special information of the press, 215,520 letters over the commissioner's signature to school superintendents, high-school principals, and others, calling attention to various educational developments; and 174,735 blanks and questionnaires (not including the regular printed inquiries of the bureau). Of the remainder, 56,400 were copies of the rural school letter, intended especially for county school superintendents and rural supervisors; 91,900 were city school circulars distributed chiefly to city school superintendents and city or town boards of education. There were 10,500 higher education letters; 40,500 kindergarten letters; 55,500 legislative circulars; 108,250 civic education letters; 38,950 vocational education letters; 12,000 of a new series known as civic education for immigrants; and issues of 15,000 and 10,000, respectively, of a high-school letter and a homeeducation letter.

ments.

Distribution. Considerable effort has been put forth during the year to simplify and strengthen the system of distribution of docuAt the present time a small general mailing list is maintained, chiefly of libraries, educational institutions, chief school officers, and a few special individuals who have legitimate use for all publications on education. To this list all bulletins of the Bureau of Education are sent as issued. In making up this general list the bureau tries to reach with all its publications those who are actually engaged in the training of teachers or who are in a position to help disseminate the information collected by the bureau. With the issue of bulletins restricted to 12,500 copies, it is possible to reach only a few such leaders in education. For the rest, classified mailing lists are maintained, and individuals desirous of being placed on these lists must indicate a special demand in one field of work. Special lists are maintained for agricultural and rural education, city-school administration, higher education, school hygiene, and industrial education. Of the 48 bulletins issued in 1914-15, county school superintendents received 11, or an average of about one a month; city superintendents in cities over 5,000 population received 12, and superintendents in cities and towns of less than 5,000 population, 7. Individuals and institutions on the special secondary list were reached 3 times with bulletins; school hygiene, 3 times; higher education, 8 times; school administration, 6 times; industrial education, twice; and rural and agricultural education, 10 times. By means of the bulletin series, in combination with the circular-letter service, active school officers were reached with definite information suited to their particular needs at least as often as once in every two weeks. The task of keeping these mailing lists in good order was made easier during the year by the creation of a general index for all names on the bureau address lists.

The specialist in foreign educational systems, who is attached to this division, prepared for the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1914 the section on education in foreign countries. She also prepared a directory of foreign officers of education and a bulletin on secondary schools of the States of South and Central America and the West Indies, and has begun the compilation of comparative tables of educational statistics in foreign countries for the years 1900

to 1915.

The investigation of teachers' salaries reported upon last year has been continued this year in cooperation with the committee on teachers' salaries of the National Education Association. From January 1 to April 30, one clerk, and from May 1 to June 30 two clerks, were employed for this special work. The results will appear in a supplementary bulletin on teachers' salaries. Members of the editorial division cooperated in several other pieces of work not covered by the foregoing. Four of the chapters in Volume I of the 1914 report were compiled in the editorial division, exclusive of the matter furnished by the foreign specialist, mentioned above. Bulletin No.34, 1914, was compiled by a member of this division.

STATISTICS.

The statistical division collected, tabulated, and summarized statistics for 544 pages of the second volume of the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1914. This included statistical reports from approximately 21,000 schools and school systems as follows: 48 State school systems.

1,124 city school systems.
567 universities and colleges.

542 professional schools.

1,327 training schools for nurses.

281 normal schools.

704 summer schools.

11,515 public high schools.

2,199 private high schools and academies.

723 commercial schools.

360 schools for negroes.

112 State industrial schools and reformatories.

62 institutions for the blind.

151 institutions for the deaf.

63 institutions for the feeble-minded.

This division prepared about 130 pages of the Educational Directory for 1914-15 and compiled a bulletin giving statistics of 55 public manual training schools, 115 schools of agriculture, 309 technical and industrial training schools, and 1,414 public high schools having courses in agriculture, domestic economy, and other similar courses, and also

a bulletin of statistics of State universities and State colleges. It read the proof of the statistical volume of the report of the commissioner and approximately 1,000 pages of proof of statistical matter in various bulletins. It assisted the divisions of higher education, rural education, school administration, civic education, and kindergarten education in their statistical work. It furnished summaries for the statistical abstract published by the Department of Commerce, and prepared summaries and abstracts for publications and for several hundred school officers, teachers, and students of education.

Much of the time of this division was given to the correction of incomplete and inaccurate schedules returned by school officials. Because of lack of proper means of collecting statistics, much correspondence is necessary; more than 60,000 schedules must be sent in obtaining the 21,000 returns. There is much annoying and costly delay, and the final results are much less satisfactory than they should be.

Because of the delays in returns and of the lack of a sufficient number of clerks in this division, it is impossible to make progress in tabulating statistics before October, and to complete the work and get the manuscript for the statistical volume into the hands of the printer by the end of December. During the last months of the calendar year the division should have the services of twice as many clerks as it now has.

MAILS AND FILES.

