USA > Indiana > Vigo County > History of Indiana from its exploration to 1922, Vol II > Part 28
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ly practical and chiefly because they were, they be- came so endeared to the old-time patrons.
The law of March 6, 1865, on which the state school system rests, provided for instruction in "Orthography, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Eng- lish Grammar and Good Behavior."35 No further subject was added until May 5, 1869, when geog- raphy, physiology, and history of the United States were added. This same statute provided for the teaching of German on the demand of the parents of twenty-five children.36 Each of these new subjects entered the curriculum on the plea of practical value rather than on that of mental discipline. History and geography had more trouble justifying them- selves at the time than physiology. The latter brought a promise of relief from the sickness that prevailed periodically in all parts of the state. The common teachers as a rule objected to the new branches because there were no text books and the teachers themselves had had no training in the sub- jects.37 From 1869 to 1895 no additions were made
35 Laws of Indiana, 1865, ch. I.
36 Laws of Indiana, Special, 1869, ch. XV: "Whenever the parents or guardians of twenty-five or more children in attendance at any school of a township, town, or city shall so demand, it shall be the duty of the school trustee or trustees of said township, town, or city, to procure efficient teachers and introduce the German language as a branch of study into such schools; and the tuition in said schools shall be without charge: Provided, Such demand is made before the teacher for said district is employed." This subject has never been classed as one of the common branches.
37 Dr. R. T. Brown, in Indiana School Journal, XIV, 137, stated Its case as follows: "The science of physiology has been introduced into the common schools of Indiana, chiefly, with a view to the value of the knowledge thus gained in Its practical application in the maintenance and preservation of health. This wise and beneficent purpose, if not really defeated, has been badly crippled from the inability to obtain teachera qualified to take
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to the list of common school subjects. Those taught during that period came to be and are yet known as the "common branches." March 14, 1895, the Gen- eral Assembly added scientific temperance to the list, requiring all teachers to be licensed to teach it and all school trustees to have it taught.88 This subject was placed in the curriculum at the insistence of the temperance propagandists and while it accomplished a great deal of good it has failed to sustain itself on an equality with the "common branches."
Scientific temperance was the last addition to the list of common branches which all common school teachers are required to be able to teach. However, besides these branches a number of subjects are taught in the schools, either by teachers prepared especially for such work or by the regular teacher in answer to special demand. The oldest of these sub- jects is German which, as noted above, was given provisional standing by the law of 1869. This sub- ject has received most attention in city schools where a considerable number of Germans usually would be found, connected by their peculiar societies and de- sirous of preserving the language and customs of the fatherland. This work has in nearly all cases been done by special teachers.
charge of this branch of instruction. This difficulty was unavoid- able, growing out of the fact that physiology, until within a few years past, has been confined to the medicai profession, and was studied by that profession, more in reference to its application to the cure of disease than with reference to the maintenance of health." Indiana School Journal, XV, 298: "United States His- tory is one of the branches required by the law of our state to be taught in the schools; and yet among 'Methods' suggested in teachers' institutes, and recommended · in teachers' journals, but little attention is given to methods in this; in fact, If touched upon at all, it is usually passed over very lightly, as a kind of necessary nuisance."
38 Laws of Indiana, 1895, ch. CLIX.
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Music, as a subject in the school curriculum, has had an interesting career. In the days when the dis- trict school was in its prime there was a singing school in each district usually with the schoolmaster as teacher. From 1860 to 1890 interest waned, al- though the subject never lacked advocates in teach- ers' meetings. About 1890 the attention of educators was again called to its culture and social value. By 1904 it had found its way into practically all city schools. The following year a committee of the State teachers' association reported a tentative course of study which with some modification was adopted for the state course of study. A customary union of the theoretical and practical appears in this when the subject is commended particularly for its cultural value and the course of study arranged so as to lead to the art of music rather than the science.89 Finally, in 1907, in an act defining and distinguishing elemen- tary and high schools, music was placed as a re- quired subject in the high school.40
Industrial education in various forms has been a part of the actual course of study in the state for nearly a half century. In the colleges it is even older, having been tried three-quarters of a century ago at Hanover and a few years later at Wabash. However, during the reign of the district school it was dormant. With the rise of the city school sys- tems it again made its appearance. For many years, at least till about 1890, it was confined to the elemen- tary schools and took the form of paper cutting, sewing and like exercises, borrowed from the kinder- gartners. In 1891 the General Assembly permitted Indianapolis to establish a manual training high school "wherein shall be taught the practical use of
