011-11 CHAPTER I. Why the Bureau of Education was established.. CHAPTER III. Work of the Bureau.... CHAPTER IV. Library and museum of the Bureau CHAPTER V. Publications of the Bureau.... Page. 5 9 11 15 18 22 3 WORK AND HISTORY OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION. CHAPTER I. WHY THE BUREAU WAS ESTABLISHED. و The first question that occurs to many minds when they hear of the National Bureau of Education is, "What has the Federal Government to do with education?" and the next naturally is, "Why should there be a National Bureau?" In reply to the first it may be answered, "In the way of control in the several States, nothing," and to the second, "To aid the States in providing themselves with the best systems of public instruction of which their means will allow by diffusing among all information as to improvements in education effected or experiments undertaken in any one or in foreign countries, and by awaking, through the publication of comparative statistics, a spirit of laudable rivalry.” Without seeking to trench in the least upon the authority of the States, it is believed that a wide field of usefulness of the general character here indicated remains open to the General Government, but a limited examination of the laws, history, and customs of our country will show that many educational obligations of a special character have been assumed by the General Government. Prominent among these is provision for the negroes and Indians that are its wards; for the inhabitants of the District of Columbia and the Territories, over whom its power is exclusive; and for the persons employed by it in military posts, barracks, forts, naval vessels, and elsewhere. These obligations have been wholly or partly met by the enactment of laws and the establishment of governmental agencies. The duty of informing the people of the United States as to the condition of affairs and the progress of governmental business has been recognized and fulfilled by the regular publication and distribution of the presidential messages to Congress, with their accompanying documents, and by the publication and distribution of additional copies of some of these documents whenever their contents seemed to justify Congress in ordering them. Congress has further recognized the obligation resting on the nation to inform its in-. habitants on special topics, such as the geography, geology, agricultural opportunities, and mineral wealth of the Territories, by authorizing commissions to investigate and make special reports thereon, and by publishing and distributing these documents. A still wider recognition of 5 |