The movement for vocational education in general is progressing so rapidly that no complete account of the schemes that are being proposed and adopted can be given within a limited space. In addition to the passage by Congress of the vocational education act, there is to be recorded the acceptance by practically every State of the provisions of this law. At the same time many State systems of vocational education were established. In the majority of cases these schemes are integral parts of the State public-school system, and are maintained to a large extent by State funds, and supervised by the State educational authorities. This year for the first time teachertraining systems in agriculture, home economics, and industry have been established. These systems are in most instances financed by the States alone, but in the instance of approved work Federal aid will be forthcoming. The meeting in this way of the most important problem of the preparation of teachers marks a long step in the right direction. Again, through State and Federal aid, many new vocational schools have been established in small communities which, without such assistance, would be unable to bear the financial burdens thus necessarily imposed.

It is next to impossible at the present time to define specifically the progress in vocational education. Conditions arising out of the war have greatly stimulated the work, but at the same time many of the men who have been trained to carry on the work have been removed by the draft. There is presented, however, in this report a survey of the situation in so far as the Federal Board and its activities are concerned. As the facilities in the States develop it will undoubtedly be possible to secure more detailed information and present more comprehensively the development of vocational education State by State. From now on vocational education is a matter to which the energies of both State and Federal Governments will be directed. Its establishment means much for the defense as well as the prosperity of the people of the country. It means an immediate extension of our secondary public-school system so as to furnish a more practical education for all. It means, furthermore, that this extension will be carefully planned and ordered. It means an end to haphazard extension of vocational education. It means that a program can be agreed upon and can be developed progressively from year to year. The Federal Board then desires to have recorded from the beginning the conditions under which the work originated and the steps of progress from year to year.

The opening chapter of this report describes the general progress made by the Board in organizing its work. Succeeding chapters will show in detail the advancement made in the various activities of the Board in the administration of the vocational education act.

COOPERATION.

As a new commission it became necessary at the outset for the Federal Board to establish relations with other Government agencies in order to define its own place and function and properly to carry out its own duties under the law; to set up cooperation with State boards for vocational education as required by the vocational education act; and to enlist the interest and assistance of various agencies of a public or semipublic character in carrying out the provisions of the act.

Cordial relations and a clear understanding of duties and responsibilities have been established with the Government departments, particularly those whose work touches in any way the duties of the Board, such as the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of the Interior.

Section 6 of the vocational education act makes it the duty of the Board to make or cause to have made studies, investigations, and reports, with particular reference to their use in aiding States in the establishment of vocational schools and classes, and in giving instruction in agriculture, trades and industries, commerce and commercial pursuits, and home economics. The Board is further authorized, when it deems it advisable, to have such studies made in cooperation with or through the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, and Commerce, or the Bureau of Education.

A number of studies were undertaken in cooperation with other departments previous to the close of the period covered by this report (June 30, 1918). One, on "The Home Project as a Phase of Vocational Agricultural Education," was prepared by a specialist in the States Relations Service, United States Department of Agriculture, under the direction of the Board cooperating with the Department of Agriculture, and was published in September, 1918.

Anticipating the great need for training for the field of foreign commerce the Board joined hands with the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce of the Department of Commerce in publications relating to this work. The first publication on foreign trade education was prepared by the Board and issued in November, 1918. A second publication, in the nature of a reading course in foreign trade, was prepared jointly by the Board and the Department of Commerce. This is now ready for printing by the department. The third in the series treats of foreign-trade documents for use in classes and was prepared by the Board, to be published by the Department of Commerce at an early date.

Under arrangements with the Child Welfare Division of the Department of Labor a Bulletin on Child Care and Child Welfare,

prepared by the division at the request of the Board, will soon be published.

Partly as a war measure, but more particularly for use in years to come, the Board has prepared a bulletin on "Feeding the Family." This bulletin contains the principles of economic use of food set up by the Department of Agriculture and the United States Food Administration, and deemed by them, and the Board, essential in peace. as well as in war times.

At the request of many different agencies the Board determined to publish a series of bulletins on safety and hygiene, each devoted to the things in which workers employed in a definite trade group or industry should be instructed, in order to safeguard their lives and health and strength, as well as that of their coworkers. These bulletins are to be used in day, part-time, and evening classes. The following bulletins in the series have been planned:

Building trades, mining trades, woodworking trades, metal trades, shipbuilding trades, electrical trades, textile trades, clothing trades, printing trades, food-production trades, transportation.

Cooperation in the preparation of these bulletins has been established with the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor, the United States Employees' Compensation Commission, the American Museum of Safety, and the National Safety Council.

Attention is called here to the close and effective cooperation established between the Federal Board and 48 State boards for vocational education under the law. It will not be necessary to treat this here, as it has been fully presented elsewhere in this report.

