O J |> n.s. UNIVERSITY OF OREGON BULLETIN New Series DECEMBER, 1914 Vol. XII, No. 4 University of Oregon Extension Service ( Compiled by JOSEPH SHAFER ) Published monthly by the University of Oregon, and entered at the postoffice in Eugene, Oregon, as second-class matter. ✓•*31 \V V'fiJ UNIVERSITY OF OREGON EXTENSION SERVICE (Compiled by JOSEPH SHAFER ) Tic LiORftfly OF ]\M t'QV 9 - J329 UN/KERS'TV OF ILLINOIS Salem, Oregon : State Printing Department 1915 rv> TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1. Extension service brings the University to the people 3 2. Correspondence-study department 6 Offers special opportunity for non-campus students 6 When organized at the University of Oregon... 6 Credit given for correspondence work 6 General courses offered are of wide range 7 Fees for courses are nominal 8 Special graduate courses may be arranged for students 8 3. Extension lectures 9 Lectures serve a wide variety of occasions 9 Lecture courses develop special subjects 10 Lectures supplement the work of extension classes 10 Summary of lectures for the year 1914 10 4. Community service 11 Extension schools aid in solving community problems 11 Special conferences furnish expert advice 11 The commonwealth conference investigates state problems 13 Educational conferences plan constructive work for schools 13 Interdenominational conferences are valuable to ministers 14 5.. Public service of University departments 16 Department of economics and sociology trains for good citizenship 16 Bureau of municipal research aids cities, counties and state 16 School of education trains teachers 18 Teachers receive outlines on reading circle books 18 Exceptional children are tested in educational clinic 18 School of commerce conducts industrial surveys 18 School of architecture aids in city planning... 19 Department of social biology studies home and community problems 19 Dr. Hodge prepares a nature study course for the schools 19 University laboratories test water for schools 20 Botany department prepares a compendium of Oregon flora 20 Zoology department promotes bird study 20 Department of public speaking seeks to elevate public taste in reading and dramatics 20 University fosters high school debating leagues 21 History department develops the historical resources of the state and of the Pacific Northwest 22 The department of German conducts extension classes 22 The department of English develops much literary talent 22 The department of chemistry conducts important industrial investigations 22 The summer school provides many opportunities for teachers.... 23 6. The University library offers special service to the state 24 7. A summary of University publications now available 25 u Of*. & ®Jz«Sl Vl$. v.\^^ GENERAL STATEMENT Extension service, as developed by the University of Oregon, is based upon the same conception of the purposes and function of a State univer- sity as are all the other activities of the institution. The people maintain their University because they need it and have work for it to do. They use it as an instrument for the realization of increasingly better social, political and educational conditions in Oregon. Indirectly, but powerfully, this function is performed by the regular work of instruction on the campus. To the young men and women who come from the high schools, bringing with them a good ground-work of facts and training, together with a desire to invest four years of life in preparing to live more completely, the campus training gives a breadth of knowledge, an ability in the use of facts and ideas, an experience in research, a vision of latent possibilities, and an appreciation of the beauty and validity of the ideal of unselfish service which find expression in significant social and political leadership. By no means a mere by-product of campus instruction is the ability of the University to contribute directly to the life of the State, and the obligation to do this both faculty and students have been quick to recognize and to assume. The people of Oregon have been equally prompt to seize the opportunities offered and they are making increasing use of the facilities of their University in the solution of problems which confront the State as a whole, the several communities, and individual citizens who are unable to spare the time required for resident study. Every one of the specialists on the faculty of the University of Oregon feels his obligation, second only to his work with his students, to respond to all expressions, or evidences of need from the State at large, which his special training and research may fit him to meet. Thus we see the men and women of the University faculty at work all over Oregon, lecturing, conferring, advising, holding extension classes, bring- ing expert analysis and advice to bear upon problems which local agencies have undertaken to study or to solve. Also, we are beginning to see men devoting a major part of their time to extra-mural work, men whose thought and effort are given for the most part to the solution of problems which they meet in the field. The work which Dr. George Rebec and Dr. Clifton F. Hodge have done throughout the State has been possible only as the University has definitely recognized the claim of the citizenship outside the student body to a share of its attention and instruction. Believing, also, that the people’s University must assume its proper leadership in the promotion of discussion looking toward educational, civic and social advancement, the University has been instrumental in bringing into being the Commonwealth Conference, held annually under the auspices of the Department of Economics and Sociology; the annual conference of educators, which meets every summer in connection with the summer school; the interdenominational conference of ministers which assembles on the campus during the session of the summer school. The University has also long recognized an obligation to make the actual work of instruction available in as large measure as possible to those who cannot take time for residence 5,tudy, but who have the desire to pursue college work. This is done by means of correspondence study 4 EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN and extension classes. In some instances the work is almost identical with that done by resident students of the University. In other cases, the work is of a special nature, commanding no credit toward a degree, but meeting adequately some condition or need in the life or work of the student. Thus to give the people of a whole State the opportunity virtually to become students of their State University is a somewhat radical departure from the theory of college training as held in this country until 25 or 30 years ago. Yet the departure is not so radical as it might seem. It is in a sense a return to the ideals which gave rise to the first universities of medieval and modern times, wherein learning was brought from the cloister to the people, and lectures and instruction were made available to all who would attend. With the aid of the railroad, the mail carrier and the printing press, this return is so significant as to suggest a popularizing movement in education comparable to the popularizing movements of the last three centuries in religion and in politics. Our State University is, in theory and practice, democratic. Theory says that any citizen of due preparation may attend the University, and the State makes tuition free. During the college year 1913-1914, 60 per cent of the men students earned the whole or a portion of their expenses for the year, thus proving the democratic quality of the students in attendance. Oregon believes that the advantages of the institution should be open also to the multitude of men and women whose early circum- stances or whose present work keep them from the campus, provided these persons have any desire to gain from university training. Univer- sity teaching is not necessarily