39 State Superintendent's Report, XXII, 125, 635; XXIII, 122; XXIV, 619.
40 Laws of Indiana, 1907, 192.
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THE CURRICULUM
tools and mechanical implements."41 This was a frank assumption by the public schools of the duty of teaching craft. In 1904, Fort Wayne established a similar school. The work done in this school, which will illustrate what was being done in many others at the time, consisted of wood working, forging, me- chanical drawing, pattern making, machine shop practice, molding, sewing and cooking.42
Agriculture has been discussed as a branch of study in the public schools at least since 1850. Two reasons appear for its lack of success in the early years. Chief of these, it seems, was a feeling among the farmers that "book learning" and actual farm- ing had no more affinity for each other than oil and water. On the other hand neither text book nor method was at hand for the teacher. Governors Wright and Williams were especially interested in this work, but no actual results were obtained. No progress was made until Frank L. Jones became state superintendent in 1899. During his term of six years he consolidated rural schools and laid the foundation for their great improvement from 1903 to 1909 under F. A. Cotton. The "city drift" of the schools was checked and a beginning made for the teaching of agriculture, so that when the statute made it com- pulsory in 1913, the law could at least in part be carried out.43
41 Laws of Indiana, 1891, ch. CXLI.
42 State Superintendent's Report, XXIII, 357.
43 State Superintendent's Report, XXIII, 530: "Heretofore our entire school system has looked toward city life. Not only the city graded schools, city high schools, and state universities, but the nonpublic schools, hoth secondary and higher, and even the rural schools themselves, have given an educational trend toward the city. The teachers, the text-books, the ideals, empha- size the city professions, while the important everyday affairs of the farm and farm home, by sheer neglect, have been discredited even in the rural schools."
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From these facts it is apparent there was accumu- lating in the public schools a vast amount of activity with no very definite legal status. The law of 1907, as noted above, had specified certain subjects which had to be taught in every commissioned high school; but it had also provided that "such additional sub- jects as any local board of education may elect" might also be taught. The "specified" subjects formed the so-called "standard" or "classical" high school, whose graduates were admitted without ques- tion into "standard" colleges. The unnamed, but permitted, subjects characterized the manual train- ing, industrial or commercial high schools, whose graduates were admitted to "standard" colleges with a condition.
This was the illogical position of the public school curriculum when the General Assembly convened in 1913. As a preliminary to the solution of this ques- tion Governor Thomas R. Marshall was authorized by the Assembly of 1911 to appoint a commission on industrial and agricultural education.44 After nearly two years of investigation, during which public meetings were held in various parts of the state, the commission made a report. The general situation was set forth in a few statements such as the follow- ing: The products of the farms for 1909 were valued at $183,000,000; those of the factories at $579,075,- 000, of which $244,700,000 was added by manufac- ture. The cities grew thirty per cent. during the previous decade and the country five and one-half per cent. Over half the children leave school unpre- pared to earn a living. Specialization has broken down the old apprentice system, leaving large masses
44 Laws of Indiana, 1911, p. 407. This commission consisted of Will A. Yarling, John G. Brown, Frank Duffy, Thomas F. Fitz- gibbon, John L. Ketcham, Frank D. McElroy and U. G. Weatherly.
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of the workers without a general education either cultural or industrial. The course of study in our schools is determined by the requirements of college entrance though only a meagre part ever go to col- lege. The schools of the state, except Purdue uni- versity, were making little progress in putting pupils in touch with the opportunities for life work. The people were ready and anxious to have their schools so changed as to prepare for life work.
