Ij2 51/ f 1^1/5 o4 The New Era in Education A Study in the Psychology of Correspondence Methods of Instruction By Rev. JOSEPH H. ODELL, D.D. An Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Instruction Building of the International Correspondence Schools, Scranton, Pa., Nov., 1910 The New Era in Education IN ACCEPTING President Foster's invitation to speak at the dedication of this building I thought that the occasion might serve as an opportunity to do what I have wished to do for some time, namely, to formulate a confession of faith in the purposes, methods, and results of the unique institution known throughout the world as the International Correspondence Schools. You may think this a rather ambitious task, far beyond my knowledge and ability; and indeed it is, but I can save my face by pleading that confessions of faith are never absolute and final and are valuable in so far as they sincerely articulate the belief of their framers. Whether I possess any other qualifications or not, at least I claim sincerity. When I first came into contact with the International Corre- spondence Schools every inherited and acquired prejudice that I possessed was bristling with defiance, "like quills on the back of the fretful porcupine." I was the product of centuries of tradition and I carried myself with the proud and serene conservatism which the ancient European schools and colleges stamp upon their sons. Education was to me a formal and dignified process inseparably associated with Gothic architecture and under ecclesiastical super- vision. Its chief characteristic was dignity. Its foundation was dignity, it was gowned in dignity, and it failed of its mission if it did not produce dignity. It has taken me a long while to learn that dignity as an ideal is the last ditch of a defeated aristocracy. Democracy substitutes efficiency. Naturally, then, I thought of education as something given by an institution rather than as some- thing acquired by an individual. The process by which that fallacy was discredited and discarded was nothing short of an intellectual revolution. Of course it did not do away with the need of an insti- tution but it placed the emphasis upon the individual. It changed the nature of the institution. At various times thoughtful men have seen that such a change must take place. Many years ago Professor Huxley said: "7 conceive that two things are needful: On the one hand, a machinery for gathering information and providing instruction; on the other hand, a machinery for catching capable men wherever they are to be found, and turning them to account." Now, exactly what Professor Huxley said was needful Thomas J. Foster created. He created it without knowing that the learned scientist had already defined it. And that creation was probably the most masterful stroke of genius in the realm of education since the first teacher gathered the first group of scholars into an organized school. But it took me a long while to reach that conclusion — years of care- ful observation of methods and results, years of thoughtful investiga- tion of the psychological principles upon which the process rests. I was repelled by the International Correspondence Schools because they were frankly and even brazenly commercial. The Schools were owned by a business corporation which said that the world could be educated and the educators could be adequately remunerated for their work. What audacity! What sacrilege! Hitherto it had been a part of the dignity of educational beneficence to starve the benefactors. To expect education to be put upon a sound economic basis was like asking for a miracle in a sphere and in an age where no one has the right to expect the miraculous. And lo! the unexpected, the impossible happened. In nineteen years about $50,000,000.00 worth of scholarships have been sold, and $4,660,602.07 cash dividends have been paid to the stock- holders. But I said, dividends are not dignified! Why not? Dividends on beer are considered dignified. So are dividends on oil, and steel, and wool, and soap. These last are the necessities of human progress and well-being. But what is so necessary to human progress and well-being as education? Then I investigated the subject more closely. The ancient institutions which are enswathed in benevolent dignity are also commercial, only it is not a frank and advertised commerce. Every student who enters Oxford, or Edinburgh, or Harvard, pays fees for tuition, for text- books, for laboratory privileges; and if he does not pay enough to cover the expenses of the institution it is because some one else has paid it for him and foreordained him to be a charity student whether he wishes to be or not. The fees of college students meet about 50 per cent, of college expenses. But it might be argued quite reasonably that a large percentage of college outlay goes for features that are not necessary to sound education — the frills and fine linen that seem inseparable from the idea of collegiate dignity. In course of time I reached the conclusion that if a student could get exactly what he needed and could pay for exactly what he got he would be saved from the degradation of dignified pauperism and might launch himself upon his career with self-respect intact and self-reliance acquired. Thus my prejudice was swept away. Then, when I realized that more than a million and a quarter men had enrolled as students of the International Correspondence Schools it dawned upon me that at last the first part of Professor Huxley's desideratum had been met; "a machinery for gathering information and providing instruction" had been created such as met the needs of multitudes who could not or would not avail themselves of the ancient and