LC DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF EDUCATION BULLETIN, 1919, No. 61 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND INFORMATION SERVICE OF UNIVERSITY EXTENSION By WALTON S. BITTNER ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR IN CHARGE OF PUBLIC WELFARE SERVICE. EXTENSION DIVISION INDL\NA UNIVERSITY WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFTICE 1920 BTIIIETm OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION FOR 1919. No. 1. Monthly record of current educational publications, January, 1919. 2. Standardization of medical inspection facilities. J. H. Berkowitz. 3. Home education. Ellen O. Lombard. 4. A manual of educational legislation. 5. Instruction in music, 1916--1918. Waldo S. Pratt. 6. The half-time school, 191&-19i8. H. W. Foght. 7. Rural education. H. W, Foght. 8. Life of Henry Barnard. Bernard C. Steiner. 9. Education in Great Britain and^ Ireland. I. L. Kandel. 10. Educational work of the churches in 1916-1918. 11. Monthly record of current educational publications, February, 1919. 12. Education in the Territories and dependencies. 13. Review of educational legislation, 1917 and 1918. W. R. Hood. 14. Monthly record of current educational publications, March, 1919. 15. The adjustment of the teaching load in a university. L, Y. Koos. 16. The kindergarten curriculum. Almira M. Winchester. 17. Educational conditions in Spain. Walter A. Montgomery. 18. Commercial education, 1916-1918. Frank V. Thompson. 19. Engineering education, 1916-1918. F. L, Bishop. 20. The rural teacher of Nebraska.- 21. Education In Germany. I. L. Kandel. 22. A survey of higher education, 1916-1918. Samuel P. Capen and Walton 0. John./ 23. Monthly record of current educational publications, April, 1919. 24. Educational work of the Boy Scouts. Lome W. Barclay. 25. Vocational education. William T. Bawden. 26. The United States School Garden Army. J. H. Francis. 27. Recent progress in negro education. Thomas Jesse Jones. > 28. Educational periodicals during the nineteenth century. Sheldon E. Davis. 29. Schools of Scandinavia, Finland, and Holland. Peter H. Pearson. 30. The American spirit in education. C. R. Mann. 31. Summer schools in 1918. 32. Monthly record of current educational publications— Index, February, 1918-January, 1919. - 33. Girl Scouts as an educational force. Juliette Law. 34. Monthly record of current educational publications. May, 1919. 35. The junior college. F. M. McDowell. 36. Education in Italy. ; Walter A. Montgomery. 37. Educational changes in Russia. Theresa Bach. 38. Education in Switzerland, 1916-1918. Peter H. Pearson. 39. Training little children. 40. Work of the Bureau of Education for the natives of Alaska, 1917-18. 41. An educational study of Alabama. 42. Monthly record of current educational publications, June, 1819. 43. Education in France. I. L. Kandel. 44. Modern education in China. Charles K. Edmunds. (Continued on paje S of cover.) DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF EDUCATION BULLETIN. 1919, No. 61 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND INFORMATION SERVICE OF UNIVERSITY EXTENSION By WALTON S. BITTNER ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR IN CHARGE OP PUBLIC WELFARE SERVICE. EXTENSION DIVISION INDIANA UNIVERSITY WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1920 IP 6 ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION MAT BE PROCURED FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE "WASHINGTON, D. C. AT 10 CENTS PER COPY V Oo- Qt Jsfi MAX 12 |92Qj CONTENTS. Extension bureaus of information 5 Limited activities of bureaus 7 University service and public opinion 10 Tlie package library service 16 General information service 24 Club study and library service 27 Club study, public discussion, and library service by States 34 Assistance in debating and other lorms of public discussion 41 Educational value of debating and public discussion 48 The scope of extension service ^ 52 3 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND INFORMATION SERVICE OF UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. '* Government by discussion breaks down the tyranny of fixed cus- tom ; continuous public debate on public problems is the root of change and progress ; community discussion breeds tolerance ; it makes for steady instead of intermittent progress. In fact, common counsel, public debate, community discussion, call it what you will, underlies the con- structive solution of all the vexed situations that a nation faces in a time of readjustment and change." This quotation from an article ^ by Mr. Glenn Frank on the forum, the lyceum, and the Chautauqua, states vrith fair accuracy the judgment of university officers vrho have had charge of the public discussion, package library, and information service of the university extension divisions in the States. This service, designed as a device for promoting public discussion, for providing means of " common counsel," includes also peculiar measures for disseminating informa- tion among the people as a basis for intelligent discussion. It is the aim of this bulletin to describe in some detail the scope and methods of university extension bureaus ^ with particular reference to those which actively stimulate public discussion on current public ques- tions. Chief attention will be given to the work they do in assisting public discussion leagues and clubs, and in carrying on package li- brary service. The package library is the special device developed by the extension divisions for furnishing up-to-date facts and opinions on debatable questions of general interest. Extension bureaus of information. — Since there is no single term which describes the varied methods employed by edu- cational institutions for the dissemination of information among the mass of people, nor any one clearly dominant and uni- fying purpose or objective for the work as a whole, it follows that the public discussion, package library, and general information serv- ices of the university extension divisions do not lend themselves readily to grouping under one identifying head, unless certain other activities or characteristic devices are arbitrarily excluded from con- sideration. The justification for such grouping lies in the fact that 1 The Parliament of the People. By Glenn Frank, in the Century, July, 1919. " It is not within the scope of this bulletin to treat of the work of the municipal and private universities, or that of the colleges, the normal schools, and the other institu- tions which are making important contributions in the field of public discussion. 5 6 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. a number of the largest State universities have set up in their exten- sion divisions certain bureaus variously designated as " Bureau of Public Discussion," " Bureau of Debating and Public Discussion," or " Bureau of Information," whose work comprises such activities as holding debate contests, lending package libraries, and answering by mail requests for information on current topics. Other bureau designations are used to cover the limited number of activities grouped together largely for convenience in administration. The fact is, however, that practically all devices of university extension — correspondence study, lectures, motion pictures, lantern slides, and exhibits — serve at times and in part to promote public discussion or to furnish information on public questions and miscellaneous topics. To understand the special service under consideration it is neces- sary to have some sort of interpretation of the fundamental prin- ciples of university extension in general. An inadequate but usable definiton of those principles is that the university should serve as a channel through which flows an increasing stream of the workable knowledge and experience of civilization. University extension should offer not only the opportunity of self -directed study for the great mass of persons who wish to continue systematically their preparation for personal advancement; but it should provide the indispensable connection between scientific knowledge and the every- day practice necessary for sound community development, between the facts accumulated through research and their application to the practical problems which must be met by individuals and communi- ties in a democratic society. It should tap not only the resources of teaching and research in the universities themselves, but also the great reservoir of knowledge and experience outside, the rich store of information in books, periodicals, and other printed matter, in the laboratories of the Grovemment and in private industrial plants, in the words of statesmen and educators who serve the public. Uni- versity extension is not merely educational in the limited sense; it attempts to make facts, knowledge, truth, operative in the daily life of the people. The old definition of university extension, that it is " carrying the university to the people," was striking and popular, but it has come less and less to be even fairly accurate. The public discussion and information service, for example, is not primarily a projection of debate or library information as it is found on the campus; but it is rather a peculiar service which involves compilation of data se- cured from all available sources, the preparation of the data in a form suited to wide public use, and the constant reshaping of the material to meet the demand and the needs of the daily inquiries that come from city, town, and rural district. These inquiries arise from PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 7 spontaneous discussion in the local communities as well as from the activities of the university in promoting public discussion through- out the State. The service involves utilization of resources and methods distinctly nonacademic, methods which are not commonly employed regularly on the campus or within the university walls. Limited activities of bureaus. — The fundamental purpose of gen- eral university extension, that of disseminating information and aid- ing in the application of knowledge, is served by the activities of the bureaus of public discussion and information. Briefly, these activi- ties may be listed as follows : 1. Preparing study outlines on welfare subjects and current topics. 2. Compiling and lending package libraries on public questions. 3. Preparing bibliographies and briefs on debatable subjects. 4. Publishing informational bulletins with guides for the study of specific questions of connnunity interest. 5. Organizing, directing, and assisting interscholastic debating and discussion societies and leagues. 6. Assisting civic clubs, chambers of commerce, forums, com- munity centers, parent-teacher associations, women's clubs, and other organizations in their discussions of community problems. 7. Supplying information on miscellaneous problems in response to requests by mail. 8. Furnishing information in special fields of public interest, such as public health, municipal problems, child welfare. It is evident that these activities are not confined primarily to the promotion of public discussion, and that some of them have only a re- mote bearing on the problem of developing sound public opinion. It is equally evident that the activities usually undertaken by the types of university extension bureaus under consideration in this bulletin are not inclusive of all the kinds of work done by the university ex- tension division in the promotion of public discussion or in the dis- semination of information. Commumti/ institutes. — For instance, the organization of commu- nity institutes lies outside the scope of these bureaus ; such institutes are conducted by a growing number of universities for the purpose of assisting the people of small communities to understand and cope effectively with common problems, such as sanitation, housing, child welfare, public recreation. The community institute,^ a program of conferences, round tables, lectures, demonstrations, exhibits, motion pictures, and entertainments, is a device which, while providing many features similar to those of a Chautauqua, also gives opportunity for actual discussion on the part of members of local community groups themselves; that is, the people at the institutes do not merely listen ' Such institutes have been conducted in Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin. 8 PUBLIC DISCTJSSIOlSr AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. to the lectures and absorb information and advice but they participate in the programs, offer their suggestions in conference, sit in committee to act on common measures, and furnish the elements of common counsel. Lectures. — There are other services of university extension not included in public discussion service but having importance in stimulating public opinion. The lecture service, of course is of con- siderable value, especially when university lecturers speak on timely topics before representative community gatherings. The stereopti- con-slide service of the extension division of California has provided monthly up-to-date summaries of significant events ; other extension divisions lend sets of lantern slides for similar purposes. Community studies: — A distinct kind of information service has been begun in connection with the University of North Carolina. Social and economic studies of different counties are made and pub- lished by men whose homes are in the county, with the assistance of university students and professors. The studies are evidence of a community consciousness which attempts to relate investigation, knowledge, and the spirit of education to immediate practical service in attacking community problems. They serve as a basis for public discussion and intelligent action. Netos letters. — A number of university extension divisions issue weekly news letters or clip sheets and news leaflets which are de- signed to furnish to the press and to individuals information on all topics affecting the welfare of the State. The publication and dis- tribution of general and special informational bulletins is common to all extension divisions. Municipal reference bureaus. — One of the most distinctive specific activities related to the public discussion and general information service, but not usually administered by the same bureau of the ex- tension division, is that of municipal reference. Bureaus of munici- pal reference have been established in the universities of California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Washington, and Wisconsin. Other States, though they do not have regidarly established bureaus in their ex- tension divisions, nevertheless give considerable assistance to munici- palities. This is the case in Arkansas, Indiana, North Dakota, Ore- gon, and also in still other States where the community institute is utilized as a vehicle for giving information to the public on municipal problems. The Indiana University extension division has employed specialists in municipal sanitation, city milk supply, city forestry, home grounds improvement, gardening, and other problems. The activities of the municipal reference bureaus are generally allied with those of a State municipal league, for which the director PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 9 of the university bureau acts as secretary. In some cases the league issues a periodical publication of which the secretary is editor. Usually the leagues insure the holding of regular conferences of municipal officials for the discussion of common problems. Technical information. — The field of the municipal reference bureau is wide, since it includes not only technical problems of city administration, but also general problems of neighborhood, town, and city, such as the relations between commercial and farming in- terests, the development of consolidated school systems, the promo- tion of public health and recreation. The extent of the bureaus' usefulness in the more technical field of town and city government is indicated by figures taken from the report of the director of the ex- tension division of the University of Wisconsin for the years 1916- 1918. During this period 1,494 specific requests for information upon about 400 different subjects were received, of which 273 requests were from cities outside of the State. Of these requests, 1,141 came from city and village officials. They came from 235 cities and villages, of which 160 were in Wisconsin, this number including all the cities in the State except six. The service is mutual, the various cities reciprocating by supplying the bureau with reports, copies of ordinances, and other data. From its experience with these re- quests the bureau adopted the practice of preparing reports and sending out information w^hich there was reason to believe would be valuable to the cities of the State. Seventeen of these special re- ports are mentioned in the director's report for 1916-1918 on such subjects as the following: Assessed valuations, tax levies, and License fees. tax I'ates. Milk ordinances. Billboard regulations. Municipal coal yards. Censorship of moving pictures. School administration buildings. Comparative salaries of city officials. Visiting nurses. Bulletins on similar subjects published in other States are : California The single tax. Colorado Municipal water supplies of Colorado. Indiana What curb markets may be expected to accomplish. Cooperative retail delivery. Town and city beautification. Iowa Electric power transmission in Iowa. Street lighting. Rate making for public utilities. Municipal accounting. Waterworks statistics: Oklahoma The city manager plan. Oregon Cooperation of town and country, Texas Beautification of home grounds. 