1918, No. 17. Projects under way include a bulletin on reading, the preparation of a course of study for the first grade, an investigation of the causes which lead to failures and nonpromotion in the first grade, and an investigation of the extent of the use of activities in the primary school.

SURVEYS.

Thirteen different surveys of educational systems and institutions were carried on by members of the bureau during the year. Of this number eight were begun during preceding years.

The final report of the survey of the public schools of Webster Groves, Mo., was completed during the year and submitted to the Commissioner of Education. This survey was made by the chief of the division of school administration, assisted by Dr. W. W. Charters, of the University of Wisconsin, and Mr. Henry J. Gerling, of St. Louis, Mo.

The final report of the survey of the public school system of San Francisco, Cal., was issued as Bulletin, 1917, No. 46.

Work on the educational survey of the State of Delaware, with special reference to industrial education in the city of Wilmington, was continued by the specialist in industrial education.

The survey of the rural schools of Walker and Falls Counties, Tex., was completed and a final report thereon was made.

The report of the survey of the public school system of Elyria, Ohio, was completed during the year and will be issued as Bulletin, 1918, No. 15.

Work was continued on the educational survey of the State of Tennessee, and the field work has been completed. This survey was made by the specialist in rural school administration, two specialists in rural education, and one of the specialists in home economics. The report has been completed, but not yet published.

The report of the survey of the Bradley Polytechnic Institute, Peoria, Ill., requested by the administration of that institution, was completed by the specialist in higher education and the specialist in industrial education.

The final report of the survey of the educational system of the State of Arizona, excepting the report on the State university, was completed and issued as Bulletin, 1917, No. 44. A preliminary report on the survey of the State university has been submitted to the officers of that institution.

Because of lack of clerical help and labor-saving devices in the statistical division, the bureau has been unable to complete the report of the educational survey of the mountain counties of the Southern States, the collecting of material for which was completed more than a year ago. It is hoped that this report may be ready within the next few months.

In accordance with the provisions of an act of the Legislature of South Dakota, this bureau has made a survey of the entire educational system of that State, including all schools and educational institutions supported by public funds. The survey was made un der the direction of the specialist in rural school practice, assisted by the specialist in higher education, the specialist in agricultural education, specialist in home economics, assistant in rural education, and by Dr. William F. Russell, dean of the school of education of the University of Iowa, Dr. Henry B. Wilson, superintendent of schools of Topeka, Kans., and Dr. Alexander J. Inglis, professor of secondary education in Harvard University. The preliminary report of the survey was transmitted to the survey commission of the State on June 14, 1918, and the recommendations made therein were accepted by the survey commission. The final report is now in press.

At the request of the board of education of the city of Columbia, S. C., this bureau undertook a survey of the school system of that city. The survey was made under the immediate direction of the specialist in city school systems, assisted by the chief clerk of the bureau, one of the specialists in home economics, specialist in school and home gardening, and Dr. Carleton B. Gibson, superintendent of city schools, Savannah, Ga. The preliminary report of the survey has been submitted to the board of education of Columbia, and the final report is now in press.

With the cooperation of the Department of Labor this bureau has made a study of industrial conditions in the city of Richmond, Va., with a view to the establishment of cooperative half-time classes for young people of high-school age. The work on the part of the bureau was done by the specialist in industrial education and the specialist in city school systems.

The specialist in rural school practice was granted leave of absence without pay for the purpose of making for the provincial government of the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada, a survey of education in that Province. The report has been completed and issued as a public document by the government of the Province.

At the request of the National Association of Accredited Commercial Schools, a survey was made of the member schools of that association located in the cities of Pittsburgh, Pa., Jamestown, N. Y., Rochester, N. Y., Trenton, N. J., Philadelphia, Pa., and Wilmington, Del. The survey was made by the specialist in commercial education of this bureau.

NEGRO EDUCATION.

Assistance has been given to the War Department in the selection of the training schools for the drafted negro men. Both the War Department and the Department of Labor have requested and re

ceived special information as to persons fitted for responsible positions. Other war agencies that have been aided are the American Red Cross, the Young Men's Christian Association, the War Camp Community Service, the General War Time Commission of the Churches, the Committee on Public Information, the War Work Council of the National Board of Young Women's Christian Association, and the general committee on Army and Navy chaplains of the Federal Council of Churches. Probably the most valuable service this division has rendered in connection with the war has been the investigation of conditions among the negro troops in and about the various cantonments. There is now available definite information as to the needs of the negro soldiers both in the camps and in the communities near the camps. The facts thus assembled are now used by practically every agency working for the soldiers.

Other work during the year for negro education may be summarized as follows: Development of cooperation between public and private agencies; cooperation of State, county, and city officials, north and south, in all movements to promote the education of the negro; furnishing information on the educational phases of the race problem; influencing northern donors to give money only to worthy schools; exposing fraudulent negro schools; bringing to the attention of the public the inadequate provision made for negro education; assisting the negro schools in the matter of curriculum, accounts, and buildings. One member of the division who is trained in accounting and business management gives all his time to the improvement of accounts and records in the schools. The systematic help planned for the schools will not only effect important economies, but also greatly increase and improve the educational efforts of these schools.