orthodox institutions. Some idea of the wide scope of the Schools may be obtained from a glance at the enrolment records up to the middle of Novem- ber, 1910: School op Total Enrolments Advertising 20,806 Architecture 81,479 Arts and Crafts 55.547 Chemistry 18,888 Civil Engineering 65,782 Civil Service 36, 139 Commerce 188.847 Drawing 133,21 1 Electrical Engineering 212,046 Electrotherapeutics 1 ,553 English Branches 46,000 Languages 20,37 1 Commercial Law , 6,235 Lettering and Sign Painting. ; 30,999 Locomotive Running 68,780 Mathematics (Complete) 7,040 Mechanical Engineering 116,067 Mining 41,764 Navigation 3,252 Pedagogy 6,518 Plumbing, Heating, and Ventilation 29,134 Steam Engineering 119,108 Textiles 10,708 Window Trimming 3,408 Miscellaneous Students 10,554 Total 1,334,234 5 Whenever figures reach the million mark they become impres- sive. But the significant thing about these enrolments is not their number. Every unit represents an individual — a living, hoping, aspiring man. Who are they? I find upon inquiry that they are taken in the main from the mass of muscle workers whom we call the laboring class. At the time of enrolment the overwhelming majority have never reached fractions in arithmetic, thousands can do little more than read and write, not a few have had none of the advantages of even primary education. Of course there are many students in the Schools who have had a college training and are taking an I. C. S. subject as special post-graduate work. Now, any institution that can take the manual laborer, awaken his brain, stimulate his dormant faculties and lift him into the order of the mind laborer — and do it all upon such a gigantic scale — is a national asset and a national force such as merits recognition. The time has passed when orthodox educationalists can afford to look upon correspondence instruction with disdain. Great Britain has demonstrated in the work of the London University Correspond- ence College what good can be accomplished through the mails. Some of our best American colleges and universities have frankly admitted and adopted the method. Among formal educational institutions Chicago University, under President Harper, may be called the pioneer. The University publishes a special catalog for its correspondence-study department. In the 1910 number I find the statement: "Experience has shown that many subjects can be taught successfully by correspondence. Direction and correc- tion can oftentimes be given as effectively in writing as by word of mouth." Page 8. The University also recognizes the work of the student. " (a) A certificate is granted for the satisfactory completion of the recitation work in any major or minor course. " (6) Admission credit is given for courses covering college entrance requirements, which are satisfactorily completed and passed by examination. " (c) College credit is given for courses of a college grade satis- factorily completed and passed by examination. " {d) If the student has a record of residence work in the Univer- sity, credits gained from correspondence courses are immediately transferred to that record; if not, they are held in the correspond- ence study department until the student secures such a record." Page 9. Chicago University offers fifty-two courses by correspondence. The Universities of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, West Virginia, and several others have likewise adopted the method and are achieving some satisfactory results. The weakness of the work done by these institutions is their lack of properly prepared textbooks, the books they use being the ordinary class-room texts, which are not adapted to home study. Such books involve the presence of a teacher able to give verbal explanation of difficulties and processes. They are usually written to aid the teacher in teaching rather than the student in studying. The International Correspondence Schools have provided a series of incomparable textbooks of their own which have cost them not less than $1,946,331.00. I have examined them with care and find several unique features: 1. The textbooks are written from the standpoint of the student who must study alone. 2. The textbooks take no preliminary knowledge for granted; each subject begins with the most elementary material and the student is not allowed to go forward until he has thoroughly mas- tered the preceding lesson. 3. Every subject is subdivided into small branches in order that the student shall not be overwhelmed with the magnitude of his task. 4. The textbooks are under constant revision. This is done sometimes to simplify or clarify a difficult passage or problem; at other times it is necessitated by new discoveries or applications within the subject treated. Thus the books are the nearest up to date of any published. 5. The textbooks are simple and practical. They contain only the facts, principles, processes, and applications of the sub- ject under study. For example, they do not occupy the student with the derivation of formulas, but they teach him what formulas mean and how to apply them. All speculative questions are omitted; matter that is of mere historical interest is eliminated. 