books which guide and instruct the ministers, the lawyers and the physicians in the preparation for their work. Who is it that instructs the children and lays the foundation for their future career? Is it the minister, the lawyer, the physician? No, sir. It is the teacher who is there from the beginning of the source of educational power and professional training. No matter in what realm of the world's work you may go you will find the work of the teacher as the foundation upon which you must build. In whatever domain you may enter, whether literature, science or art, you will find that the leading men are teachers. In the field of science you will find that Tyndall and Huxley and Spencer are the greatest teachers of their times. They have instructed the world and they are the very sources of knowledge. These men were great scientists, but they were also great teachers. Some one may say we are not entitled to be classed with the professions as much as these men. If we take the work done by the teacher as the standard there is scarcely comparison between the different professions. Again, it has been said that we are not entitled to be classed among the professions as we have no national education system, and that every state has its one educational system. The same may be said of the professions, because we have no national system of law, or medicine, or divinity. In this respect the educational system of the country makes a broader appeal to the people than either of the learned professions. In our work we need more professional training and we are going to get it. We need more state normals in Ohio and we are going to have them. We have two Normal schools in the southern part of the state and they are good ones and doing a great work. We want two more in the north part of the state, and we are going to have them. These schools are needed to take care of the training of our teach

ers and fit them for their work. In the establishment of Normal schools for the training of teachers by the state is there not a step in the direction of professionalism? My answer to this question is, that we are further along today than in any previous age, and the teacher is recognized today as a more potent factor in his community than he ever was before. The recent code has given the superintendent absolute power in saying who shall teach, and the demand is for better and stronger teachers. There is a stronger demand for good teachers today in Ohio than there ever was before, and it is our duty to prepare for it. In conclusion let me say, that we can increase our idea as to what professional standing is. We need more professional training in this state than we have had and I believe we are going to get it. We need a higher professional spirit among our teachers, and I believe we are going to have it. Let us stand up for our work, talk of it and demand that it have the place and rank to which it is justly entitled. Mr. Williams, in opening this subject, has well said that the teacher should be a man among men. When there is a business meeting called in the town for any purpose, in regard to the progress of the town, the teacher should be there and he should be a part of that meeting. When the teacher is thus recognized it will go a long way toward giving him the proper position as a member of the community. We have today a better outlook for the professional standing of the teacher than we have ever had, and we are entitled to it. I hope it will continue to grow better and I know of no stae in which there is a higher professional spirit than in Ohio.

GRAFT.

C. L. VAN CLEVE.

I count it rather a doubtful compliment to be put upon this place in the

program to speak upon this subject. I am not altogether sure as to what the basis of my choice was. I have a brother on the executive committee and therefore I have some rights that the rest of you do not. When the committee notified me that I was selected to speak at this association at this time and on this end of the program, I protested against it. I finally asked him upon what basis I was chosen and then he explained to me the scheme of the program. I think you will all agree that there is no more important subject than the discussion of the moral aspects of the profession. I am not therefore responsible for your selection and when it was settled that the proper theme to close this program was graft, they said unanimously Charley Van Cleve is the proper man to talk upon that subject. I was not sure of the compliment and I could not see why any man should think that I have taught so long that I know more of graft than the rest of you or that I was so innocent in this matter that I would be the proper man to discuss the various forms of graft in our profession. From every aspect that I view it I can not consider my choice as speaker, a compliment and I hope I may be able to say some things that may be helpful to you.

In discussing this subject I want to say in the beginning that I have in mind no man, no person or group of men nor any intimate friend in the profession from whom I have deduced my convictions. I do not expect to define what graft is. I will take it for granted that this common American word is well enough understood by those who listen to me to make it unnecessary to resort to definitions. Neither on the other hand do I undertake to discuss in a general way the various devices and forms in which graft presents itself. I shall confine my discussion to its relation to

ourselves and the few forms in which I have noticed it annoy teachers. First of all I think I may say that there is no subject which has a wider discussion at present than that of graft. Some writers differentiate in graft, calling one kind dishonest graft and another kind honest graft. I shall not undertake to prove whether that discrimination is wise or otherwise. I shall leave the things I present to you to be applied in your own experience from which you may judge. So universal is graft that I quote the remark of Ex-Representative Thayer of Massachusetts when he responded in a speech in the City of Wooster recently. In speaking of the corruption in civic life he said, I have a friend who is one of the Senators. I would not dare say his name, but he is one of the most valuable men in the upper house. He said to me Thayer, when they call the roll in the Senate I have to stop and think whether to say not guilty or present. If this spirit of graft be so prevalent in civic life it is not surprising that it comes in some forms in our profession. I speak not in a pessimistic tone but in a tone of warning, I do not want to weaken your faith, but I want to revive your faith. We all want to be regarded as honest and honorable but it will help us to be both honest and honorable in our profession if we think of the dangers into which our professional experience may take us. There are at least three common sources of graft in our profession. First there is the graft in securing positions. I do not speak of teacher's agencies in this connection though I might say some things that would be helpful to the young teacher, something about the practice of securing the names of these vacancies in positions. I wish to speak in the first place about the commissions that are paid to secure teachers. I have never known that such

assertions were all founded on truth, but I have heard it asserted time and again that certain prominent schoolmasters held their positions by sufferance of the local boss. I know of a case where an honorable young man refused to accept a position because he was approached by a middle man who asked him how much he would put up for the place. The boss had said, I have been through a very costly political campaign and I lost out. I am out $4000 and I mean to get some of the money back. This young man said to me what shall I do? I said to him what does your honor say and he said my honor prompts me to turn that man down. This is one of the sources to which our profession is subject, but I do not for a moment think it is as widespread as might be supposed. There is another source of graft or corruption that may come to our profession and that is the commissions which are paid for a knowledge of these vacancies which are to occur. I presume it is legitimate to notify agencies of prospective vacancies. I have been asked to notify these agencies of prospective changes in my own corps and they would pay me from 5 to 15 dollars for such notices. I frequently get applications for vacancies not yet made and that means that somebody is notifying these agencies. If I who am the appointing power under the statutes were doing this I would consider that I would be acting dishonestly, especially if I should receive a fee for notifying agencies of these vacancies.