134.585°— 20 2 10 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AHD UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. The reports of the proceedings of the Oklahoma Municipal League, published by the extension division, also contain a number of articles on similar subjects. Undoubtedly the municipal reference bureaus of the universities offer large possibilities of development. They can provide assistance not only in solving the technical problems which face municipal offi- cials, but in enlarging the knowledge of the citizens whose cooperation is necessary in the work of attacking both the general and technical difficulties of town and city government. The taxpayers and voters require new sources of information about community development, about the tax rates, the water supply, building regulations, city planning, ordinance codes, housing; they want an opportunity to learn of the best practices of municipal government and to have a sound basis for discussion of the problems that confront the com- munity, so that they may have an intelligent check on the adminis- tration and participate in the common counsel of the citizenship. UNIVERSITY SERVICE AND PUBLIC OPINION. Sources of public opinion. — Why do universities develop informa- tion services like that of the reference bureaus? And why do they endeavor to promote public discussion through lectures, package libraries, community institutes, and other methods? The reason is evident in the growing conviction that the sources or springs of public information on current events and important common prob- lems are not what they should be. The " broad avenues leading to public opinion " are congested and frequently lead astray. The daily newspaper has not proved as reliable and satisfactory a purveyor of news as it might be, nor is it an adequate reporter of opinion of individual statesmen or publicists. It is not a satisfactory gauge ot general opinion. A poll of the newspaper editorials at any one time is not by any means a sure index of what the people are think- ing on a public policy. The press. — Hamilton Holt once summed up the two most im- portant services of the press : First, to give reliable and comt)]ete information about any event at the time when such information is needed as a basis of opinion and action. Second, to present to every reader competent discussion of pending questions from dif- ferent points of view. The ordinary commercial press does not perform ade- quately either of these social functions and it never can, because it does not " pay " to be as thorough or impartial as the ideal paper should be.* Mr. M. S. Ravage says,^ " We will have to abandon our deep- rooted notion that public opinion is formed by the editorial column and the movie sermon." 1 First National Newspaper Conference, Madison, Wis., 1912. Proceedings, Bull. Univ. Wis., Gen. Series No. 386. 2 New Republic, July 16, 1919. PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 11 Can we rely on the newspaper as a competent servant of public opinion ? Are there reall}^ independent newspapers ? Do the partisan papers follow consistent policies ? What effect has the news-gather- ing syndicate on the validity of news? What is the significance of the fact that the large daily paper requires large capital and great advertising revenues? As a result of the tendency of thoughtful persons to ask these questions and because of widespread conviction as to the inadequacy of the daily newspaper, there is a growing de- mand for additional methods of disseminating information. But the press as a whole does not satisfy the demand. All sorts of papers appear and disappear; in the aggregate they increase in number year after year. Weeklies, monthlies, quarterlies, trade Journals, labor-unio'n papers, learned journals, house organs, propa- ganda magazines, professional journals, every imaginable kind of periodical or semi-periodical floods the news stands. Tons and tons of printed matter are distributed — ^books, pamph- lets, circulars, bulletins, advertisements, dodgers, letters, labels, leaf- lets, tracts, tables, charts, and cartoons; and all kinds of typed and multigraphed devices are used for getting facts, argument, and opinion to the public. Probably no one would suggest that the volume of printed matter is too small; there are many who arbi- trarily believe the volume too great; many others suggest various methods of increasing the volume by the addition of selective guides to lessen the waste; but few are satisfied that out of the welter of the press adequate information is available to the mass of people or even to the discriminating few who know how to make use of the printed stream. Pictures. — The pictured information is disappointing. Despite the wonderful development of the photograph, the lithograph, the stereograph, the lantern slide, and the motion picture, their applica- tion to the work of conveying essential information, of giving news, fails to satisfy. They fall short of dignity, of fullness, of relevance, even of authority (for trick photography may lie more outrageously than statistics). No doubt the motion picture as a news agency, as an instrument of instruction and a conveyor of information on public policies and community problems, is in its infancy; nevertheless there will always be serious limitation to its effectiveness as a device for the enlightenment of public opinion. The platform: — The pulpit, the stage, and the platform, too, are all insufficient to the tremendous task of providing the public with accurate neAvs, reliable opinion, scientific information. Even such hopeful institutions or ventures as the Chautauqua, the forum, the community center, the lyceum, the institute, or such devices as the fair, the exposition, the traveling exhibit, the convention, conference, mass meeting, and innumerable commercial or semipublic services 12 PUBLIC DISCUSSIOIsr AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. fail in the aggregate and particularly to meet the needs for accurate and comprehensive sources of information. Governmental information service. — Some governmental bodies have developed important services which disseminate information in spe- cial fields of commerce and industry ; others serve certain professions ; and some have undertaken various kinds of educational extension in such fields as agriculture, farm management, rural economics, home economics, child welfare, public health, even community organi- zation. During the war there were several governmental agencies which devoted a large share of their energy and resources to exten- sive information service which might be legitimately described as propaganda. The Committee on Public Information, the Council of National Defense, the State council of defeifse, are examples of governmental bodies working in the field of public opinion ; they had much to do with the development of public understanding of national policies; they worked out elaborate methods of gettings facts and opinions to the people everywhere; they directly shaped opinion in certain definite directions and dealt not only with war-time propa- ganda but also with common problems of State and community, problems which only remotely had a bearing on the war emergency. Although these opinion-creating agencies were highly successful in achieving their special aim, they hardly secured the confidence of the public as permanent instruments of educational extension. As for the old established Federal bureaus and departments, their in- formation service is restricted and only incidentally touches the cur- rent public problems of social and economic policies and the facts concerning social and industrial movements and tendencies. Even the office of the Superintendent of Documents, though it has great quantities of printed information on many questions vital to public opinion and policy, can not in the nature of the case function dynami- cally as a servant of public opinion or distributor of information remarkably serviceable as a basis of public opinion. In slightly different case are the State boards of education, health, and charities, the library commissions, and the like. Many of them do excellent work in educational extension. The handicap to their more effective participation in " educating the public " is chiefly two- fold ; they have primarily only administrative functions, frequently with prejudicial police power, and they lack institutional resources of sufficiently broad type. Semipublic agencies. — From the war there have sprung, up enor- mously expanded semipublic organizations, which long after the signing of the armistice are campaigning vigorously to instruct the people, to spread knowledge, to influence national and community poli- cies. But their efforts are hobbled by the original purposes for which they were established; their expanded energies will undoubtedly PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 13 eventually be tethered in most particulars to those activities for which the organization primarily stood. It is hard to predict just what the future program will be of the War Camp Community Serv- ice, the Red Cross, the Y. M. C. A., the educational foundations, the propaganda leagues, voluntary associations, and other adventitiously developed organizations, but there is little prospect that any of them will serve permanently as active agents of public opinion in other than restricted fields. Conceding the supreme importance of a sane, informed public opinion in a democratic society, leaders of thought and action every- where are seeking to meet the problem of providing systematically for its sound development and adequate expression. Prof. Ross ex- presses the prevailing judgment, " The remedy for the abuses of pub- lic opinion is not to discredit it but to instruct it." Religious leaders are concerned about the problem of sound public opinion. Several church bodies, like the League for Social and Industrial Democracy in the Episcopal Church and the Department of Evangelism and Social Service of the Methodist Church, have issued statements and resolutions urging the necessity of public discussion of social problems and have definitely sponsored such movements as the community center to foster the dissemination of information and promote free discussion. Organized labor in the United States is vitally interested in free public discussion. Labor leaders who have come into contact with university extension invariably are interested in the possibilities of service to the workers, for the well-known labor dictum of " equality of opportunity " naturally includes a demand for equal opportunity in education. The Atlantic City convention of the American Federation of Labor adopted in June, 1919, a " Program of Education," which in many respects is similar to that of the Labor Party in England. More than a year before that the British Labor Party adopted a program formulated by a subcommittee on education which- — called for more human warmth in politics, less apathetic acquiescence in the miseries that poison the wellsprings of life, for increased study, for the scien- tific Investigation of each succeeding social and economic problem and for a much more rapid dissemination among the whole people of all the science that exists. The American program contained 25 provisions, among which were the following: There should be a wider use of the school plant, securing increased returns to the community through additional civic, social, and educational services to both adults and children. Public forums should be established in every school where there is sufficient demand, iinder the direction of the superintendent of schools, working in coop- eration with advisory committees representing the various elements in the community. 14 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. In any democracy tlie primary requirement is a citizenship educated to straiglitforward logical thinking, based on facts established by carefully sifted evidence. The schools can not develop this essential fiber if the pupils are carefully shielded from knowledge of the topics that men and vv^omeu think about. Secondary only to a citizen's ability to do his own thinking is his ability to make his influence felt in his group and community by effectively presenting his views to his fellows and meeting opposition in a spirit of toler- ance. This power of effective self-expression and the habits of tolerance and of intellectual fairness toward opponents can not be formed without the dis- cussion of topics that give opportunity for their exercise. Therefore, in order to enable the schools to perform one of their chief functions, preparation for active citizenship, the pupil should be encouraged to discuss under intelligent supervision current events and the problems of citizenship. The program contains even stronger statements of the necessity for freedom of public discussion and insists especially on the rights of teachers in this connection. An English soldier's opinion. — English opinion has had consid- erable influence in this country, but the British practice in educa- tional reform and particularly in university extension is not yet widely known. British labor groups, the cooperatives especially, have through the Workers Educational Association established on a large scale a working application of the prevailing opinion that the mass of the people should have increased service, from the uni- versities. " Thinking in fellowship " is the kind of education which it is the purpose of university extension to assist and organize. Such is the conclusion, in an Address from a Soldier to Soldiers, of an Englishman speaking to his returned comrades concerning the Workers Educational Association and its cooperative work with the English universities. Whatever may be the ultimate effect of the European war, one effect is cer- tain : It will cause millions of men to thinh. They will think about questions of government and politics, even if they never thought seriously about them before. * * * Never again will the mass of people be able to say, " These things are the business of the politician. They do not concern us." Least of all will the soldier be willing or able to say so. * * * He is a citizen in a democratic community. He can not exercise his rights or discharge his responsi- bilities as a citizen unless he develop his own mind in conjunction with his fellows. * * * If he is to play his part in the problems of industry, govern- ment, and social life * * * he must unite with his fellows to think about them. University extension authorities in the United States without ex- ception recognize that public discussion is essential to the stability and progress of a democratic society. Probably no single group of men and women realize more keenly the deficiencies of press, plat- form, pulpit, and other public and private agencies for the diffusion of information. Pii/rpose of discussion. — Directors of university extension divisions in the States express their appreciation of the necessity of assisting in the promotion of public discussion. "A university, the greatest disin- PUBLIC DISCUSSION AISTD UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 15 terested institution for research and dissemination of truth, must play a part in the instruction of public opinion." Some directors believe that the situation is acute : " The demand for knowledge, for reli- able information on current events and community policies, is insist- ent ; public opinion must be free, and it must have live facts to give value to its freedom." Louis R. Wilson, director of extension in the University of North Carolina, writes, " Public discussion is vitally necessary in a democratic society. I think it would be helpful for the extension bureaus directly to promote public discussion among adults." Other directors believe, too, that the university should ac- tively organize adult discussion, not merely assist in its promotion. The majority, how^ever, take the position of Director J. C. Tjaden, of North Dakota, " I think it best to remain in a position of serving rather than promoting. Let the people who are interested do the pro- moting, and the university be prepared to furnish the material. Why not let imiversity stand for universal access to information ? " " Get behind the open forum idea ; but organization should come from the community, not from the university," says Director R. E. Price, of Minnesota. Edward S. Maclin, of the University of Tennessee, sums up the gen- eral attitude of the majority of university extension authorities in the statement that " We can not have too much orderly public dis- cussion in a democratic society. There is not enough discussion now." Miss H. N. Bircholdt, chief of the bureau of public discussion of In- diana LTniversity, quotes Dr. Yarros, " Democracy is government by discussion." Methods of disciMSsion service. — It is clear from this preliminary statement that the general university extension divisions, in attempt- ing to meet the needs for public-discussion service, assist the people of the States through a variety of activities such as the lecture service, the community institute, municipal reference, and the publication of bulletins on national and community problems. In addition practi- cally all universities, though many of them do not advertise the service, offer to take care of any requests for information which may come to them on almost any subject. In practice such information service works satisfactorily as a whole. In those universities where there is no separately organized extension division the requests for information are not numerous and can be readily handled from the president's office or by reference to the general librarian and to pro- fessors of appropriate departments. The extension divisions which have bureaus of public discussion offer a very comprehensive information service which provides par- ticularly for furnishing information on topics of current interest. They serve a wide clientele, and consequently have found it necessary to adopt varied methods. Of these methods, the most highly de- 16 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. veloped are the package library, the club-study course, and the or- ganization of public discussion leagues. THE PACKAGE LIBRARY SERVICE. The " package library " is a simple device for bringing facts and opinions quickly to the person who wants to know. It is information selected by specialists and done up in a convenient packet for mailing by parcel post to the citizens who ask for it. The material is usually printed matter collected from a variety of sources. The packages are neat bundles of pamphlets, .bulletins, clippings from articles in cur- rent magazines, typed excerpts from manuscripts, and other informa- tional material on subjects or questions of interest to the public. Each package contains selected material which is up to date, compre- hensive, and authoritive, all centered about one subject of current interest; for example, the League of Nations, Government control of railroads, universal military service, training for citizenship. Selected subjects. — The package library subjects are selected, usu- ally limited to two or three hundred in number; new subjects are added as public attention turns in different directions. If the sub- ject of a package library is controversial, debatable, the material put into the bundle is chosen carefully from as many sources as possible, so as to present the best available opinions and pertinent facts on both sides of the question. The theory is that the balanced arguments