6. The textbooks are copiously and accurately illustrated by the most perfect process known in the printing world. Wherever it is possible the student is aided by diagram, sketch, photograph, or colored plate. At one time, after examining the marvelous and costly volumes of the Architectural Course, I said, " What a shame that the I. C. S. textbooks are not more widely known to educationalists. ' ' Imagine 7 my surprise upon being told that nearly all of the collegiate insti- tutions of the country use the I. C. S. books in one form or another; some as class-room texts, some as collateral reading, some for sup- plementary work, and others for reference purposes. The Engi- neering Courses are so preeminently practical and up to date that they are well nigh indispensable wherever those subjects are taught. For any one to think that instruction by correspondence is a fad or an exploitation of education for mere financial returns is to display a culpable ignorance of the most phenomenal develop- ment of modern education. The men who are in closest touch with the needs and opportunities of today are admitting that the new method gives promise of making a substantial contribution toward the solution of some of our most chronic industrial and national problems. President Taft's letter to the president of the University of Wisconsin shows the set of opinion and indirectly puts the seal of the Government upon correspondence teaching: *The White House, Washington, March 4, 1910 My Dear President Van Hise: I understand that the Army and Navy Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation desires the cooperation of the Correspondence Department of the University of Wisconsin in furnishing additional educational opportunities to our soldiers and sailors. The patriotic work of this organization, of which I have personal knowledge, means much to the personnel of the men in the army and navy. The excellent work of your university is now far-reaching in bringing education to the youth of the nation. Even greater would be this contribu- tion were her adequate facilities placed at the disposal of these thousands of worthy young men enlisted in the service of our country. Knowing the need and opportunity, I want to commend this matter to your earnest attention. Very sincerely yours, (Signed) Wm. H. Taft Dr. Charles Van Hise, President, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis It is significant that the International Correspondence Schools had already enrolled 5,000 students from the United States Navy at the time President Taft wrote to Doctor Van Hise. It is still more to the point to affirm that competent authorities admit the International Correspondence Schools' textbooks on "Navigation" to be the clearest, most complete, and most practical ever published. Under the Personnel Act of Congress of 1901, providing that enlisted men may obtain commissions in the United States Navy by competitive examination, twenty-five (25) have successfully ♦Published in Collier's Weekly, November 19, 1910. 8 passed and received their commissions and rank. Of those twenty- five (25), eighteen (18) are either graduates or students of the International Correspondence Schools. In the light of the foregoing facts I do not think that I claim too much in believing that the International Correspondence Schools have already changed the first part of Professor Huxley's prophetic wish into concrete and effective reality — "a machinery for gathering information and providing instruction" has been erected and is now operating with marvelous efficiency. In view of my earlier scepticism I wish at this time to give the above con- clusion with the emphasis of perfect candor. The second part of Professor Huxley's ideal — " Catching capable men wherever they are to be found, and turning them to account" — forms the crucial test of an educational enterprise such as this. Here it stands or falls. No one doubts that most of our universities, colleges, and schools of technology gather information and provide instruction. As to their success in so doing we may simply say that it varies in degree. We may also admit that they turn many capable men to account. But I think we must all acknowledge that they do not "catch capable men wherever they are to he found." In fact, one of the chief differences between the old type of institu- tion and the International Correspondence Schools lies in this: men who want an education have to find the university, while the International Correspondence Schools find the men who need an education. Now it seems to me that one of the important func- tions of an educational institution is not only to meet a demand already felt but to create a demand- where it ought to be felt; that is, the capable men must be found. The search for them must be unremitting and thorough. Every section of society and every aggregation of men must be prospected and assayed with infinite care and pains, and wherever the likely material is discovered it must be seized and turned to account. The International Corre- spondence Schools employ no less than 1,600 men in the United States and Canada whose one mission in life is to go through the heterogeneous mass of humanity as the Apostles of Ambition, to discover and direct and inspire their fellows with a desire for the benefits of education. I do not know any innovation upon exist- ing methods more radical and revolutionary than this. Here is an educational institution that spends more than two million dollars a year to create a demand for education. This consideration brings me to the psychology involved in the methods employed. To understand the processes and results of this new educational movement we must go into the secret labora- tories of human consciousness. Many people dismiss the success of the I. C. S. with a wave of the hand and the oracular remark that Mr. Foster simply supplied a demand. That is only half a truth. In a large measure the Correspondence Schools created the demand which they subsequently supplied. I have spoken of the 1,600 Representatives of the Schools as the Apostles of Ambition. But first of all they are the Prophets of Discontent. We may say that discontent is universal. The characteristic most common to humanity is the feeling of