No Education Department

When Ray Lyman Wilbur left Leland Stanford's presidency to become President Hoover's Secretary of the Interior, there were predictions that the long-discussed Department of Education might now become a reality, with Dr. Wilbur as its first chief.

Last week, Secretary Wilbur, speaking in Washington to the American Council on Education, cheered Catholics who would not like the department, chagrined the National Education Association by saying: "The place of the national government is not that of supplying funds in large amounts for carrying on the administrative functions of education in the communities, but to develop methods, ideals, and procedures and to present them, to be taken on their merits. . . . The object of those of us who seek the greatest possible advantages for all from education can, it seems to me, be accomplished without disturbing the initiative and responsibility of local and state units of government. . . . A Department of Education similar to the other departments of the government is not required."

If the voice of Wilbur was the voice of the administration and not just the voice of Wilbur, that, for four years at least, settles that.