and data will give the reader a chance to pursue his in- quiry from aiiy angle, a chance for him to weigh some of the merits of several points of view. The opportunity should result in the in- terest that comes from a challenge to one's judgment, an interest that will lead to further study and discussion of the question. Facts for everyhody. — Young persons and old persons in the small- est village or the most remote country district want to know what is going on in the world. City dwellers want selected, reliable in- formation at hand in their own homes ; they want to know with some assurance what is the substance and direction of the news and they wish to get the meat of the problems that concern the com- munity. Especially do all intelligent persons want to know what other people are thinking about, to compare their modest opinions with the opinions of other men and women. They wish to check their conclusions with the advice and suggestion of educators, states- men, and specialists who are supposed to be the best authorities on the great questions of the day. To make this exchange of opinion free and ready, and to promote discussion and general understanding of the common problems of the State and Nation, scarcely a better device could be found than the package library. It takes some of the resources of information and knowledge available in the great institutions of learning, the PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 17 universities, to the people, to anybody who desires facts that are alive in the thoughts of men and women everywhere. The package library is lent to individuals or organizations in the State, even to children in the schools. Usually, however, school chil- dren obtain the loans through their teacher or the local librarian, who writes to the university for the service. The borrower pays the postage required to return the package after the expiration of the loan period, from one to three weeks, or when he has -finished using the material. Some universities do not lend their package libraries outside the State. However, most of them make an exception to the rule, especially when the borrower lives in a State where the uni- versity does not conduct a package library service. Make-up. — The contents of a single package library do not long remain the same; old material is taken out and new material added from month to month. A package library on military training in schools, prepared by the University of Texas in 1918, contained 14 pieces. Of these, 3 were bulletins from the United States Bureau of Education, the National Education Association, and Indiana Uni- versity; 1 was a clipping from the Congressional Record, 1 a re- port of a State commission; others were pamphlets from national associations for and against military training; and the rest were excerpts from current magazines. Additional pieces were added as they came to the office, especially clippings from periodicals. The number of pieces in a package library varies with the subject and with the resources of the university bureau. Wisconsin's packages average about 40 pieces. Library subjects. — The Texas bureau in 1918 had package libraries made up on approximately 400 subjects. About 150 were added in 1919. Missouri had 300, North Carolina had 150, Indiana 300, Wis- consin over 1,000 subjects represented in their package-library collec- tions. The numbers suggest that the subjects are limited by the demand on the part of the public and by the facilities at command of the bureau. If only a few inquiries come to the office on co'tn- rrmnity singing^ the bureau is not likely to prepare a special package library on that subject unless it happens to have considerable mate- rial available or easily accessible. Some bureaus prepare carefully selected lists of subjects and announce that package material will be furnished only on these and not on any subjects the inquirer may happen to desire. When the bureau receives a request for a package library on a subject not in the list, the reply furnishes what informa- tion is available in the form of bulletins or other printed matter and calls attention to the subjects for which package libraries are already prepared. Texas publishes such a list, with the subjects arranged in alphabetical order, indicating with an asterisk the subjects which are 134585°— 20 3 18 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. commonly debatable. Indiana prints a circular, revised frequently, "which usually groups the package-library subjects under the follow- ing headings: Civic improvement. Labor questions. Child welfare. Government. Public health. Business questions. Recreation. Miscellaneous. Education. Debatable questions. The circular for 1919 gives the following list of subjects under de- batable questions: Agriculture credit. Arbitration. Capital punishment. Chinese exclusion. City manager plan. Coeducation. Commission government. Compulsory education. Corporation tax. County government. Educational qualification for suf- frage. Employers' liability. Government ownership of railroads. Government ownership of telephone and telegraph. Guarantee of bank deposits. Imperialism. Income tax. Increased armament. Initiative and referendum. Land question. Liquor problem. Merchant marine. Mexico. Military service, compulsory. Military training in schools. Monroe doctrine. Municipal home rule. Municipal ownership of public utili- ties. Old-age pensions. Philippines. Presidential term. Primaries. Race problems. Recall of judges. Recall of judicial decisions. Recall of officers. Restriction of immigration. Roads. Rural schools, consolidation. Ship subsidy (merchant marine). Short ballot. Single tax. Strikes. United States foreign policy. Woman suffrage. Many subjects besides these are offered by the different univer- sities. There is a considerable exchange of package-library material between bureaus and some cooperation in the choosing of subjects, especially for State-wide debates. Universities offering libraries. — Package libraries on topics of cur- rent public interest may be obtained from the following universities. Borrowers should address the Director of the Extension Division : University of Arizona, Tucson. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. University of Kansas, Lawrence. University of Kentucky, Lexington. University of Missouri, Columbia. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. University of Montana, Missoula. University of New Mexico, Albu- querque. University of North Dakota, Grand Forks. University of Oklahoma, Norman. University of Pittsburgh, Pitts- burgh. University of Texas, Austin. University of Washington,* Seattle, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Indiana University, Bioomington, 1 Temporarily discontinued. PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 19 Other universities provide, either directly or through cooperation with library commissions, an information service which accom- plishes some of the purposes of package library bureaus. University of California, Berkeley. University of Georgia, Atliens. University of Idatio, Moscow. University of Iowa, Iowa City. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. University of Nebraska, Lincoln. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. University of Oregon, Eugene. University of South Dakota, Ver- milion. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. University of Utah, Salt Lake City. University of Virginia, Charlottesville. University of West Virginia, Morgan- town. Department of University Extension, Boston, Mass. Director of Extension, Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N. J. Director of General Extension, Maryland State College, College Park, Md. Educational Extension Division and State Librai-y of the University of the State of New York, Albany, N. Y. Character of demand. — Study of the demand for package libraries in diflFerent periods reveals that the service is an adaptable one. In the period from 1914 to 1919 many package libraries were prepared and lent on subjects related to the war. Every university acted as a distributing agency for information on the problems of the war. The public discussion bureaus without exception distributed quan- tities of printed matter. Several bureaus announced that they were prepared to answer requests for information on almost any phase of the war. The biennial report of the extension division of the University of Wisconsin states that the major interest in the package library was a war interest: "Few packages were lent during the biennium which did not bear directly or indirectly on the World War.'' Extent of service. — The report lists some of the subjects and the number of package libraries lent to show the shift in demand. Package lihraries sent out by the extension division of the University of Wisconsin. Subjects. 1 1914-1916 1916-1918 204 412 World War 98 338 i 94 208 252 207 Red Cross 36 180 I 15 119 i 106 105 65 93 1 54 93 ! 184 86 20 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVEESITY EXTENSION. Comparison of the demand for six years. Subjects. 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 30 84 217 133 143 41 102 99 103 48 31 65 50 64 79 26 51 41 57 37 17 53 56 36 47 19 13 52 65 34 13 16 12 29 17 30 44 16 6 4 13 11 14 26 15 1914 Woman suffrage Commission government Immigration Parcel post Popular election Imtiative, referendum. . . Capital punishment Postal savings Municipal ownership 143 60 121 7 5 30 26 1 18 The following table classifies the subjects of the packages lent by the Texas bureau in 1918-19 : Political and social questions 1, 232 Education 725 History (mostly of the war) 547 Agriculture and home economics 196 Science and useful arts 145 Literature 100 Fine arts 88 Religion and philosophy 23 The extent of the demand for package libraries varies considerably in different States and is chiefly conditioned by the degree to which the service is known. Practically none of the bureaus advertise, as the word is ordinarily understood. The reasons for this are many, but the chief one is that extensive advertising would result in an overwhelming call for service. Every bureau reports that it makes little special effort to acquaint the public with the service. Many directors state, "We now have more mail than we can handle as efficiently as we would wish." The universities receive many requests for packages from persons in other States, though they are never solicited. Several bureaus referred all their out-of- State inquiries to Washington, while the national Division of Educational Exten- sion was in existence during the first half of 1919. The national division furnished information on current questions in response to such referred requests. They numbered over a thousand in the two months after the clearing-house arrangement was made. Complete data on the number of package libraries circulated by all the universities are not available. The first column of the following table gives approximately the number of requests which were met by supplying packages, involving frequently the relending of the same libraries. PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 21 Package libraries lent by nine extension divisions, July 1, 1918, to May 1, 1919. Extension division. Number of packages lent. Estimated number of borrowers. 1,600 1,270 1,944 5,137 3,000 1,115 3,219 3,000 6,275 5,000 Colorado . . . 1,750 Indiana 3,000 Kansas 50,000 Michigan (') Missouri . 5.000 Nortla Carolina (') Texas. 3,445 Wisconsin 69, 571 1 No report. Variation in use. — From this table it is evident that there is con- siderable variety in the kind of use to which the libraries are put. Sometimes a single package is borrowed over and over again, that is, it is used by a large number of persons. For instance, a package library on municipal markets was sent to a city engineer, and by him it was lent to members of the city council and to officers of the local chamber of commerce. A member of a civic club borrows a package library on school feeding, and the various pieces of printed matter are distributed among the group for study. A civics teacher in the high school borrows a library on municipal government and assigns different phases of the topic to the students in her classes. Thus a single packet may be used by 10 or more different individuals, and it is difficult to determine exactly how extensively the material in a package library collection is made use of within a year. Following is a rough classification of the various uses made of the packages lent by Texas in 1918 : Addresses Civic work Camp fire and scouts. Debates 28 51 . 23 834 School work 1,682 Various personal uses 101 Women's clubs 337 The following table indicates how the package libraries were used in Wisconsin, 1912 to 1913: Package libraries in Wisconsin. 1012-13. Used by— Number. Number of packages. 305 340 93 93 736 1,903 177 182 1 Articles, business, correspondence study, olBcials, personal information, public addresses. 22 PUBLIC DISCUSSION Al^TD Ul^IVERSITY EXTEIJ^SIOIS'. The following is a comparison of the uses made of libraries in Wis- consin over a longer period of time : Use made of libraries in Wisconsin. Used by— 1912-1914 Number of packages used. 1914-1916 1917-18 1 1,781 4,328 461 3,644 5, 948 1,544 1,527 3,616 Educational institutions Miscellaneous 1,520 6,570 11, 136 6,663 1 One year. Use hy adults. — Since the package library has usually been de- veloped first in connection with high-school debating, only gradually has it been made use of by adults. At present the average percentage of adults borrowing libraries is not much higher than 10 per cent. In some States it is estimated as high as 30 per cent. Oklahoma re- ports that a large part of its service has been to commercial and civic clubs, agricultural associations, and political organizations. However, Oklahoma furnishes bulletins and other printed matter rather than the standard package library. Arkansas and Indiana are increasing their service to mature persons. Kansas also has a large adult clientele, particularly the women in rural districts. To begin a package library service in an extension division does not require a large initial expense, especially if it is developed con- servatively, as has been the case with most of the established bureaus. Organizing package library service. — A valuable service can be rendered by a single competent director, providing he is able to make use of the ordinary resources of the university and enlists the aid of the members of the faculty. Only a small budget is required. In some cases package library service is undertaken by the general uni- versity librarian under the supervision of the director of the exten- sion division. In such a case at first all that is necessary is some money for the purchase of extra copies of current periodicals and for the payment of a special librarian. But it is the general opinion that the package library work should belong primarily to the extension division and should not be an appendage of the library, on the same theory that makes it advisable not to have every school and department of the university conduct its own extension activities out in the State. Indiana University first began package library service through the general library. When the extension division was reorganized in 1914, a definite budget was set aside and the general librar}^ was relieved of the work. The Bureau of Public Discussion began with a budget of approximately $3,000. Miss Harriet N. Bircholt, now chief of the PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 23 bureau, has submitted the foUowmg two budgets based on the experience of Indiana. They are presented here to show that a university can introduce or expand the package library service with little difficulty, since a large budget is not necessary, and also because the aims and methods may be comparatively definite and simple. The following paragraph is a copy of a statement in a printed circu- lar of the Indiana bureau : The aim of the Bureau of Public Discussion is to stimulate intelligent dis- cussion of current, social, political, and economic questions. With this end in view, the bureau engages in the following activities : It assists debating socie- ties, civic discussion clubs, and literary clubs with suggestions as to organi- zation and method of procedure. It recommends suitable topics for debates, discussions, themes, and orations; it provides suggestions for club programs; and it supplies bibliographies on the topics suggested. It lends package libraries on present-day questions. It answers inquiries for general information. Budget for a bureau of public discussioit. Items. Salaries: Chief Assistant Part-time assistant Equipment (file cases, desks) Supplies (clipping materials, cards, folders) Magazines (by subscription and purchase) Pamphlets (by purchase singly and in quantity). Books (guides, atlas reference books) Printing (circulars, bulletins, forms, advertising). Stationery Extra help Contingency Total. 