346 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
In studying the history of the rise and progress of technical schools— 
aot only in this country but in Europe, and not only in our generation but 
‘n the earlier generations of European history—we may note that, as Gen- 
eral Walker once remarked, ‘“ the schools of technology illustrate in an 
aminent degree the law of human progress which I have steted. These 
schools have not come into existence in obedience to a demand for them. 
They were created through the foresight, the unselfish devotion, the stren- 
nous endeavors of a few rich men, and of very many poor men, known 
as professors of mathematics, chemistry, physics, and geology.” They 
nave now become, as he goes on to say, an essential part of the educational 
system, and he adds : ‘“ They are to-day doing a work in the intellectual 
development of our people which is not surpassed, if indeed it is equalled, 
oy that of the classical colleges.” And, further: ¢ In the schools of applied 
science and technology, as they are carried on to-day in the United States, 
involving the most thorough and most scholarly study of principles directed 
immediately upon the useful arts, and rising, in their higher grades, 
into original investigation and research, is to be found almost the perfec- 
sion of education for young men.” And, again : ¢“ That all the essentials 
of intellect and character are one whit less fully or less happily achieved 
through such a course of study, let no man connected with such an insti- 
sution for one moment concede.” 
IN coNcLUsION, and in direct reference to the queries which form the 
oasis of the discussion of the Educational Congress of 1893, at Chicago, 
she writer may be permitted to submit the following, not as criticisms of 
existing schools, but as indicating what seem to him the lines of improve- 
ment and advancement of our schools and of our systems of education for 
she immediate future : 
(1) Progress is visible toward the organization of one ¢‘ complete and 
perfect” system of education in every State, from primary school to State 
aniversity, which shall be so organized as to offer every citizen, as Huxley 
puts it, “a ladder from the gutter to the university,” and entrance into 
any one of the existing and of the rising learned professions, into the 
orades, or into any vocation of work, of leisure, or of self-improvement, 
that he may be able and willing to choose, and with, perhaps, a national 
nniversity over all. 
ferences as are here referred to, do and must, as I think, necessarily, and probably should, exist at Cor- 
nell University, there is as yet no evidence that they are to be apprehended as likely to produce perma- 
nent effect for evil. It seems more than probable that—every officer of the university understanding 
clearly its aims, and, as must be evident from the fact of his acceptance of duties in connection with it, 
approving those aims—the presence of representatives of such a variety of phases of educational work 
must exercise a conservative and beneficial effect in the development of a university planned, as is Cor- 
nell, with the object of adding to its ‘leading’ departments every adjunct necessary to enable the stu- 
dent to acquire a thoroughly liberal as well as practical education. To the technical student, frequent 
contact with liberally educated men and familiarity with a variety of non-technical work must bring 
great advantages, aside from the other general liberalizing influences of his university life.” —Report of 
the Director of Sibley College, 1886.