[5]. In July, 1906, Commissioner Harris retired on a Carnegie pension and Prof. Elmer Ellsworth Brown, of California, became Commissioner of Education.
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.
A short extract from the Commissioner's report of 1899 will give an idea of the tabulated work for women:
The barriers to woman's higher education seem effectually removed, and to-day eight-tenths of the colleges, universities, and professional schools of the United States are open to women students. As is stated by ex-President Alice Freeman Palmer, of Wellesley College, "30,000 girls have graduated from colleges, while 40,000 more are preparing to graduate." The obtaining of a collegiate education gives the women more ambition to enter a profession, or, if they decide to marry, it is stated that—
The advanced education they have received has added to their natural endowments wisdom, strength, patience, balance, and self-control ... and in addition to a wise discharge of their domestic duties, their homes have become centers of scientific or literary study or of philanthropy in the communities where they live.
It is stated that the advancement of women in professional life is less rapid than in literature. The training of women for medical practise was long opposed by medical schools and men physicians. Equally tedious was the effort to obtain legal instruction and admission to the legal profession, and even to-day the admission to theological schools and the ministry is seriously contested; yet all these professions are gradually being opened to women. In 1896-97 there were in the United States 1,583 women pursuing medical studies to 1,471 in 1895-96; in dentistry, 150 women in 1896-97 to 143 in 1895-96; in pharmacy, 131 in 1896-97 to 140 in 1895-96. In law courses of professional schools were 131 women in 1896-97 to 77 in 1895-96; in theological courses 193 women in 1896-97.
The only aggressive work done by this bureau is in Alaska, and of this Dr. Sheldon Jackson[[6]] is agent or superintendent. Besides doing a great work in education, this department has brought about 1,300 deer from Siberia to take the place of dogs, mules, and horses in transportation, and at the same time to give milk, butter, cheese, and meat to the population. The reindeer are self-supporting, living on the moss which grows abundantly.