are crowded to the doors and further accommodations ought to be provided-especially a men's dormitory in connection with each of the three white schools. It is necessary in developing our public school system to increase the number of men engaged in the work, and teacher training agencies ought to make it easy and attractive for young men to prepare themselves for school activities. Additional funds are also badly needed to equip the Agricultural and Industrial Normal School for negroes. It is the policy of the State Board of Education to make the industrial features of that institution especially prominent, but they can make no great progress until funds are available for tools, machinery, farm implements, etc.

The present revenues available for normal schools will permit no enlargement of the teaching force; and if they are to develop normally their income must be increased. The salaries paid, in general, are not high; indeed, are small when it is considered. that the teachers are elected for the year and work at least eleven months-ten and a half months in school and two weeks or more in State and county institutes. We must have in these schools a group of specialists who can be counted on to remain in the work for a period of years; and they cannot be secured with niggardly remuneration, for if men make good in our institutions other places are bidding for them.

The schools are established. Memphis, Murfreesboro, Johnson City and Nashville and the counties in which they are located made large and generous donations to them, and they ought to be maintained and developed in a manner commensurate with the greatness of the State and so as to secure the most efficient service.

In subsequent pages of this report will be found statements from the presidents of the Normal schools concerning their work, a detailed financial report of local funds and such recommendations for additional equipment as in their judgment is needed. There is also a complete financial report of funds which have passed through the hands of the State officials prepared by the general bookkeeper of the normal schools.

STATE UNIVERSITY.

The report of the President of the State University, which appears elsewhere in this volume, shows a steady and satisfactory development of that institution. The university stands at the head of the public school system of Tennessee; it offers opportunity to young men and young women of the State for higher education at public expense; by its extension work it is reaching and helping a large student body who could never come within its walls, and it deserves the cordial support of all the people. The report of its progress will be read with interest by all its friends and by the friends of higher education everywhere.

BIENNIAL EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGN.

A series of school rallies covering every county in the State was held during the months of August, September and October. The campaign was carried on simultaneously in the three grand divisions. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction was ably assisted in the campaign by the presidents of the three normal schools, the State High School and Elementary School Inspectors, Professor of Secondary Education in the State University, members of the State Board of Education, and representatives from the State Departments of Agriculture and Health. The county superintendents of the various counties personally directed the rallies, and, together with local school people, made all necessary local arrangements. Great interest was manifested in the issues involved in the campaign, and large and representative audiences were present in most of the counties. The attendance ranged from 150 to 5,000, and a conservative estimate places the total attendance at all the meetings at 75,000.

The principal matters discussed in the various rallies were consolidation of schools and transportation of pupils, professional supervision of country schools, bond issue for school building, standardization of teachers' certificates, the high and normal school situation, needed legislation and increased school revenues.

The people responded sympathetically, and it is believed that the campaign has resulted in a stronger school sentiment and more intelligent interest in fundamental school matters and a desire and purpose to improve the school situation.

CAMPAIGN AGAINST ILLITERACY.

When statistics from the census of 1910 in regard to illiteracy in Tennessee became available and it was learned that, although conditions had somewhat improved, our relative standing among the states of the Union had not changed, it was felt that some extraordinary measures ought to be adopted in the State to remedy the evil. Accordingly a letter was written to county superintendents early in May, 1910, giving them such information as was obtainable at that time, and asking them to investigate the condition of their respective counties as regards illiteracy and to project some plans for its extinction. I quote from that letter:

"From advance information from the Census Bureau we find that in the State-at-large there are 122,454 illiterate native whites, ten years of age and over. The entire population of that age is 1,260,304, so that 9.7 per cent of the native white population, ten years old and above, is unable to read and write. The total population, white and colored, ten years and over, is 1,621,179; the illiterate among that number 221,071, or 13 6.10 per cent of the entire population.