abstruse and difficult beyond the com- prehension of the plain citizen of limited educational training. Many subjects, it is true, are reached by college students before graduation which can be mastered only on the basis of long preliminary instruction; such for example, are the higher mathematics, advanced courses in the physical and natural sciences, languages and philosophy. But there are in the modern University curriculum many studies which require for their mastery rather maturity of judgment than systematic training. Such are most of the courses in Economics, Sociology, Education, History, English, and a body of special studies in the sciences as applied to life,, such as nature study, social hygiene, the utilization of local history material in the common school and the high school. But the most direct University instruction in such cases signifies the application of a definite method rather than the control of a rigid body of facts, a method characterized by a desire to face things as they are, to learn the truth and to apply it in constructive action. The method is one which appeals to men and women who have had training in the great school of experience, and who have learned to consider the meaning of facts in connection with the daily program of life. Often the University professor finds in such men or women maturity of judgment and seriousness of purpose which permit work of a scope impossible with the less mature undergraduates. University professors who conduct extension classes often find old men and women with minds as keen to discern new truth and as eager to grapple with new problems as any undergraduate. College instructors who have held classes in EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN mathematics in a shop, or classes in accounting in an office, who have read papers in history written by an ambitious young man in a logging camp or lessons in English mailed from the sheep ranges of Eastern Oregon, come to feel that college tradition must not operate to restrict University advantages to the comparatively few who can come to the campus for full training. There can, of course, be no thought that the regular courses for resi- dent students will, in all cases, fill the requirements of the extra-mural work. We find, rather, special development of the field work, an adapta- tion to State and community problems, with the learning and research of the instructors of the State’s Uniyersity applied in the development of educational opportunity as wide as the State. Thus we may see a two-fold development, a more socialized curriculum of work for those who can invest four years in resident study, and a busy people’s University, for those who, pressed about by the cares incident to making a living and burdened with the responsibilities of active citizenship, nevertheless find some time to appreciate University advantages and to avail themselves of the assistance of University experts. Such a development gives splendid tone to campus life. Professors who face actual conditions in Oregon communities come back to the campus better able to direct the training of students who are to live in these same communities. Students who are at the University as a preparation for purposeful citizenship esteem as a rare privilege the opportunity to work toward the solution of typical and concrete problems touching the welfare of city, county and State. Frequent opportunities to meet and to hear men engaged in the work of the more complex student body outside keep the feet of the campus students on firm ground. There is no break after college. Graduates leave the institution ready to go to work and fitted to succeed. Their relations as students of the Univer- sity are not terminated by graduation. They are simply promoted into the large, informal, democratic, State-wide University, which is growing up as extension service takes its place in the economy of the common- wealth. EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN CORRESPONDENCE STUDY DEPARTMENT The most intimate touch of the University with the man or woman off the immediate college campus is gained, perhaps, through the correspondence-study department. The student who is taking University courses by correspondence receives the personal attention of the instructor even more than many of the students who are members of campus classes, particularly when the classes are large and the major portion of the instruction is by lecture. There is also, very frequently, a distinct saving of* time on the part of the correspondence student, for he concentrates his efforts on the phases of his work that are unfamiliar to him and progresses as fast in his studies as his time will permit, without any thought of accom- modating his pace to that of class associates, as is necessary in regular class work. It is true that he misses the inspiration that comes from contact with fellow students, but even this handicap may be overcome by the ambitious correspondence student through the organization of a study group in his home community among a few friends who are inter- ested in the same line of thought. The sharp demand of the present age for trained men and women in the business, professional and industrial occupations is making a higher education no longer a luxury, as once it seemed, but a necessity, if one is to advance to a position that will satisfy real ambition. Young men and women who can afford to spend four or six years in training for their chosen profession are well provided for by our universities. It is to the young person with limited time and means, and to the middle aged person, who must study while engaged in gainful occupation, that correspondence courses offer the greatest opportunity and encouragement. The first organized university extension work in America was begun at the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin in 1892. Since then 46 colleges and universities have taken up some form of extension work and 32 are offering correspondence courses. The total enrollment of correspondence students in these 32 institutions is 19,644. Twenty of these institutions give credit toward a degree, but the amount of credit varies widely. A number allow one-half the credit necessary for undergraduate degrees, others allow one-third, and two no more than one-fourth. A few grant credit toward graduate degrees, also. The correspondence-study department of the University of Oregon was organized in 1907 to meet the demands of numbers of teachers who needed help in preparing themselves for the teachers’ examination. Reports of the work that was being done along this line gradually came to the attention of others who were interested in home study and who in turn insisted upon the addition of courses of a more cultural nature. These have been offered as rapidly as the resources available for cor- respondence work would permit. While university credit is given for most of the courses now offered and their general outline is much the same as that followed in the classrooms, yet the instructors have tried whenever possible, to work out the plan for them with the distant student in mind. An appeal is made to the student’s individual interest and ability; he is given a wide range in his supplementary reading and he is constantly urged to use his own ingenuity in working out the various problems he meets with in his EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN 7 study. In this way a student’s resourcefulness and personal initiative are very greatly strengthened, while on the other hand, personal quickness and insight receive their full reward in the form of credit for work done. Thus far, the teachers of the State have been the most liberal patrons of the correspondence courses. They are young men and women who are anxious to improve their professional equipment both for the personal pleasure and stimulation that definite study brings to them, and for the sake of professional