5,000 Items of SS,000 budget— The smaller budget, $3,000, represents actual expenditures involved in establishing a package-library serv- ice. A competent head of the bureau may sometimes be found for the comparatively small salary of $1,200, but it is clear that such a person should work under close supervision of the director of ex- tension, or of the head of a social-science department, and have considerable assistance from the faculty. However, the service should be independent and free to meet its own problems unham- pered by academic methods, which are not serviceable for the best work in university extension. The first year it is not necessary to subscribe for many periodicals. There are always many copies available in a university community. Faculty clubs frequently give their accumulated supply regularly to the package-library service. Some publishing houses will furnish quantities free. There are great quantities of pamphlet material obtainable free from many sources, from national societies, educa- tional foundations, and other associations. The first year the pack- age-library bureau can use the reference guides of the general library 24 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. of the university. It is, however, advisable to have a complete set of guides and reference books in the bureau library as soon as pos- sible, because experience has proved that a considerable percentage of inquiries that come to extension divisions can be answered easily by referring to standard publications, and promptness is very de- sirable. A special library facilitates prompt response to inquiry. The bureau should have a definite understanding with the general library of the university and with the State library or library com- mission. The usual arrangement is for the bureau to confine its work to providing package libraries made up of bulletins, pamphlets, documents, clippings, and fugitive material on current public ques- tions for persons who are not resident students of the university; the university library lends books and other materials primarily to the faculty and resident students; the State library or commis- sion confines its work to lending books in traveling libraries. The $5y000 budget. — The larger budget is analyzed on the same basis as the smaller — that is, it represents expenditures involved in establishing a bureau of public discussion. With the larger sum available, it is advisable to put more money into salaries, because once a minimum equipment is secured the quality of the service improves most readily in proportion to the strength and ability of the staff of workers. In the larger budget the amounts allotted to the purchase of magazines, pamphlets, and books are nearly four times as great as in the smaller budget. The larger proportional expenditure for these items makes possible a saving in the time and energy of the members of the staff, who otherwise would have to do more work seeking material and consulting reference books outside of the bureau library. GENERAL INFORMATION SERVICE. Ciwrent topics. — The package library is a characteristic feature of the more highly developed bureaus of public discussion and is used as a convenient method of answering inquiries for information, especially on current topics. But these bureaus, or rather the general extension divisions of which they are a part, receive many calls for information on subjects which have not been made up in packages. The following bureaus report the percentage of inquiries they re- ceive on questions of current public interest and on miscellaneous subjects not usually designated as current topics: Percentage of inquiries on current topics. Per cent- Oregon 50 North Carolina 75 Indiana 90 Texas 50 Oklahoma 75 Missouri 75 PUBLIC DISCUSSION" AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 25 Not only is there a substantial percentage of inquiries on miscel- laneous topics that have to be answered by references, special letters, bulletins, and other printed matter not incorporated in package libraries, but many of the requests for information on current topics have to be answered by various methods suited to the individual case. This sort of service often requires considerable consultation in the general university library and in the offices of different university departments. Oklahoma and Indiana both report instances of in- quiries on legal questions which required consultation with members of the law faculty, some of them involving considerable investigation. To indicate the range of subjects, a director of a bureau cites a number of requests for information which came to him in one day. Two of them asked for " full information " concerning the " budget system " and " how to cure pork in warm weather." Requests re- ferred to the Washington division from the States ranged from technical questions concerning war-risk insurance, vocational guid- ance, vital statistics, to general questions concerning community centers, merchant marine, military training, reconstruction. Many letters written in pencil and on all sorts of stationery ask simply for '" literature." " Please send me a package library " frequently comes through the mail ; sometimes the writer asks for a bibliography with- out specifying the subject. These inquiries do not represent mere ignorance; often they are evidence of a real desire for information. Sometimes a letter explains elaborately the isolated situation of the writer and appeals eloquently for something interesting to read and study. He has heard of the university as a public institution and yet may not know that his own town has a public library which could satisfy his desire. Others know their libraries and other sources of information, but desire something additional which will give them a wider knowledge of certain specific subjects. Probably all universities recognize their obligation to answer re- quests for information on educational opportunities and on subjects which are represented in their curricula. In response to a sugges- tion that inquiries of this nature received at Washington might be referred to the universities of the States from which the letters come, 33 university presidents or the directors of extension replied that the reference to them of the letters would be welcomed and that they would endeavor to furnish the information desired. Many specified in detail the kinds of inquiries which they were prepared to handle, but most of them agreed to take care of all inquiries which the Federal office judged suitable for reference to the State. To the suggestion the chancellor of a southern university replied, "Any question asked by a citizen of this State I am quite sure the university is in a position to answer. If there should be any question 134585°— 20 i 26 PUBLIC DlSCUSSIOIif AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. which we can not answer, we are prepared to refer it to the proper source of information." The president of a university in the North wrote, " The university receives every day a considerable number of letters asking information on all sorts of subjects, both on earth and in heaven. We make it a point to answer all such inquiries." An- other university offered to answer any inquiries, " so long as they are not too expensive in their requirements for special investigation." A director of extension explains that the division is in close touch with experts of the university and State departments and therefore has opportunity for exceptional advisory assistance, and that the university's splendid library facilities afford almost unlimited oppor- tunity for research. Informational hulletins. — General information service involves, in addition to extended correspondence and the furnishing of printed matter procured from many sources, a considerable amount of effort devoted to the preparation and printing of special informational bulletins. The following is a suggestive list of bulletins issued by a few of the university extension divisions for their general informa- tion service. They are selected to show the variety of subjects treated. California : Compulsory Health Insurance. Military Service. Single-House Legislature. The News-Print Situation. League to Enforce Peace. Steps Toward Democracy. From North to South in Europe. Episodes in American History. Colorado : Protection Against Typhoid. The Practical Value of Birds. Insanity, Its Nature, Causes, and Prevention. Community Welfare Conferences. Administrative Efficiency in a De- mocracy. Social Education and Public Health. Indiana : The Community Schoolhouse. Indiana Local History. Play and Recreation. Community Institutes. Financing the War. Vocational Recreation in Indiana. Women in Industry. School and Community Service. Americanization in Indiana. Iowa: Store Lighting. Vocational Guidance in High Schools. Principles of Advertising. Employers' Welfare Work in Iowa. Iowa Handbook on Child Welfare. The Social Survey. Newspaper English. Iowa — Continued. The Overdraft Evil as Illustrated in Iowa Banks. Survey of the School Buildings of Muscatine. Kansas : Constructive Juvenile Effort in Kan- sas. Suggestions for Forming Child Wel- fare Organizations. The Cigarette Problem. Training for Debating. Merchants' Week Lectures. Plays for Schools. The Department of General Infor- mation. Missouri : Preservation of Food in the Home. Abnormal and Defective Children. The House Fly. Country Roads. Technical and Manual Arts for Gen- eral Educational Purposes. Better Highways. The Feeding of Children. ., Minnesota : Community Centers. University Extension — What and Why. Handbook of Extension Service. Community Service. North Carolina: Ship Subsidies. Cooperative Institutions Among the Farmers of Catawba County. Sampson County: Economic and Social. PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 27 North Carolina — Continued. Texas — Continued. Our Country Claurch Problem. University Aid for Community Oui: Carolina Highlanders. Councils of Defense. County Government and County Af- War Songs for Conmiunity Meet- fairs, ings. National Ideals in British and Washington: American Literature. The Social and Civic Center. The Community Pageant. State Roads and Permanent High- Reconstruction and Citizenship. ways. Oklahoma : The Making of a Newspaper. Workmen's Compensation. Taxation in Washington. Municipal Affairs. Ethical Aspects of Journalism. The Great War. Ores, Coals, and Useful Rocks of Social Problems. Washington. Oregon : Wisconsin : Home Study Courses for Teachers. Community Music and Drama. Emergency Courses for Men in War Industrial Education and Depend- Industries. ency. Putting the Eyes to Work, Municipal and Sanitary Engineer- Training for Citizenship. ing. Texas : Nursing as a Vocation for Women. School Literary Societies. Organized Poor Relief in Wisconsin. The Furnishing and Decoration of The Eye in Industrial Accidents, the Home. Public Recreation. A Study of Rural Schools in Tra- Wisconsin Baby Week. vis County. The Manual Arts as Vocations. Pure Milk and How to Get It. Prenatal Care. CLUB STUDY AND LIBRARY SERVICE. Club study and library service is to some extent centralized and directed in most of the States, either by the universities or by the State libraries and commissions. Aside from the promotion of local public library organization, which is the chief function of the library commission, the central club study and library service of both university and commission is, generally speaking, of two kinds — assistance in supplementing the resources of local public libraries by the circulation of books and other materials for study ; and assistance by advice and suggestion to State leagues, to local clubs, and to individuals in study and investigation. Library commissions. — The advisory work of the universities and commissions consists chiefly in the recommendation to clubs and so- cieties of suitable topics for study, the preparation of bibliographies and outlines of study courses, and suggestions for the best methods of systematic study. The work of supplementing local library re- sources consists of the lending of traveling libraries, package libraries, exhibits, lantern slides, motion-picture films, the distribu- tion of informational bulletins, and the furnishing of lecturers for addresses in series. In both phases of the work the universities and commissions deal with individuals and organizations anywhare in the State, whether there exists a local public library or not; that is, the central service may not be linked with the service of a local library, depending on the arrangement made by persons who secure the service. 28 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. Scope of university service. — What is the scope of the chib study and library service of university extension divisions and what rela- tion has it to that of the library commissions? The answer to the question is best found in the fact that library commissions have chiefly administrative functions, and universities have primarily the functions of research, teaching, and dissemination of information. Accordingly, the university extension divisions have seldom directly engaged in the work of organizing local public libraries or of estab- lishing methods of providing standardized collections of books for the use of small communities which have no public library. This work is left to the library commissions and committees in 30 States. In others, library organization is promoted usually by a division of the State library or is left to local initiative. Library commissions do, however, undertake certain activities which are not primarily administrative, activities which are more conmionly undertaken by the universities. There are several reasons for this. The advisability of keeping the two fields of administration and education separate is not always recognized ; in some States the universities have not undertaken club study and library service and the commissions find it advisable to meet the demand for such serv- ice on the part of the people; in other States commission and uni- versity officers find the field of service so wide and the possibilities so great that there is room for both agencies to cooperate in the same line of work. Traveling libraries. — The most characteristic activity of the library commissions, which at the same time is undertaken by some univer- sities, is the circulation of traveling libraries of books. These travel- ing libraries are small collections of bound volumes, averaging about 25, for miscellaneous reading. The make-up of the collection is much the same, on a small scale, as that of local public libraries. Their object is to supplement the latter where it is small and to supply a substitute when it is absent. The loan collections are sent both to individuals and to community organizations. Several university ex- tension divisions lend traveling libraries. Oklahoma had over 100 in circulation in 1919. The Wyoming extension service circulates traveling libraries consisting of 20 or more books of fiction, history, science, and travel. Legislative reference. — Some of the State libraries conduct legis- lative reference bureaus. When the university in the same State also has a reference bureau, the field is usually divided, so that the library serves especially the State departments and legislators and the uni- versity serves primarily the municipal authorities and local commu- nity organizations. Special service. — Most library commissions attempt to provide special collections of books for women's clubs. The clubs submit their PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 29 yearly program and ask for certain books on the subjects listed. The books are procured and lent, sometimes for the year, upon payment by the club of a small fee and transportation charges. Frequently outlines and bibliographies are furnished, and some assistance is offered in the making of programs. A similar kind of club service is given by many of the universities, especially in the States which do not have commissions. When both agencies develop this service, the tendency is for the commission to lend books and the university to provide outlines and bibliographies and advisory assistance. This is a recognition of the fact that universities have access to the numer- ous specialists in various departments and to superior special library facilities. An extension bureau need not be limited by insufficient staff, for the whole university faculty is usually at its service for particular consultation and general reference. Somewhat distinct from the library service to women's clubs is that which supplies collections of books and other printed matter on definite, limited topics of study. These are furnished extensively, both to individuals and to small groups, by library commissions as well as by university extension divisions. Just as in the case of meet- ing the needs of women's clubs, the supplying of this service is more naturally the function of the extension divisions, having as they do greater resources and more flexibility in the purchase, publica- tion, and distribution of printed matter, especially fugitive material from newspapers and magazines and casual prints, such as announce- ments, programs, syllabi, and outlines, and manuscripts of every tvpe. The most common form of extension service in this line is that of the package library. Its field is somewhat more circumscribed than that of the club libraries above mentioned and corresponds, in a more unpretentious way, to that of the special library on a single topic. Its make-up has already been described. It furnishes assist- ance for debates, for the preparation of papers by club members and high-school students or teachers, and for similar purposes in a great variety of organizations, as well as for individual study. Its largest use at present is for purposes of debating, especially for contests of the high school and similar debating leagues. Of the 32 universities which assist public discussion and debating in their States, 27 either maintain a package library system of their own or have an arrangement with the university library to furnish the necessary debating material. Ten library commissions also have a debating service, three of these being in States where the extension divisions do not maintain such a service and one in a State which does not have a general extension division. In the remaining six, either the division or the commission gives practically all the service. 30 PUBLIC DISCUSSIOlSr AND UNIVEESITY EXTENSION. The more highly developed package library services are coming to be almost exclusively maintained by the universities. The correspondence reference service, supplying general informa- tion and references for reading in answer to inquiries from indi- viduals or groups, is even more completely in the hands of the exten- sion divisions, only a few commissions giving it any attention. In the matter of lending pictures and slides, likewise, the dupli- cation is not extensive. Only three oi the commissions in States which have general extension divisions furnish material of this sort, while several of those in other States do so extensively. A not un- usual arrangement is for the extension division to supply slides for illustrated lectures, while the commission circulates pictures and, in a few instances, stereoscopic views. In the case of general club service, although it is undertaken by 26 universities and 19 commissions, there is little duplication of effort. In only three instances are special books lent by both com- mission and university. In only two States are outlines and special bibliographies furnished to clubs by both agencies. In 11 States there is apparent duplication in club service, but upon analysis it becomes clear that the commissions and universities have developed substantially different activities. C ooperafion. — The statements just made indicate that wherever there is a possibility of duplication of work by the extension divi- sions and the library commissions, there is a strong tendency to divide the field between them. The field is indeed so vast that there can be little difficulty in this line. There is evidence in a number of States of a cordial cooperation, either by a distinct understanding of what each organization is to take as its special province, or by a willing mutual support and assistance. In California, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wisconsin, for instance, the commission publishes, as one of its aims, to cooperate with the ex- tension division, not only in its debating service, but in some in- stances also in its correspondence study work. And the cases where the extension divisions leave the library service, either in whole or in part, to the commissions, show the same spirit existing on their part also. Club study courses. — The most distinctive kind of club service per- formed by extension divisions not undertaken by library commis- sions consists of a definitely planned course of study followed by the club with the aid and supervision of an instructor from the uni- versity, or at least of a lecturer or director who meets the group at intervals. The courses resemble the regular university extension class, which in turn may be similar to the regular residence class. The course for clubs, however, is not usually designed to be as in- PUBLIC DISCUSSION" AND UNIVEKSITY EXTENSION. 