erty of teaching and learning, and provide for the appointment of a minister of public instruction, whose duty it is to report annually upon the condition of the different institutions of learning in the whole country.

The national government has always exercised its constitutional power to control public instruction throughout the republic, and this control has proved very beneficial. Very much has been done during the last ten years. A national university, a national observatory, fourteen national colleges for secondary instruction, five normal schools, schools of law, of medicine, of commerce, and of agriculture, and one hundred and fifty popular libraries have been established, and fourteen normal schools for women would soon be established in his country.

In regard to teachers, Mr. Dorna said he would only speak of their salaries and appointment. The salaries of national teachers range from $80 to $100, gold, a month. College teachers receive a higher compensation. In Buenos Ayres, the director of a college receives $230 a month, and each professor $113. Teachers keep their situations as long as they behave well. Pensions are not paid to teachers, but a movement has been made in this direction. A person who desires to teach in the common schools has to be trained in the normal schools and pass an examination in the following branches: Reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, grammar, algebra, physics, history, Argentine constitution, composition and declamation, drawing, object lessons, singing, moral instruction, gymnastics, and pedagogy.

Mr. Dorna was here interrupted by Mr. Wickersham, who said that a lady in the audience desired to state that the first normal school on this continent had been established in Chili by Dr. Sarmiento, late President of the Argentine Republic.

Mr. Dorna believed this to be true, and said that this must have been in 1838 or 1840.

Mr. Wickersham said that Dr. Sarmiento was elected President of the Argentine Republic while he was visiting the public schools in the United States, and that he was now inspector of schools for Buenos Ayres.

Being asked if the Kindergarten had been introduced in the Argentine Republic, Mr. Dorna said that there are several Kindergärten in Buenos Ayres, but they form no part of the public school system. Kindergärten in Buenos Ayres are pay schools, and therefore not attended by the poor, with the exception of one or two under the supervision of the provincial government.

The chairman said that Dr. Da Motta desired it to be understood that the figures concerning Brazil given by Mr. Dorna refer only to educa tion in the provinces, and do not include the technical schools, higher schools, and private institutions, and, therefore, do not show what Brazil is doing for education, and offer no accurate data for such comparisons as have been instituted by Mr. Dorna.

The chairman announced that Professor C. J. Högman, of the normal school at Yyveskyla, Finland, was present, whom he would introduce to the conference.

Professor HÖGMAN came forward and addressed the conference in the Swedish language. At the conclusion of his remarks, Professor C. J. Meyerberg interpreted them, as follows:

This gentleman, who came from Finland a few days ago, has spoken about the normal schools in Finland, a country that belonged formerly to Sweden, but now belongs to Russia. Finland, however, has its own laws, and is, in regard to fiscal and educational matters, entirely independent of Russia. Finland has at present three normal schools, one of which is for those who desire to prepare for schools where Finnish is the leading language. Nearly the whole population of cities and towns speak Swedish, while in the country Finnish is almost exclusively spoken. Professor Högman has been recently appointed teacher of the Finnish normal school at Yyveskyla. It is customary in Finland to send teachers abroad before they enter upon their duties, in order to enable them to study foreign methods of teaching. Professor Högman is now here for the purpose of studying the American school system, and he says he finds it admirable.

The Finnish normal schools are not very old yet, but they can be favorably compared with other normal schools in Europe. If Finland continues to work with its present energy, its system of public instruction will soon be one of the best in the world.

The salary of teachers in Finland is about 3,700 Finnish crowns, (4 crowns $1.) The female teachers receive only one-half of that amount, although they are doing excellent work.

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Hon. J. P. WICKERSHAM, superintendent of public instruction for the State of Pennsylvania, said that he wished to occupy a short time in the explanation of a few facts which concern education here in America. These facts seem somewhat to our disadvantage. And, without taking the ground that America is better in the respects that he was about to refer to, he wished to give the plain reasons why these facts exist. First, he wanted to explain why it is that in America we do not furnish teachers with dwelling houses in connection with the school-houses. Now, in Brazil and in Sweden, and in some of the other countries of Europe, they connect dwelling houses with school-houses. We do not do that in America for certain reasons. One of these is that we have established graded schools that employ a number of teachers. You noticed last evening Dr. Meyerberg said they did not have dwelling houses in Stockholm, for the reason that they employed quite a number of teachers in each school-house. Now, it is the great purpose of American education and American educators to have several teachers in one school-house. In all our cities, in all our towns, in all thickly settled neighborhoods, there are several teachers in the same school-house; and

therefore we cannot very well connect dwelling-houses with schoolhouses. Of course, we have a great many schools that are not graded schools. These schools are generally taught by young, unmarried persons. Three-fourths at least of American teachers who teach in ungraded schools are unmarried. He did not mean to draw a comparison between our custom in this respect and that of other countries. He was simply giving the reason why it is so here.

