workman could easily supply his own tools; but now that elaborate
machinery has been devised for their manufacture, it has become so
expensive that a machine factory must supply the tools. It is so in
almost every field of labor where efficiency has been introduced. Now
the books to be read are the tools in the teaching of reading. In a
former day when a mastery of the mechanics of reading was all that
seemed to be needed, the privately purchased textbook could suffice.
In our day when other ends are set up beyond and above those of former
days, a far more elaborate and expensive equipment is required. The
city must now supply the educational tools. It is well to face this
issue candidly and to state the facts plainly. Relative failure can be
the only possible lot of reluctant communities. They can count on
it with the same assurance as that of a manufacturer of shoes who
attempts to employ the methods of former days in competition with
modern methods.

In this city the expenditures for supplementary textbooks have
amounted to something more than $31,000 in the past 10 years.
Approximately one-third of this sum was spent in the first seven years
of the decade and more than $20,000 in the past three years. This
indicates the rapid advance in this direction made under the present
school administration but the supply of books still falls far short
of the needs of the schools. A fair start has been made but nothing
should be permitted to obstruct rapid progress in this direction.




SPELLING