advancement which depends upon continuous intel- lectual growth. Many students who do not wish to spend the full four years at the University take correspondence courses to shorten the period of residence to three or three and a half years. Clerks, stenogra- phers, business and professional men, miners, lumbermen, farmers and' farm hands, housekeepers, mothers, women’s clubs, civic clubs, reading circles and similar organizations also find inspiration and guidance in correspondence courses. These courses are divided into assignments, or lessons, with directions to guide the student in his preparation of them. The lessons vary in length in the different courses, but in a full five-hour course each lesson requires, on an average, between six and seven hours of preparation, or an hour a day for the week. The student sends in his written report on each lesson to the correspondence-study department, where it is corrected by the instructor and returned with such criticism and suggestions as may be required. Each student in this way receives personal attention and assistance, where it is most needed. The correspondence courses offered by the University are grouped as college courses, in which students may earn credit to the extent of 40 semester hours to be applied toward graduation; entrance courses, which may be taken for the removal of entrance conditions in prepara- tion for a regular university course; courses for clubs, consisting of topical outlines and bibliographies on subjects of general interest; and courses for teachers, consisting of outlines and study helps on the books included in the teachers’ reading circle list. The college courses include Architecture, four courses; Bird Study; Botany; Debating; Economics, five courses; Education, four courses; German; History, four courses; Home Biology, two courses; Journalism, two courses; Literature, five courses; Mathematics, six courses; Philosophy; Physics, four courses; Psychology, two courses; Sociology, two courses. The entrance courses include English; History; Literature, five courses; Mathematics, six courses; Physics. There are outlines for clubs on the History of Art, Oregon History, Economic Problems, British Poets of the Nineteenth Century, Citizenship Study, and the English Novel. The outlines for the teachers’ reading circle work cover the ten books in the list prepared by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction for the year 1914-1915. This is a total of 83 courses, and represents the efforts in one way or another of 30 members of the faculty. These professors who are giving their time for correspondence work do it in addition to their regular classroom work. In order to reduce to the minimum any obstacles that might prevent a worthy student’s securing university instruction, the correspondence- study department requires no formal examination for entrance into the EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN department and places the fees for the courses at the lowest possible figures. The total fee for one of the most extensive single courses offered is but four dollars, and the fees for 30 semester hours of college, work — the equivalent of a full year at the University — would probably not be more than eighteen or twenty dollars. The department encourages students to continue their connection with it as long as they can do so with profit to themselves. It requires formal examinations only on the completion of courses for which credit is desired by the students taking •them. Graduate courses are provided for students who wish to undertake such work and arrangements can be made for others to satisfy the individual needs of students. Thus the University, through the correspondence-study department, is endeavoring to place a liberal education within the reach of everyone at slight expense and with no loss of time from regular pursuits. A bulletin describing the correspondence study courses in detail, explaining conditions of enrollment, etc., can be obtained by addressing the Extension Division of the University of Oregon, Eugene. EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN EXTENSION LECTURES The lecture branch of the extension service is a development mainly of the past six years. The University, like all other institutions of higher education, has always been ready to respond to the calls of communities for lectures and addresses from its faculty members. In the early days Dr. Thomas Condon delighted many Oregon audiences with his brilliant discourses on scientific themes, while President Chap- man and President Strong were heard gladly by gatherings of teachers and other bodies in all sections of the State. This service was of course incidental. During the past few years, however, the demand for lectures has grown to such proportions that even with an enlarged faculty, the University could hope to meet the demand only by a careful organization which aims to bring out nearly all members of the faculty in types of lecture work appropriate to their several fields, or to their special personal qualifications. Types of Lectures Demanded The demand is for lectures of varied character to serve a wide variety of occasions. Teachers’ institutes, pedagogical clubs, etc., want discussions of special educational topics, as well as general informational or inspirational lectures. High school commencements call for lectures especially designed to stimulate the ambition of young graduates and to afford clues toward the choice of vocations. Educational rallies of the people and teachers of school districts or groups of districts call for something more specialized, such as a lecture on the need and the methods of educational improvement in rural neighborhoods. Civic clubs, local improvement associations and similar bodies demand lectures treating of the ways of solving specific civic problems, or lectures placing before the community desired civic ideals. Granges and other farmers’ organi- zations are deeply concerned with sociological problems which may be educational, like the redirection of the rural school, but which may have relation to the question of markets, cooperative banking, taxation systems. Women’s clubs call for a variety of lectures, civic, educational, literary, artistic, philosophical, historical and scientific. Labor unions are especially interested in discussions of problems directly affecting labor, such as unemployment, workmen’s insurance, immigration, the unearned increment, and socialism. Parent-teacher associations call frequently for lectures covering topics in civic biology, like school and home sanita- tion, the elimination of the fly pest, the physiology of alcohol, the edu- cational uses of bird life and of nature study, aside from more general educational lectures, and others. Commercial clubs welcome lectures on problems in civic improvement, the relation of the local press to business prosperity, city and county reorganization, the principles of cost finding in public administration, the problem of markets with reference to existing or potential local production, and the problems connected with the physical growth of the city, such as civic centers, parks, playgrounds and the general city plan. Churches in arranging their community service programs, and libra- ries in arranging similar programs call fo^ most of the types of lectures indicated above. EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN 10 Lecture Courses In addition to the single lectures for special occasions, just described, there is a growing demand from organized, or partially organized, groups of persons engaged in special studies, for courses of lectures developing their special subjects. Examples of such courses are Mrs. Parsons’ course in Literary Appreciation, given at the Portland Central Library; Professor Schafer’s course in Contemporary History, at the same place; Professor Rebec’s course in the History of Art, before the Portland Art Institute, and Professor Sheldon’s course in School Systems and in Education and Childhood in Modern English Fiction, given before the Grade Teachers’ Association and the High School Teachers’ Associa- tion in Portland. Lectures to Extension Classes Another distinct type of lecture is the lecture intended to amplify or elucidate matter studied by classes from textbooks or other assign- ments. Such classes are usually a modification of the correspondence- study method of instruction. Under the latter method the individual student prepares his assignment and mails it to the instructor, who makes corrections and suggestions, returning it with a new assignment. Under the combination method the individual student works out the assignment, but meets with others doing the same work to hear lectures from the instructor. The demand for the organization of classes naturally comes from the centers of population. Classes have been organized in Portland, Salem, Eugene, Medford and other towns. The most popular subjects of study thus far are English, mathematics, mechanical draw- ing, art, psychology, sociology, German literature, and education.