice of more varied beauty and usefulness than has ever yet been erected, and the strength of the pillars which shall support the final dome of this intensely, artistically, characteristically American structure will be based upon public-school music work, which shall include mind, voice, and soul culture; a knowledge of combinations as well as successions of tones; and an interest in what has gone before, what is, and what will be, with the regular teacher amply prepared to direct the music work as intelligently as she directs the work in other branches. The next step? Well, what shall it be?

DISCUSSION

MISS SARAH L. ARNOLD, Boston, Mass.-The question asked by Mrs. Adams has been answered by the singing of the pupils this afternoon.

The theory needed to put music in the right place is to make the regular teacher believe that music is essential. What does it do for children? One hard task is to secure the habit of attention; to see the note, to fix its position in pitch and its length, requires intense attention. When things go wrong in school, music brings sympathy and a willing spirit more readily than scolding. When they sing together, a sweet unity is secured, a forgetting of self, a merging into one under the control of the teacher. This oneness is higher than unity. Harmony is higher-means a broader musical conception, a blending in one beautiful whole. The task of the twentieth century is to learn how to live together in peace and happiness, and music is one of the most potent agencies in bringing this about.

DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS EDUCATION

SECRETARY'S MINUTES

FIRST SESSION.-FRIDAY, JULY 8, 1898

The department convened in the Academy of Music Friday afternoon, July 8, at 3 o'clock, and was called to order by the president, D. W. Springer, of Ann Arbor, Mich., who gave the annual address.

Following this, Hon. Lyman J. Gage, secretary of the treasury, Washington, D. C., gave an address on "Reasonable Expectations in Business Education."

J. M. Mehan, of Des Moines, Ia., chairman of the Committee of Nine, presented a model business-college course.

Professor Emory R. Johnson, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, read a paper on "Business Education in the High School."

M. A. Grove, of Harrisburg, Pa., was chosen secretary pro tempore.

The department adjourned to meet July 11.

SECOND SESSION.-- MONDAY, JULY II

The second session of the department convened in the rooms of the Spencerian Busi ness College at 3 o'clock P. M., President Springer in the chair. The meeting was a round-table discussion of the papers presented at Friday afternoon's session. Owing to the sickness of Mr. Mehan, most of the meeting was devoted to the consideration of the course of study as submitted in the president's address.

The matter of a uniform course of study for business colleges, which has been in the hands of the Committee of Nine, was referred to a committee, consisting of J. M. Mehan, Des Moines, Ïa.; J. E. King, Rochester, N. Y., and J. W. Warr, Moline, Ill., to prepare the same for publication, and report to the department at the meeting in 1899.

The election of officers for the ensuing year resulted as follows:

President-Allan Davis, Washington, D. C.

First Vice-President-I. O. Crissy, Albany, N. Y.

Second Vice-President-Court F. Wood, Washington, D. C.

Secretary-W. C. Stevenson, Emporia, Kan.

Chairman Executive Committee-Carl C. Marshall, Battle Creek, Mich.

A resolution was passed thanking Mrs. Spencer for the use of her rooms for the sessions of the section, and the local committee for the efforts made in behalf of the department.

Adjourned to meet July 12.

THIRD SESSION.- TUESDAY, JULY 12

The third session of the business section convened in the rooms of the Spencerian Business College, Tuesday afternoon, July 12, at 3 o'clock. George M. Coffin, deputy controller of the United States treasury, Washington, D. C., gave a paper on the "Administration and Bookkeeping of a National Bank, and the Qualifications and

Training of a Bank Accountant."

66

A. O. Kittredge, editor of Accountics, New York city, presented a paper entitled Bookkeeping and Accounting of the Periodical Publishing Business."

I. O. Crissy, examiner of business schools for the state of New York, read a paper on "Business Education in the State of New York."

Mr. David Wolfe Brown, chief reporter of the United States House of Representatives, presented a paper on the "Qualifications and Training of the Congressional Reporter."

The president-elect was introduced, and, after he had expressed his thanks to the section, the meeting adjourned.

M. A. GROVE,

Secretary pro tempore.

PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS

BUSINESS EDUCATION

BY DURAND W. SPRINGER, ANN ARBOR, MICH.

The public-school system of a utopian state should enroll the entire population of the country between the ages of five and eighteen. In the United States we are confronted with different conditions. In the year 1870, 61.45 per cent. of the school population was enrolled. This percentage has increased to 69.85 per cent. in the year 1895. Of this enrollment 50.48 per cent. are boys. This total enrollment is divided among the various branches of education as follows: the elementary schools, 95 per cent.; the secondary schools, 3.6 per cent.; the higher schools, 1.4 per cent. The secondary schools contain our youth between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, and it is with this branch of the system that we are particularly interested. Up to the year 1887 private secondary schools enrolled a larger number of students than did the public secondary schools. The growth of enrollment in the private secondary schools has been but one-hundredth of 1 per cent. in the last twenty-five years, whereas the enrollment in the high schools has increased tenfold in the same time. While there has been this marked increase in attendance upon the high school, it is a noticeable fact that the boys form but 45 per cent. of the secondary enrollment. In addition to the students found in these distinctive secondary schools, there are one hundred thousand students of the same age pursuing courses in the business colleges of this country. This is a number equal to the total attendance on all the various higher institutions of learning. This large attendance upon business colleges indicates a feeling in the minds of a large number of people that the public schools are not furnishing the education they desire for their children. It was this same feeling that caused three students to attend the private secondary schools twenty-five years ago where