The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-01-15
The "WorJd'' VS.. Free Scnools.


certainly and so entirely.
The "WorId' VS.. Free SCHOOLS.
Certain citizens of the town of Medford.
MASS, have, through their Congressional Rep
resentative, Mr.. n P. Banks, recently laid be-
fore the National House OF Representatives a
petition, which from its nature most people
would have considered unlikely to call out any
exhibition OF spiteful opposition or party ran
cor. The object of this petition is simply to
induce the Congress of the United States to
aid the several States of the Union in estab-
fishing free schools in which all their children.
without regard to locality, condition, sex or
color, may be taught to read, write and CT
pher." The system recommended by these
petitioners is the admirable one conceived by
Mr.. Charles Brooks,-the parent of the Mas
sachusetts Normal School system and one of
the most enlightened friends of education in
America. A brief outline of his system is
given as follows: .e15g. r INK. -.-e. b.
A Bureau of Education at Washington,
whose head would be the Secretary of Public
Instruction. .s = -
Each Incorporated city. town, district or vii
lagc in the United States to have the power
to create, support and manage its free public
schools; elect and pay its teachers without let
or hindrance, and all those teachers to lie re-
sponsble only to the city, town, district, or
village that employs them. This is extending
through the Union the New England demo-
cratic republican system of free schools-our
joy and power. = = '-7"l@
Each State in the Union to create, support
and manage one or more free public colleges :
elect and pay their teachers without let or hin.
drance, all said teachers being responsible on
III to the State. - tq
The United States to create, support and
manage as many free public universities a.
the times may demand; elect and pay the
teachers, and said teachers to be responsible
only to the national government. y
The connection of the whole with the ma
tional government is this: The cities, towns,
districts and villages shall report annually to
the State Legislature all the important facts
relating to the schools within their limits, re-
commencing such improvements in studies
and discipline as wisdom and experience may
suggest. Each free college to report annually
to the State Legislature all the important facts
connected with its condition, progress, and
wants, recommending such changes as wis
dom and experience may suggest. 'o
Each State Legislature shall report annu-
ally to the Bureau of Education, at Washing
ton, all the important facts connected with
the free schools and free colleges of its State,
recommending such improvements in the sys-
tenn OF instruction or the rules of govern
ment as experience and foresight may sug-
gest. i2t4
The national universities shall annually re-
port to the Bureau of Education. f =
The Bureau of Education shall, by its Sec
Rotary, report annually to Congress. u H ID.
Thus the system begins with the people,
goes on with the people, and ends with the peo-
pie, avoiding all the evils of Capitalization, It
is a true, democratic republican system, in
which the centripetal forces have no damaging
effects on the centrifugal. '7 On
The reader may possibly find it hard to
believe that the New York World, leading
Democratic journal, one of the ablest of the
recognized organs OF that party which claims
to be the party of. the people, should devote
nearly two columns to abusing in the coarsest
and most violent manner project like this,
yet such is the fact. Ali the walls of its
wrath and its ridicule are poured upon the pc
luton ana us arrUnors. Not that the World
attempts to show any faults or imperfections
in the system itself. That would have been
quite admissible; but it does nothing of the
kind 1t uses no arguments, makes no
points; it deals only in coarse ridicule and
abuse. This Democratic journal is filed with
scorn and fury at the audacity of these people
Of Massachusetts,. 1t is not difficult to under
stand the reason of its wrath. In what they
have presumed to suggest it sees an inso-
lent attempt to New-Englandize our national
institutional 1t would have tendency to
break down aristoc1atic distinctions of caste
and color, and to bring all up, not down, to one
disagreeable level OF general intelligence.
Then, too, it is a most dangerous assault
upon the outposts of the modern Democratic
party. That organization, as,every one knows,
has come to find its best recruiting ground in
the domain OF ignorance and vice. Where
the people are instructed its arts, its false pre-
fences and its false principles lose their u
er. Popular education is the worst foe it has
and therefore thati it should devote ali its pow
ers to the task of hindering and revling
scheme for the advancement of popular edu-
cation is perfectly consistent and natural.
The case is only remarkable as showing more
honesty than we are apt to find in these gen
try. Ordinarily their true motives and dispo-
sitions are concealed under decent show of
regard for the people and their interests; but
the World seems to have been betrayed by its
irritation into letting the mask fall for
moment, and we see it as it is, the deadly
foe of equality, and the worshpper of caste.
In the presence of great dangers the worst
liars will speak the truth, and the frightful
spectre of universal education has been too
much for the selrpossession of this Demo
cratic journal. The truth is out at last.