* Summary of Lecture Service for the Year During the year just passed, from January 1, 1914, to January 1, 1915, the members of the University faculty delivered 523 lectures to 161 rural communities and towns in the State. Seventy-eight towns were visited more than once, some of them having arranged for courses of lectures. The attendance at these 523 lectures, as nearly as can be estimated, was 58,154 persons. This work has been limited geographically to no particular section of Oregon, but has reached directly 26 counties, from Malheur and Wallowa on the east to Clatsop and Coos on the west, and from Klamath on the south to Hood River on the north. Thirty members of the faculty are willing to use their leisure time on week-end days and such other time as they could spare from class instruction to deliver these lectures. For this service they receive no remuneration other than their actual expenses. * A bulletin giving detailed information about the lectures offered and the mode of securing them can be obtained from the Extension Division, University of Oregon, Eugene. EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN 11 COMMUNITY SERVICE The Extension School or Community Conference The Extension Division of the University has undertaken lines of service for entire communities quite apart from the usual lecture service. One of these lines is represented by the Extension School. In some cases this has consisted of several parallel courses of highly specialized lectures bearing on specific problems of the community in which the school was held, with conferences and discussions calculated to make a definite application to local situations of the matter presented. The problems discussed have related to educational improvement, to cooperative effort in solving the problems of youthful delinquency, the development of recreational agencies, the conservation of local history and its employ- ment in building a community consciousness, town planning, sanitation and the relation of town and village to the outlying rural neighborhoods. In the holding of such schools or conferences, several departments of the University cooperate, as the above type subjects indicate, and the University has also invited and secured cooperation from the Extension Division of the Oregon Agricultural College. Arrangements for the meetings are made with groups of citizens, or more frequently with the superintendents of the schools of the towns in which the meetings are to be held. When possible, the meetings are held in the local high school building and they usually last from three days to a week. Such meetings are found to be exceedingly valuable as a means of focusing the interest of citizens upon the significant sociological problems of their immediate environment. They develop local leadership, and commonly result in vitalizing existing local civic organizations or in creating new organizations to cope with the problems to be solved. When held in the high schools, the meetings prove especially fruitful in pointing out to high school pupils ways of performing practical com- munity service. Teachers, also, receive help toward making certain subjects, like civics, history, and biology, much more vitally interesting to their pupils, by imparting to these subjects a definite social aim. Special Conferences To a constantly increasing extent the local communities are making- use of the University’s facilities for furnishing expert advice regarding problems which have become acute and upon which, therefore, public opinion has become keenly alive. Thus, one town wishes to project a park system and appeals to the University School of Architecture to help by sending a man to look over the ground and to confer with citizens about plans; another wishes to install in its administration an up-to-date accounting system and calls in the University expert in municipal accounting; a third community wants to devise practicable plans for handling the problem of the vacation play of the children and calls to its aid one of the University’s directors of physical training; several contiguous rural school districts feel the need of combining to maintain an adequate modern school for rural children and invite one of the educational experts to explain the advantages of consolidation, the mode of procedure to be followed, and the proper organization of 12 EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN the hoped-for new school; another community has decided to free itself from the time-old pest of flies and calls upon the professor of Social Biology to help plan their campaign; another community seeking to build up manufactories, finds itself face to face with the problem of marketing several possible lines of products and secures the aid of the director of the School of Commerce who can advise concerning the market outlook in the several lines under consideration. The above are recent examples of community service through special conferences, and the frequency of the calls received proves that this branch of extension work is coming to be appreciated by the people of the State. EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN 13 CONFERENCES AT THE UNIVERSITY The Commonwealth Conference The largest community served directly by the University is the State of Oregon in its organic character. Of course, in a very real sense, every activity of the University, both on and off the campus, has relation to State service. But there are ranges of activity which are readily enough marked off from others and classed as Commonwealth Service. Such are helps toward shaping needed legislation by assembling data on legislative topics, critically analyzing laws existing elsewhere on the same topics, and especially promoting as widespread an interest as possible in the scientific study of Oregon’s resources and the best modes of conserving them. Questions of political, social, economic reorganiza- tion in the interest of efficiency and consequent enhanced social welfare are frequently up for discussion and the University, with its trained specialists in law, politics, economics, sociology, history, and also the sciences which are involved in the processes of production, like chemistry, bacteriology, etc., may be properly expected to help society in its effort to solve them. The University might even be expected to take a leading part in bringing all the interested intellectual forces of the common- wealth to bear on these problems. It was with such views of the University’s function that, some seven years ago, Mr. F. G. Young, Professor of Economics and Sociology at the University, developed with faculty cooperation his unique plan for a Commonwealth Conference, which since 1909 has been held annually at the University. It has brought together representatives of every