31 tensive as the regular class, and of course academic credit is not given. These courses for women's clubs and civic organizations sometimes go by the name of " group study." The supervision of these courses involves varying amounts of work by the extension division and the instructor. The general plan and the details of arrangement for each club in different cities are worked out by the extension division in cooperation with club lead- ers. The instructor may give a series of lectures, or he may present the prepared outline or course at a single meeting and return later to summarize the ground covered by the club, or he may confine his direction to correspondence concerning difficulties encountered in the course. Practically all university extension divisions offer group study courses of this nature; most of them, however, limiting their serv- ice to providing instructors or lecturers. Fees are charged for these services in most instances, at least for the lecturers who are drawn from various university departments. When such courses are con- ducted by members of the extension staff, the fees are usually levied on the basis of travel expenses. Some dissatisfaction with this prac- tice has arisen among extension directors on the ground that clubs frequently pay high fees for commercial lecturers and at the same time demand excessive service from the university with little effort or pecuniary help in return to meet a share of the work and expense that burden the university. Correspondence study courses are sometimes utilized by women's clubs as a basis for their programs. Miss Nadine Crump, of the California Extension Division, describes the method as it was em- ployed in her State : When the division was first established a great many club women made an appeal for some educational food for the women. * * * The bill of fare at that time was altogether too academic and uninviting ; moreover, the mem- bers in most cases could not afford to pay the fee, so they were turned away hungry. The fee being a stumblingblock to those who most needed the service, a plan was devised by which the difficulty might be eliminated. It was proposed that one or more members register for the course, the fee to be paid either by the member registering or by the club or the section of the club in which the work was to de done. These students prepared the assignments far enough in advance of the club meetings to enable them to receive their papers with corrections and suggestions from the instructor at the university. Thus fortified by study and by aid from the insti-uctor, the member is enabled to lead the club in the discussion of the topic in question. Several clubs have thus substituted a correspondence course for their usual program. Sometimes a club organized itself into a class, to which an instructor was sent at weekly or semiweekly periods.^ ^ Proc. Nat. Univ. Extension Association, 1916. 32 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. The success with which the work was carried on is indicated by the reports from the club women. The following is an extract from such a report: The class finds the course very interesting. It has stimulated newspaper and magazine reading among our club members to a marked degree. None of our members wishes to get credit for the course. We are all married and most of us are mothers of families, and our desire in taking this course was simply to stimulate our minds and receive instruction that would give us some organized ideas as to why this and other wars have been entered into. A different member of the club takes the assignment each week and gives it to the class, answers the questions, and writes a paper on her allotment. Afterwards there is a general discussion. The correspondence course, however, is not generally satisfactory ; but the fact that many clubs have used it and reported progress indicates how strongly the members of the clubs desire to do hard and thorough work under the direction of their university. Study outlines. — Many extension divisions are issuing substantial series of study outlines for clubs and other study groups. Some of these amount to a breaking of new ground; they are a departure from the old outline which usually dealt with such subjects as art, history of .Greece, great musicians, natural history, and the like. These newer courses deal with local community conditions, local history, social and child-welfare surveys, county government studies, and similar subjects which have not been extensively treated in books. Still others offer systematic guidance in the study of large general problems, which, however, are of lively contemporary in- terest and importance. One such club-study outline on Problems of the War was prepared by Indiana University extension division and reprinted by the women's committee of the Council of National Defense. Though this outline was prepared in the fall of 1917, it nevertheless adhered to sound traditions of university study in that it refrained from the tendency to concentrate on purely war topics and laid considerable emphasis on reconstruction problems which at that time had hardly touched public attention. Another club-study course, prepared by the University of North Carolina, illustrates the same tendency toward high standards in the consideration of current topics of great public importance. It is a " Course on Americanization : Studies of the peoples and the move- ments that are building up the American Nation," Although it is printed in attractive and simple style and avoids heavy academic treatment, it nevertheless is far from being a merely popular or superficial outline. Careful suggestions are given for the proper use of the program, among which is the following : " The outline is in- tended as a guide for reading and studying, not as a cut- and- dried program. It should be adapted to the interests of the individual club." The program contains a large number of pertinent and well- PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 33 selected quotations from authorities on immigration and American- ization, and presents a comprehensive bibliography which is at the same time well arranged for practical use. The bulletin does not take the popular or one-sided view of the general problem. Instead it takes the high ground indicated in the following quotations : The course is addressed in the main to the study of the immigrant in his American environment. It is an attempt to malie tlie foreign bom better linown to native Americans, in order that a more intelligent and appreciative relation may spring up among the members of the composite family. * * * -y^^ have lost much by ignoring all that the immigrant brings with him and we have missed much by a failure to realize what he represents. The extension division of the University of Colorado issued in January, 1919, an attractive folder announcing in some detail the service it offers to women's clubs. The following is a condensed de- scription of a number of the outlines which it furnishes on request: " Women's Place in Reconstruction." A brief study of -women's advancement up to the time of the outbreak of the war, the work she has done during the war, and her part and place in the reconstruction period. " The Effect of War on Education." A study of education in various nations before the war, how this education has failed in the war, how the war has changed and is changing education, and what niust be done to prevent education from becoming a failure in the future. " Child Welfare." A study of the new appreciation of childhood, including such topics as health, education, recreation, socialization, and child-labor problems. " Community Studif." The big modern social problem, Including all others, is that of living together. To do this successfully, we need to understand the facts and relations of modern community life. This outline is intended as a guide for the study of one's community. " Periods of English or American Literature." It is suggested that some one period be selected for a detailed study. A subject that would be interesting and profitable for a club would be the Effect of the War on Litera- ture, or War Poetry, depending upon the interests of the club. " The Artistic Home." This outline includes the following topics : Interior decoration, landscape gardening, pictures for the house, small-house planning, application of color in dyeing fabrics. The general extension division of the University of Arkansas prints suggestions for yearbook committees, including the offer of study outlines on European and American nations, and states that lantern slides can be secured to supplement programs on the various countries, as well as phonograph records to use with special music programs. Among the club study outlines offered are the following : General: Art — Continued. Social Problems in Arkansas. English and American Painters. American Literature. Indian, Chinese, and Japanese Art. South American Republics. History of Art. Art: Some Great Masters. Design and Color Applied to th6 Greek Sculpture and Architecture. Modern Home. Music: Arts and Crafts. Great Musicians — Opera. French Cathedrals. Music of the Different Nations — War Flemish Art. Music. 34 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVEESITY EXTENSION. The Oklahoma division prints outlines of subjects for " Studies in Current Topics." One such outline gives in detail the topics and subtopics which are covered by a series of four bulletins on : " Studies on the Great War " ; " Social Problems " ; " Problems of Personal De- velopment"; "Living in Oklahoma." Under the "General Theme: Living in Oklahoma " are listed eight parts, each of which is exten- sively subdivided. The parts are : " Material Resources " ; " Okla- homa Civics " ; " Spiritual Resources " ; " Oklahoma History " ; "Americanization " ; " Needs and Problems " ; "Applications of Liv- ing in Oklahoma " ; "A Social Survey of the Community." CLUB STUDY, PUBLIC DISCUSSION, AND LIBRARY SERVICE BY STATES. The following is a brief description of the service offered in the 48 States. It is intended to' show at a glance the salient points for each State in so far as the relation between library commission and university division is concerned, especially with reference to possible duplication of work. In order to avoid repetition only incidental mention is made of the work of the commission, in legislative refer- ence, in the promotion of public library organization, and the circula- tion of traveling libraries. For the same reason the lecture service and general information service of universities are usually omitted. This applies also to visual instruction (through lantern slides, motion pictures, and exhibits). The list does not include the municipal uni- versities, the private institutions, the colleges, and the normal schools, many of which offer considerable service. AlahaofYia. — The University of Alabama, at University, assists the work of discussion and debating clubs, especially in secondary schools. The Alabama Department of Archives and History, at Montgomery, has a division of library extension, which circulates traveling libraries and gives some assistance to clubs. Arizona. — The General Extension Division, at Tucson, offers its service to clubs and other organizations for debating and public discussion. Material on all public questions may be secured on re- quest. A loan-package library service is being organized. Arkansobs. — The General Extension Division of the University of Arkansas, at Fayetteville, supplies package libraries for clubs and debating societies and business men. It outlines reading and study courses for clubs, with suggested topics and references, providing spe- cial material on municipal questions for papers and reports. The Arkansas Library Commission, at Little Rock, promotes library organization chiefly through advisory service. California. — The University of California Extension Division, at Berkeley, has made a practice of sending to the State Library, at Sacramento, and to the county libraries, a list of correspondence PTTBLIC DlSCUSSrOIir AND UNIVEESITY EXTENSION. 35 students,, subjects, texts, and works of reference, as well as questions for debate, the names of schools taking part in the debating, and the dates of the contests. The libraries furnished the necessary books and materials. This arrangement was changed in 1919 to correct a situation which led to unnecessary work on the part of the libraries in the purchase of books which might not be used by the students. Tlie extension division has package libraries on a limited number of sub- jects, and provides a municipal reference s^vice. It supplies current events lectures and lantern slides, and circulates traveling industrial exhibits. The State Library furnishes traveling libraries and special books. Colorado. — The University of Colorado Extension Division, at Boulder, sends out books, magazines, and package libraries to indi- viduals, schools, and clubs for work in discussion and debating and for general information. It also supervises high-school debating and assists in arranging club progi-ams, furnishing outlines and courses. The division conducts municipal reference service. The State traveling library commission gives some service in the promo- tion of library organization. Connectixmt. — ^The Public Library Commission, at Hartford, lends a number of special libraries and pictures and furnishes club-study programs. It also has collections of stereopticon slides, with accom- panying lectures, for circulation. Belamare. — The Library Commission, State Library, at Dover, pro- motes library organization, lends books, and circulates traveling li- braries. Florida. — The University of Florida, at Gainesville, was given an appropriation for university extension by the legislature of 1919. Georgia. — The University of Georgia, at Athens, conducts a public discussion and general information service and lends a number of package libraries. The Georgia Library Commission, at Atlanta, gives chiefly advisory assistance in organizing local libraries. Idaho.— ThQ University of Idaho, at Moscow, lends books and other material for study. It also furnishes package libraries and de- bate material. It supplies bibliographies, outlines, and visual in- struction materials. The Idaho State Library Commission, at Boise, circulates traveling libraries. Illinois. — The Library Extension Commission, Springfield, fur- nishes collections of books and bibliographies for club study and debating. It supplies special school libraries, traveling libraries, club-study outlines. It also lends pictures and lantern slides. The University of Illinois, at Urbana, provides an information service in agricultural subjects and home economics. It gives some advisory assistance in community organization. 36 PUBLIC DISCUSSIO]Sr ANT) UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. Indiatia. — 'Indiana Universit}^ Extension Division, at Bloomington, supplies package library service for individuals and clubs, for study and for debating and discussion. It maintains traveling art and wel- fare exhibits, some of which were turned over to it by the Public Li- brary Commission and a committee of the Federation of Women's Clubs. It gives considerable assistance to clubs : Bibliographies, out- lines, study courses, lantern slides, films, stereoscopic views, lectures. The Public Library Commission, at Indianapolis, confines its work (other than that of organization) chiefly to the lending of books, not only those in traveling libraries, but also special volumes for clubs and other groups. Iowa.-—T]\Q University of Iowa Extension Division, at Iowa City, offers service to clubs. It prepares club study outlines, furnishes package libraries for business men, and lends lantern slides, films, and exhibits. The university library furnishes package libraries for subjects of debate among high schools. The Iowa Library Commis- sion, at Des Moines, maintains an extensive reference and club serv- ice, and supplies libraries for a number of subjects of debate. It also has a number of traveling picture collections. Kansas. — The Extension Division of the University of Kansas, at Lawrence, has a public discussion, debating, and club service, and co- operates with the State Municipal League. It supplies package libraries and collections of books on a large number of subjects, espe- cially for club work and debating. It furnishes study outlines to clubs and individuals. The Traveling Libraries Commission, at Topeka, has a number of collections of books for correspondence study students. It lends pictures and special books. Kentucky. — The University of Kentucky Department of Univer- sity Extension supplies package libraries, bibliographies, study outlines, and other material to clubs and other organizations. It promotes public discussion and debating; it cooperates with the Department of English in the conduct of high-school debating contests. The Bureau of General Information and Welfare offers a comprehensive information service, including assistance in community dramatics. The Kentucky Library Commission, at Frankfort, furnishes collections of books, programs, and outlines to clubs and bibliographies for debates and essays. Louisiana. — The University of Louisiana does not maintain gen- eral extension service in this field. Maine. — The University of Maine, at Orono, has given some as- sistance to secondary school debating. The Maine Library Com- mission, at Augusta, cooperates with the Federation of Women's Clubs in placing traveling collections, and furnishes clubs, com- munity centers, and other organizations with libraries. PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSIOIfl'. 