There is an Assistant Secretary of the Interior, who receives $4,000 per annum, and commissioners of different divisions and bureaus who receive from $3,000 to $6,000 annually.
Many officers of this department could command higher salaries in the commercial world, but these positions secure honor and respect not only for the man himself but also for his descendants, hence these commissionerships are very desirable. For that reason men give up a legal practise or a railroad position, bringing salaries eight or ten times as large, to serve the government.
The present Secretary, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, of Missouri, great-grandson of Ethan Allen, of Vermont, has a wide experience in manufacturing, railroad, and mining interests, and has served as Ambassador at the Court of Russia. He was called to his present place by President McKinley in 1898.
The Secretary in his report for 1901 entreats that at least twenty more persons of fine mechanical ability be appointed as examiners, as his force is much behind in their work, altho many labor far over allotted time.
The Bureau of Education, established in 1867, is probably as little known to the general public as any branch of the government. It is the clearing-house for educational matters of the entire United States.
The Commissioner of Education, Hon. William T. Harris, is one of the great educators of the world. It is probable if the teachers of the United States could have a personal vote, their unanimous choice would fall upon Dr. Harris as their Commissioner. The offices of the Bureau of Education are in a brick building at the corner of G and Eighth Streets.
The Commissioner has about forty assistants, who are confined to about twenty-eight rooms. This office collects, tabulates, and reports on all schools in the United States. Any one who desires to compare the curriculums of different institutions consults the Commissioner’s report. Or should one desire to know what is being done in Europe, or any other part of the world, along the line of art in schools, or manual or industrial training, or the advanced education for women, all such inquiries can be answered by reference to the Commissioner’s report.
This bureau is held in high estimation in Europe. Many of the South American republics and some Asiatic countries are trying, through the reports of Dr. Harris, to model their school systems after that of the United States.
Miss Frances G. French has charge of the foreign correspondence, and tabulates statistics and reports on thirty-two foreign countries.
The school work presented by the Department of Education at Paris in 1900 secured favorable commendation from the best educators of Europe. Only three commissioners have preceded Dr. Harris: Hon. Henry Barnard, 1867–1870; Hon. John Eaton, 1870–1886; Hon. N. H. R. Dawson, 1886–1889. The latter was a brother-in-law of Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Harris was appointed by President Harrison, September, 1889. The best work of the Bureau of Education lies in bringing about homogeneity in the work of education throughout the United States. Without the tabulated work of the Superintendents of States, how would the Superintendent of, say, one of the Dakotas, know whether the work of the public schools of his State corresponds with the work done in New York or Pennsylvania? Yet the boy educated in Dakota may have to do his life-work in Pennsylvania. Then the Commissioner’s report keeps us informed what the State, Nation, or Church is doing for the education of the colored race, the Indian, or the people of our new possessions.