significant social and economic interest in the State and by concentrating upon a few leading problems like water-power development in Oregon, workingmen’s compensation, tax reform, unemployment, and cooperative distribution, the conference has done much to clarify public thought upon these subjects. In some cases legislative programs of far reaching importance have grown out of these conferences, which, in addition, have been a powerful agency in promoting sound methods of investiga- tion. The very fact that these meetings are genuine conferences , in which the laboring man and the employer, the transportation company and the shipper, the water-power owner and the small consumer of electric energy, get together and compare points of view, in an atmos- phere which compels each to place public interest prominently to the fore, is a condition fraught with promise for the future of the common- wealth. The Commonwealth Conference is directed by a special committee of the faculty of which Professor F. G. Young is chairman. The Educational Conference In the year 1910, there was held, in connection with the Summer School, an Educational Conference, called by Professor H. D. Sheldon, Dean of the School of Education. This conference has been an important feature of the annual summer school session. In it leading educational men and women of Oregon confer among themselves and with other citizens, about plans for educational improvement. EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN 14 During the first conference discussions were centered upon the following topics: (1) The County High School Fund; (2) An Improved System of Supervision for Rural Schools; (3) The Improvement of Teachers in Service, Through the Requirement of Reading Circle Work; (4) The Raising of the Educational Qualifications of Teachers. Those who are familiar with Oregon’s recent educational history will recognize in these topics the subjects of later laws. The High School Fund law is now in operation in one-fifth of the counties of Oregon. It is affording hundreds of country children in these counties the oppor- tunity to secure, at home, an education much more adequate than that provided by the common school alone. The supervisory system although subject to considerable criticism in some counties, and possibly requiring modification, has inaugurated a new era in the life of rural school communities. The law providing that all teachers shall carry on lines of study during service has resulted in a marked increase of intellectual vitality among rural school teachers. The new educational requirements for common school teachers are about to go into effect and promise a decided fundamental improvement in conditions. Other topics presented at later conferences were: (1) The Junior High School; (2) The County Unit in School Organization; (3) A Gen- eral State Fund, for the more adequate support of common schools; (4) Types of Individual Training; (5) Practicable Plans of Consolida- tion for Rural Schools, etc. The Educational Conference is under the direction of the educational faculty of the Summer School. Interdenominational Conference of Ministers During the Summer Session of 1913, and again during the session of 1914, the campus of the University was the meeting place of ministers of various denominations who desired to confer together about questions of common interest to workers in the field of religious effort. The idea of such a conference was suggested by Dr. John H. Boyd, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Portland, whose deep interest led him to undertake the organization needed to realize it. The desirability of such a conference being evident, the University was selected as the place of holding it, because (1) it is a neutral center, yet in active sympathy with the programs of social amelioration which religious bodies are developing today; (2) it presents in its summer school classes and lectures in sociology, ethics, literature, history, sciences, and languages, a specially helpful opportunity to busy ministers who desire to gain new view points or to undertake special studies even for a brief period; (3) the University’s library and other facilities are an attraction to the studious, as are the general surroundings, to the person seeking a delightful place of recreation. As its name suggests, the conference is strictly interdenominational, and no questions are raised upon which essential agreement cannot be hoped for. The topics of discussion have been such as relate to the preparation of the minister for his work, methods of reaching the com- munity with his religious and social message, ways in which the village or rural church can contribute to build up the economic and social life of the community, as well as the spiritual, plans of church confederation which would prevent undue duplication of churches in small towns, etc. EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN 15 The Ministers’ Conference is directed by the participating churches through representative ministers and laymen. The University welcomes the ministers to the campus and affords them every facility for confer- ence just as it welcomes organized bodies of citizens representing other laudable interests of State-wide importance. 16 EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN PUBLIC SERVICE OF UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENTS University Extension might be described as the entire University functioning in the work carried on beyond the campus of the institution. All of this work must necessarily be done by men connected with the University faculty, or administrative force, in some capacity. Generally, the men are regular professors or instructors in the departments of the University. For the sake of efficiency, the extension work is carried on largely through a very simply organized Extension Division, having offices, an office force and a director on the campus, and controlling the time of certain members of the faculty, who devote themselves mainly to the field work. This Extension organization otherwise acts as a medium between the people of the State who manifest their demand for service, and the various departments from which normally the service must come. Since the University is organized for instructional purposes into departments, a statement of the services properly to be expected from the several departments most intimately in touch with public interests will be the best means of analyzing for readers of this pamphlet the facilities the University offers for extension work in general. Department of Economics and Sociology By its inherent character, the Department of Economics and Sociology deals largely with affairs of a public nature. Its courses of instruction are projected with a view to training for good citizenship. Public activities, as well as textbooks, furnish matter of instruction and mate- rials for constructive criticism. The department for many years has conducted researches upon problems of vital State concern, like the Economics of the Good Roads Problem, Comparative Study of Water Power Legislation in various states and countries, the principles of taxation, cooperative distribution agencies, county reorganization, and many others. Much of the work has been done by the professors and instructors, and a large share has been done by advanced students who prepared theses under the guidance of the professor in charge. Such researches, either directly, or after forming the subjects of discussion of the Commonwealth Conference, have been available for the use of legislative committees and State and county officers. This department, in addition to initiating the Commonwealth Con- ference, described above, has also secured the organization of the Bureau of Municipal Research. Bureau of Municipal Research The Municipal Research Bureau gives aid to city and county officials along two well defined lines: 1. It is prepared to give up-to-date information on municipal and county affairs. 