The commission recommended a readjustment of the schools to conform to the new conditions, even suggesting that the state supplement local revenues to the extent of two-thirds of the whole amount spent on instruction in vocational and technical subjects.
These recommendations were carried out in the law of 1913, the most radical change ever made in the school law of the state. It must be kept in mind, how- ever, that many of the changes thus legalized had long been made in actual school work.45
The law of February 22, 1913, enabled school cor- porations to establish vocational schools, or such de- partments in schools already established, and placed these on the same footing as other public schools. Vocational education was defined as "any education the controlling purpose of which is to fit for profit- able employment." The field was divided into indus- trial, or training for trades and crafts, agricultural, and domestic science. Evening classes were pro- vided to accommodate those persons employed during the whole day, and part time classes for those who could spare part of each day for school work. Elementary agriculture was made compulsory in all town and township schools; elementary industrial
45 For a summary of what had already been done, see Commission Report, 93; State Superintendent's Report, XXVIII, 169 seq .; XVIII, 601 seq.
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training in all town and city schools ; and elementary domestic science in all schools whatsoever. The state board was ordered to prepare courses of study for the three new branches and enforce their appli- cation. For this purpose the state board was strengthened by the appointment of three additional men interested in vocational work, one of whom should represent employees and one employers. The state superintendent was further directed to appoint a deputy whose sole business was to supervise voca- tional school work, and to join with Purdue in select- ing a supervisor of agricultural education, and in co-operation with Purdue and a county committee to appoint county agents to supervise agriculture in each county.
It is too early to determine what the results of the vocational law will be, but theoretically it has done two things; completed the power of the state over the school system and put the two parties to the long contest over the content and purpose of educa- tion on an equal standing.46
The second phase of the development of the cur- riculum has been the selection of text books. Teach- ing in Indiana has always been based frankly on the text book method. Pupils study the text book and teachers teach it. Consequently the selection of texts has had greater significance than otherwise it should. During the era of the ungraded district school any text book was used. Instances are told in which most of the children had for their readers certain books of the Bible, one Bible sufficing for a whole family. Uniformity was of little concern where each pupil
46 The colleges have not yet changed their entrance require- ments to include vocational work, but doubtless It will soon be done.
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was in a class by himself and where the art of teach- ing consisted principally in pronouncing difficult words and in holding the pupil's book to ascertain if he had memorized it accurately. The city schools of the state were graded between 1850 and 1860, the rural schools between 1870 and 1880. The school law of 1873 empowered the county board of education to adopt texts for the district schools but not for the cities. Before this there had been considerable work toward uniformity both by the state superintendent and by the State teachers' association. At its No- vember meeting, 1853, the state board of education adopted a list of texts.47 In 1861 some high school texts were added to the list. The board was unable to enforce uniformity and was relieved of the duty by the law of 1865. From 1873 to 1889 texts were selected by the county boards. So much dissatisfac- tion arose on account of the corrupting influence of text book publishing companies on schoolboards and teachers that in 1889 the General Assembly consti- tuted the state board of education a board of school book commissioners. This law required the use of the adopted texts. In 1913 the selection of high school texts was also placed in the hands of the com- mission.48
47 Boone, History of Education in Indiana, 267; "McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book, the Indiana Readers (I-IV), Webster's Dictionary, Butler's Grammar, Ray's Rithmetics (I-III), and Mitchel's Geographies; to which three years later were added Warren's Physical Geography, Bernard's School History of the United States, Payson, Dunton and Scribner's System of Penman- ship, Wilson's Elements of Punctuation, Smith's Juvenile Definer, Martin's Orthopedist, and Brookfield's First Book in Composition. Besides these, Cowdry's Moral Lessons, and the American School Hymn Book were recommended for use." Indiana university library now has a large collection of text-books used In the schools of Indiana during the past century.
