intrusted by the Constitution, not to the states, but to the general govern

ment.

Our logic had made no allowance for the fact that while under our system of government one state has the perfect right to spend $10.00 for the education of a white child and but $1.44 for that of a Negro child she and her sister-states have no right to permit Negroes thru ignorance to have so low a standard of living that when they began moving into northern and eastern states labor all over the country should fear that the coming of 350,000 and possibly more Negroes would be a menace to the northern workingman with his generally higher standard of living; and that labor would express that fear in the awful terms of the massacres of East St. Louis. It was rendered forever impossible by the inhibitions of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, forbidding slavery in the Union, for one state to prevent the migration of Negroes to another state; and whether they will or not all the states of the American Union have a very special interest in the education of every Negro in the country. Securing the blessings of liberty: The nation must grant full measure of liberty, compatible with safety, to all of her citizens or she must deteriorate. Full liberty to the Negro to prepare himself for citizenship thru education is a principle which must be applied if the nation is not to adopt a counterprinciple of restraint upon that race; and every arbitrary restraint of liberty not equally imposed on all the citizens similarly required to bear the burdens of citizenship leads to ultimate tyranny and to a loss of national liberty.

II. The relation subsisting between Negro education and the purposes for which the Union was formed create a moral responsibility in the government to promote Negro education.-The several ends for which the nation was founded, embracing the general welfare of all the people of the Union, was intrusted in terms to the care of the federal government. The moral obligation of the Union to protect all of its people arises from this fact. If, as has been shown, the promotion of Negro education is a factor in the promotion of the general welfare the nation is under moral obligation to advance the cause of Negro education. The nation's ethical obligation to advance the cause of Negro education being conceded, nothing remains but to affirm that

III. There is full constitutional power in Congress to give aid to Negro education.

There are three grants of power to Congress under which federal aid may be given to Negro education, i.e., the power (1) to regulate commerce, (2) to provide for the common defense, and (3) to provide for the general welfare.

It has already been shown that Negro illiteracy is productive of crime and a low standard of living. Without looking farther we have here the following harmful fruits of Negro illiteracy: (1) crime, immorality; (2) health menace; (3) lower relative standard of living, menacing the

public peace; and (4) poverty and dependence. And it will be admitted without argument that these bear vital relation to the public health, the public morals, the public peace, and the public safety; and that these are undisputed subjects of the police power to be regulated thereunder.

While fully conceding that any and all of the states of the Union have police power many deny that the general government has any such power; and this denial has been urged to justify the exclusion of the United States from participation in such law enforcements as have to do with subjects ordinarily legislated upon by the several states.

Under its commerce power Congress has legislated (1) to prevent the spread of disease from state to state (act of March 27, 1890), (2) to cooperate with municipalities to prevent the spread of disease (act of February 15, 1893), (3) to regulate railway sanitation, (4) to collect and collate sanitary information, (5) to investigate contagious and infectious diseases (act of March 3, 1901), and (6) to study and investigate the diseases of man (act of August 14, 1912). The power to pass quarantine laws to protect the public health has been upheld by the Supreme Court in numerous cases. From these cases it is clear that Congress may legislate to destroy conditions injurious to the public health, morals, and welfare under its power to regulate commerce. And it is not perceived that it has not the power to reduce illiteracy which is a cause of disease and its spread from

state to state.

On the affirmative side it may be said that Negro education will result in national benefits. Under dangerous aspects of Negro illiteracy it will not be forgotten that the federal Bureau of Education indicated, not only that the masses of Negroes should be educated, but that "the race must have physicians with real skill and the spirit of service to lead against the unsanitary conditions that are threatening not only the colored people, but also their white neighbors." Here it is shown that both elementary and higher education of Negroes will be safeguards of the public health.

On the economic side it may be said further that according to our last census there were 5,192,535 Negro bread-winners. Three millions, or 55 per cent, of these are farmers and farm laborers; and practically not more than 5 per cent of the total number of Negroes are in the skilled or professional groups. These colored people till 41,500,000 acres of land and comprise 40.4 per cent of all southern farmers in the nation, producing commodities which are of the highest value in the commerce of the United States. The lack of skill and scientific training which these workers exhibit and the lack of education of which these are the fruits point the way to the better promotion of commerce thru the better education of this great group of producers.