2. It is prepared to give to the cities and counties of the State the services of its expert on municipal affairs, who will assist them in installing new and modern business methods. EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN 17 ' Under the first general line of service, the following ways of coopera- tion may be mentioned: (a) The Bureau will advise inquirers of the very latest books or magazine articles dealing with any subject connected with municipal, county, or State administration, and will either loan such books or tell where they may be purchased. ( b ) It will loan its collection of city charters, model ordinances, departmental manuals, or give assistance in drafting charters or ordinances. (c) It will undertake to collect information on any municipal subject desired, and send a resume of its findings in the form of a report. ( d ) It will tell how the various city departments are administered in other cities. ( e ) It is now issuing a monthly pamphlet entitled, “Short Talks for Busy Officials,” dealing with modern methods of conducting city business. This it will send to any official or citizen requesting it. The services offered by this Bureau along the second general line of activities can perhaps be best explained by citing what it is already doing for other cities. 1. A charter was prepared for one city, which was adopted by the citizens. 2. Studies were made of the methods employed in conducting the police, fire, health, street cleaning departments, and the treasurer’s and recorder’s offices in Medford, Albany, Lebanon, La Grande, Eugene and Salem, and suggestions were made for improving the service. 3. A complete and modern accounting and purchasing system was installed in one city, which has been in successful operation for six months. 4. Another city was given aid in establishing a sinking fund. The exact installments needed to be set aside each year were computed for the city. 5. The Model Budget Ordinance prepared by the Bureau has been adopted in several cities, and these cities are now operating under a scientific budget, thus effectively stopping the accumulation of a debt for paying current expenses. 6. A model health ordinance was drafted for another city. 7. The Bureau cooperated with the Lane County Taxpayers’ Com- mittee and its investigations showed that by paying for the county advertising on the basis of inches occupied, rather than the number of lines and by specifying the kind of type used, a saving of $500.00 a year could be effected. 8. A study has been made of the work done by nearly all State boards and commissions and the Bureau has a large amount of informa- tion which bears directly upon the plans for the reorganization of the State departments. Any group of citizens, commercial clubs, women’s clubs, or officials wanting special investigations made in the affairs of the city or county with a view of securing greater economy or more efficient organization should write to the Municipal Research Bureau asking their expert to come to their town and secure the facts for them. 18 EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION The School of Education has as its first function the training ,of young men and women to be effective teachers in high schools, principals of high schools, school superintendents, and supervisors. The courses of instruction, to these ends, have their definite relation to the educa- tional activities of the entire State which in a sense constitute the most important laboratory of the school. The researches carried on by teachers and advanced or graduate students deal largely with practical problems in school policy, like the comparative study of modes of school support in the several states, the certification of teachers, comparative school systems, systems employed in training common school teachers, and various others. These studies are always available as helps in legislation. The School of Education, cooperating with principals and superin- tendents, has initiated a series of local educational surveys. These aim to secure complete control of the facts which influence the educational development of a community and to point out constructively the best available means of improving the service, or of reducing its cost to the people. The School of Education, too, has undertaken, by request, the duty of outlining courses of reading prescribed for teachers by the State Board of Education, and through the Extension Division, these courses or outlines are supplied to teachers, their studies supervised, and the work tested and certified. This work is done by way of cooperation with the several county superintendents. Four thousand teachers of Oregon are provided with these outlines. A good beginning has been made toward the establishment at the University of an Educational Clinic for testing the exceptional children of the school grades. This means, on one hand, the backward children, and on the other, the uncommonly brilliant. The aim is to provide with reference to each class: (1) easy and simple tests which can be applied by teachers and supervisors everywhere; (2) a carefully planned course of procedure in dealing with each of the two classes to the end that the tragic waste of talent, now so common a spectacle, may gradually be eliminated from the schools of Oregon. School op Commerce The School of Commerce is one of the newer departments of the University. It was established under the ruling of the Board of Higher Curricula, in June, 1914. Aside from its function of direct instruction, the School of Commerce was given at the outset a most important investigative function. The director of the school, Mr. H. B. Miller, who was for many years in the diplomatic and consular service of the United States, both in Europe and in the Orient, has undertaken with the aid of a strong commission made up of prominent business men of the State, to conduct an Indus- trial Survey of Oregon. The object of the survey is: (1) to study the conditions of production and the market outlook for each of the existing industries of the State; (2) to consider the prospects of proposed or potential industries from the standpoint of comparative conditions of production and of marketing. EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN 19 Several valuable studies are already complete and the results will be published in some form for the benefit of the industries concerned. The Board of Advisers in the conduct of the Industrial Survey con- sists of C. C. Colt, C. E. Spence, A. H. Harris, W. K. Newell, John Keating, R. W. Raymond, and W. D. Skinner. The School of Architecture Mr. Ellis F. Lawrence, Director of the School of Architecture, is a practising architect of distinction, who is interested in landscape art, equally with the structural. He recognizes the almost unique oppor- tunity presented by the present comparative smallness of Oregon towns to secure for the State, through wise planning for their future growth, the best results in the artistic appearance of our towns and cities, their healthfulness, economy, and general homelikeness. To this end, despite pressing duties, Director Lawrence is glad to respond to occasional calls to lecture and conduct conferences on the subject of town planning. Social Biology Doctor C. F. Hodge, well known all over Oregon through his exten- sion lectures before institutes, parent-teacher associations, study clubs, women’s clubs, and general audiences, is Professor of Social Biology in the University. Doctor Hodge defines his problem as consisting of “problems of home and community life in the solution of which every member of society is vitally concerned, whether he realizes it or not.” Examples are the preventable illness of 3,000,000 Americans annually, at a money loss of $8,000,000,000. The vast losses entailed upon individuals and communities through the ravages of insect pests