The regional agent of the Federal Board for the trans-Mississippi zone began, in cooperation with the State boards of the mining cities for that region, a study of the need and possibilities of training mine workers through day, part-time, and evening classes, particularly the latter two, for the mining industry. The hearty approval which this has received at the hands of associations of mining engineers and mine operators promises a rapid development of vocational education in this line at an early date. The bulletin resulting from the investigation made will be published some time during the current year. As the result of a close understanding between the New York State Board for Vocational Education and the Federal Board for Vocational Education a study has been made of the employment of women in industry and of the training of women for industrial occupations of a kind not usually followed by women before the war. It is hoped through this study to arrive at a just picture of the extent and character of this problem and the possibilities of training women, in order that they may enter successfully new industrial occupations. An arrangement was made with the National Retail Dry Goods Association by which their specialist on training for retail selling

in department stores was detailed to the Federal Board to prepare, with the assistance of its agents, a bulletin on "Training for Retail Salesmanship," which is now in print.

As a result of conferences with the Southern Cotton Manufacturers' Associations a study was undertaken by the Board of the reed and possibilities of the training of textile workers in southern mills through part-time and evening classes, this to result in definite experiments in at least six Southern States. This work is under way. Through its publications, the National Association of Manufacturers assisted the Federal Board in the dissemination of information regarding the use of Federal moneys in part-time and evening classes, by the States, and the United States Chamber of Commerce performed that same service not only regarding part-time and evening school instruction, but also concerning the need for training for the foreign trade and the plans of the Board for the publication of bulletins setting up a definite plan and content for such training.

WAR PROBLEMS.

Attention is called to the section describing the activities of the Federal Board in the training of conscripted men for mechanical and technical occupations in the Army. It will be impossible to list here the many points of contact between the Board and other governmental agencies in the pursuance of a war program of the administration. Certain things, however, stand out as notable. A call was made by the Federal Board on the State boards for vocational education throughout the country for the establishment of evening industrial classes in which conscripted men would be trained to meet the demands of Army occupations before entering the service and in which those employed in essential war industries might secure further training fitting them for the better discharge of their duties or for promotion to more responsible positions. To advance this work the Board made provision from the Federal moneys to pay one-half the salaries of the instructors engaged in this work. Many of the State boards of the country responded vigorously to this appeal, and the excellent work accomplished, as described in the chapter on war training, shows results which authenticate vocational education as necessary to success in war as it has been shown to be undoubtedly necessary for success and prosperity in peace.

Responding to the requests from different departments of the War Department, the Federal Board, as the result of practical studies and investigations, issued nine bulletins giving courses of instruction in mechanical and technical lines for men subject to the draft or assembled by the Army for training purposes. They were used by civilian schools throughout the country, subject to the draft, by special schools established by different branches of the War

Department, such as the Quartermaster's Division, the Signal Corps Land Division, the Signal Corps Aviation Service, the Ordnance Division, and the extensive schools established under the auspices of the Committee on Education and Special Training of the War Department. These bulletins were prepared at the request of the Army to meet very definite and critical needs. They were worked out in close consultation with the branch of the Army concerned. They were approved before publication. The demand for these bulletins for use was so great that at times the Board was unable to print the additional copies rapidly enough to supply the demand. A total of 200,000 copies was issued, and in some cases these bulletins went into the third edition.

Experience has already shown that these courses, worked out in definite short units, presenting, as they do, in print for the first time, an analysis of the different things in which men need to be trained in order to be effective in an occupation, have proven just as effective in meeting the needs for civilian workers as for those fitting for Army occupations.

In response to the request of the United States Shipping Board the Federal Board prepared a bulletin on Emergency Training in Shipbuilding. This bulletin has been used extensively by the Emergency Fleet Corporation in its training classes, by the Employment Service of the Department of Labor in recruiting men for shipyards, and by evening classes in maritime cities where shipyards are located for giving extension training to shipyard employees and fitting them to be better workers or for promotion to more responsible positions. A representative of the Board has assisted the office of the Provost Marshal General in analyzing occupations in order to provide a working code to be used in special draft requisitions, calling men with desirable previous mechanical and technical experience directly into Army occupations or into classes fitting them for Army occupations. Likewise, a representative of the Board has served' on the committee on prison labor and waste conservation of the War Industries Board and has assisted with the information in the hands of the Board in the formulation of projects to prevent waste of steel and paper and to conserve prison labor by using it as far as possible in essential war industries.

VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION OF DISABLED SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.

Representatives of the Board participated in various conferences called for the purpose of formulating a comprehensive plan of rehabilitation. Early in the war different departments and branches of the Government, as well as private organizations, began a study of the problem to make tentative plans to meet it.