An important use of our schools, and one which should be made more general throughout the country, is that of a distributing center for government pamphlets, information cards, etc. In New York City the various welfare committees appointed by Mayor Mitchel designated the public schools as mediums through which to circulate papers on "safety first," fire prevention, uses of various food products, etc., and thus reach the families of the vast foreign population through their children. The city's pledges of national loyalty to be signed by adults were circulated by the pupils shortly after the declaration of war. Wider publicity can be given to federal regulations, tax measures, employment modifications, etc., by the distribution of notices to pupils of upper grades, following the explanation by the teacher. While our people as a whole read, though hastily, the newspapers morning and evening, and may find in them all governmental measures, it is nevertheless true that we shall be assured of a wider distribution of information by using the pupil as the carrier of it to the home. In England the schools, as well as the Boy Scouts organization, have served as national distributing agencies for war-office notices, Parliamentary information, and agricultural propaganda. A portion of a letter from Sir Robert Blair, chairman of the Education Committee of the London County Council, to Superintendent Maxwell of New York City, in May, 1917, calls attention to the service of the schools in this connection. War has come upon us so unexpectedly that our people not only did not understand the true position but on the whole knew very little about the causes which had led to the outbreak. The public press, bookstalls, and the public libraries were considerably augmented by books and pamphlets on the subject, and it was a natural prompting that gave rise to the issue to the schools of a considerable number of documents, memoranda, and pamphlets. These circulars and pamphlets were mostly all issued within the first year of the war. The first phase of the pamphlets is historical, while the second became economical. The economical phase in its first stages was concentrated on war savings for the purpose of war loans and in anticipation, by the provision of "nest eggs," of the dislocation that might occur at the end of the war. In its later stages--within the last six months--the economical phase has been directed chiefly to economy in food, owing to the menace of the submarine campaign.