like flies, which can be eradicated by proper social and educational methods; the cost involved in the wanton or ignorant destruction of bird life. Doctor Hodge has delivered some hundreds of lectures in Oregon on themes including the above; also on educational phases of nature study, and civic biology. The University published, for the benefit of the State, his illustrated bulletin on “House Flies,” “Outline for Practical Lessons and Plans for Flyless Homes,” which was used as a basis for fly extermination campaigns in schools and in cities, towns, and villages of Oregon, also in many other states, and several foreign countries, including South Africa and China. At the request of State Superintendent J. A. Churchill, Professor Hodge has prepared a course of Nature Study lessons for the use of the schools, which course has been published by the State Department of Education in the 1914 Course of Study. He has published through the Oregon Teachers’ Monthly, for the benefit of common school teachers, hints on teaching nature work, and he is now preparing for general use, a one thousand point score card for a standard home. Tentative sugges- tions for this score card have been published by Doctor Hodge in the Extension Monitor. For copies of the Monitor address Extension Divi- sion, University of Oregon, Eugene. Doctor Hodge’s time is largely at the command of the Extension Division, and he will fill lecture engagements next year as he did during the year just closing. 20 EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN Biology The Department of Biology, separated now into two departments of Botany and Zoology, has had an intimate relation to the development of extension work, particularly in the following ways: (a) Professor Albert R. Sweetser, now head of the Botany Depart- ment, but formerly head of the undivided department, was for a time biologist of the State Board of Health, in which capacity he began the systematic testing of drinking water for the communities of the State. This work thus provided for has gone on to a considerable extent. The city of Eugene pays the expense of the tests of the local water supply, which tests are made regularly in the University laboratory, but to the extent of its facilities, the University tests freely all samples sent in from the outside. Many tests are made for rural schools and village schools. ( b ) Professor Sweetser also initiated for Oregon, seven years ago, the campaign for ridding Oregon of flies — work which during the past two years has been pushed to conclusions in many localities under the leadership of Dr. C. F. Hodge, head of the department of Social Biology. (c) The department has prepared a compendium of Oregon flora, which has been of great service to the schools and to private students; bulletins have been issued on special botanical problems, and a large and complete herbarium, arranged primarily for the use of botany students of the University has been placed at the disposal of communities seeking to study the flora of their own environments. ( d ) The Zoology division has gathered and preserved a notable col- lection of Oregon birds, sections of which have been sent the rounds of many Oregon schools to promote intelligent bird study. In coopera- tion with the Oregon Game Commission, the study of game birds and of game animals is being prosecuted actively this winter. The game trails of the Oregon mountains are the laboratory for this study. Public Speaking The Department of Public Speaking contributes largely to the outside work of the University. The professor of Public Speaking, Mr. Archibald F. Reddie, seeks to elevate the public taste in reading and dramatics: 1. By giving public readings under the auspices usually of the high schools. Professor Reddie is well known as one of the best readers in the West and his readings have been so much in demand that the towns of Oregon vie with one another for the benefit of his interpretations of Shakespeare, Ibsen, Dickens, Galsworthy, Maeterlinck, and a considerable number of other writers. Professor Reddie can possibly reach personally only a portion of the places which ask for his readings. 2. By presenting each year at the University, on an occasion which brings representatives from the State at large — like Commonwealth Day, Junior Week-End, or Commencement — some significant dramatic perform- ance in which the professor and his class in dramatic interpretation assume all the characters. Notable among these performances have been the rendering of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt and Shakespeare’s King Lear, both staged out of doors — the first in a natural amphitheatre among the fir- crowned ridges southwest of Eugene, the second on the campus — and each visited by a great concourse of visitors from all sections of Oregon. EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN 21 3. By selecting and adapting to the use of the high school dramatic associations plays of a high order of literary merit or of special value for their moral teaching, which are then sent on request to high schools wish- ing to stage plays as a part of their work in English or Public Speaking. 4. Professor Reddie also conducts an advanced class in Public Speak- ing at Portland, emphasizing problems of voice-building. This is of special interest to public lecturers, preachers, salesmen, and public readers. 5. Assistant Professor Prescott is secretary of the Oregon High School Debating League, organized by the University some years ago under the leadership of Mr. E. E. DeCou, Professor of Mathematics. He prepares an annual bulletin, published by the University of Oregon, which sets forth the rules governing competition in debate among the high schools presenting agreed-on subjects and suggesting materials of study.* Mr. Prescott also conducts outside classes in argument and debate. ♦Copies of the High School Debating Manual can be had by applying to the Registrar, University of Oregon, Eugene. 22 EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN History Department The Department of History has concerned itself largely with the devel- opment of the historical resources of the Pacific Northwest; of Oregon, and of the localities in Oregon. A considerable portion of the work has had reference to the teaching activity of the department. Advanced students have been encouraged to prepare theses on phases of this history, which studies are thenceforth available to other students, to local histori- cal societies, or to individuals or clubs, engaged in this field of research. Studies of the history of special communities are made by students repre- senting those communities. These studies are believed to be a means of stimulating a highly desirable interest in community life. The department has for many years conducted a correspondence-study course in Oregon History, for which many Oregon teachers are enrolled. This is one way in which the vitalizing influence of local history is brought into the schools of the State. Another mode is by means of lectures to bodies of teachers, or to schools, and by encouraging local societies or study groups to collect historical material with the aid of the schools and to employ this material again for the benefit of the school classes in History, Civics, Geography, and English. Emphasis is placed on recent developments in Oregon political history, and one member of the department, Professor R. C. Clark, contributes reg*ularly to the Oregon Teachers’ Monthly, for the benefit of teachers, discussions of the most important aspects of current State politics. Other Departments The Department of Germanic Language and Literature has conducted extension work in the form of outside classes and lectures, and it has also promoted actively the plans now being carried out in several towns for teaching German in the grades. The Department of English, through Assistant Professor Parsons, has developed much interest