Having ascertained the extraordinary fact, from a close analysis of tabulations of authoritative statistics furnished by the Census and Education Bureaus, that, assuming the cost of educating a child in Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia to be equal to such cost in the New England states, every one hundred adults in the former pay more to educate the children in those states than is paid by the same number of adults in any one of the latter, let us explore a little further for the reasons underlying that fact. It might naturally be asked: How can these calculations be correct, when, for example, we learn from the report of the Commissioner of Education that Massachusetts pays annually for each child enrolled in her schools $15.44, while Mississippi pays but $3.38? There are several factors which aid in bringing about this result. Some of these can be exactly ascertained; others of them, for want of statistics, can not. In the first place, the $15.44 per scholar which Massachusetts pays amounts to but $4.98 per capita of her adult population, while the $3.38 per scholar that Mississippi pays amounts to $2.12 per capita of her adult population. Hence the real difference, so far as the payers of the cost are concerned, is only $2.86 per capita. Another cause of this difference or inequality is the fact that Massachusetts pays her teachers, on an average, about $49.06 per month, while Mississippi pays hers only $30.07. While this doubtless affects the efficiency and equality of the education, it does not necessarily indicate a less number of pupils. Still another cause lies in the fact that while the length of the school year is in Massachusetts one hundred and seventy-seven days, in Mississippi it is but seventy-seven days. And still another may grow out of the larger proportion of teachers employed in Massachusetts than in Mississippi, for we find that while in the former, one teacher is employed for every 35.7 enrolled scholars, in the latter, one is employed for every 42.5. These items enable us to understand why there are differences between the amounts paid in the two states, and what those differences are that exist under the present order of things.