collection of common mistakes. The work in grammar is designed to insure correct expression in every case in which experience has shown faulty expression, and in which reasonable foresight points to possible faulty expression. The main body of language errors may be found in the daily written and oral speech of uncultivated persons. Recent books in language have collections of these errors. A functional study of grammar, that is, a search for definitely usable material, reveals a great part of the errors which persons are likely to make. The more complete the inventory of the errors, the more thoroughly will the preparation against them be. The pupil should be thoroughly habituated in correct expression in every case in which incorrect expression is likely to set in. The correct expression is clarified and reinforced by the grammatical rule upon which it is based.

Some of the recent language books, particularly those which purport to be practical grammars give attention to common errors of speech. In none of them have I discovered a complete and systematic treatment of grammar based upon definitely usable material.

The most comprehensive effort to reduce the subject matter of grammar to definitely functional essentials was made by W. W. Charters and Edith Miller.2 A systematic investigation of the language errors of the school children of Kansas City was made. The errors were listed and their frequencies wre noted, the latter indicating the relative importance of each error. A list of grammatical rules corresponding to these errors was made. It was found that in order to teach these rules it was necessary to introduce related rules and terms. Together they formed the minimal essentials of the grammar course in Kansas City.

It would be futile to attempt to describe a method of teaching grammar because there is no one method which may be applied to every topic and section of the course. Every subdivision has its peculiar method of presentation. I may, however, point out several difficulties which one must avoid in a grammar 2 University of Missouri Bulletin, No. 9.

course based upon errors and then to point out a method which should be most generally used.

There is a danger of emphasizing and reiterating errors which may result in the learning of incorrect forms. When it becomes necessary to use an incorrect form the teacher should not fail to emphasize the wrongness of that form.

The use of the completion form of exercise to test grammatical correctness often fails to focus the attention upon the grammatical rule in question. A completion exercise becomes a test in general intelligence rather than a drill in correct forms.

Since functional grammar is based upon common errors there is a strong temptation to begin every lesson with a common error, then to call for corrections, and finally to develop the general rule inductively from several cases similar to the corrected forms. This method should be used sparingly because of the danger of emphasizing the error.

The more general method is to develop the desired rule inductively from correct forms. This should be followed by a thorough drill in the correct forms covering adequately every correct form which anticipates an error. Care should be taken to cover every distinct type of error under each rule by drills. A knowledge of a rule does not insure the use of a correct form in every case of a previous error. However, a knowledge of a correct form in every case of a possible error is strengthened by associating the rule with the correct form. When the correct form has been reduced to habit by drill, the common errors are presented, one by one, in an effort to break down the habit of incorrect usage. When this is done, the process is complete.

HENRY HARAP

EDUCATIONAL EVENTS THE INTERNATIONAL EUGENICS CONGRESS IN 1912 there was held in London, under the auspices of the Eugenics Education Society, an International Eugenics Congress. A second congress was planned to be held in

New York City in 1915 but, on account of the war, plans for the congress were abandoned. In the autumn of 1919, at a meeting of the International Committee of Eugencies held in London, it was agreed to hold the second International Congress in New York City in 1921. A general committee to arrange for this congress was selected by the National Research Council in the spring of 1920, and it is now announced that the preliminary announcement of the Second International Congress of Eugenics will be held in New York City, September 22-28, 1921.

Of this congress Dr. Alexander Graham Bell is honorary president; Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn, president; Mr. Madison Grant, treasurer; Mrs. C. Neville Rolfe (Mrs. Sybil Gotto) honorary secretary; and Dr. C. C. Little, secretary-general. The vice-presidents include Dr. Cesare Arton, Cagliari Italy; Dr. Kristine Bonnevie, Institute for Heredity Investigation, University of Christiania, Norway; Major Leonard Darwin, London; Dr. V. Delfino Buenos Aires; Dr. E. M. East, Harvard University; M. Gamio, Director Archeology and Anthropology, Mexico; Sir Auckland Campbell Geddes, British Ambassador to the United States; Dr. Corado Gini, Rome; Hon. Mr. Justice Frank E. Hodgins, Supreme Court of Ontario; Dr. Frédéric Houssay, Paris; Dr. H. S. Jennings, Johns Hopkins University; G. H. Knibbs, Melbourne; Dr. Herman Lundborg, Upsala; Dr. L. Manouvrier, Paris; M. L. March, Paris; Dr. Jon Alfred Möjen, Christiana; Dr. T. H. Morgan, Columbia University; Dr. R. Pearl, Johns Hopkins University; Dr. Edmond Perrier, Paris; Dr. Ernesto Pestalozza, Rome; Dr. V. Guiffrida-Ruggieri, Italy; Professor R. Vogt, University of Copenhagen; and Professor Wille, University of Christiania.