dissatisfaction. Not only are all men discontented, but there are many who do not understand their discontent until it is brought home to them by others. The primary duty then of these Prophets of Discontent is to diagnose, to articulate, to interpret the unrest of humanity. A very large part of the social dissatisfaction does not recognize itself. It has never tried to define itself, to formulate itself; it lies in the human system as an unlocated ache, an obscure and unidentified ailment. Well, supposing we let it alone, what will happen? One of two things. In the first place it may settle down into a permanent and paralyzing pessimism and consign men to a life of spiritless drudgery. They will resign themselves to becom- ing an animate but soulless part of the vast mechanism of indus- trial society. Life, upon those terms, is little better than death. On the other hand, this discontent may become suddenly explosive and result in anarchy. Long brooding over ills that are not under- stood changes a man into an Ishmael and turns his hand against every man's hand. Discontent is a negative quality, and when a negative quality becomes active it grows destructive. The Inter- national Correspondence Schools accept this discontent as the ground of all their work. They hail the condition as a hopeful sign and for a time — only for a time — they seek to accentuate it. But the Representatives of the Schools know what they are doing. They are opportunists and optimists. They hold a valuable secret — a secret of vital alchemy. They know how to transmute a nega- tive element into a positive. They change discontent into desire. The change is the mightiest event that takes place in human experience. In the history of biology a similar step marks the various decisive stages of evolution. Every advance from a lower form to a higher in animal life was the result of transforming a negative discontent 10 into a positive desire. That desire suggested the stimulus out of which the new powers and functions grew. Of course there are some very ordinary people who say that this is a simple thing to do — that you have only to advertise that you can make a porter into a president and the trick is done. Well, if you think it is easy, try it. But don't promise any one 10 per cent, on the capital invested. No, there is a whole psychol- ogy bound up in that process. It is probable that desire is produced chiefly by making a man believe in himself. And to believe in himself a man must have at least a glimpse of his own latent powers. And to get a glimpse of his own latent powers he must see them first of all through the eyes of another man — a man who believes in him even when he cannot believe in himself. So the desire is really an infection — the confidence of one man invading another. That is why the I. C. S. spends more than two million dollars a year in sending its prophets and apostles throughout the country. But desire, like the day before creation, is without form and void : a vague, featureless and confused sort of emotion. It is like a balloon that can go up and up and up ; then east, then west, then north, then south; a thing of motion without direction, the sport of whims and winds. Desire wants anything, everything: country estates, marble-front palaces, automobiles, banks, bonds, senator- ships, ten-course dinners, horse shows, dress suits, cr§me de menthe, diamond studs, and a score of other things that lie in the golden haze of the horizon. Desire never does anything but dream. If you leave a man alone with his desires you will find him some- time later in an asylum. A lunatic is only a man who has had too many dreams to digest. So look out for the man who has nothing but desires. And the I. C. S. Representative does look out for the man. He changed dissatisfaction into desire in the first instance and naturally he feels some responsibility about the issue. He knows that desires are vague and indeterminate and impractical things, so he sets to work to bring them within definite and concrete compass and give them direction. In brief, he alters the shape of the balloon and equips it with a rudder. Now it is ambition. Ambition differs from desire in that it has an objective. Instead of wishing for everything it covets something. Thinking takes the place of dreaming. Ambition is knowing what you want and wanting it with all your soul and 11 mind and heart and strength, wanting it so passionately that you will sacrifice everything else to reach your end. It is the nar- rowing, the intensifying, the concentrating, the crystallizing of desire. It is the focusing of every wish, hope, and longing upon one definite object. This is the point at which the I. C. S. Rep- resentative becomes a priest as well as a prophet and an apostle. Here he stands beside an altar and must officiate at a sacrifice. He has brought his man through discontent into desire, he has guided desire into ambition ; now he must persuade his prospective student to surrender everything that would divert him or trammel his progress. It is the moment of dedication. If at this crucial stage a man can be persuaded to launch himself upon a well-defined course, turning away from everything of subordinate interest, relinquishing everything of lesser value, then purpose is formed. Every power of mind and body bows to the dictate of the will. Purpose is personality dominated by ambition. It is the whole man engaged and engrossed in the accomplishment of one object. Thus discontent and desire have been changed into a dynamic. It is probable that the result has been accomplished only through the aid of powerful stimulants. No stimulant is quite so effective as example. Stories of success are told and retold: of