means who is struggling to educate his own children and in most cases succeeding only partially.

In addition to the increased cost to the university it is pointed out that the presence of so many nonresident students in the capitol city has created a competition for living accommodations and as a result the expenses which resident students have to meet have been materially advanced. We should not adopt a narrow policy of excluding nonresident students. We should, however, charge a tuition fee that will compensate the state for the cost of their education, and we should limit the number who may be admitted to suit the present facilities of the school after resident students have been taken care of.

To offer free educational facilities to the world is a laudable undertaking; however, it is one which should be taken care of by men of wealth. I think it only fair to say that the American millionaire has made liberal provision for educational facilities which are open to all who may apply. Our country has many splendid colleges that are richly endowed and whose doors are open to foreigners as well as people of our own country. But our own institution is maintained by taxpayers and is limited in its resources to an amount that can be collected from the people without becoming a burden to them. Furthermore, as they maintain the institution they should be given prior rights to its benefits.

There are many other features of the university to which I would feel impelled to direct your attention were it not that you are about to have laid before you the report of the extensive investigation made under the direction of the state board of public affairs.

Normal and Rural Schools

A very liberal policy has been pursued in the matter of building state normal schools. Eight are now in operation and a new one is now in process of construction. This policy has greatly increased the expenses of that branch of education. The appropriation by the last legislature for normal school purposes exceeded $1,000,000 for

the year ending June 30, 1914. If these schools are to be used exclusively for training teachers it would seem unnecessary to build any more of them.

A comparatively small number of graduates from these schools accept employment as teachers in country schools, where they are most needed. A greater number are employed in the graded and high schools of the cities, where they receive larger pay and the profession of teaching is more attractive. The rural school courses in our state normal schools, in our high schools and in our county training schools are furnishing but forty-five per cent of the teachers called for each year in our country schools. While trained high school and graded school teachers are being supplied in sufficient numbers by the university and the normal schools, the supply of adequately prepared teachers for the rural schools still is a problem. It is no unfair criticism to say that legislatures in the past have been lavish in their expenditures for the university and most liberal in their appropriations for the normal schools, while the rural school, which is the school of the masses, has been neglected.

The first step necessary to improve our country schools is to provide a better equipped teacher. In order to do this we must provide preparatory institutions within easy reach of the young men and women in the country who are willing to make rural school teaching a profession.

This, I believe, can best be obtained by a further extention and improvement of our present system of county training schools. Twenty-eight counties have established such schools under state aid, and this policy upon the part of other counties should be encouraged. The teaching of rural schools, requiring as it does, a teacher who can teach all grades, should be a distinct profession. This, however, cannot be hoped for unless the salary of the teacher is at least equal to that paid by the graded schools in the city. If the state aid which is now provided by law is not sufficient to bring the salaries to the necessary standard, additional appropriations should be made for that purpose. However, salaries from state funds should be based upon years of service.

County School Boards

The last legislature passed an act creating county school boards. These boards are practically without duties, and there is general complaint that because they are without functions it is an unnecessary expenditure of money. I recommend that the law creating them be repealed.

Our common schools and particularly our country schools need more and better supervision. The development of the common school should be carried out under the supervision of the state superintendent of public instruction and the county superintendents, as the law now provides. There is a well founded complaint that many of the latter officials are not well qualified and that others do not devote enough time to the work of supervision to produce results. Much of the inefficiency is due to the fact that the compensation paid by counties to county superintendents is not sufficient to attract competent men. An adequate salary should be provided by law. In many counties there are so many schools that the superintendent finds it impossible to give the necessary supervision as time will permit him to make only a brief call at each school in a year. In such counties he should be given assistants according to the number of schools.

A Central Board of Education

A systematic development of our educational system would be better accomplished if our educational institutions were placed in charge of a central board of education, instead of having a number of boards as at present. The fault of the present system is that each board sees only its own institution, and manages it without due reference to the system as a whole. The board of regents of the university have been very successful in securing appropriations from the legislature. Their case is always ably presented and the prestige of that institution naturally brings much influence to bear upon members of the legislature. The largely increased appropriations at each session bear testimony to the superior abilities of its representatives in securing money from the legislature.

The board of regents of the normal schools also are an influential body. With their schools distributed about the state they are in good position to bring local influence strong enough to secure for them and their institutions all they ask for. The common schools, which are the schools of the masses, are not thus represented, and do not receive their fair proportion of all the money available for educational purposes.

The result is that we are building our educational system from the top down instead of from the bottom up. This system is wrong, and needs to be corrected in the interest of the people. A single board of education, representing all of these interests, would give better business management, would cause the moneys to be more equitably apportioned and correlate the state's educational activities.

I recommend that the board of regents of the university and the board of regents of the normal schools be abolished, and that there be created instead a central board of education.

I suggest that this board consist of thirteen members, eleven of whom shall be appointed by the governor. There shall be on said board three presidents of normal schools and two county superintendents of schools, and the president of the university and the state superintendent of public instruction shall be ex-officio members.

Beside those members actively engaged in educational pursuits, there shall be three members who shall devote all of their time to the work and shall receive pay for their services, and three members who shall be appointed and serve on stated occasions as the work requires without compensation.

I believe that the instructional side of our educational institutions should be represented by educators and the business side by business men. A board so constituted would be evenly balanced to meet all requirements of these institutions.

School Trust Funds

I feel it encumbent upon me to call your attention to the condition of certain trust funds held by the state. For the purpose of aiding the union in its prosecution of the civil war and for payment of bounties to volunteers from Wisconsin and for temporary aid of families of Wisconsin soldiers serving in the union army the state raised and expended large sums of money by the issue and sale of its bonds. This was done under the authority of an act of the legislature passed in 1861. In addition to the bond issues some moneys were taken from the trust fund for which certificates of indebtedness were issued directly, these bonds and certificates amounting in the aggregate to $2,100,000. In 1866 the state took up all of the war indebtedness of $2,100,000 and in addition $100,000 of improvement bonds with trust funds of the state, issuing therefore certificates of indebtedness to the amount of $2,251,000. In this amount there was included $51,000 of accrued interest. Under authority of the laws of 1866 the entire indebtedness, including the amount thereafter to become due, was apportioned among the several state trust funds, and state certificates of indebtedness bearing interest at the rate of seven per cent per annum were issued therefore. These certificates, amounting in the aggregate to $2,251,000, remain unpaid.

The United States government has from time to time under act of congress reimbursed the state for the obligations incurred by it for war purposes, the state having received in the aggregate $2,257,291.74. Two large payments were made in recent years. In 1903 the United States government remitted $458,677.90, and in 1905 $727,740.18. The funds so received from the general government belonged to the trust funds and should have been used to pay the state's certificates of indebtedness to the said funds. This money, however, was placed in the general fund for the evident purpose of reducing the tax levy in those years. This transaction would seem to be an unlawful diversion of trust funds, and provision should be made to retire these certificates of indebted

ness.