throughout the State by means of lectures in Literary Appreciation and class conferences in Short Story Writing. The work is mainly for the benefit of teachers in service, journalists, and other mature and busy men and women. Professor Parsons’ several classes in Portland now number about four hundred and fifty persons, some of whom as a result of their work have developed literary talent sufficient to command remuneration for short stories and articles. The Department of Chemistry has conducted important investigations along industrial lines, such as vinegar-making, the manufacture of alcohol from waste farm products, the utilization of the by-products of lumber manufacture, etc., the results of which are at the disposal of those interested. By reference to the Extension Lecture Bulletin, it will be seen that professors in departments whose work is, by its nature, more strictly limited to campus classes, are nevertheless ready to contribute to the outside work in the way of public lectures and addresses, sometimes within the fields of their specialties, sometimes in other fields. EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN 2: The Summer School The Legislative Assembly of 1913 appropriated $30,000 for the bien- nium for the support of the extension work of the University and the maintenance of the Summer School. In a sense, the Summer School contributes an important phase of extension service, inasmuch as it ministers to the needs of those who are fully occupied with work for a livelihood during the regular school year. The Summer School enables busy teachers, superintendents, and principals to pursue University courses of study at a time of the year when their own schools are not in session, and it enables professional men and women other than teachers to occupy in profitable study the period of their annual vacations. The work done in the summer session, while not so wide in scope, is in quality fully up to the level of work done during the regular session. Teachers and others have been coming to the University in yearly increasing numbers for the sake of the Summer School opportunity.* *A bulletin describing plans for the 1915 Summer School, outlining courses of study and announcing lectures and other features, will be issued in March, 1915. It can be secured by writing to the Registrar, University of Oregon, Eugene. 24 EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY The University Library contains now about 52,000 volumes, three- fourths of which have been added during the last seven years. These books have been selected with a view to meeting the needs of the members of the Faculty and the students, but it is the desire of those administering the Library to extend its usefulness as generally as possible to the people of the State. Following are some of the ways in which the Library is of service to citizens of Oregon not in residence at the University: 1. It is of assistance to the public and school libraries of the State by lending to them, from its collection, books that they need to meet some of the special and exceptional demands of their readers. 2. It sends books to individuals who live in communities without ade- quate library facilities. The Library has on its growing list of regular mail-order patrons the name of a goodly number of teachers, ministers, club women, etc. The extension of parcel post rates to include books has greatly reduced the expense of sending books through the mails. Weekly lists of books added to the Library are sent to those applying for them, and special reference lists on topics of general interest are issued from time to time. 3. It loans from time to time, to the correspondence students of the University, books which they desire to supplement the textbook work assigned in the courses given. 4. It sends out collections of books to various study clubs that are following courses outlined by the Correspondence-Study Department. 5. The Library is available for reference purposes to all readers who are able to come to Eugene to use it. 6. The Library also does its best to answer inquiries from any persons wishing information of various sorts that can be briefly given. The Library staff is in close touch with the members of the University Fac- ulty, a body of experts in the fields of literature, languages, the sciences, art, architecture, history, politics, commerce, etc., and their knowledge concerning such matters as can be readily handled by correspondence is available to those who wish to apply for it. Information especially regard- ing the best literature of various subjects — where it can be found, etc. — will be gladly furnished. 7. The University has something of a collection of unbound duplicate periodicals which it is glad to send out to individuals wishing material on topics of interest. 8. In cases where the services of copyists are desired to make digests or copies of library material that cannot be loaned, competent persons will be engaged who will do the work at reasonable rates. 9. The Library has a collection of art photographs — reproductions of masterpieces of architecture, sculpture, and painting — which are available for the use of study clubs. 10. The Library is glad to be of such service as it can to the profes- sional men and women of the State — the doctors, lawyers, ministers, engineers, journalists, teachers, etc., in meeting their special problems, and it welcomes at all times requests and inquiries, which it answers to the best of its ability. Communications regarding .Library service may be addressed to M. H. Douglass, Librarian. EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN 25 UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS NOW AVAILABLE Volume I 2. Beowulf. Prof. I. M. Glen. January, 1904. Volume II 1. Water Power on the Santiam. Prof. E. H. McAlister. November, 1904. Volume III 1. State Normal School Systems of the United States. Prof. H. D. Sheldon. November, 1905. Volume IV Volume V 8. Country High School Organization, and the Training of Teachers. September, 1908. Volume VI 3. The Acquisition of the Oregon Territory. Part I — Discovery and Exploration. Prof. Joseph Schafer, Ph. D. December, 1908. 5. Procedure for Tax Reform in Oregon. Prof. F. G. Young. Feb- ruary, 1909. Volume VII 2. The Oregon High School Debating League. October, 1909. 3. A Study in Roman Coins of the Empire. November, 1909. Volume VIII 1. The Problem of Teaching Rhetoric in the High School. Prof. Edward A. Thurber. September, 1910. 2. Oregon High School Debating League. Prof. Edgar E. DeCou. October, 1910. 3. First Annual Educational Conference, University of Oregon. June 20-21, June 23-24, 1910. November, 1910. 4. Second Annual Commonwealth Conference, University of Oregon. February 11-12, 1910. December, 1910. Volume IX 2. Oregon High School Debating League. October, 1911. 4. The Last of the Sequani. A Study in Reconstruction. Frederic Stanley Dunn. December, 1911. 5. The Economics of Oregon’s Good Roads Problem. F. G. Young. January, 1913. Volume X 1. The Proposed Commonwealth Service of the University of Oregon. F. G. Young. September, 1912. 2. University Extension and Commonwealth Service. Joseph Schafer. October, 1912. 4. Bibliography of the Geology, Paleontology, Mineralogy, Petrology and Mineral Resources of Oregon. December, 1912. 5. Concrete Roads versus Macadam. E. H. McAlister. January, 1913. 26 EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN Volume XI 1. Oregon High School Debating League. August, 1913. 4. Catalog of Correspondence-Study Department. November, 1913: 5. Choosing a Calling. Illustrated Bulletin. December, 1913. 7. Alumni Register. February, 1914. Volume XII 1. Correspondence-Study Department Announcements for 1915. Sep- tember, 1914. 2. A Study of Oregon Pleistocene. Mrs. Ellen Condon McCornack. October, 1914. 3. Oregon High School Debating League. Robert W. Prescott. November, 1914. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS