or by the state. The recent tendency of the public school system of the United States to constitute itself an educational trust which sets aside all higher

USURPATION

authority is a grave menace to our country. OF AUTHORITY All our citizens are deeply concerned in the welfare of our public schools. These schools are supported by the people, they are maintained to serve the interests of the people and on their proper functioning in no small measure depends our liberty and the future of our country. The thoughtful student cannot contemplate without deep concern the gradual usurpation of all authority in educational matters by a small group of self-constituted educational experts. The danger of this system becomes so manifest that no one can fail to see it when thirty million dollars, the gift of a single man, has been able to control to so great an extent the standardizing of our educational institutions and the shaping of our educational policies. When such things are possible, it is high time for the citizens to awaken to a realization of the danger and to demand that the moneyed interests be not allowed to pollute the fountains of inspiration at which our future citizens must, in so large a measure, drink.

THE LAW AND THE AMERICAN CHILD.

In the June issue of the Pedagogical Seminary, under the title The Law and the American Child, will be found a dissertation by Thomas Charles Carrigan, submitted to Clark University in partial fulfilment for the degree of doctor of philosophy. The paper is attracting widespread attention among educators and members of the legal profession. It is a careful piece of research work in a new field and brings together in brief outline the legislation of the several states bearing on child life. In its scope it includes the laws dealing with the child's right to be well born, such as those governing marriage, divorce, and the obligations of parents towards unborn children. Subsequent sections of the thesis deal with such topics as: Prevention of Blindness, Vital Statistics, Milk Laws, Compulsory School Attendance Laws, Truancy, Medical Inspection of Schools, Laws for Child Protection, Juvenile Court Laws, Child Labor Laws, Rights of the Child, Rights of Parents, etc. In fact, those who are interested in child welfare will find in Dr. Carrigan's thesis a guide to our legislation in all that pertains to the child's life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The wide range of the dissertation, its wealth of fact, its thorough organization of rich materials, no less than its brilliant style, evidence maturity of mind, ripe scholarship, and years of experience, qualities not usually found in a candidate for academic degrees, but it should be remembered that Dr. Carrigan's love for the work of education took him back to Clark University for his doctorate after a brilliant legal career of fourteen years at the Massachusetts bar.

Dr. Carrigan has recently accepted an appointment as a member of the faculty of the Catholic University of

America, where he will lend his assistance to the Departments of Education and Law. His future work will be the natural following out of his labors in Worcester, where he was appreciated no less for his legal work than for his labors in the field of education.

Dr. Carrigan was born in Worcester in 1872. He graduated from the classical and English high school in 1892. In the subsequent years he continued his studies at Holy Cross College, Worcester, Ottawa College, and Boston College, where he received the degree of A. B. in 1895, after which he immediately took up the study of law under the late Henry Eveleth Hill and in the law school of Boston University. In 1897 he was admitted to the bar, but remained in the office of Mr. Hill until 1902. From 1894 Dr. Carrigan taught continually in the evening schools of Worcester. In 1897 he accepted a position in the evening high school as an assistant in preparing candidates for the Civil Service. The combination of teaching with legal work led Dr. Carrigan to seek higher academic degrees in Clark University, where he received the degree of Master of Arts in June, 1910, his dissertation being Juvenile Delinquency in Worcester. Continuing to work along similar lines, in June, 1911, he presented his thesis on The Law and the American Child, and received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

It is reasonable to expect that in the years to come Professor Carrigan will continue to render signal services in the cause of education and that our Catholic schools throughout the country and the readers of the Catholic Educational Review will profit by his extensive knowledge of school legislation.

THOMAS EDWARD SHIELDS.

THE SISTERS' COLLEGE.

With the permission of the Board of Trustees of the Catholic University an institute for the collegiate training of our teaching Sisters, to be known as The Sisters' College, has been opened in connection with the University. In this institute the Sisters will follow courses leading to the degrees of the University. The instruction will be under the direction of the University, but will be given apart from its regular courses and outside of the University grounds, for the present in the Convent of the Benedictine Nuns at Brookland. Several University professors have agreed to give their services as teachers in the new institute, which is modeled more or less closely on the St. Ann's Institute at Münster, in Prussia, carried on under the direction of the Prussian Episcopate, and so far quite successful.*

The college is open to all teaching Sisters sent by their superiors, and on the successful completion of its courses the University will grant the degrees lawfully earned by the students of the College. Credit for work of a collegiate character done elsewhere will be allowed, and examinations may be taken for advanced standing. The College will be conducted on the usual lines of the academic work of the University, of which it becomes an integral part, so that the graduates of the College are truly members of the University. The need of such an institute has long been keenly felt by our teaching Sisters, and they have frequently importuned the University authorities to open to them, in some becoming way, the doors of this great central Catholic school. The Trustees of the University have finally agreed to permit the begin

*Cf. The Catholic University Bulletin, May, 1908, p. 421.

ning of the good work in a modest way and with all due safeguards for the religious life of the Sisters. Twenty Sisters have already entered the College, 6 Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin, Dubuque, Iowa, 3 Benedictine Sisters, Brokland, D. C., 2 Sisters of Jesus Mary, one from Quebec, Canada, and one from London, England, 2 Sisters of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas, 3 Sisters of Providence, St. Mary's of the Woods, Indiana, 2 Sisters of the Immaculate Heart, Scranton, Pa., 2 Sisters of St. Dominic, Sinsinawa, Wis., 3 Sisters of Divine Providence, Newport, Ky., 1 Sister of the Holy Humility of Mary, Cleveland, Ohio, 2 Sisters of Mercy, Chicago, Ill. The Sisters' College was regularly opened on October Third with the Mass of the Holy Spirit and a pertinent discourse by the Right Reverend Rector of the University.