37 Maryland. — The General Extension Division of Maryland State College, at College Park, conducts a package library service and assists clubs and debating societies. The Maryland Public Library Commission, at Baltimore, promotes the organization of public libraries and lends traveling libraries. Massachusetts. — The Department of University Extension, at Bos- ton, publishes informational bulletins and cooperates with the Free Library Commission in providing a general information service. The commission encourages library extension in outlying districts by supplying books, and through the Women's Education Association places books in the hands of foreign-born persons in the State. Michigan. — The University of Michigan Extension Division, at Ann Arbor, through its library extension service, provides package libraries, briefs for debate, lists of books, model lessons, lists of plays, and study outlines. It conducts a municipal reference bureau. It serves civic clubs and many other organizations, including public libraries. The State Library, at Lansing, maintains col- lections of books for women's clubs and special libraries for civic and other organizations, as well as an extensive collection of pictures illustrating ancient and modern art. Minnesota. — The University of Minnesota Extension Division, at Minneapolis, conducts a municipal reference bureau. It furnishes plays for community dramatics and provides programs and other aids for community centers and clubs. The Public Library Commis- sion, at St. Paul, supplies special libraries and outlines to a large number of study clubs. It lends books, pamphlets, magazine articles, pictures, stereoscopic views. It maintains a package library service for high-school debating and essay writing, and assists the State dis- cussion league. Mississippi. — The University of Mississippi has not developed gen- eral extension work. The service bureau of Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College maintains a package library department. It supplies visual instruction materials and a general information service. MissouH. — The Extension Division of the University of Missouri, at Columbia, by arrangement with the university library and the Missouri Library Commission, at Jefferson City, furnishes package libraries and books to individuals, clubs, and debating societies. It maintains a traveling art exhibit and lends lantern slides. It gives a special information service on municipal affairs. The commission, besides circulating traveling libraries, also supplies sets of books, pictures, and other material for schools, study clubs, and debating societies. Montana.— T\\& Public Service Division of the University of Mon- tana, at Missoula, maintains a general information service. It as- 38 PUBLIC DlSCUSSIOI^r AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. sists clubs and debating societies in choosing subjects and furnisbes bibliographies and study outlines. The university library lends package libraries to individuals and to schools, and gives general assistance to town and country libraries. Nehrasha. — The Extension Division of the University of Ne- braska, at Lincoln, maintains a loan library of books and periodicals; it supplies material for debating and circulates lantern slides and motion pictures. The Public Library Commission, at Lincoln, co- operates directly with the extension division in supplying books and other material for club study and debating and for extension classes. Nevada. — The University of Nevada Library, at Reno, regularly lends books, pamphlets, and magazines to students, debaters, club workers, and readers throughout the State. Neio Hampshire. — The Public Library Commission gives chiefly advisory assistance in library development. The colleges of the State have not developed general extension work. New Jersey. — The Public Library Commission, at Trenton, in ad- dition to its regular traveling libraries, maintains an extensive loan service to individuals for special study. This it is enabled to do through the cooperation of the larger public libraries in the State. It gives direct aid to school libraries. Rutgers College, at New Brunswick, gives assistance in debating. New Mexico. — The University of New Mexico, at Albuquerque, provides package library service and assists in debating and public discussion. A system of traveling libraries is maintained. The service is being reorganized and expanded. New York. — The University of the State of New York, at Albany, through the Educational Extension Division and State Library, cir- culates traveling libraries to schools, study clubs, libraries, communi- ties, individuals, and organizations of all kinds. It encourages systematic work by study clubs and gives assistance in preparing programs. It issues certificates to clubs maintaining certain standards. It furnishes package libraries and assists in debating and public discussion. The visual instruction division circulates a large collec- tion of slides and pictures for illustrated lectures and special study. North Carolina. — The Extension Division of the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, has material, including package libraries, sent out from the university library for debating and club work. It promotes club study, especially the study of local and county affairs, conditions, and government. It has issued a syllabus of Home-County Club Studies, a studj^ outline on the Country Church, and a course on Americanization. The division prepares annually the official study outline for the Federation of Women's Clubs and lends supplementary material. It provides special mate- rial for municipal reference. The State Library Commission, at PUBLIC DISCUSSION" AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION". 39 Raleigh, furnishes programs for clubs. It supplies special books and some package libraries. North Dakota. — The University of North Dakota Extension Divi- sion, at Grand Forks, sends out bibliographies and other library material for debating and public discussion. It also provides a package library and general information service. The State Library Commission, at Bismarck, maintains a reference service and supplies' collections of books and package libraries for club study and de- bating. Ohio. — The Board of Library Commissioners, State Library, at Columbus, has a library organization department, which promotes the extension of public-library facilities in the State. The colleges and universities assist high-school debating. Miami University, at Oxford, lends books to extension centers and to individuals. Oklahoma. — The Extension Division of the University of Okla- homa, at Norman, furnishes package libraries and lends sets of books, especially on rural and municipal subjects. It offers special munici- pal and commercial aids. It prepares digests of material for study, debate, and discussion on current questions and distributes them through printed bulletins, a distinctive kind of " Current Events Study " service. The State legislature created a library commission in 1919. Oregon. — The University of Oregon Extension Division, at Eu- gene, supplies package libraries and other aids to individuals and study clubs. It provides a general information service and also assists a State debating league. The State Library, at Salem, main- tains a reference collection of clippings, public documents, and other material which it sends out on request. It has loan collections of books and pamphlets for debating societies and special study libraries for clubs. Pennsylvania. — The Extension Division of the University of Pitts- burg supplies package libraries, assists debating societies, and pro- vides a general information and club service. The Pennsylvania State College gives some assistance in debating and public discussion. The Free Library Commission, at Harrisburg, promotes library organization, lends books and pictures, and provides club study and debating services. Rhode Island. — The State committee on libraries. Department of Education, at Providence, gives direct aid to local libraries. Brown University provides library and club service. South Carolina. — The Extension Division of the University of South Carolina, at Columbia, conducts a general information and club service. It assists in the organization and supervision of high- school debating. 40 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVEKSITY EXTENSION. South Dakota. — The Extension Division of the University of South Dakota, at Vermilion, furnishes lists of discussion and debate topics with outlines and bibliographies and supplies package libra- ries. It lends visual instruction material. The Free Library Com- mission, at Pierre, lends to schools package libraries and books for debate. It serves clubs with programs, outlines, and books. Tennessee. — The University of Tennessee, at Knoxville, supplies lectures and other assistance to clubs. It assists debating and discus- sion societies. The division of library extension, Department of Education, at Nashville, promotes library organization. Texas. — The Extension Division of the University of Texas, at Austin, sends out package libraries on a large number of subjects for use in debating, club study, and other purposes. It maintains an ex- tensive system of club study, with courses similar to those offered at the university. A comprehensive general information service has been developed. The Texas Library and Historical Commission, at Austin, cooperates in library service, lending books, pamphlets, and outlines. It refers requests for information on current topics to the extension division, and the division refers in turn inquiries for his- torical and certain types of technical material. Utah. — The Extension Division of the University of Utah, at Salt Lake City, fills requests for books, package libraries, and other ma- terial for debating and club study through the university library. The Department of Public Instruction, at Salt Lake City, has a library secretary and organizer who promotes library development. The State Library gives some service in addition to legislative ref- erence. Vermont. — The Free Public Library Commission, at Montpelier, in addition to the usual traveling library service, provides a number of club-study collections and furnishes special books and package libraries. It also has a number of picture collections. The Univer- sity of Vermont, at Burlington, circulates educational exhibits. Virginia. — The University of Virginia, at Charlottesville, lends package libraries on a limited number of subjects, supplies general information, and assists discussion and debating societies. The State Library, at Richmond, sends out collections of books to communities and study clubs. Washington. — The Extension Division of the University of Wash- ington, at Seattle, has temporarily discontinued its package library service, but still furnishes a general information and club service. It prepares bulletins, outlines, bibliographies, and other material on social problems. The division conducts a bureau of municipal and legislative research. The Washington State Library Commission, at Olympia, gives advice in establishing local public libraries and some PUBLIC DISCUSSIOIT AND UNIVEKSITY EXTENSION. 41 assistance in club study and debating. Washington State College, at Pullman, prepares bibliographies, bulletins, and package libraries for debate and club study. West Virgima. — The University of West Virginia library sends out package libraries and other material to communities, study clubs, and high schools, and gives assistance in public discussion and de- bating. The newly organized Extension Department is preparing to expand the work. Wisconsin. — The Extension Division of the University of Wis- consin, at Madison, has a very extensive collection of package libraries, for use by debating leagues and clubs of every kind, and for information and study in general. It conducts a comprehensive general information and welfare service. It prepares programs, outlines courses, debate bulletins, and furnishes guidance, lectures, and visual-instruction material to women's clubs, civic clubs, com- munity centers. The division provides a municipal reference service. The Free Library Commission, at Madison, cooperates with the ex- tension division by supplying group libraries for extension classes and community institutes. It lends special books and pictures and does reference work by correspondence. Wyoming. — The University of Wyoming, at Laramie, through its Division of Non-Eesident Instruction, lends traveling libraries to in- dividuals and organizations. It arranges lecture courses and provides a general information service. ASSISTANCE IN DEBATING AND OTHER FORMS OF PUBLIC DISCUSSION. One of the first activities of university extension was that of fur- nishing lecturers for all sorts of community occasions. At first these lectures had little relation to public discussion as it is ordinarily understood, but they did frequently present information on current public topics and at least arouse interest in them. Recently, how- ever, with the growth of extension classes, club-study courses, and the revival of the civic club, the community center, the forums, and other organizations interested in economic, political, and social ques- tions, the lecturer who is a specialist in any one of these fields finds his services in demand for the purpose of assisting more and more groups of people who are seriously interested in community prob- lems and desire help in educating or informing public; opinion. As the extension divisions expanded their lecture service to meet the needs of civic clubs, farmers' welfare associations, child-welfare societies, and numerous similar organizations, they also added the different kinds of information service, such as the package library, the study course, and the informational bulletin described in this bulletin, for the definite purpose of stimulating intelligent public 42 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. discussion as an end to some extent worth while in itself. The uni- versities have not, however, succeeded to any great degree in pro- moting the organization of public-discussion societies among adults, but have given their energy chiefly to furnishing assistance to such societies organized and maintained by the communities themselves. But the extension division naturally found it easy to promote the debating work of secondary schools, because the machinery of the public schools was ready to hand. School officials interested in high- school debating proved to be ready to cooperate with the universi- ties in the effort to widen the scope and improve the methods of current events study and debate on questions of public interest. At first this effort centered chiefly in furnishing materials for high- school debaters. Later, definite assistance was given in organizing debating and discussion leagues and contests of many kinds, in order to include more schools and larger numbers of students, and to devise methods of interesting adults in the problems debated throughout the State. High-school debating and discussion leagues are maintained or assisted by universities in the following States: Alabama. Maryland. Pennsylvania. Arizona. Michigan. South Carolina. Arkansas. Missouri. South Dakota. California. Montana. Tennessee. Colorado. Nebraska. Texas. Georgia. Nevada. Utah. Idaho. New .Jersey. Virginia. Indiana. New Mexico. Washington. Iowa. North Carolina. West Virginia. Kansas. North Dakota. Wisconsin. Kentucky. Oklahoma. Wyoming. Maine. Oregon. In most of these 35 States there are State- wide scholastic leagues maintained and directed by the extension divisions of the universities. In the following States the debate contests are not usually State-wide but are more limited in their scope — Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, Tennessee, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Every State has debating contests of some kind between secondary schools, but the local leagues are not usually supervised or directed by the universities, although the debaters are frequently given assistance by the extension division. State-wide leagues in three States are maintained and directed as follows : Illinois, by Knox College; Maryland, by Maryland State College; New Jersey, by Rutgers College. In Washington debate service is given by the State College at Pullman; the service by the University of Washington has been temporarily discontinued. The University of California has also discontinued the work. Ohio and Minnesota have State PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 43 leagues not directed by the universities. Minnesota's league was probably the first organized in the United States, in 1902. In Penn- sylvania a State-wide debating contest was conducted by Pennsylva- nia State College in 1916. In the larger leagues the States are divided into districts which correspond sometimes to congressional districts, but are more often arranged with a view to ease of communication. California has 6; Indiana, 13; Iowa, 4; Kansas, 8; Michigan, 4; Missouri, 4; North Dakota, 12 ; Oklahoma, 8 ; Oregon, 12 ; Texas, 32 ; Virginia, 6. The series of preliminary contests in the districts are regularly arranged by a district director, and take place usually between November and April. The winners in the district meet according to a schedule arranged by the extension division or the State director or executive committee of the league; and the two, sometimes more, winning teams, which emerge from the contests between the districts, meet in a final clash at the State university some time in the spring. In the later phase of this series naturally but one question is debated ; in the preliminary contests within the districts often several different questions are debated in the same year. The final contest at the uni- versity is a great event for all the high schools and is largely attended by the students, especially by members of the senior class. In some States contests are also held not only in debating but also in declamation : North Dakota, Texas, Utah, Oklahoma, Pennsyl- vania. In essay writing : California, Texas, Pennsylvania. In music : North Dakota, Utah, Oklahoma. In spelling: Texas, Virginia, Pennsylvania. In extempore speaking: California, Iowa, Oklahoma, Pennsyl- vania. In public reading and oratory : Virginia, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania. Dehating. — A play-writing contest is held in Oregon. These con- tests are usually conducted according to somewhat the same arrange- ment as in the case of the debate. Debating was the original activity of these leagues, but the tendency is to broaden their scope. Not only have the other contests just referred to been gi^advially introduced in a number of States, but the form of the original contests seems itself to be imdergoing a change. Some effort is being made to turn them into discussions rather than formal debates. This is done in Indiana, for instance, and in the local literary prize contest of Virginia, where the speakers are not definitely limited as to number, and may speak on any phase of the question which they may choose. This method is particularly suited to the local contest. The topics set for discussion during the war, when dealing with some phase of it, could, under the circumstances, hardly be stated in such a wa}' as to admit of two opposing sides. Moreover, the 44 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. danger of quarrels, charges of unfairness, and plagiarism also appear to have had an effect in the same direction. In some States — Califor- nia, Oklahoma, and Texas, for example — separate contests are ar- ranged for the pupils in the smaller high schools and rural schools and in the lower classes of the high school or the upper classes of the grades. Public-events study. — An interesting recent development is the public-events study contest in Oklahoma. A bulletin is sent out containing a number of subjects of current interest, with a brief discussion of them, and with questions and references. The contest consists of a written test and an ex tempore discussion on one of the topics which is chosen by lot. Contest at the university. — The following is a description of a contest held at the university seat : The interscholastic contest of the University of Pittsburgh illustrates the value of holding contests on neutral ground, where rivalry may be natural and good natured, where animosities have no place and the audience is not partisan. High schools for miles around send representative students to take part in the different events. These students have not been given opportunity for special preparation and are all on an equal basis. Enthusiasm runs high in all the events; even athletic contests could scarcely invoke more. Excellence of performance from whatever source elicits enthusiastic applause. The event includes spelling con- tests, debate, essay writing, extempore speaking, history contests, Latin, German, and French translations, declamation, and, in fact, all sorts of literary effort. In connection with this a track meet is also held under similar con- ditions.