There is no intention of breeding a race of hybrid lawyer-real-estate-dealers; the purpose is rather so to classify the legal difficulties involved in the vocation that every real estate dealer will avoid costly mistakes by turning when he should turn to a reliable attorney. But certain functions that have tremendous legal significance have been assigned to the real estate dealer; in order to perform them well, he must be familiar with legal requirements.

Dealer Performs Service to Entire Community

Likewise, a knowledge of the common problems connected with the financing of real estate transactions is essential to the protection of both borrower and lender who negotiate through the real estate dealer. In the dealer's mind should constantly rest the realization of his responsibility to see that both parties are adequately protected. Moreover, as he broadens the sources from which he draws the funds for his transactions, the greater becomes his service to the community. The establishment of building and loan associations, the forming of insurance connections these and other sources of finance for his projects he can utilize if he is acquainted with the particular problems which each type of institution presents and the requirements which it prescribes. Thus he not only serves his own business, but his community as well, by extending his familiarity to every possible source of credit for financing his transaction.

Finally, is the knowledge of the standards which have been approved in the conduct of real estate business. Here is included not only standard ethics but a standard for the transaction of business in general and standards for controlling professional relationships. The aims of professional real estate organizations and the progress which the vocation is making ought to be a part of the stock in trade of the real estate dealer. Professional progress can come only through close organization and a knowledge on the part of each one in the vocation of what the professional standards and purposes are. The man who enters a vocation ignorant of its ethics and of its professional practices exposes himself to ridicule and his vocation to injury.

Standards Represent High Ideals

The standards which have grown up in the real estate vocation have been evolved by those who represent the highest ideals in the vocation. They are designed not solely for the protection of members of the vocation and of the public in the conduct of the business, but also for constantly lifting the ideals of the vocation and enabling it to perform a greater service for the public. 28557°-25-2

In order to cover the wide range of information which is peculiarly what the realtor needs, the committee on educational courses, in consultation with educators, representing the United Y. M. C. A. Schools, the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business, and the Institute for Research in Land Economics and Public Utilities, has outlined a complete curriculum covering 12 real estate and allied subjects, namely: Introduction to real estate practice, outlines of economics, real estate law, real estate finance, real estate transfers and conveyances, real estate selling, building construction and design, principles of land economics, real estate office organization and management, property management, valuations and appraisals.

Preparation of Suitable Textbooks Contemplated

The national association has undertaken two projects, the first is to provide textbooks covering the subjects outlined, and the second is to furnish enough instructional and discussional material to enable any member board to conduct these courses with such leadership as they can find. On the first task considerable progress has been made. Of the series of 12 books outlined, three have already been published, namely, Principles of Real Estate Practice, Elements of Land Economics, and The Appraisal of Real Estate. Three others are promised for this fall, and three more will probably be completed before the end of the current school year.

Likewise considerable instructional aid is now available covering several of the courses outlined. A complete outline of discussional material, problems, and other helps for the leader are now ready and available free to member boards who contemplate an educational program, covering real estate fundamentals, land economics, real estate appraisals, transfers and conveyances, and real estate selling. Another manual covering real estate law is in preparation.

Extension Course in Real Estate Practice Finally, for the benefit of those who are in such a position that they can not take advantage of such discussion groups as have been described, the national association is undertaking to make a thorough training available by the extension method of learning by mail. The American Real Estate Institute has been organized as a department of the national association for this purpose. Its first course, "Real estate practice," is now ready and available. It covers the major activities and requirements of the real estate dealer. Into it has been compacted a wealth of successful methods now employed by outstanding members of its 507 boards, clear statements of the ideals for which

the national association stands in the various relationships that arise in the conduct of a real estate business, and sufficient knowledge of the commonest principles of real estate practice to give a clear comprehension of the whole. The method of instruction is such as to enable each student to receive individual, personal instruction.

Universities and Colleges Offer Courses

Of equal importance in the vocation of the new day are the young men and women who are preparing themselves in universities and colleges to take their places in a vocation not yet chosen but one which appeals to them because of its idealism. Constantly more and more of these young people are turning toward the real estate vocation as one which is predominated by idealism. Within the past two or three years a large group of universities and colleges have felt a demand on the part of their students for training which would enable them to choose this vocation and conduct it in accordance with the idealism which they cherish.

The national association, recommended that universities and colleges permit an undergraduate to choose training in real estate as his major. About 30 universities and colleges have either adopted a part of the course or are on the point of adopting it.

The impression has arisen in the minds of some realtors that the consummation of such a program may result in the production of a number of real estate dealers who would tend to overcrowd the vocation.