It has been shown (1) that Negro illiteracy-any illiteracy-is a menace to the public peace, health, morals, and safety of all the people; (2) that

Bulletin No. 38 (1916), p. 55.

Congress has police power for the protection of the general welfare; (3) that Congress has employed this police power under its commercial power to protect the public peace, health, morals, and welfare of all the people in cases beyond the jurisdiction of individual states; (4) that Negro laborers are for the most part untrained; (5) that vocational education in particular and general education as a whole will give such training to these workers as will help to promote the growth of American commerce; and (6) that Congress is specifically authorized by the Constitution to adopt measures to promote the growth of such commerce.

From all of these arguments may be deduced the simple conclusion that Congress has ample power under the Constitution to give aid to Negro education in order to equalize the opportunities of education given in the several states; and in giving such aid, it need not examine the causes of the inequalities to be cured. If they spring from poverty in the states Congress must help the states for the general welfare; if from poverty of Negroes Congress may encourage them by providing educational facilities for them further to provide for the common defense; or if from race discriminations Congress is morally bound to legislate in such a way that however desirable these discriminations may be they cannot jeopardize the national defense, retard the growth of commerce, and menace the public peace, public health, public morals, and the general welfare of all the people of the Union.

DISCUSSION

JAMES H. DILLARD, president of Slater and Jeanes Boards, Charlottesville, Va.This very important and far-reaching proposition has been much discust in past years. Many arguments pro and con have been put forth. There are differences of opinion on the subject. I confess myself to have been at different times on different sides; but for a number of years I have thought that the reasons for national aid to Negro education far outweigh all possible objections. I say this in spite of the fact that I am an ultra believer in states' rights and duties as opposed to federal rights and duties.

In facing the problem I find myself confronted with the following thoughts:

1. Justice, both to the Negro and to the South.-When the Negro was freed he had practically nothing to start with but the false discipline of slavery. He was not helpt as he should have been and the efforts that were made were utterly inadequate. The whole nation should have felt the obligation to afford means of education to the freedmen, for the presence of the Negro on our continent and his use as a slave were due, not to the South alone, but to the whole country. The country as a whole consented and abetted. Justice therefore demanded that when the change of status came the whole country should share the consequent obligation of education. This obligation has never been met and the demand for meeting it still calls as a matter of simple justice to the Negro. It is also a matter of justice to the South. The South, chief promoter of slavery and also chief sufferer, should not have been expected to have the whole burden of the public education of the freedmen. The beginning and the end of slavery affected, involved, and concerned the country as a whole. I would base national aid to Negro education on simple justice— justice to the Negro and justice to the South.

2. The tremendous benefit to the Negro and to the whole country.-There is no need of going over the old arguments. The prosperity, the safety, the health of the nation depend upon the spread of knowledge, intelligence, efficiency, and enlightened purposes among all citizens of every race and calling, and the only practical governmental way of effecting this extension of good is thru the public schools.

3. The spending of money.-How better can all the people's money be spent than in providing education for all the people? There may come times when it seems necessary to spend the last dollar on army and navy, but we never actually spend the last dollar in this way and the ordinary expenses go on. The necessary addition to ordinary expenses which would come on account of an amount of aid sufficient to cause very great improvement in Negro education would be relatively a small item in the country's budget.

4. The need. The facts speak for themselves. While much has been done by states and counties, as the great reduction in illiteracy well shows, it is still true that in most parts of the South the terms of Negro public schools are too short and the pay and consequent fitness of the teachers too low. Longer terms and better teachers are the two outstanding needs. Mr. Williams has given in his address many statistics which deserve careful consideration. Improvement is going on, but why should it be so slow if it can be wisely hastened?

5. The constitutionality of the proposition. This aspect of the case has been considered in detail in Mr. Fisher's address. I have always believed that when a good step had to be taken the way could somehow be found thru the mazes of the commas, clauses, and phrases of any constitution that ever could be written.