men who have broken away from a narrow and vulgar environ- ment, who have achieved great things with an equipment originally meager and neglected, who have discovered and utilized unsus- pected powers residing in their own natures, who have defied obstacles, overleapt barriers, grappled with combinations of fate, and doggedly concentrated upon one promising ideal. Such a recital galvanizes the will. The student now undergoes a remark- able change. He is no longer apologetic, timid, and shy. He takes on a temper of aggressiveness, carries himself with an air of resourceful self-confidence, looks circumstances in the face with a challenging boldness, and generally acts as if he were predestinated by Providence to greatness and success. Thus purpose produces three distinct things: courage, self- reliance, and concentration. These qualities will equip, any man for success. Courage is the disposition of heart that inspires him to attempt great things; self-reliance is the temper of mind that makes him believe he can accomplish great things; concentra- tion is the supremacy of will that causes him to achieve great things. When these three qualities are developed to their utmost and combined in equal proportion we call them by one name — 12 genius. Genius is not a freak of natural endowment, but a product of conscious evolution. Up to this point I have spoken as if the whole process of develop- ment were inspired and nurtured and consummated by the Field Representatives of the Schools. And indeed they do perform the chief function of this institution; their importance can hardly be exaggerated. There comes a time, however, when the student's chief contact is with the Instruction Department — not an exclusive contact, because there ought never to be any break in the inspirit- ing and fraternal relationship established between the student and the Representative. But although many or most of the qualities of which we have been speaking are discovered and cultivated and carried to a state of healthy and sturdy growth by the Apostle of Optimism they are brought to maturity only by the discipline of study. It is when courage and self-reliance and concentration are exercised upon the tasks and problems of the subject to be mastered that they become valuable and permanent habits. Habit is doing a thing until it is easier to do it than not to do it. When the student has learned how to attack and assimilate and apply the lessons of his first pamphlet he has keyed his muscles, nerves, and mind to mastering the lessons of every subsequent pamphlet. By the time he has completed his Course he has acquired the habit of mastery to such a degree that he can master anything — his temper, his trade, his immediate environment. Such men are at a premium in the commercial world. Masters are always looking out for men who mean to be masters. One of the best features of correspondence instruction is that the student who gains knowledge by this method has unconsciously gained more than knowledge. He has learned to trust the processes and conclusions of his own mind. Perhaps the chief limitation of a classroom is the inevitable habit it develops of a student leaning on the professor for every detail, thus destroying both self-confidence and initiative. Later in life, when a man is making calculations for a dam in Arizona, or drawing plans for a flume in Alaska, or estimating the horsepower of a cascade in Argentina there will be no professor within twenty-five feet, and he must either trust himself or fail. Another feature of correspondence instruction is that the student comes to realize himself as an individual. This is so important that I greatly regret my inability to work it out in full today. Perhaps by indicating my thought in a few sentences 13 you may be able to elaborate and complete the idea at your leisure. In the centuries of the past all of the great movements of mankind were movements of masses. The distribution of races throughout Asia and Europe were caused by migrations of tribes and nations. It is said that the building of a great wall in China led to the fall of Rome. The Tartar tribes of the north, unable to push their excess population south, turned to the west. This movement of a fierce barbaric horde forced certain Slavonic tribes still further west. They in turn compelled masses of Huns to seek a new home. In doing so they pressed upon the Vandals and the Goths who could no longer regard the Alps as a national barrier and by pouring into Italy they overthrew the greatest empire of the ages. But notice two things: every step was a mass movement, and the cause was always pressure from behind. Everything has changed now. All effectual progress is by the initiative of the individual, and the motive power is no longer pressure from behind, but attraction from before. The immigrants who have been coming to this country for the past two hundred and fifty years have come as individuals. The men who have risen to eminence in modem life — whether in commerce, politics, or invention — have done so by their own indi- vidual effort. Now, the purpose of the correspondence school is to lure men forward as individuals. The institution has no social panacea by which it promises to put a magic lever under the whole race and lift it as an entity to a higher level. And the student of the correspondence schools learns as his very first lesson that only by his own individual effort can he hope to achieve distinction, or wealth, or success. He must not conceive himself as part of a class, society, or organization, that will do for him what he is unable or unwilling to do for himself. He is taught that he is possessed of certain powers, that those powers are capable of almost