Higher Requirements Will Dignify Profession

Such has never been the result in other professions and vocations. Setting up a higher requirement for success in any vocation will dignify it and bring into it men of higher ability than could be attracted to it if it were not so dignified. But thousands, and probably tens of thousands, of salesmen are entering the real estate vocation each year; some fairly successful, others woefully unsuccessful.

It is probable that the higher type of service and higher ideals of those who come into the vocation with adequate preparation will cause the elimination of some who now make a livelihood in the vocation who are not equipped to render the service which it demands.

Such results will obviously be beneficial to all who are concerned-to the vocation because of a higher standing they will bring, to society because of the greater service they will make available, and to the individual realtors because of new life, ideals, and training which they will furnish to the salesmen entering the

vocation.

This sentence in an editorial in SCHOOL LIFE for December, 1924, has been questioned. Newspaper articles have appeared in which it is mentioned as a "pretty little untruth" and as a "little fiction." In consequence, earnest letters have come to us asking for "the historical basis of a widely accepted tradition."

We can not engage to keep our friends of the press in the right path in all their asseverations, even though they may occasionally refer to this bureau in a critical spirit. This opportunity, how ever, for presenting some of the facts of the history of the Constitution can not be overlooked, and we rejoice in it.

The sentence at the head of this article is wholly true in letter and in spirit. It is a fact of history, and not a matter of tradition nor of fiction. Doctor Franklin's speech on that occasion is printed in full on another page.

The suggestion of daily prayer was not adopted, principally because of the apprehension expressed by Alexander Hamilton that "however proper such a resolution might have been at the beginning of the convention, it might at this late day bring forth disagreeable animadversions, and that it might lead the public to believe that the embarrassments and dissensions within the convention had suggested the measure." After some debate the convention adjourned for the day without a vote upon the motion, and Doctor Franklin did not revert to it afterward.

Prayer even the suggestion of prayer is subjective as well as objective, and its answer is often in the heart of him who utters it. The proposal of Doctor Franklin in the convention was not lost, though in its terms it came to naught. Its purpose was to imbue the minds of the delegates with the spirit of accommodation and with a realization of the serious consequences of continued discussion without agreement.

The convention had been at work since May 25, 1787, and on June 28, when Doctor Franklin's motion was made, the situation had "become not only distressing but seriously alarming" because of the zeal and pertinacity shown by the opposing parties in discussing the representation of the several States in the two Houses of the Congress.

Benjamin Franklin was second only to George Washington in the esteem of the delegates in the, Convention. The effect of that speech and of his harmonizing influence in general are clearly traceable. Within the next few days several of the delegates, including Doctor Johnson, of Connecticut, Mr. Gerry, of Massachusetts, and Doctor Williamson, of North Carolina, urged that "endless controversies were becoming dangerous," that "speedy accommodation was absolutely necessary to avoid war and confusion," that "if we do not concede on both sides our business must soon be at an end," and the like. The prevalence of such sentiments increased suddenly and noticeably; few, if any, utterances in that spirit are to be found in the records before June 28.

Four days after Franklin's motionthat is, on July 2, 1787-General Pinckney, of South Carolina, proposed that a committee consisting of one member from each State be appointed to devise and report some compromise. The proposal was adopted. Mr. Gerry was made chairman of the committee and Benjamin Franklin was a member of it.

Although other plans of compromise had been suggested without success by Doctor Franklin upon the floor of the Convention, it was he who proposed the plan of representation which found favor in the committee and formed the basis of its report, and finally, in principle though not in detail, it was incorporated in the Constitution.

That report of the "grand committee' was presented to the Convention on July 5-a week after Franklin's proposal for prayer. At the close of that day Robert Yates, chief justice of the Supreme Court of New York, and his close associate, John Lansing, jr., delegates from New York, left the Convention feeling that the principles of the Constitution had been determined. Mr. Yates had kept careful minutes of the proceedings up to that time, and the last entry in it, apparently added afterward, was that "the remainder of the session was employed to complete the Constitution on the principles already adopted." He was a member of the grand committee and, as time proved, he appraised the situation more accurately than those who remained, for letters of Washington, Madison, and others, written several days later gave evidence of continued deep discouragement.

The rest is soon told. The necessary compromises which had seemed impossible were reached, and after another month had passed, that is, on August 6, a draft of the full document was ready for detailed reexamination and revision. On September 17 the work was completed, the Constitution was signed, and the Convention adjourned.

If any conclusion in history is justified by logical deduction it is that no Constitution would have come from that Convention but for the steadying influence of George Washington, the presiding officer, combined with the skill of Benjamin Franklin in composing differences. And the successful exercise of that skill began with the speech of June 28 in which the motion was made to implore the assistance of Heaven in the deliberations of the Assembly. That was truly the turning point which brought a unified Nation out of the fast-gathering chaos of the Confederation.