48 Laws of Indiana, 1913, ch. LVIII.
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§ 171 STATE SYSTEM
Public education is now the most important activ- ity of the state. It is no longer a mere favor offered to the people for acceptance or rejection. The law of March 8, 1897, the truancy law, makes the state the active guardian of every child from the age of 8 to 14, so far as to see that he attends school a mini- mum length of time each year, or until he has reached a certain degree of proficiency. The law has been amended frequently but the principle of compulsory education is accepted and honestly carried out, by a force of truant officers controlled by the state. The total valuation of the public school property of the state in 1916 was $54,849,098. For maintenance the elementary schools cost, during the same year, $11,- 731,432; the commissioned high schools, $3,501,614; certified high schools, $249,366; non-certified high schools, $142,636. There were 7,820 township and city institutes held at a cost of $350,545. The ele- mentary schools were in session an average of 154 days; the high schools, 166 days. There were 439 commissioned high schools, 144 certified, 136 non- certified, 413 consolidated, and 5,401 district schools. From the common branches there were graduated 27,823; from commissioned high schools, 9,844; from certified high schools, 793. The total enrollment in the public schools of the state was 564,252. Of these 89,313 were in the first grade and only 12,252 in the twelfth; 288,016 were in townships, 48,734 in towns and 227,502 in cities. The total enumeration for the state was 757,684. There were employed in the township schools 11,122 teachers ; in towns, 1,645; in cities, 6,881; total, 19,648; in elementary schools, 14,305; in high schools, 2,397; ward principals, 774; high school principals, 771; supervisors and special teachers, 1,150; superintendents, 251. The superin-
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STATE SYSTEM
tendents received in salaries $373,411; supervisors and special teachers, $590,991; high school princi- pals, $695,152 ; ward principals, $641,487 ; high school teachers, $1,918,080; and elementary teachers, $7,- 334,390.
Children who attend before they are six are placed in the kindergartens. These schools are not a necessary part of the system but are maintained in many cities. By the law of March 9, 1907, the first eight grades constitute the elementary school and the next four, the high school. Many superintendents have discarded this division. What is called the "six-six" or "three-three, three-three" plan is find- ing favor. Under this plan grades one, two and three constitute the primary school ; grades four, five, and six, the intermediate; grades seven, eight, and nine are the junior high school and grades ten, eleven, and twelve, the senior high school. The work in the pri- mary school is not departmental, the work in the in- termediate is part departmental. The common school work is finished in the seventh grade and five years are devoted to high and vocational work.
In order that rural schools might be graded and have equal advantages with city schools a movement was begun by State Superintendent D. M. Geeting in 1899 to abandon the small district schools and trans- port the pupils to a central school in the township. The General Assemblies of 1899, 1901 and 1907 en- couraged this movement. In 1916 there were 706 consolidated schools in 76 counties; 37,456 children were transported and 2,164 districts had been aban- doned. This left 5,969 one-room district schools in the state. This consolidation has resulted in 203 high schools with their advantages.
Finally, in 1913 and 1915, the General Assembly provided a plan for teachers' pensions which if suc-
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HISTORY OF INDIANA
cessful will help materially to make teaching a pro- fession, so that all the annoying rulings of boards and acts of General Assemblies, necessary under the present licensing system, may be abandoned and the teachers become as free and independent as other professional men.49
49 There is an abundance of literature on the schools of Indiana. The best single volume is R. G. Boone, History of Education in Indiana (1891). The chief sources used for this chapter have been the Indiana School Journal, Reports of the State Superintendents of Public Instruction, House and Senate Journals, Documentary Journals and the Indianapolis Journal and Sentinel For pictures of both the good and bad district schools, see an article entitled "Some Western Schoolmasters," by Edward Eggleston, in Scribner's for March, 1879. The statistics for 1876 are used in the last section because of the extraordinary fluctua- tions in expenditures since then.
CHAPTER XXXII
THE TARIFF QUESTION
§ 172 INDIANA AND THE TARIFF
By the close of the seventies the political interest in the money question was waning in Indiana. The Bland-Allison law passed over the President's veto, February 28, 1878, was a compromise of all parties. It soon put gold, silver, bank notes and greenbacks in circulation at par, disposed of the Resumption bogey and made it of no consequence whether the national debt were paid in gold or greenbacks.