The Finance Committee has been selected consisting of Messrs. Madison Grant, John T. Pratt, Austin B. Fletcher, and Dr. John H. Kellogg. Of the Exhibits Committee Dr. H. H. Laughlin is chairman, of the Publicity Committee, Dr. Lothrop Stoddard; and of the Executive Committee, Dr. C. C. Little. A general committee of ninety-five members

has been appointed. There are to be two classes of members, sustaining members paying one hundred dollars and active members paying five dollars. Further information and a copy of the preliminary announcement can be obtained from Dr. C. C. Little, SecretaryGeneral; American Museum of Natural History, New York City.

THE BOWDOIN MEDICAL SCHOOL THE Bowdoin Medical School, established a century ago by Maine's first legislature, will be closed as a department of Bowdoin College at the end of the current year next June, unless by that time it receives financial support. The following announcement has been made by President Kenneth C. M. Sills by authority of the boards of trustees and overseers.

By action of the board of trustees and overseers the Bowdoin Medical School will be finally closed as a department of Bowdoin College at the end of the current year, June, 1921, unless by that time some way shall be found to meet the requirements necessary to keep the school in Class A of American medical colleges. It has been conservatively estimated that for this purpose there must be an addition to the resources of the school of $25,000 for immediate equipment of laboratories and of at least $50,000 yearly income for more teachers and for up-keep. Unfortunately at the present time the college sees no way of procuring such funds; the need of such an endowment has often been placed before the people of Maine, but the appeals have never received an adequate response.

The college will not apply for state aid for the school. But if the citizens of Maine and the friends of medical education who believe that the maintenance of a medical school is properly a state function, desire to have the medical school reestablished as a state institution under state control and adequately supported by the state, Bowdoin College will be glad to give all assistance possible to that end, and would doubtless offer for such a purpose for temporary use, if desired, such part of the buildings and apparatus of the college as might be available.

The trustees and overseers of the college believe that there is a place for a medical school in Maine and are hopeful that the people of the state, despite the great demands on the incoming legislature, will establish such a school as a state institu

tion, around which all the medical and public health work of the state would be centered.

SCHOOL OF RETAILING OF NEW YORK UNI

VERSITY

A SCHOOL of Retailing for New York University, the first institution of its kind, has been definitely decided upon by the university and prominent department store merchants of New York City. At a meeting of the executive committee of the New York University Training School for Teachers of Retail Selling held in the office of Mr. Percy Straus, of the R. H. Macy Company, it was unanimously voted to change the name of the school to the New York University School of Retailing and to accept Dean Norris Brisco's plan for a million dollar endowment calling for a wider curricular scope.

The new School of Retailing will be formally opened in September, 1921, and will consist of three main divisions: Day, Night and Short Course. The Day Division will be a graduate school opened to college graduates, and will grant upon the satisfactory completion of a two-year course, the degree of Master of Science in Merchandising. The students will spend half the day in the classroom and half in the store, and the whole month of December and the summer vacation at full time in the store.

. The department that will comprise the new school of Retailing are as follows: Textiles, Merchandising, Publicity, Industrial Relations, Merchandising English and Ethics, NonTextiles, Accounting, Merchandising Research, Store Organization and Management, Merchandising Finance, Buying, Design and Management.

The training will prepare not only retail merchants but the important phases of merchandising found in the large department store, as buyers' assistants, executives' assistants, advertising managers, advertising writers, window trim experts, designers, comptrollers' assistants, auditors, store service assistants, superintendents of different departments, salesmen, office assistants, floor managers, etc. Each course will have an advisory committee chosen from experts in that particular field.

This plan will bring about the best possible coordination between classroom and actual service in the store. Experts in different lines of store activities will lecture to the classes at different times.

The Night Division will be undergraduate, the aim being to furnish training for the thousands engaged in different phases of retailing during the day. Upon the satisfactory completion of the course, candidates will receive the degree of Bachelor of Commercial Science in Merchandising. It is estimated that within a short time the Night Division will have several thousand enrolled students.

The Short Course Division will include intensive courses, as, for example, the summer courses. It is planned to offer short intensive courses during the slack season of the winter.

One of the special features will be a research laboratory of retailing. This laboratory will have special departments, such as a statistical research laboratory, a textile research laboratory, a non-textile research laboratory and a merchandising research laboratory.

DIS!

REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON THE DIS TRIBUTION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES

AT the recent meeting in New York City of the Association of American Colleges, the report of the commission on the distribution of colleges was presented by President John M. Thomas, of Middlebury College, other members of the commission being President R. M. Hughes, of Miami University, and President James L. McConaughy, of Knox College. The report says:

There is one college student for every 212 people in the United States, 500,000 students being enrolled in American institutions of collegiate grade. The growth of high schools is prodigious, and a larger proportion of high-school students is going to college every year. The Army Intelligence Test indicated that 15 per cent. of our citizens are of "superior or very superior intelligence. If that percentage of youth of college age should actually enroll in colleges, it would give one college student for every one hundred of the population. It is clear that the colleges will not

lack attendance for want of promising material in American young people.

