Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-02-18
EDUCATIONAL.
Report Of the Commissioner of Education.
made to the Secretary of the Interior for
the Year 1870, with Accompanying Pa.
Ders. mn. $40.

the Year 1870, with Accompanying Pa.
pers. PIP. $40.
We have here book from the Govern
ment press, for the library and not for the
paper-maker, the bourne to which SO many
of the documents" emanating from WASH
ington SO speedily return. Gen. Eaton has
done the cause of education signal service
He has not only been industrious, but he
has employed his time and ability in a
good direction. To write, compile and
procure so many and various essays and
statistics in the brief period-eight months
only-of his official duties as Commissions
er, is a labor that challenges and COM
mands our admiration.
The statistics, like most of those collect
ed by the census-taker, &C., are not abso-
lutely correct, yet they are reliable, doubt
less, SO far as they go. What Tennessee
has lost, the Government has gained. Let
us hope that no defects of Congress to sus-
tain the Bureau will cripple his future eff
forts.
The book is made up of the report proper
of the Commissioner, occupying so pages,
and the appendix of some 500 more. In
this Gen. Eaton has faithfully fulfilled the
requisitions.of Congress in the act creating
the Department of Education. He says:
my object has been to exclude no fact
which conveyed an educational lesson or
have now, for the first time, an embodi-
ment of facts concerning education in this
country, which, for long time, has been
an important desideratim. OF some of
these we may well feel proud, while others
are sufficiently humiliating. Concerning
these last-and indeed of all-another de-
cade of years will show marked improve
ment A revolution has begun in relation
to the education of the masses that cannot
ord
volume before us will give decided inn
pulse.
We hope never again to see SO dark
picture of aUiterdcy as now blackens the
geographical diagrams or bird's-eye no.
tatiOns" that illustrate the subject. I'm
pleasant as it is to "look upon this pic
tureu as pertaining to our own State, we
are yet grateful for the presentation. Ten
nessee stands second upon the list in re-
gard to the per centage of her white popu-
lation that can neither read nor write.
But, aroused from her Indifference, she
will soon wipe away the stain of ignorance,
and present fair claim to educational re-
spect. The native energy of her people,
directed too much in the past in different
channel, will press ON the good work al
ready begun, until she takes her stand
with the first of the States, that have given
better heed to the development of the in
The suggestion Of the Commissioner in
relation to the establishment of system
of education in the Territories, and amongst
the Indians, should not pass unheeded.
Whatever may be thought of the plan of
Mr.. Hoar, of the General Government as
Stunning power over the education of the
| youth in the States when it is neglected
subject requiring careful and compre-
| hensive Observation-Disclosures can be no
4 nOl1hf of in 1,o ;f,,. N
tenn of public school instruction, the estab-
lishment of which should be condition
precedent, irrespective of numerical popu-
lation, to admission as States into the
| Union.
| The article on the Relation of Educa-
ton and Labor " embodies an amount of
information truly invaluable The politi-
cal economist, the artisan, and all who are
in any way connected with labor, land
who is not?) will find in this paper sug-
gestions and statements worthy of his at
| tention.
| DR.. Warren's essay on medical institu-
| tons and instruction is written with a
polished pen, and an enthusiasm worthy
of the place he holds i'll the profession
We can hardly expect one TO lay aside the
regard he may justly feel for his own theo-
retical position; but yet we must say, that
in these days of scientific change and pro-
| gress-nowhere more marked than in the
domain of medicine-deference must be
paid to those ideas which the most intelli-
gent, cultivated and benevolent minds of
Europe and this country, many of whom
were of what he denominates the " regu-
lar F" school of medical practice, have been
forced to accept, in place of their own
methods, which experience has demon
strated to be at least as efficient in the ar
rest of disease and the salvation of human
| life.
Ourspaee will not permit extended notice
of any of the essays. We would not be
thought insidious, however, if we direct
! special attention to the careful and schol-
arly article of Mr.. ]. J. Noah, on the edu-
cational status and method of the Hebre,Us
While the papers, as pertaining directly to
the main object of the commissioners may
be open to criticism, at least, to the charge
of irrelevancy, yet as statement of the
condition of that wonderful people-the
Jews-in regard to learning, it is worthy
of patient reading. As a race, they stand
ont apart from all other, alike as pertain