The report of the mails and files division shows for the year:

This does not include letters sent and received by field agents and by the officers of the Alaska division at Seattle and Nome; nor does it include the correspondence of the substations of the bureau in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and Nashville.

THE ALASKA SCHOOL SERVICE.

During the year the field force of the Alaska school service consisted of 5 superintendents, 1 assistant superintendent, 97 teachers, 7 physicians, and 8 nurses. Sixty-seven schools were maintained, with an enrollment of about 3,500. The schools on the shores of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean have not yet sent in complete reports.

In addition to maintaining schools for the native children in Alaska, the bureau has continued its endeavors in behalf of all people of the native communities by extending medical relief, by maintaining sanitary methods of living in the villages, by promoting the industries conducted by the natives, and by relieving destitution.

For a large part of the native population of Alaska the bureau has not yet been able to provide either schools or the means of caring for their health. This is especially true of the region between the Kuskokwim and the mouth of the Yukon, where there are six or seven thousand natives for whom little or nothing has been done.

More than $25,000 of the appropriation "Education of natives of Alaska" for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1915, was used in employing 7 physicians and 8 nurses; in maintaining improvised hospitals at Nulato, Kotzebue, and Kanakanak; in payments under contracts with St. Ann's Hospital at Juneau, with the Good Samaritan Hospital at Valdez, with the Holy Cross Hospital at Nome, with the Fairhaven Hospital at Candle, and with the Children's Orthopedic Hospital at Seattle, for the treatment of natives; also, as heretofore, in furnishing the teachers of the United States public schools with medical supplies and medical books in order to enable them to treat minor ailments. The efforts of the bureau to secure from Congress a specific appropriation to provide for the medical and sanitary relief of the natives of Alaska have met with partial success, $25,000 being granted for that purpose for the fiscal year 1915-16.

In order to replace the primitive methods of preserving fish and berries for winter use, steam home canning outfits for use in preserving fish and meat, as well as berries and vegetables, were sent to three of the largest villages during the summer of 1914. It is hoped that the use of such outfits will become general in the native communities.

According to the district superintendent, the income of the village of Atka has increased 150 per cent because of the establishment of a cooperative store, owned by the natives and managed by them, under the supervision of the teacher of the United States public school. The establishment of this store has resulted in obtaining articles of food and clothing at reasonable prices, in dividing among the natives themselves the profits which would otherwise go to white traders, and in the acquisition by the natives of self-confidence and experience in business affairs. The cooperative stores at Hydaburg, Klawock, Klukwan, and on St. Lawrence Island have also been successful.

In continuation of the policy of setting aside carefully selected tracts to which large numbers of natives can be attracted, within which, secure from the intrusions of unscrupulous white men, the natives can obtain fish and game and conduct their own industrial

and commercial enterprises, and within which the bureau can concentrate its efforts, reservations of a tract on the Kobuk River, in Arctic Alaska, and of a tract on the northern shore of Cook Inlet, including the village of Tyonek and its surroundings, were made by Executive order during the year. The reservation of the tract on the Kobuk River was made in compliance with the urgent request of the natives of Deering on Kotzebue Sound, who wished to migrate from the village which had been their home from time immemorial, because life in it had become increasingly difficult, since development of mining and the influx of white men had resulted in killing off game animals and in great scarcity of fuel.

In 1891, when setting apart Annette Island as a reserve for the use of the Metlakatlans and such other Alaskans as might join them, Congress empowered the Secretary of the Interior to prescribe rules and regulations for the reserve. This authority was not exercised, however, because it was felt that the advancement of the Metlakatlans could be secured best by allowing them to develop under the sole leadership of Mr. William Duncan, the founder of that unique colony. When it became necessary in the best interests of the Metlakatlans to establish and maintain a United States public school in Metlakatla, and otherwise to assume responsibility in connection with the interests of the Metlakatlans, it was deemed advisable to prescribe a code of regulations for the government of the colony, which was put into effect by the Secretary of the Interior January 28, 1915. Under these regulations the government of the Annette Islands Reserve is vested in an elective council of 12 members, with power to pass such ordinances for the local government of the reserve as are not in conflict with the laws of the United States, the laws of the Territory of Alaska, or the regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior.

At its recent session the Alaska Territorial Legislature passed two acts of vital importance to the Alaskan natives. The act to define and establish the political status of Alaskan natives, approved April 27, 1915, provides methods for them to acquire citizenship. It empowers a United States judge to issue a certificate of citizenship to a native who has severed all tribal relations, adopted the habits of civilization, satisfied the teacher of a United States public school or of a Territorial or municipal school regarding his qualifications for citizenship, obtained the indorsement of his claim by five citizens, and secured the final approval of his application by the judge. The act to provide for local self-government in native villages in Alaska, approved April 21, 1915, permits a United States commissioner, after a proper hearing, to authorize the organization for self-government of any native village in Alaska having not less than 40 permanent inhabitants above the age of 21. The form of government is similar