he study of these
English and American educational ideals which Denmark may assimilate
with profit. They looked to the West for light!

May we be allowed also to open here, in this Educational
Conference. . . . "A Window in the West." Through that window will
come to you the bright vision of the educational activities of our
Western Provinces, and, with that vision, I hope, the sunny and breezy
atmosphere of new and progressive ideas. I will limit my present
remarks to a brief sketch of what was known in Saskatchewan as the
"_Better School Movement_." This educational movement has an
interesting history and carries with it a very profitable lesson. As
the object of this Conference is to forward the cause of education in
this part of our great Dominion, we thought it would be both
interesting and instructive to hear that history and learn that lesson
that comes to us from beyond the Great Lakes.

The West, we know too well, has many things yet to learn from the East;
but good old Mother East should at times forget "what has been"--and
consider more "what is to be." In many points her growing western
daughters can give her helpful suggestions. Moreover this exchange of
ideas in an immense Dominion like ours is, we claim, absolutely
necessary to keep the mental equilibrium between East and West. There
are let us not forget it, many other problems beside the tariff problem
which are widening the breach, deepening the chasm between these two
sections of our Country. True patriotism demands co-operation, and not
antagonism, between these two main sectors of that immense firing line,
which is flung between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

1. _History_.--The history of the "Better School Movement" in
Saskatchewan is not very old, but, like the vegetation on the western
prairies had a rapid and healthy growth. It crowded into a few years a
whole epoch of the educational life of the Province. On June 22, 1915,
the Hon. W. Scott, then Premier and Minister of Education, made his
epochal speech which launched the idea of a reform movement. The
object of this movement was the re-adjustment of the school system, of
its curriculum and administration, to conditions existing throughout
the Province. The people of Saskatchewan were invited to constitute
themselves a grand committee of the whole on education, to study facts
and to suggest means. This invitation of the keen-sighted Premier was
accepted by the people without