"Looking at the situation from another point of view, we find that there are 433,431 native adult white males in Tennessee; 11.1 per cent of this number, or 48,371 are unable to read and write. That is, one grown white man in every nine in the State of Tennessee cannot write his name, or read it when it is written. It should be said that this is a slight improvement over 1900, when 14.1 per cent of this population was in the illiterate class.

"What is given above, however, is sufficient to indicate that we are failing in our fundamental educational purpose-making a literate body of men and women in the State. Whatever else we may do in our schools, as long as there is so large a per cent of our people not able to read and write our task is incomplete. Democracy is still on trial-there are many problems confronting it; and if it cannot cope with so small a matter as illiteracy, there is little hope that it can completely and successfully find a remedy for its other ills.

"I am convinced that the wiping out of illiteracy in Tennessee before another census is taken, or at least reducing it to a neg

ligible quantity, is not an impossible task. If ninety-six county superintendents and forty-four city superintendents resolve to do the job, the deed is done. No more interesting address was delivered at the recent Conference for Education in the South, at Nashville and there were scores of America's greatest thinkers on the program-than the thrilling recital of a frail woman. superintendent of a Kentucky county of the way in which she and her self-sacrificing teachers, backed up by the patriotic men and women of her county, had attacked this problem and solved it with reasonable success.

"Here is an opportunity, I believe, for an enterprising County Superintendent in Tennessee to render incalculable service to his State and win for himself a national name and fame.

"Who will be the first to canvass the situation in his county, and if it is warranted, undertake this big but by no means impossible task?

"It can be accomplished, I believe, by a whirlwind campaign. The object is so appealing, so full of human interest, that it will reach every patriotic man and woman in your county. The preachers will come to your aid, and the churches be converted into schools; the teachers will rally to you and give their time gratuitously to this service; the professional men and men of affairs, the noble women will lend a hand; the newspapers will give cordial endorsement and support; and for the time being you can have your whole county in school-either as teachers or pupils. Can you conceive of a grander spectacle?

"The direct effect of such a campaign will be important and far reaching, but the indirect will be even greater. Such a sentiment will be created that the schools will be brought into their rightful prominence, the work of the school will be more appreciated and your county will resolve that never again shall such a task be necessary. I believe it will mean compulsory education law for the whole State, larger attendance, more effective adult co-operation, more money for educational purposes, and a brighter day for the whole State.

I regret to say that this letter did not meet with as general a response as I expected and desired, but a few superintendents resolved to follow the suggestions and have been working enthusiastically on it. Two counties particularly-Bradley in

East Tennessee and Sumner in Middle Tennessee, have entered upon the task in real earnestness and their reports are so full of interest as to deserve recording here.

The County Superintendent of Bradley County tells of fifteen or twenty night schools composed exclusively of illiterate adults with attendance ranging from three or four to twenty-three. The consecration and zeal of his teachers have attracted attention throughout the county. Matured men and women, who were denied the privileges of the school in their early years, are now eager attendants, and they speak with enthusiasm of the benefits received.

The Superintendent of Sumner County writes that there have been organized in various parts of his county between twentyfive and thirty special schools, some meeting at night, some Saturday afternoon, some Sundays in connection with Sunday Schools; and that there are students enrolled from the age of eighteen to seventy-five. Church people and leading citizens have come to the assistance of the teachers and the work is going on successfully. Both superintendents claim that this activity on the part of the school people has brought the school into more favorable attention than ever before, and that the indirect results of the campaign being waged promises to be even greater than the direct.

Assurances come to the office also from Anderson County and one or two others of the organization of special schools for illiterates, and whenever it has been seriously undertaken good results. have followed. It should be borne in mind that the teachers engaged in the work are serving gratuitously, that all these activities are being carried on without additional public expense.

While comparatively few counties have responded to the appeal from this department in this matter, from the reports already received we are more than ever convinced that we have advised no impossible task; and if every school official would consider the problem as these recorded above, the condition of our State as regards illiteracy would rapidly improve.

But one conclusion forces itself upon us. Illiteracy will never be eliminated from Tennessee without an effective Statewide compulsory school attendance law. Several times in this report this conclusion has been reached from various considera