In August, 1917, an important conference on negro education was held in the auditorium of the Interior Department building in Washington. In accordance with resolutions adopted by the conference the Commissioner of Education appointed a committee on negro education, consisting of representatives of church boards of various denominations that maintain schools for negroes, the public school systems of the Southern States, the independent schools not connected with any church board and unaided by the State, the State agricultural and mechanical colleges for negroes, and the educational funds for negro education. One meeting of the committee and three meetings of subcommittees have been held. These subcommittees have prepared reports on educational standards, financial aid, and cooperation of private agencies. Other subcommittees are consider ing questions of increased support for the public schools and the cooperation of public and private agencies.

ALASKA.

During the year the field force of the Bureau of Education in Alaska consisted of 5 superintendents, 1 assistant superintendent, 116 teachers, 9 physicians, and 11 nurses; 69 schools were maintained, with an enrollment of 3,700.

School buildings were erected at White Mountain, whither the Eskimos had migrated from Council; at Elim, within a tract on Norton Sound which had been reserved by Executive Order for the use of the Eskimos formerly inhabiting the village of Golovin; at Fort Yukon, to replace the school building which the erosion of the river bank had rendered unsafe; and at Tyonek, where the small log building hitherto used for school purposes had proved inadequate. At Metlakatla a residence was erected for occupancy by the principal teacher.

The wisdom of the policy of setting aside selected tracts within which the natives can readily obtain fish and game an advantageously conduct their own enterprises has again been demonstrated by the success of the colony at Noorvik, in Arctic Alaska. With their advancement in civilization, the Eskimos living at Deering, on the bleak seacoast, craved a new home. Lack of timber compelled them to live in the semiunderground hovels of their ancestors, while the killing off of the game animals made it increasingly difficult for them to obtain food. An uninhabited tract on the bank of the Kobuk River, 15 miles square, abounding in game, fish, and timber, was reserved by Executive Order for these Eskimos, and thither they migrated with their household goods and herds of reindeer. On this tract in the Arctic wilderness the colonists, under the leadership of teachers, have built a village with well-laid-out streets, neat singlefamily houses, gardens, a mercantile company, a saw mill, an electric-light plant, and a wireless telegraph station which keeps them in touch with the outside world.

Affairs at Metlakatla, on Annette Island, have made satisfactory progress. The legality of the Annette Island fishery reserve having been reaffirmed by the circuit court of appeals, definite plans for the development of the colony have been carried into effect. By a lease dated April 30, 1917, the Secretary of the Interior, on behalf of the Metlakatlans, granted to the Annette Island Packing Co., of Seattle, fish-trapping privileges within the reserved waters adjacent to Annette Island and permission to erect and operate a cannery on Annette Island. For these privileges the lessee guaranteed the payment of not less than $4,000 during the season of 1917 and of not less than $6.000 per annum for five years beginning with 1918. It is expected that the revenues accruing from this lease will enable the Secretary

of the Interior to take over, for the Metlakatlans, the property of the lessee within the reserve and to arrange for the operation of the cannery by the natives themselves.

During the summer of 1917 the Annette Island Packing Co. expended $7,657.14 in the construction of cannery buildings; the royalties amounted to $4,801.95, leaving a balance of $2,855.19 to the credit of the company at the close of the season.

In May, 1916, representatives of the Bureau of Education succeeded in organizing among the natives the Metlakatla Commercial Co., with a capital of $2,255 and 30 shareholders, to conduct the mercantile business of the settlement. The auditing of the affairs of the company in January, 1918, showed a capital of $14,985 at that date and a net profit of $4,033.30 for the year. The number of stockholders had increased to 110. In addition, the company had rehabilitated and operated the sawmill and had furnished lumber for the cannery buildings and for other buildings in the village.

The income and wages resulting from the cannery lease, guaranteed through five successive years, and the prosperity of its commercial company assure the economic restoration of the Metlakatla colony.

Economic conditions among the natives of Alaska have been greatly affected by the war. While the prices received by the natives for their furs have fallen below normal, the cost of food, clothing, and manufactured articles imported from the States has increased as much as 300 per cent. The Bureau of Education has, therefore, through the agency of its teachers, urged the natives to live, as much as possible, independently of imported articles and to depend upon native products, not only for their own benefit, but also for the assistance they can thereby render to the country in conserving its food supply. New impetus has been given to the endeavor of the Bureau of Education to train the natives in the raising of vegetables for their own use and for sale. Efforts in this direction have produced encouraging results, especially in the upper Yukon, Kuskokwim, and Kotzebue Sound regions.

In widely separated parts of Alaska the natives have shown their gratitude to the Government, which has done so much for them, by zealously cooperating in activities which will help to win the war; they have willingly complied with the requests of the Territorial food administrator, liberally purchased Liberty bonds and war savings stamps, organized branches of the Red Cross, formed knitting and sewing societies in many villages, and contributed toward the support of the "Alaska bed" in one of the American hospitals in France.

Congress appropriated $62,500 for the support of the medical work of the bureau among the natives of Alaska during the fiscal year