accommodations have greatly increased the amount of traveling done and the number of persons therefore who are necessarily absent from home on election day. Traveling salesmen, railway employees, mail clerks, and many others are now compelled to choose between sacrificing two days of election week from their employment or losing their votes. Many who are away from home at the beginning of the week are required to travel hundreds of miles or submit to disfranchisement. This condition of affairs has become more marked each year and should not be permitted to continue. It concerns not only a large and steadily increasing number of citizens who are entitled to vote but the state itself and the people as a whole who are interested in having every important political question determined by a majority of all who desire to vote. In consequence, numerous plans have been suggested for absent voting. or balloting by mail. In Australia, Tasmania, Kansas and elsewhere some of these plans have been put in operation and have been found to work well. I most respectfully recommend the enactment of similar legislation for Wisconsin. While securing to persons necessarily absent from their homes on election. day the right to cast their ballot, the law should be so drawn as to exclude the possibility of fraud or too great delay in counting the votes.

The Initiative, Referendum and Recall.

The proposed initiative, referendum and recall amendments to the Constitution are before you for final passage before submission to the people for their approval. The ideas embodied in them are no longer new. In their present form they are, I believe, the best resolutions upon these subjects adopted by any state legislature. All parties are pledged to the constitutional changes they propose. I therefore recommend that they be passed at this session without unnecessary delay. Other suggestions for constitutional amendment are also before you and will undoubtedly receive your careful consideration.

Fire Insurance.

There is a widespread feeling that fire insurance rates are too high and that the burden of maintaining them is inequitably distributed. Charges of discrimination against the small dwelling house owner and in favor of wealthy and prosperous establishments have been made. To ascertain the facts in this regard the last legislature appointed a special committee of its members to investigate the subject. This committee has been at work ever since. Its conclusions and recommendations will soon be laid before you.

The Capitol.

That very satisfactory progress has been made in the construction of the capitol is apparent to all. It calls therefore for no extended discussion. The work has been carried on almost as rapidly as available funds would permit and fully as fast as was originally planned. In view of what has already been done no one longer doubts that when the structure is complete Wisconsin will have one of the finest public buildings in America.

Education.

THE COUNTRY SCHOOL.

Education is one of the principal functions of government. That the people of Wisconsin are not indifferent to the claims it has upon them is strikingly shown by the fact that more than half the expenses of the state is incurred on this account.

In 1910 there were 780,181 children of school age in this state, nearly equally divided between city and country. Of those between seven and fourteen years of age in the country twenty per cent. attended no school whatever while only about two per cent. absented themselves in the cities. This is but one fact out of many that might be adduced to show that the country school is inferior to the more highly organized city educational system.

Since the adjournment of the last legislature various committees and boards have been active in the investigation of rural school problems with the view of making recommendations for enriching the courses of study, vitalizing the instruction and securing better results.

In November 1911 the Board of Public Affairs invited the Training School for Public Service of the Bureau of Municipal Research of New York City to conduct an investigation of the country schools of Wisconsin. In response to this invitation. and at a very trifling expense to the state this investigation has been made. It included a general examination of educational conditions in twenty-seven counties in widely separated portions of the state and a more detailed examination of the facts concerning 131 schools in thirteen counties. The report presents a vivid picture of all phases of rural school life: fiscal,. educational and sanitary. It is a vigorous, unbiased statement of the facts as the experts of the Training School saw them, in clear, untechnical language. The recommendations given at the end of the report represent also the judgment of leading Wisconsin educators and the members of the Board of Public Affairs. I most respectfully recommend this report to your careful study and consideration. Those who made it are now engaged in a similar survey of conditions in the normal schools. and high schools of the state.

In my message to the legislature two years ago, speaking of the public schools, I said:

"The common schools are now the weakest part of the entire system. Country schools, especially, have not kept pace with city schools. The country schools need better attendance, better instruction and better supervision."

The report of these experts corroborates these conclusions on almost every page. There is evidence of financial irregularities on the part of school directors, personal bias in the selection of teachers, certification for political reasons, the maintenance of small schools inefficiently managed and an almost total want of proper supervision. To remedy these evils a larger unit of administration is recommended which will make possible the professional county superintendent, professionally trained and selected teachers, more varied and richer courses

of study, larger attendance and in general the adaptation of all the forward steps of modern education to the rural schools. I am personally well satisfied that no greater service can be rendered the cause of education in Wisconsin at the present time than the establishment by law of the county board system of school administration. This is the key to the whole problem. -the point at which all effective reform must begin. I realize that this is not a novel suggestion but it relates to a problem. that grows more urgent every day. The rural schools must be re-organized and better provision must be made for the training of rural school teachers in agriculture and all the technical branches that should be included in the country school curriculum. The proposed substitution of an inspector of schools chosen by a county board of education to be elected by the people for the present county superintendent is the first step without which real progress along any other line is impossible. There is nothing new or revolutionary about this idea whatever; simply the adaptation to the country districts of methods of organization and management that have obtained almost universally in the cities of Wisconsin from the beginning.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING.

The legislature of 1911 realizing the need of a type of training that will more intimately connect school activities with the daily life of the people made provision to take over the Stout Industrial Institute and in the same bill created the State Board of Industrial Education. Provision was also made for local boards. of education charged with the duty of establishing and fostering vocational, commercial, continuation, and evening schools. The same act provided for a deputy to the state superintendent to be known as the Assistant for Industrial Education. These laws, together with amendments relating to agricultural and domestic arts, marked a new departure in the educational policy of the state.

The efficiency of industrial education is peculiarly dependent upon the equipment of its teachers. The wisdom of adding the Stout Institute to the state's educational machinery as a practical training place for such teachers is shown by these facts: The Institute now has more students preparing to teach household arts and manual training than any other institution in America..

In about 125 cities and villages in Wisconsin one or both of these subjects are taught, and nearly 100 Stout Institute graduates are teaching in these cities and villages. Other graduates are teaching in more than one-half the states in the Union.

Very gratifying success has attended the administration of the vocational school law. Although little was done to give effeet to its provisions until about six months ago, 24 cities have now organized under it with 36 schools, 127 teachers and over 10,600 pupils. Of this total enrollment more than one-half are permit children, 163 are apprentices, 4,788 attend evening classes only and 170 are all-day pupils. The total cost for the year is almost $108,000. In the evening classes of one city the enrollment of pupils and the subjects pursued were as follows: book keeping, 31 pupils; cooking, 64; dress making, 26; electricity, 24; English for foreign born children, 31; grammar, 12; mathematics, 14; mechanical drawing, 19; millinery, 15; penmanship, 24; plain sewing, 18; shorthand, 60; telegraphy, 27; typewriting, 47; and wood work, 15. In this one school 436 pupils were instructed in the elements of 15 different subjects.

Thus this new educational idea has been splendidly vindicated. upon its first trial. Even its most sanguine supporter had not dreamed of the popular welcome that awaited it. Already the demand for schools has far exceeded the appropriation made by the state to defray its share of the cost of maintaining them. For this reason you will be asked to make up this deficiency as well as to provide more generously for the next biennial period. I submit the matter to your serious consideration as a cause worthy of your united support.

Wisconsin is the first state to put into effect a comprehensive system of industrial education. What has been done here has already attracted attention throughout the nation. We should not now entertain the idea of surrendering leadership in a cause. 50 worthy and vital to the continued economic advancement and intellectual development of our people.

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION.

Among the educational institutions of America none more frequently calls for the unstinted praise of thoughtful men who live outside cur borders than the University of Wisconsin. This preeminence of our University is due not to its age, its size, nor the