The second form of graft to which I call your attention is that which is known as the school masters' relation to the book publishers. I do not want to be too critical in this matter, but I want to say now and here in the presence of many of the agents and without fear of successful contradiction that I was never corruptly approached by any book firm or its agent on top of ground. I do

not believe one-tenth of the stories that are told about the corruption of book publishers. I want to say what I said to an agent here yesterday, when you come to my office and begin to talk about the corruption of another firm that makes me a friend to that firm. You are always welcome to come and talk with me, but if you talk about the other man it weakens my faith in you. As I said I do not believe one-tenth of the stories about the corruptivon of book firms, but there are some things I do believe and I want to say for the benefit of young teachers to be extraordinarily careful what sort of courtesies you receive from book publishers. I do not want to have my reputation besmirched by having it said that book agents paid my hotel bills as has been said of certain superintendents. This was played on me once and I know there is some truth in the charge. I make it a practice not to accept even an invitation to dinner from an agent unless it is a case where it would save his time for me to accept or work a hardship on him if I declined to go. I do not accept any social invitations or courtesies from book men unless I can return them just as I would do with any other man. I treat them just as I would treat any other member of the community. I do not accept any courtesies from them which I can not and do not expect to return. They are welcome to come to my office and talk over book matters with me.

There is another form of graft which is laid at the door of the book publishers. Some years ago it was charged openly in the streets of a certain Ohio city that a book firm spent $700 to elect a man to the school board. I do not believe a word of it. You will see the folly of such a statement when you think over the matter and figure out the profit that any one firm might have and see how long it would take to get

that money back. But there is another form of corruption to which teachers are subject in relation to book publishers. I have this story from the head of a book firm who gave me the circumstances. The form of graft to which I refer is the practice of securing samples of school books for the purpose of selling them. I want to caution the young teacher about this form of graft. You can become a petty thief more easily through that means than any other way. This book man said that the most flagrant case he ever knew was a young superintendent in Illinois who wrote asking them to send him a list of books covering an entire page of the letter. His clerk told him when he came that as the man was in a village only he did not fill the order. But my informant said I erred on the side which publishers usually err and sent the books. The day after the books were sent I went into the second-hand book store of Barnes & Co. in Chicago and there I saw a package of books bearing our label. That petty thief had taken the package as soon as it came and sold it. This practice is all too common and I desire to warn the young teacher against it. In regard to the relation of teachers and supply houses there is an inevitable source of graft to the man who is dishonest. Let me illustrate. On one occasion we were to purchase $1500 worth of seats and one of the agents called me out of the committee meeting and said they will buy whatever seat you say and there is $75 in it for you if you recommend my seat. I said you are a scoundrel and then he began to beg for mercy and he tried to explain it on the theory that they would appoint me as their local agent. The chairman of the committee said why did you not take it and we could have saved $75. The shocking thing about it was that this board member was

waiting for me to sell my honor for a price. There is another matter to which I call attention. It is the practice of some teachers to go out and sell books during the summer. That is not absolute graft but I think it is a practice fraught with danger to the man with a delicate sense of honor I want to say to my young friends that it may be entirely honest to go out and sell books during the summer, receiving a salary for your labor from that firm, but it robs you of your independent judgment when you go back to your school work. I do not believe I could go out and sell school books during the summer and then go back to my school work in September and be honest and unbiased in my judgment. There is a pernicious practice among teachers to think it is simply right to get something for nothing and so.they accept favors at the hands of book publishers, commissions from school supply houses, gratuities in the form of theater tickets, boat rides and becloud themselves with a false philosophy that to the ill paid profession of which they are members these favors so easily won are legitimately secured and illustrate the false philosophy that in life we can get something for nothing. It is not so and I commend to the young men as yet untainted with the microbe of graft this philosophy of our noblest American poet.

The earth gets its price for what earth gives us.

The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in.

The priest gets his fee who comes and

shrives us.

We bargain for the graves we lie in.
At the devil's booth all things are sold.
Each ounce of dross costs its ounce

of gold.

For the cap and bells our lives we

pay.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON.

Paper:

the Fundamentals?

Do We Teach
Supt. J. K. Baxter, Canton.
Paper:

Supervision and Instruction, Supt. C. L. Boyer, Circleville.

Discussed by Supt. F. P. Geiger of Canal Dover.

The president appointed the following to confer with teachers wanting positions and school officers desiring teachers: Supts. J. A. Shawan, W. McK. Vance, S. P. Humphrey, C. L. VanCleve, E. B. Cox.

Paper:

Quantity and Quality in High School Education, Prin. F. B. Pearson.

Discussed by Supt. F. W. Wenner. Report of executive committee on School Support and Revenue was read by Supt. Weaver, chairman of the executive committee.

Supt. Vance of Delaware moved the amendment that other associations in the state be asked to co-operate. Adopted.

Moved by Supt. Dyer of Cincinnati that the committee on condition of education in the state be revived and make a published report to the next association. Question was referred to the executive committee with instructions to report tomorrow.

TUESDAY EVENING. General program.