infinite expansion, and that with those powers he himself can win what his ambition desires. It is one of the greatest lessons a man can learn and nowhere can he learn it so quickly and effectively as through the correspondence method of instruction. Another benefit in which I am profoundly interested is the ethical awakening that takes place in the scholar. When a student recognizes the extent and the worth of his powers and realizes that the trophies of life go to individuals upon individual records he is compelled to formulate a theory of relative values. Things and occupations that were once quite innocent diversions he begins to look upon as subtle temptations of the devil. A man who has 14 begun to live does not want to loaf. One who is wooing fame or fortune finds no fun in promiscuous flirting on a crowded promen- ade. A student who has felt the stimulation of ambition grows afraid of the stimulation of alcohol. Such an one looks askance at anything that may weaken his resolution or retard his progress. Before long his conscience becomes the officer of the day and posts a sentinel at every gateway of the citadel. It is the reaching of this point that makes me openly enthusiastic about the mission of the International Correspondence Schools. I confess that I take very little interest in any institution or process that does not ultimately develop moral qualities. And as a student of psychol- ogy and a preacher of ethics I have sufficient testimony of the moral influence of the Schools to compel me to be a friend and advocate. Perhaps I ought to give briefly my reason for this attitude. I hold it to have been proved beyond question that it is impos- sible to affect one part of human nature without at the same time affecting the whole of human nature. By way of illustration let me appeal to a common and oft-described experience. A man falls in love. I do not pretend to define scientifically just what that means. Love has been called a tickling in the heart where you can't get at it to scratch it. Perhaps that is as near as we shall ever get to a precise definition. But the tickling in the heart is only the first symptom of the blessed malady. Now, not being able to locate and scratch the exact spot, the lover must find other means of expressing his sensations. To do so with any degree of adequacy he has to call his various and varied powers and faculties into play. First of all he summons memory, and bids memory tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So memory says: "No, you were never in love before. You may have thought you were, you may have acted as if you were, but hitherto it was illusion: this is reality." So that settled, imagina- tion awakes, and the man becomes a poet. She has eyes like the blue of the faultless summer sky, and cheeks like the bloom of a perfect summer rose, and a voice like the song of summer birds, and her breath is as sweet as an early summer morning, and her lips — well, the summer provides no simile and he jumps to heaven for a figure of speech. Courage is stimulated also, and he wishes he might go forth and slay giants and dragons like the knights of old, wearing his lady's token. Then he becomes an artist. He finds every landscape that has a quiet, secluded beauty; he dresses 15 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 029 928 657 5 himself with painful care and scrupulous taste; he suddenly develops a marked preference for violets. And his generosity grows into a solicitous benevolence: "Have another!" he says, time and time again. But other qualities are stirred as well. Industry becomes a passion because he needs promotion. He studies real estate values and architecture, for he must have a home. He cultivates the habit of unvarying punctuality. He cuts out offensive habits and shuns dubious friends. He insures his life and makes the policy in favor of his estate. He even becomes religious — formally per- haps, but he goes to church and sings lustily, "Blest be the tie that binds." Now, all that I mean by this example is that nothing ever reaches down into the storerooms of human nature and stirs one quality without setting all the rest in commotion. You cannot stimulate or elevate one attribute of the being without keying all the others to a higher pitch. It may be difficult for you to see that a Course in Concrete Reinforcement eventuates in character reinforcement, but that is what actually happens. The I. C. S. Representatives may think they are simply making money, while all the time they are making men. So we build better than we know. Therefore I think it eminently fitting that we should gather together today to dedicate this building. The accepted meaning of the word dedicate is "to set apart to sacred use." Therefore we set this building apart to the sacred use of making and remaking men — ^by creating ambition, generating purpose, liberating latent energies, guiding misdirected powers, and placing under the dis- cipline of habit those qualities and faculties with which God has so liberally endowed men. Let us hope that with these new facilities this institution may be more successful than ever in " catching capable men wherever they are to be found, and turning them to account." If the past is any prophecy of the future the International Correspondence Schools ought to grow to be one of the very greatest benefactors of society; because I do not think it possible for men to perform their social duties until they have realized their individual rights. So good fortune to the Schools and its Representatives! All hail to President Foster, the pioneer of a new era for all who struggle and aspire ! 16 14894 \ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 029 928 657 5