spoke about the possibility of developing German handicraft, and intimated that the great centralizing changes in the economic and business life of Germany tended to destroy the small shops; hence, that the artisan had to face the possibility of being superseded by the factory "hand." Still, he believed that by equipping the homeworker or small shopworker better than heretofore, the skilled laborer could be enabled to cope with modern factory work, by making him inventive and encouraging him to evolve new ideas, new forms, and new methods. He deprecated the system of shop apprenticeship, and would substitute for it, or at least combine with it, school instruction in trade technology.

The proposition of the speaker was discussed with much animation, especially his suggestion that the so-called guild schools might be abandoned in favor of government schools.

Rural continuation schools, in which the technical part of instruction consists of agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, pomology, forestry, and stock raising, were discussed in a paper by Mr. Herbst, of Calvörde. His resolutions, culminating in an appeal to the people for a further extension and improvement of the system of rural continuation schools now in existence, were adopted unanimously.

Also, the trade or industrial school system was discussed with regard to its better organization. The chief emphasis during the discussion was laid upon the necessity of uniform definitions and nomenclature of the various schools. It was admitted generally that during the first period of existence of the continuation school system, such schools mostly kept open in the evening, and had been merely educational "repair shops," but that during the last two decades they had properly assumed the character of vocational schools, serving distinct purposes, such as preparing skilled labor for shop trades, factories, industrial arts, etc., but especially serving shop apprentices, since mathematics and bookkeeping, drawing and sketching, geography and history, language and composition, are now taught with particular reference to the apprentice's occupation.

Privy Councilor Doctor von Seefeld, who represented the Prussian minister of commerce and industry, deprecated any minute definition and classification of the numerous vocational continuation schools, intimating that such uniformity would lead to mechanical drill, while the greatest merit of the entire system of special schools lay in the fact of its not being a system. The wonderful variety of vocational schools offered a possibility of adapting the schools to local needs, or to the industrial peculiarities of the localities in which they are situated. The whole subject of classification and of a more definite organization of the system was referred to a committee for a future report.

THREE SYSTEMS OF CONTINUATION SCHOOLS IN PRUSSIA.

The independent Prussian continuation or supplementary school is essentially a creation of the twentieth century. Independent, because it is not an integral part of the system of elementary or common schools, though it builds upon their results. Formerly it was no more and no less than an educational repair shop, and as such the stepchild of public opinion and school administration. Since it has been separated from the elementary schools and made an independent institution its development has proceeded on new lines, so that to-day it has hardly a feature of the old continuation school except its name. A beneficent fate has removed it from too strict bureaucratic regulations. The strong, open-hearted initiative of the authorities has understood how to awaken latent germs in it, and to-day state and communities, teachers, merchants, and artisans, compete in building up systems of continuation schools worthy the name.

The administrative reports of the royal Prussian industrial office, and the last volume of the Prussian Statistical Yearbook, give exact information concerning the progress of the systems of continuation schools, which goes into details too minute to reproduce. The Imperial Labor Gazette (published by the imperial statistical bureau) has in its March number of 1909 (pp. 215-220) an article which contains valuable and rare information on the present status of the continuation schools of Prussia. In order not to create confusion in the mind of the reader, it may be stated that the schools mentioned here are not trade, or monotechnical, schools, though they are to some extent vocational. The real trade, or vocational, schools of Prussia are mentioned in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Education of 1908 (pp. 267-275), where also a number of courses of study of such schools are sketched.

The three systems, known as (1) industrial continuation schools, (2) commercial continuation schools, and (3) agricultural continuation schools, are sketched in the article in the Imperial Labor Gazette referred to, which appeared also in the Statistical Supplement of the Berlin Pädagogische Zeitung.