The Greenback party, robbed of this issue, was compelled to fall back on its industrial program. The prices of farm produce after the panicky years from 1873 to 1878 began to improve and the Grange went out of politics. The Republicans as a party had been steadily drifting toward a high protective policy, be- lieving that the best way to insure good prices for farm produce was to increase the number of men engaged in manufactures and by the same ratio de- crease farm products. The result has shown that at least politically it was a good policy. The farmers of the great northwest have always sustained the Republican party on a clean cut issue of the tariff. So in 1880 it was decided to go before the voters with that issue.
The Greenback party did not fail to enter the canvass. On April 29, 1880, its representatives met at Indianapolis and listened to an address by Gilbert De la Matyr who was then representing the Indian- apolis district in congress. His keynote speech as well as the campaign which followed was leveled at
A
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HISTORY OF INDIANA
capital and capitalists. The party favored abolish- ing the national banks and perhaps all banks, even abolishing credit altogether, contending that cur- rency need not be handled by banks but could be issued directly from the treasury of the people's government. In a general way the platform fore- casted what has been done in the last twenty years along the line of industrial regulation. It demanded, especially, an interstate commerce board, or law, to regulate transportation. Richard Gregg, of Dear- born county, was nominated for governor and re- ceived 14,881 votes; less than half what the party polled two years earlier.1
The two old parties seemed in no hurry to begin the gubernatorial campaign of 1880. The Republi- cans preferred to wait upon their own national con- vention at Chicago. An uninstructed delegation of Republicans went to Chicago, June 2, 1880, to see the contest between the "Stalwarts" and the "Half Breeds" of the Republican party, the Grant-Conk- ling and the Blaine-Sherman wings. General Harri- son, chairman of the delegation, kept out of the fight and the state supported Garfield in the compromise. On the 17th of June, following, at Indianapolis, the party chose a state ticket headed by Col. Albert G. Porter, of Indianapolis. The state platform was a short, colorless declaration of platitudes, permitting of considerable latitude in interpretation.2
On June 9, preceding, the Democrats in a rather stormy session had nominated Franklin Landers for governor on a long platform with no distinguishing features.3 Each party made slight concessions to the laborers in the demand for industrial legislation.
1 Full proceedings of the convention are given in the Indian- apolis Journal, Aprii 30, 1880.
2 Indianapolis Journal, June 18, 1880.
3 Indianapolis Sentinel, June 10, 1880.
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INDIANA AND THE TARIFF
The Democrats made a gallant effort to secure the nomination, on the Democratic ticket, of Thomas A. Hendricks for the presidency. At Cincinnati, June 22, he was placed before the convention by Sen- ator Voorhees in an eloquent eulogy, but the speaker was outclassed in oratory by Daniel Daugherty, of Pennsylvania, who had for his subject the hero of Gettysburg, General W. S. Hancock. Failing to land the presidency they succeeded in the vice-presidency, nominating William H. English, a banker of Indian- apolis, a man of long public service and high' dis- tinction.
As an evidence of how completely the money question was dropped, Franklin Landers, a Green- backer on the financial question, and W. H. English, a hard money man, were running on the same ticket with De la Matyr, a Greenbacker-socialist.
The contest was on national issues, the tariff principally. Landers and Porter resorted to the old- time method of joint debate for awhile during the campaign, but it seems Porter had an advantage in this and it was soon dropped. The general prosper- ity of the times operated in favor of the Republican ticket and it was elected by a plurality of 6,953 for Porter. Garfield carried the state by 6,642.4 The General Assembly was Republican and elected Ben- jamin Harrison to succeed Joseph E. McDonald in the United States senate.
In the election of 1882 the Democrats made a clean sweep of the state government excepting those officers elected in 1880 and serving a four-year term, by pluralities of about 10,000. The General Assem- bly was Democratic in both branches and the con- gressional delegation was nine to four, the Republi- cans succeeding in the Sixth, Seventh, Eleventh and
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