Defects of School Children THE HE LAYMAN, who ponders the matter, must often be puzzled, if not dumfounded, by the large percentages of physically defective children reported by medical inspectors of schools, and he is apt to consider these findings as greatly exaggerated. The layman has his right to an opinion on the subject, for he has eyes and ears, but he is likely to be biased in his opinion toward the side of an unsafe conservatism or even nonchalance by that innate optimism regarding the high and mightiness of the human race which characterizes too many of us.

The statement that 75 per cent of school children have physical defects may startle him a little in his smug content with the idea that we are made in the image of God, but he is too prone to remark without further investigation that the figures are false. In fact, if it were not for the inertia begot of this age-long habit of mind, he would be more active in getting something done about these defects. If he will with his own untrained sense organs examine the eyes, ears, and mouths of a hundred children, he will come near agreeing with the examiner, and he may be shaken out of his lethargy on the subject by what he discovers in his own child.

There are defects and defects-trifling ones and serious ones. It is often difficult for the examiner to know just where to draw the line, and some may include in their findings those of slight moment. As a matter of economy of time and effort only such defects should be recorded as need to be corrected, helped, or kept from growing worse. Using this standard, the

average examiner, whether medical man or layman, will find, when he looks into the mouths of most school children (unless dental work has already been pushed in the schools) that some 75 per cent of them are defective. A carious tooth (often there are half a dozen in one mouth) is a defect from the point of view that it can and ought to be remedied, but it is a true defect also in that it is not an inheritance from our remote ancestors. One will have to search far and wide among wild animals, whether in their native haunts or in captivity, before he will find a single carious tooth, though among domestic

animals that have fallen into man's manner of feeding they are not rare. Of course, a dentist, using mirror and instrument, will find an even larger per cent of children with defective teeth, up to 95 per cent in some schools.

When it comes to malnutrition, various standards have been used. Taking the one test of relative weight for height (which is not always infallible and by no means reveals all the cases of this condition) some examiners consider 7 per cent below normal weight a good standard, while others go to the conservative extreme of using 15 per cent as their guide. Evidently, by these two rules, the percentage of the undernourished will differ widely. There are, however, in one large city, 7 per cent of all children 15 per cent under the average weight for height and age. Probably some antiquarian of a century to come, in studying the examination figures for our children, will say that at least 75 per cent of them were badly nourished at some time in their career (prenatal, preschool, or later) and his opinion will be based on the figures for the condition of the teeth. Bricks can not be made without straw, nor can good ones be made from too much mud and too little straw, and from recent studies it is fairly apparent that the cause of caries lies largely in the materials out of which we try to make teeth.

When considering posture there is nothing definite to go by, and in a large city 1 of 70 physicians, careless or uninterested in this feature, found only 1 case in 100, while with more ambition for a seemly presence, or too zealous not to miss anything, another examiner found that 19 out of each 100 had round shouldA long-experienced examiner of the same school system thinks 10 per cent the usual frequency of this condition.

ers.

Every human eye is defective as an optical instrument, though, as someone has said, it could not be improved upon as an eye. Merely as an eye it varies greatly, however, in perfection, though it is a miracle how such a mere bag of lenses, films, and living wires (compared with which for complexity and utility our lino

what not pale into insignificance) can develop from practically nothing without greater outcome of imperfections. Children with defective vision will be numbered according to the standard of the examiner and sometimes the percentage is said to be as high as 25. Certainly, in any large group, at least 10 per cent will be found in need of correcting glasses. far as our bad eyes are concerned, the human being is probably not to blame, since he is using them for purposes for which they were never originally intended and, if we could examine the eyes of the

So

wild creatures, we would probably find that they do as poorly, or worse, in tests of near vision.

It will be evident to anyone that it is difficult to draw the line as to who are, or who are not, hard of hearing, and this is the case with still other defects.

When all is considered, it must be admitted that the highest percentages of physical defects found in school children are hardly exaggerated, while the number, as estimated by the most conservative standards, are startling enough and should be considered with a concern that

will lead the school authority and the parent to see that everything possible is done to remedy the defects.

While the examination should be as thorough as possible, the object of the examination, as already suggested, should not be merely to find defects (for every child will be found wanting from an ideal point of view) but to note those defects for which something can and ought to be done. When such defects have been reported the efforts at relief, on the part of school authorities, can not be too earnest and persistent. After all, it is not the defects discovered that count, but the defects which are corrected.

"Home and school in education" will be discussed at the annual convention of

the National Congress of Parents and Teachers at Austin, Tex., April 27 to May 2, inclusive. The program contains among other subjects round-table discussions on high-school parent-teacher associations, country life, mental hygiene, recreation, spiritual training, home efficiency, social hygiene, and motion pictures.