Now for the reason why we have not pensioned our teachers. He was not about to maintain that it would not be better if our teachers were pensioned, but was about to give the reason why in this country we have not yet pensioned old teachers. In the first place, it is understood. that education in this country is not so much a state concern as it is a concern of the people. Teachers in America are not part of a great civil service; they do not bear the same relation to the General Government, by any means, that soldiers bear. The Government does not fix their salaaries, and does not fix their status in any way. Public education in America is not a creature of the state, but a creature of the people; and when we pension our teachers the pension will be voted by the pe ple and not handed them by the general or a State government. By virtue of our institutions, the power comes from the people or boards of instruction. They fix the teachers' salaries and status, and therefore the Government does not consider the question of pensioning them. Besides that there are two classes of teachers, and one of them does not need a pension; they would be too independent to receive it. They are a very independent class of persons; and a large number of. those who receive small salaries only remain in service a short time. He did not believe that, out of 17,000 teachers in the State of Pennsylvania who teach in the primary schools, there are 100 persons who have taught thirty years, taking Pennsylvania from one end to the other, outside of the graded schools. Therefore we do not think of pensioning these young ladies and gentlemen who teach only temporarily. They do not want it. They do not expect to teach very long, some five years, some ten; then they will go into some other kind of business.

Now, sir, about permanency. Our teachers are not permanent. Gentlemen are apt to draw disparaging conclusions between this and other countries in that respect. He was not about to say that they ought not to be more permanent, but in America we have a constant social change; the higher stratum of society goes down and the lower stratum comes up. It is the survival of the fittest in this country, the survival of the strongest; and the man of brain, no matter if he was born in the lowest cabin in the land, has the privilege of sitting in the presidential chair. [Applause.] And it is this constant ferment which makes all conditions necessarily fluctuating and flexible. There is some advantage in permanency; there is some advantage in keeping teachers for life; but there is also an advantage in introducing new blood into the schools, and he would like to impress this fact, that the very best blood in the

United States of America runs in the veins of the men and women who are teaching our schools to-day. [Applause.] They come from our very best families, from all the nobility we have in this country. You will find them graduating at Harvard, Yale, Lafayette, and Pennsylvania University, and in the best normal schools, and going down to teach the lower schools, because that is the place to begin; and they go up, up, up, and up until they sit in the highest seats in the land. He ventured to say that one-half of our members of Congress, one-half of our governors of States, and one half of our judges of courts began by teaching in the common schools. Such is the condition of life here. Do not understand me as saying it is better than in other countries. As to himself, he commenced teaching a country school at $20 a month. He never expected to remain there; he meant to go higher. He taught at that salary and then at $24, and then at $30, and so on, until to-day he had a different position. So it is with these young men and women. Though they do not introduce into teaching the long experience of permanent teachers, they introduce into it that vigor and life that are hardly possible where there is not this mobility. Besides, there is another advantage, and that is, that until we have some fixed principles of teaching, until we understand the great laws of human growth-how the body grows, how the mind grows, how the soul grows-and teach according to those doctrines, it is better that we should not get into a rut out of which we can hardly struggle. Teaching here is to-day a mere empirical art. There must be great experience; there must be fundamental laws according to which the mind and soul grow, and when we learn those, then he would like to see a permanent profession of teaching. But he did not want American teaching to crystallize around methods that are altogether false or only partially true.

He did not want to make a speech in favor of American education; but he loved his country to well to be willing, by silence, to allow any disparaging conclusions to be drawn from the comparisons that had been made between the customs of this and of other countries. He was ready to acknowledge what is good in other countries, and anxious to learn from them. Pennsylvania and the United States of America welcome these foreign gentlemen here and now, and thank them for the information that they are so freely giving us in reference to this matter of education. The most important question we have is this educational question. What we want is to know how to train up these millions of boys and girls in this country so that they will make good men and women. We welcome light; and he felt that he ought to say this much in reference to the social and governmental condition of this country, because our school system is in great measure controlled thereby.

The chairman then called upon Professor Meyerberg to say something about the supervision of schools in Sweden.

He said that the schools in his country are under the general supervision of the bishops of the different dioceses. They have almost entire control of the school management, and have to report every three years upon the condition of schools in their districts.

In Stockholm the citizens have emancipated their schools from the control of the clergy, and several cities in Sweden have already followed the example of the capital and instituted secular school organizations. There are besides about fifty school inspectors for public schools. They are appointed for a term of five years, and it is their duty to inspect the schools in their respective districts according to instructions issued by the government.

It is incumbent on the inspectors carefully to follow the course of the national instruction, to visit in person the national schools in their districts, to procure information about their condition and wants, with a view to their improvement and development, and to lay before the school board and consistory proposals for improvement whenever the arrangements are found to be deficient, carefully to look after the teaching, and to give the teachers necessary instruction and advice as to the method of teaching, etc.

The inspector shall give to the consistory of the diocese to which his district belongs a short annual report of what he has done; also, at the expiration of his term of office, a complete report to the department for ecclesiastical affairs and public instruction, which at the same time must contain a complete review of the schools in the district. These latter reports are printed by order of the department, and distributed among the school board and chapter, and then these authorities shall take such measures as are suited to the various local circumstances and called for by the suggestions and proposals in the reports.

The inspectors receive an annual salary, which is fixed for each period of inspection in proportion to the extent of the district; they also receive an allowance for travelling expenses and board.

Dr. MURRAY, superintendent of education in Japan, said he believed it was well understood as a principle of successful educational administration that a proper inspection and superintendence of schools is the first requisite. There is no other way in which a government can so efficiently and thoroughly advance the interests of the schools as by regular, systematic superintendence and inspection. This principle is well understood in Japan, and is incorporated in the system of education. In order that his explanation of the present system of education in Japan might be more clearly understood, he would preface his remarks by a brief statement of the form of government administration in that country.

The responsible head of Japan is the Emperor, from whom all laws and edicts are supposed to emanate, and to whom all officers are responsible. Under him, as the supreme head, there are different departments of government, intended to administer the laws and regulations that