d in the Thames or Henley races and the
Poughkeepsie regattas. There are intercollegiate tennis championships
and chess tournaments, football contests between the leaders East and
West, all-America teams, and even international rivalries.

325. =The Function of Education.=--Nation-wide ties and loyalties in
sport do not call for the official action of the nation, though
national officials as individuals are often devoted to certain sports,
but the nation has other functions that may be classed as social. No
duty is more pressing, not even that of efficient government, than the
task of education. The National Bureau of Education supplemented by
State boards, officially takes cognizance of society's educational
interests. In education local independence plays a large part, but it
is the function of government to make inquiry into the best theories
and methods anywhere in vogue, to extend information to all who are
interested, and to use its large influence toward the adoption of
improvements. Government in certain States of the American Union even
goes so far as to co-operate with local communities in maintaining
joint school superintendents of towns or counties. It is appropriate
that a democratic nation should give much attention to the education
of the people because the success of democracy depends on popular
intelligence.

The efforts of the government are seconded by voluntary organization.
It is not unusual for college presidents or ordinary teachers to meet
in conference and discuss their difficulties and aspirations, but a
National Education Association is cumulative evidence that Americans
think in terms of a continent, and that their interests are the same
educationally in all parts of the land. It is no less true of other
agencies of culture than the schools. Cultural associations of all
kinds abound. Some of them are limited by State boundaries, not a few
are national in their scope. There is a national Chautauqua;
institutes with the same name hold their sessions all over the land.
Music, art, and the drama, sometimes the same organized group of
artists, appeal to appreciative audiences in Boston, New Orleans,
Chicago, and San Francisco. Popular songs from the opera, popular
dances from the music-halls sweep the country with a wave of imitative
enthusiasm. There are national whims and national tastes that chase
each other from ocean to ocean, almost as fast as the sun moves from
meridian to meridian.

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