^ Contests in commu/mties. — Debate contests in the local high schools, especially those which are part of the league series, are frequently made the occasion of large community meetings which many adults attend. When a single question is debated in every part of the State during a definite period of time, inevitably the subject is studied and discussed widely by many mature persons. Since the tendency is to get away from rigid adherence to the old methods of formal debate and to lay the emphasis on informal discussion, the interest in the question is less and less confined to the debaters themselves and their coaches or instructors alone. Whole groups of students participate in the study of the topic, and they take the problem home to their elders, who frequently have decided opinions about them, especially since the questions are usually either local in their application or prominent in the public attention. In order to develop the possibilities of interesting adults in open discussion in the high schools, many experiments have been tried. At open meetings speakers from the universit}^ or the high school 1 University of Pittsburgh Bulletin ; General Series, Vol. XIII, No. 17, University Ex- tension : Manual of Secondary School Activities, Mar. 17, 1917. PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 45 lecture on the debate subject and persons in the audience take part in the discussion. This application of the forum method has been most successful in rural consolidated schools. Frequently school principals arrange elaborate programs of speaking and music to supplement short debates or talks by a number of high-school stu- dents, and the interest of the mature persons who attend the meeting is secured by the varied nature of the entertainment and discussion. Adult interest in debating. — Several States have tried a novel method of stimulating interest in debatable questions by arranging joint debates between college students who hold their contests in the high schools of various communities. These " Extension Debates," as they are called in Indiana, are arranged by the university- extension division and held under the supervision of school superin- tendents and principals, who assume part of the expenses of the visiting teams. The high school announces the meeting to the com- munity as an opportunity for public discussion and expression of opinion on a current question. At the meeting the contest is not held as a formal debate but as a contest of opinion. The teams from the two visiting colleges have chosen the afiu-mative or negative, accord- ing to their respective convictions ; they speak to convince the audi- ence of the validity of their point of view, not to defeat the opposing team in excellence of argument. Usually not more than four students compose the two teams. Before the discussion begins the chairman of the meeting explains the nature of the contest and announces that one or two short talks will be made from the floor by speakers from the community. At the close of the meeting a vote of the audience is taken on the question of debate; the audi- ence expresses its negative or affirmative opinion on the proposition. This new type of contest is sometimes unsuccessful in its prime purpose of inducing the audience to think on the question rather than the skill of the speakers. Experience shows that the old-style debate has a firm hold on the imagination of the people, and fre- quently they vote in favor of one team or the other instead of clearly expressing their opinion on the proposition under discussion. The chief comments of many who attend the meeting are likely to be on the persons who spoke at the meeting or concerning the colleges which the teams represented ; even newspaper reports of the contest sometimes treat it as a conventional debate, play up the " victorious " college, and ignore the question under discussion. These extension debates are described here because they illustrate the tendency to seek new methods of improving the quality of debate contests and of interesting mature persons as well as high-school students. The experiment has demonstrated without a doubt that school officials and other prominent persons in the community are willing to go to considerable trouble and some expense to provide 46 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. opportunity for public discussion and that the people are keenly- interested in open debate on important questions of public policy. The Oklahoma Extension Division has been successful in stimu- lating discussion among adults. Many debating and discussion or- ganizations, especially in rural schools, are composed entirely of adults. Even commercial clubs and chambers of commerce have used the university discussion service extensively, some of them holding semiformal debates on such questions as the unicameral legislature and the city-manager plan of municipal government. In rural communities the question of consolidation of schools naturally interested the farmers, and they used extensively the debate bulletin and other material furnished by the extension division. The director of the division cites instances where communities debated certain questions in open meetings for several weeks in succession. Other universities report an increasing interest on the part of mature persons in public discussion service. Evidence is chiefly taken from the character of the inquiries and the nature of the sub- jects under discussion. When a State legislature is considering such problems as mothers' pensions, the establishment of a department of hygiene, the revision of tax laws, subsidy for private normal schools, and other subjects not usually interesting to the general public, it has been found that inquiries on those problems come in quickly from every part of the State, and that practically all the inquiries come from adults. They are not the result of the debating or civic work in the public schools; they arise from the serious interest of mature persons in the problems of the community and the State. Choosing debate suhjects. — Package library subjects, including de- batable questions, are determined by the public discussion bureaus, by study of the current questions before the State legislature and before Congress, and by selection from the topics that appear in news- papers and magazines. Professors in the social science departments are frequently consulted for lists of subjects and for sources of ma- terial and the preparation of bibliographies. Much the same procedure is followed in determining the subject for debate in the high-school discussion leagues. In some extension divisions different methods are used in providing opportunity for discussion clubs and debating unions to assist in the choosing of subjects. Local officers, school principals, and teachers are invited to suggest propositions. Sometimes a printed or mimeographed list of subjects is sent to high-school principals, county superintendents, civic teachers, and debate coaches, in the form of a ballot, and the returns provide guidance in the final selection. In some States a committee of school men has a share in the management of the debat- ing leagues and assists in the selection of the questions for discussion. PUBLIC DISCUSSIOlSr AND UNIVEKSITY EXTENSIOIS". 47 In some States, notably Indiana, the question for the discussion league, when jfinally chosen, is not stated as a formal debate propo- sition, but in general terms. This is done in order to obviate criticism of the university for alleged interference in public affairs, and be- cause it seems advisable not to suggest a definite contention to the contestant, but rather to leave him free to take his own point of view. Some of the subjects chosen in Indiana were phrased as follows: "How May We Improve County Government?" "Municipal Home Eule;" " Universal Training for Citizenship." A consideration of the numerous printed bulletins issued by ex- tension divisions during the last five years shows how completely the discussion service has dealt with subjects of current interest and importance. In the States where some form of high-school discus- sion league is directed or assisted by the State university the extension division issues bulletins containing the constitution and regulations of the league, instructions for debating, and suggestions concerning the use of material. They also issue one or more bulletins a year containing outlines, suggestions, bibliography, and other matter on the main question for debate. These are sometimes mimeo- graphed, but more often printed. The following is a list of a num- ber of these bulletins, most of which are printed and still available. Those marked with an asterisk are out of print. Where the name of a State is given, the extension division of the State university is meant. Compulsory Health Insurance — California, Oregon, Iowa.* Compulsory Universal Military Service — California, Indiana. Compulsory Military Training — North Carolina, Virginia. Compulsory Industrial Insurance — Iowa. Compulsory Arbitration between Capital and Labor — Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma. Consolidation of Rural Schools — Texas, Oklahoma Commission Form of Government — North Dakota,* Washington. City Manager Plan — Oklahoma, Kentucky. Current Events Study Topics — Oklahoma. Compulsory School Attendance — Virginia. Constitutional Tax for the Support of Higher Institutions of Learning in Texas — Texas. Continuing Fuel Administration — South Dakota. Cabinet System of Government — Oregon. Capital Punishment — Virginia. County Government — Indiana. Enlargement of the Navy — North Carolina, Oregon, North Dakota, Virginia. Federal Ownership and Operation of Railroads — Iowa, Michigan, North Caro- lina, Oklahoma, Virginia, Oregon, Washington State College. Federal Control of Prices of the Necessities of Life — lotoa. Federal Ownership of Telegraph and Telephone Ijines— North Dakota, Wash- ington. Government Monopoly of Manufacture of Munitions of War — California. Guaranty of Bank Deposits — Oklahoma,* Oregon.* 48 PUBLIC DISCUSSIOIT AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. Good Roads — Virginia. Initiative and Referendum — North Dakota, North Carolina, Oklahoma,* Wis- consin. International Disarmament — Virginia. International Peace League — Oregon. League of Nations — Wisconsin. League to Enforce Peace — California, Oregon, Virginia. Local versus State Control of Public Service Utilities — Washington State College. Minimum Wage — lotca, Michigan,* Washington.* Monroe Doctrine — Oklahoma, Washington.* Municipal Ownership — Washington.* Military Preparedness — ^eoeas. Military Training in Public Schools — Washington, Washington State College. Municipal Home Rule — Indiana, Wisconsin. New Constitution for Indiana — Indiana. National Conservation of Natural Resources — Oregon.* Parcel Post Express — North Dakota.* Patronage of Mail Order Houses Detrimental — North Dakota. Preferential Ballot — Oklahoma. Proportional Representation — Oregon. * Restriction of Immigration — Oregon,* Iowa, Washington, Virginia. Recall of Judges — Kansas, Washington, Virginia, Wisconsin. Regulation of Municipal Utilities — Washington. Six- Year Presidential Term — California. Single House Legislature — California, Oklahoma. State Ownership of Elevators — North Dakota. Selling Munitions of War — Oklahoma. Studies on current topics: The Great War — Oklahoma. State Ownership and Development of Lignite Coal Mines — North Dakota.* Social Problems — Oklahoma. State Construction of Roads and Permanent Highways — Washington. Ship Subsidies — North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia. Single Tax — California, Oklahoma; Texas, Washington. The Swiss Military System — North Dakota, Oregon, Texas. Training for Citizenship — -Wi\sconsin. Teachers' Pensions — Oklahoma.* Tariff — Oregon. LTniversal Service for Citizenship — Indiana. War Finance in the United States — Indiana. War and the Problems of Peace — Oklahoma. Workingmen's Insurance — North Dakota.* Woman Suifrage — Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma. Workmen's Compensation — Oklahoma. EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF DEBATING AND PUBLIC DISCUSSION. Some iTniversity professors, taking an academic view, doubt the advisability of having the university promote public discussion and .debating, not only because they consider the service outside the scope and function of the university, but also because they do not have much confidence in the educational value of the package library, the club study outline, or the debate and discussion contest. PUBLIC DISCUSSION AifD UNIVEESITY EXTENSION. 49 Whether the public-discussion service of university extension is to continue as an integral pari of university work depends less on the theoretical definition of university function than on the practical consideration of the value of the service to the public. If the public finds real value and practical help in the extension service, it should be continued, whether it meets rigidly academic educational stand- ards or not, providing that the university is the best-fitted instru- ment to do this work. However, there are good pedagogical reasons why public-discussion service should be not only maintained but also expanded with the merited approval of school officials and university professors. Perhaps the best statement of the educational theory behind de- bating and public discussion is that of Prof. Hollo L. Lyman, of the University of Chicago. After discussing the need of reawaken- ing public interest in serious study of important questions of the day, he says : ^ A leadership must be formed which will organize in its turn the leaders of our rural communities, so directing and supplementing their endeavors as to foster the formation and spread of ideas on serious subjects. From the masses of literature, frivolous and useless, must be selected the weighty and worthy. It must be made easily available for every investigator in the State, however humble. The breath of real intellectual life must be put into study clubs, debating clubs, women's clubs, and the like, by furnishing v^^hoever desires it a ready fund of reliable information upon any important topic of current interest. What the legislative library is to legislators, this in a small way our package libraries and debaters aids can be to hundreds of voters of the State. The creed. — After suggesting the desirability of enlarging the service to include the distribution or " promulgation of suitable read- ing, songs, programs, amateur entertainments of all sorts, including theatricals, all of which may serve the artistic side of the educative process," he lists what he calls the seven articles of the creed of university men who are endeavoring to promote discussion service. (1) The essence of any practical educative process is the solving of problem situations, the formation of sound judgment on accurate data, the cultivation of the power of successful behavior in emergencies in which the judgment is the chief feature. (2) Such judgments are never based upon guesswork, upon meager or false information. The facts, the data, a definite knowledge of human experience in the field under consideration and in allied fields — these are indispensable to the formation of reliable judgments. (3) This information can be accumulated, even in well-equipped centers, only by trained investigators, who have at their disposal both library facilities and library methods. In modern magazine literature, at least, kernels of 1 " The Relation of Extension Department to Debating and Discussion Clubs. Peda- gogical Considerations," by Rollo L. Lyman, Editor of School Review and Associate Professor of English, University of Chicago. In Proc. First Nat. Univ. Extension Con., 1915, 50 PUBLIC DISCUSSIOIT AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. truth are often buried in cumbersome busks of worthless material. The graiu must be separated for people who have neither the ability nor the