PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
OPENING ADDRESS OF THE CHAIRMAN. 
JR. EDWARD M. HARTWELL, DIREUTOR OF PHYSICAL TRAINING, PUBLIC 
SCHOOLS, BOSTON, MASS. 
DESPITE the printed announcement of an address, it is not my intention 
;0 make any extended remarks on this occasion, which marks the forma) 
opening of the section on physical training, as our programme, which is a 
full one, has been arranged with a view to giving appropriate prominence 
fo addresses and papers from eminent European workers in the field of 
physical education. It is manifestly fitting, however, that I should call 
your attention to the significant and representative character of this 
conference, and that I should attempt to express the grateful apprecia- 
son felt by the promoters of this congress on account of the hearty and 
generous manner in which our requests for contributions from abroad 
rave been met. 
Thanks to the cooperation of many distinguished collaborators on the 
other side of the Atlantic (some of whom, T am happy to say, are to grace 
our meetings by their presence), our programme is much more varied and 
representative than any hitherto presented in this country to an audience 
specially gathered to consider topics pertaining to the physical side of 
education. We may well congratulate ourselves on securing such a variety 
of papers from Canadian, English, Danish, German, Italian, and Swedish, 
as well as American writers, for consideration at this time. So far as I am 
aware, this conference is more broadly and truly international in its char- 
acter than any meeting which has yet been held, on either side of the 
bcean, to discuss the historical, theoretical, and practical aspects of physi- 
cal training. May it have many and illustrious successors ! 
To those of us who have studied and labored in various parts of the 
sountry to promote the recognition and serious consideration of the just 
claims of physical training, the organization of this section has an especial 
significance. It marks, we hope, the opening of a new chapter in the his- 
tory of physical training in America. We have watched and mayhap pro- 
moted the expanding and diversified interest in athletics and gymnastics 
which has developed since the close of the war, and especially during the 
last ten years, but we have waited in vain hitherto for the cordial recogni- 
tion and substantial help of the leading educational association of America, 
the National Educational Association. But now. for the first time in its