Two hundred and thirty playgrounds and recreation centers, about one twentyeighth of the total number of 6,601 such centers throughout the entire country, are maintained for the exclusive use of negroes, according to the Southern Work

man.

County Unit in Some Form in 21 States. Tends to Equalize Opportunities and Simplify Administration

By KATHERINE M. COOK, Chief Rural Education Division, Bureau of Education

SOME FORM of the county unit for

school administration is now found in 21 States. However, there is little

uniformity in the form used among them.

There are almost as many kinds of county units as there are States with this form of organization. No effort to formulate a definition applicable to all States in which the different forms exist seems feasible. In general, the county unit is a term used to designate the type of organization for school administration in which the county rather than the district, township, or town (as in New England) is the unit for taxation and support, and for other general administrative purposes such as the arrangement of school district boundaries and the location of

schools, the expenditure of school funds, the employment of teachers, and the appointment of the county superintendent and his supervisory assistants.

In some States it is the unit for all, in others for one or more, of the purposes enumerated. In most cases cities and towns with more than a certain designated population are independent in school management and partially so for taxation. The plan of organization enables rural districts, usually small and poor when operating as separate units, to unite and pool their resources with other like districts of the county to semore economical expenditure of school funds, better administrative school practice, and better educational advantages for the children.

cure

In the most centralized of county-unit States all the rural schools of the county are under the management of one board

usually called the county board of education. Experience with the county unit plan of organization form shows that country schools can be just as efficient as city schools.

Education week was fully observed November 17-23 on the American plan in the Division of Nueva Ecija, Philippine Islands. A circular letter distributed to all supervising teachers and principals by Luther Parker, acting division superintendent, contained instructions and suggestions which followed closely the practices recommended by the United States Bureau of Education.

Turning Point in the Constitutional Convention of 1787

Speech of Benjamin Franklin, Delivered June 28, 1787; Thus Characterized in his Lectures by John M. Harlan, Late Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Generally so Considered

MR.

R. PRESIDENT: The small progress we have made after four or five weeks' close attendance and continual reasonings with each other-our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes as ayes-is, methinks, a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the human misunderstanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those republics which, having been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution, now no longer exist. And we have viewed modern states all round Europe, but find none of their constitutions suitable to our circumstances.

In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that Powerful Friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth-that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow

can not fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings, that "except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded; and we ourselves shall become a reproach and byword down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest.

I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.

This speech appears in The Madison Papers, vol. 2, page 984, and also in The Works of Benjamin Franklin (Sparks), vol. 5, page 153-Editor,

Bureau of Education's Latest Publi

cations

The following publications have been issued recently by the United States Bureau of Education. Orders for them should be sent to the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., accompanied by the price indicated: Commercial occupations. Report of the

fourth commercial education conference held under the joint auspices of the United States Bureau of Education and the Vocational Education Association of the Middle West, St. Louis, January 16, 1924. Glen L. Swiggett. 9 p. (Commercial education leaflet, no. 9.) 5 cents.

Helps for the rural-school nurse. Harriet Wedgwood and Hazel Wedgwood. 54 p. (Health education no. 17.) 10

illus. cents.

CONTENTS.-Introduction. For the nurse who asks: (1) How shall I begin? (2) What shall I include in the year's program? (3) How can I help the teacher? (4) How can the teacher best help the nurse? (5) Where can I get "Talking points?" (6) Where can I get special preparation for school nursing? (7) Where can I get helpful material?

Introduction of algebra into American schools in the eighteenth century. Lao Genevra Simons.

80 p. (Bulletin,

1924, no. 18.) 15 cents.

List of references on higher education. 31 p. (Library leaflet, no. 28.) 5 cents. List of references on play and playgrounds. 13 p. (Library leaflet, no. 29.) 5 cents. List of references on the junior high school.

11 p. (Library leaflet, no. 27.) 5 cents. Preparation of rural teachers in high schools. A summary of present practice. Mabel Carney. 27 P. (Rural school leaflet, no. 33.) 5 cents.

CONTENTS.-I. Origin and early history of the movement. II. The present status of teacher training in high schools. III. Classification and types of teacher-training departments in high schools. IV. Characteristic features and contributions ofindividual State systems. V. General summary.

The Rhodes scholarships. Memorandum, 1925. 3 p. (Higher education circular, no. 29.) 5 cents.

Jewish philosophy and history, the Bible, later biblical literature, the Talmud, Jewish jurisprudence, and Hebrew philology will be studied at the proposed University of Jerusalem, which will be the center of intellectual life for the Jews.

Cleveland's newest school structure, the Henry W. Longfellow School, is operating under the platoon system, according to School Topics.