Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/233

 High School Legislation In Oregon 211 attacks as were made upon these Oregon high schools from the legal point of view, while they could not have met with ultimate success in destroying these institutions, were nevertheless a hampering influence that greatly re- tarded the growth of the schools in some cases and pre- vented their establishment in other communities. Spe- cific legislation was badly needed if public secondary education was to prosper. Before proceeding with the consideration of those in- fluences which were gradually bringing the public into a favorable attitude toward public high schools it has seemed desirable to make a comparison of secondary school enrollment in Oregon with that of five other rep- resentative states, and it is for the purpose of such a comparison that the following table has been prepared. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were selected as repre- senting two types of eastern states, Kansas and Indiana are fairly representative of the middle west, and Wash- ington was selected as typical of the Pacific coast. It was believed that nothing of value would be added in the way of comparison by including any of the southern states. While we have under consideration at this point, the situ- ation as it existed previous to the legislation of 1901, a tabulation has been prepared for 1910 for reference in the later part of the discussion. The logical place to in- troduce it seemed to be at this point along with the tabu- lations for 1890 and 1900.