I. INDUSTRIAL CONTINUATION SCHOOLS.

The first comprehensive statistics of these schools in Prussia were published in 1874. According to that publication there were only 435 such institutions, 43 of them in the province of Hanover, 50 in the county of Wiesbaden, 15 in the county of Cassel, and 23 in the province of Schleswig-Holstein. In 176 of such schools attendance. was compulsory. During the same year the state legislature (the diet) appropriated 142,140 marks ($33,750) for their maintenance. Up to that year subsidies had been given only by the department of industry and public works. For a number of years following, statis

tical information is lacking. During the last five years the growth of the system of industrial continuation schools for boys has been as follows:

Besides these schools, there are in larger cities industrial schools for girls. Exact statistics concerning their attendance are not available. In the foregoing table it is noticeable that the schools with obligatory attendance increase, while those with voluntary attendance decrease. The opponents of local obligatory attendance can not derive much comfort from the figures presented. The rapid development of compulsory attendance brushes contrary arguments aside, and compulsion is victorious, even before a state law decrees it. The expense necessary to carry the local laws of compulsory attendance into effect can not be an obstacle, for everyone is convinced of the necessity of a better education of industrial laborers, so that both State and communities are ready to make large appropriations for that purpose. Those of the State have increased 100 per cent since 1901, to wit:

The communities are obliged to offer free the required buildings or rooms, including light and heat. After deducting the tuition fees from the amount necessary for the support of the school, the State supplies, according to the financial capacity of the community, from one-fourth to three-fourths of the remaining expenses. Usually there are other sources of support besides those derived from tuition, local taxation, and the state treasury. Thus, for instance, the total amount needed for the support of industrial continuation schools in the two provinces, Rhineland and Westphalia, in 1905-6 (77 schools with 44,628 students and 1,155,858 marks expenses), was derived from the following sources:

Cities and small communities_.
State treasury (appropriation)
Counties and provinces---

Marks. 579, 502 347, 528

4,395

II. COMMERCIAL CONTINUATION SCHOOLS.

The growth of the commercial continuation school system in its early stages was bound up with that of the industrial continuation school system, and even to-day it is not everywhere clearly separated from the latter. Since 1904 the following statistics are published:

The commercial continuation schools are not as numerous nor as large as the schools for artisans. The 1,579 industrial schools with their 280,427 students outnumber the 357 commercial schools with their 43,584 students. The view that business clerks, more than any other wage-earners, need a thorough and continuous education, is not held generally. The means of support for these schools are derived differently from those of industrial schools. Communities and chambers of commerce chiefly support commercial schools, and since the tuition fees are not insignificant (15 to 30 marks, or $3.37 to $7.14, a month), these schools, to a large extent, support themselves. The part of the expenses not covered by tuition fees is defrayed equally by communities, State, and chambers of commerce. In the cities of Oppeln and Halberstadt special agreements are made with the state authorities. Other chambers, as for instance that of Berlin, maintain schools without state subsidies.

The state subsidies for commercial continuation schools were as follows:

To what degree others contributed to the total expenditure for commercial continuation schools may again be shown by the example of the two western provinces, Rhineland and Westphalia, which maintain 41 of such schools, with 7,763 students, at a total cost of 288,372 marks. The contributions from the various sources were as follows:

Cities
State___

Counties and provinces_
Chambers of commerce.

Societies for welfare

Tuition fees_____

Endowments (interest).

III.-RURAL CONTINUATION SCHOOLS.

Marks. 53, 805 33, 989 1,720

18, 792

6, 960

171, 193

4, 632

The organization of rural continuation schools was for the first time uniformly regulated by a joint order issued by the ministers of the interior department, the department of public instruction, and the department of agriculture February 2, 1876. Before that date such schools had been established and maintained by voluntary efforts in several provinces, and everywhere, but especially in the county (governmental district) of Wiesbaden, they had proved beneficial. That one county had, in the winter of 1874-75, already 91 rural continuation schools, with 1,570 students. Of these students, 1,450 were between 14 and 20 years of age, 108 between 21 and 30, and 12 between 31 and 40.

The development of the rural continuation schools in Prussia is plainly seen from the following table:

Growth of Prussian rural continuation schools.