facilities for doing it themselves. (4) But it is not so much sound judgment upon any one definite issue, like equal suffrage, that is important. It is the habit of forming sound judgments which we desire to foster. Now, this habit iS to be acquired, not only by seek- ing and securing the facts of correlating experiences, but also by self-activity. This is best to be secured by reflecting upon the data, organizing it pro and con, by marshaling fact against fact, affirmative inferences from a set of facts against negative inferences from the same facts. In other words, judgment forming becomes a habit, an asset, only as it becomes an orderly and systematic procedure in approaching any new problem. (5) This process of seeking information, examining inferences, and reaching accurate conclusions is best fostered by the desire to make some one else see the truth. It is fostered by standing before a group of people less Informed than the truth-speaker himself and endeavoring to mold their judgments to conform with his own. The best check that is known against the natural in- clination to rely upon partisan arguments is the presence of a live opponent who is to speak on the other side. Add to this feature the greater satisfaction in preliminary study, when one knows that others will hear him and have their judgment perhaps molded by his; add the pleasure of combat (for every audience casts a ballot in some form), sum up these considerations, and you have the chief inducements to earnest preparation which the forum offers. (6) I ought to speak, too, of the hearty belief we have in the happy influence of speaking itself, especially for youth. Self-control, self-confidence, aggressive- ness, fitness for leadership, all lie in the train of public discussion. To be able to express to others effectively in oral presentation the results of one's own thinking remains to-day, as two thousand year ago in the schools of the sophists, at once a spur to educational progress and a test of it as well. (7) Last in this chain of theory I place the social advantage that comes to the nonparticipants in a public discussion. The desire to emulate others is an active influence which drags many a person to his feet, to stumble and falter through his first attempt — the spur to best endeavors, both for speakers and hearers, that lies in public discussion. Prof. Lyman concludes his paper by a description of the psycho- logical process involved in public discussion, and adds this summary : We would supply data to remove ignorance; we would promote the weighing process ; we would give to each idea the check of the opposing idea ; we would surround it all by the stimulus of the contact of mind with mind, of audience and speakers. Your crossroads debating society, which our departments at- tempt to assist, roughly, imperfectly, can teach and does teach men and women to think seriously, enthusiastically, happily, and, to a certain extent, effectively. This is, I submit, the supreme desideration of any and all truly educative proc- esses. Student dehatvng. — In judging the value of debating to the student and to the local community, the opinion of secondary-school princi- pals should be especially worthy of consideration. The Principals' Eound Table, of Allegheny County, Pa., which supervises the inter- scholastic contest held annually at the University of Pittsburgh, has issued a Debater's Manual for Secondary Schools ,i which gives 1 University of Pittsburgh Bulletin, May 17, 1917, University Extension Manual of Secondary School Activities. PUBLIC DISCUSSION AISTD UNIVEESITY EXTENSION. 51 thorough consideration to the value of debating. It summarizes the benefit to the student as follows : Training in self-control ; formation of correct habits of speecli ; organization of the power of thought ; ability to recognize sound reasoning. (a) The student gains in self-control, physical and mental. (&) He learns, in his learning period, to use the best English correctly and to the best advantage. (c) He learns how to acquire information on subjects in which he is inter- ested. (d) He learns how to formulate sound judgments which rest upon his con- victions. (e) He acquires the ability to grasp the central issues in any problem. (f) He learns how to present the truth as he sees it, to others in a con- vincing manner. {\ff) Finally, he learns how to distinguish between what is credible and what is not worthy of belief in all that he reads and hears. This is the etlucational province of debating. Its importance should be em- phasized by every principal and teacher in secondary schools. Such work ought not to be neglected by any young man or woman in the State. Concluding a discussion of the value of debating to the commu- nity, the Allegheny County report says : It can not be denied that one of the most important forces in educating the people of the United States in civic affairs and increasing the effectiveness of democratic government is the movement toward the wider and fuller de- bate and discussion of public questions. In some communities existing po- litical and civic bodies are becoming more active ; in others, new organizations are being created for the purpose of developing interest in, and discussion of, public affairs. Political parties are reorganizing along more democratic lines. Good-government bureaus and community clubs are being formed for the pur- pose of discussing and carrying into effect certain reforms. Taxpayers' asso- ciations are organized to watch the expenditure of public funds. Municipal leagues are active in the study of problems peculiar to their community. Local, State, and National conferences are frequently being held to study and discuss a large variety of economical, social, political, and educational prob- lems. There is, therefore, a general growing demand on the part of a large body of citizens for more knowledge, more information about public affairs — an actual desire to find out the fundamental causes of our social ills and to set about in a rational, vigorous, persistent way to remove them. And there is just where the value of public school debate manifests itself to the fullest extent. The boys and the girls who are to-day in school will form the elec- torate of to-morrow. The burden of government will rest upon them, and to them must we look for what reforms are needed in our various communities. Upon their early training must depend the manner in which they will treat the problems of the community in which they will become citizens. If they have never had the experience of analyzing present-day problems of the com- munity, State, or Nation, and expressing their views upon them, how can they be expected to act wisely in later years when problems of a similar nature come up for solution? The extension of the franchise to a large number of voters increases the need for the study of political affairs. The direct pri- mary, the direct election of United States Senators, and other democratic de- velopments require that the voters be far better informed on men and meas- ures than was necessary under the old regime. 52 PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVEESITY EXTEIsTSIOIT. THE SCOPE OF EXTENSION SERVICE. The demand for university extension, or general extension, in the United States is definite and strong, and many institutions have gradually developed varied services to meet the demand. Analysis of those services makes it possible to draw some tentative conclusions as to their scope and direction. It is clear that the State universities find it possible to conduct some kind of public discussion and infor- mation service in practically every State and that they all show a disposition to utilize more fully the resources of the university for the benefit of the whole people rather than of the comparatively few students who attend the classes at the seat of the institution. The re- ports from the extension divisions do not generally give exact figures as to the number of persons affected by the various activities, chiefly because such figures necessarily must be only approximate ; but esti- mates show that in the aggregate the number of persons who benefit from lectures, courses, institutes, conferences, package libraries, visual instruction, and other devices utilized in the dissemination of information and the promotion of public discussion is very high and that the number of adults who profit from the service is growing from year to year. One rough estimate of the scope of four different kinds of service in this field totals several million persons served. The figures were taken from the report of only part of the total number of institutions performing similar service. Extent of the extension service. Number of individuals. Extension lectures (1918-19) Debate and discussion Institutes and conferences Requests for information answered. Such figvires fail to give more than a conservative estimate of the persons who appear in the records of the extension division. They do not include the large number who attended those lectures, on which no report was received. Similarly, if a member of a club after securing information from the division presents it in turn to the whole club, and fails to report back the use made of the information, the records show only that the material was sent to one person. It is of course impossible to estimate how extensively a printed bulletin is used; and it is usually difficult to secure estimates of the attendance at exhibits or expositions or even conferences when these are held in scattered parts of the State. Varied services. — ^^The varied nature of the public discussion and information service of university extension is probably the most PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 53 striking fact brought out by a study of the work. The service is not standardized ; it is not the same in each State ; it changes from year to year. It was proved to be adaptable by its quick attention to war problems during the war and to reconstruction problems since the conclusion of the war. The package library and the general club service of the extension divisions are adapted to meet the needs of different individuals and various kinds of organizations. They take many different forms, from a sunple arrangement like that between a club leader and the bureau which lends him a package library on a well-known subject, to a complex system which makes it possible for the university to maintain for weeks at a time in a community a series of open discussions on one or more important problems. During the war and since the signing of the armistice there has been a tremendous increase in the vitality of opinion of the great mass of the people the world over. Everywhere the common people are alive to the implications of the democratic ideal. That ideal is being translated into action, into specific proposals and measures for securing to the workers of hand and brain the rich resources of laffid and industry, of science and art, to the end that all people shall have free and satisfying access to the indispensable elements of adequate living. Whether the economic demands of the people will secure results commensurable with the results of the political de- mands which have democratized governments everywhere, or whether "industrial democracy" will still remain a theory rather than a progressively growing fact, it is certain that the demand of the com- mon people for a greater share in a better education has become so overwhelmingly strong that nothing stands in its way but the dif- ficulty of meeting it adequately and well. And the education which is most insistently striven for is not the formal thing, the narrow schooling for the young, the academically barren instruction of the classroom, or even practical courses which add to the earning power of the worker-student. It is rather the education which has cultural value, that satisfies the student as a person, that sharpens his emo- tional and intellectual perceptions, that gives him a sense of power, strength, and validity in social relations, that makes him at home with his fellows, a part of his community and a coworker with other citizens in the improvement of community living. What the people want is not institutional education alone, but rather more educational service — something progressive and dynamic, not static and fixed. In the United States university extension has developed partly on the assumption that there is such a want. The rapid development of extension service is evidence of the correctness of the assumption. In England there is no doubt that the working- man wants information and knowledge for its own sake. The re- 64 PUBLIC DISCUSSIOE" AND UNIVEKSITY EXTENSION. port of a subcommittee on adult education to the British ministry of reconstruction ^ begins with these significant statements : We would point out here that there is a wide and growing demand among adults for education of a nonvocational character. * * * The motive which impels men and women to seek education is partly the wish for fuller per- sonal development. It arises from the desire for knowledge, for self-expression, for the satisfaction of intellectual, esthetic, and spiritual needs, and for a fuller life. It is based upon a claim for fuller recognition of human person- ality. * * * Tj^e motive is also partly social. Indeed, so far as the workers are concerned, it is, we think, this social purpose which principally inspires the desire for education. That a social purpose should so largely be the force underlying the demand for adult education is a fact which will be regarded, we think, with general sympathy and approval. It is evidence of an appreciation of the responsi- bilities of citizenship; of the existence of political, social, and industrial ideals ; and of a growing determination to realize them. It will be universally admitted that the successful working of a democratic society implies a wide diffusion of a sense of responsibility and the intelligent participation in public affairs by the rank and file of the population. In view both of the grave prob- lems with which the country will be confronted in the generations after the war and of the ever-increasing complexity of social organization, the need for the intelligent interest and the active cooperation of the mass of citizens will be greater than ever before. Women as well as men must make a direct contribution to the solution of future problems. The extension of the fran- chise to women is a significent expression of this need. The citizens of the country can not fully contribute their experience or ideals to its service unless they are articulate and possess knowledge. In other words, democracy can only be operative through an educated com- munity. * * * In any case education is a continuing process, differing in its forms and methods with the age and experience of students, but expressing a permanent human need. Facilities for adult education must therefore be regarded as permanently essential, whatever developments there may be in the education of children and adolescents. In America the idea of free schools is paramount in democratic tradition. The extension of educational opportunity to all persons, whether young or old, is a necessary succession. That the oppor- tunity should include participation by the rank and file in the give and take of public discussion and untrammeled access to the stream of knowledge concerning community affairs is not remarkably new or radical in its implications. The striking fact in the thought of the people to-day is the desire for an increasing measure of service from the educational institutions of the State in the application of science and art to the more adequate development of universal life and living. The universities are consciously meeting that desire with new force and vitality in their ideal of service. 1 Interim Report on Industrial and Social Conditionsi in Relation to Adult Education, March, 1918. o I (Continued from page 2 of cover.) No. 45. North central accredited secondary schools. Calvin O. Davis. 46. Bibliography of home economics. Carrie Alberta Lyford. 47. Private commercial and business schools, 1917-18. 48. Educational hygiene. Willard S. Small. 49. Education in parts of the British Empire. 50. The public-school system of Memphis, Tenn. (In seven parts.) 51. The application of commercial advertising methods to university exten- sion. Mary B. Orvis. 52. Industrial schools for delinquents, 1917-18. 53. Educational work of the Young Men's Christian Association, 1916-1918. 54. The schools of Austria-Hungary. Peter H. Pearson. 55. Business education in secondary schools. 56. The administration of correspondence-study departments of universities and colleges. Arthur J. Klein. 57. Educational conditions in Japan. Walter A. Montgomery. 58. Commercial engineering. Glen L. Swlggett. 59. Some phases of educational progress In Latin America. Walter A. Montgomery. 60. Monthly record of current educational publications, September, 1919. 61. Public discussion and information service of university extension. Wal- ton S. Bittner. 62. Class extension work in universities and colleges of the United States. Arthur J. Klein. 63. Natural science teaching in Great Britain. 64. Library activities, 1916-1918. John D. Wolcott. 65. The eyesight of school children. J. H. Berkowitz. 66. Training teachers of agriculture. 67. Monthly record of current educational publications, October, 1919. 68. Financial and building needs of the schools of Lexington, Ky. 69. Proceedings of the fourth annual meeting of the National Council of Pri- mary-Education. 70. Schools and classes for feeble-minded and subnormal children, 1918. 71. Educational directory, 1919-20. (In seven parts.) 72. An abstract of the report on the public-school system of Memphis, Tenn. 73. Nurse-training schools, 1918. 74. The Federal executive departments as sources of information for libra- ries. Edith Guerrier. 75. Monthly record of current educational publications, November, 1919. 76. Community Americanization. Fred C. Butler. 77. State Americanization. Fred C. Butler. 78. Schools and classes for the blind, 1917-18. 79. Schools for the deaf, 1917-18. 80. Teaching English to the foreign born. B.enry H. Goldberger. 81. Statistics of normal schools, 1917-18. L. E. Blauch and H. R. Bonner. 82. Motion pictures and motion-picture equipment. 83. Monthly record of educational publications, December, 1919. 84. The university extension movement. W. S. Bittner. 85. Development of agricultural Instruction in secondary schools. 86. Administration and supervision of village schools. daylord Bros. Makers vSyracuse, N. Y. PAT. JAN. 21, 1908