Undoubtedly we shall see a larger college attendance in the years ahead, but we need not react too violently from complaint and criticism over the excess of colleges or alarm that the nation is going bankrupt for college opportunities. It is sufficient to conclude that there is a field for every college reasonably well located and adequately equipped and supported for good college work, together with a reasonable number of new institutions in regions of large growth in population or which are established to meet special needs, and that an important task for the nation is to strengthen the weaker colleges until they are fitted to take their share of the work of educating America's youth in a worthy manner. Of the 673 colleges reported in 1917-18, 495 had less than 500 students, 252 had less than 200 students. Only 178 had 500 students or over. Contemplating a probable increase in enrolment of 40,000 students a year, which perhaps is a reasonable estimate, we may conclude that the development of existing institutions can provide for future needs. We have enough colleges, if they prove to be properly located.

The commission does not recommend the establishment of a new college either in a territory lacking a college that can not be expected ultimately to provide 500 college students, or in a territory where existing colleges growing to an enrollment of 500 students or more can provide adequately for future needs. A college enrolling 500 students will probably have to get 50 per cent., or 250, from within a radius of fifty miles. Assuming that its territory will supply one student from every two hundred population, the 50mile radius should include about 50,000 people and should not be largely drawn on by any other near-by college.

PUBLIC EDUCATION FUND OF WISCONSIN

THE report of the State Board of Education of Wisconsin includes the following statements in regard to a proposed public education fund:

In the establishment of the Common School Fund the state has made wise provision for support of public educational effort. Capital funds for stimulation and improvement of local educational effort is sound public policy. Provision should be made now for making available larger capital funds.

The income from the present Common School Fund including the seven tenths mill tax amounts to over two million dollars a year. It is largely distributed in accordance with the constitution of the state, upon the basis of the number of people of school age in each community (4-20) whether such people are in school or not. In other words, the distribution of the income of the Common School Fund is on the basis of the school census. The census is one factor entering into the wise distribution of state educational money. But there are other factors just as important, for example, the wealth of the community, the public school attendance, the qualifications and salaries of teachers, the extent of educational opportunity provided. Hence, any increase in the capital funds for education should be distributed on an equitable basis, involving these factors. The only effective way this can be done, however, in view of the constitutional provision with reference to the Common School Fund, is to create a new fund-the Public Education Fund, the capital of which shall be forever inviolate, and the income of which shall be distributed in such manner and on such bases as the legislature shall direct.

The money for the Public Education Fund shall be secured from the annual inheritance tax for at least a period of twenty-five years, including all escheated estates. It is sound economics and wise public policy that this fund should be created in this way. The inheritance tax is taken from capital accumulations in the hands of individuals and ordinarily are immediately dissipated in the meeting of the ordinary running expenses of government This social capital should be held intact as far as inheritance tax alone can do it for the greatest constructive social work-education.

DISTRIBUTION OF NATIONALITIES IN THE

DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS

THE classification of nationality in this survey is upon the basis of the country in which the father was born. The United States (white) population represents the second generation in this country. The actual school membership is 50.56 per cent. United States (white). The Slavic races comprise approximately 19.7 per cent., the Anglo-Saxons 11.2 per cent., the Teutonic 7.6 per cent., the Latins 4.6 per cent. and the Colored 4.58 per cent. of the population. As this is the first comprehensive nationality

༣

Mary E. Wooley, of Mount Holyoke College, was elected vice-president. Dr. Robert L. Kelly, of the Carnegie Foundation, was reelected executive secretary.

K. B. WALDO, principal of the East Aurora High School, has been elected president of the Illinois State Teachers' Association.

MR. J. H. BEVERIDGE, superintendent of schools at Omaha, Nebraska, was the choice for president for 1921 of the Nebraska State Teachers' Association.

THE inauguration of President Wallace D. Atwood, of Clark University, will take place on February 1. Presidents and representatives from more than two hundred colleges have signified their intention of being present at the exercises.

DR. HENRY RAND HATFIELD, professor of accounting on the Flood Foundation in the University of California, has been appointed dean of the faculties of the State University of California to succeed Professor John C. Merriam, who resigned to accept the presidency of the Carnegie Institution in Washington.

DR. ROBERT A. MILLIKAN, professor of physics in the University of Chicago, was elected president of the American Association of University Professors at the annual meeting which took place at Chicago on December 27 and 28. It is understood, however, that Professor Millikan will be unable to accept.

PROFESSOR E. L. CORBETT, of Yale University Law School, was elected president of the Association of American Law Schools at the closing session of its eighteenth annual meeting at Chicago on December 31.

PROFESSOR STEPHEN A. FORBES, of the University of Illinois, has been elected president of the Ecological Society of America.

PROFESSOR C. TRACY STAGG, of Cornell University, has been appointed legal adviser to Governor Nathan L. Miller, of New York State. Professor Samuel P. Orth has declined to go to Albany as secretary to Governor Miller. Although he was unwilling to leave the university at this time, Professor Orth has assured the governor that he would