Now permit me to say that in spite of the five thoughts just considered, namely, the justice, the benefit, the wisdom of the expenditure, the need, and the constitutional permissibility, it seems to me that national aid should be withheld unless it could be given without two drawbacks:

1. Such aid must not diminish state or local appropriations. However there appears to be no danger of this kind. The fact is that the cooperation of the various private foundations has led invariably to larger appropriations from public funds.

2. The money given in aid must not be wasted. I believe that methods can be found whereby the proper spending of the money can be safeguarded.

I shall now venture to state in brief outline the policy and plan which I should like to see adopted:

1. Let the aid be offered in fifteen states, as follows: Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Two other states, West Virginia and Missouri, might be added if the addition be thought advisable.

2. Let the aid be given for salary of teachers in public schools of all grades. With increase of salary the question of length of term would take care of itself.

3. Let the administration of the funds be in the hands of a committee of three consisting of the state superintendent, the state agent of Negro rural schools, and the president or principal of the leading state institution for Negroes. Eleven of the fifteen states already have state agents of Negro rural schools and the remaining four should have and probably soon will have such an official. All of the states except two have one outstanding Negro institution supported by the state. In North Carolina with three and Alabama with two the selection of the member of the committee might be left to the state superintendent.

4. Let the amount be for fifteen years one-third, for ten years one-fourth, and for five years one-fifth of the amount expended each preceding year for all purposes of Negro education from public funds in each county and city and for each state institution of higher grade.

In order to give a general idea of the amount needed to carry out this plan I have taken the figures available. Not all are of the same year and so the amount makes no pretense of absolute present accuracy. According to such figures as I have the amount spent in a year in counties and cities for Negro public schools in the fifteen states was in round numbers $5,125,000. The amount spent for the state schools was $275,000. These together made $5,400,000, so that under these figures the amount of national aid would be $1,800,000. Suppose it were two millions, or two and a half millions, or even three millions a year for fifteen years and then a diminishing amount; this seems a small sum for the whole nation to pay in performing a high duty and achieving a widespread benefit. For tho the amount is not large when distributed over fifteen states it would do much in each state to further of itself the needed improvement, and I confidently believe that the aid given would tend to increase the state and county appropriations.

STANDARDIZATION OF SCHOOLHOUSE PLANNING

AND CONSTRUCTION

FRANK IRVING COOPER, ARCHITECT, BOSTON, MASS.

All this week we have listened with intense interest to the speeches which have been made to us, and one reason for our interest has been that they all had some intimate connection with that one enormous subject which engrosses us all, "The War." It has thrown a powerful searchlight upon every kind of activity and we are looking at affairs from a new point of view.

According to reputable authorities we have been the world's spendthrift, and we must now try to learn where waste may be curtailed in every possible way, not only in the use of food, but in the use of materials, and under the latter heading in the use of building-material. I do not mean that we must stop using building-materials, but I do mean that we must be sure that the materials are being put to the best use in the most economical way. In the development of our present complicated building with laboratories, gymnasium, libraries, executive departments, etc., there has crept in an element of waste space and inefficient layout which almost always results in a waste of public money, and it is this waste which we hope in some way to abolish.

We have nothing that could be called standards of schoolhouse building. It is true that our state regulation has had a great growth during the past five years as shown in comparative charts for 1910 and 1915.

Chart I, of 1910, shows that but 23 states had laws or regulations dealing with school buildings. These laws and regulations dealt with 26 phases of the buildings. The agitation during the five years following the publishing of this chart resulted in the passing of regulations in 10 additional states as well as the reviewing of the laws in many of the states having laws in 1910.

A redrafting of the chart in 1915, Chart II, showed that 33 states had regulations dealing with 63 phases of the building. We are now at work on a revision of this chart to show the amount of regulations as it stood

in 1917.

If there were more uniformity in these laws they would be more valuable. As it is there is such a great variation that a building in one state would often be condemned if it were moved half a mile across the border into another state.

To show how vitally this affects our pocketbooks, states having similar regulations, as Vermont, New Jersey, and Minnesota, require 50 per cent more area in classrooms per pupil than some of the other states and their taxpayers must pay $1.50 for every dollar that it costs their neighbors. This is simply one instance out of many, but it is obvious (without considering which is right) that there should be one best standard and that all states would be benefited by adopting it.