The sound-reproducing machine has inaugurated a veritable Democracy of Music. To places inaccessible to the high-priced artist or teacher it has come, bringing the best music, rendered in the best way, and at a comparatively small cost—certainly much smaller than journeys to far-off cities and the charge for seats at concerts. It is the tragedy of most good things of this life that they go only to a special few. But the sound-reproducing machine has been no respecter of persons—it goes into the humble home as well as into the wealthy one. Anyone can spend fifty cents or a dollar a week on a new record. And for this small sum there are hours of pleasure and musical profit. This is the reason why it has become such a strong factor in our musical life and the reason par excellence why we are well on the way to becoming a seriously musical nation. The School Teacher and the Republic (1920) At Plymouth, Massachusetts, there stands the monument which memorializes the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers and the ideals for which they stood. The Pilgrim Monument lifts aloft five sculptured figures, each symbolic of one of the moving and controlling principles of early New England life. The large central figure bears the name of Faith. At each of the four corners stands one of four others—Freedom, Law, Morality, and Education. These things represent fundamental principles in the moulding of our nation and its life. We have all profited more than we have realized from the fact that they had a place in the characters, minds, and purposes of our forefathers. Each is highly important, but the Pilgrims would have been seriously in error if they had failed to include the last named. That they did not fail to include it is evidenced by the fact that, very early in the colonial history of America, representative leaders met in conference on the question of establishing a free system of public schools. There is hardly a better recommendation for a nation or a more dependable indication of its quality than the fact that its system of free public schools dates almost back to the time of its original settlement. Such is the case with America. At no period in her history has she been unaccustomed to the sight of the pedagogue.